ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Whitman wrote primarily in free verse-that is, poetry without meter. He often used long poetic lines. While he is now considered a foundational American, his poems weren’t well-received when they were published. In fact, Whitman self-published the book for which best known, Leaves of Grass.

Detailed explanation-2: -The dominant themes that are more pervasive in Whitman’s poetry are democracy, life/death cycles, individualism, and nature.

Detailed explanation-3: -Perhaps the most obvious stylistic trait of Whitman’s poetry is the long line, written in free verse. Whitman abandons, almost completely, the metrical tradition of accentual syllabic verse and embraces instead the prosody of the English Bible.

Detailed explanation-4: -Who invented ‘free verse’? Walt Whitman (1819-92) often gets the credit, although his decision to write in free verse – unrhymed poetry without a regular metre or rhythm – may have been influenced by the Biblical Psalms.