In 1848, Whitman attended a lecture by Ralph Waldo Emerson. The event galvanized Whitman’s energy, marking his shift from journalist to poet as he aimed to become the new kind of poet for which Emerson called:

Our logrolling, our stumps and their politics, our fisheries, our Negroes, and Indians, our boasts, and our repudiations, the wrath of rogues, and the pusillanimity of honest men, the northern trade, the southern planting, the western clearing, Oregon, and Texas, are yet unsung (Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “The Poet.” American Transcendentalism Web, 1999, 2002).

Emerson wanted a new kind of American poet, one who could sing the particular idioms and experiences of the American continent and live up to the great beauty and potential of America. Whitman was eager to fulfill the role of this kind of American bard.

After paying for the publication of the first edition of Leaves of Grass in 1855, Whitman sent Emerson a copy. Emerson wrote a letter back, praising Whitman’s efforts. Whitman used this letter to market subsequent editions of Leaves of Grass without Emerson’s permission to use the letter. But it seems as if Emerson forgave Whitman for the unauthorized use, for he continued to support Whitman’s efforts; later, he and Henry David Thoreau, the leaders of the Transcendentalist movement, a uniquely American offshoot of