Walt Whitman, 1819-1892: He Created a New Kind of Poetry
We celebrate National Poetry Month with poems by one of America’s greatest poets. Transcript of radio broadcast:
11 April 2009
VOICE ONE:
I’m Faith Lapidus.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Walt Whitman, one of America’s greatest poets.
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VOICE ONE:
In the Nineteenth Century, one of America’s greatest writers, Walt Whitman, helped people learn to value poetry. Whitman created a new kind of poetry.
Walt Whitman was born in eighteen nineteen in New York City. During his long life, he watched America grow from a young nation to the strongest industrial power in the world. Whitman was influenced by events around him. But his poetry speaks of the inner self. He celebrated great people like President Abraham Lincoln. He also celebrated common people.
VOICE TWO:
As a young man, Whitman worked as a school teacher, a printer and a newspaper reporter. He was thirty-six years old when he published his first book of poetry in eighteen fifty-five. He called it “Leaves of Grass.” It had only twelve poems. The poems are written in free verse. The lines do not follow any set form. Some lines are short. Some are long. The words at the end of each line do not have a similar sound. They do not rhyme.
Here are some lines from the famous poem “Song of Myself” from “Leaves of Grass.” Whitman writes about grass as a sign of everlasting life.
VOICE THREE:
A copy of A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands;
How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he.
I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven.
Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,
A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropped,
Bearing the owner’s name someway in the corners, that we may see and remark, and say Whose?
…And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves,
Tenderly will I use you curling grass,
It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men…
…It may be you are from old people, or from offspring taken soon out of their mother’s laps.
VOICE ONE:
One of America’s greatest thinkers and writers immediately recognized the importance of “Leaves of Grass.” Ralph Waldo Emerson praised Whitman’s work. But most other poets and writers said nothing or denounced it.
Most readers also rejected Whitman’s poems. The new form of his poetry surprised many people. His praise of the human body and sexual love shocked many people. Whitman was homosexual. He loved men. Some people disliked Whitman’s opinions of society. He rejected the desire for money and power.
Even his own brother told Whitman that he should stop writing poetry. But Whitman had many things to say. And he continued to say them. Readers began to understand that America had a great new poetic voice.
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VOICE ONE:
Walt WhitmanThe American Civil War began in eighteen sixty-one. The southern states had withdrawn from the United States. They wanted to protect their rights against the central government. They especially wanted to continue owning black slaves.
The northern states fought the South to save the Union and free the slaves. Walt Whitman hated slavery because he believed all people are equal. He supported the northern cause.
During the war, Whitman worked for the government in Washington, D.C. He also worked without pay at army hospitals. He helped care for wounded and dying soldiers. He sat beside these men for hours. He brought them food. He wrote letters for them.
Whitman sometimes saw President Abraham Lincoln riding his horse in Washington. President Lincoln was murdered soon after the Civil War ended. Whitman honored him with a poem called “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed.” The poem describes Lincoln as a great spirit and a fallen star. This is how the poem begins:
VOICE THREE:
When lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed,
And the great star early drooped in the western sky in the night,
I mourned, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.
Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring,
Lilac blooming perennial and drooping star in the west,
And thought of him I love.
O powerful western fallen star!
VOICE ONE:
After the Civil War, Whitman worked for government agencies. He watched the United States try to heal itself and increase democracy. To Walt Whitman, democracy was more than a political system or idea. It was the natural form of government for free people. Whitman believed democracy is meant to honor the rights of every person and the equality of all people.
Whitman denounced people who believed they were better than others in the eyes of God. He expressed these ideas in his poem “Song of Myself.”
VOICE THREE:
I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contained,
I stand and look at them long and long.
They do not sweat and whine about their condition,
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,
Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things,
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago,
Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.
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VOICE TWO:
Walt Whitman’s poems praise the United States and its democracy. The poet expressed his love for America and its people in many ways.
This poem is called “I Hear America Singing.” It celebrates the many different kinds of workers doing their jobs to help their country.
VOICE THREE:
I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear;
Those of mechanics—each one singing his, as it should be, blithe and strong;
The carpenter singing his, as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his, as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work;
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat—the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck;
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench—the hatter singing as he stands;
The wood-cutter’s song—the ploughboy’s, on his way in the morning, or at the noon intermission, or at sundown;
The delicious singing of the mother—or of the young wife at work—or of the girl sewing or washing—
Each singing what belongs to him or her, and to none else;
The day what belongs to the day—at night, the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,
Singing, with open mouths, their strong melodious songs.
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VOICE ONE:
Experts today praise “Leaves of Grass” as a major literary work. In his time, Whitman thought of it as a work in progress. He re-published the book every few years for the rest of his life. Each time he added new poems. And he changed many of the old lines. The last version of the book contained more than four hundred poems. By then, Whitman’s fame had spread to many nations.
