This monumental anthology celebrates Walt Whitman's enduring worldwide influence, now available in an expanded, updated third edition, to coincide with his 200th birthday (May 31st, 2019).

Jim Perlman is founding editor and publisher of Holy Cow! Press. Begun in 1977, his press has published more than 125 books. He holds an MA from The University of Iowa where he attended the first Whitman Seminar chaired by Ed Folsom that became the inspiration for Walt Whitman: The Measure of His Song. Please visit www.holycowpress.org.

Ed Folsom is the Roy J. Carver Professor of English at the University of Iowa, where he edits the Walt Whitman Quarterly Review, co-directs the online Walt Whitman Archive, and edits the Whitman Series for the University of Iowa Press. He is the author or editor of numerous books and essays on Whitman and other American writers.

Dan Campion, author of Peter De Vries and Surrealism (Bucknell University Press, 1995) and Calypso (Syncline Press, 1981), lives in Iowa City, Iowa. He holds degrees from The University of Chicago and the Program for Writers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and received his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in 1989. He has contributed poetry to many magazines, including Able Muse, Light, Measure, The Midwest Quarterly, The North American Review, Poet Lore, Poetry, Rolling Stone, Shenandoah, and Think.

(For third edition, 2019)
Acknowledgements.........................................................................ix
Table of Illustrations...................................................................................................xv
Preface.........................................................................................................................xviii
Preface to Third Edition (2019)...................................................................................xix
"Talking Back to Walt Whitman: An Introduction," Ed Folsom...................................21
1855 - 1905
Ralph Waldo Emerson, A Letter to Whitman (1855)...................................................79
Henry David Thoreau, A Letter to Harrison Blake (1856)...........................................80
Matthew Arnold, From a Letter to W. D. O'Connor (1866)..................................................82
Algernon Charles Swinburne, "To Walt Whitman in America" (Poem, 1871)........................83
Joaquin Miller, "To Walt Whitman" (Poem, 1877).................................................................89
Ernest Rhys, "To Walt Whitman from Some Younger English Friends" (Poem, 1889)............90
Gerard Manley Hopkins, From a Letter to Robert Bridges (1882)..........................................91
Edwin Arlington Robinson, "Walt Whitman" (Poem, 1897)..................................................93
Louis Sullivan, A Letter to Walt Whitman (1887)..................................................................94
Rubén Darío, "Walt Whitman" (Poem, 1890), trans. Didier Tisdel Jaén................................96
Hamlin Garland, "A Tribute of Grasses" (Poem, 1893)...........................................................97
Edmund Gosse, From "Walt Whitman" (Essay, 1893)............................................................98
Robert Buchanan, "Walt Whitman" (Poem, 1892).................................................................102
Morris Rosenfeld, "Walt Whitman" (Poem, 1890s)................................................................103
Willa Cather, "Whitman" (Essay, 1896).................................................................................104
George Cabot Lodge, "To W. W." (Poem, 1902)....................................................................106
1905 - 1955
Ezra Pound, "A Pact" (Poem, 1913)........................................................................................111
Ezra Pound, "What I Feel About Walt Whitman" (Essay, 1909).............................................112
Fernando Pessoa, "Salutation to Walt Whitman" (Poem, 1915), trans. Edwin Honig.............114
Edgar Lee Masters, "Petit, the Poet" (Poem, 1915).................................................................122
Emanuel Carnevali, "Walt Whitman" (Poem, 1919)..............................................................123
Witter Bynner, "Whitman" (Poem, 1920)..............................................................................124
D. H. Lawrence, "Whitman" (Essay, 1921)............................................................................125
D. H. Lawrence, "Retort to Whitman" (Poem, late 1920s).....................................................134
Carl Sandburg, "[Bouquets and Brickbats]" (Essay, 1921)......................................................135
Vachel Lindsay, "Walt Whitman" (Essay, 1923)......................................................................141
Hart Crane, "Cape Hatteras" (Poem, 1929)...........................................................................145
T. S. Eliot, From "Whitman and Tennyson" (Essay, 1926).....................................................152
Sherwood Anderson, "Walt Whitman" (Essay, 1933).............................................................154
Ezequiel Martínez Estrada, "Walt Whitman" (Poem, 1929), trans. Didier Tisdel Jaén...........157
Federico García Lorca, "Ode to Walt Whitman" (Poem, 1929), trans. Betty Jean Craige........158
Zona Gale, "Walt Whitman" (Poem, late 1920s)....................................................................163
Edwin Markham, "Walt Whitman" (Poem, 1931)..................................................................165
Michael Gold, "Ode to Walt Whitman" (Poem, 1935)...........................................................168
Stephen Vincent Benét, "Ode to Walt Whitman" (Poem, 1936).............................................172
Wallace Stevens, "Like Decorations in a Nigger Cemetery" Part 1 (Poem, 1936)....................184
Langston Hughes, "The Ceaseless Rings of Walt Whitman" (Essay, 1946)..............................185
