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The Portable Walt Whitman
When Walt Whitman self-published Leaves of Grass in 1855 it was a slim volume of twelve poems and he was a journalist and poet from Long Island, little-known but full of ambition and poetic fire. To give a new voice to the new nation shaken by civil war, he spent his entire life revising and adding to the work, but his initial act of bravado in answering Ralph Waldo Emerson's call for a national poet has made Whitman the quintessential American writer. This rich cross-section of his work includes poems from throughout Whitman's lifetime as published on his deathbed edition of 1891, short stories, his prefaces to the many editions of Leaves of Grass, and a variety of prose selections, including Democratic Vistas, Specimen Days, and Slang in America.
570 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 1, 1945
85 people are currently reading
1240 people want to read
About the author
Walt Whitman
1,788 books5,407 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 - 30 of 36 reviews
November 15, 2007
I looked and looked for the most fulfilling edition of Walt Whitman, and I believe this is it. Whitman's a tough man to anthologize-- rather than publish multiple books, he just kept revising and republishing Leaves of Grass for his whole life. Figuring out which poems, and which versions to include must have been a tough task. This anthology is a success. A hearty selection from the full breadth of Whitman's work, this book truly fulfills the task set in its title.
I probably shouldn't have to tell you this, but this man's a genius.
I probably shouldn't have to tell you this, but this man's a genius.
August 19, 2010
I've never been a fan of the Transcendentalists, vastly preferring the English Romantics. Obviously the two aren’t mutually exclusive, but early on I found Emerson boring and Whitman weird. Surprisingly, though, this time around the force of so much of his poetry wore me down, and I actually enjoyed reading him. I still find his “look at how liberated and healthy I am to like the scent of armpits better than prayer” (which doesn’t have a scent but whatever) a bit off-putting. However, I find his paratactical style kind of delightful, and I appreciate his effort to show that small, fearful individuals can move toward calm, cosmic understanding and confidence, however little I personally want to commune with the rest of humanity, let alone everything in the universe.
January 14, 2020
My relationship with "The Bard of Democracy" has been complicated, to say the least. You see, Walt Whitman is considered by many to be the epitome of the Transcendentalist movement, or of Romanticism, or of nationalism in general for the United States. To millions of people, he has had a major foothold in the literary canon, and, along with apple pie and Lady Liberty, he is considered one of those patriotic symbols contributing to the age-old sentiment known as "Americana". He is also said to have been an immense advocate of freedom for every walk of life in America during a time when the issue of slavery was beginning to divide the nation, a man who believed that the slave-master was no more free than the slaves he owned. As 20th-century Modernist poet Ezra Pound put it, "[Whitman is] America's poet... he IS America."
However, what many readers do not know about Whitman is that he actually did not see other races in a light as positive as is often claimed. It has been two hundred years since the man was born, and people are beginning to make it well-known that Whitman had in fact harbored certain prejudices against African-Americans, Asians, Hispanics, Native Americans, and sometimes even immigrants in general. He adapted eugenics, the pseudo-scientific belief that some races were superior to others, and very often put these ideas into print. In regard to Native Americans (which he typically referred to as "aborigines" or "savages" instead of the hitherto-commonplace "Indians"), he frequently suggested that white Americans adopt the "savage" and "primitive" characteristics of their culture, while paying little homage to the actual people themselves. While great writers and journalists over the years have hailed him for having had a spectacular vision of America's everlasting democracy and vigorous egalitarianism, the facts about Whitman are beginning to be re-examined, and the unfortunate reality is becoming more and more clear: that he had little to no useful place for non-whites in his vision for America.
If remarks as nasty as these were to be written in our age, then it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for it to pass the social censors governing every aspect of our lives nowadays, if not the actual censors, or for it to remain available for a time greater than a year at most without considerable scrutiny being drawn towards the author. However, I do not believe that these principles alone are sufficient enough to cause those who have taken Whitman and his work to heart to forfeit their interests. As an Asian myself, there is a certain societal expectation going around, that it would only be natural for me to take his racist attitudes against my own kind personally, and shun or avoid all of his writings solely on that basis. After all, notwithstanding any of his unacceptable characteristics, he exerted a major influence on African-Americans such as Langston Hughes, and homosexuals such as Oscar Wilde. Although he might not have been as inclusive as he could have been in terms of whom his idea of the American Dream could apply to, he undoubtedly put painstaking effort in paving the red, white, and blue road for those who sought to finish the work that he had begun. Therefore, it is nevertheless undeniable that he was the American author and poet with one of the most enduring legacies, and the conclusion has been arrived at that he certainly deserves the high and grand location on America's giant bookshelf that he currently occupies.