In eighteen seventy-three, Walt Whitman suffered a stroke. He spent the last years of his life in Camden, New Jersey. He wrote more poems. He also wrote about political and democratic policies.
Whitman was poor and weak during the last years of his life. He died in eighteen ninety-two. But if we can believe his poetry, death held no terrors for him. Listen to these lines from “Song of Myself”:
VOICE THREE:
And as to you Death, and you bitter hug of mortality, it is idle to try to alarm me…
And as to you Corpse I think you are good manure, but that does not offend me…
And as to you Life I reckon you are the leavings of many deaths.
(No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before)…
Do you see O my brothers and sisters?
It is not chaos or death — it is form, union, plan — it is eternal life — it is Happiness…
I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun…
I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.
You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless…
Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you.
VOICE TWO:
Some critics say Walt Whitman was a spokesman for democracy. Others say he was not a spokesman for anything.
Instead, they simply call him a great poet. We leave you now with more words from “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman.
VOICE THREE:
I am the poet of the Body and I am the poet of the Soul, I am the poet of the woman the same as the man.
I celebrate myself.
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VOICE ONE:
Jerilyn Watson wrote this program. Lawan Davis produced it. Our studio engineer was Bill Barber. Steve Ember read the poetry. I’m Faith Lapidus.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another People in America program in VOA Special English.
Jackie Robinson, 1919-1972: The First Black Player in Modern Major League Baseball
He became a national hero to both black and white Americans because of his skill, bravery and restraint. Transcript of radio broadcast:
04 April 2009
ANNOUNCER:
Welcome to PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Today Shirley Griffith and Rich Kleinfeldt tell about a man who changed professional baseball in the United States. Jackie Roosevelt Robinson was the first black man to play in modern major league baseball.
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VOICE ONE:
After World War Two, many Americans still believed that people of different races should not mix.
In some parts of the country, blacks and whites lived in separate areas and went to separate schools. Blacks who tried to change the system risked being beaten or killed.
Blacks were not permitted to play on professional baseball teams or in any other major league sport. No black man had played for a major league baseball team since eighteen eighty-four. In that year, American baseball organizations agreed to bar blacks. That began changing when Jackie Robinson played his first game for New York’s Brooklyn Dodgers on April fifteenth, nineteen forty-seven.
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VOICE TWO:
Jackie Robinson grew up in a family of five children in Pasadena, California, near Los Angeles. His father had left. His mother did not earn much money, so Jackie Robinson learned to make his own way in life. It was in California that Jackie Robinson first learned the ugliness of racial hatred. White families who did not want to live near them repeatedly tried to force them to move away.
Jackie Robinson established himself early as an athlete. He was a star player while attending the University of California at Los Angeles.
Jackie won honors in baseball, basketball, football and track. He was named to the All-American football team. He was considered the best athlete on America’s west coast.
Jackie Robinson left college early because of financial problems. He joined the United States Army in nineteen forty-one, during the Second World War. He became a lieutenant after boxing champion Joe Louis pushed for Robinson to be trained as an officer. However, after three years, Robinson was dismissed from the army because he objected to a racial order. He refused to move to the back of a bus.
VOICE ONE:
In nineteen forty-five, there were not many jobs open to a black man, even someone who had attended college. Robinson wanted to play professional baseball. Blacks, however, were not permitted to play in the major leagues. So, he decided to play with the Negro Baseball League. The Negro League teams were started in the nineteen twenties to give black people a place to play baseball.
Many of the best baseball players in the United States played in the Negro Leagues before white professional teams began accepting black players. The skills and records of black ball players were as good as major league white players. It was a hard life for Negro League players. They took long trips by bus. They changed clothes in farmhouses and shared bath water with teammates.
Many eating places did not serve food to blacks. They had to eat outside or on the road. And they were not permitted to sleep at hotels for whites. Many players slept on the bus.
VOICE TWO:
Jackie Robinson played for the Kansas City Monarchs. It was one of the most famous baseball teams in the Negro League. But, he was unhappy in the Negro League because of the difficult life there. In a statement from the book “The History of Baseball, Nineteen-Oh-Seven,” actor Ossie Davis expresses hope for change in the sport.
OSSIE DAVIS: “Baseball should be taken seriously by the colored player — and in this effort of his great ability will open the avenue in the near future wherein he may walk hand in hand with the opposite race in the greatest of all American games — baseball.”
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VOICE ONE:
In nineteen forty-five, Jackie Robinson signed an agreement with Branch Rickey to play for the Dodgers. Rickey was president of the team. He wanted to find a black player who could deal with the insults and racial pressure he would face in the league.
