Examines what makes "Leaves of Grass"--particularly the original edition--so distinctive and influential, including the use of the first person and the poet's views on sex, death, and other topics, and details its effect on other poets.
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Pulitzer Prize–winning poet C. K. Williams's personal reflection on the art of Walt WhitmanIn this book, Pulitzer Prize–winning poet C. K. Williams sets aside the mass of biography and literary criticism that has accumulated around Walt Whitman and attempts to go back to Leaves of Grass as he first encountered it—to explore why Whitman's epic "continues to inspire and sometimes daunt" him. The result is a personal reassessment and appreciation of one master poet by another, as well as an unconventional and brilliant introduction to Whitman. Beautifully written and rich with insight, this is a book that refreshes our ability to see Whitman in all his power.
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