-Two Rivulets

As a self-styled “American bard,” Whitman was eager to participate in the 100-year anniversary celebrations of U.S. Independence taking place in 1876. In addition to releasing a centennial edition of Leaves of Grass in 1876 (not technically an edition, but a “reissue” of the fifth edition), Whitman published Two Rivulets, which he described as an experiment in breaking down “the barriers of form between Prose and Poetry.” A rivulet is a small river, and in some sections of the book Whitman puts poems on the same page with prose passages, suggesting that the two types of writing flow together from a similar source like twin streams.