6/29/2023 0 Comments Leaves of grass deathbed edition![]() ![]() The book’s forthright sensuality, which went so far as to allude to homosexuality, offended many. Whitman later wrote, “I was simmering, simmering, simmering Emerson brought me to a boil.” He sent a copy of that first edition to Emerson, who replied that it was “the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom America has yet contributed.” ![]() In “The Poet,” Emerson called for American poets to focus their energy on things that are uniquely American. Whitman had written the book, in part, as a response to an 1844 essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson. The dozen poems in the 1855 edition included “Song of Myself” and “I Sing the Body Electric.” The poems themselves were untitled in the first edition, but titles were added in later editions. “Leaves” is another word for “pages,” and “grass” was a publisher’s term for books of little value. The title Leaves of Grass was a self-deprecating pun. ![]()
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