Prophet Bilingual Classics 01: Leaves of Grass

Author: Walt Whitman (USA)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-06-01
Features: Leaves of Grass is a romantic poetry collection by the 19th-century American writer Walt Whitman, containing over 300 poems. The collection is named after a line in one of the poems: "Where there is soil, where there is water, there grows grass." Grass is the most ordinary and vibrant thing, symbolizing the burgeoning America of that time. Through the lens of the "self" and the "self-image," the collection passionately celebrates the rising period of capitalism in the United States. Whitman grew up loving democracy and freedom. He attended school for only five or six years and went out to work in his teens. He worked as a typesetter, carpenter, bricklayer, rural teacher, and editor. Whitman was diligent and self-taught, reading extensively from world literary classics in his spare time. He began writing poetry in the 1840s and published the first edition of Leaves of Grass in 1855. In a letter to a friend, he wrote, "Remember, this book came from the life I lived in Brooklyn from 1838 to 1853, absorbing millions of individuals and fifteen years of life; the intimacy, the passion, the intoxication—it is unparalleled." Leaves of Grass is a compilation of Whitman's life's work and a shining milestone in the history of American poetry. The work contains rich and profound ideological content, fully reflecting the spirit of mid-19th-century America. The poet, from the standpoint of radical bourgeois democracy, celebrates America as this "land of democracy": there are no slaves, nor slave owners; there, the people rise immediately against the endless misdeeds of those elected; there, men and women bravely rush to the call of death, like the surging waves of the sea; there, external authority always follows internal authority; there, citizens are always the mind and ideals, while the president, the mayor, and the governor are merely paid employees; there, children are educated to manage themselves and rely on themselves; there, events are resolved peacefully; there, the exploration of the soul is encouraged; there, women march openly in the streets like men; there, they take their seats at public gatherings like men. Leaves of Grass celebrates nature and the self with pantheism, which is the worship of nature, viewing all things in nature as gods. The poems extol the grandeur, wonder, and greatness of nature: climbing mountains, I climb carefully, holding onto slender branches to support me, walking along paths covered in grass, where leaves gently brush by, where quail chirp between wheat fields and forests, where bats fly in the twilight of July, where giant golden beetles descend in the dark, where streams gush from old tree roots and flow into the grasslands. Leaves of Grass is the fragrant grass that grows across the land of America, forever vibrant and emitting an alluring fragrance. It is a world-renowned masterpiece that ushered in a new era of American national poetry. The author made bold innovations in poetic form, creating the "free verse" style, breaking away from traditional poetic meter, basing rhythm on line breaks, with free, unrestrained, and flowing cadence, possessing the momentum of a rushing stream and the capacity to encompass all.