On the eve of the bicentennial of Walt Whitman’s birth, teachers say the poet who called America “the greatest poem” resonates among a young generation looking to claim its identity.
Alfredo Celedón Luján, an English teacher at Monte del Sol Charter School in Santa Fe, New Mexico, pairs a section of Whitman’s “Song of Myself” with Chicano poet and political activist Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales’ epic poem, “I Am Joaquin.”
“It’s a very inclusive section, and we discuss who the speaker of the poem is, whether it’s him, or not him, whether the speaker is the quintessential American or America herself,” Mr. Luján said, adding that his students are often of Mexican descent. “It’s an identity poem, and it’s very accessible to my students.”
The Long Island bard is enjoying a bit of a moment. The Atlantic’s May issue features “Walt Whitman’s Guide to a Thriving Democracy,” an essay by University of Virginia English professor Mark Edmundson.
A new illustrated children’s book — “O Captain, My Captain: Walt Whitman, Abraham Lincoln, and the Civil War” — focuses on the poet’s 10-year residence in the nation’s capital, where he tended to the Union’s wounded soldiers in makeshift hospitals.
And this weekend, his boyhood home will host the final day of an academic conference.
Cynthia Shor, executive director of the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association in South Huntington, New York, said one reason Whitman has stayed relevant is his universal themes.
“From the confessional poetry to the nature poetry — for people to escape into nature and celebrate nature — to even his political [poetry],” said Ms. Shor. “Definitely it’s an antidote for our contemporary ills.”
Whitman is known for his bawdy tapestry of free verse, singing the lives of logrollers and congressmen and enslaved persons. But what sticks with young people today, say literary critics and fans, are his twin fascination with diversity and the natural world, both of which are strained themes for America’s youth.
On Saturday, the Library of Congress hosts a day of Whitman-inspired activities, including a call for children to explore their senses through language.
“We wondered if we could have them play a YouTube video of nature,” joked Barbara Bair, historian and curator of the Whitman collection — the largest anywhere — at the Library of Congress. “Whitman thought those senses were so important to seeing the world around you — and to maintaining our democratic impulses.”
Whitman also believed that literacy is vital to democracy, a sentiment that still rings true. More than 60% of low-income families in the U.S. have no children’s books, according to the World Literacy Foundation, while the National Center for Education Statistics reports that 19% of working adults in the District cannot read a newspaper.
Yet poetry is resurging. According to a 2018 report from the National Endowment for the Arts, the number of adults who read poetry within the last year nearly doubled over a five-year period.
Robert Burleigh, author of “O Captain, My Captain,” which was released by Abrams Books last month, said Whitman was an ardent supporter of the Union during the Civil War, and didn’t shy away from bombastic and rough-hewn language.
“Some people saw him a bit as a loudmouth, I think,” Mr. Burleigh said.
The book’s illustrator, Sterling Hundley, wondered if Whitman — who called himself “an American, one of the roughs, a kosmos,” in his seminal 1955 edition of “Leaves of Grass” — might have taken to Twitter.
“I don’t know,” Mr. Hundley demurred. “He certainly didn’t feel daunted. But he may’ve found it distracting, as well.”Regardless, the poet’s imagination for America (he never meandered West until late in his life) is generating interest in today’s classrooms.
At Monte del Sol, a student in Mr. Luján’s class repeated the phrase “I am la Reina de Durango,” translated as “I am the Queen of the Durango” in her poem, which she wrote after having studied Whitman, Gonzales and the poet Pat Mora.
“I don’t use him a lot,” Mr. Luján said of Whitman, “but I certainly use ’Song of Myself,’ because it is so accessible to conversations about identity. And that’s what my kids want to hear.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.