Leaves of Grass

Summary

Walt Whitman's sprawling collection of free verse celebrates the human body, American democracy, and the poet's own expansive sense of self across poems that break from traditional meter and rhyme. Whitman revised and expanded the book across many editions over the course of his life, treating it as a living record of his own growth. Its frank sensuality and its embrace of ordinary American life made it one of the most influential collections of poetry ever published.