Was Walt Whitman a fraud? He has proved his use in popular culture (I have Breaking Bad on my mind at the moment), but as a literary figure I don't think he is going to demonstrate the longevity of Poe or Stephen Crane. Wait, maybe Stephen Crane has been forgotten outside high school English classes.
Whitman will certainly be remembered as a free-verse visionary, but I regard his work as overly sentimental, naive, and shallow. Despair and love have been more thoroughly examined by more talented writers. Imagery from Toni Morrison still haunts me, and how can we greet the dawn but with rose red fingers?
I still own a copy of Leaves of Grass. I'm not sure what book shelf if it is on.
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