Thesis StatementWhen you look back, no American author is more influential than Walt Whitman. He is celebrated as the father of free verse. We're going to look at just one poem, and I hope you are as influenced as I am by this poem. It's called America. Whitman is considered the successor of Shakespeare and Virgil. He was born from Long Island and raised in Brooklyn, where he received little formal education. During his life he worked as a printer, editor, school teacher and journalist. His self-produced Leaves of Grass draws partial inspiration from his tours across the American frontier and his admiration for Ralph Waldo Emerson. During the time he lived, its publication went through eight editions as Whitman extrapolated and revised the poem and added another work on the original anthology of twelve poems. According to Emerson, the emerging edition was the most astonishing piece of wit and wisdom ever experienced and brought to America. Whitman chose to publish his impassioned assessment of Leaves of Grass. Whitman's writing style was quite disturbing to readers and critics. His poems received minimal public success due to a number of reasons: this openness towards sex, his self-portrayal as a hard worker, and his exceptional innovations. He appeared to be a poet who did not adhere to the normal patterns of meter and rhyme established by his contemporaries. Whitman gained his influence from the broad cadences and rhetorical approaches of biblical poetry. After publishing Leaves of Grass, Whitman lost his job. He was working with the Department of the Interior. Despite its mixed critical reception in the United States, it received a warm welcome in England, with Algernon Cha... at the center of the card... with poetry. Reading his work, it is evident that all of his work comes from his experience in America throughout his life. Works Cited Ward, D. (2013). Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson and the war that changed poetry forever. Smithsonian website. Retrieved April 9 from http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/walt-whitman-emily-dickinson-and-the-war-that-changed-poetry-forever-31815/?no-istRe-scripting Whitman . The Whitman Archive. Retrieved April 9 from http://www.whitmanarchive.org/criticism/current/anc.00152.htmlWalt Whitman. Foundation for Poetry. Retrieved April 9 from http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/walt-whitmanWalt Whitman. Biography.com website. Retrieved April 9 from http://www.biography.com/people/walt-whitman-9530126Benton, J., DiYanni, R. (1999). Art and Culture. An introduction to the humanities. Prentice Hall.