The Most Uneven Great Poet By Tenney Nathanson - 1102 Words

Come, said my soul, Such verses for my Body let us write, (for we are one,) That should I after death invisibly return, Or, long, long hence, in other spheres, There to some group of mates the chants resuming, (Tallying Earth’s soil, trees, winds, tumultuous waves,) Ever with pleas’d smile I may keep on, Ever and ever yet the verses owning – as, first, I here and now, Singing for Soul and Body, set to them my name, Walt Whitman Walt Whitman, termed â€Å"America’s most uneven great poet† by Tenney Nathanson, is one of America’s greatest poets. Born in 1819 in Long Island, Whitman lived during an era when sexuality, especially homosexuality, a term not coined until years later, was a taboo subject not to be discussed in public. Many of his†¦show more content†¦With the release of Leaves of Grass, a new form of poetry is born. This form defies convention in presentation and subject matter. The compilation of poems did not get the immediate attention and recognition Whitman had hoped for due this defiance. Although it was championed by several famous poets, especially Ralph Waldo Emerson, it would take many years for the works to become successful. The explicit sexual theme in Whitman’s works is the chief source of the delayed recognition Leaves of Grass eventually receives. â€Å"Leaves of Grass was probably more notorious for its sexual explicitness than admired f or its poetic qualities† (Nathanson 400). Whitman initially incorporated the sexual theme into two articles for the Brooklyn paper. Whitman was forced to resign â€Å"because of the indignation of some of his readers† (Asselineau 107). This fueled his desire to teach the general population that sex is universal and should be embraced without fear and anxiety. â€Å"The body, he teaches, is beautiful. Sex is also beautiful† (Whitman 208). Whitman does a better job of incorporating the recurring theme of sexuality into his poems. Not only does he bestow sexual attributes on people, he does the same for objects as evidence in the poem, â€Å"Crossing Brooklyn Ferry†. He combines with the river, the street and other objects. The glories strung like beads on my smallest sights and hearings, on the walk in the street and the passage