How Is Walt Whitman's Influence On American Poetry

Two of the most famous American Poets include both Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. Both Whitman and Dickinson revolutionized subject and style for the future of poetry. Together both of these poets have helped to shape American poetry, and their influences in literature can be seen today in the modern age of poetry. Walt Whitman as well as Emily Dickinson are both early American poets who wrote literature throughout the nineteenth century. This time period was considered the “Romantic Era” in American Literature, because of this both poets write about the importance of individualism in society in their poems. Whitman and Dickinson both wrote many poems based on the themes of nature as an important connection to god, death and immortality. Both Whitman and Dickinson had their own unique

“The sniff of green leaves and dry leaves, and of the shore and dark-color’d sea-rocks, and of hay in the barn,” (22-23). This quote reveals how Whitman paints a picture in his audiences head. It makes you feel as if you are truly in a barn with the smell of the change in seasons surrounding you. Similar to Whitman, Emily Dickinson also uses imagery in her works of literature. For example in 409, “The soul selects her own society, then shuts the door,” (1-2). This quote is showing how Dickinson also uses imagery in her poems. She puts the image of a self reflection shutting the door right in front of you. Another similarity between Whitman and Dickinson is that fact that both poets submitted some politically based poems. Dickinson and Whitman wrote about death in a lot of her poems, specifically the themes including recourse of the soul and the dark mysteries of death. For example in 479, “Because I could not stop for Death, he kindly stopped for me” (Dickinson 1-2). This quote is showing how she is obsessed with death, the feeling of not being able to stop for death, as if death is knocking on her doorstep and she has no choice but to comply.