Leaves of Grass
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This book is notable for its frank delight in and praise of the senses, during a time when such candid displays were considered immoral. Where much previous poetry, especially English, relied on symbolism, allegory, and meditation on the religious and spiritual, Leaves of Grass (particularly the first edition) exalted the body and the material world. Influenced by the Transcendentalist movement, itself an offshoot of Romanticism, Whitman's poetry praises nature and the individual human's role in it. However, Whitman does not diminish the role of the mind or the spirit; rather, he elevates the human form and the human mind, deeming both worthy of poetic praise.
There is no definitive edition of Leaves of Grass — Whitman continually revised his masterwork, adding poems to the book and, occasionally, removing them. The first edition, published on July 4, 1855 in Brooklyn, New York, was remarkable for its sense of novelty — the style and subject matter were almost entirely unknown before its publication. Whitman paid for and did much of the typesetting for the first edition, which he published anonymously. However, again flouting convention, a picture of Whitman appeared on the inside of the front cover, dressed in work clothes a jaunty hat, arms at his side, embodying the everyman persona he exalts in his poetry. The last version of Leaves of Grass, called the "Death Bed Edition", was published in 1891. 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. As the volume changed, so did the pictures of Whitman used to illustrate them — the last edition depicts an older Whitman with a full beard and jacket, appearing more sophisticated and wise.
Leaves of Grass has its genesis in an essay called "The Poet" by Ralph Waldo Emerson, published in 1843, [link] 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. Whitman, reading the essay, consciously set out to answer Emerson's call as he began work on the first edition of Leaves of Grass. When the book was first published, Whitman sent a copy to Emerson, whose letter in response helped launch the book to success. In his response, Emerson called the book "the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom America has yet contributed."
In 1882, Boston district attorney Oliver Stevens, urged by the New England Society for the Suppression of Vice, wrote to Whitman's publisher, James R. Osgood: "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." 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, returning the plates to Whitman, who found a new publisher in Rees Welsh. The publicity due to the case ended up increasing sales when the book was reissued.
The 'Drum-Taps' section was added in 1865, after the death of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln, Whitman's hero, had read and reportedly enjoyed the earlier version of Leaves of Grass, remarkably so at a time when much of the public had yet to accept the work.
In 1890, the critic and gay intellectual John Addington Symonds proposed a homosexual reading of the 'Calamus' poems. Whitman, indignant, denied what he presumably considered an accusation of immorality.
Late in life, Whitman used the phrase Leaves of Grass to refer to the calamus or sweet flag plant: “Leaves of Grass! The largest leaves of grass known! Calamus! Yes, that is Calamus! Profuse, rich, noble, upright, emotional!”* Gary Schmidgall (1998), Walt Whitman: A Gay Life, Plume. ISBN 0452279208
An unusual technical analysis of Whitman's use of language occurs in “Figures of Repetition in Whitman’s ‘Songs of Parting,’” Bulletin of the New York Public Library, Vol. 69 #2, February 1965, Vernon V Chatman III. Available through New York Public Library: http://www.nypl.org/
In contemporary society, Leaves of Grass experienced a rebirth in popularity in the late 1990s when it was revealed that President Bill Clinton had given it to Monica Lewinsky, the woman with whom he had had an affair. This became the subject of jokes, most famously on Saturday Night Live. Clinton was also rumored to have given it to his wife, Senator Hillary Clinton when the two were in college.
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