PositiveThe Arts FuseThe great thing Doty accomplishes in What Is the Grass: Walt Whitman in My Life is that, while making a case for Whitman’s queer identity, he admits that \'anyone sympathetic to such desires cannot miss Whitman’s intent.\' In other words, read into Leaves Of Grass as much queerness as you choose ... This is not to suggest that Doty is guilty of shoddy scholarship—in fact his methods and conclusions are compelling ... Doty unpacks Whitman’s poetry in a valuable and accessible way, serving up generous excerpts from the poems. A professor of English, the poet has fun with some of his sources. He can barely contain his glee ... Along the way, Doty provides a very user-friendly guide to poets and poetry of the 19th and 20th centuries ... Doty deftly interweaves personal narrative with his literary concerns.
