The Complete Poems of Walt Whitman

by Walt Whitman, Stephen Matterson (Introduction, Notes)

An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

With the first publication of "Leaves of Grass" in 1855, Walt Whitman was solidified as an American poet of undeniable importance. The poems contained in that slim volume candidly spoke of politics, slavery, sexuality, consciousness, and the spiritual world. His content was as radical as his form; he utilized free verse unlike anyone before, creating a poetic tongue that was unique and personal yet universal and cosmic. Born in New York in 1819, Whitman came to represent the spirit of an American poet. Influenced heavily by early 19th century Transcendentalism, Whitman befriended Ralph Waldo Emerson who would help shape his literary voice and vision. This volume contains the complete poetic works of Walt Whitman. Through his poems 'Song of Myself', 'Sleepers', 'To A Stranger', 'The Sleepers', and 'I Sing the Body Electric' we see a poet of great range and endless influence, one who is a "poet of democracy". Whitman's legacy is strong, influencing the beat movement, and countless poets of today. His verse is as layered and textured as the American soil he wrote on, becoming an essential part of America's cultural heritage. This edition of his complete poems is sure to satisfy the curious reader as well as the scholar. Whitman's poems are as vital and resonant today as ever, proving to be timeless and permanent fixtures of literary history.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Fiction, Literature, American, 19th Century, Philosophy

608 pages, Paperback

First published July 4, 1855

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

[MischaS_ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't pay attention to me, I'm currently high on poetry.

[Adina · Rating 4 out of 5]

" I am the poet of the body
And I am the poet of the soul. "

I do not know how to review poetry or what to look for when I am reading it. All I can say is whether I liked it or not. I really, really liked this. Although it was written in 1855, the free verse felt fresh and actual. It was an ode to nature, love, sex and the self. I was recommended the 1855 version because it has some interesting punctuation and I thought it complemented the text well.

" I celebrate myself
And what i assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you"

and the famous " I am large.... I contain multitudes"

[د.سيد (نصر برشومي) · Rating 5 out of 5]

عنوان ساحر
تقول رضا بإحساس عميق
نابع من نفس جميلة تذوقت القصائد مثلما تذوقت طعم القهوة المركز
بدرجة السكر الخفيفة التي لا تغيّرها
هذه الصورة التي أحبها لها
وهذا الصوت الذي يظل مترددا في نفسي
أسألها عن مصدر سحر العنوان
ترفع الفنجان لتلامسه شفتاها
وتقول بهدوء
أوراق يا برشومي
وماذا يصل بالجمال إلينا سوى الأوراق
جسد الأرض ينبت قصائده الخضراء
جمال عضوي خالص بلا إضافات ضارة
أوراق الأرض تراها الكائنات كلها
يسري لونها الأخضر في بصيرة الرائي
يتنفس الأثير عطرها ويمنحه لنا جميعا
تأكل منها الخراف والماعز والإبل والطيور
مأدبة كونية
مثل الشعر الذي ينبت من جسد مشاعرنا وأذهاننا
تجمعنا الكلمات عبر المكتبات
أليس العنوان ساحرا يا صديقي؟ كأنك ترى لون الحياة في القصائد
تتذوقها مثل بن القهوة
مثل سكر القصب والبنجر
تلمسها فتحس بخطوطها
شعرية الكون في صور والت وايتمان
قراءة رضا للعنوان تترك أثرا في نفسي فأطلب منها الديوان
الذي اختاره سعدي يوسف من أشعار وايتمان
تقول لي وطعم قهوتها يسري في سمعي
أتمنى أن تكتب عنه يا نصر ، ثم أناقشك يعد أن أقرأ مع أصدقاء جودريدز ما ستضيفه
أوراق وإيتمان تمتد في ساحة الوقت
صورة عالم تتجاور فيه الطببعة والصناعة
أشجار ومداخن
بحار وبواخر
مد يرتفع ونبض يتدفق في ثقافة الغرب
يعالجها بطاقته الجديدة التي تحول الأفكار المجردة لسلوك لا يهدأ
مشهد الصورة الشاملة المتحركة الحافلة بعناصر لا حصر لها
سينما ما قبل السينما تنعكس في شاشة وإيتمان الخضراء
الكلام كصوت الراوي المصاحب الذي يدلك على مساحات شاسعة
تستوعب معطيات العصر القادم
صور متفرقة يجمعها إحساس الصوت الواثق المعتز بواقعه وحلمه
متناثرات يجمعها عقد المشاعر
الشعر هو إدراكنا للظواهر
وشاعرنا هنا يكتب بعين مخرج يوجه الكاميرا لمشهد كلي يلتقطه من سياقه كما يراه في نفسه ويرسله في فضاء القصائد لينقل رؤيته الجمالية لمتذوقي الكلمات
يحتفي برؤية تصل الخيال بالواقع
في خيط الوعي
ورنين الأصوات المتدفقة بالحركة
مع خلفية تحتضن العقل الأوروبي
وتعيد برمجته في حوار جدلي
تنطلق فيه دراما الفعل
ويتواري تنظير المغرقين في التجريد
زهو القوة والمغامرة والانفتاح الكوني بعد صراع داخلي وخارجي طويل انتهى بصيغة الديمقراطية الليبرالية وغرف رجال الأعمال
وإيتمان ناطق بهذه الأجواء
يرى الصورة الكلية التي يسري صوتها بداخله وحوله
لكن
ها قد أتيت للانتقاد يا نصر
هكذا تقول رضا بعدما أقول لكن
كلمة لكن أيقونة الاعتراض
هكذا تسميها رضا
لكن الصورة الكلية التي يديرها مخرج لم تظهر السينما عنده في القرن التاسع عشر
تختفي منها التفاصيل العميقة
لا توجد متناقضات النفس وتعقيداتها
لا توجد مساحات الصراع الحواري المتعدد الذي يتجاوز الأحادية
ضفيرة النسيج النصي تكاد تخلو من الآخر
ديمقراطية الصورة لا تتوغل في خفايا الاختلاف
تمر سريعا على العمق النفسي والتركيب المعقد لمكونات الشعور والأفكار
الكامير الشعرية لهذا الصوت الشعري الناطق باسم العالم الجديد
تكتفي بعرض الظواهر كما تراها على السطح
أو كما تريد أن تراها
اوراق العشب عنوان عبقري بالفعل، صاغه والت وإيتمان بخبرة إدراكية وحس جمالي، ليمنح الشعر، والفنون بالطبع وظيفة حيوية، الفنون تكتشف مكنوناتنا الفطرية، تطلق طاقتنا الكونية، تستخلص أحلامنا الكامن
الفن شجرة ننتمي إليها لأنها نابعة من إنسانيتنا العابرة للعصور
شجرة نامية من ينابيع رغباتنا وإراداتنا واشواقنا
شجرة ضاربة في أرض خصبة بالتطلعات والرؤي والآمال والخوف والشفقة والفضول
شجرة تتساقط المعاني من ندى اوراقها لتنشر العشب في مساحات الجفاف وصحارى الفراغ
عشب وإيتمان هو البساط الإنساني المشترك
وهو الغذاء الشعوري الذي نستلهمه في إذكاء عواطفنا تجاه عشق العالم

[Lizzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Leaves of Grass Walt Whitman sings nature and his symbiosis with America, he sings the universe and his awareness of it all, but above all he sings the people and their quest for individuality and immortality. ‘The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it.’ And here he includes himself with all his mysticism and spiritual illuminations. In that, it is a celebration of humanity, his country and everything in it. Some parts of his poems were so beautiful it spoke to me, however not all touched me. For one I am not American, and for other, he wrote it in another time that is long gone. But there are times when he comes through more our contemporary than many other writers I read.

I loved him for his love of the common people, for his praise of the most unlucky human beings – like slaves and prostitutes – as for his sense of justice. ‘The attitude of the great poets is to cheer up slaves and horrify despots.’ It’s an ode to equality, and for that, we cannot praise him enough. His words sometimes sounded like music in my ears. It really sang to me. ‘You shall stand by my side and look in the mirror with me.’ Sometimes playful, often insightful and timeless, Leaves of Grass is not to be missed. ‘It is the medium that shall well express the inexpressible.’

Let’s let Whitman speak for himself:

Song of Myself

I CELEBRATE myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease . . . . observing a spear of summer grass.

<<>>

Clear and sweet is my soul . . . . and clear and sweet is all that is not my soul.

<<>>

I resist anything better than my own diversity,
And breathe the air and leave plenty after me,
And am not stuck up, and am in my place.

<<>>

I am the poet of the body,
And I am the poet of the soul.

The pleasures of heaven are with me, and the pains of hell are with me,
The first I graft and increase upon myself . . . . the latter I translate into a new tongue.

I am the poet of the woman the same as the man,
And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man,
And I say there is nothing greater than the mother of men.

<<>>

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journeywork of the stars,
And the pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and the egg of the wren,
And the tree-toad is a chef-d'ouvre for the highest,
And the running blackberry would adorn the parlors of heaven,
And the narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery,
And the cow crunching with depressed head surpasses any statue,
And a mouse is a miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels,
And I could come every afternoon of my life to look at the farmer’s girls boiling her iron tea-kettle and baking short-cake.

<<>>

The disdain and calmness of martyrs,
The mother condemned for a witch and burnt with dry wood, and her children gazing on;
The hounded slave that flags in the race and leans by the fence, blowing and covered with sweat,
The twinges that sting like needles his legs and neck,
The murderous buckshot and the bullets,
All these I feel or am.

Finally, the three last superb stanzas:

I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love.
If you want me again look for me under your bootsoles.

You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.

Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you.

A Song for Occupations

Come closer to me,
Push close my lovers and take the best I possess,
Yield closer and closer and give me the best you possess.

<<>>

The wife – and she is not one jot less than the husband,
The daughter – and she is just good as the son,
The mother – and she is every bit as much as the father.

<<>>

We thought our Union grand and our Constitution grand;
I do not say they are not grand and good – for they are,
I am this day just as much in love with them as you,
But I am eternally in love with you and with all my fellows upon the earth.

<<>>

You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.

Failing to fetch me me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop some where waiting for you.

The Sleepers

Be careful, darkness . . . . already, what was it touched me?
I thought my lover was gone . . . . else darkness and he are one,
I hear the heart-beat . . . . I follow . . I fade away.
___

[Lauren · Rating 1 out of 5]

When Leaves of Grass was first published, critics applauded Whitman "only that he did not burn" the "mass of stupid filth" immediately upon completion. They primarily objected to its sensual and occasionally (rather overtly) homoerotic content. Nowadays, of course, it seems entirely too mild to raise an objection on those grounds, but man, oh man, I understand the impulse to want to turn this book into kindling.


It's less like THIS...


...and more like THIS.

This weighty poetic tome has all the weaknesses inherent to self-publication: unjustified overlong length, tedious repetition of images and ideas, wildly uneven quality from one poem to the next, irritating authorial tics, and a pervasive self-important focus.

