Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

Upon studying his biography, it doesn't seem like Walter

Whitman was destined to become one of the most celebrated
American poets in history. After minimal schooling, he studied
the printing trade, became a schoolteacher, and finally founded
a weekly newspaper in his Long Island domicile all before the
age of 20. He later worked as a journalist for a number of
different newspapers throughout the country.
Calling himself the "poet of the people," he published his first
edition of Leaves of Grass in 1855. The publication was
revolutionary, the poems groundbreaking in their use of
everyday language to describe the beauty of life and American
society. He didn't care that his poetry didn't rhyme or contain
sexual references. He constantly edited and published new
versions of the book, changing poems to suit his current mood,
and he also shared his thoughts on the Civil War in Specimen
Days & Collect.

Famous work: "I Sing the Body Electric," from Leaves of Grass
Famous excerpt:"The armies of those I love engirth me, and I
engirth them. They will not let me off till I go with them,
respond to them."