In 1926, Louise Pound called Walt Whitman's use of foreign languages in his poetry its" most striking feature," classifying his use of French into such categories as political words, military words, musical words, parlor language, literary words, and common expressions. Pound also notes the odd fact that Whitman" nowhere gives reasons for his conspicuous reliance" upon French but speculates that his time in New Orleans and his admiration of French republicanism must have inspired the French in his poetry. l Pound admits, though, that Whitman tends to use French words" for their own sake," sometimes erroneously, sometimes manipulatively. 2 Gay Wilson Allen enlarges upon this criticism: