Hojas de Hierba

by Walt Whitman

Paperback

About the author

Walter Whitman Jr. was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature. Whitman incorporated both transcendentalism and realism in his writings and is often called the father of free verse. His work was controversial in his time, particularly his 1855 poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described by some as obscene for its overt sensuality.
Whitman was born in Huntington on Long Island, and lived in Brooklyn as a child and through much of his career. At the age of 11, he left formal schooling to go to work. He worked as a journalist, a teacher, and a government clerk. Whitman's major poetry collection, Leaves of Grass, first published in 1855, was financed with his own money and became well known. The work was an attempt to reach out to the common person with an American epic. Whitman continued expanding and revising Leaves of Grass until his death in 1892.
During the American Civil War, he went to Washington, D.C., and worked in hospitals caring for the wounded. His poetry often focused on both loss and healing. On the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, whom Whitman greatly admired, he authored two poems, "O Captain! My Captain!" and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", and gave a series of lectures on Lincoln. After suffering a stroke towards the end of his life, Whitman moved to Camden, New Jersey, where his health further declined. When he died at the age of 72, his funeral was a public event.
Whitman's influence on poetry remains strong. Art historian Mary Berenson wrote, "You cannot really understand America without Walt Whitman, without Leaves of Grass... He has expressed that civilization, 'up to date,' as he would say, and no student of the philosophy of history can do without him." Modernist poet Ezra Pound called Whitman "America's poet... He is America."

Reviews

[Víctor Román · Rating 2 out of 5]

Walt Whitman nos muestra un compendio poético donde se observa una constante sensibilidad por el mundo que le rodea; considera que la comunión del hombre con la naturaleza es importante; que la comunión de hombres con hombres es necesaria para tener una trascendencia como especie.

Para él, no existen diferencias, tanto la maldad como la bondad; la verdad y la mentira; lo tangible y lo intangible son conceptos igualitarios; generar disidencias (imperantes hoy en día) nos vuelven hostiles y frágiles, a constar que cuando se leen sus poemas no deben tomarse literal a la palabra, sino desde una raíz humanista.

Por otra parte, hubo poemas que sugieren un interés homosexual por parte del autor, que seguramente lo condujeron a la polémica.

Resalta al alma, como lo superior a todas las cosas, a la génesis de lo que constituye todo lo existente en el universo; el inicio y el fin; el alma, la que mantiene el orden cósmico, la cual, puede estar sujeta a entropía.

[Valen · Rating 3 out of 5]

hay poemas que me encantaron y otros que no termine de comprender, no sé si es porque lo leí en español y la traducción le sacó sentido, pero sentí que no son de los mejores poemas que leí

[Metzi Rodriguez]

El árbol de la vida/Terrence Malick.