With the publication of Leaves of Grass in 1855, Walt Whitman became a central and controversial figure in the fast-developing field of American literature. With each of six editions, Whitman added new poems and revised old ones, creating a cultural artifact as fluent and organic as the theory and practice on which it was founded. In The Growth of the Leaves of Grass Professor Killingsworth argues that the critical tradition finds its primary models for interpreting Whitman's poetry in the organic metaphors initiated ...
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With the publication of Leaves of Grass in 1855, Walt Whitman became a central and controversial figure in the fast-developing field of American literature. With each of six editions, Whitman added new poems and revised old ones, creating a cultural artifact as fluent and organic as the theory and practice on which it was founded. In The Growth of the Leaves of Grass Professor Killingsworth argues that the critical tradition finds its primary models for interpreting Whitman's poetry in the organic metaphors initiated by the poet himself, in particular the metaphor of vegetative growth. Early in the critical tradition, however, the romantic ideology of organic growth is challenged by a model of technical competence whose key metaphors involve images of architectonic control. The interplay of these models informs the several critical approaches that have developed over the century since Whitman's death. M. JIMMIE KILLINGSWORTH is Professor of English at Texas A & M University.
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