However, what many readers do not know about Whitman is that he actually did not see other races in a light as positive as is often claimed. It has been two hundred years since the man was born, and people are beginning to make it well-known that Whitman had in fact harbored certain prejudices against African-Americans, Asians, Hispanics, Native Americans, and sometimes even immigrants in general. He adapted eugenics, the pseudo-scientific belief that some races were superior to others, and very often put these ideas into print. In regard to Native Americans (which he typically referred to as "aborigines" or "savages" instead of the hitherto-commonplace "Indians"), he frequently suggested that white Americans adopt the "savage" and "primitive" characteristics of their culture, while paying little homage to the actual people themselves. While great writers and journalists over the years have hailed him for having had a spectacular vision of America's everlasting democracy and vigorous egalitarianism, the facts about Whitman are beginning to be re-examined, and the unfortunate reality is becoming more and more clear: that he had little to no useful place for non-whites in his vision for America.
If remarks as nasty as these were to be written in our age, then it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for it to pass the social censors governing every aspect of our lives nowadays, if not the actual censors, or for it to remain available for a time greater than a year at most without considerable scrutiny being drawn towards the author. However, I do not believe that these principles alone are sufficient enough to cause those who have taken Whitman and his work to heart to forfeit their interests. As an Asian myself, there is a certain societal expectation going around, that it would only be natural for me to take his racist attitudes against my own kind personally, and shun or avoid all of his writings solely on that basis. After all, notwithstanding any of his unacceptable characteristics, he exerted a major influence on African-Americans such as Langston Hughes, and homosexuals such as Oscar Wilde. Although he might not have been as inclusive as he could have been in terms of whom his idea of the American Dream could apply to, he undoubtedly put painstaking effort in paving the red, white, and blue road for those who sought to finish the work that he had begun. Therefore, it is nevertheless undeniable that he was the American author and poet with one of the most enduring legacies, and the conclusion has been arrived at that he certainly deserves the high and grand location on America's giant bookshelf that he currently occupies.
June 19, 2025
WOW. WALT WHITMAN. I love him! He is incredible!! A timeless figure! It absolutely blows my mind that this random white guy during the Civil War so fully believed in equal rights for women, abolition, and was pretty clearly and outspokenly queer. I felt so inspired reading this collection: inspired by his utter love of the world, the connection he felt with all people and all living things, and his profound observations on war and death. It took me forever to finish this book because of the essay on democracy (Democratic Vistas) which was a ~little~ boring, but it ended on a high note with his journal entries from the Civil War, in which he served as a nurse. It absolutely blows my mind that a quarter of a million men died during the war, and that the bulk of these soldiers were 15-22. I've been seeing all these high schoolers walking around campus for the summer programs and it just struck me yesterday, that wow, these are the age of the men who Whitman is writing about. It is so absolutely heartbreaking that for all of human history we have been sending boys out to war, and in places in the war continue to do so today.
Anyway, highly recommend to even the casual enjoyer of poetry.
Anyway, highly recommend to even the casual enjoyer of poetry.
October 27, 2010
Start from the understanding that I love the original "Leaves of Grass". There is an energy and originality and an unbridled joyousness that captivated me when I was in High School and which thrills me still. So the fact that this volume includes those great early poems would elicit praise from me by itself.
But the revelation to me in this volume is "Specimen Days" - especially the entries from Whitman's time during the Civil War. His early training as a journalist and his genius as a poet are combined here to make those moments live and breathe. You will feel like you are in the hospital wards. You will feel like you are on the street as Lincoln rides by. They are stunning and original and unlike anything I've encountered anywhere.
