{"date":"May 31","id":"05-31","intro":["Walt Whitman is the most original and startling of modern poets. An irony of his life is that while he wrote for the contemporary masses, only a limited number of followers appreciated his genius, now universally recognized."],"minutes":23,"readings":[{"author":"Walt Whitman","end":398,"start":388,"volume":39,"work":"Preface to Leaves of Grass"}],"slug":"may-31","status":"proofread","title":"America’s Most Surprising Poet","url":"/harvard-classics/may-31/","words":4671}