'Leaves of Grass', featuring beloved poems such as 'Oh Captain! My Captain!' and 'Song of Myself,' was met with both scathing criticism and glowing praise when it was originally published in 1855. Arguably the best historical commentator of the 19th century, Walt Whitman continues to inspire readers today. The most inclusive writer one might ever come across, Whitman wrote of labourers, mechanics, soldiers, mothers, carpenters and prostitutes; this inclusivity stirred up controversy and earned bans, but also gained the attention of other literary greats like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.