Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson

Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson

Walt Whitman, America's poet of optimistic individualism and Emily Dickinson, whose writing was essential in forging an American literature. Both writers had sympathy for ordinary life and common occupations (Crow, 2008). Unknown in her lifetime, Emily Dickinson never sought, with any diligence, publication for her poetry. Her verse is unique, having nothing in common with poetic schools or any regional theme. Dickinson relied entirely on her personal experiences and considered no theme too intimate or too trivial to record. She contributed to American literature a freedom in verse that was unsurpassed (Barnstone, 2007).

The ...