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Leaves of Grass: Difference between revisions
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'''Location:''' Boston, Massachussetts | '''Location:''' Boston, Massachussetts | ||
'''Description of Artwork:''' Written by Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass is a critically acclaimed collection of poetry. | '''Description of Artwork:''' Written by Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass is a critically acclaimed collection of poetry. Although originally printed in 1855, Whitman continued to edit and revise the collection throughout his life. Some of his poems in the collection like, "Song of Myself, "I Sing the Body Electric" and "Pioneers, O Pioneers" have become enduring, celebratory anthems of Americana and are deeply embedded in the National psyche. Unlike other poetry of the time, which heavily employed allegory, symbolism and upheld religious and spiritual tropes, his poems predominantly engaged the body and the senses. | ||
'''The Incident:''' Oliver Stevens, the District Attorney for Boston in cooperation with the New England Society for the Suppression of Vice wrote to Whitman's publisher, James Osgood demanding that certain poems with pronounced allusions to sex and sexual preference, such as "Song of Myself", be revised and that certain poems such as "A Woman Waits for Me" and "To a Common Prostitute" be removed from the collection. He wrote, "We are of the opinion that this book is such a book as brings it within the provisions of the Public Statutes respecting obscene literature and suggest the propriety of withdrawing the same from circulation and suppressing the editions thereof." | '''The Incident:''' Oliver Stevens, the District Attorney for Boston in cooperation with the New England Society for the Suppression of Vice wrote to Whitman's publisher, James Osgood demanding that certain poems with pronounced allusions to sex and sexual preference, such as "Song of Myself", be revised and that certain poems such as "A Woman Waits for Me" and "To a Common Prostitute" be removed from the collection. He wrote, "We are of the opinion that this book is such a book as brings it within the provisions of the Public Statutes respecting obscene literature and suggest the propriety of withdrawing the same from circulation and suppressing the editions thereof." | ||