Abstract

Responds to previous critics who have repeatedly emphasized the "deeply personal" nature of Whitman's Calamus poems by arguing that Whitman achieved this personal quality by working with "a considerable degree of artistic detachment" and that "it is . . . this very same detachment, operating perhaps at a more instinctive level, that enabled Whitman to produce a poetry that is most profoundly and convincingly confessional by virtue of its implicit admissions and explicit investigations of 'the difficulties of the confessional poet.'"

Keywords: Essay, Style, Poetic Style, Calamus, Calamus Cluster, Calamus Plant, Confessional Poems, Confessional Poets, Confessional Writing, Personal Poetry, Leaves of Grass, Leaves of Grass (1860), Manuscripts, Comrades, Language, Poetic Language, Live Oak with Moss

How to Cite:

Thomas, M. W., (1983) “Whitman's Achievements in the Personal Style in Calamus”, Walt Whitman Quarterly Review 1(3), 36-47. doi: https://doi.org/10.13008/2153-3695.1032

Rights: Copyright © 1984 M. Wynn Thomas