Discover How Whitmans Spiritual Life and Vision Can Enlighten Your
Own
Whitmans collected poems and prose are not an object or icon to be gazed
upon or revered but a transparency we look through to see ourselves with
greater clarity, excitement, and meaning. They wake us up to our
potential, to learning about and from ourselves. To experience his
writing is to experience ourselves more deeply.
from the Preface by Gary David Comstock
Walt Whitman was the most innovative and influential poet of the
nineteenth century. The self-proclaimed American Bard, Whitman
challenged his contemporaries to resist conforming to society and
shocked them with his embrace of the sensual. But beneath his manifesto
for social revolution lies a vigorous call for spiritual revolution as
well.
This beautiful sampling of Whitmans most important poetry from Leaves
of Grass, and selections from his prose writings, offers a glimpse into
the spiritual side of his most radical themeslove for country, love for
others, and love of Self. Whitman seeks to tear down the belief that the
spiritual resides only in the religious and embraces the idea that
nothing is more divine than humankind, nothing greater than the
individual soul.
Rich with passion, reverence, and wonder, this unique collection offers
insight into Whitmans quest for self-discovery, which involved an
ongoing mystical experience of the world. Though seemingly personal, his
verse speaks to universal harmony and universal love, optimism and joy,
and celebrates the outwardly mundane details of life through words
electrified with love and spirit.
