Tweetspeak Poetry

  • Home
  • FREE prompts
  • Earth Song
  • Every Day Poems—Subscribe! ✨
  • Teaching Tools
  • Books, Etc.
  • Patron Love

Horace Traubel and the Final Words of Walt Whitman

By Glynn Young 1 Comment

Brooklyn Walt Whitman

Horace Traubel (1858-1919) is not a name we immediately associate with Walt Whitman (1819-1892), but it is thanks to Traubel that we know as much about Whitman as we do.

Traubel’s father had emigrated from Germany; his mother was also of German extraction. He was born in 1858, the fifth of seven children. He became a paper boy at 12, and also worked in the printing business and as a cub reporter.

Horace Traubel

Horace Traubel

He met Whitman when he was 14, when Whitman was living with his mother and brother in Camden. They became friends. Traubel became interested in literary pursuits, publishing his own poetry and literary criticism. He published a literary magazine for a time, associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement, and was also a founder of The Worker, a weekly socialist newspaper (Whitman, despite their friendship, never cared for Traubel’s socialist beliefs). Traubel was well known to Eugene Debs, Upton Sinclair, and other leading socialists of the day.

What Traubel is most remembered for, however, is his literary relationship with Whitman. For four years, as Whitman’s health gradually declined, Traubel spent considerable time with the poet, serving as a kind of literary secretary and writing down everything and anything Whitman wanted to say. What resulted is a treasure trove for biographers and literary historians. It’s also safe to say that few others have read the entirety of what Traubel produced.

Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman

Nine volumes were eventually published, three during Traubel’s lifetime; critics were not encouraging. Volume 4 was published in 1953, Volume 5 in 1964, Volume 6 in 1982, and Volume 7 in 1992. The last two volumes were published in 1996. The volumes are large; Whitman was invariably talkative, and Traubel wrote everything down.

“But the fact remains that the material begs for compression,” writes Brenda Wineapple, author of several books on the 19th century and the editor of just such a compression, Walt Whitman Speaks: His Final Thoughts on Life, Writing, Spirituality, and the Promise of America. “The nine bulky volumes of Traubel’s transcriptions are cumbersome, redundant, and taxing even for the most ardent Whitman admirer. As a result, the material is neither well-known nor easily accessible.”

Wineapple’s compression is a small, slender volume of 196 pages, published by the Library of America. It’s arranged much like a book of quotations, except the quotations are also accompanied by observations, meditations, reflections, opinions, and idle thoughts. The subjects are broad; Whitman had an opinion on just about everything.

Walt Whitman SpeaksLiterary subjects take up a fair portion of the entries — writing, writers, reading, poetry, literature, critics, art, and biography. But also included are Whitman’s sayings and insights on friendship, democracy, history, the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, politics, science, religion, immortality, success, aging, and more.

Here is a brief sample of Whitman’s thoughts included by Wineapple.

On James Boswell, the biographer of Samuel Johnson: “The more I see of the book (Life of Johnson) the more I realize what a roaring bull the Doctor was and what a braying ass Boswell was.”

On Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Emerson’s face always seemed to me so clean—as if God had just washed it off. When you look at Emerson it never occurred to you that there could be any villainies in the world.”

Brenda Wineapple Walt Whitman

Brenda Wineapple

On Leaves of Grass: “Leaves of Grass is an iconoclasm, it starts out to shatter the idols of porcelain worshipped by the average poets of our age—not ruthlessly—not wantonly—but to do it seriously, as having a great purpose imposed.”

On America: “I look ahead seeing for America a bad day—a dark if not stormy day—in which this policy, this restriction, this attempt to draw a line against free speech, free printing, free assembly, will become a weapon of menace to our future.”

On Lincoln: “The radical element in Lincoln was sadness bordering on melancholy, touched by a philosophy, and that philosophy touched again by a humor, which saved him from the logical wreck of his powers.”

The compression (especially of nine fat volumes) represented by Walt Whitman Speaks works exactly as intended. Few of us would likely read the entire mass of statements and observations, but this representative sampling provides an excellent insight into the final thoughts of the man considered America’s poet. We owe a debt to Horace Traubel for taking it all down, and to Brenda Wineapple for summarizing it.

Related:

Longfellow, Whitman, Wheatley: Whatever Happened to Patriotic Poems?

Walt Whitman in Brooklyn: Newspapers and “Leaves of Grass”

Using Poetry to Reflect Upon the Civil War – Part 3: Walt Whitman

Photo by Lee Cullivan, Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by Glynn Young.

Browse more book reviews

__________________________

How to Read a Poem by Tania Runyan How to Read a Poem uses images like the mouse, the hive, the switch (from the Billy Collins poem)—to guide readers into new ways of understanding poems. Anthology included.

“I require all our incoming poetry students—in the MFA I direct—to buy and read this book.”

—Jeanetta Calhoun Mish

Buy How to Read a Poem Now!

