Reviews

Live Oak, with Moss by Walt Whitman

endemictoearth's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring

4.5

loverofwisdomandmen's review

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emotional slow-paced

5.0

WALT WHITMAN JUST LIKE ME FR AAA IM GETTING MY HANDS ON A COPY OF THIS BEAUTIFUL COLLECTION OF POEMS AND ART PIECES AS SOON AS I CAN!-!1!:!
“It’s a metaphor for… gay”

elliotvanz's review

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emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

Absolutely lovely. Both the words and the illustrations. Worth savoring.

hannasandmann's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional inspiring reflective relaxing sad fast-paced

5.0

I heartily recommend reading it twice!

It gained a whole lot of meaning and profoundness for me during the second read. Loved it! 

jaredpence's review against another edition

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3.0

Great poems, interesting art.

thegayngelgabriel's review against another edition

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5.0

Beautiful, well-made, so earnest it makes my heart hurt.

jasonfurman's review against another edition

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3.0

Amazing illustrations by Brian Selznick who never fails to be amazing (see [b:The Invention of Hugo Cabret|9673436|The Invention of Hugo Cabret|Brian Selznick|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1422312376s/9673436.jpg|527941], [b:Wonderstruck|10128428|Wonderstruck|Brian Selznick|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327885739s/10128428.jpg|14826219], and [b:The Marvels|23566909|The Marvels|Brian Selznick|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1453389120s/23566909.jpg|43165888]). I wish I actually enjoyed the Walt Whitman poems they were illustrating. And the academic afterward seemed very good but was a bit too detailed on Whitman for my taste. In some dimension this book is superlative, just not completely to my taste--and that may be my own failing.

The book is a set of homoerotic poems that Whitman wrote but never published and were unearthed in recent years. They are in the style of [b:Leaves of Grass|27494|Leaves of Grass|Walt Whitman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1418012204s/27494.jpg|28117] and (showing my ignorance) have a high ratio of exuberance to rhyme/wordcraft. Selznick illustrated the poems not in parallel to the text but as an extended wordless graphical preface followed by the poems themselves and a detailed, more academic afterward by [a:Karen Karbiener|606628|Karen Karbiener|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]. All together in a beautifully published volume.

iammandyellen's review against another edition

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3.0

I too would love to have seen what Maurice Sendak made of this, tho I wonder why there is such a desire to illustrate Whitman at all? The poems are fascinating & heartbreaking.

pagesandnights's review

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4.25

Poetry does not usually speak to me but I knew I would be biased towards Live of, With Moss since it has so many elements that I am passionate about. I appreciated it in its entirety. The book itself is 12 poems with beautifully done illustrations introducing them, and some enlightening analysis at the end. I particularly loved III.

j0s's review against another edition

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emotional

4.25