Walt does not belong to this sad and wobegone “school”. If he did, he probably would have graduated from Oxford, Balliol or Magdalene, or Harvard, as Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson did.
Walt’s formal education was kept to a minimum, and if that’s why Walt wrote free verse, so much the better.
There’s a lot to discuss here. Walt didn’t need Oxford, Harvard, or even one of the seven sisters, of which and from Emily Dickenson hailed. Say Harvard has one of the best libraries in the world, and you’re Walt, roaming Mannahatta, without any reading material to speak of… (Okay, there are already tabloids coming out, journalism yellowed with new age)
Walt will read,
Tides swift and ample, well-loved by me, toward sundown,
The flowing sea-currents, the little islands, larger adjoining islands, the heights, the villas,
Walt loves tides swift and ample. Where’d he get that from? Obviously– from good, well-bred genes! So democratic are they, good, well-bred genes.
Spam of Human Affection 
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