Orientation

Abandoning the conventions of regularity in form and style so popular in American poetry of the mid-nineteenth century, Whitman adopted the cadences of music, crafting the organic and fluid features of open lines, expansive catalogs, the lyrical flow of imaginary flights, and ecstatic explosions of themes--all features of his "free verse," a style complementary to Whitman's purpose of capturing the spiritual energy of the ever evolving and unfolding American democracy.