The Walt Whitman MEGAPACK Read online

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  COPYRIGHT INFO

  The Walt Whitman MEGAPACK™ is copyright © 2014 by Wildside Press, LLC. All rights reserved.

  * * * *

  The MEGAPACK™ ebook series name is a trademark of Wildside Press, LLC. All rights reserved.

  A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER

  Walter “Walt” Whitman (1819–1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described as obscene for its overt sexuality.

  Born in Huntington on Long Island, Whitman worked as a journalist, a teacher, a government clerk, and—in addition to publishing his poetry—was a volunteer nurse during the American Civil War. Early in his career, he also produced a temperance novel, Franklin Evans (1842). Whitman’s major work, Leaves of Grass, was first published in 1855 with his own money. The work was an attempt at reaching out to the common person with an American epic. He continued expanding and revising it until his death in 1892. After a stroke towards the end of his life, he moved to Camden, New Jersey, where his health further declined. When he died at age 72, his funeral became a public spectacle.

  Whitman’s sexuality is often discussed alongside his poetry. Though biographers continue to debate his sexuality, he is usually described as either homosexual or bisexual in his feelings and attractions. However, there is disagreement among biographers as to whether Whitman had actual sexual experiences with men.

  Whitman was concerned with politics throughout his life. He supported the Wilmot Proviso and opposed the extension of slavery generally. His poetry presented an egalitarian view of the races, though his attitude in life reflected many of the racial prejudices common to nineteenth-century America and his opposition to slavery was not necessarily based on belief in the equality of races per se. At one point he called for the abolition of slavery, but later he saw the abolitionist movement as a threat to democracy.

  Enjoy!

  —John Betancourt

  Publisher, Wildside Press LLC

  www.wildsidepress.com

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  LEAVES OF GRASS

  Come, said my soul,

  Such verses for my Body let us write, (for we are one,)

  That should I after return,

  Or, long, long hence, in other spheres,

  There to some group of mates the chants resuming,

  (Tallying Earth’s soil, trees, winds, tumultuous waves,)

  Ever with pleas’d smile I may keep on,

  Ever and ever yet the verses owning—as, first, I here and now

  Signing for Soul and Body, set to them my name,

  —Walt Whitman

  BOOK I

  INSCRIPTIONS

  One’s-Self I Sing

  One’s-self I sing, a simple separate person,

  Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-Masse.

  Of physiology from top to toe I sing,

  Not physiognomy alone nor brain alone is worthy for the Muse, I say the Form complete is worthier far,

  The Female equally with the Male I sing.

  Of Life immense in passion, pulse, and power,

  Cheerful, for freest action form’d under the laws divine,

  The Modern Man I sing.

  As I Ponder’d in Silence

  As I ponder’d in silence,

  Returning upon my poems, considering, lingering long,

  A Phantom arose before me with distrustful aspect,

  Terrible in beauty, age, and power,

  The genius of poets of old lands,

  As to me directing like flame its eyes,

  With finger pointing to many immortal songs,

  And menacing voice, What singest thou? it said,

  Know’st thou not there is but one theme for ever-enduring bards?

  And that is the theme of War, the fortune of battles,