Leaves of Grass (Barnes & Noble Classics) - First and "Death-Bed" Editions

Walt Whitman, Karen Karbiener

Barnes & Noble

2005

960 páginas

1d 8h 0m

ISBN-13: 9781593080839

When Leaves of Grass was first published in 1855 as a slim tract of twelve untitled poems, Walt Whitman was still an unknown. But his self-published volume soon became a landmark of poetry, introducing the world to a new and uniquely American form. The "father of free verse," Whitman drew upon the cadence of simple, even idiomatic speech to "sing" such themes as democracy, sexuality, and frank autobiography.

Throughout his prolific writing career, Whitman continually revised his work and expanded Leaves of Grass, which went through nine, substantively different editions, culminating in the final, authoritative "Death-bed Edition." Now the original 1855 version and the "Death-bed Edition" of 1892 have been brought together in a single volume, allowing the reader to experience the total scope of Whitman's genius, which produced love lyrics, visionary musings, glimpses of nightmare and ecstasy, celebrations of the human body and spirit, and poems of loneliness, loss, and mourning.

Alive with the mythical strength and vitality that epitomized the American experience in the nineteenth century, Leaves of Grass continues to inspire, uplift, and unite those who read it.

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5 (Perfeito)

More than we know

As a millenial that recently has liked up with the latest Kendrick Lamar's album "Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers", Whitman's poems feel exactly like a deep symbolic Kendrick Lamar song. I know I'm getting the timeline wrongly here because there are hundreds of years separating Lamar and Whitman apart, but what I'm trying to say is that hip hop is not that far from what we consider classic literature as these modern poets like Kendrick himself and Nas (that I've mentioned before in another review) are capable of depicting feelings, places and life experiences onto their music crafts like these poets did back in the day.