Walt Whitman’s masterpiece, Leaves of Grass, was profoundly influenced by the Italian opera of his
day. The conception and writing of his poetry owed much to the bel canto operas
of Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti. He idolized divas such as Marietta Alboni,
who he said “roused whirlwinds of feeling in me.” Leaves of Grass contains hundreds of musical terms as well as the
names of composers and performers. The word “song” appears more than 150 times.
n (paraphrased
from an article by Joshua Barone in The
New York Times, 29 September 2017)
My own poetry has also been inspired by music. I grew up
listening to traditional folk ballads and jazz, and both genres have left their mark on my
early poetry (similar to the Beats). The opera too has had an influence on my writing. In college, I began
listening every Saturday to the Metropolitan Opera’s radio broadcasts, and I
suppose the drama of Verdi’s work and the subtle beauty of Puccini’s arias have
in some way inspired the lyrical tendency of my verse. I should also mention that my lyricism was equally, if not more so, inspired by the poetry of Keats and Shelley, which I began reading in high school, as well as Yeats, whom I began reading in college.
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