Whitman's Writing Style

Walt Whitman is considered a "tweener" because he falls in between the Realism and the Modernism periods of writing.  Walt Whitman shows characteristics and tendencies of both writing styles in many pieces of his work.The Realism period is about being literal or real. The pieces of works and there perspective authors that fall into this genre are not writing about wizards fighting dragons.  These authors are writing about things that happened or realistically could. Walt Whitman's poem "Cavalry Crossing a Ford" is literally about Union soldiers crossing a ford riding their horses as the "guidon flags flutter gaily in the wind"(Whitman, "Cavalry Crossing a Ford"). Even the title of this poem fits into the realism period. "Calvary Crossing a Ford" is just a very plain and generic title.  It tells us what is happening in the story and it gives the reader an idea of what the poem is going to be about. Being a writer of the Realism would be difficult I think.  The author can only let their imagination go so far before they have to wrangle it back in to keep in under control.  The author has to remain somewhat factual as well as making the story interesting for the readers. The other genre that Whitman fell into during this period was modernism.  Modernism writers are big on individualism and industry.  I believe that Walt Whitman has a piece of work that fits the individualism part of Modernism very well that I found in our book.  "I celebrate myself, and sing myself, and what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you"(Whitman 2).  If this is not being an individual then the grass is not green and the sky is not blue.  "I celebrate myself"(Whitman 2).  I think that this quote is very arrogant.  I believe that I can be very arrogant at times but not this severe, or so I hope.  I am not sure that it is a bad thing for Walt to be a tad cocky but there is a line.  Although I am not sure I can fully blame Whitman because this is just one of the few genres of writing he fell into.  I think that it would be difficult for an author to go from one genre to another like that. The Modernism period would not be as difficult to write during in my opinion. The person may be alive during what is happening so the piece of work is almost a rewritten news report.  The rewritten part comes from making it more enjoyable for the reader to read because it would still have to keep the reader engaged. It is possible that his beliefs and ideals changed and he wanted to write what he thought, but no matter what happened, Walt Whitman is a "tweener" because he falls into the two categories of being a Modernism writer and a Realism writer. Like many other famous authors, including Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman was an influential writer in more that one genre.


"Cavalry Crossing A Ford by Walt Whitman." PoemHunter.Com - Thousands of Poems and Poets.. Poetry  Search Engine. Web. 11 Feb. 2012.


Whitman, Walt. "from song of Myself." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 533 . Print.