Known as the Father of Free Verse, Walt Whitman is certainly one of America's most celebrated poets. Among his noted works is his penultimate collection, Leaves of Grass.
Some of the great poems included in Leaves of Grass are:
* O Captain! My Captain!
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up--for you the flag is flung--for you the bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths--for you the shores a-crowding,
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head!
It is some dream that on the deck,
You've fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,
The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
But I with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
* Salute au Monde!
What do you see Walt Whitman?
Who are they you salute, and that one after another salute you?
I see a great round wonder rolling through space,
I see diminute farms, hamlets, ruins, graveyards, jails, factories,
palaces, hovels, huts of barbarians, tents of nomads upon the surface,
I see the shaded part on one side where the sleepers are sleeping,
and the sunlit part on the other side,
I see the curious rapid change of the light and shade,
I see distant lands, as real and near to the inhabitants of them as
my land is to me.
*Song of the Open Road
Camerado, I give you my hand!
I give you my love more precious than money,I give you myself before preaching or law;
Will you give me yourself? will you come travel with me?
Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?
*Give Me the Silent Splendid Sun
Give me the splendid silent sun with all his beams full-dazzling,
Give me autumnal fruit ripe and red from the orchard,
Give me a field where the unmow'd grass grows,
Give me an arbor, give me the trellis'd grape,
Give me fresh corn and wheat, give me serene-moving animals teaching content,
Give me nights perfectly quiet as on high plateaus west of the Mississippi, and I looking up at the stars,
Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers where I can walk undisturb'd,
Give me for marriage a sweet-breath'd woman of whom I should never tire,
Give me a perfect child, give me away aside from the noise of the world a rural domestic life,
Give me to warble spontaneous songs recluse by myself, for my own ears only,
Give me solitude, give me Nature, give me again O Nature your primal sanities!
Also, such poems, that we have not quoted here:
*Who Learns my Lessons Complete
*The Voice of the Rain
*A Clear Midnight
Whitman also writes extensively about what he witnessed first hand during the Civil War. His book, Memoranda During the War, contains detailed poetry of his accounts and feelings about the war. These poems stand the test of time and are emotionally moving when read to this day. Some of his war poems are also contained in Leaves of Grass including the cheerful sounding:
*Strange Vigil I Kept on the Field One Night
*Over the Carnage Rose a Prophetic Voice
Walt Whitman is buried in a beautiful cave like setting in a cemetary in Camden, NJ.
Yes. We said Beautiful and Camden in the same sentence.
Read more:
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/126
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