Leaves of Grass (Bantam Classics)
by Walt Whitman
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Book Reviews of Leaves of Grass (Bantam Classics)
Book Review: Tempered Thoughts
Summary: 5 Stars
While I agree with most of the reviews written here, I must take issue with them somewhat. First, I also believe that Walt Whitman is one of the finest poets that ever lived and certainly the finest when it comes to being a proud American. Although, he comes from a time in America that was like that of Socrates and Plato in the past, a time when the most important thing in life was not work, or success or career, but the exploration of one's inner thoughts. Were we living in a time when such a thing was permitable rather than the constant search for the almighty dollar, we might see more such poets. But he and his era are long gone. The art of the word is certainly Walt's. I ask you to also purchase a dictionary when you purchase this or any of his volumes, not because it is difficult to read, but because Whitman doesn't always use a word for it's main meaning, often burying a meaning of a word or line in the third or fourth meaning, completely changing the meaning of the poem. It is such fun and exactly what I believe Walt Whitman is meant to be, a journey and a trip to the celebration of life. A celebration that also includes a look at the worst that is us and the best that is us. When the reviewer wrote that his work is a study of a narcissist, I have to disagree. Yes, it begins his work with Song of Myself and it is an epic poem. But while he celebrates Walt, he is truly celebrating all of us as amazing creatures in nature. He celebrates every molecule of us, the amazing capabilities, perfumes and evilness of us. He studies us as though someone would study the amazing ability of a tree to grow or a flower to bloom. We are nature and he recognizes that and it is amazing to him. Clearly, he had bravado and self-love, but in the most non-imposing way. We wishes all of us to realize the miracle that is us. To believe that he is only about himself is to miss the point of Walt. Also, it is important to read the various editions of this volume. He wrote and rewrote Leaves of Grass continuously throughout his life adding and deleting poems as he saw them. The best way to see his journey is to read the first edition (complete with his swaggering picture), where he was not listed as the author to the final "deathbed edition" that is truly a masterpiece and you can see what he learns, what he tries to teach you and how deeply you will be moved by him. One last hint - read "Song of Myself" outloud. It becomes truly a song about life and read outloud can certainly stir your soul.Book Review: Walt Whitman, A Cosmos
Summary: 5 Stars
Walt Whitman is the father of free verse and his main work, Leaves of Grass, is perhaps one of the greatest works by an American poet ever written.He was born on Long Island and grew up in Brooklyn. Being a native of Brooklyn myself I feel a deep connection to him. When I read his work I am instantly transported into his universe, a universe which is the domain of every man. For Walt Whitman was possibly the greatest democrat who ever lived.
In his great poem, Song of Myself, his opening lines are: "I celebrate myself, and what I assume you shall assume, for every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you." This is not only good old American horse sense, it's good science. For everything comes forth from that great source of life the sun, and none can be better for it, only different.
Walt was a born visionary. And I surmise that he must have had quite a few mystical experiences before he set out to write his great poems. You can really get a sense of his mystical connection when you read poems like When I Heard The Learned Astronomer or even in Song of Myself when he proclaims: "There was never any more inception than there is now, nor any more youth or age than there is now; and will never be any more perfection than there is now, nor any more heaven or hell than there is now." Notice the emphasis on the word now. Mystics through the ages have said that God is beyond time, that God is the eternal presence, and that he exists in a timeless eternity sometimes referred to as the eternal now. I believe that's what Walt Whitman is telling us.
I could go on and on singing the praises of Walt Whitman. His work is inexhaustable and profound and wise beyond measure. But there are innumerable books written about him. However, I believe to catch the essence of the man you have to read his poems. And if you let him in he will lead you to yourself and you will see the world through fresh eyes .... and you will see how the perennial grass covers only the outer layer of this our miraculous universe.
