Author(s): Walt. Whitman; Wharton Esherick (Illustrator)

Poetry

Whitman's greatest legacy is his invention of a truly American free verse. His groundbreaking, open, inclusive, and optimistic poems are written in long, sprawling lines and span an astonishing variety of subject matter and points of view - embodying the democratic spirit of his new America. He uses a number of literary devices to accomplish his work. No one has been able to adequately describe how Walt Whitman came to write his book. Nothing in his past seems able to predict it. By some fortunate conversion of mysticism, talent, and singular vision of humanity, in 1855, Walt Whitman published his first edition of Leaves of Grass.Largely self-taught, Walt Whitman read voraciously. He worked as a printer in New York City until a devastating fire in the printing district demolished the industry. In 1836, at the age of seventeen, he began his career as a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse on Long Island. He continued to teach until 1841, when he turned to journalism as a full-time career. Until he turned to writing poetry and produced his Masterpiece Leaves of Grass, which he added new poems to for most of his life.