The texts in this anthology should NOT be cited as direct quotations from Whitman.

To find the source of any specific line or set of words, type the words inside quotations marks, along with the words Walt Whitman, into a good internet search engine. If you get no useful results, try shortening the string of words. Or try another search engine.

Many lines, and even whole stanzas, in this anthology are direct quotations. But often they combine words from different sources in Whitman’s work. I have split up his poetry and prose into separate lines, or parts of lines, and combined those with words that treat the same theme from other Whitman sources, to create new poems and prose paragraphs. Some of my individual lines combine sets of words from different sources.

Occasionally I have changed a few words, or the order of the words, to create verses that read more smoothly, without changing the sense of the line. In a very few instances I have changed or added words in ways that do change the sense, to better reflect my own thoughts, values, and experience. (Read more about this in “The Editor’s Creative Role.”) More often I resisted the temptation to add or change words that would change the sense. I have tried to let the poet speak for himself.

I chose not to cite the sources of the words in the anthology, fearing that an endless string of footnotes would interfere with the reading experience.

NEXT: WHITMAN AS A GREAT THINKER