“I say that democracy can never prove itself beyond cavil, until it founds and luxuriantly grows its own forms of art, poems, schools, theology, displacing all that exists, or that has been produced anywhere in the past, under opposite influences.”

American poet, essayist, and journalist, 19th century

Walt Whitman was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. He lived in the 19th century and is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in American and world poetry. He wrote two novels as well as poetry and prose, and his work blends transcendentalism with realism. He is often called the father of free verse. Much of the attention around him came from the controversy over Leaves of Grass, first published in 1855, which some readers condemned as obscene for its open sensuality.