Specimen Days (Masterplots, Definitive Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Walt Whitman
- First Published: 1882
- Type of Work: Autobiographical essay
- Genres: Nonfiction, Autobiography, Essays
- Subjects: United States or Americans, Nineteenth century, Poetry or poets, Washington, D.C., Civil War, War, Nursing or nurses, Romanticism, Hospitals
Critical Evaluation:
For the most part, SPECIMEN DAYS lacks the somewhat rambling style of DEMOCRATIC VISTAS. For this reason it is easier to read than most of Whitman’s prose. Composed primarily of a loosely kept diary, the work is a series of the poet’s observations about his youth, the war years, and the last period of his life spent in Camden, New Jersey. Aside from containing some of the few examples of Whitman’s beliefs stated clearly and laconically, it is also a worthy historical account of one facet of the war years, with occasional portraits of...
[The entire page is 1571 words long]
