Stébla trávy

by Walt Whitman

Nový výbor z jediné, ale rozsáhlé Whitmanovy sbírky (396 básní), kterou autor postupně vydal v sedmi edicích, přičemž do každé z nich byly přidány další nové básně.
Básně v tomto výboru byly přeloženy z Complete Poetry & Selected Prose and Letters.

Genres: Poetry

176 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2016

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

[Áďa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Asi se ke mně knížka dostala ve špatný čas i věk. Trochu mě to mrzí, protože jsem předpokládala, že když už je na seznamu povinné četby, že bude stát za to si jí přečíst. Očividně ne.
Ale i přes neporozumění většině textů, mě jeden oslovil a ten byl ze sbírky Co vyplavilo moře. Ten jediný se mi opravdu líbil a mohla jsem nad ním přemýšlet.
Možná, kdybych knížku četla, až budu o něco starší, třeba bych jí rozuměla víc,a třeba by se mě i více dotkla. A třeba taky ne.

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had been reading this book since 2017. That's goddamn crazy. It took me so long but what do you expect; poetry, after all, must be the enjoyed and read slowly. Carefully. Lovingly. And I did just that with Walt Whitman. I liked quite a few poems. And if not poems, then verses hidden inside of poems I though I don't really like much at all. Undeniably, this feels like a book meant to be read during summer. Now, I'm sitting on my bed, book beside me, a fan in front of me, making the hot weather more bearable.
So, though there were poems I found quite boring and one's that didn't make me feel an ounce of emotion, there definitely were verses that got to me. They got me good. I consider writing a few of them on my bedroom wall. And I'll definitely write some verses into my "art book".
Walt Whitman is a good poet.

[Kati · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jedná se v podstatě jenom o několik dlouhých (jednu super dlouhou) básní, jejichž styl mě dvakrát neoslovil. Byly tam některé věci, které se mi líbily a které jsem si poznamenala nebo vyhledala v originále, ale celkově mi Whitmanovy verše připadají takové, no, navršené na sobě, dál a dál a dál až v konečném důsledku zapomenete pointu, o co básníkovi vlastně šlo.

Část, která se mi líbila nejvíc, je nejlepší v originále:

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

[Zuzana Špuntová · Rating 5 out of 5]

Budem s tebou zaobchádzať nežne, kučeravá tráva, možno vyrastáš z hrude mladých mužov.

[Lena · Rating 5 out of 5]

všichni by si měli sednout a poslouchat a místo toho se hlučí a dělaj nepravosti

[Jana P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jsem z této sbírky rozpačitá. Ale to se mi u poezie stává často, takže žádná novinka. Nakonec dávám 3 hvězdy, průměrné hodnocení. Některé myšlenky mi zde připadaly zajímavé, ty jsem si v knize označila, že se k nim chci ještě někdy v budoucnu vrátit a více nad nimi přemýšlet. Ale pak tam byly pasáže, které ke mně vůbec nepromlouvaly, nic mi neříkaly a nudily mne. Něčemu jsem ani nerozuměla, nechápala. Ale kdo ví, třeba za nějakou dobu - až budu starší (a moudřejší??), tak možná pochopím.

[Jana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Škoda, že jsem nevěděla méně o životě autora, nebyla jsem schopna vidět v díle opravdovou poetiku.