Walt Whitman: Selected Poems 1855-1892Macmillan, 1999 M08 23 - 530 pages A fully unexpurgated collection that restores the sexual vitality and subversive flair suppressed by Whitman himself in later editions of Leaves of Grass. A century after his death, Whitman is still celebrated as America's greatest poet. In this startling new edition of his work, Whitman biographer Gary Schmidgall presents over 200 poems in their original pristine form, in the chronological order in which they were written, with Whitman's original line breaks and punctuation. Included in this volume are facsimiles of Whitman's original manuscripts, contemporary - and generally blistering - reviews of Whitman's poetry (not surprisingly Henry James hated it), and early pre-Leaves of Grass poems that return us to the physical Whitman, rejoicing - sometimes graphically - in homoerotic love. Unlike the many other available editions, all drawn from the final authorized or "deathbed" Leaves of Grass, this collection focuses on the exuberant poems Whitman wrote during the creative and sexual prime of his life, roughly between l853 and l860. These poems are faithfully presented as Whitman first gave them to the world - fearless, explicit and uncompromised - before he transformed himself into America's respectable, mainstream Good Gray Poet through 30 years of revision, self-censorship and suppression. Whitman admitted that his later poetry lacked the "ecstasy of statement" of his early verse. Revealing that ecstasy for the first time, this edition makes possible a major reappraisal of our nation first great poet. |
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Contents
WHITMANS PREFACE | 3 |
Long I thought that knowledge alone would suffice | 8 |
Not heat flames up and consumes | 14 |
WHITMANS UNSIGNED REVIEW BROOKLYN DAILY TIMES 1855 | 112 |
LEAVES OF GRASS 1856 | 119 |
Poem of Wonder at The Resurrection of The Wheat | 130 |
Poem of The Road | 140 |
Poem of Procreation | 149 |
O hymen O hymenee | 222 |
UNPUBLISHED INTRODUCTION 1861 | 267 |
Come Up from the Fields Father | 273 |
A Farm Picture | 278 |
Look Down Fair Moon | 284 |
When Lilacs Last in the DoorYard Bloomd | 291 |
O Captain My Captain | 298 |
Reconciliation | 304 |
Bunch Poem | 155 |
Poem of The Propositions of Nakedness | 157 |
Poem of The Sayers of The Words of The Earth | 160 |
RALPH WALDO EMERSONS CONGRATULATORY LETTER | 166 |
A CONVERSATIONAL POSTSCRIPT 1889 | 172 |
LEAVES OF GRASS 1860 | 175 |
ProtoLeaf | 177 |
8 Splendor of falling day | 188 |
Historian you who celebrate bygones | 190 |
To oratiststo male or female | 191 |
Poets to come | 192 |
Me imperturbe | 193 |
I was looking a long while | 194 |
1 Elemental drifts | 195 |
O bitter sprig 99 | 198 |
I sit and look out 99 | 199 |
Now I make a leaf of Voices | 200 |
Lift me close to your face till I whisper | 201 |
A Word Out of the Sea | 208 |
1 To the garden the world | 214 |
From that of myself | 215 |
O furious O confine me not | 217 |
You and Iwhat the earth is we are | 218 |
Native moments when you come upon me | 219 |
Once I passed through a populous city | 220 |
In the new garden in all the parts | 221 |
LEAVES OF GRASS 187172 | 313 |
Proud Music of the Storm | 323 |
This Dust was Once the Man | 329 |
The Untold Want | 332 |
One Song America Before I Go | 340 |
By Broad Potomacs Shore | 348 |
Eidolons | 360 |
Wandering at Morn | 366 |
The Prairie States | 372 |
Mannahatta | 386 |
After the Dazzle of Day | 389 |
After the Supper and Talk | 395 |
AUTHORS NOTE TO 189192 EDITION | 401 |
The Rounded Catalogue Divine Complete | 407 |
Poems Published Before Leaves or Posthumously | 413 |
Significant Passages from Whitman Manuscripts | 423 |
Whitmans Observations on Leaves of Grass 188892 | 438 |
Contemporary Reviews of Leaves of Grass | 448 |
November Philadelphia Evening Bulletin 30 October 1888 | 478 |
99 | 483 |
Notes on the Poems | 485 |
Early in the morning 222 | 498 |
517 | |
523 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
America amid arms beautiful behold blood body breast breath Brooklyn Calamus Calamus poems chant comrade crowd curious dark dead death Democratic divine dream earth Eidolons Enfans d'Adam eyes face faith feel future give hand hear heart heroic nudity human immortal Kanada Kosmos land Leaves of Grass light lines literature living look lover mother nations Nature never night NUPM Old Cause pass Passage to India passions past perfect persons phrenology poems poet poetic poetry present prose Ralph Waldo Emerson rest Richard Maurice Bucke sail ships shore silent sing sleep song soul sound spirit stand stars strong sweet thee things thor thou thought to-day touch Traubel true song utterance verse voice wait walk Walt Whitman whoever winds woman women wonderful words write young