Search Results

Emerson, and we looked over the volume of one who has been declared about 'to inaugurate a new era in American

those faultless monsters, whom the world ne'er saw, whose 'mission' it is to comfort the sable population

Sir Rohan's Ghost: A Romance (1860) was written by Harriet Elizabeth Prescott Spofford.

Review of Leaves of Grass (1860–61)

Sir Rohan's Ghost: A Romance (1860) was written by Harriet Elizabeth Prescott Spofford.

(vide Sunday Times , March 3rd, 1867) we called the attention of our readers to the works of an American

them, when the first feelings of dislike, which the violation of all received models had occasioned were

American life and institutions have impregnated Whitman's soul.

American air has saturated his lungs.

He is an American, Manhattanese, a democrat.

approximately half the poems found in the 1867 Leaves of Grass (poems that might have offended English readers were

THE FIRST AMERICAN POET .

In the year 1860, we published a literary paper called "The Fireside," in which we devoted a page to

Moreover he is a genuine American man, the most original and truest Democrat of his time.

Westminster Review 74 n.s. 18 (October 1860), 590. Moncure Conway, Dial (August 1860), 517-19.

The First American Poet

Westminster Review 74 n.s. 18 (October 1860), 590.; Moncure Conway, Dial (August 1860), 517-19.; "Marco

Bozzaris," poem about the fighter for Greek independence by the American poet Fitz-Greene Halleck; "

Among American authors there is one named Walt Whitman, who, in 1855, first issued a small quarto volume

city, and brought up in Brooklyn and in New York.

They are certainly filled with an American spirit, breathe the American air, and assert the fullest American

Year 85 of the States (1860—61). London: Trübner & Co.

cantos were published in 1773.

The first three cantos of his epic poem, The Messiah (Der Messias), were published in 1749; the final

cantos were published in 1773.

Year 85 of the States—(1860–61) This is a new edition of the work of Walt Whitman, which some years ago

rampant, but not insufferable, fully believing himself to be a representative man and poet of the American

We should advise nobody to read it unless he were curious in literary monstrosities, and had a stomach

The radical abolitionist sympathies of Thayer & Eldrige, the publishers of the 1860–61 edition of Leaves

Review of Leaves of Grass (1860–61)

The radical abolitionist sympathies of Thayer & Eldrige, the publishers of the 1860–61 edition of Leaves

Further publication of Walt Whitman's collected poems having been interdicted in Boston, the plates were

Rees Welsh & Co., of Philadelphia, whose advance orders exceeded their first edition, a copy of which

The 'Distinctive American Poem'—the only one (God be thanked!)

the novels of de Kock find place upon parlor tables, and the obscene pictures, which boys in your city

congress of the sexes is a sacrament, a holy secret locked in the breasts of two persons, which it were

Y. , May 19, 1860.

The review of Leaves of Grass that appeared in the New York Saturday Press on June 2, 1860, was signed

The review of Leaves of Grass that appeared in the New York Saturday Press on June 2, 1860, was signed

In a letter to Clapp dated June 7, 1860, Juliette Beach explained the nature of the mistake and expressed

Not the least doubtful is he on any prospects of the material success of the American Republic.

trade and commerce,—railway traffic,—manufacturing, mechanical, and mining industry,—agriculture,—population

It is as if we were somehow being endowed with a vast and more and more thoroughly-appointed body, and

the aptness of that phrase, "the Government of the People, by the People, for the People," which Americans

to solve is the inauguration, growth, acceptance, and unmistakeable supremacy among individuals, cities

Into this volume he has gathered fragments of writing, some of which were produced as long ago as 1860

, and all of which are illustrative of his thoughts and his experiences in the woods and the city, in

American Poets [Part 1] W E have many examples in history of a national literature built up in a dialect

It has a flavour of its own, like an American apple.

The American poet has a rich treasury of poetic imagery in his native land.

Let us take a few pictures of American scenery drawn by master-hands.

American Poets Part 1

On page 306, the reviewer writes "Now, if we were amind, we could quote from fifty poets of the Union

The article then continues with a history of American poetry, beginning with the Puritans, ending with

It records a who's who of American poets (Whitman does not appear, although Poe does, 310).

