Leaves of Grass

There is no one in this great wide world of America whom I love and honour so much – Oscar WildeI am not blind to the worth of the wonderful gift of Leaves of Grass. I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has ever produced – Ralph Waldo EmersonWhitman, the great poet, has meant so much to me. Whitman the one man breaking a way ahead. Whitman the one pioneer … Ahead of Whitman, nothing. Ahead of all poets, pioneering into the wilderness of unopened life, Whitman. Beyond him, none – D. H. LawrenceHis [Whitman’s] Song of Himself was a song for humanity, too. And in spite of all that has happened since, it still echoes here * Independent *Whitman had a fluid personality that made him able to “merge” invisibly, and with great empathy, with the images of other people and events that lodged in his mind … unprecedented assembling of rhythm, sound, language and images * New York Times *[Leaves of Grass is] more about the pandemic of possibility, a fever rush of extraordinary beauty in the face of all the available evidence. – Colum McCann * The Week *

Walt Whitman was born in Long Island on 31 May 1819 to Walter Whitman, a carpenter and farmer, and Louisa Van Velsor Whitman. Walt was one of eight siblings and was taken out of school at the age of eleven to start work, but he continued to read voraciously and visit museums. He worked first as a printer, then briefly as a teacher before settling on a career in journalism. He self-published the first version of Leaves of Grass, which consisted of only twelve poems, in 1855. By the time he died in 1892, and despite arousing considerable controversy, he enjoyed unprecedented international success and to this day is considered to be one of America’s greatest poets.