Walt Whitman rises from a hardscrabble boyhood in Long Island and Brooklyn to write the masterpiece "Leaves of Grass" in 1855 that revolutionizes literature. Many of Whitman's most famous poems are profiled including "I Hear America Singing," "Song of Myself," "I Sing the Body Electric," "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking," and "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry."

The poet moves to Washington to care for injured Civil War soldiers but is disillusioned by the Gilded Age after the war. He recovers from a debilitating stroke to live out his days in Camden NJ, where he continues to write poetry. Includes such renowned poems as "When Lilacs Last in the Doory'd Bloomed," "O Captain! My Captain!" "The Wound-Dresser," and "Goodbye My Fancy."