ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Leaves of Grass, collection of poetry by American author Walt Whitman, first presented as a group of 12 poems published anonymously in 1855. It was followed by five revised and three reissued editions during the author’s lifetime. Poems not published in his lifetime were added in 1897.

Detailed explanation-2: -The young Walt Whitman heeded Emerson’s call for an American poet, and the result in 1855 was Leaves of Grass. Whitman had worked as a printer and newspaper publisher, and this first edition of his poetry was self-published in every sense of the word.

Detailed explanation-3: -The collection of loosely connected poems represents the celebration of his philosophy of life and humanity and praises nature and the individual human’s role in it. Rather than focusing on religious or spiritual matters, Leaves of Grass focuses primarily on the body and the material world.

Detailed explanation-4: -The title Leaves of Grass is a pun. “Grass” was a term given by publishers to works of minor value, and “leaves” is another name for the pages on which they were printed. Whitman designed the green cloth cover and typeset and paid for the printing of the book himself.

Detailed explanation-5: -Each leaf or blade of grass possesses its own distinct beauty, and together the blades form a beautiful unified whole, an idea Whitman explores in the sixth section of “Song of Myself.” Multiple leaves of grass thus symbolize democracy, another instance of a beautiful whole composed of individual parts.