Considered by many to be the quintessential American poet, Walt Whitman exerted a profound influence on all the American poets who came after him. And it was with this inspired, oceanic medley, "Song of Myself" (which in the first editions of Leaves of Grass was still nameless), that this great poet first made himself known to the world.
Walt Whitman (1819 to 1892), one of America's most influential and innovative poets, who worked as a teacher, journalist, and volunteer nurse during the Civil War. Proclaimed as the nation's first "poet of democracy," Whitman reached out to common readers and opposed censorship with his overt celebrations of sexuality.