20. Творчество у.Уитмена.

Walter Whitman (1819 – 1892) was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. 

Leaves of Grass (romantism)

Free verse is a form of poetry free of distinct rules that first originated in France and was coined 'vers libre' or free verse.

This is a form that has few rules: it does not have to rhyme, stanzas may be different lengths, lines are usually different lengths, there is no metrical pattern (i.e. iambic pentameter) and the first word of the line is often not capitalized. The purpose of free verse is not to disregard all traditional rules of poetry; instead, free verse is based on a poet's own rules of personal thought patterns and breath, patterns. Rather than fitting content to form, the poet has the freedom to create the form accordingly, to emphasize specific words and sounds.

The American Romantics used symbols of the external world ("nature") as representative of of an invisible inner reality. Whitman's work has been grouped with these earlier Romantics since he sought to use natural imagery such as the sea, the road, or personified animals to signify spiritual dimensions of the self and of the world. Whitman's "Song of Myself" is the best example of this element of the work, as the poet attempts to relate the body to the soul, and the physical world to the spiritual.

Whitman's poetry idealized traveling, searching, and exploring. This mirrored the American landscape of the nineteenth century. During Whitman's lifetime, the United State grew from 22 states to 44 and acquired most of the territories that would later become the remaining six states. America was a wilderness, and Whitman sought to celebrate what was wild and what was natural about the land and the people that inhabited it. As the country traveled West, so did Whitman's poetry. It was an attempt to encapsulate an American spirit that crossed a vast landscape and was common to all people in the nation.

Leaves of Grass became as famous for its style as for its content when it was first published in the second half of the nineteenth century. Whitman sought to combine the lyric and the epic. Lyric poetry is traditionally a short poem of reflection. It expresses the thoughts, beliefs, or actions of the writers. The epic, on the other hand, is a celebration of the deeds and adventures of a hero. It often focuses on the physical and real as opposed to the internal.

To combine these two poetic forms, Whitman cast himself as the poem's epic hero. His journey became both a physical journey across the American landscape, and a spiritual journey through his own soul and through nature. As opposed to the epic tradition, Whitman cast himself as a commoner. His epic deeds, as well as the epic deeds of the American people, were not great displays of heroism but simple, common work which extolled the democratic virtue of the new nation.

Его главную книгу «Листья травы» пронизала идея демократии. В XX веке «Листья травы» признаны одним из важнейших литературных событий, знаменовавших собой революцию в поэзии, связанную с появлением свободного стиха (верлибра), новаторской стиховой системы, пионером которой выступил Уитмен.

Когда большая часть поэзии того времени была сфокусирована на символизме и аллегориях на духовные и религиозные темы, в «Листьях травы» (в особенности первое издание) восхвалялся телесный и материальный мир. Однако Уитман, по примеру Эмерсона, который в значительной степени повлиял на его поэзию, не преуменьшает значение разума и духа, а, скорее, возвышает человеческий разум и форму, считая и то, и другое достойным поэтического восхваления.