G.K. Chesterton argued that Walt Whitman is the greatest American. Leaves of Grass, first published in 1855 and augmented every few years until the poets death in 1892, is his masterpiece. It was greeted by Ralph Waldo Emerson as the wonderful giftthe most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed.
Whitman succeeded in his ambition: to create something uniquely American. His poems have been woven into the very fabric of the American character. From his solemn dirges When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomd and O Captain! My Captain! to the joyous freedom of Song of Myself, I Sing the Body Electric, and Song of the Open Road, Leaves of Grass lives on, providing inspiration to the people and poets of generations to come.