The later poems are here as well - the greats like "When Lilacs..." - and the less great, when his faith in America had been shaken and tattered. And of course, the complete "Democratic Vistas", which I found somewhat rambling and frustrated and confused.
But neither the later poems nor Democratic Vistas should turn you away from this volume - nor, of course, from Whitman. This is a great American voice, and anyone interested in American writing must be familiar with it.
But the revelation to me in this volume is "Specimen Days" - especially the entries from Whitman's time during the Civil War. His early training as a journalist and his genius as a poet are combined here to make those moments live and breathe. You will feel like you are in the hospital wards. You will feel like you are on the street as Lincoln rides by. They are stunning and original and unlike anything I've encountered anywhere.
The later poems are here as well - the greats like "When Lilacs..." - and the less great, when his faith in America had been shaken and tattered. And of course, the complete "Democratic Vistas", which I found somewhat rambling and frustrated and confused.
But neither the later poems nor Democratic Vistas should turn you away from this volume - nor, of course, from Whitman. This is a great American voice, and anyone interested in American writing must be familiar with it.
December 17, 2011
I don't even know where Michael Warner (or anybody else) would start in arranging Walt Whitman's works into a "portable" collection to be consumed by a casual reader. The man wrote prolifically in all genres for half a century -- and his most famous work, Leaves of Grass, was rewritten so many times it's hard to know which publications to consider "authoritative." I'm not well-versed enough in Whitman to say whether or not the contents of this particular volume do the breadth of his career justice, though I will admit that I would have enjoyed a few additional samples of his journalistic output. Anyway, what's indispensable here is Warner's introductory commentary, which efficiently outlines Whitman's life, the value of the works collected, and the trajectory of Whitman's scholarship since the 1850s. Really, Warner is an ideal person to orient the twenty-first century for the works of Walt Whitman, for, as expected, he foregrounds the matter of Whitman's sexuality. Long gone are the days when panicked readers/teachers could claim that Whitman's "manly love of comrades" was only metaphorical -- not physical. And good riddance.
Currently reading
June 10, 2009There's one poem, I think from "Autumn Rivulets," that I just discovered and absolutely adore: "O Living Always, Always Dying." I see it as a meditation on our ability/inability to move beyond past experiences, to reinvent ourselves daily, to acknowledge that the self from yesterday is not entirely the same self as today, and yet to embody it all, as we are all "living always, always dying".
June 1, 2008
I like his stuff on nature.
March 16, 2016
My 10th grade American lit teacher said of Walt Whitman, "This is a guy who just couldn't wait to jump out of bed every morning." As a 16-year old, I was impressed already, but as I read his writing I became seriously fascinated with the life force that flows out through his poetry. I believe he will be ever young, ever-accessible to people as they are just realizing how much life has to offer those who open their eyes and hearts, those who drop everything and say "YES" to life. As a young man, this message hit me at just the right time and place, and I am thankful for it.
We see in Whitman not just a mirror of our most joyful and vivid selves, but also an example that makes joy and life more accessible to us. I still read and re-read his poetry, not to relive my life as a 16-year old (not at all!) but to witness and hold the life-force that Whitman embodies. The compassionate, loving acceptance that Walt Whitman gave to his experience in the world inspires me in my own brand of faith in life, and in the ultimate value that this universe has. Whitman is "optimistic," but then he goes way beyond any conventional meaning the word may have. And there is nothing truly naive about his poetry; it celebrates the high and the low, the "good" and the "bad." It suffices to say that Whitman celebrates life in all its aspects, and his poetry is an honest statement through and through.
I can't think of anyone who should not be exposed to Walt Whitman, and I hope other American lit teachers out there are showing him justly to young men and women coming into their early adulthood. On the thresholds of new experiences and adventures, we are ripe to hear Whitman's song.
We see in Whitman not just a mirror of our most joyful and vivid selves, but also an example that makes joy and life more accessible to us. I still read and re-read his poetry, not to relive my life as a 16-year old (not at all!) but to witness and hold the life-force that Whitman embodies. The compassionate, loving acceptance that Walt Whitman gave to his experience in the world inspires me in my own brand of faith in life, and in the ultimate value that this universe has. Whitman is "optimistic," but then he goes way beyond any conventional meaning the word may have. And there is nothing truly naive about his poetry; it celebrates the high and the low, the "good" and the "bad." It suffices to say that Whitman celebrates life in all its aspects, and his poetry is an honest statement through and through.
