Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, Free to Read and Listen in the Vocalini Open Library

Name: Leaves of Grass
Author: Walt Whitman

By Walt Whitman · 1855

Whitman’s expansive poems celebrate the self, the body, democracy, labor, nature, and the varied voices of American life.

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First published in 1855, Leaves of Grass is Walt Whitman's landmark collection of poems written in English. The poems move expansively across the self, the body, democracy, labor, nature, and the many voices of American life. Whitman's own words set the tone from the opening lines: "I celebrate myself, and sing myself, and what I assume you shall assume." The collection belongs to the Poetry and Drama category and is in the public domain, meaning you can read it here completely free, with no account or checkout required. If you are drawn to poetry that reaches broadly across human experience, this edition gives you immediate access.

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Source: Project Gutenberg illustrated HTML edition. Not restricted by U.S. copyright law; readers outside the United States should check their local laws.

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Select a passage to get key points, simplify difficult wording, request an explanation, or ask a question.

This edition includes several tools intended to make reading more comfortable and approachable. Text-to-speech reads the visible page aloud, and sentence and word highlighting stay synchronized with playback so you can follow along at your own pace. These features may be especially useful if you have dyslexia, ADHD, visual-tracking needs, or a learning disability, or if you are reading in English as an additional language. You can also select any passage and use the built-in AI to get key points, simplify the wording, hear an explanation, or ask a question about what you are reading. No special setup is required to use any of these tools.

From the opening pages