Blades of grass

Leaves of Grass , Thayer and Eldridge, Boston 1860/61

Leaves of Grass (in the German translation of grass , and later grass leaves ) is the major work of Walt Whitman , one of the most important American poets .

General

The first version of this cycle consisted of untitled poems and was self-published by Whitman in 1855. Over the next 36 years, the collection was repeatedly revised and considerably expanded (from an initial twelve to almost 400 poems of different lengths, often of the same series of poems, in the ninth edition in 1892).

The collection of poems, mostly written in free verse (with the exception of the depressing poems from the Civil War , in which Whitman helped as a nurse) has a powerful, optimistic, hymn-like tone and, as an expressly American opus, self-confidently emancipated from Europe , outlines the New World attitude to life .

structure

The following list presents the division of the work in the last edition of 1892 (the so-called Deathbed Edition ) according to books and poems specially emphasized by Whitman by means of headings written in capital letters (including, notably, his most famous poem, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd , his lament for Abraham Lincoln , not heard).

Inscriptions (26 poems)
- Beginning from Paumanok (19-part cycle)
- Song of Myself (52-part cycle)
Children of Adam (16 poems)
Calamus (51 poems)
- Salut au monde! (13-part cycle)
- Song of the Open Road (15-part cycle)
- Crossing Brooklyn Ferry (9-part cycle)
- Song of the Answerer (2-part cycle)
- Our Old Feuillage (long poem)
- A Song of Joys (long poem)
- Song of the Broad-Ax (12-part cycle)
- Song of the Exposition (9-part cycle)
- Song of the Redwood-Tree (3-part cycle)
- A Song for Occupations (6-part cycle)
- A Song of the Rolling Earth (4-part cycle)
Birds of Passage (7 poems)
- A Broadway Pageant (3-part cycle)
Sea-Drift (11 poems)
By the Roadside (29 poems)
Drum-Taps (43 poems - including O Captain! My Captain! And When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd )
Memories of President Lincoln (6 poems)
- By Blue Ontario's Shore (20-part cycle)
- Reversals (short poem)
Autumn Rivulets (44 poems)
- Proud Music of the Storm (6-part cycle)
- Passage to India (9-part cycle)
- Prayer of Columbus (long poem)
- The Sleepers (8-part cycle)
- Transpositions (short poem)
- To Think of Time (9-part cycle)
Whispers of Heavenly Death (20 poems)
- Thou Mother with thy Equal Blood (6-part cycle)
- A Paumanok Picture (short poem)
From Noon to Starry Night (22 poems)
Songs of Parting (17 poems)
First Annex: Sands at Seventy (58 poems)
Second Annex: Good-Bye my Fancy (a foreword and 31 poems)
A Backward Glance o'er Travel'd Roads (Afterword)

Publications

German translations , listed in the German National Library

Settings

1903–1909: Ralph Vaughan Williams : A Sea Symphony (Symphony No. 1), choral symphony based on texts by W. Whitman
1919: Paul Hindemith : Drei Hymnen opus 14 for baritone and piano
1924: Franz Schreker : Two lyrical chants (for high voice and piano)
1942–1947: Kurt Weill : Three (later: Four) Walt Whitman songs (piano songs )

1946: Paul Hindemith: When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom'd. A Requiem "For those we love" (oratorio for mezzo-soprano, baritone, choir and orchestra)

1948: Hans Werner Henze : Whispers from heavenly death. Cantata for the poem of the same name by Walt Whitman for high voice (soprano or tenor) and piano.

1980: George Crumb : Apparition. Elegiac songs and vocalises for soprano and amplified piano, on texts from Walt Whitman's "When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd".

1988: John Adams : The Wound-Dresser (orchestral song for baritone)

1992: Robert Strassburg : Leaves of Grass: A Choral Symphony. (Symphony for mezzo-soprano, tenor, narrator and orchestra to poems by Walt Whitman)

2016: Alva Noto , Tarwater , Iggy Pop : Leaves of Grass