A poem from The Great Man himself:

TO OLD AGE.

I SEE in you the estuary that enlarges and spreads itself grandly as
it pours in the great sea.

The earliest portrait of Whitman at age 29. This daguerreotype was made in New Orleans, during Whitman’s residence there between February and May 1848, while he worked on the New Orleans Crescent. (Walt Whitman Archive)

 

Happy 198th Birthday Walt, you are still loved and admired–around the world!

 

Links to previous birthday posts:

2016

2014

2013

2012