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Walt (Walter) Whitman, except the occasional brilliant scraps which English papers copy from their American

Rossetti insists that it must be taken as an altogether new poetry: as something as distinctively American

Is he American? Is he new? Is he rousing? Does he feel, and make me feel?"

That he is American in one sense we must admit.

He is American as certain forms of rowdyism and vulgarity, excrescences on American institutions, are

American.

But that he is American in the sense of being representative of American taste, intellect, or cultivation

Not a little ludicrous eulogy of this sort has been poured of late upon the American poet whose name

The brag, and bluster, and self-assertion of the man are American only; the fulsome 'cracking-up' of

pavements; Dweller in Mannahatta ‡ , city of ships, my city— or on southern savannas; Or a soldier camped

probably had in his pockets while we were talking.

that men and women were flexible, real, alive! that everything was alive!

Not the least doubtful is he on any prospects of the material success of the American Republic.

trade and commerce,—railway traffic,—manufacturing, mechanical, and mining industry,—agriculture,—population

It is as if we were somehow being endowed with a vast and more and more thoroughly-appointed body, and

the aptness of that phrase, "the Government of the People, by the People, for the People," which Americans

to solve is the inauguration, growth, acceptance, and unmistakeable supremacy among individuals, cities

Pieces that were evidently written later, and intended to be eventually put under Leaves of Grass now

Hence, at one time, our admiration for orators that were ornate to the verge of inanity.

Dire were the grimaces of the mourners in high places, and dire are their grimaces still.

There were plenty of criticisms to make, even after one had finished crying Oh!

A cardinal sin in the eyes of most critics is the use of French, Spanish, and American-Spanish words

of Walt Whitman, who, some will have it, is by preeminence of art and nature our representative American

deepest ethical instincts of a great multitude—we should certainly hope the vast majority of those American

Would it were as clean! In form he reminds us of Martin Farquhar Tupper.

Yet the prevalent tone of his verses is curiously Asiatic, as though he were an incarnation of Brahma

and were not.

In his volume all the objectionable passages which were the cause of so much complaint at the time of

range and diversity—always the continent of Democracy; Always the prairies, pastures, forests, vast cities

Their eulogies, however, were rather on the thoughts and sentiments of the author than praise of his

Milton and Goethe, at their desks, were not more truly poets than Phidias with his chisel, Raphael at

Phidias and Raphael and Beethoven were judged in accordance with the merits of what they produced.

by irrational things, I will penetrate what it is in them that is sarcastic upon me, I will make cities

(Democracy, while weapons were everywhere aim'd at your breast, I saw you serenely give birth to immortal

As to the poems, Emerson long ago said they were poetry; Tennyson, Swinburne, not to speak of vapid critics

Much every day were there room to say it. Short and clear let the words be.

We answer, that what these all were to the distinctive spirit of their generations, though in utter contrast

writings—and we do not hesitate to say that it is a volume admirably calculated to convince those who were

that the book is not amenable to the laws against sending obscene literature through the mails; and were

and there, With ranging hills on the banks, with many a line against the sky, and shadows, And the city

He could not have been bred anywhere but in a certain part of New York city a generation ago—in any other

And American letters were in a peculiar transition state when he made his first appearance in print,

which have no sense; and all effort on his part to play the irrational beast would be ridiculous, were

Bryant, Lowell, and a host of others, but it must be admitted that little or nothing distinctively American

Each though is, as it were, a leaf or blade therof which he offers to the reader.

Far from looking upon this immeasurable universe as the stakes, as it were, of an eternal game of Whist

I DREAMED IN A DREAM I dreamed in a dream I saw a city invincible to the attacks of the whole of the

It was seen every hour in the actions of the men of that city And in all their looks and words.

literary folk will be glad that Walt Whitman has found his publisher, and that the interests of American

This book is an American classic. [Leaves of Grass By Walt Whitman. Philadelphia, Rees, Welsh & Co.

The contents are brief essays or sketches, mostly fragmentary, many of them dated as if they were leaves

The several prefaces to , 1855, 1872, 1876, succeed; then the North American Review paper on "Poetry

Daniel Webster (1782-1852), the American orator and politician.

William Walker (1824-1860) was an American adventurer and soldier who attempted to conquer several Latin

American countries.

