If you were to imitate a Walt Whitman poem, how would you do it?

Question

I have to write a poem in Walt Whitman's style for my English class, and I am desperately trying to figure out how to imitate Whitman. I can't seem to do it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

I'd choose a short poem like "A Noiseless Patient Spider" or "When I Heard The Learn'd Astronomer" and eliminate the words that carry the meaning : nouns, adjectives and verbs. Then I'd have the connective tissue of the syntax.

He also uses a lot of anaphora, repeated words at the beginning of each line, and his lines tend to be declarative and somewhat long.

Good luck!

Answer 2

Change all the "I" to "We" and You to US except You and Me of the last stanza.

FOR YOU, O DEMOCRACY
a poem by Walt Whitman

Come, I will make the continent indissoluble,
I will make the most splendid race the sun ever shone upon,
I will make divine magnetic lands,
With the love of comrades,
With the life-long love of comrades.

I will plant companionship thick as trees along all the rivers of America,
and along the shores of the great lakes, and all over the prairies,
I will make inseparable cities with their arms about each other's necks,
By the love of comrades,
By the manly love of comrades.

For you these from me, O Democracy, to serve you ma femme!
For you, for you I am trilling these songs.

Answer 3

Use a lot of exclamatory sentences. He always does it. Lots of "Oh".
It must be centered on the self: you have to say something that is close to his "I celebrate myself". Just use other words.
There are also many place names in his poetry, that relate to American history. This can also be used.
He also likes listing: re-read "I sing the body electric".
Use anaphora (use the same word at the beginning of each line or sentence). See: "Out of the cradle endlessly rocking".
In fact, the best for you is probably to re-read his most famous poems, and look at their most obvious characteristics, that you can then use for your poem.

Answer 4

try this webpage:

http://www.poets.org/media/8_WhitmanReadingGuide.pdf
or...

Answer 5

GRAVES OF LAUGHS !