Marti & Dario

          Walt Whitman’s work served to cast the poet as more than just an artist but “as a fighter and a leader” (Puchner 646). His work changed the way poetry could be written and Latin American poets such as Jose Marti and Ruben Dario soon followed suit in style and purpose with their poetry. Employing imagery from their surroundings and political elements these poets spoke on a more basic and rudimentary level that their audiences could follow.

            Poem 24 of “Song of Myself” serves as a definition of Whitman and his connection to all men. Whitman writes: “Whoever degrades another degrades me, / And whatever is done or said returns at last to me” (7-8). This bold statement serves as a declaration that all men are men and are thus connected. Marti makes a similar declaration in “I Am an Honest Man” when he proclaims, “I come from everywhere / And I am going toward everywhere” (5-6). Casting himself as an element of nature he connects himself to the natural in a spiritual way.

            In his poem “To Roosevelt” Dario makes a personal connection to Whitman and urges President (Theodore) Roosevelt to take cues from the American poet: “The voice that would reach you, Hunter, must speak / in Biblical tones, or in the poetry of Walt Whitman” (1-2). The poem continues to compare Roosevelt to the likes of conquerors and despots throughout history and casts the president in a light that contradicts with Whitman’s view that democracy should serve as a great equalizer:

                        Walt Whitman, a kosmos, of Manhattan, the son

                        Turbulent, fleshy, sensual, eating, drinking and breeding,

                        No sentimentalist, no stander above men and women or apart from them,

                        No more modest than immodest. (1-4)

            The prose style poetry of the Whitman, Marti, and Dario link all men together with not only other men but nature as well. In a return to the basic and rudimentary elements that make us all human, spiritual beings they cast aside what they government had become. Their poetry offer up pleas to what their worlds should be, an interconnection with all men based on spirituality and nature.

Works Cited

Dario, Ruben. “To Roosevelt.” Trans. Lysander Kemp. 1650 To the Present. Ed. Martin Puchner. 3^rd Shorter ed. New York: Norton, 2013. 693-694. Print. Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature. 2 vols.

Marti, Jose. “I Am an Honest Man.” Trans. Aviva Chomsky. 1650 To the Present. Ed. Martin Puchner. 3^rd Shorter ed. New York: Norton, 2013. 681-682. Print. Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature. 2 vols.

Puchner, Martin. “Walt Whitman.” 1650 To the Present. Ed. Puchner. Shorter 3^rd ed. New York: Norton, 2013. 646-648. Print. Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature. 2 vols.

Whitman, Walt. “Song of Myself.” 1650 To the Present. Ed. Martin Puchner. 3^rd Shorter ed. New York: Norton, 2013. 648-653. Print. Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature. 2 vols.