Editing Walt Whitman (section)

==Writing==
[[File:Whitman at about fifty.jpg|thumb|upright=1|Whitman, pictured at age 50 in 1869]]

Whitman's work broke the boundaries of poetic form and is generally prose-like.<ref name=Reynolds314>Reynolds, 314.</ref> Its signature style deviates from the course set by his predecessors and includes "idiosyncratic treatment of the body and the soul as well as of the self and the other."<ref>Kirmizi, Busra, and Martin Kopacik, [https://books.google.com/books?id=yk7LDQAAQBAJ&dq=idiosyncratic+treatment+of+the+body,+the+soul,+the+self,+and+the+other&pg=PA101 "The Affinity between the Body, The Self and Nature in Whitman's 'Song of Myself{{'"}}], in ''Academic research of SSaH 2016'', p. 101. {{ISBN|978-80-906231-8-7}}.</ref> It uses unusual images and symbols, including rotting leaves, tufts of straw, and debris.<ref>Kaplan, 233.</ref> Whitman openly wrote about death and sexuality, including prostitution.<ref name="Loving, 314"/> He is often labeled the father of [[free verse]], though he did not invent it.<ref name=Reynolds314/>

===Poetic theory===
Whitman wrote in the preface to the 1855 edition of ''Leaves of Grass'': "The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it." He believed there was a vital, [[wikt:symbiotic|symbiotic]] relationship between the poet and society.<ref>Reynolds, 5.</ref> He emphasized this connection especially in "[[Song of Myself]]" by using an all-powerful first-person narration.<ref>Reynolds, 324.</ref> An American epic, it deviated from the historic use of an elevated hero and instead assumed the identity of the common people.<ref>Miller, 78.</ref> ''Leaves of Grass'' also responded to the impact of rapid [[urbanization in the United States]] on the masses.<ref>Reynolds, 332.</ref>