The+Whitman+Film


 * What do you remember about the film? Did it give you any fresh ideas about Whitman? What are you thinking?** 1199845766

The film gave me a better perspective about Walt Whitman than I had before. One thing is he's older than I thought he would be. The other poets from the film gave me some more thought on his life style and how he composes his poems. It seems to me from the film, he get's most of his ideas on how to write his poems from influences from society, he finds them to be an inspiration to him. Whatever he finds that fancy him he would write it down on paper and would make it into a masterpiece, especially, "Leaves of Grass" which he finds as the source for his inspiration and determination to become one of the greatest poets of all time. Watching the film really opened my eyes about Whitman and his work and gave me a positive influence from his poetry. 1199984673

I think this film gradually helped me understand and comprehend Walt Whitman better, as a person and in terms of his writing. From the film I discovered so much information about Walt’s past and his upbringing which could’ve influence him in a enormous way to help develop is works of poetry. The film also told me how Walt had so much passion for his writing that he was willing to put as much detail and description in his poetry, just to get his point or word across. He wrote about what ever came to his mind, and even though it may have been disagreeable to others, it spoke the true meaning to what he’d been thinking while writing it. This film showed me so much about Walt, and I think it was a great opportunity to view it. 1201108209

I really enjoyed this movie. It really helped me have a better understanding of Whitman's life I feel that it is alot easier to understand a poets writing if you know a little bit about their background. The reason i think this is because it helps me connect to the words that the poet uses and it makes the writing make more since. Whitman seems to write different types of poetry than some of the others that we read earlier this year. I actually really like his poems. They seem to flow really well, and they are also really easy to follow. Like AOW1 said, this film really made me realize the passion that Whitman had for poetry. This passion really shows through his poems. I thought it was neat how he wrote about urban life. Br. Tom told us in class that this was new then and that most poets wrote about farms or more open land because they thought the city was to dirty. He wrote about what he wanted and didnt let what other people thought of him change how he felt or expressed himself. I am looking forward to reading more of his poems. 1200024189

One thing that struck me particularly interesting while watching this movie was the fact that Walt Witman did not undergoe the conventional education of poets of his time. For the most part, poets of his time were the ones who could afford to focus their limited energy on the arts, leading to them having a high class education and a privledged life of writing. Walt Witman was different, his education was limited, but he still managed to go beyond poetry of the time. This could be a factor in Witman's originality, his lack of repressive influence allowed him to expand his writing skills where others were unable. 1200322448

This movie was a very different approach to learning about poetry. This movie helped me learn a lot about walt whitman whom before i knew nothing. Knowing his past can help me learn more about his poetry because i can better understand where he is coming from on certain issues. Walt Whitman was a horse of a different color. He didn't play by the rules and he wrote whatever he wanted to. This is why I like Walt he is different than the rest and his poetry is soo much cooler. 1200322809

This movie was actually pretty interesting. I like to learn about poets and writers before I read their works. It really gives you their background and helps you understand where they're coming from before you even read what they have written.

Some major influences that affected Walt Whitman's life is that he went on many trips around the country. This gave him a chance to observe the lives of the people and things around him. Take for instance Leaves of Grass. It is a composition of pretty much all of the things that he has seen and observed about nature and people around him in his whole life. I find that pretty awesome and amazing. A poet has to be really dedicated to what he is doing to have a work that took almost his whole life to do. A person that had a great influence on Whitman was Emerson. Emerson read the book Leaves of Grass and thought that it was the best book ever written in America. He felt so strongly about this book that he wrote to Whitman and told him that! That has to say something about Whitman's work that someone as famous as Emerson would say that Whitman's work is the best in America.

He was also America's first urban poet, talking about the everyday lives of people in the city. Also, at this time, so many new people from other countries are moving to America and Whitman was like one of the first poets to write his observations about that. Of all the influences that he had in his life, the Bible was the greatest influence that affected him. He liked the proses in the Bible because they had a rolling rythm to them. He also liked the bible because of its parallel structure.

Walt Whitman was also inspired by political speakers. They inspired him to send his message and observations to everyone. I also personally think that Manifest Destiny, the destiny of America to expand its country to the "unknown", also had a great influence on his poetry. 1200326220

I think Walt Whitman's video reflected his personality and his poems. He writes poems in a strange and new way for his time and I think he did the same in his movie. He changed the video so that it would reflect his strange approach to poetry, though we might not always understand the movie but thats the same as his poetry. You have to use your mind and try to understand the poems with your own meaning. As ewe said, she likes to get his background and learn about the writer before reading, I like to do the opposite. I like to read there works then try to understand there life through there writing. I think Whitman was a man of change, of changing the world he lived in, he wanted to advance them. I don't know much about him but I think his writing an his movie show him how he wants to be shown. 1200435678epa1

I really enjoyed the video. It really told a story about Whitman and explained why he wrote his poems the way he did. I thought the whole Leaves of Grass composition was astounding because Whitman spent most of his life writing it, and you could really tell the hard work and effort put in to it. Whitman uses all the things he's seen and expierenced during his lifetime whether it be life lessons, nature, love, or other things. He expresses those things in his poems especially nature, he talks about the people he has expierenced in his life as well. I thought it was amazing how he kind of came out of nowhere as a poet but was immediately accepted as a true gifted writer. One thing I love about Whitman was his ability to not follow popular poets as in writing about the same stuff as them, or making his poetry rhyme. Whitman showed that he would write his poetry about what he wanted too, whether other poets or readers liked it or not. A good example of that was the way he wrote about the male organs, and although maybe he did take it to far, he didn't back down when people told him to stop. He really believed in standing up for himself, and was a very skilled poetic writer. 1200610272

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