In Search of Walt Whitman, Part One: The Early Years (1819-1860) 

Whitman's eyes tell it all, especially when he's young.... If I could meet anyone from the past, he'd be at the top of my list.

Thank you for this documentary. I discovered his poetry in the 6th grade . Now at age 65, his works continue to move me like no other poet.

Thank you very much for sharing this film! I'm from Ukraine, I know and love Walt Whitman. For me, one of the reasons to learn English was to read his great poems in original.

So right about his greeting the future. He's a lifelong friend. This is a beautiful presentation.

A joyful evening I’ve spent becoming acquainted with Mr. Whitman I have struggled to understand him. I gave my copy of Leaves of Grass to a family of five boys and one girl, hoping one of them could find him. Now I must replace my book. I am an Artist and maker of papers and books and pictures , but have never believed I could write. However I am now encouraged to see that I can appreciate those who do write poetry. I love History and Historical fiction. I love Emerson. Now I’m in love with Whitman 🌺

Must see! Considered well acquainted w/WW’s works, life & times, whoa, was I wrong. This thoughtful & moving 2-part series of a quintessential American, great poet & human being, is astonishing in scope & depth & every measurement of purpose accomplishment. The quiet narration, comments, selected poems, readings & in print, chosen anecdotes presentation & focus, music, photos, etc. were perfect, create a flow & pleasurable experience of recognition & surprise. Many documentaries today are comparative flash cards or POV Cliff notes with overbearing music, manipulated sound volumes, fast paced cram sessions of obviously show off technique or expertise, photos, graphics, popups w/incidental factsheets & sidebars. Grateful to UTube & all those who made this possible & kudos for not destroying with ad insertions (blasphemy). Never heard story of a Booth rescuing a Lincoln, possible in a smaller & more intimate world WW was passing through.

This documentary is perhaps the best I will ever get in hold of. My blessings for the creator. stunning.

I am glad that I was Born 100+ years after Walt, because I would have missed the experiencing of Reading his Works of Art.

What a wonderful celebration of Whitman and America 🇺🇸 Somehow we suffer an amnesia of the greatness of this country. Thank you for your incredible, loving documentary. I have shared it with friends.

" Walt Whitman says I celebrate myself, I sing myself. That is aloneness. This man Whitman is really a mystic, not just a poet. He should be counted with the ancient RISHIS of the Upanishads. America has not given birth to many great mystics; Whitman is really one of the most precious gifts of America to the world. He says: I celebrate myself, I sing myself. That’s what a mystic has always been supposed to do, that’s what a mystic’s function is: to celebrate himself. But how will you celebrate? You will have to invite others. You will have to ask others to come and participate. Please meditate on these words of Walt Whitman: “I think I could turn and live with animals, they ar so placid and self-contained; I stand and look at them long and long. They do not sweat and whine about their condition. They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins; They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God.”

I see you, I feel you, I hear you, I am you - dear Walt.

Wonderful to have contributed to this excellent documentary on 19th century newspaper journalist and noted poet Walt Whitman -- created, produced, written, and directed by Dr. Andrew D. Kaplan.

Trees, flowers and sun and sometimes even the paintings are so comforting to watch

He has a connectedness with nature within his heart that I totally understand…

Mesmerizing. Loved every moment. Thank You.

I really enjoyed this. It struck my heart listening to his words and made me cry. I recently found a partially burnt copy of Leaves of Grass 1876 and cannot stop reading till done. His mind was simplistic but his heart was so deep. Looking forward to learning more about him

Very beautiful documentary. Thank you for loading it.. One more thing to add.. magnificent!

The truth about Whitman, as I see it, was that he’d experienced cosmic consciousness, and everything he wrote was coming from this. To those who haven’t experienced this (mostly everyone), he will seem outlandish, even just plain crazy. He’s not alone though, Jesus, Buddha, Shakespeare, Goethe, Dante, Emerson, Dickinson et al all had these intimations of immortality. However, even without this angle, Whitman can just be read as humanistic wisdom for the ages. Those who claim something ‘off’, or worse, about him are, in my experience, usually rigid, linear thinkers who have sold their soul to this so-called holy book or that so-called holy book. There is more wisdom in 🍁 Leaves of Grass than all those dusty tomes put together.

Excellent film. Thank you so much for making this available.

