Walt Whitman was—and is—America’s poet, the man who, in the words of Allen Ginsberg, “began to define his own person, who began to tell his own secrets, who outlined his own body, and made an outline of his own mind, so other people could see it.” The greatest evidence of this is his seminal book Leaves of Grass.

Presented courtesy of Teachers & Writers, "Taking a Walk through Leaves of Grass," Ginsberg's timeless essay on the "good gray poet," is now available for the first time on Poets.org. Sound a barbaric yawp, sing the body electric and take a walk through Leaves of Grass with two of America’s most celebrated poets in this classic text.

read the essay