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Compare And Contrast Wordsworth And Walt Whitman

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William Wordsworth and Walt Whitman are two if the most influential poets in history and were rightfully respected in their times. While they lived in completely different parts of the world and wrote in different Romantic periods, they share many commonalities in their work. Both individuals revolutionized poetic subjects and focused on ordinary people in rustic settings in order to evoke everyday American and British life. In his poem London, 1802, Wordsworth is able to express his admiration for Milton and fears for his nation, all while adhering to the British Romanticism movement of his day. Whitman, on the other hand, was able to express his appreciation for the human body and his societal/political views, all while adhering to the American …show more content…

Whitman‘s free verse poem was considered unconventional and explicit at the time of it’s publishing in Leaves of Grass in 1855. Whitman’s poem contains various messages about the body and societal and political beliefs that were considered unacceptable at the time. He argues that the body and the soul are one in the same and that the body does not make the soul immoral, as stated in the Christian faith. In the fifth section, he pens, “This the nucleus—after the child is born of woman, man is born of woman,…/ Be not ashamed women, your privilege encloses the rest, and is the exit of the rest, /You are the gates of the body, and you are the gates of the soul.” Whitman communicates to the reader that women should not be ashamed of their bodies and their ability to create life. When he writes “after the child is born of woman, man is born of woman”, he is portraying his belief in the equality of the sexes, another opinion that was considered radical in 19th century America. However, he does not stop there. He goes on to claim that slaves and whites are equal as well. He feels that slaves have, “The same old blood! the same red-running blood!/There swells and jets a heart, there all passions, desires, reachings, aspirations,/(Do you think

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