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whit and wisdom... its outline time....

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I'm home, it feels good hanging out in my neck of the woods here in New York [Statue of Liberty]

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City I'd like you to meet one of my fellow New Yorkers Walt Whitman growing

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up in and around the Big Apple was a major influence on Walt's poetry in fact

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he became a lover of all things American from a very young age his parents Walter

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and Louisa were huge fans of democracy they loved it so much that they even [Walter and Louisa standing together]

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named three of their sons after their heroes George Washington Whitman Thomas

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Jefferson Whitman and Andrew Jackson Whitman as for Walt he had a few

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different nickname The Bard which also means poet of democracy the father of [Examples of Walt's nicknames]

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free verse and the penner of perfect poetry okay so he did give himself that

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last nickname the guy did not lack self-confidence he's known for having

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fathered free verse poetry but what is this free verse stuff anyway free verse [Walt fathering free verse poetry baby]

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poetry doesn't have a rhyme scheme or a meter so it can really take any form

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well maybe not any form free verse opened up a whole new world for poets

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they were no longer held back by tricky little things like rhyme scheme and

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meter... Walt was so taken by free verse he wrote a whole collection of poetry using [Walt with free verse poetry books]

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it leaves of grass was Walt's accomplishment of a lifetime even though

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he published it for the first time when he was only 35 he kept revising and

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changing it throughout his life you might think that a book with such a nice

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title and all that revision work would see a million copies and what would be [People in a cue outside a store and Walt bathing in money]

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rollin in the dough and you'd be wrong when leaves of grass was first published

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Walt's boss Secretary of the Interior James Harlan fired Walt - he said

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the book was morally offensive with poem titles like to a common prostitute and a

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woman waits for me it was clear that Whitman wasn't scared to write about the

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topic of sex he didn't just stick to sex between men and

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women either in a song of myself and many of his other problems won't wrote

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about love between two men plus Harlan wasn't the only one who didn't think

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leaves of grass was all that great some people said it should have been burned [Newspaper page outlining leaves of grass should be burned]

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instead of published the author should off himself it was a mass of stupid

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filth! ouch, all of this uproar eventually led to leaves of grass being

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banned...critics called it too sensual, shocking, obscene you really want to read

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it now don't you these days those are the markers of a best-seller but in the

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mid 1800s people were a bit more a conservative or racist and homophobic

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gender biased pick your poison anyway walt was into men instead of being a [Walt with a young man]

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ladies man folks in his day didn't look too kindly to this lifestyle so if you wish

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to see the process in motion today take a little trip to Saudi Arabia it's time

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to see what all the hubbub was really about we're going to check out one of

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Walt's offensive poems called song of myself its pretty long so hit pause now [Song of myself poem on paper]

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then go and read it go on I'll be right here when you get back okay song of

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myself is a pretty long poem so let's jump in and take a closer look at this

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thing let's start with the basics when reading poetry what are the key elements

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we look for imagery, speaker an audience, rhythm and rhyme or the lack of these in

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Walt's case and theme we're going to examine each of these poetry conventions [Elements of poetry listed on board]

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in a bit more detail let's start with imagery what types of mental images are

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we given in song of myself there are a lot so let's zoom in on a few key

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examples the beginning of part two reads houses and rooms are full of perfumes

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the shelves are crowded with perfumes I breathed the fragrance myself and know

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it and liked it the distillation would intoxicate me also but I shall not let [Part 2 of Walt's song of myself poem]

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it ah can't you just smell that perfume that was a lot of scent...

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whitman speaker is drawn into the fragrance scene before him inhaling but

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not letting himself become intoxicated section eight opens the little one

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sleeps in its cradle I lift the gauze and look a long time and silently brush

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away flies with my hand... doesn't that sound nice well minus the fies this is [Person draws back a gauze and a baby appears]

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a peaceful scene marrying youth with age or experience the process of aging was a

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big theme in a lot of Walt's work but more on this in a few the wild gander

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lead his flock through the cool night ya-honk he says and sounds it down to

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me like an invitation in this piece of imagery we see Walt passion for nature

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coming through in verse the natural world and man's connection with it is [Ducks walking in the woods]

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another theme we see time and again throughout Walt poetry from the three