Walt filtered out the daily nonsense and silliness of religion Christianity duty and doctrine", and pulled in the beauty of the spirit of it and became free of the bondage of religion. The suns glorious shine in the window of the chapel on Sunday morning is more peaceful and wonderful of Gods loving kindness than any sermon ive ever heard in my life..

One of the very best I’ve listened to

The sound makes the meaning. Common humanity past and future are riveted simultaneous in the eternal now.

Beautiful to WATCH and LISTEN TO. THANK YOU.

Spellbindng...i sat there transfixed; Whitman was an American Leonardo, in a literary sense. We need him now. First time I realized there's no commerc'ls if you don't pause it; first time i watched something so good I forgot to pause it --

Well narrated. He was singing his inward..

Thank you. Beautiful doc. I've loved his poems forever. Nice to learn more of the man, the things he held dear. What shaped him to be the man he was.

Thanks for this! Amazing work!

Fantastic job on this. =) You elevate Whitman and show the true soul of the poet. I also appreciate the reference to RM Bucke!

I didn’t study and This video saved my English grade THANK YOU SO MUCH !!

Once you got to the LOG section, you really knocked it out of the park with the soundtrack.

Thank you for this

Thank you for sharing this wonderful thing!🙏

Whitman articulates beautifully, for the most part, that Man/Woman are made in the Image of God....

A beautiful portrait, his words perfectly spoken and spoken of.

This is so good!

Spectacular Much thanks🙏

"A ship under full sail". One of the most majestic sights, ever.

Oh bring back sweet poetry to we

This is beyond wonderful !

WW is one of the GOATS of poetry. ❤

Love ya Uncle Walt

Sterling Hayden's idea of death in the book Voyage was that our new souls run down a mountain stream from freshly melted snow, then taken by the city to be processed, treated, and mixed with, then flushed through a city commode, and sent back out to sea.

Wonderful Thanks for sharing!

The highlight for me was [32:55] These were days of preparation - the gathering of the forces as he later called it. Making up for a scant education, he read voraciously on religion, history and science. He kept a notebook to record observations and insights. He was simmering, as he liked to say, forging the raw materials into what would be a new kind of poetry. [18:36] Edgar Allan Poe [20:50] Ralph Waldo Emerson [25:38] Daily Crescent [40:22] The New Egyptian Museum [43:02] Richard Maurice Bucke - 1853/4 [1:05:00] Leaves of Grass [1:07:49] Ralph Waldo Emerson [1:13:52] Thoreau & Bronson Alcott - 1856 [1:15:23] Faffs [1:23:23] Emerson

wish he lived today

Although there are short poems of his that I love, Whitman isn’t even nearly my favorite poet; still, this was very interesting. What really struck me was his absolute freedom to go wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted, do whatever he wanted within his means, to work or not, to sleep wherever. Think of how different a contemporary female poet’s experiences would have been, _could_ have been, how much more confined, and how much more imagination she would have to possess and use to make up for it! To me, the appearance of Emily Dickinson’s poetry _AT ALL_ is much MUCH more to be wondered at, marveled at, extolled, because it all happened without leaving a little room in the house where she lived....THAT is miraculous, more miraculous than Whitman’s output! One may ask, “Where did ‘Leaves of Grass,’ come from?” _I_ marvel and ask, “Where on Earth did _one word_ of Emily Dickinson’s poetry come from?” Not to mention the women who were novelists as well as poets before 1930...what education did most of them have, not to mention the dearth of solitary experience in the world??

I'm getting into American transcendentalism

I want to know more about great fire of 1835 burning over 600 newspaper building demolishing publications industry

Wonderful!

Did you know: Emerson encouraged Whitman to shorten his name from Walter Whitman ending the unlovely two iambic feet becoming the melodious amphamacer walt WHIT man, adding "I great you at the beginning of a great career."

Oh the irony. I've literally just written about the poisoning of 'weeds', which are, in fact healing medicine. Fertiliser which poisond the water and soil. All the beauty that our Creator gave to us without cost, has been monetised. I could go on, but if there's any consciousness out there this should be enough to alert.

