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Leaves of Grass

by Walt Whitman

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Written during the mid-19th century in the United States, Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" is a pioneering collection of free-verse poetry that seeks to celebrate the American spirit, nature, and the human body. First published in 1855, the volume began with twelve poems and was repeatedly revised and expanded by the author over several decades, eventually comprising over four hundred poems. The work reflects Whitman’s aims to break away from traditional poetic form, emphasising rhythm and cadence rooted in speech. Its themes include democracy, sensuality, and the interconnectedness of all life, which often provoked controversy due to its explicit content and candid treatment of the human form.

The collection's openness regarding sexuality and body imagery led to censorship and rejection in some circles. Despite this, it became influential within American literature, contributing to the development of modern poetic expression. Whitman’s innovative style and subject matter mark a significant departure from prior poetic conventions, aligning with broader cultural shifts in the United States during the 19th century.

From the opening pages

Ever and ever yet the verses owning—as, first, I here and now Signing for Soul and Body, set to them my name, Walt Whitman Contents One’s-Self I Sing As I Ponder’d in Silence In Cabin’d Ships at Sea To Foreign Lands To a Historian To Thee Old Cause Eidolons For Him I Sing When I Read the Book Beginning My Studies Beginners To the States On Journeys Through the States To a Certain Cantatrice Me Imperturbe Savantism The Ship Starting I Hear America Singing What Place Is Besieged? Still Though the One I Sing Shut Not Your Doors Poets to Come To You Thou Reader From Pent-Up Aching Rivers I Sing the Body Electric A Woman Waits for Me Spontaneous Me One Hour to Madness and Joy Out of the Rolling Ocean the Crowd Ages and Ages Returning at Intervals We Two, How Long We Were Fool’d O Hymen! O Hymenee! I Am He That Aches with Love Native Moments Once I Pass’d Through a Populous City I Heard You Solemn-Sweet Pipes of the Organ Facing West from California’s Shores As Adam Early in the Morning Scented Herbage of My Breast Whoever You Are Holding Me Now in Hand For You, O Democracy These I Singing in Spring Not Heaving from My Ribb’d Breast Only Of the Terrible Doubt of Appearances The Base of All Metaphysics Recorders Ages Hence When I Heard at the Close of the Day Are You the New Person Drawn Toward Me? Roots and Leaves Themselves Alone Not Heat Flames Up and Consumes Trickle Drops City of Orgies Behold This Swarthy Face I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing To a Stranger This Moment Yearning and Thoughtful I Hear It Was Charged Against Me The Prairie-Grass Dividing When I Peruse the Conquer’d Fame We Two Boys Together Clinging A Promise to California Here the Frailest Leaves of Me No Labor-Saving Machine A Glimpse A Leaf for Hand in Hand Earth, My Likeness I Dream’d in a Dream What Think You I Take My Pen in Hand? To the East and to the West Sometimes with One I Love To a Western Boy Fast Anchor’d Eternal O Love! Among the Multitude O You Whom I Often and Silently Come That Shadow My Likeness Full of Life Now Youth, Day, Old Age and Night Pioneers! O Pioneers!

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