I can't think of anyone who should not be exposed to Walt Whitman, and I hope other American lit teachers out there are showing him justly to young men and women coming into their early adulthood. On the thresholds of new experiences and adventures, we are ripe to hear Whitman's song.
March 21, 2013
Packed full of many more goodies than just Song of Myself. One of the only books I recommend reading the introduction. Quite the mind, especially given the times.
Quotes:
Do I contradict myself? Good, I contain multitudes.
Not objecting to special revelations, considering a curl of smoke or hair on the back of my hand just as curious as any revelation / lads ahold of fire engines and hook and ladder ropes no less to me than the gods of the antique wars.
Quotes:
Do I contradict myself? Good, I contain multitudes.
Not objecting to special revelations, considering a curl of smoke or hair on the back of my hand just as curious as any revelation / lads ahold of fire engines and hook and ladder ropes no less to me than the gods of the antique wars.
May 7, 2008
...in progress
November 8, 2007
Read parts of Whitman's work over several months' time - too much to absorb all at once. This copy belongs to the library, hope I can find a copy of my own.
Currently reading
June 12, 2008Picked this up the other day after seeing a homeless guy in Chinatown who was the spitting image of him. Also, Did you know that Bram Stoker's Dracula Character was based on Old Walt?
September 28, 2010
poems - five stars
Democratic Vistas - 3.5 stars
Specimen Days - five stars for the Civil War medic bits, four stars for the rest
Democratic Vistas - 3.5 stars
Specimen Days - five stars for the Civil War medic bits, four stars for the rest
March 27, 2009
A bit pompous, a tendency to dumb down, but in places (and that's enough), just marvellous.
February 25, 2010
I know that he is one of the greats, but right now he is just not interesting to me. Im not in the right mindset for him.
Currently reading
April 29, 2011luv it
July 20, 2017
Selections from Leaves of Grass: 4 stars
Democratic Vistas: 1.5 stars
Specimen Days: 2.5 stars
Overall rating of 2.75 stars
Democratic Vistas: 1.5 stars
Specimen Days: 2.5 stars
Overall rating of 2.75 stars
June 16, 2025
The Portable Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman – Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman is included among The 100 Best Books of All Time by The Bokklubben World Library (Norwegian: Verdensbiblioteket), and it is 71st on The Greatest Books of All Time site, hundreds of books from those and other lists are reviewed on my blog, they used to be on Goodreads, where I was number 1, 2 on some counts, but more about that in the text to come, the address to my blog is https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...
10 out of 10
Walt Whitman has been a great favorite of mine, I used to have a great friend, Mercus Norocel, who has died more than ten years ago, and he knew by heart most, if not all of The Leaves of Grass https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... and he enchanted us with the verse
Indeed, there has been a popular show, Poezia Muzicii Tinere aka The Poetry of Young Music, and Norocel saw what, maybe more than one hundred shows, I saw just one, where the poetry of Walt Whitman was the essence
In short, this was a wonderful magnum opus, which helped us survive in the communist days, when our land was ruled by one of the worst tyrants, Ceausescu, somebody similar to the Orange Woland that is the leader of the free world
- I should pay attention here
I was kicked out from Goodreads.
One of the ‘repeated violations’ could be that I keep mentioning what I see as a monster, the Orange TACO.
It is more than likely that a good number have been upset by this…
Nevertheless, it could well be that they have been envious, at least some
I was number one reviewer, as in I had more than 4,000 reviews.
Number 2 most popular for the last few months, very much lower for all time, something like 56th
It is not like this is a great loss for readers, my likes will be their most severe setback, I guess…
Notwithstanding this, it does feel somewhat exaggerated…take this instance which might have been the cause:
- This person calls herself Sleeping something (I better be careful, for they may torture me this time) and I ask what does she look like, seeing the name, and more importantly, the photo she uses
- That is the famous painting by Botticelli, so I want to know what the updated version of that is and ask for the image
Enough to be banished?
