A review by academiceditor
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

4.0

This is a classic poetry collection, of course, and this edition reproduces it just as it was published in 1855, with the author's own meandering preface, in which he concludes:
"The poems distilled from other poems will probably pass away. The coward will surely pass away. The expectation of the vital and great can only be satisfied by the demeanor of the vital and great... The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it."

And the poetry that follows is emphatically American, individualistic and transcendentalist and humanist and sensual.

"I am of old and young, of the foolish as much as the wise,
Regardless of others, ever regardful of others,
Maternal as well as paternal, a child as well as a man,
Stuffed with the stuff that is coarse, and stuffed with the stuff that is fine,
One of the great nation, the nation of many nations—
the smallest the same and the largest the same,..."

Dover editions are usually quite affordable, so I was surprised that this (public domain) book has a list price of $12.95, which seems a little high since it is just the text and no additional commentary or notes. But it's a collection worth having, however you choose to read it.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.