Nature without check with original energy. I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard,

Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten, He uses his individual voice to express the spirit of the still nascent Unites States of America, and in doing so also suggests a model of how something composed of many parts can be one. Moshe Miller in his Rising Moon: Unravelling the Book of Ruth ). When Whitman talks about his “self” it is something much broader than his literal self, it is more like a triangle between himself, God, and his readers. To me, this brings to mind the idea of malkhut, the lowest of the kabbalistic sefirot, which is an emergent property from within a collective (as described by R. Whitman was a great poet, but his sense of the power of the poet is one in which the individual ego meshes with the collective. It may be impossible to really summarize Leaves of Grass, but I want to share a few snippets from the volume’s most well-known section, “ Song of Myself ,” with some commentary:įor every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

Indeed Whitman was a “good person” in many respects – a moderate abolitionist who tended wounded Civil War soldiers as a nurse. His poetry exudes concern for others and the desire to alleviate their burdens. While not a person of “traditional” faith, Whitman is a moral writer. Both books epitomize the effort to contribute something exciting and new to a traditional canon while still maintaining deep respect and affection for the tradition you are building upon. Perhaps Rav Aharon Lichtenstein chose to channel Whitman with the name Leaves of Faith for his collection of moral essays, based on more than the title’s pithy cadence. Yet the book has an “original energy” that is undeniable, and offers a model of how to radically innovate while still building on and channeling a tradition that stretches far back. They certainly could still cause discomfort to a religious person reading them today. Why this is The Best: Whitman’s exploration of human sensuality and his irreverence for traditional Christian dogma generated controversy when Leaves of Grass was first published. He seeks to get to “the origin of all poems,” a deeper mode of consciousness that precedes our culture and our beliefs, which also celebrates the very same culture and beliefs. He mentions God frequently, but he is not a conventional believer. In them, Whitman explores his own unique voice and his relation to the people around him, the literary past, the still new country of the United States, and the universe. He spent much of his life revising and working on it – the final product includes more than 400 poems. Summary: Leaves of Grass is a sprawling collection of poems written by the 19th century American poet Walt Whitman.

Leaves of grass full text