Walt Whitman and the French Impressionists: A Study of Analogies

Examines Wylie Sypher's suggestion that the closest literary equivalent of French Impressionist painting may be Walt Whitman's poetry. Examines the interrelationship of the theoretical concepts of Realism and Impressionism and their roots in Romanticism. Formulates five major concepts that embody Impressionistic theory and technique in painting and applies these analytic criteria, amended to the different medium, to Whitman's poetic technique.