Walt Whitman Research Paper

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Whitman is considered the father of free verse. Even though this is Whitman's nickname in literature, Whitman is known to break the cliché protocol when it comes to writing his poetry. Whitman's work consists of several literary terms like verse, prose, poetry. Prose differs from poetry because it used in everyday writing, straightforward, sentences are arranged in paragraphs, the first word of each sentence is capitalized, and it doesn't consist of line breaks but are on the right side of the margin. Conversely, poetry is expressed artistically using rhyme and rhythm, lines that consist of stanzas, line breaks, the first letter of every line is capitalized, and the shape of poetry can vary. A verse is a writing arrangement with metrical rhythm. …show more content…

Whitman reconstructed his work organically. Whitman's work is organically because he can connect with his words on a personal level than he did with his original. This is evident because Whitman states "nature without check with original energy." These powerful words allowed Whitman to reflect on what he has gone through in life. For instance, in his original works, Whitman speaks about life in general but in his 1892 version, he captivates readers by being open and honest of what happened in his life (Poetry and Prose). All his work represents leaves as a metaphor for the growth of his journey of life. Originally, Whitman started with twelve poems that reflected is early understandings of life that began his breakthrough in poetry (The Walt Whitman Archive). As a result, Whitman created a compendium containing close to 400 poems that uniquely describe his life, hardships of life, love, mind, body, soul, and spirit. Mainly, to take people on a journey that made him question