ABSTRACT
Walt Whitman wrote that he considered Leaves of Grass 'only a language experiment' in his reflections on language, posthumously published with the title An American Primer. During the Civil War, Whitman lived in Washington, DC, where he supported himself by work in a government office and devoted his energies to visiting and comforting the wounded and sick Union soldiers in many hospitals there. Much later, in 'A Backward Glance', Whitman stated that Leaves of Grass would not have existed if it had not been for his experiences in war years. He had first gone to the war zone in 1862, to search for his brother George, who had been wounded at the Battle of Fredericksburg. In Democratic Vistas, published in the same year as Passage to India, Whitman offered shrewd and biting observations on the hollowness of heart, lack of faith in humanity, and hypocrisy that he felt characterized the United States in the post-war years.
