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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 811.3
EAN: 9780486268781
ISBN: 0486268780
Label: Dover Publications
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 128
Publication Date: 1991-05-01
Publisher: Dover Publications
Studio: Dover Publications

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A fair representation of the representative American poet
Review: This collection contains twenty- four pieces from the work of America's greatest poet. Whitman is the quintessential American poet the one who speaks for the heart of the nation, the great cataloguer of its vast varied landscape and life. Great poems such as "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed" and " I sing the body electric" provide the reader here with a true sense of Whitman's work.
Whitman with all his greatness can at times be plodding and tiring, and turn the open- road catalogue into a formula-like list. But mostly he is the celebrator of the American people in their great outward expansion through their own cosmic continent.
This work is represents fairly the one who even in his own time Emerson saw as the great representative American poet.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Good introduction to Whitman
Review: This review is about the Dover Thrift Editions publication entitled "Walt Whitman Selected Poems" [Unabridged]. 119 pgs.

If you are any kind of fan or student of Walt Whitman, you probably own (or at least know of) "Leaves of Grass", which is THE definitive collection of Whitman's work, as it contains virtually all of his poems. Over the course of his lifetime, he continually added, revised and reorganized his material, right up until his death in 1892. Several additional poems were added to the 1897 posthumous edition, but the 24 poems chosen for this particular collection ("Selected Poems") appear unabridged and in the original chronology, as they appeared in the final Whitman edition of `Leaves' in 1892.

The Table of Contents lists both the names of the poems and the Section titles under which they fall in `Leaves', for easy cross-reference if you feel so inclined. In the rear of this book are two lists that readers who are already familiar with Whitman's work might find helpful for easier reference - Alphabetical List of Titles & Alphabetical List of First Lines - although readers who are new to Whitman may find no use in them at all.

In short, this book is good (and CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP!!!) for those who merely wish to acquaint themselves with one of America's most well known 19th century Poets. However, if you already have an appreciation for Whitman, you might do better sticking with `Leaves of Grass' (which you probably already own or have read anyway!). I have given this book 4 stars, from a new student perspective. It would have been nice to have a little bit of biographical info on Whitman to round out the experience, but you can't beat this book for the price!

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