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He was immediately nicknamed "Walt" to distinguish him from his father. Whitman was born on May 31, 1819, in West Hills, Town of Huntington, Long Island, the second of nine children of Quaker parents Walter (1789–1855) and Louisa Van Velsor Whitman (1795–1873). Art historian Mary Berenson says, "You cannot really understand America without Walt Whitman, without Leaves of Grass.He has expressed that civilization, 'up to date,' as he would say, and no student of the philosophy of history can do without him." Modernist poet Ezra Pound called Whitman "America's poet.He is America." Life and work Early life Whitman's influence on poetry remains strong. When he died at the age of 72, his funeral was a public event. After suffering a stroke towards the end of his life, Whitman moved to Camden, New Jersey, where his health further declined. On the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, who Whitman greatly admired, he authored two poems " O Captain! My Captain!" and " When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", and gave a series of lectures on Lincoln. His poetry often focused on both loss and healing. and worked in hospitals caring for the wounded. Whitman continued expanding and revising Leaves of Grass until his death in 1892.ĭuring the American Civil War, he went to Washington, D.C. The work was an attempt to reach out to the common person with an American epic. Whitman's major poetry collection, Leaves of Grass, first published in 1855, was financed by Whitman's own money and became well known. He worked as a journalist, a teacher, and a government clerk. At the age of 11, he left formal schooling to go to work. Whitman was born in Huntington on Long Island, and lived in Brooklyn as a child and through much of his career. His work was controversial in his time, particularly his 1855 poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described by some as obscene for its overt sensuality. Whitman incorporated both transcendentalism and realism in his writings and is often called the father of free verse. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American history. ( / ˈ hw ɪ t m ə n/ May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist.