States themselves are essentially the greatest poem, wrote Whitman in his preface to Song of Myself (Marx 20). The four major cultural developments that occurred during Walt Whitmans lifetimethe development of American dictionaries, the growth of baseball, the evolution of American Indian policy, and the development of photographydefinitely contributed to his poetic style. Through these events, not only did Whitman find his poetic subjects, but he also discovered his poetic tools and techniques....
