A review by bookarino
Whitman Illuminated: Song of Myself by Allen Crawford, Walt Whitman
4.0
Whitman Illuminated is illustrator and artist Allen Crawford's take on the American classic A Song of Myself. The entire edition has been designed with bold two colour spreads illustrating various themes and details of the poem and with calligraphic text that winds, turns and twists on the page.
Song of Myself was my first introduction to Walt Whitman's poetry, and I was positively surprised! The themes of nature, love, death and beliefs are universal and the familiar, almost intimate tone of Whitman invites the reader to dive into the world and thoughts on the page. This edition is a unique piece as it provides both visual and literary enjoyment, but sometimes the visually pleasing layout comes with the expense of readability. Not knowing the poem beforehand sometimes caused problems, as I tried to decode where where the next lines started and ended and in which order they were meant to be read. Hence I would recommend this mostly to people who already know the poem and want a new angle to it, or to those are partial to words scattered on a page and love graphic prints and bold designs.
I definitely plan on re-reading Song for Myself, perhaps in conjuction his other works in the Leaves of Grass!
Song of Myself was my first introduction to Walt Whitman's poetry, and I was positively surprised! The themes of nature, love, death and beliefs are universal and the familiar, almost intimate tone of Whitman invites the reader to dive into the world and thoughts on the page. This edition is a unique piece as it provides both visual and literary enjoyment, but sometimes the visually pleasing layout comes with the expense of readability. Not knowing the poem beforehand sometimes caused problems, as I tried to decode where where the next lines started and ended and in which order they were meant to be read. Hence I would recommend this mostly to people who already know the poem and want a new angle to it, or to those are partial to words scattered on a page and love graphic prints and bold designs.
I definitely plan on re-reading Song for Myself, perhaps in conjuction his other works in the Leaves of Grass!