Today, this masterful collection remains not only a seminal event in American literature but also the incomparable achievement of one of America’s greatest poets—an exuberant, passionate man who loved his country and wrote of it as no other has ever done. Walt Whitman was a singer, thinker, visionary, and citizen extraordinaire. Thoreau called Whitman “probably the greatest democrat that ever lived,” and Emerson judged Leaves of Grass as “the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom America has yet contributed.”

今時今日，這本巨著不僅是美國文學的開創之作，同時也代表美國這位偉大詩人無可匹敵的成就。這位熱情奔放的詩人深愛著自己的國家，寫下了這本前所未有的作品。華特‧惠特曼 (Walt Whitman) 是歌手、思想家、夢想家，也是位傑出公民。梭羅 (Thoreau) 曾稱讚惠特曼「可能是有史以來最偉大的民主主義者」，而愛默生 (Emerson) 則評論《草葉集》 為「美國出版至今最傑出的智慧之作。」