"As I look at stuff,
I think about stuff.

O stuff! O synonym for stuff!
O six-page list of things that are
similar yet different!"

It's really impossible to document the amazing repetitions in Leaves of Grass short of simply handing you the book itself. It is repetitive in syntax, in word choice, in tone, in content, in message, in perspective. And the collection is inexcusably padded past any hope of delivering the forceful emotional impact that poems are so uniquely capable of.

And man, what gives with the crappy words!? English's strongest selling point as a language is its vast, incredibly nuanced vocabulary. It's not a particularly beautiful or intuitive dictionary, but the thesaurus is stellar--we have an endless supply of synonyms at our disposal. There's really no excuse for a native English-speaking poet to resort to such dull, texture-less language. Take this brief ditty, After the Sea-Ship:

After the sea-ship, after the whistling winds,
After the white-gray sails taut to their spars and ropes,
Below, a myriad myriad waves hastening, lifting up their necks,
Tending in ceaseless flow toward the track of the ship,
Waves of the ocean bubbling and gurgling, blithely prying,
Waves, undulating waves, liquid, uneven, emulous waves,
Toward that whirling current, laughing and buoyant, with curves,
Where the great vessel sailing and tacking displaced the surface,
Larger and smaller waves in the spread of the ocean yearnfully flowing,
The wake of the sea-ship after she passes, flashing and frolicsome under the sun,
A motley procession with many a fleck of foam and many fragments,
Following the stately and rapid ship, in the wake following.

Guys, did you know that winds whistle? Or that ship sails are white-gray? Or that the ocean has both "larger and smaller waves?" Are you kidding me? (And yes, that's the whole poem, by the way, I didn't pull him off the stage with a cane right before he got to the good part.)

Am I being too unfair? Let's compare with another short, nautically-themed poem from a contemporary from the same transcendental school. Here is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's sonnet The Sound of the Sea.

The sea awoke at midnight from its sleep,
And round the pebbly beaches far and wide
I heard the first wave of the rising tide
Rush onward with uninterrupted sweep;
A voice out of the silence of the deep,
A sound mysteriously multiplied
As of a cataract from the mountain's side,
Or roar of winds upon a wooded steep.
So comes to us at times, from the unknown
And inaccessible solitudes of being,
The rushing of the sea-tides of the soul;
And inspirations, that we deem our own,
Are some divine foreshadowing and foreseeing
Of things beyond our reason or control.

Even given the additional constraints of rhyming meter, Wadsworth (whom I'm honestly not that excited about in general) manages to deliver a concise, impactful message with an interesting scope and vocabulary. Also, The Sound of the Sea was not padded with flabby rephrasings of the same idea in an overlong collection. The point is, Whitman was mediocre, at best, even in his own time.


Less THIS...


...more THIS.

I know I'm being a bit vicious, but from six hundred pages of poetry, I gathered fewer insights than from a collection of half-a-dozen from a better poet. I have already started reading a new poetry collection, and I'm compelled to read and reread, discovering new depths, awestruck at the emotional viscera. Reading Leaves of Grass was, in comparison, watching a slightly interesting shade of paint dry.

The wide-eyed transcendental awe that Whitman is famous for grates under the relentless single-minded repetition. Whitman's spirit may have been remarkable, but his language is uninspired, hobbled by a limited vocabulary and overburdened by his didactic approach to inspiration. He tries too hard to educate and persuade, and sounds like a salesmen hustling flora and fauna door-to-door. The man's never met a thing he wasn't ready to romanticize: toiling farmers, shackled slaves, dying soldiers--they are noble savages, one and all.


Less THIS...


...more THIS.

His relentless optimism at the splendor of America (politically, geographically, socially--every part of it is super-duper splendid, according to Walt) displays a total unwillingness to look critically at the world he lives in, which is a tremendous failure for a poet. Page after page documents the unending beauty of the territories he'd never visited, but there are only a handful of passing acknowledgements that Americans were actively slaughtering one another over the right to own other living humans. Whitman is not being naive here, but rather deliberately myopic.

An extremely tedious "classic" that is really nothing more than rambling sermons from an inept poet. I can see someone being charmed by his incessant enthusiasm for life, but for a pragmatist like myself, I can't stomach the lack of emotional maturity. The world has all kinds of grace and majesty and stars and perfection, but it also has human beings killing other human beings for no clear reason. A robust poet can make sense of this dilemma--Whitman is no robust poet, so he merely turns away from it.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alright, my rating here is very misleading. I haven't read Leaves Of Grass. I don't even intend to read Leaves Of Grass. Not all the way through any way. It seems sort of weird to just read a big fat collection of poetry all the way through. The five star rating is for one poem, "Song of the Open Road".

I've never really appreciated poetry. I've liked song lyrics and that's poetry, but it seemed like I needed a tune to go with it. I've liked scripture which can be pretty poetic, but it seemed I needed religious sentiment to go with it. Over the last few years , I've been trying to correct this character flaw, and I've felt like I was improving, but I didn't feel like I was there yet.

So, I finished Atlas Shrugged recently and it left me feeling afraid of commitment, so I took Leaves Of Grass to work with me, so I'd have something to read on my lunch hour without feeling obligated to finish and that might help me grow in my appreciation of poetry. I looked in the table of contents and saw "Song of the Open Road" and thought that it might appeal to me as a runner/hiker guy and read it. Appeal to me, it did. I found myself reading it over and over again and having a very positive emotional reaction. It was visceral and inexplicable, so I won't try to detail it for you, but I thought as I was reading it, "This must be what appreciating poetry feels like."

