Leaves of Grass. Walt Whitman. Open Contents © Copyright 2004 - 2005 by ShockVision e-Publications Inc. No portion of the eBook may be reproduced in any way without the owner's written permission. Walt Whitman. Leaves of Grass. drifting between various other jobs. Between 1841 and 1859, Walt About the author Whitman edited one newspaper in New Orleans (the Crescent), two in New York, and four newspapers in Long Island. While in New Orleans, Whitman witnessed the slave auctions that were a regular Walt Whitman (May 31, feature of the city at that time. At this point, Whitman began writing 1819 - March 26, 1892) was an poetry, which took precedence over other activities. American poet and humanist born on Long Island, New York. The 1840s saw the first fruits of Whitman's long labor of words, His most famous work is the col- with a number of short stories published, beginning in 1841, and one lection of poetry, Leaves of Grass. year later the temperance novel, "Franklin Evans," published in New York. However, one often-reprinted short story, "The Child's Cham- Whitman was born in a farmhouse near present-day South Hun- pion," dating from 1842, is now recognized to be the most important of tington, New York, in Long Island, New York, in 1819, the second of these early works. It established the theological foundation for nine children. In 1823, the Whitman family moved to Brooklyn. Whitman's lifelong theme of the profoundly redemptive power of manly Whitman attended school for only six years before starting work as a love. printer's apprentice. He was almost entirely self-educated, reading especially the works of Homer, Dante, and Shakespeare. The first edition of Leaves of Grass was self-published at Whitman's expense in 1855, the same year Whitman's father passed After a two year apprenticeship, Whitman moved to New York away. At this point, the collection consisted of 12 long, untitled poems. City and began work in various print shops. In 1835, he returned to Both public and critical response was muted. A year later, the second Long Island as a country school teacher. Whitman also founded and edition, including a letter of congratulations from Ralph Waldo Emerson, edited a newspaper, the Long-Islander, in his hometown of Hun- was published. This edition contained an additional twenty poems. tington in 1838 and 1839. Whitman continued teaching in Long Emerson had been calling for a new American poetry; in Leaves of Island until 1841, when he moved back to New York City to work as Grass, he found it. a printer and journalist. He also did some freelance writing for popu- lar magazines and made political speeches. In 1840, he worked for After the Civil War, Walt Whitman found a job as a clerk in the Martin Van Buren's presidential campaign. Department of the Interior. However, when James Harlan, Secretary of the Interior, discovered that Whitman was the author of the "offen- Whitman's political speeches attracted the attention of the sive" Leaves of Grass, he fired Whitman immediately. Tammany Society, which made him the editor of several newspapers, none of which enjoyed a long circulation. For two years he edited the By the 1881 seventh edition, the collection of poetry was quite influential Brooklyn Eagle, but a split in the Democratic party re- large. By this time Whitman was enjoying wider recognition and the moved Whitman from this job for his support of the Free-Soil party. edition sold a large number of copies, allowing Whitman to purchase a He failed in his attempt to found a Free Soil newspaper and began home in Camden, New Jersey. Contents © Copyright 2004 - 2005 by ShockVision e-Publications Inc. No portion of the eBook may be reproduced in any way without the owner's written permission. Walt Whitman. Leaves of Grass. exhibited in these lines from Leaves of Grass (1855), his most famous Whitman died on March 26, 1892, and was buried in Camden's poem: Harleigh Cemetery, in a simple tomb of his own design. I too lived, Brooklyn of ample hills was mine, A dedication to Whitman is carved on the side of a rock face at Bon I too walked the streets of Manhattan island, and bathed in the Echo provincial park in Ontario, Canada. The inscription is the follow- waters around it ing exerpt from one of his poems. I too felt the curious abrupt questionings stir within me, In the day, among crowds of people, sometimes they came upon My foothold is tenon’d and mortis’d in granite; me, I laugh at what you call dissolution; In my walks home late at night, or as I lay in my bed, they came And I know the amplitude of time. upon me, I too had been struck from the float forever held in solution, For many, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson stand as the two I too had received identity by my body, giants of 19th century American poetry. Whitman's poetry seems more That I was, I knew was of my body - and what I should be, I quintessentially American; the poet exposed common America and knew I should be of my body. spoke with a distinctly American voice, stemming from a distinct Ameri- can consciousness. The power of Whitman's poetry seems to come from the spontaneous sharing of high emotion he presented. American poets in the 20th century (and now, the 21st) must come to terms with Whitman's voice, insofar as it essentially defined democratic America in poetic language. Whitman utilized creative repetition to produce a hypnotic quality that creates the force in his poetry, inspiring as it informs. Thus, his poetry is best read aloud to experience the full mes- sage. His poetic quality can be traced indirectly through religious or quasi religious speech and writings such as the Harlem Renaissance poet James Weldon Johnson. This is not to limit the man's influence; the beat poet Allen Ginsberg's reconciliation with Whitman is re- vealed in the former's poem, A Supermarket in California. The work of former United States Poet Laureate, Robert Pinsky, bears Whitman's unmistakable imprint as well. Whitman's break with the past made his poetry a model for the French symbolists (who in turn influenced the surrealists) and "mod- ern" poets such as Pound, Eliot, and Auden. The flavor of this power is Contents © Copyright 2004 - 2005 by ShockVision e-Publications Inc. No portion of the eBook may be reproduced in any way without the owner's written permission. Walt Whitman. Leaves of Grass. Book 27. Prayer of Columbus Contents Book 28. The Sleepers Book 29. To Think of Time [Author’s Dedication] Book 30. Darest Thou Now O Soul Book 1. Inscriptions. Book 31. Thou Mother with Thy Equal Brood Book 2. Starting from Paumanok Book 32. Thou Orb Aloft Full-Dazzling Book 3. Song of Myself Book 33. Years of the Modern Book 4. Children of Adam Book 34 Sands at Seventy. Book 5. Calamus. Book 35. Good-bye My Fancy. Book 6. Salut au Monde! Book 7. Song of the Open Road Book 8. Crossing Brooklyn Ferry Click on a number in the list to go to the Book 9. Song of the Answerer first page of that Book. Book 10. Our Old Feuillage Book 11. A Song of Joys A detailed listing of all the poems in the Book 12. Song of the Broad-Axe volume can be found on the next 4 pages. Book 13. Song of the Exposition Note: Book 14. Song of the Redwood-Tree The best way to read this ebook is in Full Book 15. A Song for Occupations Screen mode: click View, Full Screen to set Book 16. A Song of the Rolling Earth Adobe Acrobat to Full Screen View. This mode Book 17. Birds of Passage. allows you to use Page Down to go to the next Book 18. A Broadway Pageant page, and affords the best reading view. Press Escape to exit the Full Screen View. Book 19. Sea-Drift. Book 20. By the Roadside. Book 21. Drum-taps. Book 22. Memories of President Lincoln. Book 23. By Blue Ontario's Shore Book 24. Autumn Rivulets. Book 25. Proud Music of the Storm Book 26. Passage to India Contents © Copyright 2004 - 2005 by ShockVision e-Publications Inc. No portion of the eBook may be reproduced in any way without the owner's written permission. Walt Whitman. Leaves of Grass. Spontaneous Me Detailed Contents One Hour to Madness and Joy Out of the Rolling Ocean the Crowd Ages and Ages Returning at Intervals Book 1. Inscriptions. We Two, How Long We Were Fool'd One's-Self I Sing O Hymen! O Hymenee! As I Ponder'd in Silence I Am He That Aches with Love In Cabin'd Ships at Sea Native Moments To Foreign Lands Once I Pass'd Through a Populous City To a Historian I Heard You Solemn-Sweet Pipes of the Organ To Thee Old Cause Facing West from California's Shores Eidolons As Adam Early in the Morning For Him I Sing When I Read the Book Book 5. Calamus. Beginning My Studies In Paths Untrodden Beginners Scented Herbage of My Breast To the States Whoever You Are Holding Me Now in Hand On Journeys Through the States For You, O Democracy To a Certain Cantatrice These I Singing in Spring Me Imperturbe Not Heaving from My Ribb'd Breast Only Savantism Of the Terrible Doubt of Appearances The Ship Starting The Base of All Metaphysics I Hear America Singing Recorders Ages Hence What Place Is Besieged? When I Heard at the Close of the Day Still Though the One I Sing Are You the New Person Drawn Toward Me? Shut Not Your Doors Roots and Leaves Themselves Alone Poets to Come Not Heat Flames Up and Consumes To You Trickle Drops Thou Reader City of Orgies Behold This Swarthy Face Book 2.