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Walt Whitman expressed his vision of America in Leaves of Grass, a book of poetry first published 1855 and rewritten throughout his life. Today, the influence his work remains woven throughout contemporary American life and culture. But where do we see ourselves in Whitman’s Leaves of Grass? This spring, as a campus, we’ll be taking Whitman’s Leaves of Grass and transforming it into something new. The Smith College community has come together to create new poems by erasing some of Whitman’s original words from the pages of Leaves of Grass, a chance to respond to Whitman’s vision of American life.

See the Smith College community’s blackout poetry responses to Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.