(May 31, 1819–March 26, 1892), was an American poet. He had worked as a teacher, journalist and printer. He gained renown through his poems, Leaves of Grass, 1855–92. During the Civil War, he nursed wounded soldiers, eventually becoming ill himself. His free-verse poems expressed a democratic idealism, as seen in his Democratic Vistas, 1871. His other works include: Drum Taps, 1865, and Specimen Days, 1882–83.
In “Starting from Paumanok,” from his Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman wrote:
I say the whole earth and all the stars in the sky are for religion’s sake. …
I say that the real and permanent grandeur of these States must be their religion.2530
Walt Whitman expressed:
To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle. Every cubic inch of space is a miracle.2531