美国文学课件-6 Whitman and Dickinson.ppt

Whitman Dickinson They have been regarded as the two most innovative and influential US poets of the nineteenth century. Walt Whitman: A powerful voice for democracy, a bold innovator in verse form, the controversial “poet of the body”. While Emily Dickinson was a quiet woman who wrote with innovation. She wrote astonishingly passionate poetry that embodies principles of fragmentation, isolation, independence, and eagerness for love. Maybe there are two reasons for it: He went to listen to Emerson’s lectures in 1842, and began to read Emerson’s works thoroughly and earnestly. In 1848, he traveled to New Orleans, Chicago, and the Western frontiers, especially the West experiences impressed him deeply. His experiences on this trip marked a turning point in his career. He published the first edition of Leaves of Grass in 1855. In the body of he text calls himself : Walt Whitman, an American, one of the roughs, a kosmos, disorderly, fleshly, and sensual, no sentimentalist, no stander above men or women or apart from them, no more modest than immodest. Leaves of Grass Critical Reception The book received its strongest praise from Emerson, who wrote a flattering five page letter to Whitman and spoke highly of the book to friends. Many critics at the time wrote to Emerson, calling the book trashy, profane obscene and the author a pretentious ass. In the months following the first edition of Leaves of Grass, critical responses began focusing more on the potentially offensive sexual themes. The critics began to call him as the “poet of the body”. The second edition was already printed and bound, the publisher almost would not release it. As the end of 1891 approached, he prepared a final edition of Leaves of Grass, an edition which has been nicknamed the Deathbed Edition. He wrote, L. of G. at last complete—after 33 yrs of hackling at it, all times moods of my life, fair weather foul, all parts of the land, and peace war, young old. Before he died,