Leaves of Grass Summary | Chapterly

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman: A Complete Summary "I celebrate myself, and sing myself, / And what I assume you shall assume, / For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you." Overview Leaves of Grass (first published in 1855, revised and expanded through six editions until 1891) is the most important collection of poetry in American literature. Walt Whitman spent his entire adult life writing, revising, and expanding it, and the result is a single vast poem-book that attempts nothing less than to contain the whole of American experience. The first edition, published at Whitman's own expense, contained twelve untitled poems and a preface. It was largely ignored and occasionally condemned -- Whitman's frank treatment of sexuality, his sprawling free verse, and his grandiose claims about his own significance offended Victorian sensibilities. Ralph Waldo Emerson was a notable exception, greeting the book with a letter that said, "I greet you at the beginning of a great career." Whitman created a new kind of poetry. He abandoned rhyme and meter in favor of long, flowing lines that mimicked the rhythms of speech, oratory, and the breath itself. He celebrated the body as well as the soul, the...