PagineWhitman’s Leaves of Grass, which he expanded for nearly forty years, celebrated democracy, the body and ordinary Americans in long free-verse lines. He nursed wounded soldiers during the Civil War and mourned Lincoln in “O Captain! My Captain!”.
Public-domain poems, free to read and print.
Free in the library:
Yes. Walt Whitman’s poems are in the public domain, and you can read 6 of them here or as a flip book. Full books are also free in the library.
Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), Drum-Taps (1865).