Yesterday's smoke in the past it's ashes, The afternoons sunshine after nature crashes, Our skies tears purify and nourishes all around, The rain of today drops from the parliaments without a sound, The scent of tomorrow's aren't sensed today, In a moment the past present and future coexists in a thought I say, As we all grow in more than an instant, The distance from here and there is not so distant, Nothing in the universe is stagnant said the soul to a tongue, Boundless flow like water existence cant be absorbed by a sponge, The art of words can be misinterpreted by difference, Imagine hUmaNITY United to acknowledge the indifference, The diversity that's diversified in New York City, A culture a way of living from boro 2 boro DIVERcity,

My gosh. I am home. He is! as I am, as we are. 6/17/2022

Thank you

He was enlightened or he had had very profound glimpses.The same is true for Henry David Thoreau and to a lesser degree for John Muir.

wow! how glad am i ? to of discovered this gem. thank

“First great poet”? It is more accurate to describe him as the greatest artist ever produced in the Americas, North and South. His peers are Milton, Blake and Tennyson in England, Victor Hugo in France. Only Shakespeare stands above all.

I lived on Long Island, E. Northport 😊 63 Soundview Ave, in the 1980's

Great post ❤

His optimism is the result of 'small population' [less than 1 billion] - such attitude would not be possible with 8 billion humans!!!

56:19 Whitman is spot on. The content of our consciousness is not divided in order of our class, politics reeligion and so on and so on. The common denomominator in us all is humanity. Humanity suffers, violence, loneliness, fear of hell on earth and some say there is more in a place called heaven. When our mind is healthy the magnitude may differ due to what images one has created for themselves about themselves and their world at large. Lets say king. A king experiiences all the above and so does the homeless fella down the road. The magnitude may differ for the king because he has the power to excecute certain commands to temporarily reduce his suffering psychologically as compared to the fella down the road whose troubles are on his face and exagerated by luck of power but if they were to drop dead at the same time, all is psychologically finished for both of them but the human conscience stays the same as the contents dont shift. Pain, fear, death, disease, suffering. Believe you me i am poor and work for the so called wealthy but they are the disctiption of suffering. Money covers it up well for the observer but the reality is, the observer is the observed. Jiddu Krishnamurti.

A nice movie called "With Honors" features these Whitman phrases...Joe Pesci stars.

Pure awesome. A mystic poet perhaps comparable to Rumi. After you see the second part of this series, you realize that Walt Whitman was an exemplar of man, even among excellent men.

Maltese Crimea By Pius II From The Photograph Of Walt Whitman

Great effort!

Not Apart, was what I was writing.

Those eyes at 44:11 are piercing as though he can see you. If this photo is from the period of his mystical experience then this showed in his eyes.

52:09 Jiddu Krishnamurti.

Anybody check under his tombstone?

Nice. I wish they would do away with the musical accompaniment while Whitman's poetry is being read. It isn't needed and just gets in the way.

Thanksalot

Those kids he taught needed to be punished until they learned some respect. That first newspaper looks like it needed more lithographs. Omnibus drivers were the first beatniks.

I could be you . W.W.

🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹❤️❤️❤️

The 19th critical reader,censoring women's limits in place, what is possible to think of, (despite the Empress Victoria in England as one curious about new things,) begins to open this generation to the new concept of Destiny.

3:44 - 4:18 noteworthy

Walt was so woke. I think we would have gotten along well.

Too bad..good story. Bad music!!

❤a= 32:32

🎶🤖📜 AI-Generated Melody Inspired by Whitman’s 'O Captain! My Captain! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ERCQXYG6-20.html

"There is never more Heaven than there is now" > the eternal now > RUBBISH! Transfiguration into Christ's gods is far above.

For me Walt W. is not a poet. He writes sentences. Boring sentences...without inspiration for me.

Whitman like his contemporary Thoreau were deemed lazy because they didn't buy into the Puritan ethics.

My favorite poem Walt Whitman wrote is A Child Goes Forth. I read it at my sons funeral in Florida 25 yrs ago.

‘Tis a pity that knowledge and wisdom are so frequently thought of as one and the same.

Could we with ink the ocean fill And were the skies of parchment made; Were every stalk on earth a quill, And every man a scribe by trade; To write the love of God above Would drain the ocean dry; Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Though stretched from sky to sky.

this documentary is extraordinary. thanks for this. its encouraging to hear whitmans humble background, his inclination to loaf and enjoy nature, and his constant reaffirmation of the human soul.

I'm from northern England in the lakes and I adore Whitmans wonderful beautiful poems he was a great writer

A true free spirit who took off his hat to nobody. "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" will break your heart in 100 pieces.

