Poetry is an odd art. It's the only medium I've ever heard someone dismiss outright. Nobody ever says, "I don't like paintings" and there is often at least one caveat to the statement "I don't like music", i.e. "I mean pop music" or "I just mean rock, really". Yet there are many people who have no qualms about saying, "I don't like poetry". My approach to this sentiment is similar to my understanding of different kinds of food. If you say you don't like something, then you probably just haven't had the right kind in your diet.

It doesn't help that most people get their first and last exposure to poetry in an academic setting. Aside from the inherent discomfort of being given something as a requirement instead of as a choice, poetry suffers from too much deconstruction and repetition. While pursuing my English degree I had "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" shoved in my face so many times that I swore off T.S. Eliot for years.

The Internet provides a wonderful opportunity for self-guided education, so I thought a literary blog would be an excellent place to invite others into the world of poetry. Every week I'll feature one poet, giving an introductory guide to their work and commenting on their importance to the art.

In the 20th century, the United States had a particularly powerful poetic presence (literary term of the day: alliteration) in the world. For the first time in history, English-language literature had a dominant force outside of Britain and often free of British influence. But the seed of American poetry, in style and in spirit, came from the free-form exuberance of America's greatest 19th century poet- Walt Whitman.

Born in 1819, Walt Whitman is best known for his long, multi-part poem "Song of Myself" which takes up the majority of his collection Leaves of Grass. Whitman wasn't particularly prolific in terms of poetry, but the little he left behind served to inspire generations of poets after him. "Song of Myself" is a sweeping series of proclamations and intimate vignettes in which Whitman addresses the reader directly, occasionally stepping back to empathize with individuals outside himself, even adopting a female perspective in one instance. The poem was controversial in its time (and long after) because of its overt sexuality, especially those parts that can be read as having homosexual themes.

Whitman was undoubtedly ahead of his time, both in mindset and in literary theory. By the middle of the 20th century, free verse became practically the only poetic structure taken seriously in literary circles. It took a good century after Whitman's death for solid form to regain any academic steam, and even then the more technical structures of verse had only small pockets of professors and poets supporting them. Thanks in no small part to the energy and excellence of Walt Whitman, American poetry is free verse.

I wanted to start this column with Whitman because he will be a point of reference several times in future features. I will certainly expand the column to cover non-American poets and even non-English-language poets, though. I hope you readers join me in this endeavor and come to enjoy poetry for the beautiful art that it is.