Gay Poet Walt Whitman's Landmark Work Celebrated

[kweerwolf]

Devotees and scholars of gay writer Walt Whitman are celebrating the 150th anniversary of the original edition of his seminal work, Leaves of Grass, the concise volume of 12 poems that pushed the boundaries of social decency and of poetry itself.

By rejecting the rigid structures of British meter, Whitman offered readers free-spirited bursts of consciousness that forever changed American poetry. But it is the later, voluminous version of the collection - running hundreds of pages - that is known to students across the U.S.

``The final Leaves of Grass is an enormous book, with which Whitman did not do himself a favor because a lot of the poetry is pure padding, purely hot air,'' said biographer Justin Kaplan. ``But if you go back to the original, it's a wonderfully sparse little book, something like 96 pages of absolutely remarkable, stunning poetry.''

<snip>

``It is the landmark in Western Hemisphere literature,'' said literary critic Harold Bloom, a professor at Yale University, which is commemorating the anniversary with an exhibit including five copies of the rare 1855 text. ``It is the first appearance of someone I judge to be the most important, the strongest, the most beautiful, the greatest writer in any of the languages used in the New World.''

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon05/12/120705whitman.htm

I remember first being introdcued to Whitman through portions of "Leaves of Grass" in a high school English class. Despite it being many years ago, the teacher was brave enough to mention in passing that Whitman was gay. The acknowledgement that this little proto-homo from a small, backwater rural town wasn't "the only one" really made a difference and for the first time I realized that even if I was "like Walt" it didn't mean my life would be one of shame.

That's why it matters that people discuss if folks like Abe Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt, Alexander the Great, etc., etc., might have been gay or lesbian ... because just maybe some young person out there we'll realize that he or she isn't alone and that people like him or her are capable of great things.

[greenman3610]

1. Whitman is life changing

and you don't have to be gay to get it.

recommend:
Song of the Rolling Earth
(transcendental timeless philosophy in a nutshell)

Song of Occupations
I sing the Body Electric
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
and of course
Song of Myself(which is quite a bit longer than the others)

[TallahasseeGrannie]

2. Thanks for posting this

I have the larger Leaves of Grass volume which I inherited from my parents, but I always felt it was schmaltzy. I sure would like to find the earlier version somewhere.

After reading the article I'm inspired to check out his work again.

[tmooses]

3. I wish we could the poems of Whitman recited instead of these same

Christmas stories repeated every year. What a refreshing change that would be. Not in this lifetime though and probably never in this version of the good old USA.