Answer: Whitman’s Leaves of Grass is the embodiment of Emerson’s Essay on Self-Reliance. It is a poem that was way ahead of its times and completely original in form, language, and ideas. It is a perfect example of what Emerson says in his Essay on Self-Reliance:
“A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to everyone with a certain alienated majesty.”
