Walt Whitman Research Paper

Many of the texts that we have read so far this semester reflect the principles of realism. Much of this is due to the fact that realism and naturalism were some of the biggest literary movements of the period of time that we are studying, that being the late nineteenth century. Realism is a relatable style of writing to all readers and may be used in such a way that you, as the reader, get a peek into the psychological lives of otherwise fictitious characters. The use of realism also made it possible for authors to express voices that are oppressed in our societies and able to express feelings that were not recognized. “Realist writers believed in the power of language to represent reality in ways that were aesthetically satisfying and …show more content…
He “put the living, breathing, sexual body at the center of much of his poetry, challenging conventions of the day” (Baym and Levine 20). Living in New York City allowed him to draw inspiration from his day to day life. It helped inspire him to write “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” and to eventually publish it in 1856. He utilizes repetition in this poem to reiterate the feeling that he knows what he is talking about, almost as if it is ingrained into his life. He is writing out of familiarity and how humanity will grow and continue to relate with common experiences. He writes, “ Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky, so I felt” (Baym and Levine 67). Whitman describes the crowds of people that he sees every single day of his life and he thinks that others will see it the same way that he sees it and that they will have the same reactions to the same common events. The poem takes place on an evening ferry ride from Manhattan to Brooklyn, just before sunset. The ferry is crowded, full of people going home after a long day. There is this idea that the people give life to everything around them with the lines, “Expand, being than which none else is perhaps more spiritual, Keep your places, objects than which none else is more lasting….You furnish our parts towards eternity, Great or small, you furnish your parts toward the soul” (Baym and Levine

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