Walt Whitman

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He has quite an iconic face, doesn't he?

Walt Whitman, born May 31st, 1819, was an American poet, journalist, and essayist.
His most noteable work is American epic Leaves of Grass, which though deemed "immoral" at the time for alusions to homosexuality, was a historical first as he wrote as a common man, to and about common men and women.
His work delt very intimately with the American Civil War, and he became very obviously the voice of the Nation as no one had before or since.

I thought we could use a thread to discuss him, his work, his views, what his legacy means now, et cetera.
These topics can be kind of difficult to get rolling, so I'm going to ask a few questions:

When and how did you discover Walt Whitman?
What did/do you think of him/his work?
Do you have a favorite quote?

Yes! I love Whitman. I got into him when I started reading Ginsberg ( I saw you, Walt Whitman, childless, lonely old grubber, poking among the meats in the refrigerator and eyeing the grocery boys), found a super cheap collection of his poems. Some of my favourites:

You grew up with me, were a boy with me, or a girl with me,
I ate with you, and slept with you—your body has become not yours only, nor left my body mine only,
You give me the pleasure of your eyes, face, flesh, as we pass—you take of my beard, breast, hands, in return,
I am not to speak to you—I am to think of you when I sit alone, or wake at night alone,
I am to wait—I do not doubt I am to meet you again,
I am to see to it that I do not lose you.
- To a Stranger

Densities, growth, façades,
Strata of mountains, soils, rocks, giant trees,
Far-born, far-dying, living long, to leave, Eidólons everlasting.
Exaltè, rapt, extatic,
The visible but their womb of birth, 35
Of orbic tendencies to shape, and shape, and shape, The mighty Earth-Eidólon.
All space, all time
- Eidólons

@ aistriu
I was made incredibly happy by this.