2011.10.22: Robert Hass, Eric Karpeles, & Others Community Reading-Walt Whitman's 'Song of Myself'

Robert Hass, Eric Karpeles, and Others Community Reading of Walt Whitman's 'Song of Myself' In 1855, Whitman published 795 copies of his book Leaves of Grass, paying for publication himself. “Song of Myself,” as it came to be known, was the first experiment in long, free-verse poetry—a poem that former U.S. poet laureate and Whitman scholar Robert Hass calls, “the most unprecedented poem in the English language.” The poem is Whitman’s “song” about democracy and imagination, life and death. With an introduction by Robert Haas, local volunteers read the 52 numbered sections of the 1891 “Deathbed” edition of Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself in its entirety. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.