Walt Whitman's Birthday May 31st
by Caser
Beat poet Allen Ginsberg called him "dear father, graybeard, lonely old courage-teacher", and Ralph Waldo Emerson found "incomparable things said incomparably well" in his magnum opus, Leaves of Grass. For the last 150 years, Walt Whitman has been embraced as America's Poet, and Saturday, May 31st, poetry enthusiasts and scholars throughout the world celebrate his birthday.
A former teacher and newspaper editor, Walt Whitman (1819-1892) developed a poetic style most succinctly (and perhaps paradoxically) described as lyrical free verse. His themes of the common experience of mankind, and the tragedy of love and death resonated with soldiers and veterans of the Civil War, and they continue to speak to modern readers. Be sure to check out the poems "O Captain! My Captain!", "Song of Myself," and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd." Note: poetry best when read aloud with friends and family.
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