Hunter S. Thompson’s novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream is his magnum opus and in it, that is exactly what he does, which is to endure a “savage journey to the heart of the American dream”....

Both Walt Whitman and Allen Ginsberg reimagine what America could be in their poetical and literary endeavors, and Whitman’s influence on Ginsberg runs infinitely through our culture, shaping the fabric of America. Whitman wrote, “I celebrate...

Walt Whitman's begins this excerpt from Leaves of Grass by describing an elusive 'this':

"This is the meal pleasantly set . . . . this is the meat and drink for natural hunger."

These two clauses that are set next to each other describe 'this' as...

Walt Whitman's "Spontaneous Me" (Norton 2151-2152) crystallizes his attempt to create poems that appear natural, impulsive and untamed. The natural effect is a carefully crafted technique that appears throughout his writing, hinting at a...

There are several parallels between the ideas presented in the Socratic dialogue Meno by Plato and the ideas suggested by Walt Whitman's poetry in the first edition of his work Leaves of Grass. Though the Meno is presented as a work of philosophy,...

American poet, essayist and journalist, Walt Whitman, worked to expose his readers to his unique, personal thoughts on the body, nature, and the human experience. Whitman was a humanist, and incorporated both transcendentalism and realism in his...

Through his work in poetry, literature, and other media, Walt Whitman is often considered one of the most significant American writers and theorists. He arguably popularized all-American literature with his work, injecting American writing into an...

“The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself” - Friedrich Nietzsche....

It is not a surprise that Allen Ginsberg aligned himself with Walt Whitman in his poem “Howl,” as the title page to his book of the same name reads, “Unscrew the locks from the doors! / Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs!” (Ginsberg 1)....

When one considers the word 'divine,' the next word that comes to mind is not naturally 'average.' Something divine is holy, otherworldly, and godlike - the exact antithesis of something average. Why, then, in his poem "Starting from Paumanok,"...

Walt Whitman (1819-1892) was the best fulfiller of his own call for an ‘immenser’ poet who would write ‘great poems of death’ (Democratic Vistas). His poetry, as much as it celebrates and endorses sexual liberation, consciously ‘beat[s] and...

Walt Whitman begins his poem, “Song of Myself,” with: “I celebrate myself /And what I assume you shall assume/For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you” (lines 1-3). In these lines, Whitman shows that everyone is equal. Equality is a...

Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass is unique in many ways, perhaps the most significant being that it was composed over the course of his entire life, a fact that is very significant when one considers this unprecedented opportunity to witness the...

Through a careful interpretation of A Defense of Poetry by Percy Bysshe Shelley and Democratic Vistas by Walt Whitman, one can gain a holistic sense of poetry, what it is and what it does, that can be applied to literary texts of all times. One...

"O divine power, but lend yourself to me

So that I may show the shadow of that blessed

Kingdom which is embedded in my brain"

The above passage is excerpted from Canto I of Longfellow's translation of Dante Alighieri's Paradiso (22-24). In this third...

The idea of voluntary creation, of giving birth to something utterly original from some established foundation, instantly attracts unanswerable inquiries of morality and the nature of novelty and life. However, when invention is attempted on a...

In his January 6, 1865 letter to fellow writer and self-confessed radical William O'Connor, Walt Whitman states in no uncertain terms that his poetry collection Drum Taps "delivers my ambition. . . to express. . . the pending action of this time...

In 1917 Marcel Duchamp took a urinal, detached it from its usual setting, entitled it "Fountain" and called it art. By putting such a common, unglamorous object in this innovative context, Duchamp raised a new awareness of the urinal. Its...

Song of Myself is a poem of bold declarations that egotistically assert Walt Whitman's place and purpose in the context of a world of immense scope and romantically instilled vigor. And yet located within this chaotic unfurling of identity there...

Generations of readers and critics alike have denigrated the works of Walt Whitman and Allen Ginsberg, both equally brilliant poets, separated by a century, yet sharing a poetic vision of both political and sexual freedom, simply because the...

Walt Whitman and Herman Melville were both affected by the Civil War to such a degree that they each published a volume of poetry concerning the conflict. Although both men confront similar issues and feelings, particular in their poems about...

Do I contradict myself?

Very well then I contradict myself,

(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

~ "Song of Myself"

He praises nature. He hails civilization. He upholds silence. He calls for unchecked and unformed sound. All of these tendencies are...

1. Introduction

In the course of history, there are certain incisive incidents that mark a period, ring in a new era or alter people's individual lives most drastically. One such incident is the American Civil War (1861-1865), fought over issues...

In the poem “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer,” Walt Whitman writes of a speaker who is exposed to the knowledge of the stars in the sky and the Milky Way galaxies, but is restricted from fathoming a deeper understanding in those observed...