Earth, My Likeness: Nature Poetry of Walt Whitman

While Walt Whitman is best known as America's first great urban poet, he was also a gifted nature poet, as the selections in this book show. Here his celebration of the &quot;body electric&quot; from <i>Leaves of Grass</i> expands into a celebration of an equally electrifying nature as he memorializes the seashore, the night sky, animals, even daydreaming in the grass. Whitman considered humans and animals &quot;an interesting continuum,&quot; in the words of editor Howard Nelson, and felt that &quot;wilderness - the true, essential wilderness of the universe - is still with us as long as we can see a river or an ocean or the night sky.&quot;<br><br>Whitman was unsurpassed at describing people as natural creatures - including not only experiences of animal calm but also the instinctual life and the sensations and yearnings of the body. <i>Earth, My Likeness</i>, which includes numerous prose selections taken from the author's <i>Specimen Days</i>, showcases his entwining of outer nature and inner nature, the unique way he made his nature poetry and his love poetry inseparable. Howard Nelson's introduction includes biographical information, analysis, and a fascinating comparison of Thoreau, Melville, and Whitman. Roderick MacIver's shimmering watercolors perfectly complement Whitman's immortal words.