"What Is the Grass doesn’t possess a single inelegant sentence or poorly expressed thought.… [A]n excellent opportunity to re-examine the work of one of America’s first major poets through the prose of one of its best living ones."— Scott Bradfield Washington Post

"[Doty] animates Walt Whitman’s joyful proclamation that everything is connected."— The New Yorker

"A celebration of gay manhood, queerness, and the power and elasticity of poetry."— Martha Anne Toll NPR

"What Is the Grass may be the definitive book on Whitman’s life, afterlife and poetry. But it’s the moments in Doty’s own life… that the book truly glistens."— Jessica Ferri Los Angeles Times

"[Mark] Doty puts on a clinic in how to read closely but expansively.… This is shining proof that criticism can make you want to hold it close."— John Freeman LitHub

"[A] masterful example [of the hybrid memoir]—weaving a close reading of Whitman’s life and writings into Doty’s own ruminations on art, queerness, humanism, and the American experience."— Arianna Rebolini Buzzfeed

"[A] dazzling and discursive meditation on Walt Whitman’s poetry.… In this homage to a poet whose voice has become a ‘permanent presence’ in his head, [Doty] has written a masterpiece, one that is as rapturously fine as the book he so lovingly and intelligently elucidates."— Phil Gambone Gay and Lesbian Review

"Exuberant.… This is Doty at his best: In gorgeous, calibrated sentences, he evokes the flourishes and sprung rhythms that make Whitman so contemporary."— Hamilton Cain San Francisco Chronicle

"What Is the Grass is a deep dive into Walt Whitman’s life, work, worldview, and something that feels like his cosmic theology. As if that weren’t enough, we’re also invited into Mark Doty’s own candid self-seeking, in episodes of the author’s life rendered in generous complexity. This beautiful, ingenious book affirms my belief in language as a living thing, and in the universe as a place overflowing with purpose and meaning. I wish all of the great poets could be reintroduced to me in such fashion!"— Tracy K. Smith

"Quick-witted, slyly erotic, and sometimes ecstatic, this book explores Mark Doty’s relationship with Walt Whitman, or with the idea of Walt Whitman. It is intimate in its reality and in all that it imagines, and it captures with splendid lyricism the author’s generous obsession with his forebear. Mark Doty has written a literate and lovely volume."— Andrew Solomon

2019-12-15
A renowned poet uses Walt Whitman's poetry to mirror his own life and to demonstrate the power of words.

Doty, who has won the National Book Award for Poetry (2008) and numerous other prizes, is the author of 10 poetry collections (Deep Lane, 2015, etc.) and three memoirs (Dog Years, 2007, etc.). In this new volume, the author combines biography and poetical analysis of Whitman (whom he's greatly admired for most of his life) with autobiographical material, much of which details his romantic and domestic relationships with men. Throughout, Doty displays a number of his gifts and writing techniques. He chronicles his visits to sites relevant to Whitman's story, including Brooklyn; Manhattan ("New York pulls me up out of myself, just as it must have done for Whitman"); his final home in Camden, New Jersey; and his impressive tomb in Camden, which, Doty writes, Whitman visited while it was under construction. He reveals a profound understanding of Whitman's life and poetry, paying close attention to "Song of Myself," "Calamus," "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry," and others. Doty also alludes periodically to other poets (especially Hart Crane and Emily Dickinson as well as some contemporary colleagues) and discusses Whitman's friendships with Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde. Through Doty's eyes, we see Whitman not only as the writer who transformed American poetry (Doty credits him for inventing free verse), but as a tireless self-promoter (he reviewed himself from time to time) and as a man of many passions. Fans of Whitman will surely enjoy Doty's extensive passages of exegesis, and many readers will admire the author's occasional descriptions of his own revisions of his ideas about Whitman's diction and poetic design. Throughout, the author exudes an exuberance about life and words that rivals that of his subject. Also informative (and necessary) are Doty's evocations of 19th-century Brooklyn and New York City.

A captivating paean to Whitman combined with an unblinking self-examination.