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Leaves of Grass (平装)
by Walt Whitman, Justin Kaplan
| Category:
American Literature, Poetry |
| Market price: ¥ 88.00
MSL price:
¥ 78.00
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MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
The most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom America has yet contributed, Whitman's best poems have that permanent quality that not being dulled by the varnish of the years. |
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AllReviews |
1 Total 1 pages 10 items |
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-08 00:00>
Whitman is not the world's greatest poet - that's probably Shakespeare - but he's certainly been the most influential American poetic voice over the past century. He was the first poet to take all of American life as his subject. Ever the Romantic, Whitman was also the first poet to bring Romanticism into line with everyday reality.
His narcissism can be annoying, but his panoramic descriptions of life and the imagination have a singularly cumulative power. Some of his short poems (A Noiseless Patient Spider and To a Locomotive in Winter)are individually memorable. The longer poem When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed, indirectly about the Lincoln assassination, is brilliant. I think most of his Civil War poems are overpraised, but Come Up from the Fields, Father is a masterpiece of its kind.
On the negative side, Whitman's transcendental philosophy, which he likes to indulge at length, will strike many readers as very sappy. His style, lots of details piled up on top of one another, grows monotonous, and readers who criticize his lack of traditional poetic craftsmanship cannot just be brushed off. My advice is to not to try to get through it all at once. The poems rarely become "difficult," they just tend to blur one into the other. Which may actually have been Whitman's intention.
Overall,there's never been a book quite like Leaves of Grass, in any edition, and that's why it keeps selling as a true classic. In other words, a very old book that people still buy and read and enjoy even when no teacher is telling them to. Reading it will get you as close as one book can to actually living in nineteenth-century America, with all its follies, inequities, and promise.
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Jeanne Boone (MSL quote) , USA
<2007-03-08 00:00>
This thick soft-backed "pocket" book has 490 pages. It could be called The Complete Whitman. It contains hundreds of poems.
I am a senior citizen who had not read any Whitman for more than 50 years and am enjoying it very much. His descriptions of the 19th century's people, places, and inventions are eye-openers. He was actually a feminist before there was such a concept, and also an abolitionist. He truly believed in equality and democracy. He was a nature lover and wanted to protect the environment.
Of course, there are parts I could quibble about, but that would be foolish. Whitman was a man ahead of his time.
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Maggie Cherokee (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-08 00:00>
Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass reveals Whitman's passion for nearly every aspect of life, from amazement of great ships to the enchantment cast by the beauty of a sunset. The juxtaposition of ideas from line to line creates a vivid imagery throughout the poetry that gives the reader a sense of life as a whole; Whitman describes the broadness and complexity of his own experiences and thoughts with ease. Large sections of the collection are devoted to discussion of a broad array of subjects. For example, section three, entitled "Song of Myself", extends for about fifty pages and poems within the section are distinguished only by numbers. Although the numbers work to separate the ideas found in the passage, the thoughts still flow into one another, causing the text to present a challenging and sometimes exhausting read. However, other sections such as "Whispers of Heavenly Death" give relief from the dense material. These contain shorter poems with titles that usually aim to indicate the theme of the poem. They are more concise and easily understood, because Whitman appears to organize his thoughts, condense them, and put each one into a titled poem. Overall, the entire collection presents classic free verse poetry that retains timeless concepts and revelations of human emotions. And because of the grand style and often elevated language in the declarations Whitman uses to communicate his position on elements such as life, death, emotion, nature, heroes, love, politics, etc., the collection could be seen as something near contemporary epic poetry.
Leaves of Grass also demonstrates Whitman's incredible self-awareness; the lines in the poem "O Living Always, Always Dying" are an example of his confidence as they state, "O me, what I was for years, now dead, (I lament not, I am content;) O to disengage myself from those corpses of me, which I turn and look at where I cast them, to pass on, (O living! always living!) and leave the corpses behind." The importance of this self-assurance is that Whitman creates a more stable bond between himself and the reader, because when he gives his advice the reader becomes more liable to accept it as a plausible truth.
This collection of poetry has much to offer to a variety of readers. Since it is so broad based, anyone should be able to read it and find some concept of interest. Whitman himself appears in his poetry as a diverse individual, and therefore more people can make a connection with him. And even if there happens to be little for one to relate to, the beautiful descriptions and classic language themselves can become valuable souvenirs in the reader's memory.
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Maddie (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-08 00:00>
Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass is an exemplary representation of both transcendentalism and realism. Walt Whitman was one of the few writers to bridge the gap between these literary movements and Leaves of Grass was, in essence, his opus. It represented the author himself and was often condemned in Whitman's time for it's blatant descriptions and incorporations of sexuality and homosexuality. However, years later it came to be appreciated for what it is truly worth as an exquisite culmination of people, emotions, and the democratic spirit.
