Leaves of Grass, with Autobiography

567 pp. Deep green cloth boards. Gilt title on spine and front board, top page ridge gilt. Including a fac-simile autobiography variorum readings of the poems and adepartment of gathered leaves. The collection of loosely-connected poems represents the celebration of his philosophy of life and humanity, and praises nature and the individual human's role in it. Rather than focusing on religious or spiritual matters, Leaves of Grass focuses primarily on the body and the material world. With one exception, its poems do not rhyme or follow standard rules for meter and line length. Leaves of Grass is regarded by many scholars as a completely "do-it-yourself" project. Whitman chose his idealized self as subject of the book, created the style in which it was written (working hard and intelligently to perfect the style over a period of six or seven years), and created the personality of the proletarian bard—the supposed writer of the poems. Leaves of Grass is also notable for its discussion of delight in sensual pleasures during a time when such candid displays were considered immoral. The book was highly controversial during its time for its explicit sexual imagery, and Whitman was subject to derision by many contemporary critics. Over time, however, the collection has infiltrated popular culture and became recognized as one of the central works of American poetry.--Wikipedia