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The Collected Complete Works of Walt Whitman
Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works.
Collection of 7 works of Walt Whitman
________________________________________
Complete Prose Works of Walt Whitman
Drum Taps
Poems by Walt Whitman
Leaves of Grass
The Letters of Anne Gilchrist and Walt Whitman
The Patriotic Poems of Walt Whitman
The Wound Dresser
Collection of 7 works of Walt Whitman
________________________________________
Complete Prose Works of Walt Whitman
Drum Taps
Poems by Walt Whitman
Leaves of Grass
The Letters of Anne Gilchrist and Walt Whitman
The Patriotic Poems of Walt Whitman
The Wound Dresser
1255 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1995
879 people are currently reading
1253 people want to read
About the author
Walt Whitman
1,787 books5,405 followersWalter 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."
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."
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
January 21, 2016
Encouraging, Fascinating & Gritty! A Treasure To Read! I Loved It!
September 1, 2016
In 1855, after reading “Leaves of Grass”, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote a letter to the promising young author of the book. In the letter, Emerson wrote, “I greet you at the beginning of a great career,” and went on to write more compliments and words of encouragement to the young writer. The young writer was, of course, Walt Whitman. And he did go on to have a great career, every bit of which is painstakingly compiled in “The Complete Walt Whitman”. Containing all of his poetry from the popular ‘Leaves of Grass’ and ‘Drum Taps’ as well as compilations of his war poems, important prose writings, and correspondence with Anne Gilchrist, “The Complete Walt Whitman” is the perfect book for students or fans of his work. Logically organized, and nicely formatted, “The Complete Walt Whitman,” is easy to read and reference.
November 4, 2024
Out of this collection, "Oh Captain! My Captain!" is easily my favorite poem. The coexistence of both loss and respect evoked a lot of emotions for me as I am very sentimental. I also can’t get enough of Walt Whitman’s imagery in "Leaves of Grass." The way he paints pictures with words is just amazing and makes you think about life and America in a new light. Every time I read it, I find something new that inspires me.
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September 10, 2015Are you the new person drawn toward me?
To begin with, take warning, I am surely far different from what you suppose;
Do you suppose you will find in me your ideal?
Do you think it so easy to have me become your lover?
Do you think the friendship of me would be unalloy’d satisfaction?
Do you think I am trusty and faithful?
Do you see no further than this façade, this smooth and tolerant manner of me?
Do you suppose yourself advancing on real ground toward a real heroic man?
Have you no thought, O dreamer, that it may be all maya, illusion?
To begin with, take warning, I am surely far different from what you suppose;
Do you suppose you will find in me your ideal?
Do you think it so easy to have me become your lover?
Do you think the friendship of me would be unalloy’d satisfaction?
Do you think I am trusty and faithful?
Do you see no further than this façade, this smooth and tolerant manner of me?
Do you suppose yourself advancing on real ground toward a real heroic man?
Have you no thought, O dreamer, that it may be all maya, illusion?
February 28, 2021
Here I'm talking only about "Drum Taps" and the Lincoln Poems.
And I was using the Library of America edition
I wanted to reread Whitman's Civil War poems while Melville's were still fairly fresh in my mind. And what an incredible difference! Of course, it is the difference between these two very different writers, very different personalities. And then there is the simple fact that Whitman was a poet dedicated to it, while Melville was an extraordinary novelist kind of slumming in verse. The only possible overlap in technique and perception would be Whitman's "O Captain, My Captain," which is probably the least poem in this collection. Maybe in all of Whitman. But it strives toward a kind of public monumentalism that Melville's poems were trying for.
And then there is the important distinction that Melville -- mostly -- stayed home in rural Massachusetts and read the papers. Whitman went down to DC and took care of sick and dying soldiers for a year. He learned what they had seen and something of what they were going through.
I have nourished the wounded and sooth'd many a dying soldier,
And at intervals waiting or in the midst of camp,
Composed these songs.
So technique and personality combine with experience to make the Whitman poems live on the page. When he laments, I lament. I am even moved to tears. And, yes, he can be tedious from time to time in his hymns to American exceptionalism and in his endless repetitions, but by and large there are few of them in these poems. In a vivid poem like "Cavalry Crossing a Ford," which has appeared over the years in anthologies of Imagist Poetry, he doesn't feel the need to comment at all. He simply presents the horses and soldiers crossing the river. It feels like the experience itself, when I read it with my senses alive.
And I was using the Library of America edition
I wanted to reread Whitman's Civil War poems while Melville's were still fairly fresh in my mind. And what an incredible difference! Of course, it is the difference between these two very different writers, very different personalities. And then there is the simple fact that Whitman was a poet dedicated to it, while Melville was an extraordinary novelist kind of slumming in verse. The only possible overlap in technique and perception would be Whitman's "O Captain, My Captain," which is probably the least poem in this collection. Maybe in all of Whitman. But it strives toward a kind of public monumentalism that Melville's poems were trying for.
