Leaves of Grass

Hosted by Chris Piuma and Suzanne Conklin Akbari

Full of life now, compact, visible,
I, forty years old the eighty-third year of The States,
To one a century hence, or any number of centuries hence,
To you yet unborn these, seeking you.

When you read these I that was visible am become invisible,
Now it is you, compact, visible, realizing my poems, seeking me,
Fancying how happy you were if I could be with you and become your comrade;
Be it as if I were with you. (Be not too certain but I am now with you.)

It’s Walt Whitman’s 200th birthday today! Suzanne and Chris are celebrating by rereading Leaves of Grass, the book of poetry that Whitman kept writing, revising, and expanding throughout his life. With its ecstatic rhythms, its vigorous celebration of the body and of freedom, and its dreams of collectivity through diversity, Whitman’s poetry can be compelling, even overwhelming. And even when the book doesn’t quite live up to our hopes and dreams, it offers a path beyond itself.

10. Leaves of Grass.

The Spouter-Inn Celebrate Walt Whitman’s 200th birthday with the book of poetry that he kept writing, revising, and expanding throughout his life. More episodes

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Show Notes.

Leaves of Grass. [Project Gutenberg. Librivox. Bookshop.]

The Walt Whitman Archive also contains the complete text(s).

Some curious details about the first printing of Leaves of Grass.

The most famous section of Christopher Smart’s “Jubilate Agno”.

Walt Whitman reading “America”.

(Though there is some controversy about the authenticity of the recording.)

Mark Twain wrote on “The Whitman Controversy” (about Whitman’s alleged obscenity).

When Wilde Met Whitman.

Whitman Noir.

Some of the poems we quote:

-America

I Sing the Body Electric (final section; later, sections 7 and 8)
Song of Myself (sections 2 and 5)
Spontaneous Me
The Sleepers
Me Imperturbe
First O Songs for a Prelude
Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field
The Wound-Dresser
When Lilacs Last in the Door-Yard Bloom’d
O Captain! My Captain!

Responses to Whitman:

Federico García Lorca: Oda a Walt Whitman [English translation]
Pablo Neruda: Oda a Walt Whitman [English translation]
Allen Ginsberg: A Supermarket in California
Mark Doty: Letter to Walt Whitman
Langston Hughes: I, Too

Paul Hindemith set a requiem with When Lilacs Last in the Door-Yard Bloom’d.

Mark Doty reads Song of Myself (and more).

Next episode: The Autobiography of Malcolm X.

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