Langston Hughes, "Old Walt" (Poem, 1954)..........................................................................190
Kenneth Patchen, "The Orange Bears" (Poem, 1949).............................................................191
Muriel Rukeyser, "Whitman and the Problem of Good" (Essay, 1949)...................................192
Pedro Mir, "Countersong to Walt Whitman: Song of Ourselves"
Parts 9, 15 (Poem, 1952) trans. Didier Tisdel Jaén............................................................201
Henry Miller, "Walt Whitman" (Essay, published 1957)........................................................205
William Carlos Williams, "The American Idiom" (Essay, published 1961).............................208
1955 - 1980
Allen Ginsberg, "A Supermarket in California" (Poem, 1955).................................................213
Jack Kerouac, "168th Chorus" (Poem, 1959).........................................................................215
Jack Spicer, "Some Notes on Whitman for Allen Joyce" (Poem, late 1950s) ...........................216
Richard Eberhart, "Centennial for Whitman" (Poem, 1955)..................................................218
Richard Eberhart, "Comments" (Essay, 1978)........................................................................222
Edwin Honig, "Walt Whitman" (Poem, 1955).......................................................................223
Pablo Neruda, "Ode to Walt Whitman" (Poem, 1956), trans. Didier Tisdel Jaén....................225
Pablo Neruda, "I Begin By Invoking Walt Whitman" (Poem, early 1970s)
trans. Teresa Anderson.......................................................................................................230
Pablo Neruda, "We Live In A Whitmanesque Age" (Prose, 1972)..........................................231
Jorge Luis Borges, "Camden, 1892" (Poem, 1966),
trans. Richard Howard and César Rennert........................................................................234
Jorge Luis Borges, "Note on Walt Whitman" (Essay, 1947)....................................................235
Jonathan Williams, "Fastball" (Poem, 1959)...........................................................................241
John Berryman, From "Song of Myself: Intention and Substance" (Essay, 1957)....................243
John Berryman, "Despair" (Poem, 1970)...............................................................................250
Denise Levertov, From "A Common Ground" (Poem, 1961)..................................................251
James Wright, "The Delicacy of Walt Whitman" (Essay, 1962)...............................................253
David Ignatow, "Communion" (Poem, mid 1950s)................................................................269
David Ignatow, "Son to Father" (Essay, 1979)........................................................................270
David Ignatow, "Waiting Inside" (Poem, late 1960s)..............................................................271
Louis Simpson, "Walt Whitman at Bear Mountain" (Poem, 1960).........................................272
Louis Simpson, "Pacific Ideas-A Letter to Walt Whitman" (Poem, 1963).............................274
Theodore Roethke, From "The Abyss" (Poem, 1964)..............................................................275
Edward Dahlberg, "Walt Whitman" (Poem, 1966).................................................................276
Howard Nemerov, "A Modern Poet" (Poem, 1967)................................................................279
Ronald Johnson, "Letters to Walt Whitman," V, IX (Poems, 1966)........................................280
Charles Olson, "I, Mencius, Pupil of the Master..." (Poem, 1960)..........................................282
Robert Creeley, "Introduction" (Essay, 1972).........................................................................285
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, "Populist Manifesto" (Poem, 1975).....................................................295
Norman Rosten, "Face on the Daguerreotype" (Poem, 1965).................................................299
Calvin Forbes, "Reading Walt Whitman" (Poem, early 1970s)...............................................300
Derek Walcott, "Over Colorado" (Poem, 1976).....................................................................301
Dave Smith, "With Walt Whitman at Fredericksburg" (Poem, 1976).....................................302
Philip Dacey, "Hopkins to Whitman" (Poem, 1978)..............................................................304
Ted Berrigan, "Whitman in Black" (Poem, late 1970s)...........................................................307
William Stafford, "For You, Walt Whitman" (Poem, 1979)....................................................308
Theodore Weiss, "The Good Grey Poet" (Poem, 1976)...........................................................309
Diane Wakoski, "For Whitman" (Poem, 1973).......................................................................312
Galway Kinnell, "Whitman's Indicative Words" (Essay, 1973, rev. 1980)................................313
1980s
Allen Ginsberg, "Allen Ginsberg on Walt Whitman: Composed on the Tongue" (Discourse,
1980)...............................................................................................................................329
Allen Ginsberg, "I Love Old Whitman So" (Poem, 1984)......................................................353
Louis Simpson, "Honoring Whitman" (Essay, 1980)..............................................................354
William Heyen, "Essay Beginning and Ending with Poems for Whitman"(1980)...................358
Joseph Bruchac, "To Love the Earth: Some Thoughts on Walt Whitman" (Essay, 1980).........366
Alvaro Cardona-Hine, "I Teach Straying from Me-Yet Who Can Stray from Me?" (Essay,
1980)...............................................................................................................................