And then there is the important distinction that Melville -- mostly -- stayed home in rural Massachusetts and read the papers. Whitman went down to DC and took care of sick and dying soldiers for a year. He learned what they had seen and something of what they were going through.
I have nourished the wounded and sooth'd many a dying soldier,
And at intervals waiting or in the midst of camp,
Composed these songs.
So technique and personality combine with experience to make the Whitman poems live on the page. When he laments, I lament. I am even moved to tears. And, yes, he can be tedious from time to time in his hymns to American exceptionalism and in his endless repetitions, but by and large there are few of them in these poems. In a vivid poem like "Cavalry Crossing a Ford," which has appeared over the years in anthologies of Imagist Poetry, he doesn't feel the need to comment at all. He simply presents the horses and soldiers crossing the river. It feels like the experience itself, when I read it with my senses alive.
September 9, 2024
When I was 19 I adopted one of the poems from Drum Taps as a sort of private mantra. For how uncertain but how brave it can feel to shake off the restlessness, and wander into the unknown with very little to lose; to move purposefully forward in a fog of war.
“I am more resolute because all have denied me than I could ever have been had all accepted me,
I heed not and have never heeded either experience, cautions,
majorities, nor ridicule,
And the threat of what is call'd hell is little or nothing to me,
And the lure of what is call'd heaven is little or nothing to me;
Dear camerado! I confess I have urged you onward with me, and
still urge you, without the least idea what is our destination,
Or whether we shall be victorious, or utterly quell'd and defeated.”
“I am more resolute because all have denied me than I could ever have been had all accepted me,
I heed not and have never heeded either experience, cautions,
majorities, nor ridicule,
And the threat of what is call'd hell is little or nothing to me,
And the lure of what is call'd heaven is little or nothing to me;
Dear camerado! I confess I have urged you onward with me, and
still urge you, without the least idea what is our destination,
Or whether we shall be victorious, or utterly quell'd and defeated.”
Currently reading
November 12, 2023This other ebook I have switched to and will return to, I recommend (maybe I should apply to join and give my opinion there, I’m not saying anyone reads this)- anyway, the “Albert Roussel Classics/Variorum” Leaves of Grass edition with all 6 (not 2) versions of that book, mislabeled as another Complete Whitman Edition here, should be decoupled; it has at once more- 6 versions of the evolving Leaves of Grass!— but not the Uncollected Poems in the Delphi Edition, and arguably not complete edition enough to both be “Goodreads-isomorphic”…
August 6, 2020
Trying to get through books I have on my bookshelf before I buy new ones. I accidentally ordered this (& in ugly large print) when I was 16 and never got round to reading it. Patriotic, boring mumble. Don’t bother. The language is pretty though so I’ll let him have that .
October 13, 2022
This is a fine collection. I really enjoyed it.
Read
May 15, 2023The Very First Experiments in Verse Libre
December 21, 2023
i cant find the exact version of his collected works i had but what i can say is I was reading his shit and then started seeing clouds that were in the shape of dicks.
April 22, 2024
“I Sing the Body Electric” & “A Noiseless Patient Spider” 🩷🩷🩷
November 22, 2025
I loved it, his writing style is absolutely his own. I cannot and will never compare to this mans way with words.
October 12, 2016
I was very much interested in the wide range of material in this collection. Drum Taps, a collection of poems following his experiences during the Civil War are at times heart breaking. Many of the poems exhibit awe toward the natural world. Some of the essays are funny or offer a look at how some of the classics were viewed during his time. Very easy to read.
January 18, 2017
Never loved him until I read him in my LGBTQ literature course. Through the lens of sexuality, I saw a lot more intricacies than I had when I thought his poems were just about life. Don't overlook the sexual overtones lolllllll
January 20, 2018
Fuhhh this book was long and preachy. There was only like two poems that I liked and I stopped at pg680 out of 779. Walter White is insightful especially in terms of how he analyzes America. From his perspective, of course.
November 3, 2019
What sad, beautiful, exquisite poetry!
Delicious to ponder his words in an airport or on a busy subway. He expands the brain cells and keeps them shiny.
Recommend people read some of this volume. Poetry, when it hits just right, is a profound art form.
Delicious to ponder his words in an airport or on a busy subway. He expands the brain cells and keeps them shiny.
Recommend people read some of this volume. Poetry, when it hits just right, is a profound art form.
November 20, 2014
So wonderful! Whitman was, and still is, a master of words and style. I could read and re-read his poems and thoughts over and over again without ever getting bored.
July 24, 2018
“We were together. I forget the rest.”
June 25, 2019
Informative prospective writing.
September 22, 2020
The master
September 7, 2024
Did my HS Extended Essay on this. Walt is my hero.
April 1, 2022
Energetic and passionate.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews