WALT WHITMAN, writer month
On the bicentennial of his birthibring it (1819-1892), The writer WALT WHITMAN is he writer month May at the Can Ventosa Municipal Library, in Ibiza. Was the first poet to experience the possibilities of free verse, using operational and simple language close to prose.
Walt Withman (West Hills, U.S, 1819 – Camden, id., 1892) He is a long-serving American poet.. Appointed director of Brooklyn Eagle en 1846, He remained in office for only two years due to his disagreement with the openly pro-slavery line defended by the newspaper.. His love for opera (genre that greatly influenced his poetic work) allowed him to meet a New Orleans newspaper leader on opening night Crescent. This last one convinced him to leave New York and accept an offer to work at the newspaper.
en 1848 embark on a journey to the South, where he had the opportunity to contemplate a reality, that of the provinces, totally unknown to him and, definitely, It would be decisive for his future career. For all this set of experiences, when he returned to new york, a few months later, He abandoned journalism and devoted himself completely to writing..
Leaves of Grass
His great work, Leaves of Grass (Leaves of grass), didn't see the light until 1855. This first edition (there would be eight others during the poet's lifetime) It consisted of twelve poems, all of them without title. And it was Whitman himself who was in charge of editing it and taking it to print.. Of the thousand copies in circulation, Whitman sold few and gave away most, one of them to Ralph Waldo Emerson, important figure of the American literary scene and his first admirer. Your criticism, very positive, motivated Whitman to continue writing, despite its ruinous economic situation and the zero impact that, en general, they had had their poems. There were up to three editions of this work.
After the end of the war he published several essays with political content., in which he defended liberal ideals and democracy, but he rejected the materialism that, in your opinion, permeated the life and aspirations of American society. Suffering from various diseases, en 1873 he was forced to leave Washington and move to Camden, in New Jersey. He remained there until his death. He dedicated the last years of his life to revising his poetic work, and to write new poems that were included in successive editions of Leaves of Grass.
Whitman's poetry was far from everything that was usually understood as poetic., although he knew how to create moments of deep lyricism. His influence would be perceptible in successive lyrical generations., both in your country (from William Carlos Williams to Allen Ginsberg) as in other literatures (Rubén Dario o Federico garcía Lorca).
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