American Literature / Unit 10 AML 0908 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The Body, the Self, and the Democratic Voice
Captions available
The idea
Whitman writes about the body without apology, treats desire as continuous with the soul, and refuses to rank the people he names. The insistence scandalized reviewers and cost him a government post, and it is inseparable from the democratic claim the poems make.
In practice
The body, admitted into the poem.
Where people slip
The frankness was the scandal of the book.
Your place on the trail
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