Leaves of Grass

Walt Whitman's revolutionary masterwork—the most influential book of poetry in American literature, a visionary celebration of democracy, the self, the body, and the divine soul that transformed poetry forever and gave America its voice.

Leaves of Grass is not just a book of poems but a spiritual manifesto, a democratic vision, and a mystical revelation. First published in 1855 with just twelve poems, Whitman revised and expanded it throughout his life, creating a work that grew organically like the grass it celebrates. This is the book that shocked Victorian America with its frank celebration of the body, its revolutionary free verse, and its radical claim that every person is divine and democracy is sacred.

What you'll discover:

• "Song of Myself"—the epic centerpiece celebrating the individual and the cosmos
• "I Sing the Body Electric"—revolutionary affirmation of physical existence and sensuality
• "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry"—mystical meditation on connection across time and space
• "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd"—profound elegy for Abraham Lincoln
• "O Captain! My Captain!"—beloved tribute to Lincoln and the nation
• "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking"—visionary poem on death and poetic awakening
• "The Sleepers"—dreamlike journey through consciousness and human connection
• Poems celebrating democracy, nature, the open road, love, death, and American identity

Whitman writes in long, rolling lines that echo the rhythms of breath and the cadences of the King James Bible, creating a voice that is simultaneously intimate and cosmic, personal and universal. He proclaims "I am large, I contain multitudes," embracing contradiction as the essence of being human. He finds God not in churches but in grass, in the faces of strangers, in his own body and soul. He celebrates workers, slaves, prostitutes, and presidents with equal reverence, seeing divinity in every person.

What makes Leaves of Grass essential is its radical vision of democracy as spiritual practice. Whitman doesn't just describe America—he creates it through poetry, imagining a nation where every person is sacred, every body is beautiful, and every soul is divine. His influence extends far beyond poetry into American culture, spirituality, civil rights movements, and the ongoing struggle to create a truly inclusive democracy.

This is the book that inspired generations of poets from Ezra Pound to Allen Ginsberg, that gave voice to the American spirit of expansiveness and possibility, and that continues to speak to anyone who believes in the divinity of the ordinary, the democracy of the soul, and the transformative power of embracing life in all its contradictions.

Perfect for: Lovers of American poetry and transcendentalist thought, readers drawn to mystical and visionary poetry, students of American literature and culture, those interested in poetry that celebrates the body and nature, readers of Emerson, Thoreau, and American Romanticism, anyone seeking poetry that affirms life in all its diversity and contradiction, those who believe in the divinity of the ordinary and the democracy of the soul, and anyone ready to experience the most influential book of American poetry ever written.

This paperback edition presents Walt Whitman's complete Leaves of Grass—the revolutionary masterwork that transformed American poetry and gave voice to the democratic spirit.