When presented in selected or collected editions, Whitman's tiny poems most often get lost on the page, folded in and camouflaged by the longer poems, or crowded--two or three or four per page-- as a space-and-paper-saving device (I've always believed that the broadside is the best medium for poetry: one poem on one page, allowing the poem breathing room, its full accord, and our full attention). Our hope with Invisible World is to gather a sampler of Whitman's small poems without the visual distraction of the longer poems--to set aside, for the time being, the familiar and signature long poems of Whitman--in order to offer some of his tiny poems room of their own to breathe on the page, to escape the claustrophobia of the book, and allow them to luxuriate in the white space that surrounds them, so that each poem stands alone for a brief moment and garners the reader's full attention.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.