.; Daniel Webster (1782-1852), the American orator and politician.; Henry Clay (1777-1852) was an American

He was also Secretary of State from 1861-1869.; William Walker (1824-1860) was an American adventurer

and soldier who attempted to conquer several Latin American countries.

president of the Republic of Nicaragua from 1856-1857 and was executed by the government of Honduras in 1860

political reformer Lajos Kossuth (1802-1894)led Hungary's struggle for independence from Austria.; The American

when the Red Birds and Yellow Birds, the Knickerbocker and Fourth avenue and the old Broadway lines were

The first writings of Carlyle and Emerson were despised and rejected; and yet these very writings have

had so profound an influence in forming the thought of our period, that it were impossible to imagine

It seems as if, so far, there were some natural repugnance between a literary and professional life,

A large part of the volume is occupied by Whitman's diary during the American War.

Some of the sketches were written as letters to friends during the war and afterwards.

It is not an English word, nor is it Americanized, according to the standard dictionaries; yet Mr.

Whitman has made it good American, so far as in his power lies, and stamped it with more than ordinary

about Carlyle and Emerson was too recently published (in these pages) to need present notice, and so were

'The Poetry of the Future' and 'A Memorandum at a Venture' (in The North American ).

poem and this volume of essays and notes form in themselves a literary inter-state exhibition or American

cultivated of Whitman's compatriots should be won over by his gorgeous anticipations of the "fruitage" of American

Wilson and McCormick is apparently printed from the same plates as the American edition, but upon better

at any rate, a very familiar idea to be found; but we have to confess that after careful reading we were

ye were, in your atmospheres, grown not for America, but rather for her foes, the feudal and the old—while

Unless, too, the reader possesses considerable familiarity with American slang, he will frequently be

It is rather the poet's review in his old age of what he conceives were his intentions in his manhood's

breath of life to my whole scheme that the bulk of the pieces might as well have been left unwritten were

What we especially admire in him is his stout, tough Americanism, his faith in his country, its government

tribute to Lincoln (not so tender as the really rhythmic verses "My Captain"), are things for young Americans

consider "Leaves of Grass" and its theory experimental—as, in the deepest sense, I consider our American

Candidly and dispassionately reviewing all my intentions, I feel that they were creditable—and I accept

But, regarding "Leaves of Grass," let the author speak further:— I should say it were useless to attempt

millions of equals, with their lives, their passions, their futures—these incalculable, modern, American

poetry with cosmic and dynamic features of magnitude and limitlessness suitable to the human soul were

values the poem too highly and that it cannot in any sense be taken as the voice of a representative American

Whitman has always seemed very un-American in many of his traits, notably in his acceptance of gifts

extract only one short poem with its characteristic foot-note: FOR QUEEN VICTORIA'S BIRTHDAY An American

—"Very little as we Americans stand this day, with our sixty-five or seventy millions of population,

One more utterance from our old original individualistic American poet, now, as he tells us, in his seventy-second

year, and not expecting to write any more; this, indeed, written as it were in defiance of augury.

The generous recognition of Tennyson and Ruskin and the other English and American admirers has offset

Such are 'A Death-Banquet,' 'Some Laggards Yet,' 'Splinters,' 'Health,' 'Crossing from Jersey City,'

That the great magazines were right and Walt Whitmon sic wrong the contents of this thin, crazy-quilt

In an essay on "National Literature" he finds the essential traits of the American people to be good-nature

Whitman; and were followed in his theatrical enjoyments by a long list of other artists.

James Henry Hackett (1800-1871) was an American actor notable for his character parts.

.; James Henry Hackett (1800-1871) was an American actor notable for his character parts.

inspiration, the joys of the wine-cup, been the theme of Romance and Poem; it is time that the paint were

The book, perhaps, might be called, American Life, from a Poetical Loafer's Point of View .

Dowden, for instance, associates him with Shakespeare, and a recent commentator of American literature

It contains many of those brief, sketchily written notes on nature which were, it is apparent, jotted

of our Western world; and it includes, above all, those widely discussed prefaces, touching upon American

poetry to-day, and especially upon the future of American poetry, as this is viewed by Whitman.

, upon four American poets—Bryant, Longfellow, Whittier, and Emerson.

.; The American poet and critic Richard Henry Stoddard (1825-1903) was part of a circle of genteel writers

[From the Albion, May 1860.] Messrs.

The above was written, and almost all in type, before we were aware that any similar notice had been

refusal to recognize such a distinction as decent and indecent—is monstrous beyond precedent, and were

See tattersalls.com Review of Leaves of Grass (1860–61)

A NEW AMERICAN POEM.

It has been a favorite subject of complaint with English critics and reviewers, in treating of American

We have an American poem. Several of them. Yes, sir. Also a great original representative mind.

She married Heenan in September 1859; it became public knowledge in January 1860.

Review of Leaves of Grass (1860–61)

the New Nebuchadnezzar" in a list of Henry Clapp's bon mots in the New-York Saturday Press, May 26, 1860

On 16 April 1860, in Farnborough, England, Heenan fought Tom Sayers, the British Champion, in the "World

She married Heenan in September 1859; it became public knowledge in January 1860.

