ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
History of Technology 1: All Things Energy 81 Views
Share It!
Description:
Energy is pretty neat-o. It’s basically responsible for everything from the formation of the universe to the existence of cat videos.
Transcript
- 00:03
Walt Whitman was a man of many talents. He was a journalist, a nurse, and [Whitman juggles on unicycle]
- 00:09
one of the few poets of the 19th century brave enough to write about, gasp, human [Whitman writes]
- 00:15
sexuality. He's also considered to be the father of free verse poetry. Sort of [writing censored]
- 00:22
anticlimactic after the human sexuality thing there, though, right? All right, well [free verse in stroller]
- 00:26
as a kid in New York City, young Walt had no idea that he was destined to write [young Whitman imagines future]
Full Transcript
- 00:30
poems that lacked regular meter and refused to follow traditional rhyme
- 00:34
schemes. In fact, young Walt thought he was destined to be a printer. Yep, every young
- 00:41
boy's dream. He loved his job so much that teenage Walt actually stayed behind [Whitman works as printer]
- 00:45
in the city when his family moved to Long Island. He took up people-watching...
- 00:49
you know, the not super creepy kind. He explored the Big Apple, he ate whatever [Whitman lives in city]
- 00:54
and whenever he wanted. It was a pretty sweet life for a kid. But then New York's
- 00:58
printing district burned to the ground, and Walt was forced to move to Long [printing district burns]
- 01:02
Island. Well, in order to make living, he had to become a teacher, a profession he
- 01:06
hated with the white-hot heat of a thousand suns. By 1841, he was back in New [Whitman teaches in Long Island]
- 01:12
York City and working as a journalist and then as a poet. In 1855,
- 01:16
Leaves of Grass was published. It was a kind of a big deal. The United [Leaves of Grass published]
- 01:20
States was coming apart at the seams in the lead-up to the Civil War, and Walt [soldiers rip map]
- 01:24
was hoping his poetry would stitch the nation back together. He believed [Whitman offers poetry]
- 01:28
that his poems could speak to every single American. Got to have that ego
- 01:33
working for you there, right Walt? But the Americanness of Walt's poetry isn't [Whitman inflates ego]
- 01:38
what made Leaves of Grass famous. Instead, it was the discussion of female
- 01:42
sexuality, erotic love, and homosexuality. Guess it was a few years [themes of Leaves of Grass]
- 01:48
before someone coined that "sex sells" phrase. Well, some people read Leaves of
- 01:53
Grass and thought it was amazing, groundbreaking, totally awesome. And some [people react to poetry]
- 01:57
people read Leaves of Grass and were horrified. Women fainted, religious men's
- 02:01
has exploded... It was not the reaction that Walt had been hoping for,
- 02:06
especially not the exploding heads. What a mess. America's refusal to [Whitman disappointed]
- 02:11
embrace his poetry in the manner intended made Walt really depressed. He
- 02:15
would spend the rest of his life editing Leaves of Grass. He would also try to [Whitman edits]
- 02:18
bolster his reputation by submitting positive anonymous reviews for his work
- 02:23
that he himself had written to anyone who would publish them. So [Whitman mails reviews]
- 02:27
basically the equivalent of that restaurant owner setting up that
- 02:31
fake Yelp account and bragging about his meatballs. Well, during the Civil War, [chef cheats on Yelp]
- 02:35
Walt took himself down to Washington D.C., where he served as a nurse looking after
- 02:38
wounded soldiers. He then had a brief stint with the Department of the [Whitman works as nurse]
- 02:42
Interior, but got fired when his boss discovered that Walt had offered the
- 02:46
smut known as Leaves of Grass. Well, in 1873, Walt had a stroke, and he'd have [Boss fires Whitman]
- 02:51
several more before his death in 1892. The strokes didn't [Whitman has stroke]
- 02:55
stop him from editing his poetry collection, however. In fact, given that
- 02:58
Walt published an edition of Leaves of Grass shortly before he died, you might [new edition published]
- 03:02
even say that he edited the book to death. Yeah... too soon? [Death takes book... and Whitman]
Up Next
GED Social Studies 1.1 Civics and Government
Related Videos
When you're about to marry the love of your life, not many things could stop you. However, finding out that your future hubby is keeping his crazy...
Here at Shmoop, we work for kids, not just the bottom line. Founded by David Siminoff and his wife Ellen Siminoff, Shmoop was originally conceived...
ACT Math: Elementary Algebra Drill 4, Problem 5. What is the solution to the problem shown?