i'm with AE on reading every word of whitman; i'm reading him for the first time now [i tried a few years back and couldn't make it] and enjoying it immensely, though i must admit i probably won't go back and read "Song of the Broad-Axe Again." however, i will go back and read many of the others again. another one of his good ones IMO is
Drum-Taps. whitman was able to comment directly on events in his time, as well as speak to ages to come. this may because of the tremendous scope of the civil war in history, but a lot of poets have tried to do the same and failed. i'm not the best versed in the poetry of the period, but the major poets that i have read [longfellow, dickenson] didn't deal with current events so to speak. i agree with mark when he said
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Anyway, style is not the main reason why I like Whitman - I like him mostly for his thought, his philosophy, his vision, or whatever term you please.
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but i would add to the list his sense of history and the prescient nature of his writings.
jd
[This message has been edited by J.D. Hughes (edited July 04, 2005).]