Leaves of Grass: Poems of Walt Whitman

By: Walt Whitman

Selected by: Lawrence Clark Powell

Woodcuts by John and Clare Romano Ross

Discarded hardcover 158 pages plus a "Whitman Reading List," an Index of Titles, an Index of First Lines, and an "About the Compiler" and "About the Artists"

Published: 1964

Genre: Poetry, American

I have, of course, been familiar with this title and with Walt Whitman for several decades. When I weeded my school library in the late 1990s and removed this title, I kept it with the intention that I would read it and then donate it. Well, over twenty-five years later, I'm finally following through! (I weeded it because it was not an appealing book for middle schoolers. It was a leftover relic of the high school collection.)

The Contents are as follows:

Walt Whitman

America the Beautiful

Earth, Sea, and Sky

I, Walt Whitman

Love Poems

War Poems

Come, Sweet Death

 

This book smells old . . . and I don't mean that in a good way. I don't see evidence of water damage or bugs, but it isn't terribly pleasant in scent. I noticed several places where Whitman wrote "Kanada" or "Manhatta" or other interesting place names. I'm not sure what that was about.

Page 20 (I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing): 

"For all that, and though the live-oak glistens there in Louisiana solitary in a wide flat space,

Uttering joyous leaves all its life without a friend a lover near,

I know very well I could not."

 

His vulnerability and admittance that he needs other people . . . I like how he ended this poem.

 

There were four poems that smacked me in the face with memories of college lit classes! Song of Myself (pg. 72),  I Sing the Body Electric (pg. 112), When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd (pg. 130), and O Captain! My Captain! (pg. 139) were all written by Whitman. How did I not remember that?! When I had to study and analyze poetry in college, it kind of ruined my love of poetry. I've been trying to get back to a place where I can read it, savor it, and enjoy it. But seeing each of these titles was so fun! I'd forgotten . . . 

 

Page  103 (When I Read the Book): 

"When I read the book, the biography famous,

And is this then (said I) what the author calls a man's life?

And so will come one when I am dead and gone write my life?

(As if any man really knew aught of my life,

When even I myself I often think know little or nothing of my real life,

Only a few hints, a few diffused faint clews and indirections

I seek for my own use to trace out here.)"

 

This poem made me think about life and death and eternity. And what DOES anyone else really know about us - our thoughts, feelings, struggles. What would Whitman himself think of what is "known" and written about him now? 

 

Page  115 (I Sing the Body Electric): 

"The thin red jellies within you or within me, the bones and the marrow in the bones,

The exquisite realization of health;

O I say these are not the parts and poems of the body only, but of the soul,

O I say now these are the soul!"

Reading this makes me want to find and re-read Ray Bradbury's short story of the same name . . . 

 

The compiler took the liberty of including only the poems (and / or stanzas of poems) that spoke to him most strongly. I liked what he wrote in the introductory chapter. His passion for Whitman's poetry is a big part of the reason I read this entire book. One must really love an author's work to read ALL of it. This selection of poems was interesting, but I've had enough Whitman for a while. It's interesting to me that the poet continued to add and edit to his collection throughout his life and there are many, many different versions of Leaves of Grass available.