17 pages 34 minutes read

Walt Whitman

America

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1888

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics.

Literary Devices

Form

By 1888, Whitman was confident in his reinvention of poetic form. By the time he published “America,” Whitman had become the focus of cult-like admiration among America’s younger poets who made pilgrimages to Whitman’s home in Camden, New Jersey, hoping for an audience with the courageous poet who had reimagined poetry itself in a way that had become defiantly, proudly American. Whitman Societies, complete with secret handshakes and elaborate initiation rituals, met all around Manhattan. These devoted acolytes found in Whitman’s free verse and in his celebration of the spiritual dimension of the organic world an unapologetic rejection of the middle-class complacencies and soul-numbing conventions of Gilded Age America.

“America” testifies to Whitman’s restless experiment in form. The lines defy anticipated rhythms or rhyme. To create a living, organic poem that rewards recitation, the lines use comma placement to create, like a line of crafted music, dramatic pauses that would allow for the speaker to give emphasis, for instance, to each of the adjectives the poem lists to describe Americans, emphasis that could conceivably change with each recitation. Finally, Whitman’s eccentric and grammar-defying use of capitalization gifts each capitalized term—freedom, law, love, earth,

blurred text

blurred text

Related Titles

By Walt Whitman

Study Guide

logo

A Noiseless Patient Spider

Walt Whitman

A Noiseless Patient Spider

Walt Whitman

Study Guide

logo

Are you the new person drawn toward me?

Walt Whitman

Are you the new person drawn toward me?

Walt Whitman

Study Guide

logo

As I Walk These Broad Majestic Days

Walt Whitman

As I Walk These Broad Majestic Days

Walt Whitman

Study Guide

logo

Crossing Brooklyn Ferry

Walt Whitman

Crossing Brooklyn Ferry

Walt Whitman

Study Guide

logo

For You O Democracy

Walt Whitman

For You O Democracy

Walt Whitman

Study Guide

logo

Hours Continuing Long

Walt Whitman

Hours Continuing Long

Walt Whitman

Study Guide

logo

I Sing the Body Electric

Walt Whitman

I Sing the Body Electric

Walt Whitman

Plot Summary

logo

Leaves of Grass

Walt Whitman

Leaves of Grass

Walt Whitman

Study Guide

logo

O Captain! My Captain!

Walt Whitman

O Captain! My Captain!

Walt Whitman

Study Guide

logo

Song of Myself

Walt Whitman

Song of Myself

Walt Whitman

Study Guide

logo

Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night

Walt Whitman

Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night

Walt Whitman

Study Guide

logo

When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer

Walt Whitman

When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer

Walt Whitman

Study Guide

logo

When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd

Walt Whitman

When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd

Walt Whitman