Saturday, March 27, 2021: Homage to Walt Whitman (Part Two)
by ag
Walt Whitman died 129 years ago yesterday. My parents had a beautiful edition of Leaves of Grass that was published in 1940, but I never looked at it until last year. And then I was totally blown away by the poet’s profound embrace of all creation. I think I know why the book isn’t found in every house of worship but that’s where it really belongs.
In the images below, I’ve paired some of Lewis C. Daniel’s beautiful illustrations with images that I’ve posted on Pixetera over the years. It’s my small way of paying homage to St. Walt.
(Click on images to enlarge.)
Pixetera 
Your composite accompanying the last quotation, “Great Are the Myths,” is so skillful that I had to look in my copy of Leaves of Grass to make sure it was a composite. Thank you for your homage to St. Walt. It’s effective and beautiful.
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Funny you appreciated the composite for “Great Are the Myths” since I just replaced it with a treatment for “Song of the Universal” that is similar to the other spreads. (Discovered I had already done it and thought it was a more upbeat note to end on.)
My original inspiration was to use all composites but after doing 2-3 of them I realized they weren’t that good and detracted from Daniel’s illustrations.
Steve McCurry or Sebastião Salgado have bodies of work that I think would make for a fabulous new edition of “Leaves of Grass.”
Do you recall having any discussions with your parents about the book? I don’t remember any with mine, nor can I imagine either my mother or father actually resonating with the poems. Once they died, I had hopes this was a very valuable edition and that its sale would support my retirement but unfortunately a cursory look at eBay quickly disabused me of that notion :)
Anyway, I’m delighted you enjoyed this series Linda, and am very grateful for your comments.
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My memories and thoughts about this book in the hands of my parents are similar to your experiences. I remember no discussion of the book and cannot even imagine my parents’ agreeing with Whitman’s sentiments. Lucky us that our parents didn’t throw out their copies! Your “Song of the Universal” pairing is amazing. Love it.
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LOL. I’m beginning to think the book was something a lot of homes had purely for display purposes.
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Excellent work again, and now I think you should do more, just with the stanzas and your photos.
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Thanks for the vote of confidence, Lynn, but I don’t have the body of work to support such a project. As I replied to one of Linda’s comments, either Steve McCurry or Sebastião Salgado, would be much better suited, I believe.
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Or maybe you’ll find interesting pairings with your images and another poet’s work….
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Good idea!
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