As you can tell from the url for my blog, I absolutely LOVE Walt Whitman. I will admit, whenever I hear his first name my mind immediately goes to Walt Disney. After a moment, I reel myself back in and focus on the Walt that is somewhat less known by those other than Englishy people. I was first introduced to him in high school, and despite my dislike for poetry, I really enjoyed reading his work. Whitman has a way of being descriptive in an unique way. He really gets my imagination flowing.
The preface to Leaves of Grass is not something I had read before, but it was very intriguing. My group decided to break down Whitman's ideas into a top ten list. I'm sure you are all so disappointed we didn't get to all of them during class. Don't worry, I will give them to you in a minute! Because poetry isn't my forte, I never really thought about what it meant to be a great poet. I think Whitman does an excellent job giving insight into his feelings about poets. I believe that what he says can be taken farther than poets. One can look at them as descriptions for what it means to be a great person. Many of the qualities can go either way.
Ok, the wait is over. Here is tonight's top ten (in David Letterman voice)
10. Bring spirit of people, places and events to life
9. He is a seer, and individual, he is complete with himself
8. Has less of a marked style and is a free channel of himself
7. Makes poet and audience equal
6. Absence of tricks and perfect candor/honesty
5. Voice and exposition of liberty
4. Timeless and for all people
3. Poem is not an end, but rather a beginning
2. The greatest poet hardly knows triviality and pettiness
1. The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it.
**Note, these are not in order of less important to important or vice versa. They are all equal!
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