GOOD FOR HIM for anonymously reviewing his own book. Love it.

When we realize that each of us is A Part of Nature, no Apart from Nature, then The Universal Mind becomes open on to You.

The highlights for me were: 18:36 One of the papers Walt wrote for was the Broadway Journal. One afternoon in 1845, he strolled into its offices to talk with its editor an owner who was none other than Edgar Allan Poe. 20:48 Emerson 32:50 For Whitman, the days after his newspaper failed in 1849, were days of preparation - "the gathering of the forces," as he later called it. Making up for a scant education, he read voraciously on religion, history and science. He kept a notebook to record observations and insights. He was "simmering", as he liked to say, forging the raw materials into what would be a new kind of poetry. 43:34 Dr. Richard Maurice Buck was a close friend of Whitman's during the poet's later years. Buck wrote one of the earliest biographies on Walt Whitman and served as co-executor of his literary estate. Buck believed that in June of 1853 or 1854, when Whitman was around 35 years old, he had a cosmic and transcendent experience that played a role in infusing his poetry with a profound spiritual wisdom. Buck describes this belief in his book, "Cosmic Consciousness," in which he profiles Whitman and others throughout history who had spontaneous transcendent experiences that deeply changed them and their work, offering them a glimpse into the immortality of all things. Buck himself was no stranger to such a mystical experience. He reports that in 1872 he experienced a transcendent vision after reading Leaves of Grass and other poetry. While Whitman never spoke publicly about a profound mystical experience there are hints throughout his notebooks from the 1850s, while he was writing leaves of grass: "I am in a mystic trance exhortation something wild and untamed half-savage. He later wrote about being in a trance, yet with all senses alert with the objective world suspended or surmounted for a while and the powers in exultation freedom vision. 48:30 "I believe in you my soul the other I am must not abase itself to you and you must not be abased to the other - my mind. (How we lay in June such a transparent summer morning you've settled your head a thought my hips and gently turned over upon me and parted the shirt from my bosom bone and plunged your tongue to my bare stripped heart and reached till you felt my beard and reached till you held my feet swiftly arose and spread around the peace and joy and knowledge that pass all the art and argument of the earth) and I know that the hand of God is the elder hand of my own and I know that the Spirit of God is the eldest brother of my own and that all the men ever born are also my brothers and the women my sisters." 53:53 In "Song of Myself", Whitman distinguishes between one's personality and the larger self - the deeper self - is of the same essence as the universal Spirit and that true knowledge is acquired not through the senses or an intellect but through union - union with this self. 1:08:00 Whitman sent a copy of the book to Ralph Waldo Emerson the most widely respected American essayist whose lecture on poetry years before greatly inspired Whitman. Emerson sent him a glowing letter: "Dear sir I am NOT blind to the worth of the wonderful gift of Leaves of Grass. I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed. I find incomparable things said incomparably well. I greet you at the beginning of such a great career which, yet, must have had a long foreground somewhere for such a start." 1:13:55 Whitman sent a copy of the second vision to the writer Henry David Thoreau who had published Walden two years before. Thoreau returned the gesture by visiting Whitman in November 1856 along with fellow Concord resident, Bronson Alcott. Thoreau and Whitman got along very well and Thoreau was a great admirer of Leaves of Grass. 1:23:24 Emerson visited Whitman and the two strolled for hours in Boston's main public park. Emerson advised Whitman that some of his poetry would shock readers. If the books were to sell Walt needed to remove or expurgate the offending lines but Walt refused.

This two-part Whitman documentary is my favorite on the poet. I watch it about once a year. The music of Holst and others is entirely appropriate to the tone of WW's poetry.

Interesting that none of the comments mention that Whitman was writing homoerotic prose

I love Walt Whitman. 🕊

When lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed.

Terrific documentary. Thank you. Maybe some omissions. Although all-loving, he did seem to make an exception for the Irish. Same goes for Emerson and Thoreau, it seems. We constitute a bit of a challenge, apparently!

Best of luck on that Poe inspired Kickstarter project. I only pray you avoid making the same huge error the producers made with that recent Cusack film disaster, where instead of the classic Poe mustache, they allowed him to wear a stupid-looking goatee throughout most of the thing. Yuck!?

Thank you, excellent doc.

beautiful.