The Portable Walt WhitmanPenguin Books, 1977 - 648 pages When Walt Whitman self-published Leaves of Grass in 1855 it was a slim volume of twelve poems and he was a journalist and poet from Long Island, little-known but full of ambition and poetic fire. To give a new voice to the new nation shaken by civil war, he spent his entire life revising and adding to the work, but his initial act of bravado in answering Ralph Waldo Emerson's call for a national poet has made Whitman the quintessential American writer. This rich cross-section of his work includes poems from throughout Whitman's lifetime as published on his deathbed edition of 1891, short stories, his prefaces to the many editions of Leaves of Grass, and a variety of prose selections, including Democratic Vistas, Specimen Days, and Slang in America. |
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Page 126
... Body Electric ] The bodies of men and women engirth me , and I engirth them , They will not let me off nor I them till I go with them and respond to them and love them . Was it dreamed whether those who corrupted their own live bodies ...
... Body Electric ] The bodies of men and women engirth me , and I engirth them , They will not let me off nor I them till I go with them and respond to them and love them . Was it dreamed whether those who corrupted their own live bodies ...
Page 130
... body and you are the gates of the soul . The female contains all qualities and tempers them .... she is in her place .... she moves with perfect balance , She is all things duly ... body is sacred and the woman's body is 130 LEAVES OF GRASS.
... body and you are the gates of the soul . The female contains all qualities and tempers them .... she is in her place .... she moves with perfect balance , She is all things duly ... body is sacred and the woman's body is 130 LEAVES OF GRASS.
Page 133
... body ? For they do not conceal themselves , and cannot conceal themselves . Who degrades or defiles the living human body is cursed , Who degrades or defiles the body of the dead is not more cursed . [ 1855 ] [ There Was a Child Went ...
... body ? For they do not conceal themselves , and cannot conceal themselves . Who degrades or defiles the living human body is cursed , Who degrades or defiles the body of the dead is not more cursed . [ 1855 ] [ There Was a Child Went ...
Contents
Editors Note to Leaves of Grass | 28 |
Song of the BroadAxe 1856 | 136 |
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry 1856 | 149 |
Copyright | |
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America amid arms beautiful birds blood body breath Brooklyn Calamus Camden comrades crowd curious dark dead death democracy Democratic Vistas divine earth edition Emory Holloway eyes face feet forever Gay Wilson Allen give hand head hear hospital hour human Journeyers land Leaves of Grass light literature living Long Island look lovers MALCOLM COWLEY Mark Van Doren moon mother nation never night pass Passage to India perfect perhaps person Pioneers poems poet poetry rest river scene shape ship shore sick side sight silent singing sleep soldiers song soul sound Specimen Days spirit stand stars street strong sweet thee things thou thought to-day trees voice waits walk Walt Whitman wild wind woman women woods word wounded York York city young