Specimen Days and Collect (Neversink)

Whitmans uniquely revealing impressions of the people places and events of his timewith a brilliant new introduction by Leslie Jamison author of the bestselling The Empathy Exams. One of the most creative and individual poets America has produced Walt Whitman was also a prolific diarist note-taker and essayist whose intimate observations and reflections have profoundly deepened understanding of nineteenth-century American life. Specimen Days and Collect first published in 1882 is a choice collection of Whitmans uniquely revealing impressions of the people places and events of his time principally the era of the Civil War and its aftermath. On page after page a vast panorama of American life unfolds and with it rare glimpse of Whitman as poet empathetic observer and romantic wanderer. From his years as a wartime nurse in Washington D.C. come touching glimpses of the dead and dying in military hospitals memories of Abraham Lincoln and vivid impressions of the nations capital in a time of great crisis. Whitmans travel yields memorable recollections of Boston the Hudson Valley a walk through Central Park Niagara Falls the City of Denver and more. Along with the famed essay Democratic Vistas there are scenes from the poets childhood touching tributes to songbirds wildflowers friendship and freedom; impressions of the music of Beethoven reflections on a last visit to Emerson the deaths of Lincoln and Longfellow and the painful process of aging. Deeply felt and vividly expressed Specimen Days and Collect is a richly rewarding experience a rare excursion into the mind and heard of one of Americas greatest poetsand the America his poetry so richly commemorated.