About the Book: The Complete Poems of Walt Whitman
Walt Whitmans verse gave the poetry of America a distinctive national voice. It
reflects the unique vitality of the new nation, the vastness of the land and the
emergence of a sometimes troubled consciousness, communicated in language and
idiom regarded by many at the time as shocking. Whitmans poems are organic and
free flowing, fit into no previously defined genre and skilfully combine
autobiographical, sociological and religious themes with lyrical sensuality. His
verse is a fitting celebration of a new breed of American and includes Song of
Myself, Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, the celebratory Passage to India, and his