The focus of the work is what Whitman refers to as “one’s self,” referring to Whitman’s self, the reader’s self, and an all-encompassing self within the nation. The opening segment, “Inscriptions,” gives the reader an overview of the work and an introduction to the author’s perspective. Leaves of Grass is divided into several sections. However, it has become one of the most enduring works of American poetry, still widely read and studied today as one of Whitman’s defining works. Highly controversial upon its release due to its explicit sexual imagery, the book was panned by most poetry critics during Whitman’s lifetime. The format of the poems shifts radically, and does not tend to follow standard rules for meter and line length. Heavily influenced by the Transcendentalist movement and the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the poems fuse praise of the human form and the human mind.

Unlike most poems at the time, which relied on religious symbolism and allegory, Leaves of Grass concentrated on exalting the body and the material world. The book of poems explores the theme of delight in sensual pleasures at a time when candid displays of pleasure were considered immoral. The poems are loosely connected, representing Whitman’s celebration of his philosophy of life and humanity.

The original volume was a small book of twelve poems, while the final version was a compilation of more than four hundred. Leaves of Grass (1855), a poetry collection by American author and poet Walt Whitman, was rewritten and reissued multiple times during Whitman’s lifetime.

Leaves of grass 1855