Seer, prophet, visionary, preacher, Walt Whitman stands out as one of poetry’s towering anomalies: in celebrating the trees, water, sky and air, the bear, the eagle, the buffalo and the lion, Whitman expressed a uniquely democratic vision that engulfs not only the American continent but the entire universe. His passionate vehemence, his faith in the common man, and his unflinching pursuit of the truth gave form to an arsenal of ideas, inspiring and motivating generations of writers to come.

The collection includes: I Hear America Singing, Starting from Paumanok, I Sing the Body Electric, Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking, Beat! Beat! Drums!, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d and A Noiseless Patient Spider.