371
Larry Levis, "Whitman" (Poem, 1981)...................................................................................376
Calvin Hernton, "Crossing Brooklyn Bridge..." (Poem, 1980)..............................................378
Patricia Goedicke, "For Walt Whitman" (Poem, 1980)...........................................................379
Patricia Hampl, "The Mayflower Moment: Reading Whitman During the Vietnam War" (Essay,
1980).....................................................................................................................381
Judith Moffett, "Reaching Around" (Poem, 1980).................................................................395
Thomas McGrath, "Revolutionary Frescoes-The Ascension" (Poem, 1978, rev. 1980)..........400
Robert Bly, "My Doubts About Whitman" (Essay, 1980, rev. 1998).......................................402
June Jordan, "For the Sake of a People's Poetry: Walt Whitman and the Rest of Us" (Essay,
1980)...............................................................................................................................411
Meridel LeSueur, "Jelly Roll" (Essay, 1980)............................................................................421
Sharon Olds, "Nurse Whitman" (Poem, 1980).......................................................................425
Robert Duncan, "The Adventure of Whitman's Line" (Essay, 1985).......................................426
Gillian Conoley, "Walt Whitman in the Car Lot, Repo or Used" (Poem, 1989) ....................442
1990s
Adrienne Rich, "Beginners" (Essay, 1993)..............................................................................447
Gary Snyder, "Walt Whitman's New World, Old World" (Essay, 1993)..................................452
Marge Piercy, "How I Came to Walt Whitman and Found Myself" (Essay, 1992)..................455
Alicia Ostriker, "Loving Walt Whitman and the Problem of America" (Essay, 1992)..............457
Garrett Hongo, "On Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass" (Essay, 1992).......................................466
Yusef Komunyakaa, "Kosmos" (Poem, 1992).........................................................................470
Chou Ping, "Walt Whitman: Whispers of Heavenly Death Murmur'd I Hear!"
(Poem, 1993)....................................................................................................................473
Sherman Alexie, "Defending Walt Whitman" (Poem, 1996)..........................................474
Rudulfo Anaya, "Walt Whitman Strides the Llano of New Mexico" (Poem, 1996)........476
2000s
Monique S. Farrell, "Sushi in Brooklyn: A Dedication to Walt Whitman" (Poem, 2002).......480
Daphne Gottlieb, "Whitman's Sampler: Killing the Father of Free Verse" (Poem, 2004).....482
James Kimbrell, "Up Late: Reading Whitman" (Poem, 2005).................................................484
Dean Young, "Look at Quintillions Ripen'd & Look at Quintillions Green" (Poem, 2006).....487
Julia Alverez, "I, Too, Sing America' (Poem, 2006)...................................................................489
Meena Alexander, "Torn Grass" (Poem, 2006)........................................................................491
Rosanna Warren, "A Kosmos" (Poem, 2007)...........................................................................493
C.K. Williams, "What He Teaches Us" (Essay, 2010)...............................................................494
Maria Kelson, "Let America Be las americas" (Poem, 2014)..................................................499
Mark Doty, "What Is the Grass?" (Poem, 2015).......................................................................501
Martin Espada, "How We Could Have Lived or Died This Way" (Poem, 2015)......................502
The Poets Respond: A Bibliographic Chronology..................................................................505
Notes on Contributors............................................................................................................525