Preface to the first edition of leaves of grass?
Walt Whitman ønsker respektfuldt at meddele offentligheden, at bogen Leaves of Grass, som han har arbejdet på med store mellemrum og delvist udgivet i de sidste 35-40 år, nu er færdig, som han kalder det, og han ønsker, at denne nye udgave fra 1892 absolut erstatter alle tidligere udgaver. Fejlbehæftet som den er, bestemmer han den som langt hans særlige og hele selvvalgte poetiske ytring.
Walt Whitman wishes respectfully to notify the public that the book Leaves of Grass, which he has been working on at great intervals and partially issued for the past thirty-five or forty years, is now completed, so to call it, and he would like this new 1892 edition to absolutely supersede all previous ones. Faulty as it is, he decides it as by far his special and entire self-chosen poetic utterance.
Leaves of Grass