Book Details

One of the best-known and most stirring American poems, brilliantly edited by Stephen Mitchell, now available in the Shambhala Pocket Library series.

Song of Myself may be the greatest poem ever written by an American. First published in 1855 as part of Leaves of Grass, it was revised and expanded by Whitman in subsequent editions in ways that sometimes undermined its original freshness and vitality. Stephen Mitchell has gone back to the first edition and painstakingly compared it with the later versions, substituting only those revisions by Whitman that improved the poem. Here is Whitman at his most wild and raw, as large and lusty as life, fulfilling his promise to all future generations: I stand on this spot with my soul.

WALT WHITMAN (1819-1892) is considered by many to be the greatest of all American poets. His collection of poems, Leaves of Grass, in which "Song of Myself" appears, is probably the most influential volume of American literature. Whitman's work was radically unconventional in both content and technique, with a poetic style that was free and organic in structure.
STEPHEN MITCHELL is a poet, translator, scholar, and anthologist. He is married to Byron Katie, founder of The Work.