[英语学习]美国文学Unit7WaltWhitmanampEmilyDickinson.pptVIP

Selected Readings in American Literature Unit 7 Walt Whitman （1819—1892) Walt Whitman: His Life Born in 1819 on Long Island, New York Poor Semiliterate parents, only 5-6 years formal education, self-educated; Worked as office boy, printing worker, school teacher, free-lance writer. Supported slavery abolishing, dismissed from his job; Worked at carpentry other odd jobs; Served as a correspondent for the New York Times and as a volunteer nurse during the Civil War. Died in 1892, unmarried all his life Similarities differences He had been influenced by many American and European thoughts. He was more indebted to Emerson than any other nineteenth-century American author. He drew most heavily from Emerson. I was simmering, simmering, simmering,“ Emerson brought me to a boil.“ Echoing Emersons America is a poem in our eyes, Whitman declares The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem. Both Whitman and Emerson wrote on the organic principle. To them, art should be based organically on nature; the poets work grows out of nature and derives its form within. The themes in Whitman’s poetry--Catalogue of American and European thought Whitman’s Major Works (1855, 1856, 1867, 1871, 1876 ） 2 volumns: Leaves of Grass， Two Rivulets 《两条小河》, 1881, 1889, 1891-1892 (or the “Deathbed Edition” 《临终版本》) Including “Song of Myself” 《自我之歌》 “There Was a Child Went Forth” 《有个小孩走过来》 “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” 《过布鲁克林渡口》 “Democratic Vistas” 《民主的前景》 “Passage to India” 《向印度行进》 “Proud Music of the Storm” 《骄傲的风暴之音乐》 “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking”《走出永不休止地摇动着的摇篮》 “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”《当紫丁香上次在庭院开放的时候》 Comments on Leaves of Grass The title:---significant where there is earth, where there is water, there is grass. Grass, the most common thing with the greatest vitality, is an image of the poet himself, a symbol of the rising American nation, and an embodiment of his ideals about democracy and freedom. Whitmans poetic