文档介绍：Walt Whitman(1819~1892)
Whitman was honored on a 'Famous Americans Series' Postal issue, in 1940
One of the greatest innovators in American literature.
He gave American its first genuine epic poem: Leaves of Grass.
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Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman’s Life
Major Works
Special features of His Works
Walt Whitman’s Contribution
I Hear American Singing
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Walt Whitman’s Life
Born on May 31, 1819, in the village of West Hills,
Suffolk County, Long Island
the second son of a house-builder
Largely self-taught, acquainted with the works of Homer(荷马), Dante(但丁), Shakespeare, and the Bible.
In 1836, as a teacher in the one-room school houses of Long Island.
Continuing to teach until 1841, then turning to journalism as a full-time career.
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In the fall of 1848, he founded a “free soil” newspaper, the Brooklyn Freeman.
In 1855, Whitman took out a copyright on the first edition of Leaves of Grass, which consisted of twelve untitled poems and a preface.
Whitman released a second edition of the book in 1856, containing thirty-three poems, a letter from Ralph Waldo Emerson praising the first edition, and a long open letter by Whitman in response.
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Whitman struggled to support himself through most of his life. In Washington he lived on a clerk’s salary and modest royalties(稿酬), and spent any excess money, including gifts to friends, buying supplies for the patients he nursed.
After his death on March 26, 1892, Whitman was buried in Harleigh Cemetery(公墓).
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WALT WHITMAN'S CRYPT IN HARLEIGH CEMETERY
A democrat 民主主义者
An individualist 个人主义者
A nationalist 民族主义者
A pantheist 泛神论者
An American free verse poet
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The thought of democracy
strongly opposed to the southern side during the Civil War, favoring the democratic north.
slavery abused humanity.
People should be equally treated.
Song of Myself----revealing such a world of equality, void of rank and hierarchy.
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An individualist
tried to find a way to express his unique feelings about himself, the nation, and the cos