He wanted a black player who would show restraint at all times. Rickey thought Jackie Robinson was good enough as a player and strong enough as a person to succeed. He made Robinson promise that he would never show his anger on the baseball field. Jackie Robinson accepted that condition. He said:
JACKIE ROBINSON: “I knew that I was going to be somewhat out front and perhaps, I would have to take a lot of abuse. I knew that this was bigger than any one individual and I would have to do whatever I possibly could to control myself.”
VOICE TWO:
Some observers said that Jackie Robinson was not the best player in the Negro Leagues. Others said that he was chosen for his communications skills and educational level and because he was an established sports star.
David Faulkner wrote a book about Robinson’s life. It is called “Great Time Coming: The Life of Jackie Robinson from Baseball to Birmingham.” In it, he talks about the end of racial divisions in baseball.
DAVID FAULKNER: “For many years, there had been an active campaign against segregated baseball led by Negro newspaper editors and, strangely enough, by the Communist party, which from the middle nineteen thirties on, had actively campaigned against segregated baseball. There were a number of pending bills in different legislatures challenging fair employment practices. By nineteen forty-five, there was a lot of heat in a lot of different areas — professional baseball was certainly feeling that. Robinson in a sense was the right person at the right time.”
VOICE ONE:
Shortly after Jackie Robinson signed the agreement with the Dodgers, he married Rachel Isum. They had three children. It was important to Branch Rickey that Jackie Robinson be married. He thought that the public would accept Robinson more quickly if he was married. He thought that it would lessen the fears of white men that white women would find Robinson desirable.
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VOICE TWO:
In nineteen forty-six, Jackie Robinson began playing for the Dodgers’ minor league Canadian team, the Montreal Royals. During that time, Branch Rickey tested Robinson’s ability to deal with racial pressure he would face in the major league.
In nineteen forty-seven, Jackie Robinson became the first black to play modern major league baseball. He played for the Dodger’s major league team, New York’s Brooklyn Dodgers. In doing so, the pressure increased. He received death threats on and off the field. During games, pitchers threw the ball at his head. Several teams threatened not to play against the Dodgers. And, some of his own team members tried to have him banned from the team.
It was not easy for Robinson on road trips, either. He was never permitted to stay at the same hotels or eat in the same places as his white team members.
VOICE ONE:
Jackie Robinson had difficulty on and off the baseball field, but he did not let that interfere with his game. He was a great player and leader, winning the National League’s Most Valuable Player award in nineteen forty-nine. He also led the Brooklyn Dodgers to six league championships and to baseball’s World Series Championship in nineteen fifty-five.
Jackie Robinson helped show that blacks and whites could live, work and play together. He became a national hero to both black and white Americans because of his skill, bravery and restraint. Robinson’s success opened the door for other black athletes to play on all-white professional teams. Soon, other blacks began to appear on major-league teams. By the end of the nineteen fifties, every major league team had black and Hispanic players.
VOICE TWO:
Jackie Robinson retired from baseball in nineteen fifty-six at the age of thirty-seven. He became a businessman, a political activist and a strong supporter of civil rights. In nineteen sixty-two, Jackie Robinson was elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame, an honor given only to baseball’s best players. He died in nineteen seventy-two. He was fifty-three years old.
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ANNOUNCER:
This Special English program was written by Cynthia Kirk. It was produced and directed by Lawan Davis. The announcers were Shirley Griffith and Rich Kleinfeldt.
I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America.
Kay Yow, Betty Jameson: They Changed the World of Sports for Women
They were great athletes in basketball and golf, and they started sports organizations for women. Transcript of radio broadcast:
28 March 2009
VOICE ONE:
I’m Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Faith Lapidus with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today we tell about two women who helped change the world of sports: golfer Betty Jameson and basketball coach Kay Yow. Both women were founders of women’s sports organizations.
VOICE ONE:
Sandra Kay Yow was born in nineteen forty-two in Gibsonville, North Carolina. She developed a love for basketball from her parents, Hilton and Lib Yow. She attended East Carolina University and earned an English degree. She went on to become an English teacher, librarian and girls’ basketball coach at Jay Allen High School in High Point, North Carolina.
In nineteen seventy-one, she began coaching college sports. She became the women’s athletics coordinator and women’s basketball coach at Elon College in North Carolina. Four years later, North Carolina State University hired her as the school’s first full-time women’s basketball coach and athletics coordinator. She also coached women’s volleyball and softball.
Kay Yow had become a very successful basketball coach. In nineteen eighty-one she began coaching women’s national teams. She coached the United States team in the World University Games. The team finished second, winning a silver medal. Five years later she led the United States women’s basketball team in the Goodwill Games and FIBA World Championship. Both teams won first place and received gold medals.
In nineteen eighty-one, Kay Yow, along with others, founded the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association. She also served as president of the group. The WBCA was established to unite coaches at all levels of the game and to develop basketball as a sport for women and girls.
