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Anonymous Posted 11 years ago
Grammar
What does 'poet' mean here?
A book titled "Walt Whitman and the Culture of American Celebrity" has its preface start with the following paragraph:
Long before Walt Whitman wrote Leaves of Grass, poets had addressed themselves to fame. Horace, Petrarch, Shakespeare, Milton, and Keats all hoped that poetic greatness would grant them a kind of earthly immortality. Whitman held a similar faith that for centuries the world would value his poems. But to this ancient desire to live forever on the page, he added a new sense of fame. Readers would not simply attend to the poet's work, they would be attracted to the magnificence
of his personality. They would see in his poems a vibrant cultural performance, an individual springing from the book with tremendous charisma and appeal. Out of the political rallies and electoral parades that marked Jacksonian America, Whitman defined poetic fame in relation to the crowd. Others might court the muses on Mt. Parnassus or imagine themselves in the laureates' sacred grove. Whitman's poet sought the approval of his contemporaries. In the turbulence of American democracy, fame would be contingent on celebrity, on the degree to which the people exulted in the poet and his work.
In the boldfaced sentence, what does "poet" mean? From the context, I can tell it should mean "poetry". So, I was wondering why it's written as "poet" instead. If it's intentional, why?
Thanks in advance.
Long before Walt Whitman wrote Leaves of Grass, poets had addressed themselves to fame. Horace, Petrarch, Shakespeare, Milton, and Keats all hoped that poetic greatness would grant them a kind of earthly immortality. Whitman held a similar faith that for centuries the world would value his poems. But to this ancient desire to live forever on the page, he added a new sense of fame. Readers would not simply attend to the poet's work, they would be attracted to the magnificence
of his personality. They would see in his poems a vibrant cultural performance, an individual springing from the book with tremendous charisma and appeal. Out of the political rallies and electoral parades that marked Jacksonian America, Whitman defined poetic fame in relation to the crowd. Others might court the muses on Mt. Parnassus or imagine themselves in the laureates' sacred grove. Whitman's poet sought the approval of his contemporaries. In the turbulence of American democracy, fame would be contingent on celebrity, on the degree to which the people exulted in the poet and his work.
In the boldfaced sentence, what does "poet" mean? From the context, I can tell it should mean "poetry". So, I was wondering why it's written as "poet" instead. If it's intentional, why?
Thanks in advance.
Top answer
It means: Whitman's definition of a poet, Whitman's concept of a poet, Whitman's idea of what a poet is.
- It means: Whitman's definition of a poet, Whitman's concept of a poet, Whitman's idea of what a poet is.
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6 Answers
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It means:
Whitman's definition of a poet,
Whitman's concept of a poet,
Whitman's idea of what a poet is.
Whitman's definition of a poet,
Whitman's concept of a poet,
Whitman's idea of what a poet is.
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To me, this just seems to be a poetic way of saying "Whitman, the poet (or as a poet), sought....
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teechrIt means:Whitman's definition of a poet,Whitman's concept of a poet, Whitman's idea of what a poet is.If that's what the writer of this preface meant, why do you think he didn't use one of your phrases but had to use 'Whitman's poet' instead?
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IvanhrTo me, this just seems to be a poetic way of saying "Whitman, the poet (or as a poet), sought....When you say it's 'a poetic way', do you mean that it's not natural or even grammatical English when used in a preface for a book? If so, why do you think the author of this preface took such a poetic way?
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Anonymousnatural or even grammatical EnglishIt is grammatical but whenever you resort to using poetic language instead of just plain language, you run the risk of not being understood (by all people).
Since I don't know anything about the autor of that preface, I'll refrain from commenting on his/her choice of the phrase in question.
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IvanhrIt is grammatical but whenever you resort to using poetic language instead of just plain language, you run the risk of not being understood (by all people).I take it that the phrase 'Whitman's poet' is not a terribly common way of putting it.
IvanhrSince I don't know anything about the autor of that preface, I'll refrain from com
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