One of Walt Whitman's earliest memories was when General Lafayette, a French hero in the American Revolution, picked him up out of a crowd and hoisted him onto his shoulder and paraded him around Brooklyn. ... Times were tough financially for his family, but Walt often liked to distance himself from them and ride the ferries from East River to New York City. ... In his early teen years Walt got an apprenticeship with a liberal, blue-collar newspaper called the Long Island Patriot. ... No longer did Walt visit the countryside while he was on his own, so the urban setting contributed gre...

• Word Count: 1470
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Biography of Walt Whitman Walt Whitman was born on May 31, 1819, on the West Hills of Long Island, New York. ... Young Walt, the second of nine, was withdrawn from public school at the age of eleven to help support the family. ... From 1846 to 1847 Whitman was the editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. ... Whitman depicts the oak tree to be lonely. ... Whitman reflects the tree on himself in the fourth line. ...

• Word Count: 1529
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

This line expresses Walt Whitman's philosophy on life and is an almost perfect description of the poet. ... Walt Whitman gives much insight into himself and others in his poetry, and gives his readers a great deal to think about. ... For five years Walt Whitman followed in his father's footsteps, and began building houses and investing in real estate. ... It is also important to note that the poetry of Walt Whitman was unlike any of his contemporaries. ... This poem seems to embody every aspect of Walt Whitman and possibly every aspect of each person in the world. ...

• Word Count: 1471
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

Finally, Walt Whitman, who wrote in free verse about topics that no one else was writing about, believed in equality and pushed for democracy and individualism. Writing in the Nineteenth Century, Romantics such as Emerson, Thoreau, Fuller, and Whitman had radical beliefs about the individual's role in society for their time period. ... Very different from the transcendentalists was Walt Whitman, who challenged societal practices with the w...

• Word Count: 1963
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Thus Whitman began his "Song of the Open Road". ... "Self-reliant, with haughty eyes, assuming to himself all the attributes of his country, steps Walt Whitman into literature, talking like a man unaware that there was ever hitherto such a production as a book, or such a being as a writer" . ... To Whitman, the game was life, and in it he maintained his pose. It was important to Whitman to not be simply a poet. ... Whitman truly placed his heart in his pen as few poets have. ...

• Word Count: 1688
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

Many aspiring authors, such as Poe, Whitman, Emerson, and Dickinson, found notoriety with their writings. ... Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, and Edgar Allen Poe became well-known advocates of Romantic ideals. ...

• Word Count: 1786
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Walt Whitman (1819-1892) - American poet, whose work boldly asserts the worth of the individual and the oneness of all humanity. Whitman's defiant break with traditional poetic concerns and style exerted a major influence on American thought and literature. ...

• Word Count: 1931
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School