I wanted to memorize it and quote applicable sections at apropos moments to friends and family and all that other lame stuff that people who appreciate poetry do.

So it gets five stars for providing me with something of a break through. I think I'll go read it again.

[Luís · Rating 5 out of 5]

Walt Whitman writes an ode to America, life, and Nature, to democratic individualism, with impressive vigor, sincerity, and health.
We follow him throughout a busy life in which Nature—and the History of men—and wars, especially the Civil War and the technical inventions of the Industrial Age—appear to be equal.
After reading Leaves of Grass, I believe I have a better understanding of the American spirit in its unique and non-European aspects.
There is a freshness, energy, vitality, optimism, and unconditional love for life that amazes and delights simultaneously.

[Helga زن زندگی آزادی مرد میهن آبادی · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am the poet of the Body and I am the poet of the Soul,
The pleasures of heaven are with me and the pains of hell are with me,
The first I graft and increase upon myself, the latter I translate into new tongue.
I am the poet of the woman the same as the man,
And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man,
And I say there is nothing greater than the mother of men.

This is the first edition of Leaves of Grass published in 1855, which consists of 12 poems. In his poems Whitman exalts nature and humans, regardless of sex, race, class and profession. For him a prostitute is worth as much as a nobleman. The body is as worthy as the soul. The woman is honored as the man…

I have perceiv’d that to be with those I like is enough,
To stop in company with the rest at evening is enough,
To be surrounded by beautiful, curious, breathing, laughing flesh is enough,
To pass among them or touch any one, or rest my arm ever so lightly round his or her neck for a moment, what is this then?
I do not ask any more delight, I swim in it as in a sea.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whitman sings the song of America like no other poet I know--the outsized joy and pain, the affinity for common folk and the love of nature and the sheer overwhelming feeling of every sight and sound and industrious noise around him. "I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear," he wrote. Because of this some are tempted to see Whitman as a poet of pure exuberance--like a proto-hippie or, worse, like a garrulous Hallmark card. But Whitman doesn't shy away from pain at all--he embraces it like he embraces everything else--not in a way that cheapens or ignores it but in a way that feels it deeply too. He did, after all, endure the civil war (he served as a nurse in army hospitals--we might shudder to think what those were like) and wrote about the experience in his typically direct, personal way.

Speaking of the personal, for many years I always brought an old tattered copy of Whitman with me backpacking, and whenever I had to endure a particularly awful commute, I'd listen to Whitman to calm down, to step outside myself and encounter something beautiful amid the soul-crushing traffic. Whitman has become like an old friend to me now, one I'll no doubt keep coming back to, no matter my station in life or what I'm going through.

[Roy Lotz · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is becoming increasingly trendy to chalk up success to practice and hard work. We have the famous 10,000 hours from Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, and a similar theme from Joshua Foer’s Moonwalking with Einstein, just to name two examples. But it seems to me that some people were just born to do what they did, that no amount of practice could ever have produced something so fresh, original, new, and revolutionary.

Take Montaigne. He invented a new genre (the essay), pioneered a free and easy prose style, and popularized a down-to-earth skeptical attitude. There was no precedent to his proclamation that he would write about only himself. To be sure, he worked very hard on his essays—going over them again and again, crossing out a line here, adding one there. But it wasn’t the practicing that made him special, it was that his essays were the expression of an entirely original type of person, who effortlessly broke every rule.

Walt Whitman is a similar case. Though free verse had precedents in the Biblical psalms, no poet had emancipated himself so completely from prosody, rhythm, and rhyme. Though deism was trendy with the Transcendentalists, Emerson’s and Thoreau’s perspectives were a far cry from Whitman’s mysticism. Not to mention that his celebration of the bodily pleasures and sexuality scandalized nearly everybody. Could 10,000 hours of anything have produced that? How do you practice to be original?

This is all besides the point, I suppose. This poem is gorgeous. It’s so modern in its sensibilities, I almost want to say that it could have been written in the 50s or 60s; but Whitman’s reverence for nature, love, and life was so pure and raw, that no disillusioned Cold War drug fueled Beats or Hippies could have come close. There is nothing trendy in his poetry—he was a member of no movement. He was not writing in verse to 'rebel’ against anything, but to celebrate everything he saw worth celebrating.

At his worst, Whitman is repetitive: continually rehashing ideas and imagery, and producing some uninspiring lists. But at his best, Whitman is revelatory. When the force of his original perspective is married to the force of his original style, the product is as extraordinary as it is inimitable. The words and ideas are woven around each other like a vine growing around a tree, producing a poem that lives and breathes—so freshly harvested from his mind, that even now it seems to still have dirt and roots clinging to it.

I’m happy to see that America has produced a poet capable of upholding the democratic principle without descending into ‘just one of us plain folksiness’. And I’m glad to see that America has produced an individualist that is not peevish and immature. I’m saying “America produced," but I’m not really sure what mysterious force results in people like Whitman and Montaigne. But it sure as hell ain’t 10,000 hours.

[Maria Clara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Primer acercamiento a este poeta! O por lo menos, el primer roce de mi mano sobre sus palabras. Una gozada :)

[Ben Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leaves of Grass is like reading every single instant message that I and a friend of mine ever wrote to one another over the course of the last ten years. Likely way too long, too self-serving and would have shocked the general public if they cared to read it when it was written. But nestled in there are some real, true brilliant moments.

