Early reviews of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass reflect a dawning awareness of the unifying and highly democratic aspects of poetry. An article in the November 13, 1856, issue of the New York Daily Times describes this modest self-published book of twelve seemingly formless poems: “As we read it again and again, and we will confess we have often returned to it. , a singular order seems to emerge from his chaotic verses" (2). The Daily Times' identification of "order" from "chaos" in Leaves of Grass parallels the American theoretical statement of e pluribus unum, one goal among many – a uniquely democratic goal Also manifesting the first perception of democratic poetics in Leaves of Grass, while focusing more on Whitman and his content, an 1856 edition of the North American Review states: “ Walter Whitman, an American, one of the brutes, not a sentimentalist, No individual above men and women, nor outside them, nor more modest than immodest, has attempted to write here, in a a sort of prose poetry, much of what he saw, felt and divined in history a pilgrimage of about thirty-five years” (275). American, practicing the democratic ideal of human equality. The conscience of the critics of order from chaos and the American ideological attitude of equality is a written history of the problems of post-Jacksonian America of the 19th century. century, because the presence of their observations, which celebrate Whitman's democratic vision, can only suggest the absence of this vision in American politics and culture. Indeed, the language of reviews of Leaves of Grass from the mid-nineteenth century reflects nostalgia for the communal orientation of early Jeffersonian America, an orientation that was fading into a cult..... . middle of paper ......ca's Lyric-Epic of Self and Democracy. New York: Twayne, 1992.- - - . Walt Whitman. Boston: Twayne, 1990. Remini, Robert V. The Legacy of Andrew Jackson: Essays on Democracy, Indian Removal, and Slavery. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1988. Southard, Sherry. “Whitman and Language: Great Beginnings for Great American Poetry.” Mount Olive Review 4 (Spring 1990): 45-54. Warren, James Perrin. Walt Whitman's Linguistic Experiment. University Park: Penn State UP, 1990. Whitman, Walt. "After the sea ship." Bradley and Blodgett 263.- - - . “As I flowed back with the ocean of life.” Bradley and Blodgett 253-256.- - - . “On the beach at night alone.” Bradley and Blodgett 260-261.- - - . “Song for all seas, all ships.” Bradley and Blodgett 261-262.- - - . “Preface 1855—Leaves of Grass, first edition.” Bradley and Blodgett 711-731.