Peter Doyle

Peter Doyle was an emigrant from Ireland, also known to be Walt's companion for a very good chunk of time in his life. He was raised in the south and was actually a confederate soldier. They met on a horsecar that Peter was the conductor of and Whitman was the only passenger.
 Doyle was present at the Ford's theater when President Lincoln was shot. He recollects that night and some believe he was the inspiration and main contact in writing "O Captain! My Captain!" He was quoted saying,
 "I needn't tell you what I felt then, or saw. It is all put down in Walt's piece"
A poem also uses the name Pete,
"Come Up From The Fields Father," is unique in its use of a first name to identify the poem's fictional hero. The name used is "Pete". In no other poem does Walt give name to any character or model used. 
Walt's calamus poems are frequently reverted back to Peter Doyle and the realtionship they has with one another, "love of comrades" celebrated in Whitman's "Calamus" poems.
His letters from Walt are published and allow for us to further study Whitman and his words.




http://whitmanarchive.org/criticism/current/encyclopedia/entry_3.html

Martin F. Tupper, Proverbial Wisdom

Martin F. Tupper was a writer and poet born in 1810 in London. He wrote the perverbial philosophy which was "long series of didactic moralisings". A well known one was, 
"Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech"
This book was released in volumes, numerous amounts, which is relateable to Whitman's Leaves of Grass and his different editions.The two were often compared to one another in written reviews of their works. Tupper was in New York  in 1851 and at the time Walt was working and living in Brooklyn. At this time he was developing an aesthetic theory that would later become, Leaves of Grass. 
A writer that was molding his own would have picked up a work that was getting so much publicity and would undoubtedly have influence on Whitman. 

I saw a post that made me a little upset, Female Nurses for Soldiers. I thought it would be Walt revering in how much these women are helpful and how caring, beautiful and unique each woman is, but no. True, he does pay a bit of respect to the volunteers, but they aren't good enough. I know these men deserve a lot, but these women volunteered out of the goodness of their hearts and he is not satisfied. He says, the nurses should be mothers, or old ladies and I agree that mothers have a certain touch and way about caring for people but someone who volunteers to help wounded men, have a certain heart as well. At the end he says,
"There are plenty of excellent clean old black women that would make tip-top nurses. "
This reminds me of the stereotype of the "mammie". I just didn't think Walt would have a thought as this.
And I think being around any kind of woman is helpful for a soldier that has seen the worst of things.

Whitman in Pop Culture

I found an America Opera Project featuring Walt Whitman in song. It says it is a callaboration between Composures and the voice and the Walt Whitman project, "a Brooklyn-based community arts organization, devoted to exploring the life and influence of this great American writer through readings of his poetry and prose and performances of musical compositions based on his works. Whitman spent much of his life living and working around New York City, including in Fort Greene, Brooklyn - the home of American Opera Projects"

http://operaprojects.org/whitman.htm
There is a connection between poetry and music, and who better to bridge that connection than Walt Whitman? Even though the stretch between opera and a poetry reading may be long, there is emotion evoked in both forms, and Walt enjoyed every creation. I've never seen opera live, but I'm guessing the emotion will be explosive. 

I found a children's book, When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer. Really amazing pictures to go along with the poem. 

About the book:

http://www.lorenlong.com/astronomer/learnd_astronomer.html

sketches:

http://www.lorenlong.com/astronomer/astronomer_sketches.html
I love that this poem was made into a children's book. This allows children to be exposed to poetry and a great poet in a way are used to, with pictures. Children have amazing imaginations, and poetry is the perfect way in which they can explore their minds, because it can hold so much meaning. 

Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac put out a solo album and used Whitman's writing from the poem, "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" on his album cover and to go along side to his collage of phtotographs on the album. The title of the album was, "Out of the Cradle".

Also Found a fun song called, "Walt Whitman's Niece" that was written by Woodie Guthrie, described as,

" raucous, irreverent, and sexually charged in a way that other evocations of Whitman have not been"

In using Walt Whitman in both these musical forms, uses him as a toll to get a tone across to the listener. I read that he was used as a peace symbol, a rowdy symbol, a personal symbol, this shows Walt's work is universal and the man himself, stands for something for everyone. 

Peculiar and new things

I looked through the reviews and the few that caught my eye were either one of three things; over the top, excited about Walt's work, totally dismissing it or calling it "rubbish" and lastly, just confused and not sure what to do with it.
The first reviewer seems enamored by his work. he enunciated on his way of describing things in a beautiful way, how Walt is fully American and not haunted by European style writing, he likes how he is natural and true,
"Along his words spread the broad impartialities of the United States. No innovations must be permitted on the stern severities of our liberty and equality. Undecked also is this poet with sentimentalism, or jingle, or nice conceits or flowery similes. He appears in his poems surrounded by women and children, and by young men, and by common objects and qualities."
He keeps drawing on the importance of Walt's "freshness" and "new" ways,
"He leaves houses and their shuttered rooms, for the open air. He drops disguise and ceremony, and walks forth with the confidence and gayety of a child."

The next reviewer is a woman, I looked specifically for, and she was super excited about Walt's work. When asked if any parts of the review were over the top, I would have to say that her entire review is over the top. I dig that she is so excited about it though, she just can't contain herself; she lists random parts of his work that she loves. She clearly shares his way of fresh though and defiance for the "ideal". Her favorite she mentions lastly,  

"The wife—and she is not one jot less than the hus-

      band,

The daughter—and she is just as good as the son,

The mother—and she is every bit as much as the

      father."

This shows she was an advocate of gender equality/importance. An idea that Whitman wrote about, in the era it was written, a very new, rebellious thought.

The last reviewer I looked at just was confused and unsure of Walt. His title was, "A Curious Title". This guy can't even understand the title, if he is not open minded enough to think about the title, realize it's meaning and significance then he is definitely not going to understand what is actually inside the book. He also describes the cover of the book. (Tip: Don't judge a book by it's cover)

He calls him a "perfect loafer, yet a thoughful loafer" which seems to me like a back handed sort of compliment.

He just kind of says, if you're into this kind of thing then you should read it, but the traditionalist should not. The quote is,

"we advise all who are fond of new and peculiar things to procure it"

That made me laugh. Because, you do have to be fond of peculiar, new things to want to read a book of poetry called, Leaves of Grass. I know I am. 

I clicked on one last one randomly and this reviewer actually mentioned Fanny Fern, the woman reviewer I talked about. This person despised Walt's work, along with Fanny's Fern Leaves. 

His ending sentence was,

"The fields of American literature want weeding dreadfully." 

This review was very short and anonymous. Dont know if it holds much merit, but it's an opinion of one person who is uncomfortable with Walt's new way of thinking and acting.

The assumptions about poetry in this era seem to be that poetry should be flowery, in line with society, for mere pleasure and unconcerning, and avoiding disconcertion at all costs. The thought seems to be that a poet is not allowed to take such a public societal stand against the ideal, that he should write for the pleasure and comfort of the people. Walt writes to make people uncomfortable, he is true and raw he pushes them out of their caves with his poetry; the complete opposite of what society wants their poets to do. 

These days, I think we want our poetry/writing to challenge thought, to challenge societal views, bring up what is wrong with society and to question what is considered normal. We encourage the new and peculiar.