This is after all Whitman's life work, laid bare and un-edited for the most part. What else are we to expect? He is literally singing a song of himself, which he believes to be American - and is American by all accounts. He shouts it loud and strong and keeps repeating it until the reader gets it. But in there in that persistance is a thing of real, American beauty - a self-made man in love with his country and the people in it. Real unhumble patriotism. To understand this in all it's ragged glory is to understand Whitman and his America.

[Olga · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was reading 'Leaves of Grass' I kept thinking that I would have liked to meet Walt Whitman for he certainly was an extraordinary personality for his time and for any time and a revolutionary in both poetry and his world outlook. The word which comes first to mind to describe Whitman's poetry in general is 'energy' because it is charged with sheer endless energy and deep passion.
Other adjectives that come to mind are 'powerful', 'monumental' (sometimes too monumetal for me), 'daring', both 'American' and 'universal' and 'humanist'.

O Captain! My Captain!
Walt Whitman

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up–for you the flag is flung–for you the bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths–for you the shores a-crowding,
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head!
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
But I with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The First Dandelion

Simple and fresh and fair from winter's close
emerging,
As if no artifice of fashion, business, politics,
had ever been,
Forth from its sunny nook of shelter'd grass—
innocent, golden, calm as the dawn,
The spring's first dandelion shows its trustful
face.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Stronger Lessons

HAVE you learned lessons only of those who admired
you, and were tender with you, and stood aside
for you? Have you not learned the great lessons of those who
rejected you, and braced themselves against
you? or who treated you with contempt, or
disputed the passage with you?

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the positive things for me when I am in a book slump, is that it allows me to re-visit books I have already read. A while back, this book was donated to my Little Free Library Shed. Interestingly enough, it was a Doubleday Dolphin Master Mass Market Paperback that originally sold for 95 cents.

In considering this book, I remembered it vaguely as a classic, one referred to a lot in reference to how to view the world. And, it wouldn’t be uncommon to find some of Whitman’s quotes offered on Facebook. So, when it was donated, I couldn’t help but open its pages and explore again this man and his words.

As I read, I became more curious about the intention of his message. Whitman self-published this collection of poetry in 1855, and continued to edit and expand it until his death in 1892.

The cover of this book, is also the same as the original first edition, which includes an engraving by Samuel Hollyer that depicts Whitman in work clothes and a hat with his arms by his side amongst grass. Many surmised the figure represented an American working-class man of the time.

His writings feel like a celebration of individuality in relation to society and nature, and of America. It also exposes Whitman’s philosophy of life and humanity, where nature has an important place in the forefront. And, he presses on the importance of our role as individuals within nature.

“I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
If you want to find me again look for me under your bootsoles.”

Whitman was known to be fairly unpopular during his lifetime. People saw Whitman’s characteristics as self-centered, egotistical, and one, who as a loner would defy conventions. Even so, within a century, his words apparently defined American poetry. Even if what he presented didn’t rhyme or follow conventional rules for meter and line length.

What was particularly interesting was that the first 28 pages of the book was an essay on his beliefs for America. It was clear that he saw himself as a voice for the marginalized while promoting democratic ideals. I wonder what he would think of today’s politics?

As I continued reading, knowing there was some familiarity to the experience (having been exposed to his poetry in high school and college), I was reminded that his poems were not an easy read. (I am attracted usually to traditional poetry – rhyming or in cadence.)

And, at times, I found myself not sure what he was trying to say. I just concluded that it must be a journey into his mind, where he evoked random thoughts of what he perceived to be important. Still, I couldn’t help but feel from the words he wrote that he must have been a lover of life, who truly believed his role was to change people’s views – maybe even our lives by his words. And, in those moments of understanding, I felt he probably was leaving us readers time for reflection.

“I exist as I am, that is enough,
If no other in the world be aware I sit content,
And if each and all be aware I sit content.”

“I celebrate myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.”

Let us…Pause. Reflect. Discuss.

Whatever our experience with this classic, I believe Whitman wanted humanity/readers to know that we too are natural wonders.

[Jeanette (Ms. Feisty) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did you know that the letters in "Leaves of Grass" can be rearranged to spell "Asses of Gravel"?
If you find yourself anagramming the letters in the title rather than reading the poetry, it's a good sign you're not into the book. But I really wanted some of whatever Whitman was smoking that made him so ecstatically, ebulliently enthusiastic about every molecule on the planet. Including his own b.o.

"The scent of these arm-pits aroma finer than prayer."

Huh??? Was this guy sniffing glue along with those arm-pits?

I made it through about 85 pages, then let it go. Maybe I'll come back to it in the future. There ARE some beautiful passages hiding in among all those exclamation marks.

[Susan Budd · Rating 5 out of 5]

To read American poetry
is to breathe America.
With Whitman I inhale
the kosmos. I expand.
With Dickinson I exhale,
become nobody. I contract.
Visionaries both. They are
the Yang and Yin of
American poetry.

[Dagio_maya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Credo di non aver mai letto nulla del genere.
Volendo trovare una connessione con le poesie che ho letto fino ad oggi, credo calzi l’immagine di un vaso che si crepa e fa filtrare goccia a goccia il suo contenuto fino a farlo straripare.
Non so se mi spiego ma la poesia, fino ad ora, me l'era figurata così:
come un bisogno di comunicare qualcosa che si ha dentro e come capacità di dipingere con le parole.

