Walt Whitman. Works. Selections from the prose and poetry of Whitman. O. L. Triggs, editor. 1902. 10 vols. The best single volumes are Leaves of Grass, Complete Poetical Works, and Complete Prose Works. (Small, Maynard.) 1897 and 1898. During Whitman’s lifetime ten successive enlarged editions of Leaves of Grass were published: in 1855, 1856, 1860, 1867, 1871, 1876, 1881 (Boston), 1881 (Philadelphia), 1888, 1889, 1891. Other titles are as follows: *Drum-Taps, 1865; *Passage to India, 1871; *Democratic Vistas, 1871; Memoranda during the War, 1875; Specimen Days and Collect, 1882, 1883; Two Rivulets, 1876; *November Boughs, 1888; *Good-bye, My Fancy, 1891. (Titles with the mark * were included as new sections in the next forthcoming edition of Leaves of Grass.)

Bibliographies

Selections from Whitman. O. L. Triggs, editor. 1898.

Library of Literary Criticism of English and American Authors, Vol. VIII, pp. 129–153. C. W. Moulton, editor. 1905. Cambridge History of American Literature, Vol. II, pp. 551–581.

Biography and Criticism

There is no complete standard biography. The best single volume surveys are Walt Whitman, by G. R. Carpenter, 1909 (E. M. L. Ser.); and Walt Whitman: his Life and Works, by Bliss Perry, 1906 (A. M. L. Ser.).

Binns, H. B. A Life of Walt Whitman. 1905.

Boynton, P. H. Whitman’s Idea of the State. New Republic, Vol. VII, p. 139.

Brooks, Van Wyck. America’s Coming of Age. 1915.

Burroughs, John. Notes on Walt Whitman as Poet and Person. 1867.

Burroughs, John. Whitman: a Study. 1896.

Carpenter, Edward. Days with Walt Whitman. 1906.

Chapman, J. J. Emerson and Other Essays. 1892.

Dart, W. K. Walt Whitman in New Orleans. Pub. Louisiana Hist. Soc., Vol. VII, pp. 97–112.

Elliot, C. N. Walt Whitman as Man, Poet, and Friend. 1915.

Ferguson, J. D. American Literature in Spain. 1916.

Foerster, Norman. Whitman as Poet of Nature. Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. of Amer., Vol. XXI (N. S.), pp. 736–758.

Gould, E. P. Anne Gilchrist and Walt Whitman. 1900.

Gummere, F. B. Democracy and Poetry. 1911.

Holloway, Emory. Cambridge History of American Literature, Vol. II, Bk. II, chap. i.

Jones, P. M. Influence of Whitman on the Origin of “Vers Libre.” Modern Language Review, Vol. XI, p. 186.

Jones, P. M. Whitman in France. Modern Language Review, Vol. X, p. 1.

Lanier, Sidney. The English Novel. 1883.

Lee, G. S. Order for the Next Poet. Putnam’s Magazine, Vol. I, p. 697; Vol. II, p. 99.

Macphail, Andrew. Walt Whitman, in Essays in Puritanism. 1905.

More, P. E. Walt Whitman, in Shelburne Essays. Fourth Series. 1906.

Pattee, F. L. American Literature since 1870, chap. ix. 1915.

Perry, Bliss. Walt Whitman: his Life and Work. 1906 and 1908.

Santayana, George. Walt Whitman, in Interpretations of Poetry and Religion. 1900.

Stedman, E. C. Poets of America. 1885.

Stevenson, R. L. Familiar Studies of Men and Books. 1882.

Swinburne, A. C. Studies in Prose and Poetry. 1894.

Traubel, H. L. In re Walt Whitman. 1893.

Traubel, H. L. With Walt Whitman in Camden, p. 473. 1906. (This is Vol. I of Traubel’s diary notes made during Whitman’s life. Vol. II, 1908; Vol. III, 1914. Vol. IV is announced for early publication, and the whole work, when completed, will fill eight or ten volumes.)

Walling, W. E. Whitman and Traubel. 1916.

TOPICS AND PROBLEMS

Select and discuss poems and stanzas in Whitman which are written in conventional rhythms.

Select and discuss passages in which he employs changing rhythms adjusted to the persons or objects in hand.

Study Whitman’s diction with reference to his use of the average man’s speech and to his occasional use of foreign words, corrupted words (whether foreign or English), and coined words.

List and discuss poems which are clearly autobiographical. Does this list include any personal lyrics?

List and discuss poems written in the first person but intended as poems of “the divine average.”

Select and discuss poems and passages on the theme of companionship.

Select and discuss poems and passages which express his sense of universal law.

Read his longer poems for passages on the subject of the state, the rulers, and public opinion.

Read and discuss his utterances on poetry and the poet, noting especially “The Song of the Banner at Daybreak” and “As I sat by Blue Ontario’s Shore.”

Read and discuss Whitman’s utterances on war and nationalism.

Read for an estimate of his feeling for the beauties of nature.