Al-Warraq Library does not host book files; it takes you to the copy at the original source. Public-domain status differs from country to country, so check the law where you live before downloading or republishing the book. Do you hold rights in this work? Request its removal
Walt Whitman published the first Leaves of Grass himself in 1855, with twelve untitled poems and no name on the title page, only his portrait in work clothes. He spent the rest of his life expanding it, edition after edition, until it became a book of hundreds of poems celebrating the body, democracy, America and every kind of ordinary person.
Context and significance
Whitman's long, free-verse lines broke with all the rules of poetry and influenced poets around the world. Emerson wrote to him, 'I greet you at the beginning of a great career.' The collection includes 'Song of Myself' and 'O Captain! My Captain!', his elegy for Abraham Lincoln. Read it aloud.
About the author
Walt Whitman (1819–1892) grew up on Long Island and in Brooklyn, left school at eleven and worked as a printer, teacher and newspaper editor. In 1855 he published the first Leaves of Grass himself, and spent the rest of his life revising and expanding it.
During the Civil War he went to Washington to look for his wounded brother and stayed for years, volunteering in the military hospitals, sitting with thousands of wounded soldiers. His elegies for Abraham Lincoln are among his most famous poems. The library also holds an Arabic selection of Leaves of Grass.