Whitman: The Mystic Poets

by Walt Whitman, Gary David Comstock (Preface)

Discover How Whitmans Spiritual Life and Vision Can Enlighten Your Own Whitmans collected poems and prose are not an object or icon to be gazed upon or revered but a transparency we look through to see ourselves with greater clarity, excitement, and meaning. They wake us up to our potential, to learning about and from ourselves. To experience his writing is to experience ourselves more deeply.
from the Preface by Gary David Comstock Walt Whitman was the most innovative and influential poet of the nineteenth century. The self-proclaimed American Bard, Whitman challenged his contemporaries to resist conforming to society and shocked them with his embrace of the sensual. But beneath his manifesto for social revolution lies a vigorous call for spiritual revolution as well. This beautiful sampling of Whitmans most important poetry from Leaves of Grass , and selections from his prose writings, offers a glimpse into the spiritual side of his most radical themeslove for country, love for others, and love of Self. Whitman seeks to tear down the belief that the spiritual resides only in the religious and embraces the idea that nothing is more divine than humankind, nothing greater than the individual soul. Rich with passion, reverence, and wonder, this unique collection offers insight into Whitmans quest for self-discovery, which involved an ongoing mystical experience of the world. Though seemingly personal, his verse speaks to universal harmony and universal love, optimism and joy, and celebrates the outwardly mundane details of life through words electrified with love and spirit.

192 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2004

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

[Jonathan Bracker · Rating 5 out of 5]

As far as I know, this is the only selection of Whitman's poems that does what I have always thought should be done: it gives sections of "Song of Myself" as separate poems, giving each a simple title taken from Whitman's words in the poem itself. I only wish the editor, Gary David Comstock, had done the same with each of the 52 sections of Whitman's long poem -- making it reader-friendly for the first time.

(Whitman himself said he welcomed, in years to come after his death, editors who would "tinker" with Leaves Of Grass in any way that would make its message clearer.)

[Grady Ormsby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whitman: The Mystic Poets with preface by Gary David Comstock is part of The Mystic Poets Series from Skylight Path Publishing. To say that Walt Whitman was ahead of his time is not sufficient. Walt Whitman was, and still is, out of time. His work ranges from the vastness of the cosmos to the infinitesimal tininess of the atomic. He touches on almost every conceivable theme: humanity, nature, creativity and beauty. He examines all of our emotions and passions: hope, fear, pain, suffering, joy, love, compassion, ecstasy, pride, greed and kindness. He explores every physical endeavor: history, politics, exploration, work and war. In his work there is a passion for justice, equality and tolerance. The creative spirit is also a subject for his consideration: music, dancing, art and literature. In its totality Whitman’s work qualifies as a religion. There is food for the soul, solace for pain and loneliness, a guide for right living and a recipe for joy and happiness. He kindly skips the dogma, the sin, the guilt and pomposity.
June 22, 2016