American literature and culture are inconceivable without the towering presence of Walt Whitman.

American literature and culture are inconceivable without the towering presence of Walt Whitman.

Expansive, ecstatic, original in ways that continue to startle and to elicit new discoveries, Whitman's poetry is a testament to the surging energies of 19th-century America and a monument to the transforming power of literary genius. His incantatory rhythms, revolutionary sense of Eros, and generous, all-embracing vision invite renewed wonder at each reading.

Although he has been a defining influence for many poets-Garcia Lorca, Fernando Pessoa, Robinson Jeffers, and Allen Ginsberg-his style is ultimately inimitable, and his achievement unsurpassed in American poetry.