~His family consisted of nine children
~He grew up in Brooklyn and Long Island
~He read a series of things like shakespeare and the bible
~At the age of 17 he worked as a teacher
~Music was the main thing that contributed to his works and life in general
~He had a talent of ear rhythms
~This gave him free, rolling, and quick inspiration for his poems
~He was very fond of classical music
~Mostly all of his habits in music carried on to his poetry
~Whitman's now famous essay is called : Art- Singing and Heart- Singing
~It was written on November 29th 1845 and published in The Boradway Journal
~In 1855 the first edition of Leaves of Grass came out( his most well known writing)
~Whitman was a fan of untutored music, for example folk music
~He preferred everything in music to be as natural as possible
~He insisted America needed to create a new vigorous and free style of music
~When he began listening to European opera, he found a new musical language
~between 1840-50 he became a member of New York City's working press
~During his years in this position he went to see a series of performances all over
~?Whitman believed that all these new styles of music would influence the American tastes
~He passed away March 26th, 1892
~His final poems were published in Good-Bye, My Fancy (1891).
