In the Preface to his "Leaves of Grass," Walt Whitman wrote: "The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it." His words have shown true for himself, as Whitman's influence is felt everywhere in American poetry. Even one hundred years after "Leaves of Gras

Beats, Epic, Expansive, Homoerotic, Joyful, Layered, Overflowing, Political, Repetition, Romantic poetry, Transcendentalism

Thoreau was thrown in jail for refusing to pay taxes. But this wasn't a case of insufficient funds '- it was a gesture of protest against a government that supported slavery and the Mexican War. His mentor, Ralph Waldo Emerson, came to visit him in his cell. The older man, who was more a passive phil

Transcendentalism

The period between the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, though a time of cultural ferment in the former colonies, was marked by an identity crisis. It was a time when the country was young and the influence of European art and philosophy was strong. The most praised writers were sycophants: Cooper wrote

Ecstatic, Elegant, Pathos, Pioneering, Sincere, Transcendentalism, Witty