Walt Whitman 🇺🇸✒️🌿

Celebrating the 204th anniversary of Walt Whitman’s birth, born in New York on 31/5/1819

Walt Whitman was an American poet and a humanist. He is considered one of the most influential poets in the United States. Walt Whitman was a free verse poet, who wrote his poems in a simple language, which he himself described as “the speech of men.” Whitman’s poetic style gives us an opportunity to express ourselves without having to use complex words or sentences. This makes it easy for people with limited English skills to understand the meaning of his poems.

Born in New York in 1819, Walt Whitman is acknowledged among the most influencial American poets and as a great interpreter of the American soul in the second half of the XIX century. Whitman was also an innovator in poetry, often recognised as the father of the free verse. His collection of poems, “Leaves of Grass”, was first published in 1855, at his own costs, and then revisited and changed until his death in 1892. This poetry collection has represented a milestone in American literature and new poetry since its first publication.

His poetry was a reflection of his thoughts and feelings about democracy, nature, sexuality, death, and other topics. Whitman’s main themes are love and nature, which he saw as the source of life. His poems often contain references to events from his own life such as his illness and struggles as a soldier during the Civil War. In addition, he wrote about many different types of nature including flowers, trees, lakes and mountains. His poems are also filled with metaphors comparing humans with animals and plants. Themes such as these make it easy for readers to relate to his work since they can easily imagine what he wants them to see in his poems.

Poems by Walt Whitman, from the collection “Leaves of Grass” have been published in many languages and in many editions over the years, since their original publication in the United States. The Italian translation of Whitman’s poems done by Carlo Dossi, a poet and translator is a point of reference for Whitman’s poetry in Italian, Dossi was born in Milan, Italy and he translated many works of different American authors into Italian. In this blog, some selected poems by Whitman have been published over the years with their original text and with new translations in Italian and Spanish by Enzo Martinelli.

From Calamus:

Among the Multitude
Are You the Next Person
City of orgies
In paths untrodden
Not Heat Flames Up and Consumes
Not heaving
Roots and Leaves
That Shadow My Likeness
This Moment Yearning and Thoughtful
To a stranger
Trickle drops!
Whoever you are holding me now in hand

From Children of Adam:

From Inscriptions:

From Sea-Drift

Essential bibliographical references:

The Walt Whitman Archive
Walt Whitman’s entry in the Encyclopaedia Britannica
Song of Myself recited by Roger Gregg
Walt Whitman in translation
The first translation in Italian of Whitman’s poetry

One of the most famous poems by Whitman, “O Captain! My Captain!” was inspired by the assassination of Presiden Abraham Lincoln and is interpreted by Tom O’Bedlam in this video on YouTube.