" I am the poet of the bodyAnd I am the poet of the soul. "I do not know how to review poetry or what to look for when I am reading it. All I can say is whether I liked it or not. I really, really liked this. Although it was written in 1855, the free verse felt fresh and actual. It was an ode to nature, love, sex and the self. I was recommended the 1855 version because it has some interesting punctuation and I thought it complemented the text well. " I celebrate myselfAnd what i assume you shall...

Walt Whitman writes an ode to America, life, and Nature, to democratic individualism, with impressive vigor, sincerity, and health.We follow him throughout a busy life in which Nature—and the History of men—and wars, especially the Civil War and the technical inventions of the Industrial Age—appear to be equal.After reading Leaves of Grass, I believe I have a better understanding of the American spirit in its unique and non-European aspects.There is a freshness, energy, vitality, optimism, and u...

عنوان ساحر تقول رضا بإحساس عميق نابع من نفس جميلة تذوقت القصائد مثلما تذوقت طعم القهوة المركز بدرجة السكر الخفيفة التي لا تغيّرها هذه الصورة التي أحبها لها وهذا الصوت الذي يظل مترددا في نفسي أسألها عن مصدر سحر العنوان ترفع الفنجان لتلامسه شفتاها وتقول بهدوء أوراق يا برشومي وماذا يصل بالجمال إلينا سوى الأوراق جسد الأرض ينبت قصائده الخضراء جمال عضوي خالص بلا إضافات ضارة أوراق الأرض تراها الكائنات كلها يسري لونها الأخضر في بصيرة الرائي يتنفس الأثير عطرها ويمنحه لنا جميعا تأكل منها الخراف والم...

Don't pay attention to me, I'm currently high on poetry.

I am the poet of the Body and I am the poet of the Soul,The pleasures of heaven are with me and the pains of hell are with me,The first I graft and increase upon myself, the latter I translate into new tongue.I am the poet of the woman the same as the man,And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man,And I say there is nothing greater than the mother of men.This is the first edition of Leaves of Grass published in 1855, which consists of 12 poems. In his poems Whitman exalts nature and h...

Whitman sings the song of America like no other poet I know--the outsized joy and pain, the affinity for common folk and the love of nature and the sheer overwhelming feeling of every sight and sound and industrious noise around him. "I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear," he wrote. Because of this some are tempted to see Whitman as a poet of pure exuberance--like a proto-hippie or, worse, like a garrulous Hallmark card. But Whitman doesn't shy away from pain at all--he embraces it l...

In Leaves of Grass Walt Whitman sings nature and his symbiosis with America, he sings the universe and his awareness of it all, but above all he sings the people and their quest for individuality and immortality. ‘The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it.’ And here he includes himself with all his mysticism and spiritual illuminations. In that, it is a celebration of humanity, his country and everything in it. Some parts of his poems were so bea...

It is becoming increasingly trendy to chalk up success to practice and hard work. We have the famous 10,000 hours from Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, and a similar theme from Joshua Foer’s Moonwalking with Einstein, just to name two examples. But it seems to me that some people were just born to do what they did, that no amount of practice could ever have produced something so fresh, original, new, and revolutionary. Take Montaigne. He invented a new genre (the essay), pioneered a free and easy p...

When Leaves of Grass was first published, critics applauded Whitman "only that he did not burn" the "mass of stupid filth" immediately upon completion. They primarily objected to its sensual and occasionally (rather overtly) homoerotic content. Nowadays, of course, it seems entirely too mild to raise an objection on those grounds, but man, oh man, I understand the impulse to want to turn this book into kindling. It's less like THIS... ...and more like THIS. This weighty poetic tome has all ...

Alright, my rating here is very misleading. I haven't read Leaves Of Grass. I don't even intend to read Leaves Of Grass. Not all the way through any way. It seems sort of weird to just read a big fat collection of poetry all the way through. The five star rating is for one poem, "Song of the Open Road".I've never really appreciated poetry. I've liked song lyrics and that's poetry, but it seemed like I needed a tune to go with it. I've liked scripture which can be pretty poetic, but it seemed I n...