{"product_id":"so-long-walt-whitmans-poetry-harold-aspiz-9780817352783","title":"So Long! Walt Whitman's Poetry of Death","description":"\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eExplores Whitman's intimate and lifelong concern with mortality and his troubled speculations about the afterlife\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Walt Whitman is unquestionably a great poet of the joys of living. But as Harold Aspiz demonstrates in this study, concerns with death and dying define Whitman's career as a thinker, a poet, and a person. Through a close reading of \u003ci\u003eLeaves of Grass\u003c\/i\u003e, its constituent poems, particularly \"Song of Myself,\" and Whitman's prose and letters, Aspiz charts how the poet's exuberant celebration of life--the cascade of sounds, sights, and smells that erupt in his verse--is a consequence of his central concern: the ever-presence of death and the prospect of an afterlife. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Until now no one has studied as systematically the degree to which mortality informs Whitman's entire enterprise as a poet. \u003ci\u003eSo Long! \u003c\/i\u003edevotes particular attention to Whitman's language and rich artistry in the context of the poet's social and intellectual milieus. We see Whitman (and his many personae) as a folk prophet announcing a gospel of democracy and immortality; pondering death in alternating moods of acceptance and terror; fantasizing his own dying and his postmortem selfhood; yearning for mates and lovers while conscious of fallible flesh; agonizing over the omnipresence of death in wartime; patiently awaiting death; and launching imaginary journeys toward immortality and godhood. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eSo Long!\u003c\/i\u003e is valuable for American literature collections, students and scholars of Whitman and 19th-century literature, and general readers interested in Whitman and poetry. By exploring Whitman's faith in death as a meaningful experience, we may understand better how the poet--whether personified as representative man, victim, hero, lover, or visionary--lived so completely on the edge of life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Harold Aspiz\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0817352783\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780817352783\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University Alabama Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 12\/01\/2005\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 312\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.10lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.44w x 0.79d","brand":"Harold Aspiz","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48086959390975,"sku":"9780817352783","price":34.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_8ac2d4cd-5310-4064-91c8-cdc0cd3cd2ab.jpg?v=1769097486","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/so-long-walt-whitmans-poetry-harold-aspiz-9780817352783","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}