WhitmanWeb

An epic, century-and-a-half-old free-verse poem might not seem the most inviting material for someone scrolling a smartphone over coffee, but thanks to the University of Iowa (UI), the world of Walt Whitman is now as accessible as your Facebook feed. WhitmanWeb is a collaboration between UI’s International Writing Program and the long-established online Walt Whitman Archive (whitmanarchive.org), and its centerpiece is “Song of Myself,” the most famous work from Whitman’s Leaves of Grass collection. Initially a 52-week online course, the site now hosts all 52 sections of the poem on individual pages, with each featuring a forward written by Whitman scholar Ed Folsom and an afterward written by the director of UI’s International Writing Program, Christopher Merrill. Additionally, there’s an audio reading of each section, plus a different vintage photo—most of Whitman—on each page. “Song of Myself” was Whitman’s break from the old world in favor of establishing a unique American voice born of this country’s experiment in democracy, and this highly digestible format with expert guidance is a very gratifying way to revisit the seminal work at a time when our divided country could greatly benefit from its egalitarian idealism.