WALT WHITMAN
u003cbu003eRalph Waldo Emerson issued a call for a great poet to capture and immortalize the unique American experience. In 1855, an answer came with Walt Whitmans u003ciu003eLeaves of Grassu003c/iu003e.u003c/bu003eu003cbru003e u003cbru003e Today, this masterful collection remains not only a seminal event in American literature but also the incomparable achievement of one of Americas greatest poetsan exuberant, passionate man who loved his country and wrote of it as no other has ever done. Walt Whitman was a singer, thinker, visionary, and citizen extraordinaire. Thoreau called Whitman probably the greatest democrat that ever lived, and Emerson judged u003ciu003eLeaves of Grassu003c/iu003e as the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom America has yet contributed.u003cbru003e u003cbru003e u003cbu003eThe text presented here is that of the Deathbed or ninth edition of u003ciu003eLeaves of Grassu003c/iu003e, published in 1892. The content and grouping of poems is the version authorized by Whitman himself for the final and complete edition of his masterpiece.u003c/bu003e