Dickinson and whitman

Dickinson and Whitman Research Paper

Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson are probably two of the most influential people in American poetry. They are regarded as the founders of modern American poetry. Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman are strikingly different but similar in some aspects. Their similarity is that they were both lonely. Their differences being their communication, how they wrote, forms, punctuation, and their themes. Walt Whitman was more of a realist, as Emily Dickinson was an impressionist.

One way of comparing Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman is that they both describe loneliness in some of their poetry. Whitman, whose sexuality has been questioned, was never one for social interaction. Dickinson secluded herself by never leaving her father's home. Walt Whitman's poem "I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing" and Emily Dickinson's poem number 441 both has issues of loneliness.

In the second stanza of Whitman's poem, he sets the tone of loneliness by describing the tree standing all alone.

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However, in the next line, he continues by saying that the tree is able to grow joyous leaves despite the fact that it does not have a companion. Then, in line five, Whitman goes on to say that he wonders how the tree could grow such joyous leaves whole being alone. In the next few stanzas, he talks about breaking a twig off and taking it home for him to look at. This may parallel his life by way of his memory. "It is not needed to remind me as of my own dear friends"(Whitman 1082). This poem could show how lonely Whitman really was even though his poetry usually seems to have a happy tone.

Emily Dickinson's poem number 441 shows that she is just as lonely as Whitman is. "This is my letter to the...