PrefaceChapter 1 LifeYouth and literary apprenticeship (1819-1850)The emergence of the poet (1851-1860)The war and its aftermath (1861-1873)The period of reflection and decline (1873-1892)Chapter 2 Historical and cultural contextsDemocracyThe bodyThe landThe cultureChapter 3 Poetry before the Civil War1855: "Song of Myself"Other poems dating from the 1855 Leaves of Grass1856: poems of sexuality and the body1856: poems of the earth1856: "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry"1860: Sea-Drift poems1860: gendered clusters - "Children of Adam" and "Calamus"Chapter 4 Poetry after the Civil WarElegiac poemsThe emergence of the imageMinor poetic modesChapter 5 Prose worksThe 1855 prefaceDemocratic VistasSpecimen DaysChapter 6 Critical receptionThe first fifty years, 1855-19051905-19551955-2005NotesFurther readingIndex