Product Description

Harold Bloom, author of The Western Canon and one of the world's most renowned literary critics, surveys Walt Whitman's vast poetic work, from early notebook fragments of Song of Myself to the late poems of Good-bye My Fancy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #684910 in Books
• Published on: 2003-01-27
• Released on: 2003-01-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 221 pages

From Booklist
As for Whitman--collected and selected so often--what, or who, could possibly make another selection seem fresh? Who is definitely Harold Bloom, dean of American literary critics, who considers Whitman "the principal writer that America--North, Central, or South--has brought to us." Bloom's best single descriptive of Whitman is "immediate," to which any reader of "Song of Myself" will assent: Whitman is with his readers ("If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles"). Bloom is concerned with Whitman's construction of his all-encompassing persona, and he selects with that in mind: first, some fragments of what became "Song of Myself"; then the "Song" itself in its final form; then four great poems of, Bloom argues, persona-shaping crisis, as well as "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry"; and three sections of other, successively later poems. Bloom connects Whitman's project to the thesis of his The American Religion (1992) that the tendency of religion in America is to replace God with man, and with the fragments, Bloom presents explicit evidence of the attempt. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
Harold Bloom, editor, teaches at Yale and New York University and has written more than twenty major books, including The Anxiety of Influence (1975), The Western Canon (1994), and Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds (2002). He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Customer Reviews

A fair representation of the representative American poet
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.

Good introduction to Whitman
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!