Leaves of Grass is a collection of poems by American poet Walt Whitman, the best-known of which are
"Song of Myself", "I Sing the Body
Electric", "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking", and his elegy to the assassinated
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln,
"When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd".
Overview
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, especially English, relied on symbolism, allegory, and meditation on
the religious and spiritual, Leaves of Grass
(particularly the first edition) exalted the body and 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. However, Whitman does not diminish the role of the mind or the spirit; rather,
he elevates the human form and the human mind, deeming both worthy of poetic praise.
Editions and origin
There have been held to be either six or nine editions of Leaves of Grass, the count depending on how a given scholar
distinguishes between issues and editions. Scholars who hold that an edition is an entirely new set of type will count the 1855,
1856, 1860, 1867, 1871-72, and 1881. Others add in the 1876,1888-89, and 1891-92 (the "Deathbed Edition"). Whitman continually
revised his masterwork, adding, shifting, and occasionally removing poems.[1]
The first edition, published on July 4, 1855, at Fulton Street,
Brooklyn, New York, was remarkable for its sense of novelty;
the style and subject matter were almost entirely unknown before its publication. Whitman paid for and did much of the
typesetting for the first edition, which he published anonymously. However, again flouting
convention, a picture of Whitman appeared on the inside of the front cover, dressed in work clothes and a jaunty hat, arms at his
side in a pose embodying the everyman persona he exalts in his
poetry.
The Drum-Taps section was added in 1865, after the death of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln, Whitman's hero, had read and reportedly enjoyed the earlier version of
Leaves of Grass, remarkably so at a time when much of the public had yet to accept the work. The last version of Leaves
of Grass, called the Death Bed Edition, was published in 1892. By the time this last
edition was completed, Leaves of Grass had grown from a small book of 12 poems to a hefty tome of almost 400 poems. As the
volume changed, so did the pictures of Whitman used to illustrate them—the last edition depicts an older Whitman with a full
beard and jacket, appearing more sophisticated and wise.
Leaves of Grass has its genesis in an essay called
The Poet by Ralph Waldo
Emerson, published in 1843 (full
text), which expressed the need for the United States to have its own new and unique poet to write about the new country's
virtues and vices. Whitman, reading the essay, consciously set out
to answer Emerson's call as he began work on the first edition of Leaves of Grass. When the book was first published,
Whitman sent a copy to Emerson, whose letter in response helped launch the book to success. In his response, Emerson called the
book "the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom America has yet contributed."
Censorship controversy
In 1882, Boston district attorney Oliver Stevens, urged by
the New England Society for the Suppression of Vice, wrote to Whitman's
publisher, James R. Osgood: "We are of the opinion that this book is such a book as
brings it within the provisions of the Public Statutes respecting obscene literature and suggest the propriety of withdrawing the
same from circulation and suppressing the editions thereof." Stevens demanded the removal of the poems "A Woman Waits for Me" and
"To a Common Prostitute", as well as changes to "Song of Myself", "From Pent-Up Aching Rivers", "I Sing the Body Electric",
"Spontaneous Me", "Native Moments", "The Dalliance of the Eagles", "By Blue Ontario’s Shore", "Unfolded Out of the Folds", "The
Sleepers", and "Faces".
Whitman rejected the censorship, writing to Osgood, "The list whole & several is
rejected by me, & will not be thought of under any circumstances." Osgood refused to republish the book and returned the
plates to Whitman.
The poet found a new publisher, Rees Welsh & Company, which released a new edition of the
book in 1882.[1]
The controversy increased sales.[citation needed]
Later criticism and fame
When the book was first published, Whitman was fired from his job at the Department of the Interior after Secretary of the Interior James
Harlan read it and said he found it very offensive.
The anthology was featured in the film The Incredibly
True Adventure of Two Girls in Love as the girls bond over reading it, and it also is the basis of some of the
narration of the film.
The phrase "leaves of grass" also made an appearance in The Notebook. Whitman's
poems played a role in the movie as well, with Noah (the main character) having read them growing up to recover from a stutter. A
professor at Ally's college also writes the phrase on the chalkboard and asks the question, "Do I contradict myself?" Whitman's
great-grand-niece, Veronica Whitman, told the Brooklyn Eagle the inclusion was "a real thrill. [Whitman] would have wanted
to be in a major motion picture." [citation needed]
20th century British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams's choral work Toward
the Unknown Region features lyrics from the first poem, Darest Thou Now O Soul in book XXX (Whispers of Heavenly
Death).
References
External links
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