Author Archive | Madison

Through ‘Whitman Speaks’ I sought to recreate the persona of Whitman on Twitter and use his poetry and prose to directly engage in conversations with people surrounding news and social issues. Initially, the project was a question of how to fairly represent and recreate Whitman’s voice as I joined in modern conversations. I wanted to […]

So much of Walt Whitman’s identity is the wise, old poet. A voice whose words have been almost prophetic as his dream of ‘containing multitudes’ and speaking to all generations came true. He wrote prolifically and widely, covering all subjects which occasionally made waves because of his love of minorities and the marginalized, use of […]

Intro: So much of Walt Whitman’s identity is this wise, old almost prophetic poet that ‘contains multitudes’. He wrote prolifically and widely, covering all subjects, loving and sympathizing with minorities and the marginalized. He spoke to future generations, wishing to engage in conversations with them and imagining that his own experiences would be shared with […]

So far the most interesting persona of Walt Whitman that I have encountered is the advocate, man of the people. I love how connected he is to people of all ages, races,  and times in history. I am also fascinated by the way he has been adopted as the voice for individuals or groups of […]

I know this post is a little bit belated but I thought this poem was interesting and worth sharing because it questions what is justifiable in times of war and poses some interesting issues that I feel like Whitman could really speak to. Bagram, Afghanistan, 2002 By: Marvin Bell The interrogation celebrated spikes and cuffs, […]

After having much of his work compared to Whitman, Yusef Komunyakaa makes a direct address to one of the greatest influences of his writing. Though upon first glance their writing style is not identical or even very closely aligned, their content draw huge parallels. Komunyakaa writes shorter lines that have less repetition, less fluidity or […]