Customer Reviews

Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass (150th Anniversary Edition)

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Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass reveals Whitman's passion for nearly every aspect of life, from amazement of great ships to the enchantment cast by the beauty of a sunset. The juxtaposition of ideas from line to line creates a vivid imagery throughout the poetry that gives the reader a sense of life as a whole; Whitman describes the broadness and complexity of his own experiences and thoughts with ease. Large sections of the collection are devoted to discussion of a broad array of subjects. For example, section three, entitled "Song of Myself", extends for about fifty pages and poems within the section are distinguished only by numbers. Although the numbers work to separate the ideas found in the passage, the thoughts still flow into one another, causing the text to present a challenging and sometimes exhausting read. However, other sections such as "Whispers of Heavenly Death" give relief from the dense material. These contain shorter poems with titles that usually aim to indicate the theme of the poem. They are more concise and easily understood, because Whitman appears to organize his thoughts, condense them, and put each one into a titled poem. Overall, the entire collection presents classic free verse poetry that retains timeless concepts and revelations of human emotions. And because of the grand style and often elevated language in the declarations Whitman uses to communicate his position on elements such as life, death, emotion, nature, heroes, love, politics, etc., the collection could be seen as something near contemporary epic poetry.
Leaves of Grass also demonstrates Whitman's incredible self-awareness; the lines in the poem "O Living Always, Always Dying" are an example of his confidence as they state, "O me, what I was for years, now dead, (I lament not, I am content;) O to disengage myself from those corpses of me, which I turn and look at where I cast them, to pass on, (O living! always living!) and leave the corpses behind." The importance of this self-assurance is that Whitman creates a more stable bond between himself and the reader, because when he gives his advice the reader becomes more liable to accept it as a plausible truth.
This collection of poetry has much to offer to a variety of readers. Since it is so broad based, anyone should be able to read it and find some concept of interest. Whitman himself appears in his poetry as a diverse individual, and therefore more people can make a connection with him. And even if there happens to be little for one to relate to, the beautiful descriptions and classic language themselves can become valuable souvenirs in the reader's memory.

(This review is of Whitman's so-called "Deathbed Edition" and not the "150th Anniversary" *first* edition, which is where Amazon's computer placed it when it was submitted.).

Whitman is not the world's greatest poet - that's probably Shakespeare - but he's certainly been the most influential American poetic voice over the past century. He was the first poet to take all of American life as his subject. Ever the Romantic, Whitman was also the first poet to bring Romanticism into line with everyday reality.

His narcissism can be annoying, but his panoramic descriptions of life and the imagination have a singularly cumulative power. Some of his short poems ("A Noiseless Patient Spider" and "To a Locomotive in Winter")are individually memorable. The longer poem "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed," indirectly about the Lincoln assassination, is brilliant. I think most of his Civil War poems are overpraised, but "Come Up from the Fields, Father" is a masterpiece of its kind.

On the negative side, Whitman's transcendental philosophy, which he likes to indulge at length, will strike many readers as very sappy. His style, lots of details piled up on top of one another, grows monotonous, and readers who criticize his lack of traditional poetic craftsmanship cannot just be brushed off. My advice is to not to try to get through it all at once. The poems rarely become "difficult," they just tend to blur one into the other. Which may actually have been Whitman's intention.

Overall,there's never been a book quite like "Leaves of Grass," in any edition, and that's why it keeps selling as a true classic. In other words, a very old book that people still buy and read and enjoy even when no teacher is telling them to. Reading it will get you as close as one book can to actually living in nineteenth-century America, with all its follies, inequities, and promise.

According to the OUP website, this is the 1855 edition:

"The publication of Leaves of Grass in July 1855 was a landmark event in literary history. Ralph Waldo Emerson judged the book 'the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom America has yet contributed.' Nothing like the volume had ever appeared before. Everything about it--the unusual jacket and title page, the exuberant preface, the twelve free-flowing, untitled poems embracing every realm of experience--was new. The 1855 edition broke new ground in its relaxed style, which prefigured free verse; in its sexual candor; in its images of racial bonding and democratic togetherness; and in the intensity of its affirmation of the sanctity of the physical world.

"This Anniversary Edition captures the typeface, design and layout of the original edition supervised by Whitman himself. Today's readers get a sense of the 'ur-text' of Leaves of Grass, the first version of this historic volume, before Whitman made many revisions of both format and style. The volume also boasts an afterword by Whitman authority David Reynolds, in which he discusses the 1855 edition in its social and cultural contexts: its background, its reception, and its contributions to literary history. There is also an appendix containing the early responses to the volume, including Emerson's letter, Whitman's three self-reviews, and the twenty other known reviews published in various newspapers and magazines."

Hope this helps.

I don't usually read books full of poems, but I seen this book on TV and I ordered it; as I do with most books I will see in a drama show, and maybe the media. Anyway, I found it refreshing and for those skeptical...try it. Maybe you won't like it all, but if you find one or two interesting than it will be worth it. Expand your knowledge. Read different things. I did and actually really enjoyed this book.

The quality of this edition is high. As a collector of classic literature and poetry, this was a great buy.

Didn't know purchasing a "like new" book ment there would be a 1" rip on the front cover of the jacket...
Still reads fine though.