Perhaps!
It has taken me some twelve or more years to put those (spectacular, hihihi) notes online, and I may decide to copy them again, but I will see, in the meantime, most are on my blogs, the old and the new, there I forgot my initial password, I was not banished or anything…
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
10 out of 10
Walt Whitman has been a great favorite of mine, I used to have a great friend, Mercus Norocel, who has died more than ten years ago, and he knew by heart most, if not all of The Leaves of Grass https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... and he enchanted us with the verse
Indeed, there has been a popular show, Poezia Muzicii Tinere aka The Poetry of Young Music, and Norocel saw what, maybe more than one hundred shows, I saw just one, where the poetry of Walt Whitman was the essence
In short, this was a wonderful magnum opus, which helped us survive in the communist days, when our land was ruled by one of the worst tyrants, Ceausescu, somebody similar to the Orange Woland that is the leader of the free world
- I should pay attention here
I was kicked out from Goodreads.
One of the ‘repeated violations’ could be that I keep mentioning what I see as a monster, the Orange TACO.
It is more than likely that a good number have been upset by this…
Nevertheless, it could well be that they have been envious, at least some
I was number one reviewer, as in I had more than 4,000 reviews.
Number 2 most popular for the last few months, very much lower for all time, something like 56th
It is not like this is a great loss for readers, my likes will be their most severe setback, I guess…
Notwithstanding this, it does feel somewhat exaggerated…take this instance which might have been the cause:
- This person calls herself Sleeping something (I better be careful, for they may torture me this time) and I ask what does she look like, seeing the name, and more importantly, the photo she uses
- That is the famous painting by Botticelli, so I want to know what the updated version of that is and ask for the image
Enough to be banished?
Perhaps!
It has taken me some twelve or more years to put those (spectacular, hihihi) notes online, and I may decide to copy them again, but I will see, in the meantime, most are on my blogs, the old and the new, there I forgot my initial password, I was not banished or anything…
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
December 18, 2020
Walt Whitman, and his contemporary Emily Dickinson, were the seminal poets of their era, and had influence on American poetry far beyond their lifetimes. Which, of course, means they get studied in English classes, and that’s where I first encountered this book, during my master’s degree studies.
These classes naturally focus on bits and pieces of his multi-edition collection, Leaves of Grass, and especially his “Song of Myself,” but I wanted to read this entire book, not only to get the full measure of Whitman’s poetry, but to read his prose writing, which gets far less attention. I’m glad I did.
The hallmarks of Whitman’s early work are not just how he abandoned the stiff formalism of the poetry that came before, but how he would pile up lists of the characteristics and qualities of whatever or whoever he was writing about. By reading more of his work, it’s possible to see how his writing evolved, how he moved away from the lists in his later work, especially after the Civil War.
Another aspect that comes out in a wider reading is his transcendentalist views: the unity and essential goodness of all things. He clearly took a lot of this from Ralph Waldo Emerson. That comes through in spades in his sometimes-fawning 1856 letter to Emerson, accompanying a copy of the latest version of Leaves, in which he calls the philosopher “Master” several times. This transcendentalism seems to get little attention in academic circles.
Something that does get a lot of attention there is Whitman’s supposed homosexuality. Certainly, he does frequently mention love between men, but this seems more consistent with his transcendentalism. In his introductory essay, Professor Michael Warner notes that displays of affection between men, including kissing on the lips, was far more common, and far less sexual, in pre-Civil War America than it is today. Further, homosexuality fails to explain poems like “From Pent-Up Aching Rivers” from the 1860 edition of Leaves, and “A Woman Waits for Me” from the 1856 edition. Nor does it explain his predictions of the future equality of women with men. His transcendentalism provides a better explanation, and a less agenda-driven basis from which to see his love (including, perhaps, sexual love) of both men and women.
