"What is the grass?": The Roots of Walt Whitman's Cemetery Meditation

Desirée Henderson

doi:10.13008/2153-3695.1841

Essays

"What is the grass?": The Roots of Walt Whitman's Cemetery Meditation

Abstract

Examines the significance of the cemetery for Whitman, seeking to "locate the roots of Whitman's idyllic poetic space in the real space of the rural cemetery" by examining nineteenth-century "cemetery literature" and by analyzing how rural cemeteries--particularly Brooklyn's Mount Auburn and Green-wood cemeteries--were covered in periodicals of the era, including in Whitman's own journalism; argues that Whitman made "innovative use of the rural cemetery" in his poetry.

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How to Cite: Henderson, D. (2008) “"What is the grass?": The Roots of Walt Whitman's Cemetery Meditation”, Walt Whitman Quarterly Review. 25(3). doi: https://doi.org/10.13008/2153-3695.1841