Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman (1855)

In Leaves of Grass (1855), American poet Walt Whitman creates a revolutionary collection of poems celebrating individuality, democracy, nature, the human body, sexuality, and the interconnectedness of all people. First published as a slim volume of twelve poems and repeatedly expanded and revised throughout Whitman's life, the collection became an ambitious poetic portrait of America itself. In poems such as "Song of Myself," Whitman abandons traditional poetic conventions in favor of expansive free verse, creating a distinctive voice that embraces workers, lovers, immigrants, outcasts, and ordinary people alongside the natural world. In this episode, we explore Whitman's radical vision of the self and society, his celebration of physical and spiritual experience, and how Leaves of Grass transformed American poetry while establishing Whitman as one of the central figures in the literary tradition of the United States.