jackieg

I found Whitman’s writing to be less substantial than that of his earlier work. That is to say, substantial in length, not quality. He is still a great writer, but his poems are obviously much shorter in length and have a much darker feel to them. I suppose I personally prefer his earlier writing because it was much more a celebratory work rather than lamenting on the eminent fate that is fast approaching him. I suppose its easy for me to say that because I’m twenty three years old and haven’t suffered a stroke or seen the effects of war and death first hand. However, comparing this to his earlier work, I think I prefer the more lighthearted stuff.

That’s not to say that this darker Whitman doesn’t appeal to me at all. For whatever reason, I think that everyone has some sort of fascination with death; perhaps be because it is the great equalizer. It truly is his style of writing and word choice that appeals to me. I’ve always found his informal style of poetry to be very freeing and he maintains this up until the very end of his life. Other poets of his day had a formality about their writing that I always found to be very rigid and my idea of poetry is that it is a very fluid art. I feel that Whitman is really one of the greatest of all poets because he stayed true to his art until the very end.

In his poem “L of G’s Purpose” he says ” I sing of life, yet mind me well of death”. I think that this line sums up the Deathbed edition of Leaves. He began Leaves of Grass with this idea of celebrating one’s life in whatever occupation you hold or caste system you belong to. He matures more when he adds Drum Taps and sees the pain and death that a war can cause. That revisal brings a little more reality to Leaves of Grass as a whole. In this later poetry we see the effects of his health and how he feels about his life in general. Leaves of Grass becomes a more mature and aged work the more mature and aged Whitman becomes. It is that fact that demonstrates how Leaves of Grass was literally and figuratively a part of him. The work grew with him and they are one in the same.