Realism and Modernism

Walt Whitman's writings were in a very unique writing style because it was custom to Whitman himself.  To be completely honest I have never heard Mr. Langley call Whitman and Dickinson "the tweeners", but it would make sense because the two of them wrote in between two major writing style time periods.  These two are Realism and Modernism.  Realism writing was when an author would look at something or take something and write about how it is and not what it had potential to be in the future.  On the other hand, Modernism was about what was going on in the world at that moment and talked about different things during that time.

Obviously Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson were very achieved and popular writers of the best of both periods since they were considered the "tweeners" and wrote inbetween the two writing periods.  A good example of this style, written by Walt Whitman, was "Calvary Crossing a Ford" (Whitman).  This poem talks about an army during a war and how it reacts when it comes across a river or a ford it has to pass.  The story has the war effect that is found common in Realism writings and speaks of what is going on at that time which is found common in Modernism writings (Whitman). To be honest it feels weird having to write about a different author and its hard going back to what we did.  I also have found it difficult writing 500 words because I am so use to the normal 325.  I almost started out this sentence with "Emerson and Thoreau were blah blah blah blah blah",  but then stopped myself remembering we aren't talking about them anymore.  To go back to the explanations of Realism and Modernism, a good example of Realism would be a savings bond.  In order for you to collect the amount that it is for you must wait a long period of time, but if you want the money right now you can cash it in and get it for what its worth at the time.  An example for Modernism writing is stories that come out about something that just recently happened in our history because this would mean that the author was focusing on things that were happening as he wrote the book, story, or poem.  Other than that, I cannot really think of any other good example of Modernism writing like I came up with for Realism.  I like learning about all of these different authors, but I sometimes feel that I am not learning that much and am just continuing to repeat myself and write the things that I already know and have said in all of my other blogs.  All in all, I think this writing style if it could be given a name, was interesting because it included two separate styles mixed together into one.  It had the best of both worlds (no Miley Cirus relation intended).

Whitman, Walt. "Calvary Crossing a Ford." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 533 . Print.


Bauerlein, Mark. "Whitman's Language of the Self." American Imago 44, no. 2 (Summer 1987). Quoted as "Whitman's Language of the Self" in Bloom, Harold, ed. Song of Myself, Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2002. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts on File, Inc. (accessed 21 March 2012)