Walter Whitman born May 31, 1819 in West Hills, Long Island, N.Y., died March 26, 1892, Camden, N.J. He was an american poet, journalist, and essayist whose verse collection Leaves of Grass is a landmark in the history of American leterature. EARLY LIFE Walt Whitman was born into a family that settled in North America in the first half of the 17th century. His ancestry was typical of the region: his mother, Louisa Van Velsor, was Dutch, …showed first 75 words of 2323 total…

…showed last 75 words of 2323 total…his artitry. T.S. Eliot said "When Whitman speaks of the lilacs or the mockingbird his theories and beliefs drop away like a neeless pretext.: Whitman invigorated language: he could be strong yet sentimental: and he possessed scope and inventiveness. He portrayed the relationships of man's body and soul and the universe in a new way, often emancipating poetry from contemporary conventions. He had sufficient universality to be considered one of the greatest Aerican poets.