Illume/Knapp Lecture: Whitman’s Beginnings — Who Was Walt Whitman? - Mark Edmundson, PhD

Location

Manchester Hall, Auditorium

Cost

0

How did a poet with no advanced education and no previous literary distinction come to write the great poem of democracy, Song of Myself? The first lecture explores the beginning of the poem, positioning Whitman to begin his quest. Discover how he merges self and soul, and how he develops his great metaphor for democracy: the grass.

This is the first lecture in the series, Walt Whitman and the Battle for Democracy. In this sequence of lectures, Dr. Mark Edmundson, professor at the University of Virginia, discusses Walt Whitman, his poetry and his vision of democracy. Though Whitman published his greatest poem Song of Myself in 1855, he remains a poet of the present: we still have not fully realized, or even completely understood, his hopes. Reflecting on Whitman today puts us in a position to respond to our current crisis of democracy.

Illume Speaker Series

To champion the tradition and future of the artes liberales, the Humanities Center has created the Illume Speaker Series featuring our own renowned faculty scholars, invited thought leaders and prominent public figures to advance the liberal arts on our campus and inspire lifelong learning in our surrounding communities.