LEAVES OF GRASS

WALT WHITMAN

LEAVES OF GRASS is a controversial poetry collection by the American poet

Walt Whitman. Among the poems of the collection are “Song of Myself”, “I Sing the
Body Electric”, “out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking”, and in later editions,
Whitman’s elegy to the assassinated President Abraham Lincoln- “When Lilacs
Last in The Dooryard Bloom’d”.
Whitman spent his entire life writing “Leaves of Grass” revising it in several
editions until his death. This book is notable for its delight in and praise of the
senses during a time when such candid displays were considered immoral. Where
much previous poetry relied on the religious, spiritual ; “Leaves of Grass” exalted
the body an the material world.
Influenced by the transcendentalist movement, itself an offshoot of Romanticism,
Whitman’s poetry praises nature and the individual human’s role in it.
Moreover, Whitman does not diminish the role of the mind or the spirit, rather, he
elevates the human form and the human mind.
Particularly in “Song of Myself”, Whitman emphasized in all-powerfull “I” who
serves as narrator. The “I” tries to relieve both social an private problems by using
powerful affirmative cultural images.
The emphasis of American culture helped reach Witman’s intention of creating
a distinctly American epic poem comparable to the works of Homer. Originally
written at a time of significant urbanization in America, Leaves of Grass responds to
the impact urbanization has on the masses.
By the time his last edition called “Deathbed edition “ was completed, Leaves of
Grass had grown from a small book of 12 poems to almost 400 poems.
The last edition depicts (describes) an older Whitman more sophisticated and wise.

Themes approached :
The complete self, The body and the soul; nature; time; cosmic; consciousness;
mysticism; death; transcendentalism; democracy.

For Whitman, spiritual communion depends on physical contact. The body is the
vessel that enables the soul to experience the world. Therefore the body is something
to be worshiped and given a certain primacy. Eroticism figures significantly in
Whitman’s poetry. This is something that got him in no small amount of trouble
during his lifetime.
Whitman shows an affection for the bodies of others, both men and women.

Whitman’s style remains consistent throughout; the poetic structures he employs

are unconventional but reflects his democratic ideals. Anecdotes are another
favorite devise. He often uses obscure, foreign, or invented words. The difficulty of
his language also mirrors the necessary imperfection of connections between
individuals: no matter how hard we try, we can never completely understand
eachother.