Walt Whitman, the American Poet.

their souls as an instinct, their general tone of thought and feeling, and modes of expressing them, were

One of his own countrymen (a press correspondent) thus writes of him— The only American prophet to my

The "seven cities" refer to Chios, Athens, Rhodes, Colophon, Argos, Smyrna, and Salamis.

Walt Whitman, the American Poet

Clear Grits were reformers in the province of Upper Canada, a British colony that is now Ontario, Canada

Their support was concentrated among southwestern Ontario farmers, who were frustrated and disillusioned

The Clear Grits advocated universal male suffrage, representation by population, democratic institutions

They can easily be remembered through the mnemonic "carcass" (the first letter of each city spells the

have been attributed to several writers, including Thomas Heywood (died 1649), who wrote: "Seven cities

His poems may be said to be essentially filled with an American spirit, to breathe the American air,

and to assert the fullest American freedom.

American books was known to be as profound as that of Sydney Smith —had discovered an American poet.

cities, and fit to have for his background and accessories their streaming populations and ample and

He famously remaked, "In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book, or goes to an American

He famously remaked, "In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book, or goes to an American

play, or looks at an American picture or statue?"

A NEW AMERICAN POEM.

It has been a favorite subject of complaint with English critics and reviewers, in treating of American

We have an American poem. Several of them. Yes, sir. Also a great original representative mind.

She married Heenan in September 1859; it became public knowledge in January 1860.

Review of Leaves of Grass (1860–61)

the New Nebuchadnezzar" in a list of Henry Clapp's bon mots in the New-York Saturday Press, May 26, 1860

On 16 April 1860, in Farnborough, England, Heenan fought Tom Sayers, the British Champion, in the "World

She married Heenan in September 1859; it became public knowledge in January 1860.

In February 1860 Alexander Menken revealed that he had never divorced Adah and she was publicly reviled

published a number of poems in the Sunday Mercury, including "The Autograph on the Soul" in April 1860

Boston, Thayer & Eldridge. 1860 Washington, Philp & Solomons.

and the opening words of his critique on the latter were graduated to a point no finer than to say, "

If the Aristarch of "Scotch Reviewers" were still in the flesh, and felt called, in the spirit of the

It were no great wonder, after the success of Walt Whitman, if many persons who have never talked any

Review of Leaves of Grass (1860–61)

Year 85 of the States—1860-61. 1 vol., pp. 456.

His writings were neither poetry nor prose, but a curious medley, a mixture of quaint utterances and

people were to be enlightened and civilized and cultivated up to the proper standard, by virtue of his

How the floridness of the materials of cities shriv- els shrivels before a man's or woman's look!

The comedic works of François Rabelais (c. 1490-1553) were known for their risqué quality.

The comedic works of François Rabelais (c. 1490-1553) were known for their risqué quality.

surrounded by blatherers, and always impregnable—the perpetual coming of immigrants—the wharf-hemmed cities

all climates and the uttermost parts—the noble character of the young mechanics, and of all free American

enterprise—the perfect equality of the female with the male—the large amativeness—the fluid movement of the population

," &c.** "For such the expression of the American poet is to be transcendent and new."

Alexander Wilson (1766-1813) and John James Audobon (1785-1851) were both acclaimed ornithologists and

Alexander Wilson (1766-1813) and John James Audobon (1785-1851) were both acclaimed ornithologists and

It is like the sound of the wind or the sea, a fitting measure for the first distinctive American bard

who speaks for our large-scaled nature, for the red men who are gone, for our vigorous young population

careless or hap-hazard, anymore than Niagara, the Mississippi, the prairies, or the great Western cities

politics, art or literature, we present here a finely-executed portrait of W ALT W HITMAN , the new American

publication of a superb edition of whose poems "Leaves of Grass" is bringing him permanently before the American

day and generation. was born in Brooklyn, Long Island, May 31, 1818, and is yet a resident of the "City

I rubbed my eyes a little to see if this sunbeam were no illusion; but the solid sense of the book is

In 1856 he issued another and somewhat enlarged edition, which were speedily disposed of.

He believes hugely in himself, and in the part he is destined to take in American affairs.

He appears, moreover, at intervals, to have wandered over the North American continent, to have worked

his way from city to city, and to have consorted liberally with the draff of men on bold and equal conditions

All I mark as my own, you shall offset it with your own, Else it were time lost listening to me.

