Celebrity Graveland

May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892

Attempting to list out the most influential American poets will consistently return a handful of regular contenders. This number can often pale in comparison to other countries with longer histories, but any list you produce will include monumental names like Dickinson, Frost, Emerson, Poe, etc. And EVERY list will feature one name at the top: Walt Whitman

Whitman grew up in New York and dropped out of school to work as a young man to help his family. One of his early jobs was in a print shop. He continued this work and pursued a career in newspapers and eventually began writing his own copy. Opinions, reviews of operas, essays, he dabbled in anything that interested him. He became a successful editor and was able to publish his own serialized novel in 1852. By the mid-1850s, Whitman had decided he wanted to try poetry. He set out to create the great American epic poem and in 1855, published Leaves of Grass, his defining masterwork.

He would continue to edit, revise and append Leave of Grass for the next 30 years, publishing a “final” version shortly before the end of his life. Whitman’s use of free verse and his desire to push and break established boundaries in poetry made him instantly revered and criticized. During the 1860s, he wrote about the American Civil War and penned several odes to Abraham Lincoln following the president’s assassination. One of these poems,  “O Captain! My Captain!” remains one his his most well-known works to this day.

As beloved as Whitman is today, at the time, he was controversial. His writings (Leaves of Grass, in particular) were considered obscene by some, and flat-out pornographic by others. He was believed to be either homosexual or bisexual, but never claimed so publicly. Literarily speaking, he challenged poetic conventions and, in doing so, took the artform to new levels.

Whitman’s health began to fail after he suffered a stroke in 1873. He spent the last years of his life in southern New Jersey. First he lived with his brother and wife, then he settled into his own house where he died at he age of 72 from a whole host of pulmonary complications.

He is considered by many as America’s “National Poet.”

Burial

Harleigh Cemetery – Camden, NJ

Specific Location

Enter the main gate on Haddon Ave. and immediately turn left behind the office. Follow the gravel road around to the right and the WHITMAN mausoleum will be on your left.

This entry was posted on September 23, 2024 at 9:58 am and is filed under Harleigh Cemetery with tags Harleigh Cemetery, Poets, Writers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.