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Setting out to "define the American experience", Whitman consciously hoped to answer Ralph Waldo Emerson's 1843 essay, "The Poet," which called for a truly original national poet, one who would "sing of the new country in a new voice".
Working as a printer, editor, journalist, and publisher during the years of the publishing industry's phenomenal growth, Whitman became keenly aware that the tools necessary for his emergence as the new, democratic poet were at his disposal.
He believed he could bring poetry to the common people, and with the publication of his 1855 "Leaves of Grass", he assumed for himself the role of the American Poet, referring to himself as "one of the roughs," a common man.
How conscious the development of his literary personality was is well illustrated by the fact that in the end of the second edition of "Leaves of Grass" there is a forty-two-page appendix of first edition reviews entitled "Leaves Droppings." The focal point of "Leaves Droppings" is a laudatory letter of thanks from Ralph Waldo Emerson that Whitman received in return
for a complimentary copy of the first edition. Emerson wrote: "I find it the most
extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed...I greet you at the
beginning of a great career". Whitman used the letter as an endorsement without Emerson's
permission. Emerson's immediate reaction to Whitman's promotional tactics is unknown, but
considering the book's stormy public reception, it is unlikely that he would have been pleased.