Whitman’s “Democratic Vistas” can be read for guidance on Whitman’s voice as well as his aspirations as a bard. Read aloud one of the emotionally charged and prophetic paragraphs—for example, the one beginning “Then still the thought returns,” and then choose a passage from Song of Myself that picks up on similar sounds and rhetorical devices.
Could you versify such a paragraph, Whitmanstyle? With regard to democratic values, what justification can be offered for Whitman’s long lines, his lack of rhyme, his abundant catalogs and enumerations? How have other modern American arts, besides poetry, expressed these values?
