Page "Leaves of Grass" Paragraph 21

On March 1, 1882, Boston district attorney Oliver Stevens wrote to Whitman's publisher, James R. Osgood, that Leaves of Grass constituted " obscene literature ".

Urged by the New England Society for the Suppression of Vice, his letter said: " We are of the opinion that this book is such a book as brings it within the provisions of the Public Statutes respecting obscene literature and suggest the propriety of withdrawing the same from circulation and suppressing the editions thereof.

" Stevens demanded the removal of the poems " A Woman Waits for Me " and " To a Common Prostitute ", as well as changes to " Song of Myself ", " From Pent-Up Aching Rivers ", " I Sing the Body Electric ", " Spontaneous Me ", " Native Moments ", " The Dalliance of the Eagles ", " By Blue Ontario ’ s Shore ", " Unfolded Out of the Folds ", " The Sleepers ", and " Faces ".