Page 98 - poesia y vino

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LEAVES OF GRASS (fragment)

All songs of current lands come sounding round me,
The German airs of friendship, wine and love,
Irish ballads, merry jigs and dances, English warbles,
Chansons of France, Scotch tunes, and o'er the rest,

Italia's peerless compositions.

Gran poeta estadounidense. Great poet from the USA.
Nació en 1819 cerca de Nueva York de familia modesta. Walt Whitman was born near New York, 1819, into a
Asistió a la escuela pública seis años. humble family.
Tras ejercer varios oficios, periodista y editor, entre He attended a state school for six years.
otros, en 1855 publicó la primera de las innumerables He had several jobs, journalist and editor among others.
ediciones de Hojas de hierba, su obra maestra. In 1855, Whitman published the first edition of Leaves
En la guerra de Secesión enfermó, y cansado, en 1873 of Grass, his masterpiece.
se retiró a Camden, Nueva Jersey, lugar en que murió He fell ill during the American Civil War and tired, in
en marzo de 1892. 1873 he withdrew to Candem, New Jersey, where he
Creador de una nueva forma de versificación, de versos died in March 1892.
amplios similares a los salmos bíblicos. Su obra, que Walt Whitman was the creator of a new way of versification,
canta a la libertad y a los sentidos, ha tenido gran long verses similar to biblical psalms. His work, which
96 influencia sobre la poesía moderna. sings to freedom, and to the senses, has had a great
influence on modern poetry.
Otras obras de Whitman son: Paso hacia la India y en
prosa, Perspectivas democráticas y Días ejemplares… Step to India, Democratic Perspectives and Exemplary
Days are some of his works.