The most popular poet in mid 19th century America was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. For Whitman to burst through with the language of the working man, with this demonic vernacular language, it was very, very urban. It was an immigrant language, a polyglot language, and so people just didn't know what to make of it. In terms of sales, the song of higher wath to buy longfellow was also published in 1855 and it shifted 50,000 copies in its first year. The suggestion of leaves of grass sell about 300, something like that.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the highly influential American poet Walt Whitman.
In 1855 Whitman was working as a printer, journalist and property developer when he published his first collection of poetry. It began:
I celebrate myself,
And what I assume you shall assume
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
The book was called Leaves of Grass. In it, Whitman set out to break away from European literary forms and traditions. Using long lines written in free verse, he developed a poetry meant to express a distinctively American outlook.
Leaves of Grass is full of verse that celebrates both the sovereign individual, and the deep fellowship between individuals. Its optimism about the American experience was challenged by the Civil War and its aftermath, but Whitman emerged as a celebrity and a key figure in the development of American culture.
With
Sarah Churchwell
Professor of American Literature and the Public Understanding of the Humanities at the University of London
Peter Riley
Lecturer in 19th Century American Literature at the University of Exeter
and
Mark Ford
Professor of English and American Literature at University College London
Producer Luke Mulhall