All the stuff which offended American virtue is to be found here.

not grounded in our soil; even though American in their reference, they were foreign to our New World

were not the outgrowth of that new movement in civilization which America inaugurates.

Still the poet may be said to be more truly artistic than if he were more ostensibly so.

The Indian Hunter by John Quincy Adams Ward (1860) is a bronze sculpture of a young Native American hunter

and his dog noted for its naturalist style and its American theme.

The Indian Hunter by John Quincy Adams Ward (1860) is a bronze sculpture of a young Native American hunter

and his dog noted for its naturalist style and its American theme.

Yet, as these latter are nearly all very brief, many of them not exceeding a dozen lines each, there

If it were spread out as often is done, the poetry alone would fill a thin volume, while another could

say that "November Boughs" (Philadelphia: David McKay) is an important permanent contribution to American

Take, for example, this epigram on "The Bravest Soldiers:" "Brave, brave were the soldiers (high-named

He published many volumes of poems and was an indefatigable compiler of anthologies, among which were

(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1885) and A Library of American Literature from the Earliest Settlement to

For more information about McKay, see Joel Myerson, " McKay, David (1860–1918) Walt Whitman's Book

" presumably Lincoln's first campaign song, and served as correspondent of the New York World from 1860

He published many volumes of poems and was an indefatigable compiler of anthologies, among which were

(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1885) and A Library of American Literature from the Earliest Settlement to

Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998).; David McKay (1860–1918) took over Philadelphia-based

For more information about McKay, see Joel Myerson, "McKay, David (1860–1918)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia

Year 85 of the States. (1860–61.)

Here are the incomplete but real utterances of New York city, of the prairies, of the Ohio and Mississippi

,—the volume of American autographs.

Review of Leaves of Grass (1860–61)

The contents are brief essays or sketches, mostly fragmentary, many of them dated as if they were leaves

The several prefaces to , 1855, 1872, 1876, succeed; then the North American Review paper on "Poetry

Daniel Webster (1782-1852), the American orator and politician.

William Walker (1824-1860) was an American adventurer and soldier who attempted to conquer several Latin

American countries.

.; Daniel Webster (1782-1852), the American orator and politician.; Henry Clay (1777-1852) was an American

He was also Secretary of State from 1861-1869.; William Walker (1824-1860) was an American adventurer

and soldier who attempted to conquer several Latin American countries.

president of the Republic of Nicaragua from 1856-1857 and was executed by the government of Honduras in 1860

political reformer Lajos Kossuth (1802-1894)led Hungary's struggle for independence from Austria.; The American

Whitman is an American Naturalist, quite as reckless as Zola or Maupassant, but withal infinitely less

The chief difference between the American Naturalist and his ultra-Atlantic brethren, is that he does

Whitman has fully equalled, if not exceeded the extant writers of antiquity, and has used phraseology

A N American bard at last!

The interior American republic shall also be declared free and independent.

But where in American literature is the first show of America?

Where is the vehement growth of our cities?

Walt Whitman was born on Long-Island, on the hills about thirty miles from the greatest American city

some poems of Whitman's in which he seems to yearn towards the East from a westward outlook, as if he were

He dreams a dream of "a city invincible to the attacks of the whole of the rest of the earth," which

To a small job printing-office in that city belongs the honour, if such, of bringing it to light.

A demand arose, and before many months, all the copies of the thin quarto were sold.

If he will but learn to tame a little, America will at last have a genuine American poet.

What he calls ‘Feudal Literature’ could have little living action on the tumult of American democracy

If verbal logic were sufficient, life would be as plain sailing as a piece of Euclid.

To glance with an eye, were it only at a chair or a park railing, is by far a more persuasive process

for city and land for land.

A statement which is among the happiest achievements of American humour.

becomes a question how such a book can have acquired a vogue and popularity that could induce an American

will in reputation dearly pay for the fervid encomium with which he introduced the Author to the American

described by the following equation,—as Tupper is to English Humdrum, so is Walt Whitman to the American

Boston: Thayer and Eldridge, year 85 of the States. 1860—61. London: Trübner and Co.

Review of Leaves of Grass (1860–61)

here, from parents the same and their parents' parents the same," and hence, physiologically, is American

To a small job printing office in that city belongs the honor, if such, of bringing it to light.

