"Leaves of Grass, Still Growing After 150 Years" by Professor Billy Collins
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 พ.ค. 2009
- Leaves of Grass, Still Growing After 150 Years - Professor Billy Collins
November 03, 2004
Billy Collins is the author of five books of poetry. His poetry has appeared in anthologies, textbooks, and a variety of periodicals including Poetry, The American Poetry Review, The American Scholar, Harper's, The Paris Review, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic Monthly. His work is regularly featured in The Best American Poetry and in the Pushcart Prize anthology. Prof. Collins has received fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, The National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. He has also won the Bess Hokin Prize, the Frederick Bock Prize, the Oscar Blumenthal Prize, the Wood Prize and the Levinson Prize--all awarded by Poetry magazine. In 1992 he was chosen by the New York Public Library to serve as a "Literary Lion." He is a Distinguished Professor of English at Lehman College (CUNY) He served as United States Poet Laureate for 2001-2003. He was appointed New York State Poet Laureate 2004-2006. This lecture focuses on one poets assessment of the abiding strengths and influence of Walt Whitmans decisive poem, Leaves of Grass, a century and a half after its publication.
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Thank you filmmaker. Thank you TH-camr. Thank you Billy Collins.
What a treat to find this!
Wonderful stuff! How could anyone not love Billy Collins.
Great lecture, thanks Billy Collins. I have big gaps in my poetry education. Sometimes, I don't even realize who has influenced me or what dictums I've introjected.
A few years ago when I decided to look into my ancestry, I traveled up to Long Island. Born in Amityville, I went a few miles north to Whitman's birthplace. Why? So many times at the dinner table growing up, my parents had claimed we were related to him. So, with an handwritten family tree written by my grandfather, I presented to the curators the brown-edged single piece of paper. Within a few minutes, the gentleman came out and claimed I was related.
The hair stood straight up on the back of my neck, and all the while trying to collect my thoughts, a group had walked in. The woman there apologized to me stating she had forgotten about this group coming and would I be okay with her stating I was Walt Whitman's relative. Still in a fog, I said of course.
Without hesitation after hearing the news they all gathered around me wanting pics and such.
So, within a matter of minutes, I had gone from sheepishly asking about my "tree", to that of being "famous". Not really what I was looking for, but none the less, a memory I shall keep for ever.
Leaves of Grass is a poetry collection by the American poet Walt Whitman (1819-1892).
Although the first edition was published in 1855, Whitman spent most of his professional life writing and re-writing Leaves of Grass, revising it multiple times until his death.
This resulted in vastly different editions over four decades-the first a small book of twelve poems and the last a compilation of over 400.
The poems of Leaves of Grass are loosely connected, with each representing Whitman's celebration of his philosophy of life and humanity.
This book is notable for its discussion of delight in sensual pleasures during a time when such candid displays were considered immoral.
Where much previous poetry, especially English, relied on symbolism, allegory, and meditation on the religious and spiritual, Leaves of Grass (particularly the first edition) exalted the body and the material world.
Influenced by Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Transcendentalist movement, itself an offshoot of Romanticism, Whitman's poetry praises nature and the individual human's role in it.
However, much like Emerson, Whitman does not diminish the role of the mind or the spirit; rather, he elevates the human form and the human mind, deeming both worthy of poetic praise.
With one exception, the poems do not rhyme or follow standard rules for meter and line length.
Among the poems in the collection are "Song of Myself", "I Sing the Body Electric", and "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking".
Later editions included Whitman's elegy to the assassinated President Abraham Lincoln, "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd".
Leaves of Grass was highly controversial during its time for its explicit sexual imagery, and Whitman was subject to derision by many contemporary critics.
Over time, however, the collection has infiltrated popular culture and been recognized as one of the central works of American poetry.
Yep! I own a copy with both the 1st edition, and the deathbed edition. Whitman was the father of American poetry; and Dickinson was its mother.
Interesting that this was uploaded 12 years ago, but the oldest comment was, as of now, from 3 years ago. Most of the comments were from a year ago which would be 2020/2021. People really did go out and learn while they were quarantined.
It was interesting, after hearing of Billy Collins admiration for Ginsburg how much his poem in the meat section sounded like a Collins piece.
Billy Collins on from 03:10
Thank you.
I was kind of surprised that CK Williams was not mentioned.
Wonderful
Thank you
Thank you!
I've been coming back to this lecture since I'm 17 years old. Around 7 years ago.
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deep insights. great humour
Most of the "Beats never referred to themselves as Beatniks ,a term that best describes Maynard G. Grebs on the TV show, "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis." Kerouac describe Beat as derived from Beatitudes, although the life styes of the Beats hardly reflect that. As much as I really like Billie Collins, his use of the word "Beatnik compels me to comment since as a 16year old in the late 50's
encountering Kerouac greatly influenced me for more than a few years, whereas the term, Beatnik really gets to me. At least the writings of the Beats not only lead me to a life of reading but writing as well.
Does anyone know if the speech can be obtained as a PDF file? Would surely be appreciated!
It has subtitles, so someone somewhere has the text.
I hope this is the write shit I'm supposed to watch for Gulliksen's class
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He is quite humorous and has a lot to share with us. Here’s one bugaboo for me; why does a professor, a lecturer, a performer, not practice to remove “ah” from his vocabulary? It’s distracting to the point of being annoying.
Probably because it was not a formally written speech, which suits the Whitman style if you ask me.
boring lecturer--stick with the poetry itself.