Whitman and Neruda as Grassroots Poets Essay -- Poet Poetry Poem Paper

Whitman and Neruda as Grassroots Poets The familial bond between the two poets Walt Whitman and Pablo Neruda points not only to a much-needed tally of the affinity between the two hemispheres, exactly to a deeper need to establish a basis for an American identity roots, as Neruda referred to his fundamental link with Whitman (Nolan 33). two Walt Whitman and Pablo Neruda have been referred to as poets of the people, although it is argued that Neruda with his city and country house, his extensive travels, and his political connections, was never really one of the mass. Nonetheless, his work and energies went into supporting the common working man, and not the elite. By the late 1940s Neruda had openly defined himself as a communist, looking for the equal treatment of all citizens of Peru. Whitman, though not overtly political standardised Neruda, did emphasize the equality between all in his writing. The appellation, poet of the people, is used to indicate their sympathies t owards a commonality in humans, if not the common man. As the experimental condition commoner carries various connotations and needs much explaining, I prefer to discuss the two authors as grassroots poets. Poets of the people and grassroots poets have many similarities, but by using the enclosure grassroots I draw on grassroots theater studies which illuminate certain artistic purposes and themes. Thinking of Whitman and Neruda as grassroots poets can deepen our understanding of their personas and their work, and especially indicate a similarity of purpose between the two poets who employed different structural styles of writing. First and foremost, the term grassroots hinges on a sense of community. It implies a political motivation from the bo... ...nity theatre is to create a dialectic between the present state and coming(prenominal) possibilities of particular communities, moderated by a knowledge of, and an identification with, those communities (Kershaw, 61). With thi s basic understanding of grassroots with in the context of community theater, let us proceed to a comparative study of grassroots sentiments in excerpts from Nerudas The Heights of Macchu Picchu, and Walt Whitmans Song of Myself. Go to analysis Works CitedKershaw, Baz. The Politics of Performance. Radical Theatre as Cultural Intervention. New York Routledge, 1992. Nolan, James. Poet-Chief. The Native American Poetics of Walt Whitman and Pablo Neruda. Albuquerque University of New Mexico Press, 1994. Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass (1855). in Walt Whitman Poetry and Prose. New York The Library of America, 1996.