Walt Whitman: He Changed the Subject

Walt Whitman: America's Bearded Bard

Washington DC and Brooklyn New York were 2 of the most important places in the life and writings of the great American poet Walt Whitman. And so it was fitting today that the Library of Congress had 2 contemporary poets - one from DC and one from Brooklyn - read from Whitman's poetry and discuss how his writing influenced their own work.

The special Whitman program was another in a series of birthday celebrations for famous writers (Whitman was born on this date in 1819) sponsored by the Manuscript Division and the Poetry and Literature Center of the Library.

The programs always follow the same format. Two writers read some of their favorite works by the author being feted. They then read from their own works and talk about how the feted writer influenced them and their work. Afterward, a Manuscript Division historian talks about selections from the writer's collection housed in the Library of Congress that are then able to be viewed by those attending the session..

DC area poet and University of Maryland professor Stanley Plumly said that much of his work "comes directly out of Whitman."

"The marvelous thing about Whitman to me is that he changed the subject of American poetry," Plumly said. "It's hard to overestimate how great this poet is."

Plumly said that one of Whitman's defining characteristics was his ability to "identify with the other, indeed the least of the others." Whitman's empathy for the disadvantaged and the outsider was obviously, in part, an outgrowth of his homosexuality and his years spent as a Civil War nurse and a  government worker in DC.

To demonstrate parallels between his work and Whitman, Plumly compared 2 of his poems "Faaragut North" and "Reading with the Poets" to Whitman's  "This Compost."

Joshua Beckman, a poet and editor from Brooklyn, called Whitman "a friend" whose work still speaks to him. Beckman read the long, but powerful Whitman poem "The Sleepers" and his own Whitmanesque "The Inside of an Apple."

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
Today's Whitman program was the 4th such event we had attended at the Library of Congress. Previously, we had attended sessions for Langston Hughes, Ralph Ellison, and Tennessee Williams. The last of this series - a program for poet Gwendowyn Brooks - will be held next Thursday.