Whitman: Poems

by Walt Whitman

The major male poet of nineteenth-century America (his female counterpart is Emily Dickinson), Whitman is the poet of grand passions great open spaces, lofty mourning and male love. Written in free metres, his verse ranges across every kind of subject in a characteristically exalted mood. This volume includes a wide selection from every period of Whitman's creative career, including many poems from the celebrated LEAVES OF GRASS.

Genres: Poetry, Classics

252 pages, Hardcover

Published October 20, 1994

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

[Carolyn Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book in a shipboard library and enjoyed reading classic poetry at sea. There are so many 19th century poets who were inspired by nature so I found it interesting that Whitman was drawn to cities and crowd - Crossing Brooklyn Ferry brings the hustle and bustle of 19th century New York to life. There are also numerous poems inspired by Whitman's experiences during the American Civil War.

[lydia · Rating 2 out of 5]

the smallest sprout shows there is really no death,
and if ever there was it led forward life, and does not
wait at the end to arrest it,
and ceas’d the moment life appear’d.

All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses,
and to die is different from what any one supposed,
and luckier.

[Assia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whoever you are holding me in hand is stuck in my head because I keep reading it over and over ....and over again.

[maya · Rating 4 out of 5]

before i read the song of myself i was like "what could be serious enough that it needs a 52 section poem to explain it?" but now i kind of get it. he was so right