Perhaps the most interesting of his prose work, and certainly the most readable, are his diary entries from the time he spent in Washington, D. C., during the Civil War. While his poem collections “Drum Taps” and “Sequel to Drum Taps” showed the war from a poet’s perspective, the diaries are far more personal. Whitman visited the many hospitals set up in and around the city almost daily, and spent hours, even whole nights, with the soldiers (Confederate as well as Union) being cared for there. These short pieces were apparently published in city newspapers because he reported people sending him money to give to the hospitalized soldiers, which he did. He also gave them fruit, candy, tobacco, and paper and envelopes to write letters home. Sometimes he wrote a dying soldier’s farewell letter to his family.
These entries stand in contrast to Whitman’s earlier poems in their simplicity and directness. And they give a stark insight into the aftermath of the many bloody battles the two sides fought, and the state of medical care available to the wounded at the time. Whitman comments repeatedly on the stoicism and toughness of the soldiers, often in the face of isolation from friends and family, extreme pain, and even impending death.
The only parts of this book that I simply could not get through were his introductions to the various editions of Leaves. The long, flowing sentences of his poetry simply didn’t translate well into prose, where I often completely lost track of what he was trying to say in his lists and digressions. Instead of flowing and lyrical, the sentences were too often turgid and incomprehensible.
Finally, Whitman is unabashed and unapologetic for his love of America. His expressions of its superiority over any other nation may be a bit over the top at times but lack the mean-spiritedness of jingoism. Even in the face of the reality of slavery, which he opposed as a moral wrong, he nevertheless found plenty to love and celebrate in this nation. This too is something that seems to go ignored, if not derided, in academic circles.
If you’ve only ever studied bits and pieces of Whitman’s poetry, that kind of “Whitman Sampler” doesn’t do the poet full justice. Take the time to read it all to get the full measure of his art, how it evolved over time, and how it influenced the generations of poets who followed.
These classes naturally focus on bits and pieces of his multi-edition collection, Leaves of Grass, and especially his “Song of Myself,” but I wanted to read this entire book, not only to get the full measure of Whitman’s poetry, but to read his prose writing, which gets far less attention. I’m glad I did.
The hallmarks of Whitman’s early work are not just how he abandoned the stiff formalism of the poetry that came before, but how he would pile up lists of the characteristics and qualities of whatever or whoever he was writing about. By reading more of his work, it’s possible to see how his writing evolved, how he moved away from the lists in his later work, especially after the Civil War.
Another aspect that comes out in a wider reading is his transcendentalist views: the unity and essential goodness of all things. He clearly took a lot of this from Ralph Waldo Emerson. That comes through in spades in his sometimes-fawning 1856 letter to Emerson, accompanying a copy of the latest version of Leaves, in which he calls the philosopher “Master” several times. This transcendentalism seems to get little attention in academic circles.
Something that does get a lot of attention there is Whitman’s supposed homosexuality. Certainly, he does frequently mention love between men, but this seems more consistent with his transcendentalism. In his introductory essay, Professor Michael Warner notes that displays of affection between men, including kissing on the lips, was far more common, and far less sexual, in pre-Civil War America than it is today. Further, homosexuality fails to explain poems like “From Pent-Up Aching Rivers” from the 1860 edition of Leaves, and “A Woman Waits for Me” from the 1856 edition. Nor does it explain his predictions of the future equality of women with men. His transcendentalism provides a better explanation, and a less agenda-driven basis from which to see his love (including, perhaps, sexual love) of both men and women.
Perhaps the most interesting of his prose work, and certainly the most readable, are his diary entries from the time he spent in Washington, D. C., during the Civil War. While his poem collections “Drum Taps” and “Sequel to Drum Taps” showed the war from a poet’s perspective, the diaries are far more personal. Whitman visited the many hospitals set up in and around the city almost daily, and spent hours, even whole nights, with the soldiers (Confederate as well as Union) being cared for there. These short pieces were apparently published in city newspapers because he reported people sending him money to give to the hospitalized soldiers, which he did. He also gave them fruit, candy, tobacco, and paper and envelopes to write letters home. Sometimes he wrote a dying soldier’s farewell letter to his family.
These entries stand in contrast to Whitman’s earlier poems in their simplicity and directness. And they give a stark insight into the aftermath of the many bloody battles the two sides fought, and the state of medical care available to the wounded at the time. Whitman comments repeatedly on the stoicism and toughness of the soldiers, often in the face of isolation from friends and family, extreme pain, and even impending death.