Book Review: !!!EMERALD!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
leaves of grass
not only the greatest selling poet who has been dead for more than fifty years, not only the poet whose translations are regularly read abroad, not only the poet whose name has in-spired countless others, not only the poet who freed us from the manacles of rhyme and decapitated the tyranny of meter but also a man of enthusiasm, a titan, a man whose soul floods with belch, fume and quake, a man who confronts the ravenous centaurs of humdrum and blugeons them swiftly in a spasmo of frenzy-fire, a wanderer, a searcher, one whose mind travels vig-orously throughout the cosmimosa and embellishes it with jac-inths of thought and blooms of popy! not only a man of gargan-tuan passions, one who rages in the face of metallic storm but also a man whose depressions, fogs, glooms and sensitivity to flowers, softness and the defenseless bloom in stark heart-throb. no doubt he is a poet well worth a place beside such other titano-giants such as goethe, milton and homer, for he too sings the song of war, his book is a chanson of bellum for he sings of the battle of the passions, the climaximum of the emo-ceans, he challenges the raw specters of gash, their eyes oozing of slime-drab and rather than succumb to the oxen of indiffer-ence he instead triumphs over the gray and his book thus re-sounds in shinning claria! his is an adventure of thought sur-real in its gusto, jumping in its excitica and wild in its leap of ideas! thank celestium that he liberated us poets from the ab-surd manacles of rhyme and meter and we can now surge through horiza with countless new devices, metaphors and similies awaiting in our platoons! he is the cougar of innova-tion, the lion of spasmo and the giant of vision.
author of Lorelei Pursued and Wrestles with God
Book Review: MISREPRESENTATION: This is 1892 Deathbed Edition!
Summary: 2 Stars
Although the poems are beautiful... and I certainly don't mean to bash Whitman with this 2-star rating... it's the wrong book. NOT AS ADVERTISED. This was supposed to be the original 1855 edition. That's what I expected, and therefore (in my mind) what I was paying for. The original 1855 edition, according to modern literary analysis, was the "strongest/purest" version. It was the true starting point of Whitman's own (and consequently America's) poetic awakening. Consisting of just 12 "perfect" poems, it was THAT edition which Emerson praised so highly.
Whitman never put out another book... just revision after revision, addition after addition, and edition after edition of Leaves Of Grass... until you wind up with "the deathbed edition" which is a severely bloated and different work from the original.
I was very much looking forward to a slender volume of the original edition. Which is what the item description says this is. It's not. Be forewarned... it's the Deathbed Edition of 1892... nearly 500 pages. And frankly, there are MUCH better versions of the deathbed edition. Sturdier versions with nicer pages exist (this is a pretty weak paperback, printed on pulp pages), with better footnotes and more authoritive introductions. Shop around.
To sum up... the 2 star rating is because lying about which edition this is, is a terrible way to sell the book. Whitman was fantastic and the poetry contained in the book itself is first rate. It just would have been nice to get what I paid for. The "true" editon, written by a YOUNG Whitman at the height of his powers...
Book Review: The Greatest American Poet's Masterpiece.
Summary: 5 Stars
Giving Walt Whitman only five stars out of five does him an injustice. Walt Whitman is perhaps the finest American poet ever as well as the most quintessentially American poet. His poetry never dates itself. It is as contemporary as if he just wrote it last week. Walt Whitman's poems overflow with life and energy, pulsate with excitement, and contain deep though simply-told truths that rival those of any wise man in history. Much maligned during life and after for the eroticism of his writing, he never let his inhibitions hold back his writing and thus it sparkles with honesty. Walt Whitman was also a great patriot, who loved America in a way modern Americans would do well to emulate. He sought it out on its own terms and recorded what he saw in his poetry. His war poems, written during the American Civil War, are some of the best war poems existing in literature. Whitman knew his subject, having spent much time caring for the wounded soldiers in the hospitals and visiting battlefields. His poems create vivid pictures, richly textured, as real as you read them as if you were seeing the scene yourself. And the dialog he carries on with the reader makes the reader feel that Whitman, if he were still alive, would like nothing more than to sit down and discuss life. He is one of the few poets who manages to establish a rapport with his reader, to anticipate his reader's reactions and talk to each one through the poem. Walt Whitman should be read by any and every literate American. 'Leaves of Grass' will change anyone who dares to read it.