and scienti¤c theories concerning death or those advocated by estab-
lished religion. He viewed death as an eternal and benign mystery that he
was destined to interpret for himself and to translate for his readers. At
times his poems approach death gladly, as if to embrace it; at times they
treat it quizzically, revealing an uncertainty about his own assumptions.
Leaves of Grass depicts not only the poet-persona’s observations of the
dying and the deaths of a great range of persons and his moving medita-
tions on death, but it also discloses those moments when the persona
contemplates, or even “experiences,” his own death.
In order to explain how death is treated in the broad range of Whit-
man’s poetry, this study has been organized in a loosely chronological
sequence that extends from his sentimental apprentice writings to the
sophisticated verses of his later years. The introduction examines the
background of his development as a poet and thinker and shows how his
poetry of death is related to his literary and intellectual milieu. Chapters 1
and 2 examine death and dying in the ¤rst edition of Leaves of Grass
(1855), particularly in the magisterial “Song of Myself,” which contains
some of the most affecting death scenes in all of poetry. They show the
development of the Whitman persona, his musings about death, his con-
frontations with death, and his inspired role as an interpreter of death.
Other poems in the 1855 edition—notably “To Think of Time” and “The
Sleepers”—are examined in chapter 2.
In preparing the successive editions of Leaves of Grass after 1855, Whit-
man generally included the poems that had been published in the pre-
ceding edition and supplemented them with his new poems. In order to
create a chronological record, chapters 3 through 6 cover those poems
that were newly added to each edition. Chapter 3 deals with the poems
that ¤rst appeared in the second edition of Leaves of Grass (1856), with
special attention to the poet-persona’s role as a folk prophet who con¤des
his gospel of democracy and immortality to his fellow citizens. High-
lighting this edition are “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,” Whitman’s haunting
visualization of his postmortem self, and “This Compost,” in which the
persona confronts his own death with alternating moods of terror and
acceptance. Chapter 4 considers the new poems of the third edition of
Leaves of Grass (1860). It explores the persona’s mating urge in the “Chil-
dren of Adam” poems as an expression of species immortality; the inter-
play of homoerotic love and the preoccupation with death in the “Cala-
mus” poems; the myth of the poet’s childhood initiation into the mystery
x / Preface