In honor of Walt Whitman’s 195th birthday, which just passed on May 31st, we wanted to share with you a part of our history — two posters that feature his quotes. Whitman is the only poet featured twice on Dodge Poetry Festival posters – in 1986 and 2008.
1986:
“I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journeywork of the stars”
-from “Song of Myself”
2008:
“What is it then between us?
What is the count of the scores or hundreds of years between us?
Whatever it is, it avails not — distance avails not, and place avails not,
I too lived…”
-from “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”
- Visit The Whitman Archive, where you can see copies of the first edition of Leaves of Grass can be seen, as well as some of Whitman’s notebooks, and teaching resources.
- A great list of online and educational resources on Whitman from the Library of Congress.
- You can visit Whitman’s birthplace and home in West Hills, NY, as well as his home later in life in Camden, NJ.
- Explore more of Whitman’s poems on Poets.org