Leaves of Grass - The 'Death-Bed' Edition

Zusatztext "Whitman's best poems have that permanent quality of being freshly painted! of not being dulled by the varnish of the years." --Malcolm Cowley Informationen zum Autor Before the age of thirty-six there was no sign that Walt Whitman would become even a minor literary figure, let alone the major poetic voice of an emerging America. Born in 1819 on Long Island, he was the second son of a carpenter and contractor. His formal schooling ended at age eleven, when he was apprenticed to a printer in Brooklyn. He became a journeyman printer in 1835 and spent the next two decades as a printer, free-lance writer, and editor in New York. In 1855, at his own expense, he published the twelve long poems, without titles, that make up the first edition of Leaves of Grass. The book, with its unprecedented mixture of the mystical and the earthy, was received with puzzlement or silence, except by America's most distinguished writer, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Whitman lost no time in preparing a second edition, adding "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" and nineteen other new poems in 1856. With the third edition (1860), the book had tripled in size. Whitman would go on adding to it and revising it for the rest of his life. Whitman's poetry slowly achieved a wide readership in America and in England. He was praised by Swinburne and Tennyson, and visited by Oscar Wilde. He suffered a stroke in 1873 and spent the remainder of his life in Camden, New Jersey. His final edition of Leaves of Grass appeared in 1892, the year of his death. Klappentext Abraham Lincoln read it with approval! but Emily Dickinson described its bold language and themes as "disgraceful." Ralph Waldo Emerson found it "the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet produced." Published at the author's expense on July 4! 1855! Leaves of Grass inaugurated a new voice and style into American letters and gave expression to an optimistic! bombastic vision that took the nation as its subject. Unlike many other editions of Leaves of Grass! which reproduce various short! early versions! this Modern Library Paperback Classics "Death-bed" edition presents everything Whitman wrote in its final form! and includes newly commissioned notes. Leseprobe 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' 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, The making of perfect soldiers. Be it so, then I answer'd, I too haughty Shade also sing war, and a longer and greater one than any, Waged in my book with varying fortune, with flight, advance and retreat, victory deferr&rsquod and wavering, (Yet methinks certain, or as good as certain, at the last,) the field the world, For life and death, for the Body and for the eternal Soul, Lo, I too am come, chanting the chant of battles, I above all promote brave soldiers. IN CABIN'D SHIPS AT SEA. In cabin'd ships ...

Product details

• Authors: Walt Whitman
• Publisher: Modern Library PRH US
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 12.10.1993
• EAN: 9780679600763
• ISBN: 978-0-679-60076-3
• No. of pages: 736
• Dimensions: 127 mm x 193 mm x 47 mm
• Series: Modern Library (Hardcover); Modern Library (Hardcover)
• Subject: Fiction > Poetry, drama