The Works of Walt WhitmanWith an Introduction and Bibliography by Stephen Matterson, Trinity College, Dublin. Walt Whitman's verse gave the poetry of America a distinctive national voice. It reflects the unique vitality of the new nation, the vastness of the land and the emergence of a sometimes troubled consciousness, communicated in language and idiom regarded by many at the time as shocking. Whitman's poems are organic and free flowing, fit into no previously defined genre and skilfully combine autobiographical, sociological and religious themes with lyrical sensuality. His verse is a fitting celebration of a new breed of American and includes 'Song of Myself', 'Crossing Brooklyn Ferry', the celebratory 'Passage to India', and his fine elegy for the assassinated President Lincoln, 'When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd'. |
Contents
INSCRIPTIONS | 3 |
Starting from Paumanok 1860 p | 14 |
Song of Myself 1855 p | 26 |
CHILDREN OF ADAM | 86 |
CALAMUS | 106 |
1 | 126 |
Song of the Open Road 1856 p | 136 |
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry 1856 p | 147 |
MEMORIES OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN | 300 |
By Blue Ontarios Shore 1856 p | 310 |
Reversals 1856 p | 325 |
Proud Music of the Storm 1868 p | 366 |
Prayer of Columbus 1874 p | 381 |
WHISPERS OF HEAVENLY DEATH | 399 |
Thou Mother with Thy Equal Brood 1872 p | 410 |
FROM NOON TO STARRY NIGHT | 417 |
Song of the Answerer 1855 p | 153 |
A Song of Joys 1860 p | 163 |
Song of the BroadAxe 1856 p | 170 |
Song of the Exposition 1871 p | 181 |
Song of the RedwoodTree 1874 p | 191 |
A Song of the Rolling Earth 1856 p | 203 |
BIRDS OF PASSAGE | 209 |
A Broadway Pageant 1860? p | 224 |
SEADRIFT | 228 |
BY THE ROADSIDE | 244 |
DRUMTAPS | 256 |
SONGS OF PARTING | 438 |
SANDS AT SEVENTY First Annex | 454 |
GOODBYE MY FANCY Second Annex | 479 |
OLD AGE ECHOES Posthumous Additions | 496 |
UNCOLLECTED AND REJECTED POEMS | 502 |
Poem of Remembrance for a Girl or a Boy of These States | 509 |
Apostroph 1860 p | 515 |
Hours Continuing Long Sore and HeavyHearted 1860 | 521 |
Bathed in Wars Perfume 1865 p | 527 |
NOTES p | 534 |