Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman (1819–1892) was an American poet, journalist, and essayist whose Leaves of Grass transformed nineteenth-century American poetry through free verse, expansive catalogues, colloquial language, and an unusually direct celebration of individual identity, bodily experience, democracy, and human interconnectedness. Born in West Hills, Long Island, New York, Whitman left formal schooling at a young age and worked successively as an office clerk, printer, teacher, journalist, and editor. He published the first edition of Leaves of Grass in 1855, initially at his own expense, and continued revising and expanding the collection throughout his life; the work eventually developed into a sequence of editions reflecting changing poetic, political, and philosophical concerns. During the American Civil War, Whitman volunteered in hospitals and cared for wounded soldiers, experiences that profoundly shaped poems such as those collected in Drum-Taps and later incorporated into Leaves of Grass. His poetry rejected many conventional nineteenth-century poetic forms and sought a democratic poetic voice capable of encompassing diverse individuals, occupations, landscapes, bodies, and experiences. Poems such as 'Song of Myself' and 'I Sing the Body Electric' became central to his literary reputation, while his treatment of sexuality, individuality, democracy, and the human body contributed to both the influence and controversy surrounding his work. Whitman is now regarded as one of the foundational figures of modern American poetry.