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sofiakws 's review for:
Funny that this and Sylvia Plath's Ariel would be my introduction to poetry collections, as they are on opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of mood. Yet both are very good in their own way. The imagery, the flow, the melody of Walt Whitman's writing is very satisfying to read. It's definitely more accessible than Plath, but that's no surprise. Whitman speaks so hopefully about humans and nature and life, appreciating the beauty in the simplest leaves of grass, the beauty in the most downtrodden prostitutes and beggars. His America is a different America from that of today (a younger, more hopeful place), and his sometimes quite blatant patriotism does give me a taste of another perspective, which is interesting. I think my favourite poems were probably the last 2, "Who Learns My Lesson Complete" and "Great Are the Myths," but maybe that's just because I found it easier and easier to understand his style as I went along. Anyhow, this was just so beautiful and eye-opening to the beauty of the world, so delightfully earnest. Would recommend if you, like me, are trying to get into poetry and maybe don't know quite where to start. This is the everyman's poetry in that I don't think it takes a particularly literary mind to understand it, but is also very sophisticated and philosophical in its ideas. Simple yet vast.