R[ossetti], W. M. "Walt Whitman's Poems." London Chronicle (6 July 1867), 352-54. Reprinted: 1867; 1867. Revised: 1868. [Whitman's poems, mixing prose with poetry, have a powerful rhythmical sense. His life and appearance are described (from Burroughs, 1867). "Whitman is, far more than any of his contemporaries, a man of his age, an initiator in the scheme and structure of his writings, and an individual of audacious personal ascendant [sic], incapable of compromise of whatever kind." His flaws include gross or inappropriate words, obscurity, detached lists, boundless self-assertion (though intended as representative). Leaves must be read as a whole. Combining personality and democracy, it is "the essentially modern poem," also echoing the old Hebrew poetry. Whitman is a realist and an optimist, but not a materialist. He is entirely original, with a certain influence on future poetry.]