Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman was a poet and journalist born on May 31, 1819 in West Hills, Long Island, New York. He was considered one of America's most influential poets. When he was just 17 years old he turned to teaching. His first job was in a one-room schoolhouse in Long Island. In 1841, Whitman set his sights on journalism. He started his own weekly paper called the Long-Islander, and later on he returned to New York City, where he continued his newspaper career. In 1855, Whitman took out a copy write on a addition of Leaves of Grass, which consisted of twelve untitled poems. He published a volume himself, sent a copy to Emerson. Whitman spent his years working on additions to new volume of poems.Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born on February 27, 1807 in Portland Maine. In 1820 he published his first poem in the Portland Gazette. Throughout college he continued to write poems. He was considered as Americas most influential poet. He was also associated with Harvard University. His work was widely translated and published in other European languages: Italian, German and French. Walt Whitman and Edgar Allen Poe critiqued his work. Walt would accuse him for being an imitator of European work. He did praise because of his ability to keep his audience attention.
When you look at both of these poets you can see that they are pretty similar. They both were very smart and ended up in some sort of teaching. Walt was teaching by the time he was just 17 years old. Longfellow ended teaching at Harvard in his later years. They were also considered to be Americas best poets. They were inspiring to people in the way they wrote. Longfellow was respected by the way he could keep his audience entertained. They were both very good writers because Ralph Waldo Emerson supported them in their ways of writing. They both basically started their careers for their local newspapers. Whitman started his own newspaper articles and put his writings in their. Along with Longfellow he put his poems in the Portland Gazette. These writers are very similar with getting started. Longfellows writing is kinda different because his poems have been translated to many different countries. Both of these men are influences to today's poetry.
