Literary Birthday – 31 May – Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman was born on 31 May 1819 and died on 26 March 1892.

Walt Whitman Quotes

1. A writer can do nothing for men more necessary, satisfying, than just simply to reveal to them the infinite possibility of their own souls.
2. The future is no more uncertain than the present.
3. Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you.
4. What is that you express in your eyes? It seems to me more than all the print I have read in my life.
5. The art of art, the glory of expression, and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity.
6. The secret of it all, is to write in the gush, the throb, the flood, of the moment – to put things down without deliberation – without worrying about their style – without waiting for a fit time or place. I always worked that way. I took the first scrap of paper, the first doorstep, the first desk, and wrote – wrote, wrote…By writing at the instant the very heartbeat of life is caught.
7. Be curious, not judgemental.

Walt Whitman was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. As a humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism. Whitman, known as one of the most influential American poets, is often called the father of free verse. Leaves of Grass is a collection of his poems. During Whitman’s lifetime it went through nine editions, each with its own distinct virtues and faults. He wrote poetry about freedom, nature, love, democracy, and everyday life in America. In Leaves of Grass, he celebrated ordinary people, the human spirit, and the beauty of the world around us. He also wrote about war, death, and healing after caring for wounded soldiers during the American Civil War. Whitman helped shape modern poetry with his bold, free-flowing style.

Source for Image: George C. Cox (1851–1903, photo)Adam Cuerden (1979-, restoration), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Walt_Whitman_-_George_Collins_Cox.jpg

by Amanda Patterson

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