Con Withman la mia esperienza è stata diversa perché nei suoi versi (tra l’altro assai poco canonici) non c’è un movimento dall’Io del poeta ad un punto indefinito fuori di lui.
Ogni poema è una liberazione di se stesso ma solo e a patto che trovi connessione con tutto il mondo esterno e quando dico tutto, dico Tutto:
esseri umani, animali, vegetali ma anche il mondo della materia.

Già dal titolo avrei dovuto presagire: Leaves of grass”, tradotto come “Foglie d’erba” ma Leaves è un sostantivo che può sì riferirsi alla dimensione organica ma anche a quella della scrittura visto che l’ulteriore significato è “Fogli”.

Una serie di ripubblicazioni in cui W. aggiunge e (ri)sistema (nella prima edizione, ad esempio non ci sono i titoli) per un totale di otto (!!) edizioni stampate tra il 1855 ed 1891 poco prima della morte.

Se c’è un filo conduttore è sicuramente quello che rispecchia i molti temi sociali che attraversarono il paese in quegli anni.
Primo fra tutti è quello dell’identità statunitense ma anche la schiavitù, i diritti delle donne e il lavoro salariato.

La prima poesia della raccolta è in questo senso emblematica.
“Poesia di Walt Whitman, un americano”, è un inno alla vita, alla coscienza del proprio corpo (”Celebro me stesso”) che esprime la felicità dell’essere qui e ora.

Così per 32 poesie si dispiega una felicità che vuole unione rivolgendosi a tutti e declamando che ”le parole non sono un traguardo ma solo l’inizio”

Da leggere e rileggere.


”Attraverso di me molte voci che sono state a lungo mute,
Voci di interminabili generazioni di schiavi,
Voci di prostitute, e di persone deformi,
Voci di malati e disperati, e di ladri e di nani,
Voci di cicli di preparazione e di crescita,
E di fili che collegano le stelle, e di uteri, e di sperma paterno,
E dei diritti di coloro che altri calpestano,
Di ciò che è banale, piatto, sciocco, disprezzato,
Nebbia nell’aria, scarafaggi che rotolano palline di sterco”
[“Poesia di Walt Whitman, un americano”,]

[Collin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Holy shit this is self-important and tedious.

--update: This has sat untouched on my desk all year. I can think of a hundred books I'd rather start than finish this, so I doubt I'll pick it back up unless I run out of books to read, I'm too poor to buy any more books, all my friends turn on me and refuse to loan me anything else, and all the nearby libraries are set on fire simultaneously.

[Ruxandra (4fără15) · Rating 4 out of 5]

self-love ✨ diversity 🌈 equality ✊ ; oh, how I love Whitman!! his preface to the first edition was particularly enlightening, but let me just say Song of Myself has got to be one of the best poems I’ve ever come across. I can’t give this book 5 stars because there were times when I found Whitman to be a bit tiring and ~over the top~, but consider this a 4,5.

allow me to bless you with some of my favourite lines:

The female contains all qualities and tempers them... she is in her place... she moves with perfect balance,
She is all things duly veiled...she is both passive and active... (I Sing the Body Electric)

Divine am I inside and out, and I make holy whatever I touch or am touched from;
The scent of these arm-pits is aroma finer than prayer,
This head is more than churches or bibles or creeds. (Song of Myself)

Through me many long dumb voices,
Voices of the interminable generations of slaves,
Voices of prostitutes and deformed persons,
Voices of the diseased and despairing, and of thieves and dwarfs,
Voices of cycles of preparation and accretion,
And of the threads that connect the stars – and of wombs, and of the fatherstuff,
And of the rights of them the others are down upon,
Of the trivial and flat and foolish and despised,
Of fog in the air and beetles rolling balls of dung. (Song of Myself)

[Edita · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most impressive, of course, is "Song of Myself", after, the style of the poems becomes rather repetitive. And though it is said that "he uses repetition, which helps to develop a certain type of magical rhythm to accentuate the ideas stated in the poem", it becomes too much when it reoccurs in every single poem.

The sniff of green leaves and dry leaves, and of the shore and dark-color’dsea-rocks, and of hay in the barn,
The sound of the belch’d words of my voice loos’d to the eddies of the wind,
A few light kisses, a few embraces, a reaching around of arms,
The play of shine and shade on the trees as the supple boughs wag,
The delight alone or in the rush of the streets, or along the fields and hill-sides,
The feeling of health, the full-noon trill, the song of me rising from bed andmeeting the sun.
*
Night of south winds—night of the large few stars!
Still nodding night—mad naked summer night.

Smile O voluptuous cool-breath’d earth!
Earth of the slumbering and liquid trees!
Earth of departed sunset—earth of the mountains misty-topt!
Earth of the vitreous pour of the full moon just tinged with blue!
Earth of shine and dark mottling the tide of the river!
Earth of the limpid gray of clouds brighter and clearer for my sake!
Far-swooping elbow’d earth—rich apple-blossom’d earth!
Smile, for your lover comes.
*
Sea of stretch’d ground-swells,
Sea breathing broad and convulsive breaths,
Sea of the brine of life and of unshovell’d yet always-ready graves,
Howler and scooper of storms, capricious and dainty sea,
I am integral with you, I too am of one phase and of all phases.
*
And that my soul embraces you this hour, and we affect each other withoutever seeing each other, and never perhaps to see each other, is every bit aswonderful.

[Samadrita]

There's only so much rhetoric on American imperialism I can ingest and assimilate at a stretch. Later, Mr Whitman.

