Through the artistry of current photography, Walt Whitman’s great classic takes on a new dimension. Suddenly the “shapes of democracy” and “Shapes of turbulent manly cities” look beyond the abstract to the here and now.
No matter that a century has passed between the written word and the redinement of the photographic art. Walt Whiteman’s poetry is eternal, and the nineteenth century visions of the poet prophet emerge ever more significant in this century.
Hear his words of Gettysburg and he could be describing Verdun or Bastogne or Khe Sanh. “In mid-night sleep, of many a face of anguish, of the look at first of the mortally wounded-of that indescribable look; of the dea on their backs with arms extended wide, I dream, I dream, I dream.”
The names of the assassins change, but “My Captain,” be he Lincoln or Kennedy, “Lies fallen cold and dead”.
For this volume, over one hundred and thirty-three stunning photographs were especially selected to complement the texts of “Pioneers! O Pioneers!”, “song of the Open Road”, “In Midnight Sleep” and “good-bye My fancy!” And point up highlights from such masterworks as “song of Myself”, “I sing the Body Electric”, “Faces” and other thematic essays within Leaves of Grass. Fifty inspires photographers took the magnificent black-and-white pictures that raise Whitman’s immortal words to ever greater heights.
Through the artistry of current photography, Walt Whitman’s great classic takes on a new dimension. Suddenly the “shapes of democracy” and “Shapes of turbulent manly cities” look beyond the abstract to the here and now.
No matter that a century has passed between the written word and the redinement of the photographic art. Walt Whiteman’s poetry is eternal, and the nineteenth century visions of the poet prophet emerge ever more significant in this century.
Hear his words of Gettysburg and he could be describing Verdun or Bastogne or Khe Sanh. “In mid-night sleep, of many a face of anguish, of the look at first of the mortally wounded-of that indescribable look; of the dea on their backs with arms extended wide, I dream, I dream, I dream.”
The names of the assassins change, but “My Captain,” be he Lincoln or Kennedy, “Lies fallen cold and dead”.
For this volume, over one hundred and thirty-three stunning photographs were especially selected to complement the texts of “Pioneers! O Pioneers!”, “song of the Open Road”, “In Midnight Sleep” and “good-bye My fancy!” And point up highlights from such masterworks as “song of Myself”, “I sing the Body Electric”, “Faces” and other thematic essays within Leaves of Grass. Fifty inspires photographers took the magnificent black-and-white pictures that raise Whitman’s immortal words to ever greater heights.
