Poems by Walt Whitman (Annotated)

This collection by America’s most important and celebrated poet was the first collection published in Britain and includes a sample of his best early work. Walt Whitman is well known for his unique style or writing that ignored standards of meter and rhyme, and earned him a reputation as the American father of free verse. He was an inspiration to writers and artists throughout his life and his poetry continues to be a major force in literature today. In his representation of the frailty and nobility of common individuals, he manages to capture the heart and soul of the American nation as it moved into the modern age.

What is less well known about these poems is that they inspired the concept of cosmic consciousness and ignited a spiritual revolution that continues to this day. Two of Whitman’s most devoted followers, Edward Carpenter and Richard Maurice Bucke, are the original inventors of the idea of cosmic consciousness. Both men found in this very book the seeds of a universal awareness that revealed the evolutionary destiny of the human race. Whitman was for them a representative from the future whose poems expressed what was possible for us all.

Read these poems and listen for the universal spirit that shines through them. See what you learn about yourself and your own struggles and triumphs. And most importantly, discover who you are as a Cosmic Self that exists in direct contact and perfect harmony with all of life.

“I find Leaves of Grass to be the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed.”
— RALPH WALDO EMERSON.

“This edition of Walt Whitman’s poems… holds me entirely spellbound, and I go through it again and again with deepening delight and wonder.”
— ANNE GILCHRIST.

“Walt Whitman is the greatest democrat the world has seen."
— HENRY DAVID THOREAU.

“I think that Walt Whitman and Emerson have given the world more than anyone else.”
— OSCAR WILDE.