Total Page : 128
Publisher : Research Education Association
Publication Date : 1999 01 25
>> Oxford 150th Anniversy Edition Edited by David S Reynolds
Well it s in the form of the original in it s size typeface etc and has a few reviews and letters in the back but I must admit I m disappointed I was expecting this book to either be leather bound it looks it in the Amazon picture or designed like the original cloth with engravings and what all But instead you get a cheap glossy jacket with a blurry poorly printed image of the original cover You need to squint to even notice the engravings And the back flap has a big annoying picture of David Reynold s face which is very not in the spirit of Walt Whitman s book Other than that I guess it s probably the closest we ll get to holding the original in our hands
>> Absolutely Indispensable
Walt Whitman is one of the most famous widely read and influential poets one of the few who can truly be said to have revolutionized poetry Free verse s true originator he broke free of formal shackles way back in 1855 nearly three quarters of a century before it became standard He proved that great poetry could be written without traditional trappings and it has never been the same Many including me think it has gone too far in the other direction but this is not Whitman s fault his work is undeniably great and we have in many was long since suffered weak imitations There is simply no equaling him much less replacing him his work is as essential a part of American literature as Mark Twain s He is indeed the Twain of verse to be anachronistic as monumental all important and epoch forming as Twain was in prose Technicalities aside this had almost as much to do with subject matter Whitman famously self proclaimed America has a bard at last and so it did He freed American poetry from European heritage making truly national art that both defined its era and instantly became timeless speaking to the heart of all that America and Americans stood and stand for The great poet of democracy he preached the gospel of westward expansion celebrated America s natural beauty extolled its unique history and exciting new status championed its values chronicled the Civil War dramatized the struggle over slavery and other national debates and generally held forth about the country s unmatched cosmopolitanism in all areas from ethnicity to landscapes He also somehow managed to write about sexuality with unprecedented openness and vigor striking a blow against Victorian prudery that would eventually prove fatal and even laying the foundations for non heterosexual identity Accomplishing even one of these deeds would have been truly remarkable Whitman did them all
Yet he published only one poetry book 1855 s Leaves of Grass which went through several updates through his 1892 death He not only continuously added poems but extensively revised older ones sometimes dropping some and moving others For example the original and final versions of his masterpiece Song of Myself are substantially different Many key poems were there from the start but some of the most famous and best including the Civil War and associated Abraham Lincoln ones came later None of the many poems added late in life were nearly on par with prior masterpieces but nearly all were worthwhile Whitman wanted the 1892 edition to supersede the rest and editors have nearly always complied it is by far the most popular and widely available and the one that nearly all readers will want
And what a version it is hundreds of poems plus several prose prefaces and a prose afterword over nearly five hundred pages To have so much greatness in one book especially from one person is near unbelievable the depth of Whitman s achievement simply staggers Nearly all the poems are worthy and many are great quite a few are pure masterpieces Included are some of the all time great poems like Song of Myself I Sing the Body Electric Crossing Brooklyn Ferry Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom d By Blue Ontario s Shore and Passage to India plus many superb short poems Anyone even remotely interested in poetry must be familiar with these there have always been some for whom Whitman just does not click but even they must be prepared to deal with him so great is his influence
Great as the 1892 Edition is it is possible for both hard cores and casuals to complain Many of the latter will say that it is simply too imposing too many poems too many pages I certainly would not advise anyone who has read very little or no Whitman to jump right in it is definitely a lot to take in at once and the poems are by no means of equal quality or importance One would be far better off reading a selected edition first but everyone should come here eventually indeed nearly all will want to after the first tantalizing taste Conversely diehards have always complained about various aspects from poems it leaves out to various changes made to included ones The most important omission in my view is Whitman s original prose introduction which served as his poetic manifesto The dedicated will of course want to seek out this and every version of every poem but their complaints are of interest to very few The 1892 Edition will satisfy nearly everyone
This is not the most deluxe version one can find various critical editions with extensive commentary notes etc as well as variorum versions However this is one of the most widely available and is very affordable Taking this into account it has fairly generous supplemental material a good basic Introduction a short glossary and bibliography and an index of titles and first lines with original and final publication dates This is the ideal Leaves of Grass for most but everyone should have it in some form It is one of very few books truly essential for all Even those who do not like poetry may well like Whitman and anyone even remotely interested in American literature history or culture must be acquainted Leaves so thoroughly has it penetrated popular culture and entered the American consciousness Bookshelves missing this might almost as well be empty
>> Pioneers Oh Pioneers
If you ve been watching television over the past few months then you ve likely seen the Levi s commercial that features quotes from Walt Whitman s poetry Pioneers oh pioneers Leaves of Grass is one of the greatest books of poetry ever written by an American I ve rated this only three stars because the edition I m writing about is a Kindle Edition which doesn t include access to an efficient table of contents If you want to navigate through the poems you will have to create bookmarks yourself Otherwise the content is nothing short of fantastic Whitman was a unique voice in American letters and Leaves of Grass is his masterwork
