Walt Whitman 🇺🇸✒️🌿

Celebrating the 201st anniversary of Walt Whitman’s birth, born in New York on 31/5/1819

Walt Whitman was an American poet and a humanist. He is considered one of the most influential poets in the United States. His poetry was a reflection of his thoughts and feelings about democracy, nature, sexuality, death, and other topics.

Born in New York in 1819, Walt Whitman is acknowledged among the most influencial American poets and as a great interpreter of the American soul in the second half of the XIX century. Whitman was also an innovator in poetry, often recognised as the father of the free verse. His collection of poems, “Leaves of Grass”, was first published in 1855, at his own costs, and then revisited and changed until his death in 1892. This poetry collection has represented a milestone in American literature and new poetry since its first publication.

Poems by Walt Whitman, from the collection “Leaves of Grass” have been published in many languages and in many editions over the years, since their original publication in the United States. The Italian translation of Whitman’s poems done by Carlo Dossi, a poet and translator is a point of reference for Whitman’s poetry in Italian, Dossi was born in Milan, Italy and he translated many works of different American authors into Italian. In this blog, some selected poems by Whitman have been published over the years with their original text and with new translations in Italian by Enzo Martinelli.

From Calamus:

From Children of Adam:

Native Moments
We two – how long we were fool’d

From Inscriptions:

For Him I Sing

Essential bibliographical references:

The Walt Whitman Archive
Walt Whitman’s entry in the Encyclopaedia Britannica
Song of Myself recited by Roger Gregg
Walt Whitman in translation
The first translation in Italian of Whitman’s poetry

One of the most famous poems by Whitman, “O Captain! My Captain!” was inspired by the assassination of Presiden Abraham Lincoln and is interpreted by Tom O’Bedlam in this video on YouTube.

https://enzomartinelli.wordpress.com/2022/05/31/walt-whitman-%f0%9f%87%ba%f0%9f%87%b8%e2%9c%92%ef%b8%8f%f0%9f%87%aa%f0%9f%87%b8/

Página sobre Walt Whitman en español

https://enzomartinelli.wordpress.com/2021/05/31/walt-whitman-%f0%9f%87%ba%f0%9f%87%b8%e2%9c%92%ef%b8%8f%f0%9f%87%ae%f0%9f%87%b9/

Pagina su Walt Whitman in italiano