Description

"I celebrate myself, And what I assume you'll assume,For each atom owned by me nearly as good belongs to you.I loafe and invite my soul, I lean and loafe at my ease,.observing a spear of summer grass."So begins Leaves of Grass, the very first great American poem and indeed, even today, the best and most essentially American poem in all our national literature. The publication of Leaves of Grass in July 1855 was a landmark event in literary history. Ralph Waldo Emerson judged the book "the absolute most extraordinary bit of wit and wisdom America has yet contributed." Nothing beats the amount had ever appeared before. Everything about any of it--the unusual jacket and title page, the exuberant preface, the twelve free-flowing, untitled poems embracing every realm of experience--was new.