Walt Whitman: The Complete Poems

By Walt Whitman

Book Overview

From Leaves of Grass to "Song of Myself," all of Whitman's poetry in one volume

In 1855 Walt Whitman published Leaves of Grass, the work that defined him as one of America's most influential voices and that he added to throughout his life. A collection of astonishing originality and intensity, it spoke of politics, sexual emancipation, and what it meant to be an American. From the joyful "Song of Myself" and "I Sing the Body Electric" to the elegiac "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd," Whitman's art fuses oratory, journalism, and song in a vivid celebration of humanity. Containing all Whitman's known poetic work, this edition reprints the final, or "deathbed," edition of Leaves of Grass (1891-92). Earlier versions of many poems are also given, including the 1855 "Song of Myself."

- Features a completely new--and fuller--introduction discussing the development of Whitman's poetic career, his influence on later American poets, and his impact on the American cultural sensibility
- Includes chronology, updated suggestions for further reading, and extensive notes

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140424512
• ISBN13: 9780140424515
• Release Date: March 2005
• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Length: 896 Pages
• Weight: 1.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 5.2" x 7.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Always a good read

I love this book and the stories (poems) are beautiful and have so much meaning.It’s always a good time to pick this book up and enjoy

Excellent

Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" took various forms during the poet's lifetime. The 1855 lst edition was a thin pamphlet of 12 poems; the great final edition encompassed more than 300. It is the 1892 edition of "Leaves of Grass" commonly called "the Deathbed Edition"-that remains the bard's definitive version of what is indisputably and American classic. This special edition of "Leaves of Grass has been prepared in observance of the 100th anniversary of Whitman's death (March 26, 1892) and contains the entire "Deathbed Edition." In Leaves of Grass Witman abandoned traditonal Victorian poetic forms and language, handled decidedly unvonventional sujects & themes, and evoked so personal a tone and so candid a voice that in the book offended the few people who read it in the first voice that the book offended the few people who read it in the first edition. Only Ralph Waldo emerson hailed Whitman "at the beginning of a great careet." Today Whitman is revered for his accomplishment, and many of his poems are admired as among America's finest: the exquisite personal meditation of "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking"; the celebraton of the human body & spitit in song of Myself; the paeans to companionship of the Calamus poems; and the landmark elegy for Abraham Lincoln, "When Lilacs Last in the dooryard Bloom'd. Throughout Leaves of Grass we glimpse the sublime beauty of the natural world and fel Whitman's lovoing embrace of the common man.

Excelente

Creo que es uno de los mejores libros de poesía americana que he leido

An Incomparable Masterpiece

Words cannot describe the complexity of Leaves of Grass. I am constantly amazed at how well Walt Whitman holds it all together, keeping is hand on one object while amorously praising another. Everything works in perfect cohesion...An unabashed love of self, of nature, of all that is divine and not divine. Leaves of Grass is a truly inspired work...its words are boundless and fluent, rising in an intoxicating crescendo of naked emotion. "I am the poet of the Body; and I am the poet of the Soul." Throughout Leaves of Grass there is an overwhelming theme of unity...unity of man and nature, of man and man, of man and God. Excitable sputterings of ageless wisdom become scattered, but somehow stay anchored to the intricate framework of the book. This sounds contradicting, and it is reminiscent of a line from the book --"Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself; (I am large-I contain multitudes.) After reading this book, you will delight in how large Walt Whitman is.

Moving!! Colossal!! A Celebration of being Alive!!

The best way to appreciate Whitman is to read him aloud as you walk down a street or the country side.You'd feel electricity stirring within you and all else would change too.Even the inanimate would seeth with life and vitality amidst the gentle choreography of nature.Thats what happens to me when I read "The Song Of the Open Road".It's amazing that Whitman could capture the deep inherent things we feel inside,things that stir us inside out and yet find it difficult to express.A timeless clasic that will stir people from generation to generation.Nothing like it.