(paused at 47%)

[Murray · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do like Walt and I enjoy most of his poetry in Leaves of Grass. It’s a classic that deserves reading 📖 you’ll need to decide if it fits your heart. Like Dylan Thomas, the Welsh poet, Walt never could get along with the churches, which is not a criticism, for he could not abide any that were halls of judgment and legalism. Like Thomas, he was bursting with love, grace, creativity and spirituality, and refused to be restricted or confined by how various clergy and religious denominations defined and delineated God and faith.

[Marc Lamot · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I celebrate myself, and sing myself"
I read a translation in Dutch of the original edition of 1855, with only 12 poems, and the first one occupies half of the book. This minimal approach (later versions were much, much more elaborate) has the effect of a trumpet call, it's pure vitalism, colored by a strong physical sensuality. It expresses deep faith in life and death, and a sense of belonging to all (a kind of transcendentalism), the organic and the anorganic, the whole universe. At the same time it testifies to a fundamental feeling of unfettered freedom, indissolubly linked with the 'I', the ego.

Style and language of these poems together form a real verbal orgy. Whitman presents grass as a symbol of life: it's persistent, wild, bending with the wind, present all around. The secret of life?: that's life itself, but with the 'ego' at its center, a complete universe orbiting around itself. “I am large, I contain multitudes".

While reading, the rational and moral voice inside myself whispered that it's not that simple, and that all this egocentrism comes with a price. I know a lot of people can't stand the exuberance of the Whitman-show (especially in his later, more elaborate versions). But what the heck: it's a dazzling experience to read this, a breath of fresh air in times of darkness. I can take on the world now.

[nastya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am the man, I suffer’d, I was there.

Walt Whitman first wrote and published this collection in his tender age of 37 and it was just 150 pages long. For whatever reason, instead of writing another collection, he kept tinkering with it his whole life, adding and adding to it and that's how we got a deathbed version. I don't know which one was this, but since it had 680 pages, I would guess a later one.

It started out being very quiet, melancholy, tender and private and, as Walt was getting older, started to remind sermons and preachings, including patriotic ones. And I must admit, that's were I lost interest, I'm much more about his shy quiet personal poetry myself.

I mind how once we lay such a transparent summer morning,
How you settled your head athwart my hips and gently turn’d over upon me,
And parted the shirt from my bosom-bone, and plunged your tongue to my bare-stript heart,
And reach’d till you felt my beard, and reach’d till you held my feet.

What is commonest, cheapest, nearest, easiest, is Me,
Me going in for my chances, spending for vast returns,
Adorning myself to bestow myself on the first that will take me,
Not asking the sky to come down to my good will,
Scattering it freely forever.

The young man that wakes deep at night, the hot hand seeking to repress what would master him,
The mystic amorous night, the strange half-welcome pangs, visions, sweats,
The pulse pounding through palms and trembling encircling fingers, the young man all color’d, red, ashamed, angry;

The greed that eats me day and night with hungry gnaw, till I saturate what shall produce boys to fill my place when I am through,
The wholesome relief, repose, content,
And this bunch pluck’d at random from myself,
It has done its work—I toss it carelessly to fall where it may.

But this was the first collection of poetry I've read for fun, not counting epic poetry, and I enjoyed it a lot. It's very sexual, especially in the beginning, Walt is obsessed and worships human body, mostly male (he does remember woman's body, but it was obvious to me, his heart wasn't that into it). But isn't it crazy to think this collection was a contemporary of Jane Eyre and David Copperfield.

Good-bye my Fancy!
Farewell dear mate, dear love!
I’m going away, I know not where,
Or to what fortune, or whether I may ever see you again,
So Good-bye my Fancy.

Now for my last—let me look back a moment;
The slower fainter ticking of the clock is in me,
Exit, nightfall, and soon the heart-thud stopping.

Long have we lived, joy’d, caress’d together;
Delightful!—now separation—Good-bye my Fancy.

Yet let me not be too hasty,
Long indeed have we lived, slept, filter’d, become really blended into one;
Then if we die we die together, (yes, we’ll remain one,)
If we go anywhere we’ll go together to meet what happens,
May-be we’ll be better off and blither, and learn something,
May-be it is yourself now really ushering me to the true songs, (who knows?)
May-be it is you the mortal knob really undoing, turning—so now finally,
Good-bye—and hail! my Fancy.

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first foray into Whitman territory, and I decided to go with the 1855 text of Leaves of Grass. My purist tendencies made me pick up this edition, despite knowing that Whitman preferred his “deathbed” edition, one that had seen him tinker with the main text for approximately 40 years. I have never watched Dead Poets Society, so I went in blind. I did know, however, that the famous “O Captain! My Captain” is not in this edition.

What an enlightening experience. I had heard shouts of critics (mostly the loud, erudite, and yet bleating voice of Bloom) who had placed this right beside Melville, Twain, and Emerson as the peak of American literature. I haven’t read much of Twain and Emerson, but I have read Melville. When Whitman is hitting, it’s hitting as good as anything I have read in Melville. There were entire pages of poetry that were nothing but flow. I would be wrapped with the warm hug of his words, not knowing where I was or what was happening, only to come out with goosebumps and a shiver down the nape of my neck. The origin of the American Religion, as Bloom mentions. I have yet to truly grasp the influence that this work has had on poets and writers after it. To think that Whitman and Melville were doing their thing at the same time and in the same location is wild to me.

