ABOUT WALT WHITMAN
American poet best known for his collections Leaves of Grass and Drum-Taps. His 1865 poem "O Captain! My Captain!" was written on the occasion of the death of Abraham Lincoln .
He dropped out of school at the age of eleven and, to support his family, worked as a law office assistant and a newspaper apprentice.
His humanist works bridged the gap between the transcendentalist and realist movements.
He never married and likely had a homosexual or bisexual orientation, although his biographers disagree on whether or not he actually had relationships with men.
His vagabond lifestyle and exquisite free-verse poems inspired the life and works of Allen Ginsberg .
