Walt Whitman is one of the rocks on which the Modern Church of Thought has been built. No other poet of the nineteenth century has exerted such a universal influence; he ranks indubitably as the greatest of American bards. "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking," "I hear America Singing" and the noble Lincoln ode, "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed," are a few of the poems that come to mind from his many beautiful creations. The spirit and form of his work have affected the ideals and ideas of the world and coupled his name with those of Homer and Shakespeare. One of the most distinguished of his many followers, Carl Sandburg, has contributed a characteristically virile introduction to this book, which now finds a fitting place in the Modern Library.