Some three score copies were deposited in a neighboring book store, and as many more in another book

A demand arose, and before many months all the copies of the thin quarto were sold.

issued in Boston as a 12mo. of 456 pages, in 1860.

For if those pre-successes were all—if they ended at that—if nothing more were yielded than so far appears—a

gross materialistic prosperity only—America, tried by subtlest tests, were a failure—has not advanced

Both the cash and the emotional cheer were deep medicines; many paid double or treble price.

printer, carpenter, author, and journalist, domiciled in nearly all the United States and principal cities

of that time, tending the Northern and Southern wounded alike—work'd down South and in Washington city

. ***** They were the glory of the race of rangers, Matchless with a horse, a rifle, a song, a supper

if our colors were struck and the fighting done?

Only three guns were in use.

That he was an American, we knew before, for, aside from America, there is no quarter of the universe

he was one of the roughs was also tolerably plain; but that he was a kosmos, is a piece of news we were

Leaves of Grass Boston: Thayer and Eldridge. 1860–61. pp.456.

Walt Whitman is sane enough to do the poetry for an American newspaper or two: from whose columns these

supposed to answer this question: All I mark as my own, you shall offset it with your own, Else it were

Presently he dissects his own individuality a little more closely: Walt Whitman, an American, one of

Review of Leaves of Grass (1860–61)

On that occasion we were spared the trouble of setting forth the new poet's merits, as he or his publisher

was good enough to paste into his presentation-copy a number of criticisms from American periodicals

We are almost ashamed to ask the question—but do American ladies read Mr. Whitman?

A sort of catalogue of scenes of American life, which, according to Mr.

London: Trübner and Co. 1860.

Bucke informs us, were given away, most of them were lost, abandoned, or destroyed. ∗ According to Mr

'On the whole, it sounds to me,' were his words, 'very brave and American, after whatever deductions.

First we may notice that in spirit he is intensely American.

There is little in them that is distinctively American.

Were it not that we have Mr.

communist and utopian communities in the United States, including La Reunion in Texas and North American

before and after his appointment and dismissal from a clerkship at Washington, he sought in his native city

"The Lady of this teeming and turbulent city" calls forth her children as bees are called from the hive

"I see a sad procession, And I hear the sound of coming full-keyed bugles; All the channels of the city

John Esten Cooke (1830-1886) was an American novelist noted for his grandiloquent writings centered on

Possibly referring to Marion Lumpkin Cobb, wife of Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb (1823-1862), an American

John Esten Cooke (1830-1886) was an American novelist noted for his grandiloquent writings centered on

Virginia.; Possibly referring to Marion Lumpkin Cobb, wife of Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb (1823-1862), an American

If this were the case, we had been a nation of poets.

But in those cases in which these expressions were written out and printed with all due regard to prosody

Of course the city of Manhattan, as Mr.

This were indeed a wise precaution on his part if the intelligence were only submissive!

In another you call upon the city of New York to incarnate you, as you have incarnated it.

of facts and events, copies of important documents, etc.), compiled into book-length volumes which were

Pierre-Jean de Béranger (1780-1857) was a popular and influential French poet and songwriter whose lyrics were

Not a little ludicrous eulogy of this sort has been poured of late upon the American poet whose name

The brag, and bluster, and self-assertion of the man are American only; the fulsome 'cracking-up' of

pavements; Dweller in Mannahatta ‡ , city of ships, my city— or on southern savannas; Or a soldier camped

probably had in his pockets while we were talking.

that men and women were flexible, real, alive! that everything was alive!

WALT WHITMAN, THE AMERICAN POET OF DEMOCRACY.

that a new poet had arisen in America, and that much difference of opinion existed as to his merits, were

had in his pocket while we were talking.

These were all inarticulate poets, and he interpreted them.

