“O Captain! My Captain!” is probably Walt Whitman’s most famous poem, which is kind of ironic because it barely sounds like him. If you know Whitman from Leaves of Grass, you’re used to sprawling free verse and these massive catalogs of images. This poem? It’s tight, structured, and actually rhymes. He wrote it in 1865 … Read more
“Song of Myself” is Whitman’s masterpiece, and that’s not an exaggeration. First published in 1855 as the opening poem of Leaves of Grass, it runs 52 sections and over 1,300 lines of Whitman celebrating himself, America, democracy, the body, the soul, and basically everything he can think of. It’s ambitious, sprawling, contradictory, brilliant, and occasionally … Read more
“I Sing the Body Electric” is Whitman at his boldest, and that’s saying something. First published in the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass, this poem is basically Whitman standing up and yelling that the human body is sacred. Not metaphorically sacred. Actually sacred. In the 1850s, this was shocking. Most poetry tiptoed around the … Read more
“I Hear America Singing” is one of Whitman’s shortest poems, but it packs his whole democratic vision into just eleven lines. First published in the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass, it’s basically Whitman listing workers and saying they’re all singing. Not literally singing, obviously. The “song” represents pride, joy, individuality, the sense that every … Read more
“When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” is one of Whitman’s shortest poems, clocking in at just eight lines, but it captures a feeling a lot of people have had: that moment when facts and figures kill the wonder of something beautiful. Published in 1865, it’s about sitting through a lecture on astronomy, getting overwhelmed by … Read more
“On the Beach at Night Alone” showed up in the 1867 edition of Leaves of Grass, and it’s one of Whitman’s quieter poems. Not quiet as in boring, but quiet as in contemplative, almost meditative. The setup is straightforward enough: Whitman’s standing alone on a beach at night, listening to the waves, looking at the … Read more
“When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” is Whitman’s long elegy for Abraham Lincoln, though he never actually says Lincoln’s name. Written in 1865 right after the assassination, this poem processes grief through images from nature: spring lilacs, a falling star, the song of a thrush. Instead of writing a traditional eulogy full of praise … Read more
“A Noiseless Patient Spider” is one of Whitman’s shortest poems, but it packs a lot into just ten lines. First published in the 1891 edition of Leaves of Grass (basically the final version he worked on before he died), it takes this tiny moment from nature and turns it into a metaphor for the human … Read more
“Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” might be the most intimate conversation Walt Whitman ever had with people he knew he’d never meet. Published in 1856, the poem starts with something completely ordinary: his daily commute across the East River between Brooklyn and Manhattan. But somewhere between boarding the ferry and reaching the other shore, Whitman realizes he’s … Read more
“Song of the Open Road” showed up in the 1856 edition of Leaves of Grass, and it’s Whitman at his most optimistic and inviting. The setup sounds simple: he’s taking a walk down an open road, feeling good about it. But Whitman being Whitman, a walk never stays just a walk. Within a few lines, … Read more