Of the many themes covered throughout the 438 pages in the ninth edition of Whitman's masterpiece, symbolism was often used to represent allegory ideas and situations. In O Captain! My Captain! the captain symbolizes Abraham Lincoln and America is ship. In the captain's death, Whitman is alluding to the fact that in the absence of strong leadership guiding the "ship," there will be a lack of order and chaos. Song of Myself was, on the other hand, explicit in the ideal it depicted. All fifty-two sections discuss intricacies of semi-specific people or types of people; they come together as one poem and are all part of something larger. Whitman believed not only in the individual being but also in a larger being that everyone and everything was a part of, in other words the oversoul. Song of Myself is truly filler in the gap between the literary movements because it is so thoroughly transcendental in meaning, yet so precise in describing reality.
Emerson's was completely justified in praising Walt Whitman's work because it is still today very profound and extremely important in respect American literature overall. Unfortunately a fairly high mentality is required to take in his poetry for all its meaning and worth. Maturity and openness is key because often criticism of Leaves of Grass spurns from prudish and thoroughly conservative readers.
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A kid reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-08 00:00>
The 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass was the first and the best.
When I was young I bought the big deathbed edition, not knowing about the 1855 one. I became a Whitman disciple. Either version is a good place to start, but the 1855 is the best version of the early poems and a fine introduction to W.W.
The 1855 version was ignored for quite a long time in Whitman studies, but started recieving critical attention after Malcolm Cowley worked to revive it in the 1950's. It was his version that used to be available, until recently, as a Penguin Classic.
So whats the difference between 1855 and the Deathbed one?
Throughout his lifetime, Whitman not only expanded LOG, his only book, with gobs of inferior-- and sometimes truly awful-- poems (especially when he was older) but he also revised many of his early poems for later editions-- revising them almost always for the worse.
The 1855 edition is realtively short and reflects the diminutive, obscure quality of the original. The poems are full of Whitman's original fire before he tinkered with them.
Bloom, the author of the introduction, is in the estimation of many America's best living literary critic. He profoundly knows and adores Walt Whitman.
If you have the slightest interest in reading American Poetry,drop whatever you are reading (unless it is perhaps Dickinson or Emerson) and get this book. It's still America's best. Nothing since has been (and nothing will ever be) better. The only American poets after Whitman who mattered were deep readers of LOG: Hart Crane, Wallace Stevens, TS Eliot, John Ashbury. (A Ginsberg, C. Sandberg, and O. Paz resemble him superficially but they are are wonks.)
If you are interested later in getting all of Whitman's poems, skip all the in-between editions and get the 'Deathbed' Version, which has many good and important poems like 'When Lilacs Last in The Dooryard Bloomed' and 'As I Ebbed with the Ocean of Life'-- as well as many bad ones, to go with your 1855.
The Deathbed Version (Whitman approved it as the final Version of his one book as he lay dying) is probably close to ten times as long as the 1855 edition.
But Whitman got it right in 1855.
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Ellie Reasoner (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-08 00:00>
Leave it to high school English teachers, those frequent crushers of dreaming souls, to find a way to put young minds off this steamroller of a poetry collection. No rhymes to bore anyone, no meter, simply a transfer of pure mental energy. It took me a while to get into Whitman because I knew him thru a lot of boring teachers who tried to squeeze the very life out of these works and inject them with artificial, completely sanitized "meaning". This is poetry at its most raw. It does for the written word what Stravinsky did with music. It doesn't need dressing up and it utterly rejects the falsity of good manners. As Whitman joyfully tells us of himself: "I am not the least bit civilized!" This is wild stuff and it'll kick you sideways if you give it half a chance. Read it and then choose the right moment to sound your own barbaric yawp!
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Anthony Marray (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-08 00:00>
While for those more into Whitman's work would probably want to invest in the Library of America's edition, this one is a good start for those who are just starting to read Whitman. So many people proclaim Whitman as the essential American Poet because of his lines showing the beauty of Democracy. Personally, I could have cared less whether he loved Democracy or not. He wrote about life. He wrote about the mundane world, and made it look so beautiful. He admired the human form, and praised the wonderful design of the body. His comments on life in America during the middle of the 19th century really carry a romantic outlook. He was passionate about himself, life, and the world around him. The fact that he inspired many poets around the world in the 20th century gives testimony to him being a poet with worldwide appeal. He was not just a voice for America; he was a voice for lovers of life.
