Walt Whitman, "arguably America's most influential and innovative poet"(Price).
Was born in West Hills, NY on May 31, 1819. Just thirty years after the first president of the Unites States had been inaugurated. His father was born just about after the American Revolution and had known and admired Tomas Paine. Walt Whitman Sr. was a liberal thinker, which probably has had some effect on Walt Whitman the poet's thinking as well. The family moved to Brooklyn when Walt Jr was just 4 years old. At this time New York City, just as the United States as a whole was being created day by day. Whitman was among those to be born assuming a stable notion of America's future. American pride of his father must been a great influence to Walt Whitman's future title as poet of American democracy. Walt Whitman Sr. gave all but one of his children names of ancestors or names of people who were Revolutionary War Heroes, related to the building of the nation. Thomas Jefferson Whitman, George Washington Whitman, and Andrew Jackson Whitman are examples. The one that didn"t receive a name of this type was physically and mentally handicapped. During Whitman's childhood his family moved quite often around Brooklyn. This was due to his father's mostly unsuccessful attempts to get rich on the city's quick growth "by speculating in real estate." (Price).
As a child Walt loved living close to the East River. He enjoyed riding the Brooklyn Ferry which later on inspired him to write the poem "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry". In that poem he compared the riding of the ferry back and forth daily to the cycle of life and death each day. The riding of the ferry would imprint an experience upon Whitman that would remain with him for the rest of his life. .
Walt Whitman had no real formal education other than in the newly founded Brooklyn public schools. Whitman attended school where all students were in the same room, were of different ages, and backgrounds as well.
