Christopher Spates
COL. Ball
ERH 421WX
4/30/15
421WX-Leaves of Grass
This course Leaves of Grass has been very intriguing. It offered many challenges yet offered me as a student the opportunity to learn about 19th century American culture. From the very beginning of the class I was clueless about Walt Whitman, and finishing this course I feel I have learned a lot not only about his life but the meaning behind his poetry. Whitman’s poetry discusses topics such as war, nature, jobs and politics which all tie together to describe America separating from England, the civil war, and even the daily struggles of poverty. Our class discussions, paper’s written and also the virtual scrapbook allowed me to gain insight into the motives for Walt Whitman’s poetry, and how it directly correlates to the true American culture that we still live in today.
One of the things Whitman is known most for is his organic form of poetry. This alone represents the American culture during the 19th century. Whitman grew up in tough times when America was breaking away from England and was trying to establish itself. With that being something he experienced I believe his free verse of poetry represents freedom. It shows that Whitman was still able to describe his feelings and ideas without typical rhythm and meter. He was able to tell stories about nature, war, jobs, and politics while still focusing it on his idea for everything being unified under equality. More specifically in writing my research paper I learned that Whitman struggled keeping a job. He went through seven different newspaper jobs in four years. Also, throughout Whitman’s life he struggled to have success with his poetry. Having to publish his own Leaves of Grass is an example of the tough times faced by the lower middle class in America during this time.
A big component in Whitman’s poetry that we discussed is nature. Our assignment in which we had to read Leaves of Grass out in the open air gave me the chance to relate more directly to what he spoke of. Whitman speaks of America and the nature of the 19th century yet his imagery mirrors the present, and in a sense makes the future seem immediate. Within my writing of my findings from reading Leaves of Grass outside one thing that stuck out to me is when Whitman says “…and the numberless unknown heroes equal to the greatest heroes known.” This to me represents American culture throughout history and more specifically during the civil war. There are heroes made every day, however, they may not be the famous Robert E. Lee’s or Stonewall Jackson’s of the 19th century. Whitman made it very clear in “I hear AMERICA singing” that he felt every person had an importance to America regardless of their job. He speaks of the carpenter and the mason and how individually they create a unified country. Personally, I believe Whitman offered the idea of unity which is one of the strongest characteristics of America even though in the 19th century he saw the civil war and slavery right in front of his eyes.
The single most important part about this class for me was our in class discussions. It allowed me to broaden my view on what Whitman was saying in his poetry. Being able to hear many other classmates’ ideas of what was said in a specific poem allowed me to put our thoughts together which gave me a better understanding for what Whitman meant. Also, by interacting together and hearing different people read poems would give a different tone depending on the voice. Though reading in class really helped me gain a better understanding one thing I struggled with at times was Whitman’s vocabulary. Vary rarely throughout one of his poems did I not have to look up a word that held a significant meaning behind a sentence or phrase. Though this was a challenge, I believe it has allowed me to broaden my vocabulary and it also gives me more respect toward Whitman’s writing ability.
The main requirement for these civilization and culture courses is the ePortfolio. For me, it was interesting making my virtual scrapbook for the ePortfolio because you are trying to portray information on historical events through a much more advanced piece of technology. This alone shows the advances in the American culture overtime. We are becoming so advanced that we are able to use technology to better understand and describe historical people or events. The ePortfolio is becoming a tool for people to show their work across many different communities whether it be your group of friends, for business, or even for you to get your name out there publicly. I believe it is a great tool that many of people are beginning to take advantage of.
Overall, this class has been interesting, enjoyable, and has allowed me to expand my knowledge about America’s greatest poet Walt Whitman. By doing the papers and virtual scrapbook I was able to further our in class discussions and learn many things about the 19th century specifically relating to Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. Walt Whitman was so unique in his ability to make his poetry relate to not only the 19th century, but also to the present. His imagination allowed him to turn so many stories into lessons learned through nature in his poetry. Finally, throughout the course Leaves of Grass I was able to us my knowledge of the 19th century to relate it to Walt Whitman’s poetry, and in the process I was able to learn how unique his poetry is and how well he connected with the American culture from the 19th century and in many cases still today.