Whitman's Poetic Innovations

Equality

Whitman in his political life was a democrat. In his poetry he believed in democracy and equality of all members of society. His definition of democracy can be summarised as the equality of all people. America failed to live up to its ideal of equality; Whitman believed in the central role of poets in a democratic society.

Whitman decided to play his part in his poetry. In Leaves he portrayed a democratic utopia where every citizen was treated equally. He called himself the poet of Equality, between blacks and whites, between men and women. In “By Blue Ontario's Shore,” he wrote “Here are the flowing trains, here the crowds, equality, diversity, the soul loves.” Equality is the main feature of a democracy and the central theme for the poet of America. Whitman's themes centre on equality; to deal with such themes he created “a new language of equality” which would later be elaborated on.

Body

Whitman broke the nineteenth-century taboos against writing about the body. While the body was included in the unmentionable topics of respected communities with puritan and Victorian morality, he spoke about it with honesty and openness. It was integral to his idea of equality. He was the poet of equality; that was why he turned into “the prophet of the body.” All humans live in bodies and the body is equal and common to everybody; it represents equality. His poetry depicts “body as a locus of democratic energies.” He believed that sexual expression in popular culture was cheapened; he treated the body in an artistic manner. He put his poetry in the category of physiology. That reduced the criticism of his depiction of the body. Ignoring some parts of the body would reduce the criticism.