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Read Whitman's introduction to his first edition of Leaves of Grass, a volume of twelve poems and a preface. Learn about his poetic theory, his vision of America, and his commandments for poets and readers.
Whitman celebrates the American nation as the greatest poem and the ideal of man in this preface to his 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass. He praises the American people, nature, and culture, and claims that his poetry incarnates their spirit and reflects their geography and life.
Feb 21, 2014 · A poet reflects on Whitman's advice to American poets to enclose old and new, to explore the essences of things, and to avoid language for its own sake. The essay criticizes Language Poetry and praises Whitman's influence on poets like Sharon Olds, Galway Kinnell, and Muriel Rukeyser.
By some fortunate conversion of mysticism, talent, and singular vision of humanity, in 1855, Walt Whitman published his first edition of Leaves of Grass, a slim volume consisting of twelve untitled poems and a preface. He designed the cover, and typeset and paid for the printing of the book himself.
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Walt Whitman’s Preface to the first edition of Leaves of Grass is a text manifestly highlighting the bond between esthetics and politics. This programmatic statement, expressing Whitman’s utmost self-confidence as well as his faith in compatriots, has a double focus: poetry and nation.
- Marek Paryz
- 2012
In his preface to the first edition of Leaves of Grass, Whitman says that the “United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem.” He saw himself as literally an organic element of...
Summary for Leaves of Grass: “America” is the first word of Walt Whitman’s 1855 preface to Leaves of Grass, but this most American of poetic achievements is also the most universal.