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Glynn Young
Follow Glynn
Glynn Young
Editor and Twitter-Party-Cool-Poem-Weaver at Tweetspeak Poetry
Glynn Young lives in St. Louis where he retired as the team leader for Online Strategy & Communications for a Fortune 500 company. Glynn writes poetry, short stories and fiction, and he loves to bike. He is the author of Poetry at Work and the Dancing Priest Series. Find Glynn at Faith, Fiction, Friends.
Glynn Young
Follow Glynn
Latest posts by Glynn Young (see all)
  • Poetic Voices: Jessica Gigot and the Land - October 3, 2023
  • Do You Remember the First Poetry Book You Bought? - September 26, 2023
  • Poets and Poems: Yvor Winters and “Selected Poems” - September 19, 2023

Filed Under: article, book reviews, Books, poetry, poetry reviews, Poets, Walt Whitman

Get Every Day Poems...

Comments

  1. L.L. Barkat says

    May 21, 2019 at 7:08 pm

    That quote on Lincoln is just so fun. Also, it has a touch of “poet’s power” in it. 🙂

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

For the Writer in You

Take How to Read a Poem

Get the Introduction, the Billy Collins poem, and Chapter 1

get the sample now

Welcome to Tweetspeak

New to Tweetspeak Poetry? Start here, in The Mischief Café. You're a regular? Check out our October Menu.

Patron Love

❤️

Welcome a little patron love, when you help keep the world poetic.

Your Comments

  • Poet Laura: Goodbye—and Hello! - Tweetspeak Poetry on The Mischief Cafe: Basking Ridge, New Jersey
  • Bethany R. on From A to Z, the Abecedarian Isn’t Just for Chaucer—Poetry Prompt!
  • Lois Perch Villemaire on From A to Z, the Abecedarian Isn’t Just for Chaucer—Poetry Prompt!
  • Lois Perch Villemaire on From A to Z, the Abecedarian Isn’t Just for Chaucer—Poetry Prompt!

Join the Year of the Monarch

How to Write Poetry

Featured In

We're happy to have been featured in...

The Huffington Post

The Paris Review

The New York Observer

Tumblr Book News

Stay in Touch With Us

Categories

Learn to Write Form Poems

How to Write an Acrostic

How to Write a Ballad

How to Write a Catalog Poem

How to Write a Ghazal

How to Write a Haiku

How to Write an Ode

How to Write a Pantoum

How to Write a Rondeau

How to Write a Sestina

How to Write a Sonnet

How to Write a Villanelle

5 FREE POETRY PROMPTS

Get 5 FREE inbox poetry prompts from the popular book How to Write a Poem

Shakespeare Resources

Poetry Classroom: Sonnet 18

Common Core Picture Poems: Sonnet 73

Sonnet 104 Annotated

Sonnet 116 Annotated

Character Analysis: Romeo and Juliet

Character Analysis: Was Hamlet Sane or Insane?

Why Does Hamlet Wait to Kill the King?

10 Fun Shakespeare Resources

About Shakespeare: Poet and Playwright

Top 10 Shakespeare Sonnets

See all 154 Shakespeare sonnets in our Shakespeare Library!

Explore Work From Black Poets

About Us

  • • A Blessing for Writers
  • • Annual Theme 2022: Perspective
  • • Annual Theme 2021: Generous
  • • Our Story
  • • Meet Our Team
  • • Literary Citizenship
  • • Poet Laura
  • • Poetry for Life: The 5 Vital Approaches
  • • T. S. Poetry Press – All Books
  • • Contact Us

Write With Us

  • • 5 FREE Poetry Prompts-Inbox Delivery
  • • 30 Days to Richer Writing Workshop
  • • Poetry Prompts
  • • Submissions
  • • The Write to Poetry

Read With Us

  • • All Our Books
  • • Book Club
  • • Every Day Poems—Subscribe! ✨
  • • Literacy Extras
  • • Poems to Listen By: Audio Series
  • • Poet-a-Day
  • • Poets and Poems
  • • 50 States Projects
  • • Charlotte Perkins Gilman Poems Library
  • • Edgar Allan Poe Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Blake Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Shakespeare Sonnet Library

Celebrate With Us

  • • Poem on Your Pillow Day
  • • Poetic Earth Month
  • • Poet in a Cupcake Day
  • • Poetry at Work Day
  • • Random Acts of Poetry Day
  • • Take Your Poet to School Week
  • • Take Your Poet to Work Day

Gift Ideas

  • • Every Day Poems
  • • Our Shop
  • • Everybody Loves a Book!

Connect

  • • Donate
  • • Blog Buttons
  • • By Heart
  • • Shop for Tweetspeak Fun Stuff

Copyright © 2023 Tweetspeak Poetry · FAQ, Disclosure & Privacy Policy

We serve poetry with our cookies. Because that's the way it should be.
We serve poetry with your cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you... accept the cookies with a smile.
Do not sell my personal information.
Cookie SettingsAccept
update cookie prefs

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT