Leaves of Grass

Last updated

Leaves of Grass
Walt Whitman, steel engraving, July 1854.jpg
This steel engraving of Whitman served as the frontispiece to the first edition of Leaves of Grass, published on July 4, 1855
Author Walt Whitman
LanguageEnglish
GenrePoetry
PublisherSelf
Publication date
July 4, 1855
Publication placeUnited States
Text Leaves of Grass at Wikisource

Leaves of Grass is a poetry collection by American poet Walt Whitman. Though it was first published in 1855, Whitman spent most of his professional life writing, rewriting, and expanding Leaves of Grass [1] until his death in 1892. Six or nine individual editions of Leaves of Grass were produced, depending on how they are distinguished. [2] This resulted in vastly different editions over four decades. The first edition was a small book of twelve poems, and the last was a compilation of over 400.

Contents

The collection of loosely connected poems represents the celebration of his philosophy of life and humanity and praises nature and the individual human's role in it. Rather than focusing on religious or spiritual matters, Leaves of Grass focuses primarily on the body and the material world. Its poems do not rhyme or follow standard rules for meter and line length.

Leaves of Grass is regarded by many scholars as a completely do-it-yourself project. Whitman chose his idealized self as the subject of the book, created the style in which it was written and worked hard and intelligently to perfect the style over a period of six or seven years, creating the personality of the proletarian bard, the supposed writer of the poems.

Leaves of Grass is also notable for its discussion of delight in sensual pleasures during a time when such candid displays were considered immoral. The book was highly controversial during its time for its explicit sexual imagery, and Whitman was subject to derision by many contemporary critics. Over time, however, the collection has infiltrated popular culture and became recognized as one of the central works of American poetry.

Among the works in this collection are "Song of Myself", "I Sing the Body Electric", and "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking". Later editions would include Whitman's elegy to the assassinated President Abraham Lincoln, "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd".

Publication history and origin

Initial publication, 1855

The first edition of Leaves of Grass was published on July 4, 1855. The poem has its beginnings in an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson called "The Poet" (1844), 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. [3] This concept, along with the call to abandon strict rhyme and meter, were explored more fully in earlier works by John Neal: novels Randolph (1823) and Rachel Dyer (1828). Whitman, likely having read all three, consciously set out to answer their call. [4] [5] He thus began working on the first edition of Leaves of Grass. Whitman later commented on Emerson's influence, stating, "I was simmering, simmering, simmering; Emerson brought me to a boil." [3]

On May 15, 1855, Whitman registered the title Leaves of Grass with the clerk of the United States District Court, Southern District of New Jersey, and received its copyright. [6] The title is a pun, as grass was a term given by publishers to works of minor value, and leaves is another name for the pages on which they were printed. [7] The first edition was published in Brooklyn at the printing shop of two Scottish immigrants, James and Andrew Rome, whom Whitman had known since the 1840s. [8] The shop was located at Fulton Street (now Cadman Plaza West) and Cranberry Street, now the site of apartment buildings that bear Whitman's name. [9] [10] Whitman paid for and did much of the typesetting for the first edition himself.

A calculated feature of the first edition was that the book included neither the author nor the publisher's name (both the author and publisher being Whitman). Instead, the cover included an engraving by Samuel Hollyer depicting Whitman himself—in work clothes and a jaunty hat, arms at his side. [11] This figure was meant to represent the devil-may-care American working man of the time, one who might be taken as an almost idealized figure in any crowd. The engraver, later commenting on his depiction, described the character with "a rakish kind of slant, like the mast of a schooner".

The first edition contained no table of contents, and none of the poems had a title. Early advertisements appealed to "lovers of literary curiosities" as an oddity. [12] Sales of the book were few, but Whitman was not discouraged.

One paper-bound copy was sent to Emerson, who had initially inspired its creation. Emerson responded with a letter of heartfelt thanks, writing, "I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom America has yet contributed." He went on, "I am very happy in reading it, as great power makes us happy." [13] The letter was printed in the New York Tribune—without the writer's permission—and caused an uproar among prominent New England men of letters, including Henry David Thoreau and Amos Bronson Alcott, who were some of the few Transcendentalists who agreed with Emerson's letter and his statements regarding Leaves of Grass.

Dear Sir,

I am not blind to the worth of the wonderful gift of Leaves of Grass. I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit & wisdom that America has yet contributed. I am very happy in reading it, as great power makes us happy. It meets the demand I am always making of what seemed the sterile & stingy Nature, as if too much handiwork or too much lymph in the temperament were making our western wits fat & mean. I give you joy of your free & brave thought. I have great joy in it. I find incomparable things said incomparably well, as they must be. I find the courage of treatment, which so delights us, & which large perception only can inspire. I greet you at the beginning of a great career, which yet must have had a long foreground somewhere, for such a start. I rubbed my eyes a little to see if this sunbeam were no illusion; but the solid sense of the book is a sober certainty. It had the best merits, namely, of fortifying & encouraging.

I did not know until I, last night, saw the book advertised in a newspaper, that I could trust the name as real & available for a post-office. I wish to see my benefactor, & have felt much like striking my tasks, & visiting New York to pay you my respects.

R. W. Emerson

Letter to Walter Whitman July 21, 1855

The first edition was very small and collected only twelve unnamed poems in 95 pages. [7] Whitman once said he intended the book to be small enough to be carried in a pocket. "That would tend to induce people to take me along with them and read me in the open air: I am nearly always successful with the reader in the open air", he explained. [14] About 800 copies were printed, [15] though only 200 were bound in its trademark green cloth cover. [6] The only American library known to have purchased a copy of the first edition was in Philadelphia. [16] The poems of the first edition, which were given titles in later issues, included:

Republications, 1856–1889

Frontispiece of the 1883 edition Whitman, Walt (1819-1892) - 1883 - Engraving.jpg
Frontispiece of the 1883 edition

There have been held to be either six or nine editions of Leaves of Grass, the count depending on how they are distinguished: scholars who hold that an edition is an entirely new set of type will count the 1855, 1856, 1860, 1867, 1871–72, and 1881 printings; whereas others will include the 1876, 1888–1889, and 1891–1892 (the "deathbed edition") [2] releases.

The editions were of varying length, each one larger and augmented from the previous version—the final edition reached over 400 poems. The first 1855 edition is particularly notable for its inclusion of the poems "Song of Myself" and "The Sleepers".

1856–1860

It was Emerson's positive response to the first edition that inspired Whitman to quickly produce a much-expanded second edition in 1856. [13] This new edition contained 384 pages and had a cover price of one dollar. [14] It also included a phrase from Emerson's letter, printed in gold leaf: "I Greet You at the Beginning of a Great Career." [14] Recognized as a "first" for U.S. book publishing and marketing techniques, Whitman has been cited as "inventing" the use of the book blurb. Laura Dassow Walls, Professor of English at the University of Notre Dame, noted, "In one stroke, Whitman had given birth to the modern cover blurb, quite without Emerson's permission." [17] Emerson later took offense that this letter was made public< [18] and became more critical of his work. [19] This edition included "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry"—a notable poem.

The publishers of the 1860 edition, Thayer & Eldridge, declared bankruptcy shortly after its publication, and were almost unable to pay Whitman. "In regard to money matters", they wrote, "we are very short ourselves and it is quite impossible to send the sum." Whitman received only $250, and the original plates made their way to Boston publisher Horace Wentworth. [20] When the 456-page book was finally issued, Whitman said, "It is quite 'odd', of course", referring to its appearance: it was bound in orange cloth with symbols like a rising sun with nine spokes of light and a butterfly perched on a hand. [21] Whitman claimed that the butterfly was real in order to foster his image as being "one with nature". In fact, the butterfly was made of cloth and was attached to his finger with wire. [22] The major poems added to this edition were "A Word Out of the Sea" and "As I Ebb'd With the Ocean of Life".

1867–1889

The 1867 edition was intended to be, according to Whitman, "a new & much better edition of Leaves of Grass complete — that unkillable work!" [23] He assumed it would be the final edition. [24] The edition, which included the Drum-Taps section, its Sequel , and the new Songs before Parting, was delayed when the binder went bankrupt and its distributing firm failed. When it was finally printed, it was a simple edition and the first to omit a picture of the poet. [25]

In 1879, Richard Worthington purchased the electrotype plates and began printing and marketing unauthorized copies.

The 1889 (eighth) edition was little changed from the 1881 version, but it was more embellished and featured several portraits of Whitman. The biggest change was the addition of an "Annex" of miscellaneous additional poems. [26]

Sections

By its later editions, Leaves of Grass had grown to 14 sections.

Earlier editions contained a section called "Chants Democratic"; later editions omitted some of the poems from this section, publishing others in Calamus and other sections.

Deathbed edition, 1892

As 1891 came to a close, Whitman prepared a final edition of Leaves of Grass, writing to a friend upon its completion, "L. of G. at last complete — after 33 y'rs of hackling at it, all times & moods of my life, fair weather & foul, all parts of the land, and peace & war, young & old." [28] This last version of Leaves of Grass was published in 1892 and is referred to as the 'deathbed edition'. [29] In January 1892, two months before Whitman's death, an announcement was published in the New York Herald :

Walt Whitman wishes respectfully to notify the public that the book Leaves of Grass, which he has been working on at great intervals and partially issued for the past thirty-five or forty years, is now completed, so to call it, and he would like this new 1892 edition to absolutely supersede all previous ones. Faulty as it is, he decides it as by far his special and entire self-chosen poetic utterance. [30]

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. [2] As the volume changed, so did the pictures that Whitman used to illustrate them—the last edition depicts an older Whitman with a full beard and jacket.

Translations

In 1995, Dail Glaswellt , the Welsh language translation was published. [31]

Analysis

Whitman's collection of poems in Leaves of Grass is usually interpreted according to the individual poems contained within its individual editions. Discussion is often focused upon the major editions typically associated with the early respective versions of 1855 and 1856, to the 1860 edition, and finally to editions late into Whitman's life. These latter editions would include the poem "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", Whitman's elegy to Abraham Lincoln after his death.

While Whitman has famously proclaimed (in "Song of Myself") his poetry to be "Nature without check with original energy", scholars have discovered that Whitman borrowed from a number of sources for his Leaves of Grass. For his Drum-Taps , for instance, he lifted phrases from popular newspapers dealing with Civil War battles. [32] He also condensed a chapter from a popular science book into his poem "The World Below the Brine". [33]

In a constantly changing culture, Whitman's literature has an element of timelessness that appeals to the American notion of democracy and equality, producing the same experience and feelings within people living centuries apart. [34] Originally written at a time of significant urbanization in America, Leaves of Grass also responds to the impact such has on the masses. [35] The title metaphor of grass, however, indicates a pastoral vision of rural idealism.

Particularly in "Song of Myself", Whitman emphasizes an all-powerful "I" who serves as narrator. The "I" attempts to relieve both social and private problems by using powerful affirmative cultural images; [36] the emphasis on American culture in particular helped reach Whitman's intention of creating a distinctly American epic poem comparable to the works of Homer. [37]

As a believer in phrenology, Whitman, in the 1855 preface to Leaves of Grass, includes the phrenologist among those he describes as "the lawgivers of poets". Borrowing from the discipline, Whitman uses the phrenological concept of adhesiveness in reference to one's propensity for friendship and camaraderie. [38]

Thematic changes

Whitman edited, revised, and republished Leaves of Grass many times before his death, and over the years his focus and ideas were not static. One critic has identified three major "thematic drifts" in Leaves of Grass: the period from 1855 to 1859, from 1859 to 1865, and from 1866 to his death.

In the first period, 1855 to 1859, his major work is "Song of Myself", which exemplifies his prevailing love for freedom. "Freedom in nature, nature which is perfect in time and place and freedom in expression, leading to the expression of love in its sensuous form." [39] The second period, from 1859 to 1865, paints the picture of a more melancholic, sober poet. In poems like "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", the prevailing themes are of love and of death.

From 1866 to his death, the ideas Whitman presented in his second period had experienced an evolution: his focus on death had grown to a focus on immortality, the major theme of this period. Whitman became more conservative in his old age, and had come to believe that the importance of law exceeded the importance of freedom. His materialistic view of the world became far more spiritual, believing that life had no meaning outside of the context of God's plan. [39]

Critical response and controversy

Leaves of Grass (Boston: Thayer & Eldridge, year 85 of the States, 1860-61) (New York Public Library) 1860 LeavesOfGrass Thayer Eldridge NYPL.jpeg
Leaves of Grass (Boston: Thayer & Eldridge, year 85 of the States, 1860–61) (New York Public Library)

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 offensive. [29] An early review of the first publication focused on the persona of the anonymous poet, calling him a loafer "with a certain air of mild defiance, and an expression of pensive insolence on his face". [11] Another reviewer viewed the work as an odd attempt at reviving old Transcendental thoughts, "the speculations of that school of thought which culminated at Boston fifteen or eighteen years ago". [40] Emerson approved of the work in part because he considered it a means of reviving Transcendentalism, [41] though even he urged Whitman to tone down the sexual imagery in 1860. [42]

Poet John Greenleaf Whittier was said to have thrown his 1855 edition into the fire. [13] Thomas Wentworth Higginson wrote, "It is no discredit to Walt Whitman that he wrote Leaves of Grass, only that he did not burn it afterwards." [43] The Saturday Press printed a thrashing review that advised its author to commit suicide. [44]

Critic Rufus Wilmot Griswold reviewed Leaves of Grass in the November 10, 1855 issue of The Criterion , calling it "a mass of stupid filth", [45] and categorized its author as a filthy free lover. [46] Griswold also suggested, in Latin, that Whitman was guilty of "that horrible sin not to be mentioned among Christians", one of the earliest public accusations of Whitman's homosexuality. [40] Griswold's intensely negative review almost caused the publication of the second edition to be suspended. [47] Whitman incorporated the full review, including the innuendo, in a later edition of Leaves of Grass. [45]

Not all responses were negative, however. Critic William Michael Rossetti considered Leaves of Grass a classic along the lines of the works of William Shakespeare and Dante Alighieri. [48] A woman from Connecticut named Susan Garnet Smith wrote to Whitman to profess her love for him after reading Leaves of Grass and even offered him her womb should he want a child. [49] Although he found much of the language "reckless and indecent", critic and editor George Ripley believed "isolated portions" of Leaves of Grass radiated "vigor and quaint beauty". [50]

Whitman firmly believed he would be accepted and embraced by the populace, especially the working class. Years later, he regretted not having toured the country to deliver his poetry directly by lecturing: [51]

If I had gone directly to the people, read my poems, faced the crowds, got into immediate touch with Tom, Dick, and Harry instead of waiting to be interpreted, I'd have had my audience at once.

Censorship in the United States

On March 1, 1882, Boston district attorney Oliver Stevens wrote to Whitman's publisher, James R. Osgood, that Leaves of Grass constituted "obscene literature". Urged by the New England Society for the Suppression of Vice, his letter said:

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". [52]

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 when his suggested changes and deletions were ignored. [29] The poet found a new publisher, Rees Welsh & Company, which released a new edition of the book in 1882. [53] Whitman believed the controversy would increase sales, which proved true. Its banning in Boston, for example, became a major scandal and it generated much publicity for Whitman and his work. [54] Though it was also banned by retailers like Wanamaker's in Philadelphia, this version went through five editions of 1,000 copies each. [55] Its first printing, released on July 18, sold out in a day. [56]

Legacy

A 1913 illustrated edition of Leaves of Grass Leavesofgrass margaretcook.jpg.webp
A 1913 illustrated edition of Leaves of Grass

Its status as one of the more important collections of American poetry has meant that over time various groups and movements have used Leaves of Grass, and Whitman's work in general, to advance their own political and social purposes. For example:

Nevertheless, Whitman has been criticized for the nationalism expressed in Leaves of Grass and other works. In a 2009 essay regarding Whitman's nationalism in the first edition, Nathanael O'Reilly claims that "Whitman's imagined America is arrogant, expansionist, hierarchical, racist and exclusive; such an America is unacceptable to Native Americans, African-Americans, immigrants, the disabled, the infertile, and all those who value equal rights." [58]

Film and television

Literature

Music

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walt Whitman</span> American poet, essayist and journalist (1819–1892)

Walter Whitman Jr. was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature. Whitman incorporated both transcendentalism and realism in his writings and is often called the father of free verse. His work was controversial in his time, particularly his 1855 poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described by some as obscene for its overt sensuality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Song of Myself</span> Poem by Walt Whitman

"Song of Myself" is a poem by Walt Whitman (1819–1892) that is included in his work Leaves of Grass. It has been credited as "representing the core of Whitman's poetic vision."

"The Poet" is an essay by U.S. writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, written between 1841 and 1843 and published in his Essays: Second Series in 1844. It is not about "men of poetical talents, or of industry and skill in meter, but of the true poet." Emerson begins the essay with the premise that man is naturally incomplete, since he "is only half himself, the other half is his expression."

Body Electric may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">O Captain! My Captain!</span> Poem by Walt Whitman on the death of Abraham Lincoln

"O Captain! My Captain!" is an extended metaphor poem written by Walt Whitman in 1865 about the death of U.S. president Abraham Lincoln. Well received upon publication, the poem was Whitman's first to be anthologized and the most popular during his lifetime. Together with "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", "Hush'd Be the Camps To-Day", and "This Dust Was Once the Man", it is one of four poems written by Whitman about the death of Lincoln.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd</span> Poem by Walt Whitman on the death of Abraham Lincoln

"When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" is a long poem written by American poet Walt Whitman (1819–1892) as an elegy to President Abraham Lincoln. It was written in the summer of 1865 during a period of profound national mourning in the aftermath of the president's assassination on 15 April of that year.

<i>Howl and Other Poems</i> Book by Allen Ginsberg

Howl and Other Poems is a collection of poetry by Allen Ginsberg published November 1, 1956. It contains Ginsberg's most famous poem, "Howl", which is considered to be one of the principal works of the Beat Generation as well as "A Supermarket in California", "Transcription of Organ Music", "Sunflower Sutra", "America", "In the Baggage Room at Greyhound", and some of his earlier works. For printing the collection, the publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti, another well-known poet, was arrested and charged with obscenity. On October 3, 1957, Judge Clayton W. Horn found Ferlinghetti not guilty of the obscenity charge, and 5,000 more copies of the text were printed to meet the public demand, which had risen in response to the publicity surrounding the trial. Howl and Other Poems contains two of the most well-known poems from the Beat Generation, "Howl" and "A Supermarket in California", which have been reprinted in other collections, including the Norton Anthology of American Literature.

M. C. Gardner is an American playwright, biographer, and cultural essayist. His given name is Michael Charles. He was born in Glendale, CA July 1, 1951. He is one of the founders and editors of the literary website AnotherAmerica.org. He currently resides in Los Angeles, CA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pioneers! O Pioneers!</span>

"Pioneers! O Pioneers!" is a poem by the American poet Walt Whitman. It was first published in Drum-Taps in 1865. The poem was written as a tribute to Whitman's fervor for the great Westward expansion in the United States that led to things like the California Gold Rush and exploration of the far west.

"I Sing the Body Electric" is a poem by Walt Whitman from his 1855 collection Leaves of Grass. The poem is divided into nine sections, each celebrating a different aspect of human physicality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walt Whitman Birthplace State Historic Site</span> United States historic place

The Walt Whitman Birthplace State Historic Site is a state historic site in West Hills, New York, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The site preserves the birthplace of American poet Walt Whitman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hush'd Be the Camps To-Day</span> Poem by Walt Whitman about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln

"Hush'd Be the Camps To-Day" is a poem by Walt Whitman dedicated to Abraham Lincoln. The poem was written on April 19, 1865, shortly after Lincoln's assassination. Whitman greatly admired Lincoln and went on to write additional poetry about him: "O Captain! My Captain!", "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", and "This Dust Was Once the Man." "Hush'd" is not particularly well known, and is generally considered to have been hastily written. Some critics highlight the poem as Whitman's first attempt to respond to Lincoln's death and emphasize that it would have drawn comparatively little attention if Whitman had not written his other poems on Lincoln.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walt Whitman House</span> Last residence of poet Walt Whitman

The Walt Whitman House is a historic building in Camden, New Jersey, United States, which was the last residence of American poet Walt Whitman, in his declining years before his death. It is located at 330 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, known as Mickle St. during Whitman's time there.

"Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" by American poet Walt Whitman is one of his most complex and successfully integrated poems. Whitman used several new techniques in the poem. One is the use of images like bird, boy, sea. The influence of music is also seen in opera form. Some critics have taken the poem to be an elegy mourning the death of someone dear to him. The basic theme of the poem is the relationship between suffering and art. It shows how a boy matures into a poet through his experience of love and death. Art is a sublimation of frustrations and death is a release from the stress and strains caused by such frustrations. The language is similar to "There Was a Child Went Forth".

One’s Self I Sing” is a poem by Walt Whitman, published in 1867 as the first poem for the final phase of Leaves of Grass. Although the general attitude towards the poem was not favorable, in July 1855 Whitman received the famous letter from Ralph Waldo Emerson in appreciation of his words of strength, freedom, and power, as well as, “meets the demand I am always making of what seemed the sterile and stingy Nature.”

<span class="mw-page-title-main">This Dust Was Once the Man</span> 1871 elegiac poem by Walt Whitman about Abraham Lincoln

"This Dust Was Once the Man" is a brief elegy written by Walt Whitman in 1871. It was dedicated to Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, whom Whitman greatly admired. The poem was written six years after Lincoln's assassination. Whitman had written three previous poems about Lincoln, all in 1865: "O Captain! My Captain!", "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", and "Hush'd Be the Camps To-Day".

<i>Sequel to Drum-Taps</i> Book by Walt Whitman

Sequel to Drum-Taps: When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd and other poems is a collection of eighteen poems written and published by American poet Walt Whitman in 1865.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln</span> Relationship between 19th century poet and politician

The American poet Walt Whitman greatly admired Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, and was deeply affected by his assassination, writing several poems as elegies and giving a series of lectures on Lincoln. The two never met. Shortly after Lincoln was killed in April 1865, Whitman hastily wrote the first of his Lincoln poems, "Hush'd Be the Camps To-Day". In the following months, he wrote two more: "O Captain! My Captain!" and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd". Both appeared in his collection Sequel to Drum-Taps later that year. The poems—particularly "My Captain!"—were well received and popular upon publication and, in the following years, Whitman styled himself as an interpreter of Lincoln. In 1871, his fourth poem on Lincoln, "This Dust Was Once the Man", was published, and the four were grouped together as the "President Lincoln's Burial Hymn" cluster in Passage to India. In 1881, the poems were republished in the "Memories of President Lincoln" cluster of Leaves of Grass.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walt Whitman's lectures on Abraham Lincoln</span> Series of lectures between 1879 and 1890

The American poet Walt Whitman gave a lecture on Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, several times between 1879 and 1890. The lecture centered on the assassination of Lincoln, but also covered years leading up to and during the American Civil War and often included readings of poems such as "O Captain! My Captain!". The deliveries were generally well received, and cemented Whitman's public image as an authority on Lincoln.

"The Sleepers" is a poem by Walt Whitman. The poem was first published in the first edition of Leaves of Grass (1855), but was re-titled and heavily revised several times throughout Whitman's life.

References

  1. Miller 1962, p. 57.
  2. 1 2 3 "Leaves of Grass". World Digital Library . 1855. Retrieved August 3, 2013.
  3. 1 2 Reynolds 1995 , p. 82
  4. Reynolds 1995, pp. 41–42, 82.
  5. Rubin, Joseph Jay (1941). "John Neal's Poetics as an influence on Whitman and Poe". The New England Quarterly . 14 (2): 359–362. doi:10.2307/360926. JSTOR   360926.
  6. 1 2 Kaplan 1979 , p. 198
  7. 1 2 Loving 1999 , p. 179
  8. Reynolds 1995, p. 310.
  9. "A Gesture in Cranberry Street". Brooklyn Daily Eagle . June 1, 1931. p. 18. Retrieved October 27, 2015 via Newspapers.com.
  10. "MTA Neighborhood Maps: neighborhood". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. 2018. Retrieved October 1, 2018.
  11. 1 2 Callow 1992 , p. 227
  12. Reynolds 1995, p. 305.
  13. 1 2 3 Miller 1962 , p. 27
  14. 1 2 3 Reynolds 1995 , p. 352
  15. Reynolds 1995, p. 311.
  16. Nelson, Randy F. (1981). The Almanac of American Letters. Los Altos, California: William Kaufmann, Inc. p.  144. ISBN   0-86576-008-X.
  17. Walls, Laura Dassow Henry David Thoreau – A Life, 394. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2017. ISBN   978-0-226-59937-3
  18. Callow 1992, p. 236.
  19. Reynolds 1995, p. 343.
  20. Reynolds 1995, p. 405.
  21. Kaplan 1979, p. 250.
  22. "Walt Whitman and Leaves of Grass". The Library of Congress Exhibitions: American Treasures.
  23. Reynolds 1995, p. 474.
  24. Loving 1999, p. 314.
  25. Reynolds 1995, p. 475.
  26. Miller 1962, p. 55.
  27. "A Guide to Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass".
  28. Reynolds 1995, p. 586.
  29. 1 2 3 Miller 1962 , p. 36
  30. Kaplan 1979, p. 51.
  31. Dail Glaswellt (Leaves of Grass, 1855) gan Walt Whitman. Cyfieithwyd gan M Wyn Thomas. Cyfres Barddoniaeth Pwyllgor Cyfieithiadau'r Academi Gymreig – Cyfrol X [Welsh Academy Translations Committee Poetry Series – Volume X] Cardiff, 1995. ISBN   978-0906906163
  32. Genoways, Ted. "Civil War Poems in 'Drum-Taps' and 'Memories of President Lincoln'&thnisp;", A Companion to Walt Whitman, ed. Donald D. Kummings. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell, 2006: 522–538.
  33. ""The Ever-Changing Nature of the Sea": Whitman's Absorption of Maximilian Schele de Vere". Walt Whitman Quarterly Review 30 (2013), 57–77. Archived from the original on November 25, 2015. Retrieved September 1, 2016.
  34. Fisher, Philip (1999). Still the New World: American Literature in a Culture of Creative Destruction. Harvard University Press. p. 66. ISBN   0-674-00409-4.
  35. Reynolds 1995, p. 332.
  36. Reynolds 1995, p. 324.
  37. Miller 1962, p. 155.
  38. Mackey, Nathaniel. 1997. "Phrenological Whitman". Conjunctions 29(Fall). Archived from the original on February 2, 2016.
  39. 1 2 Bora, Indu. "A study of thematic drift in Whitman's Leaves of Grass". www.academia.edu. Retrieved November 13, 2015.
  40. 1 2 Loving 1999 , p. 185
  41. Loving 1999, p. 186.
  42. Reynolds 1995, p. 194.
  43. Broaddus, Dorothy C. (1999). Genteel Rhetoric: Writing High Culture in Nineteenth-Century Boston. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press. p.  76. ISBN   1-57003-244-0.
  44. "Loving Whitman". The New York Times .
  45. 1 2 Loving 1999 , p. 184
  46. Reynolds 1995, p. 347.
  47. Reynolds 1995, p. 348.
  48. Loving 1999, p. 317.
  49. Reynolds 1995, p. 404.
  50. Crowe, Charles (1967). George Ripley: Transcendentalist and Utopian Socialist. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press. p. 246.
  51. Reynolds 1995, p. 339.
  52. Loving 1999, p. 414.
  53. "Rare Books and Special Collections". University of South Carolina Libraries. Retrieved July 5, 2016.
  54. "The Walt Whitman Controversy: A Lost Document". VQR Online. Retrieved July 5, 2016.
  55. Loving 1999, p. 416.
  56. Reynolds 1995, p. 543.
  57. 1 2 "Whitman in Selected Anthologies: The Politics of His Afterlife". VQR Online. Retrieved November 30, 2015.
  58. O'Reilly, Nathanael. "Imagined America: Walt Whitman's Nationalism in the First Edition of Leaves of Grass". Irish Journal of American Studies
  59. Kenneth M. Price (2005). To Walt Whitman, America. University of North Carolina Press. p. 120. ISBN   9780807876114.
  60. Michael C. Cohen (2015). The Social Lives of Poems in Nineteenth-Century America. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 163. ISBN   9780812291315.
  61. Ryan, Maureen (September 3, 2012). "'Breaking Bad' Finale: Poetic Justice". The Huffington Post . Retrieved May 25, 2017.
  62. Caldwell, Stephanie. "'Breaking Bad' Takes Mid-Season Break". StarPulse. Retrieved July 5, 2016.
  63. Thier, Dave (September 12, 2012). "Breaking Bad "Gliding Over All:" There's No Redemption for Walter White". Forbes . Retrieved September 10, 2012.
  64. Andrew Lapin (June 7, 2012). "Movie Review: Back To Woodstock, And To The Spirit Of The '60s". NPR . Retrieved July 2, 2020.
  65. "All Truths Wait in All Things". BYU TV. April 4, 2015. Archived from the original on July 16, 2016. Retrieved July 5, 2016.
  66. Duncan Cooper (December 6, 2013). "Why Did Lana Del Rey Make a 30-Minute Video About God, and What Does It Mean for Me?". The Fader .
  67. Donald D. Kummings (2009). A Companion to Walt Whitman. John Wiley & Sons. p. 349. ISBN   9781405195515.
  68. Weinert-kendt, Rob (January 6, 2016). "Lauren Gunderson on 'I and You,' a Play With an Explosive Twist". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved October 31, 2016.
  69. Jane M. Lindskold (1993). Roger Zelazny. Twayne Publishers.
  70. Allie Funk (July 24, 2015). "How 'Paper Towns' Walt Whitman Book Plays A Major Part In Solving The Mystery of Margo". Bustle .
  71. "Vaughan Williams: Symphony No.1, 'A Sea Symphony'". Classic FM .
  72. "The World of Classics & Progressives". Billboard . Vol. 84, no. 32. August 5, 1972. p. 21.
  73. Folsom, Ed. "In Memorium: Robert Strasburg 1915–2003". Walt Whitman Quarterly Review. University of Iowa Press, Volume #21, November 3, 2004: 189–191
  74. "Shades of Cool: 12 of Lana Del Rey's Biggest Influences". Rolling Stone . July 16, 2014.
  75. Drei Hymnen, Op. 14 (Hindemith) : Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
  76. "The Prologue". Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington, Indiana. October 5, 2021. Retrieved September 14, 2024. ... we will highlight a musical composition entitled "Weave In, My Hardy Life" by composer Aaron Travers ...

Sources