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Shalom Freedman (MSL quote), Israel
<2007-03-08 00:00>
Whitman is the great poet of America and the great American poet. His song is not only of himself but of the American realities he meets and catalogues in his long cadenced lines. Whitman sings the song of America as yes in a way no one had before and no one will since. He is the American poet who captured the most of American reality in his lines . And he is the one who too speaks of it at the moment of its great outward expansion and hope, as a historical progress of ever rising ever more sweepingly inclusive cosmic concentrical circles. He is a writer who touches the stars, and above all reaches the sense of the light within us (When I heard the learned Astronomer) He touches upon American tragedy ( O Captain my Captain) and most deeply expresses it (Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking) He is the one who takes all America as an adventure and feast for his eyes and lines. And his poem however ironically his own life and end comments on it symbolizes for America its great new dawn always opening toward new light and greater worlds westward and within.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-08 00:00>
I was familiar with the well-known poems and wanted to own Leaves of Grass. I'm not going to review the poetry, but describe, hopefully to help others figure out what took me some research, its various editions.
In 1855 Whitman self-published Leaves of Grass as a 12-poem book. Up to 1892, he added poems and revised the original twelve poems - books also published under the same title, Leaves of Grass. In 1892, Whitman published (by then, recognized, not self-published) its final version, the edition he wanted to be thought the definitive Leaves of Grass. This is the commonly called "Deathbed Edition." It contains over 300 poems. It does contain the original twelve, though not in their original or other previously-published forms. By then, they'd been many-times revised over the years, and released within other publications between the first and the last. In essence, Leaves of Grass was a nearly 40-year evolving work, under the same title, each edition containing the prior editions' poems further revised, plus additional poems.
I wanted to read the original poems. I also wanted to see their final versions, and was curious to see their evolution. I noticed that some books include so many evolutions of the poems/book, they fill at least two volumes. I wanted to own Leaves of Grass but I didn't need to become a scholar of it; I wanted to read the book. However, I didn't want only the Deathbed Edition - I was both curious about the original and wanted to see more than 12 poems.
I decided to buy an edition of the book that contains the entire Deathbed Edition, plus a few of the poems in their original form, and some commentary. I believe, after researching, I found the best I could. That would be my recommendation: if this is your first purchase of Leaves of Grass make sure to see some poetry from 1855, some poetry from the Deathbed Edition, and some poetry in between. That is, if what you want to read is the poetry and not own a collector's item or only the "definitive edition," as Whitman viewed it (Deathbed). To me, seeing only the final version detracts something from its core - and after reading the poems and comparing them, I feel this even more - so in that sense I disagree with Whitman; he chose to make public many books over 40 years, yet wanted only the last to be considered the true version.
As a reader, I find it unfortunate that this is a work that evolved over a lifetime under the same title; it renders each addition of poems to the book not books of their own, and also difficult to find on their own. So, for me, the compromise was to choose a book that includes the Deathbed Edition and part of the original, without having to read multiple books, or 1,000 pages, or a scholarly journal (though I would love to see the full original 12 poems).
I understand a book will be released soon that includes both the full original (12 poems) and the full Deathbed Editions. I don't have it, so I don't know what else will be included.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-08 00:00>
While I agree with most of the reviews written here, I must take issue with them somewhat. First, I also believe that Walt Whitman is one of the finest poets that ever lived and certainly the finest when it comes to being a proud American. Although, he comes from a time in America that was like that of Socrates and Plato in the past, a time when the most important thing in life was not work, or success or career, but the exploration of one's inner thoughts. Were we living in a time when such a thing was permitable rather than the constant search for the almighty dollar, we might see more such poets. But he and his era are long gone. The art of the word is certainly Walt's. I ask you to also purchase a dictionary when you purchase this or any of his volumes, not because it is difficult to read, but because Whitman doesn't always use a word for it's main meaning, often burying a meaning of a word or line in the third or fourth meaning, completely changing the meaning of the poem. It is such fun and exactly what I believe Walt Whitman is meant to be, a journey and a trip to the celebration of life. A celebration that also includes a look at the worst that is us and the best that is us. When the reviewer wrote that his work is a study of a narcissist, I have to disagree. Yes, it begins his work with Song of Myself and it is an epic poem. But while he celebrates Walt, he is truly celebrating all of us as amazing creatures in nature. He celebrates every molecule of us, the amazing capabilities, perfumes and evilness of us. He studies us as though someone would study the amazing ability of a tree to grow or a flower to bloom. We are nature and he recognizes that and it is amazing to him. Clearly, he had bravado and self-love, but in the most non-imposing way. We wishes all of us to realize the miracle that is us. To believe that he is only about himself is to miss the point of Walt. Also, it is important to read the various editions of this volume. He wrote and rewrote Leaves of Grass continuously throughout his life adding and deleting poems as he saw them. The best way to see his journey is to read the first edition (complete with his swaggering picture), where he was not listed as the author to the final "deathbed edition" that is truly a masterpiece and you can see what he learns, what he tries to teach you and how deeply you will be moved by him. One last hint - read "Song of Myself" outloud. It becomes truly a song about life and read outloud can certainly stir your soul.
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1 Total 1 pages 10 items |
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