Research Paper On Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman was one of America’s greatest poets. His writing, though, was often meet by critics. In 1855, Whitman published the first edition of Leaves of Grass. This text was immediately attacked by critics saying that he abandoned traditional poetic devices and forms. Whitman, infact, did what he was accused of. Whitman used very long, unrythmic lines which was very out of the ordinary in that time. Peter Bayne explains, “The Leaves of Grass, under which designation Whitman includes all his poems, are unlike anything else that has passed among men as poetry. They are neither in rhyme nor in any measure known as blank verse; and they are emitted in spurts or gushes of unequal length, which can only by courtesy be called lines.” In Whitman’s

Whitman expresses that lecturing students in a classroom does not teach them what they need to know. Within Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, the poem, When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer, he states, “When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture room, how soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself, in the mystical moist night air, and from time to time, look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.” In this statement, Whitman is argueing that actually going outside and getting hands on experience will be more beneficial to students. Ted Bredderman points out that, “Hands-on activities rekindle a love of learning and connect abstract concepts to the real world -- while achieving desired educational outcomes.” This shows that students will learn better when they can do and experience instead of listen and take

Whitman expresses that students need to learn from teachers, but also teach themselves. In Song of Myself #46, Whitman says, “You are also asking me questions and I hear you, I answer that I cannot answer, you must find out for yourself.” In this statement, Whitman is saying that there is things a teacher cannot teach someone. People will have to find out for themselves. Slavko Desik points out that, “The idea is to give students the space and freedom to tap deeper into their potential for developing methodology when approaching a subject, hence starting to make knowledge easier to access via free sources and make the whole educational setting more obsolete by the day.” Self teaching can actually enhance a student's education. Learning from a teacher isn’t enough, a person will have to go out and discover what they do not