Walt Whitman

Among the Multitude

• Among the men and women the multitude, I perceive one picking me out by secret and divine signs, Acknowledging none else, not parent, wife, husband, brother, child, any nearer than I am, Some are baffled, but that one is not--that one knows me. Ah lover and perfect equal,I meant that you should discover me so by faint indirections,And I when I meet you mean to discover you by the like in you.

-Walt Whitman

Basics

• Born on may 31, 1919• He was the second son out of nine children• He grew up in Brooklyn and long island • At the age of 17 he became a teacher, later on

he tried to write for the newspaper.• Whitman went back and forth between

teaching and writing news letters

More info.

• He began Leaves of Grass which was a collection of poetry in 1850

• Ralph Waldo Emerson read the book and wrote Walt a letter approving the book, after this many more copies were distributed

• Whitman was known as the father of free verse

About “Among the Multitude”• This poem expresses all the thoughts and

feelings of a person in a crowd, like in New York during rush hour

• The style of this poem is free verse