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- Title
Immediacy as Periodical Aesthetic in Walt Whitman's Poems in the Daily Graphic.
- Authors
WEISENBURG, MICHAEL C.
- Abstract
This article focuses on the poems that Whitman dispatched from Washington to the New York Daily Graphic and contextualizes his poems and prose works within the greater periodical literature of the time. This contextualization brings into focus the second presidential inauguration of Ulysses S. Grant and the Credit Mobilier Scandal, each of which represents a fraught transition for both the poet and the nation. Poems such as "Nay, Tell Me Not To-day the Publish'd Shame" highlight Whitman's frustration with political corruption and express exhaustion at the unrelenting criticisms found in the periodical press while others, such as "The Singing Thrush," marvel at how the consumption of vile and mean creatures like slugs can give a bird the strength to sing so beautifully, a metaphor for the poet's ability to foster meaning and material in the daily political process. Instead of considering how such poems eventually find their way into Leaves of Grass, reading them in the context of other periodical literature brings into relief Whitman's initial reactions to specific political moments and reconnects his Reconstruction-era writing with his earlier journalism.
- Subjects
WASHINGTON (D.C.); WHITMAN, Walt, 1819-1892; LITERARY magazines; POETRY (Literary form); POLITICAL corruption; INAUGURATION of presidents; PROSE poems; AESTHETICS
- Publication
American Periodicals, 2021, Vol 31, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
1054-7479
- Publication type
Article