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images we examined we can tell that Walt really like perfume the dichotomy of youth

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versus age or experience was often a theme in is poetry Whitman wrote a lot

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about nature and how man is connected to it now we know a little bit more about [Examples of imagery in Walts poem]

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song of myself but there's a lot more to discuss next up let's talk about Walt

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speaker and the audience he had in mind when writing this poem the speaker of

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song is well a tough nut to crack in section 24 the speaker just busts out [Hammer smashes a nut]

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and says I'm Walt Whitman - no arguing with that one but instead of just being Walt

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the poet the speaker of song is more like a supercharged version of Walt like [Walt takes sip of Diet Pepsi can]

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Walt on too many candy bars and sodas the Walt of his wildest dreams sometimes

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poets are really connected to their poetry but have to employ some shall we

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say poetic license in order to get their point across so the speaker of song of

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myself is Walt Whitman but it also isn't on to our audience who do you think Walt

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wanted to read song of myself? was it A politician's, B other poets, C the

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entire cast of the musical rent well to be honest Whitman probably hoped that

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all these people would read his poem his audience was the poetry reading people

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of the world next on our poetry analyzing docket we've got rhythm and [Rhythm and rhyme definitions explained]

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rhyme as we mentioned before free verse poetry isn't nailed down by a set rhyme

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scheme, meter or rhythm the structure of song of myself is free verse some

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critics argue that Walt borrowed bits and pieces of other poets structure to [Walt throws poet books on the floor]

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create his own but that's kinda sorta what free verse is all about in our

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opinion fun fact the original version of song of

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myself wasn't broken into sections like the one you just read moving on we've

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got theme; like any good epic poem song of myself has several important themes

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more than anything else it's really about the identity of one person how it

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can be broken down into three separate selves that make up a single hole Walt [Walt with a satan and angel walt either side]

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explores identity as it relates to the social and natural world around him both

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companionship and sex are other themes connected to identity you can't have a

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good poem without relatable themes am i right we spent enough time on one song [Statue of liberty discussing Walt's poem themes]

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let's check out some more of Walt's work Walt, like pretty much everyone in

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America was affected by the Civil War after his brother George was wounded in [George in battle and explosion occurs]

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battle Walt took off from New York in search of him he ended up serving as a

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sort of nurse in military hospitals for the next few years everything he saw

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greatly shaped his writing and his life Walt suffered from extreme mental

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exhaustion and had to return to New York before finally having a breakdown like a [Walt having a breakdown]

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good poet should Walt wrote about his experiences with the soldiers in a

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poetry called drum taps the themes from this collection all stemmed from his

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experience during the war Walt said that the book was put together by fits and

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starts on the fields in the hospitals as I worked with the soldier boys why don't

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we check out a poem from this collection you're going to read Whitman beat! beat! [Beat! Beat! drums poem]

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drums hit that old pause button while you check her out

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alrighty let's talk themes, obviously this

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poems about war even though the speaker never comes right out and says it we're

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talking about the Civil War the war is everywhere in homes, churches, schools and [People in civil war lying on the ground]

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in the cities Whitman uses one of his famous lists to describe all the places

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and people that the war has touched in some way to go along with this theme we

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get the theme of rules and order the war is disturbing the normal order of things

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which we see in lines like burst like a force of armed men and mind not the old

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man beseeching the young man there's that mention of age and wisdom again [Theme examples of Drum-taps]

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Death is another major theme in the poem because you can't talk about war without

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mentioning death the interesting thing is though that's all Whitman does he [Death with a scythe and people firing canons]

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mentions death right at the end of the poem finally let's talk about the tone

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of this poem what sort of atmosphere does Whitman create in this poem does it

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make you feel cheerful, angry as can be, a little sad like maybe you want to write

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some poetry if you said sad you're probably in the majority this poem might

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have an upbeat cadence to it but it's not a happy one beat beat drums is

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representative of all the work in drum taps good old-fashioned war poetry [Soldiers marching and banging drums]

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written by a good old-fashioned American patriot you've now met Walt Whitman poet,

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countryman, lover of men and women but not in the same way, nurse and book

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author and controversial literary figure we shouldn't leave without saying [Leaf falls and gravestone of Walt appears]

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farewell property that one gets me every time....

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