Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman is America’s world poet—a latter-day successor to Homer, Virgil, Dante, and Shakespeare.
In Leaves of Grass (1855, 1891-2), he celebrated democracy, nature, love, and friendship. This monumental work chanted praises to the body as well as to the soul, and found beauty and reassurance even in death.
Along with Emily Dickinson, Whitman is regarded as one of America’s most significant 19th-century poets and his work has influenced many later poets, including Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, Allen Ginsberg, Simon Ortiz, C.K. Williams, and Martín Espada.