America’s Most Famous Poets: The Lives and Careers of Poe, Whitman, Dickinson, and Frost by Charles River Editors

Author:Charles River Editors
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Charles River Editors
Published: 2021-01-21T00:00:00+00:00

The first edition of Leaves of Grass contained only 12 poems, written on 95 small pages. The introduction made up nearly a fifth of the book, and it contained Whitman’s musings on his work. None of the poems had titles, so they are typically distinguished and referenced by their first lines. The longest poem, later called “Song of Myself,” made up over half of the actual text, with the other 11 poems being of more typical length.

An engraving of Whitman on the frontispiece to Leaves of Grass

There was a reason the collection was so small. Whitman himself later explained, “I have long teased my brain with visions of a handsome little book at last…for the pocket. That would tend to induce people to take me along with them and read me in the open air: I am nearly always successful with the reader in the open air. I have my own peculiar affection for November Boughs. It is the depository of many dreams and thoughts precious to me — of many sacred aspirational experiences, too holy to be argued about — of sayings, almost of mots: of so many unspeakable records, reminiscences, worked into the soil of my matured life and now at last projected in this compact shape. To have such a book — such a book produced in every way according to a feller's simple and unimpeded humors — that has been my idea, is still my idea."

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