Creating Winning Walt Whitman Essay Topics For College Students

If you are studying English literature then you may well need to write an essay based on Walt Whitman. If this is the case and you are stuck for ideas of what topics to actually base your essay on then the following should help you to make your mind up.

Decide whether to write about Walt Whitman or his body of work

When writing an essay about Walt Whitman you have the option of either writing about any of his poetry and written work or, alternatively, you may decide to write about him as a person. Equally, you may decide to examine what has happened in his life that may have influenced the way that he wrote about the world, in which case you would be combining topics both about him and his body of work.

Scan through past papers for topic and content ideas

If you have read much of the work of Walt Whitman then you may well have some topics in mind; however, to give you some further inspiration, you may decide to look at what has been written about him in the past. For example, you can scan through the multitude of past papers that are available online. It is worth noting that some of the papers may be available for free, whilst you may be required to pay for others.

Before you take a look at past papers for some extra topic ideas, you may wish to consider the possibility of using some of the topics that have been listed below.

• How does Walt Whitman approach the theme of immortality in his works?
• How does Walt Whitman use less conventional structures of poetry in his works?
• What role does Walt Whitman believe that poetry has in society?
• How does Walt Whitman incorporate the theme of nature into his poetry?
• How are cities and urban landscapes used as a theme in the works of Walt Whitman?
• Examine the concept of the soul in relation to the body in Walt Whitman’s writing
• Both homosexual and heterosexual eroticism feature in the works of Walt Whitman – how does his approach to both themes differ?
• What role has Walt Whitman had in shaping American poetry
• Walt Whitman wanted to demonstrate that his poetry is of a truly American style – does he achieve this, and how?
• Analyse Walt Whitman’s use of the human body in his poetry