Whitman's long poem, first published in 1855, announces itself with 'I celebrate myself, and sing myself' and proceeds to contain multitudes. The form is free verse before that term existed; the content is everything: the body, democracy, death, grass, animals, workers, lovers, the transcendent self that encompasses all selves. The poem was expanded through multiple editions; by the end it had become a lifetime's work. American poetry begins here, in this barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.