Some special highlights in this collection:

• Whitman’s Preface. Before even getting into the main body of the work, you are slammed with his thoughts on America and living within what the country and its people represent for him. Interesting to see the strong theme of a unified collection of states, as the name of the country suggests, not just one mass nation. He finds similarity, sympathy, and unification in the sum of the whole of the parts, rather than a uniform glob.
• Song of Myself. Not surprising at all, the beating heart of the collection. Section 33 had me chanting and shedding tears. Also home to a classic: Do I contradict myself? Very well then…. I contradict myself. I am large…. I contain multitudes.
• To Think of Time. A theme that is sure to make me want to come back to a work again and again: the passage of time, ageing, senescence.
• There Was a Child Went Forth. Honestly, not sure how he is able to achieve this effect of a life contained in what is probably a span of 2-3 weeks. Perhaps there isn’t a time period set. Perhaps we are just looking back at a life already passed.
• Great Are the Myths. A perfect sign off.

I don’t usually rate poetry, but man. Away with that. A resounding 5 stars. I am headed to the bookstore to pick up the complete collection of Whitman right after this.

[Chavelli Sulikowska]

Atmospheric, ephemeral. Transcendental. It’s like going on a long walk during a misty rain – everything is being presented as new and fresh, but a little bit blurry and sometimes it is hard to see where you are or the way ahead.

There’s not much that Whitman fails to elucidate in this epic prose-poem. I read it in stages, slowly, while reading another novel. I think it was best digested this way. Subject wise it is very dense, but because of the poetic style, Whitman has had to choose his words with extreme care – making for a very precise, crystal cut piece of writing, that while seemingly sparse is actually very meaty.

Meaning and insightful messaging literally lift off the pages – in the most pertinent and evocative way. While every American may be encouraged to have a copy of Leaves of Grass on their bookshelf, I think it would be amiss to not recommend that everyone can benefit from reading Whitman’s masterpiece at least once in their life.

[Sreena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved reading this amazing book. Whitman has the ability to blur the lines between the self and the nature. For example, through the poem "Song of the Open Road" uses the metaphor of the road to symbolize life's limitless possibilities and encourages readers to connect with the beauty of the Earth.

Another central theme throught the book is about Unity, his verses envisions a harmonious society where differences of race, class, and nationality are transcended.

The collection concludes with "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd," an elegy for Abraham Lincoln that expresses grief on a national scale.

Whitman's poetic style is characterized by free verse, vivid imagery, and a fluid, cascading rhythm that mirrors life's cadence. It's a book that's gonna have a lasting impact on me, igniting contemplation about the intricacies of life and the interconnectedness of all living beings.

[Bryan Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Song of Myself" is a work of pure genius comparable to Shakespeare's greatest. I love these last three stanzas especially. When my wife and I were dating long distance and when I was deployed, I would end alot of my letters with "I stop somewhere waiting for you."

I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love.
If you want me again look for me under your bootsoles.
You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,

But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.

Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you.

[Nelson Zagalo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Confesso que parti para esta leitura com uma expectativa que se revelou completamente errada, e acredito que em parte por isso tenha a minha experiencia deste livro se tornado tão pouco interessante. A expectativa foi criada por todo o respeito que a obra de Whitman carrega, mas especialmente pela comparação constante que é feita com Pessoa, surgindo este rotulado por Harold Bloom como “Whitman português”, enquanto Lobo Antunes, numa entrevista de 2015 ao El País, dizia: “O livro do não sei o quê me aborrece até a morte. A poesia do heterónimo Álvaro de Campos é uma cópia de Walt Whitman”.

Deixando de lado o ridículo das afirmações de ALA, Whitman não é Pessoa, e “As Folhas da Erva” é uma obra completamente diferente do “Livro do Desassossego”. Pode-se analisar a poesia na sua forma, estrutura, ritmo, nas abordagens literárias que se quiser e dizer que os autores se aproximam, não vou dizer que não possa existir proximidade, mas quando falamos de sentimento, de perfuração do Eu, a escrita de Pessoa tem um registo completamente distinto. Enquanto Whitman fala liberalmente para os demais, fá-lo de forma bela, mas não sem pela repetição deixar de se tornar também petulante.

Li a tradução de Maria de Lourdes Guimarães, recipiente do Prémio Tradução do Pen Club em 2002, e comparada com a de José Agostinho Baptista, por quem li o excerto “Canto de Mim Mesmo”, pode até ser mais correta, formalmente mais próxima, contudo perde em intimidade e profundidade. O texto parece escrito de forma mais solta, desprendida, o que me faz afastar ainda mais do autor, e do livro. Pode até ser que assim seja no original, do que li em inglês não consigo chegar suficientemente dentro da língua para o aferir, mas de algum modo não cola com a imagem que tinha criado do autor, muito provavelmente pela culpa de ter povoado o meu imaginário com sentires de Pessoa. Ou então, é apenas a demonstração final de que não sou um verdadeiro amante de poesia, que nunca o fui, e dificilmente algum dia virei a ser.

Diz Whitman, "Propus-me representar, sem qualquer desânimo, a humanidade tal como ela é.”, e é isso que podemos dizer ter em “As Folhas da Erva”, com Whitman a dissertar sobre tudo e mais alguma coisa, levando-nos pela mão através da cultura americana do século XIX adentro. Planamos pelo meio da cultura feita de lugares e pessoas, passeamos, viajamos com o autor, mas para mim fica-se por isso mesmo. Com imensa pena minha, porque contava ter algo de muito diferente para dizer ao chegar a este momento.

[Chris_P]

I read it in my living room. Read it by the sea. Read it in the afternoon, at sunset and at night. I read it from mid-winter through mid-spring. Read it while sad, read it while content, read it while not giving a fuck. I read it and understood it, read it and misinterpreted it.
I read it.
Do I seem weird?
Do I care?