Essential Whitman (Essential Poets) (Paperback)

by Walt Whitman (Author) "The poems of Walt Whitman meant little to me when I read them in high school and college..." (more)
Key Phrases: line after line, Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman, Song of Myself

Editorial Reviews

Review
Song Of Myself: 26
Bivouac On A Mountain Side
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
Elemental Drifts: 1
Elemental Drifts: 2
Elemental Drifts: 3
Elemental Drifts: 4
A Glimpse
The Last Invocation
Once I Pass'd Through A Populous City
Out Of The Cradle Endlessly Rocking
Poem Of The Body
Poem Of The Propositions Of Nakedness
Reconciliation
The Runner
Sleep-chasings
Song Of Myself
Sparkles From The Wheel
There Was A Child Went Forth
Vigil Strange I Kept On The Field One Night
When I Heard At The Close Of The Day
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder® --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
The poems of Walt Whitman meant little to me when I read them in high school and college. Lucidly, when I was teaching at the University of Grenoble in my late twenties, I was required to give a course on Whitman. My experience of Leaves of Grass then was intense.... Soon I understood that poetry could be transcendent, hymn-like, a cosmic song, and yet remain idolatrously attached to the creatures and things of our world .... Once again, as when I first began writing, it seemed it might be possible to say everything in poetry.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Ecco; Subsequent edition (November 20, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0880014792
• ISBN-13: 978-0880014793
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 5.2 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,732,851 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Whitman via Kinnell, July 20, 2003

By	Michael J. Mazza (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

"The Essential Whitman" consists of the poetry of Walt Whitman as selected by Galway Kinnell, who also provides an introduction. In his intro Kinnell notes that Whitman continually revised his great poetry, but not always, in Kinnell's opinion, for the better. Kinnell further notes that the versions of the poems in this book incorporate the best aspects of Whitman's many versions. He writes, "Some of the poems in this book, therefore, are in versions that have never existed before." Notes at the end of the collection show what versions were incorporated into the poems as reconstituted by Kinnell.

I'm not enough of a Whitman scholar to thoroughly critique Kinnell's technique and choices. But I do find his approach fascinating, and I enjoyed the poetry for what it is.

The poetry in this book is an expansive, passionate testament with the flavor of prophecy--the prophecy, that is, of a playful and joyous heretic. Whitman shows a compassion for and identification with all human beings, regardless of race, gender, or religion. He is a great forerunner of 20th and 21st century multiculturalism, and shows a sympathy with the suffering and the oppressed.

His vision moves from the intimacy of a blade of grass to the movement of the stars; his eye takes in all of human history and prehistory. His writing is marked by delicious irony and paradox; he is bold enough to say "let one line of my poems contradict another!" At times the poetry seems to reflect the experience of an altered state of consciousness. Whitman's "barbaric yawp" is one of the essential voices of American poetry, and Kinnell has put together a marvelous sampling of that voice.