In February 1860 Alexander Menken revealed that he had never divorced Adah and she was publicly reviled

published a number of poems in the Sunday Mercury, including "The Autograph on the Soul" in April 1860

Recently the writer has appeared in a large volume, (published in the puritanical and transcendental city

generation had its own Messiah, that he was the Messiah of his time, and that he and his followers were

Thus they were free to form relationships as they pleased. Heber C.

generation had its own Messiah, that he was the Messiah of his time, and that he and his followers were

Thus they were free to form relationships as they pleased.; Heber C.

Review of Leaves of Grass (1860–61)

becomes a question how such a book can have acquired a vogue and popularity that could induce an American

will in reputation dearly pay for the fervid encomium with which he introduced the Author to the American

described by the following equation,—as Tupper is to English Humdrum, so is Walt Whitman to the American

Westminster Review 74 n.s. 18 (October 1860), 590. "Man is god to himself" Walt.

Westminster Review 74 n.s. 18 (October 1860), 590.; "Man is god to himself"

An Englishman might have written ninety-nine hundredths of American poetry.

The spirit that pervades is essentially American. It is more.

The philosophy and theology are decidedly American, the ethics are altogether of New York.

full of truly American exaggeration.

Everything American is the subject of his praises:— "These states are the amplest poem.

some poems of Whitman's in which he seems to yearn towards the East from a westward outlook, as if he were

He dreams a dream of "a city invincible to the attacks of the whole of the rest of the earth," which

To a small job printing-office in that city belongs the honour, if such, of bringing it to light.

A demand arose, and before many months, all the copies of the thin quarto were sold.

If he will but learn to tame a little, America will at last have a genuine American poet.

instances, to shock many people, and contains specimens of every thing that is characteristic in the American

speaking, an abhorrence; but in this case several chance expressions which Walt Whitman permitted himself were

so very rude that his poems, as a whole, were deprived of that fair judgment which by rights belongs

Is he American? Is he new? Is he rousing? Does he feel, and make me feel?"

That he is American in one sense we must admit.

He is American as certain forms of rowdyism and vulgarity, excrescences on American institutions, are

American.

But that he is American in the sense of being representative of American taste, intellect, or cultivation

Walt Whitman adds to the embarrass de richesses one of his curious catalogues of the American emotions

, inventions, and geographical subdivisions, which was recited at the opening of the American Institute

oceans and murky whirls, appear the central resolution and sternness of the bulk or the average American

the latent personal character and eligibilities of these States, in the two or three millions of Americans

one-fourth of their number, stricken by wounds or disease at some time in the course of the contest—were

The only American prophet to my knowledge who enjoys a fame in England not accorded him in his own country

singer he especially desired to be called, it can hardly be said that his claims to the rank of poet were

The newer parts were printed at this office.

Walt Whitman continued steadily through '63, '64, and '65, to visit the sick and wounded of the American

armies, both on the field and in the hospitals in and around Washington city.

Some were scratched down from narratives he heard and itemized while watching, or writing, or leading

or Southey—ever depicted the woes of war so powerfully and touchingly as Walt Whitman does, as it were

It was in the same battle both were hit.

Whitman's poetry is like no other that ever was written—boldly conceived, bluntly expressed, purely American

Osgood & Co. of this city. Mr.

All who came in contact with the venerable poet were charmed by his cheery kindness, his wit and humor

Subtler than ever, more harmony, as if born here, related here, Not to the city's fresco'd rooms, not

what joys were thine! Mr.

unknown be- fore before , Subtler than ever, more harmony, as if born here, related here, Not to the city's

all to the front, Invisibly with thee walking with kings with even pace the round world's promenade, Were

to keep that mark fresh and deepening for seven-and-twenty years, is no little achievement for an American

"Were it the will of heaven an osier bough Were vessel strong enough the seas to plow."

The clear recognition and pathetic portrayal of the home affection in the Americans, not less than their

The book deserves study even as a metrical anomaly, were it not entitled to consideration upon much higher

A Perfect Poem-Picture of American Democracy. The Hermit Thoreau's Opinion of Our Good Gray Poet.

Walt Whitman is, par excellence, the poet and priest of democracy—the American type of democracy; the

In "Leaves of Grass" Walt Whitman has personified—or rather, idealized—the genius of American democracy

It is the Kosmos as viewed from the standpoint of the American idea of democracy—the sovereignty of each

On the whole it is to me very brave and American. We ought to rejoice greatly in him.

If these were merely the mouthings of individual pride, they would inspire deserved disgust.

Few American authors have the reputation abroad which Whitman has attained.