A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described as obscene for its overt sexuality. Criticized as irrational. 

Whitman's work breaks the boundaries of poetic form and is generally prose-like. He also used unusual images and symbols in his poetry, including rotting leaves, tufts of straw, and debris. He also openly wrote about death and sexuality, including prostitution. He is often labeled as the father of free verse, though he did not invent it.

"The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it." He believed there was a vital, symbiotic relationship between the poet and society.

Walt Whitman  Is possibly the most influential American poet of his era. Born on the 31st May 1819 Walt Whitman was the second child of nine living in Brooklyn. Aged twelve he went to work in a printers in New York city which is where he found his love of the written word.In 1836 at the age of seventeen he became a teacher in a school in Long Island until 1841, when he became a journalist and founded the Long Islander, and worked on several other news papers including the Daily Eagle, until 1848 when he became the editor of the New Orleans Crescent.

In the autumn of 1848 Walt Whitman copyrighted the first edition of Leaves of Grass, which contained twelve poems,(each of which was untitled),and a preface which he published himself.

A second edition of the book was later published in 1856, now containing thirty three poems and the copy of a letter he had received from Emerson praising the first edition, he later went on to publish several more editions.

In 1862, during the civil war he traveled to Washington D.C. to care for his brother who had been wounded, after seeing so many wounded in Washington Whitman decided to stay and work in the hospitals, a stay which lasted for eleven years. He had taken a job as a clerk to the Department of the Interior until being fired by the secretary of the Interior, who had found Leaves of Grass offensive.

Whitman struggled finacially throughout his life, with much of his salary, modest royaltiees and even gifts and purses from other poets on aid supplies for the patients he cared for and his mother and injured brother.

Early in 1870 whilst visiting his dying mother at his brothers house in Camden he suffered a stroke which prevented his return to Washinton D.C.

He remained, living with his brother until 1882 when his latest publication of Leaves of Grass earned him enough money to buy a house in Camden where he remained revising and adding to a new edition of his book and creating Good-bye, My Fancy (1891) his final volume of poetry and prose.

Whitman died on 26th March 1892, and was laid to rest in Harleigh Cemetery in a tomb he designed himself and had built prior to his death.