"He is America," said Ezra Pound about the poet Walt Whitman. In his "Leaves of Grass," he celebrates the emergence of the USA after the Civil War. The lyricist Jürgen Brocan has translated this central work of American literature into German for the first time in its entirety more than a century after its publication, accompanied by an afterword and a detailed commentary. In the melting pot of his poetry, Whitman unites ideas from the culture, society, politics, science, and mysticism of his time. His songs are both a reflection and a vision of a modern nation of the "United States," which aims to overcome divisions and bring freedom and equality to all people.