Walt Whitman, The American Poet of Democracy

before introducing us to his poetry, to enlighten our benighted minds as to the true function of the American

The Americans of all nations at any time upon the earth have probably the fullest poetical nature.

peace is the routine out of him speaks the spirit of peace, large, rich, thrifty, building vast and populous

statistics as far back as the records reach is in you this hour—and myths and tales the same; If you were

backtop, The faces of hunters and fishers, bulged at the brows …the shaved blanched faces of orthodox citi

extract only one short poem with its characteristic foot-note: FOR QUEEN VICTORIA'S BIRTHDAY An American

—"Very little as we Americans stand this day, with our sixty-five or seventy millions of population,

republican egotism: "What very properly fits a subject of the British crown, may fit very ill an American

Sure as the heavens envelop the earth, if the Americans want a race of bards worthy of 1855, and of the

only one man…he is the father of those who shall be fathers in their turns, In him the start of populous

Leaves of Grass," of the Brooklyn poet who describes himself in one of them as: "Walt Whitman, an American

spite of all the freedom which has budded and bloomed since that year 1616, when his sacred ashes were

becomes a question how such a book can have acquired a vogue and popularity that could induce an American

will in reputation dearly pay for the fervid encomium with which he introduced the Author to the American

described by the following equation,—as Tupper is to English Humdrum, so is Walt Whitman to the American

Westminster Review 74 n.s. 18 (October 1860), 590. "Man is god to himself" Walt.

Westminster Review 74 n.s. 18 (October 1860), 590.; "Man is god to himself"

of the leading publishers of the United States is a literary event, for through it the greatest American

I rubbed my eyes a little to see if this sunbeam were no illusion, but the solid sense of the book is

Though these words were afterward somewhat taken back—a little Galileo-like, through fear of the New

He looks exceeding well in his broad hat, wide collar and suit of modest gray.

is already established as a popular American classic.

His love of New York City has more in common with Gavroche's love for Paris than with that of Victor

The fact that the "songs" in Drum-Taps were written under such circumstances ought to have rebutted in

of the news from Sumter upon New York is thus described:— "The Lady of this teeming and turbulent city

"Over the breast of the spring, the land, amid cities; Amid the grass in the fields each side of the

both a place and the name of the Democratic Party political machine that often controlled New York City

both a place and the name of the Democratic Party political machine that often controlled New York City

a military outpost near Charleston, South Carolina, was the location of the first battle of the American

Pieces that were evidently written later, and intended to be eventually put under Leaves of Grass now

Hence, at one time, our admiration for orators that were ornate to the verge of inanity.

Dire were the grimaces of the mourners in high places, and dire are their grimaces still.

There were plenty of criticisms to make, even after one had finished crying Oh!

A cardinal sin in the eyes of most critics is the use of French, Spanish, and American-Spanish words

Bryant, Lowell, and a host of others, but it must be admitted that little or nothing distinctively American

Each though is, as it were, a leaf or blade therof which he offers to the reader.

Far from looking upon this immeasurable universe as the stakes, as it were, of an eternal game of Whist

I DREAMED IN A DREAM I dreamed in a dream I saw a city invincible to the attacks of the whole of the

It was seen every hour in the actions of the men of that city And in all their looks and words.

The great cities reek with respectable as much as non-respectable robbery and scoundrelism.

the spirit of civilized communism and socialism is not far enough removed from the minds of our American

But his greatest grievance is that there is no American literature, as such.

But Artemus Ward is as redolent of the American soil as Walt Whitman, and while he is not, in any sense

But granted that we have no distinctive American literature, with the exception of Walt Whitman himself

Dowden, for instance, associates him with Shakespeare, and a recent commentator of American literature

It contains many of those brief, sketchily written notes on nature which were, it is apparent, jotted

of our Western world; and it includes, above all, those widely discussed prefaces, touching upon American

poetry to-day, and especially upon the future of American poetry, as this is viewed by Whitman.

, upon four American poets—Bryant, Longfellow, Whittier, and Emerson.

.; The American poet and critic Richard Henry Stoddard (1825-1903) was part of a circle of genteel writers

Of the few poets born in America, not one is distinctively American in his poetry; all are exotics, and

or making love like Diogenes coram populo—with his own lines for inscription:— "Walt Whitman, an American

of the unquenchable creed, namely, egotism," will not find it a very hard task to teach the young American

than they were, And that today is what it should be— and that America is, And that today and America

fellow Dutchman, Jan Matthys, along with other Anabaptists, briefly established a theocracy in the city

fellow Dutchman, Jan Matthys, along with other Anabaptists, briefly established a theocracy in the city

The Münster Rebellion ended when Protestant and Catholic armies took over the city; van Leiden was executed