Poetry in Free Verse: The Tradition of Walt Whitman in Contemporary American and Slovenian Poetry

Abstract

The development of Slovenian poetry after 1950 can be understood as a process of prosaisation and aesthetic inversion, and the writing of poetry in free verse as poetry in prose. Since many literary historians attribute the invention of free verse to Walt Whitman, the paper strives to research on what creative principles the American poet has founded his collection Leaves of Grass. Many contemporary American poets consider themselves to be Whitman’s successors, and the paper explores how the beatnik Lawrence Ferlinghetti understands this notion. In the first half of the twentieth century, Walt Whitman has influenced Oton Župančič and Anton Podbevšek, and in the second half until today, directly through the translations of his poetry in Slovenian language and indirectly through beat poets, many contemporary Slovenian authors. That is why, considering also other influences, the development of free verse in Slovenia can be partly perceived as the continuation of Whitman’s tradition. The paper examines the creative solutions found by Andrej Brvar, Esad Babačić, and Uroš Zupan.