Walt Whitman Compare And Contrast Essay

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“Different Authors write different ways, have different relationships with their audiences, and those are all legitimate”(John Green).Authors Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman who lived and expressed Themselves through Poetry and Writing during the realism era, convey different style characteristics, write in very different ways and connect to their audiences through very different ways. Both authors have very contrasting writing, although both differences and similarities are discovered by such characteristics. The writing of Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman shows many similarities and many differences through their backgrounds and themes, and the way both aspects affect their writing. Walt Whitman experienced a very different upbringing, …show more content…

Although there are many differences between these two gifted authors, similarities can be discovered as well.The background of Walt Whitman is enormously different from that of Emily Dickinson. Because Walt Whitman was such an under privileged kid and rose from his struggle in avery romantic life style, we see this slight bit of romanticism in his writing, like when he says, “ But O heart! heart! heart!/O the bleeding drops of red,/Where on the deck my Captain lies,/Fallen cold and dead” (Whitman). This writing expresses such a dramatic and romantic view. The background of Dickinson is much more rich and privileged. She was able to get a proper education at Harvard and lived a very realism kind of life. Her background effects her writing differently and makes her poetry sound much more proper, formal and depressing compared to Whitman’s brighter and more informal poetry. The Themes in these authors writings are also different. Theme of Walt Whitman is very focused of celebration and unity of life, whereas Emily’s are the opposite with themes including: death, the end of life, sadness, despair, depression. Walt’s writing, for example in “Leaves of Grass” Whitman writes, “I loafe and invite my soul,/an and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass”(whitman).Readers can easily sense a theme of life, joy and nature in his writing. In contrast