Walt Whitman's Influence On Language

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Walt Whitman is America’s poet to the world. He is seen by most people as one of the most significant poets of the 19th century. He has been published in many languages and his work is known and studied world wide. One of the first literary reviews of Whitman came from Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emerson praised Whitman and said that Leaves of Grass was one of the most unique pieces of literature to come from America. Whitman’s poetry is written in free verse for the most part. It has no regular rhythm or rhyme; he uses repetition and irregular stress patterns to create a poetic effect. Whitman’s language is not formal, he used common words from the time. This was a very different style from the rest of the poets of the time, especially