The only parts of this book that I simply could not get through were his introductions to the various editions of Leaves. The long, flowing sentences of his poetry simply didn’t translate well into prose, where I often completely lost track of what he was trying to say in his lists and digressions. Instead of flowing and lyrical, the sentences were too often turgid and incomprehensible.
Finally, Whitman is unabashed and unapologetic for his love of America. His expressions of its superiority over any other nation may be a bit over the top at times but lack the mean-spiritedness of jingoism. Even in the face of the reality of slavery, which he opposed as a moral wrong, he nevertheless found plenty to love and celebrate in this nation. This too is something that seems to go ignored, if not derided, in academic circles.
If you’ve only ever studied bits and pieces of Whitman’s poetry, that kind of “Whitman Sampler” doesn’t do the poet full justice. Take the time to read it all to get the full measure of his art, how it evolved over time, and how it influenced the generations of poets who followed.
March 31, 2021
Michael Warner's introduction to this text was informative - even persuasive in pushing me to read the text itself. And I'm glad I did. I read Walt Whitman before - for school, but even then it was only certain sections of Leaves of Grass. But something about this recent act of reading, more in the slant of the personal than the academic that touched me more than usual.
The most crucial, touching aspect of Walt's poetic theme is that:
And he's right. He sets out to convince the world that one does not need salvation (and perhaps, I am easily persuaded because I am just looking for someone to tell me what I want to hear).
Then when he said:
Maybe I've just been really touchy, a bundle of frayed nerves, but this line got to me for no reason other than the celebration of the sufficient self.
The most crucial, touching aspect of Walt's poetic theme is that:
Divine I am, inside and out, and I make holy whatever I touch or
am touched from...
This head is more than churches or bibles or creeds.
And he's right. He sets out to convince the world that one does not need salvation (and perhaps, I am easily persuaded because I am just looking for someone to tell me what I want to hear).
Then when he said:
Yourself! yourself! yourself, for ever and ever!
Maybe I've just been really touchy, a bundle of frayed nerves, but this line got to me for no reason other than the celebration of the sufficient self.
December 19, 2025
I rate "The Leaves of Grass" as five stars. My one-star rating for this book is because I absolutely despise how the poems are re-arranged. Please pick up "The Leaves of Grass." Read it and re-read it. I think I'm going to make it a yearly thing. But if you're going to use this book to read "The Leaves of Grass," please know that it is highly edited and the poems are not in order.
My copy is the 1973 reprint.
My copy is the 1973 reprint.
May 18, 2020
Actually I have only read to the end of Leaves of Grass. Time to shelve this tome of lists. I will pick it up again in the future. Favorites from this section included There Was a Child Went Forth and This Compost.
March 21, 2023
Not a poetry guy but I enjoy Walt’s emphasis on attempting to create a truly American brand of poetry and his blatant respect and appreciation for the working class 😎
November 7, 2023
He is a fantastic poet and this is a good collection of his poetry.
June 14, 2024
Maybe I just don’t like poetry?
April 1, 2023
Whitman remains the greatest of all Anerican poets, along with Emily Dickinson perhaps. His writings are varied, but probably the most impressive are those written during the Civil War in which he participated as a nursae.
Want to read
August 12, 2013...just started this, although my version has a blue cover. Never read Whitman, and this seems like an oversight. Of course, all my knowledge of him comes from Dead Poets Society, and the interesting introduction by Van Doren includes the 'barbaric yawp' early on. Which is always handy. Having just read Caryl Phillips, will be interested to see how, or if, the poems look at identity and US slavery.
January 26, 2014
I was first inspired to read this after seeing "Into the wild" The Chris McCandless story. I find poetry quite easy to read and follow. I enjoy the challenge this can bring to the so called modern consistency and format poetry can be now. I enjoyed the ideas and the vision behind his words and often felt relation to them which it what draws me further into the book.
March 4, 2013
what is left to be said? whitman tackles an enormous project and does so in a unique style which is exciting to read for those in love with language (and America). whether or not his experiment is successful is debatable, but it is an entirely engrossing (if not over the top) read.
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