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VOICE TWO:
In nineteen eighty-seven, Kay Yow learned she had breast cancer. She did not let her health problems interfere with her responsibilities as coach and leader.One of her famous expressions was: “When life kicks you, let it kick you forward.” Just ten month after learning she had cancer she coached the United States women’s basketball team to an Olympic gold medal in Seoul, Korea in nineteen eighty-eight.
Kay Yow has been recognized for her service to the game of basketball. She was named to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Hall of Fame among others.
Coach Yow also became well-known for her work in cancer awareness. In two thousand seven she established the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund in partnership with the V Foundation for Cancer Research.The V Foundation was named for Yow’s friend Jimmy Valvano. He was the former coach of North Carolina State University men’s basketball team. He died of cancer in nineteen ninety-three. That same year Yow lost her mother, Lib Yow, to breast cancer.
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VOICE ONE:
Kay Yow died in two thousand nine. She was sixty-six years old. Earlier that month, she had announced that she would not return to coaching that season. She had missed four games because of extreme lack of physical energy.
She had fought sickness from cancer for more than twenty years. Her funeral was held in Cary, North Carolina. Hundreds of people attended, including coaches and athletes from NC State and other teams.
During the ceremony, mourners watched a video message Yow had recorded for the funeral.She thanked them for their support, and she spoke mostly of her strong religious beliefs which helped her through difficult times, including her battle with cancer.
She also read a poem she wrote in nineteen seventy-six called “My Thoughts on Sport.” She talked about the importance of learning about life through sports. She said sports stretched her to her limits and sometimes she wanted to quit. She said winning was more than the score on the board.
VOICE TWO:
Kay Yow touched the hearts and lives of many people. She was known as a great coach, teacher and friend. She expressed love and kindness toward people including strangers. Immediately after her death, Kay Yow was honored at many college basketball games, both women’s and men’s.
The Women’s Basketball Coaches Association gave permission for teams to wear the color pink to honor Coach Yow’s work in educating people about breast cancer.Pink is commonly used by groups that try to raise money to search for a cure for the disease.
People said many kind words about Kay Yow. They remembered her as a woman of great emotional and religious strength. They spoke of how she fought extreme sickness in a brave and graceful way.
Duke University men’s basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski said:“God bless Kay. A fighter to the end.”
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VOICE ONE:
Elizabeth Jameson
Betty Jameson
Betty Jameson was another woman important in the world of sports. In nineteen fifty, she and twelve other women founded the Ladies Professional Golf Association. They were involved in all areas of the sport. They played, organized golf tournaments, established rules for the group and supervised membership.The LPGA gained the attention of many news organizations.They considered Jameson and others to be beautiful women.Photographers liked taking pictures of them and began calling them the “glamour girls.”
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VOICE TWO:
Elizabeth Jameson was born in nineteen nineteen in Norman, Oklahoma. She grew up in Dallas, Texas. She began playing golf at a very young age. She was very good in the sport and won many competitions. In nineteen thirty-two, Betty Jameson won the Texas Publinx competition. She was just thirteen years old.Two years later, she won the Southern Championship.
In both nineteen thirty-nine and nineteen forty, Jameson won the United States Amateur competition. Two years later she won the Western Open for the first of her three major titles. She completed her non-professional career with fourteen major victories.
VOICE ONE:
Betty Jameson began playing professional golf in nineteen forty-five. She won many professional titles, including the United States Women’s Open in nineteen forty-seven. Her score was two hundred ninety-five. She was the first female golfer to score lower than three hundred in a seventy-two hole tournament. Years later, she said it was the best moment of her career.She finished her career in the Ladies Professional Golf Association with thirteen major victories.
That may not seem like many wins compared to women’s golf today. However, during that time golf was considered a sport for men. Women were not treated the same as men in sports. The LPGA fought to change that.The organization was successful in making women’s golf recognized as a serious professional sport.
VOICE TWO:
Betty Jameson was officially accepted into the Hall Fame of Women’s Golf in nineteen fifty-one.She became one of six inaugural members of the LPGA Tour Hall of Fame in nineteen sixty-seven. The LPGA chose to recognize nineteen fifty-one as the date of her acceptance. She was also named to the World Golf Hall of Fame and the Women’s Sport Foundation Hall of Fame.
In two thousand, the LPGA celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. During the ceremony Betty Jameson was recognized as one of the organization’s top fifty players and teachers. Jameson and the twelve other LPGA founders were honored with the Commissioner’s Award. They were recognized for their part in furthering the cause of women’s golf.
Betty Jameson died in two thousand nine. She was eighty-nine years old. In her later years, she was forced to live a simple life because of lack of money. She said the situation caused her to learn through suffering. She said: “Just like in golf, you always learn more when you lose than when you win.”
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VOICE ONE:
This program was written and produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Faith Lapidus. You can learn more about famous Americans and download podcasts of our programs on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.
