Word: whitmanic
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American's distrust of art and tradition--in fact the American refusal to grow up--is reflected in Walt Whitman's poetry, Thornton Wilder said last night. He delivered the last of the Charles Eliot Norton lectures before a capacity crowd in New Lecture Hall...
This self-conscious individualism has of American literature, Wilder explained. Poets like Whitman, Thoreau, and Emily Dickinson have tried too hard for spontaneous art, and often neglected the calculation necessary for great poetry...
...according to Wilder, the dam broke inside of Whitman, and he found his self-assurance...
...then that Whitman took on the "image of the wandering bard," which he followed conscientiously for the rest of his life. Wilder remarked with a smile that one could feel comfortable reading Whitman only when wearing long beard. "Whitman is the basis for his own flamboyant poetry," he said...
Wilder's two previous lectures on American culture have attracted over-flow audiences at the New Lecture Hall. The playwright's final talk will be delivered on December 6 on the subject "Walt Whitman and the American Loneliness...