Peculiar and new things

I looked through the reviews and the few that caught my eye were either one of three things; over the top, excited about Walt's work, totally dismissing it or calling it "rubbish" and lastly, just confused and not sure what to do with it.
The first reviewer seems enamored by his work. he enunciated on his way of describing things in a beautiful way, how Walt is fully American and not haunted by European style writing, he likes how he is natural and true,
"Along his words spread the broad impartialities of the United States. No innovations must be permitted on the stern severities of our liberty and equality. Undecked also is this poet with sentimentalism, or jingle, or nice conceits or flowery similes. He appears in his poems surrounded by women and children, and by young men, and by common objects and qualities."
He keeps drawing on the importance of Walt's "freshness" and "new" ways,
"He leaves houses and their shuttered rooms, for the open air. He drops disguise and ceremony, and walks forth with the confidence and gayety of a child."

The next reviewer is a woman, I looked specifically for, and she was super excited about Walt's work. When asked if any parts of the review were over the top, I would have to say that her entire review is over the top. I dig that she is so excited about it though, she just can't contain herself; she lists random parts of his work that she loves. She clearly shares his way of fresh though and defiance for the "ideal". Her favorite she mentions lastly,  

"The wife—and she is not one jot less than the hus-

      band,

The daughter—and she is just as good as the son,

The mother—and she is every bit as much as the

      father."

This shows she was an advocate of gender equality/importance. An idea that Whitman wrote about, in the era it was written, a very new, rebellious thought.

The last reviewer I looked at just was confused and unsure of Walt. His title was, "A Curious Title". This guy can't even understand the title, if he is not open minded enough to think about the title, realize it's meaning and significance then he is definitely not going to understand what is actually inside the book. He also describes the cover of the book. (Tip: Don't judge a book by it's cover)

He calls him a "perfect loafer, yet a thoughful loafer" which seems to me like a back handed sort of compliment.

He just kind of says, if you're into this kind of thing then you should read it, but the traditionalist should not. The quote is,

"we advise all who are fond of new and peculiar things to procure it"

That made me laugh. Because, you do have to be fond of peculiar, new things to want to read a book of poetry called, Leaves of Grass. I know I am. 

I clicked on one last one randomly and this reviewer actually mentioned Fanny Fern, the woman reviewer I talked about. This person despised Walt's work, along with Fanny's Fern Leaves. 

His ending sentence was,

"The fields of American literature want weeding dreadfully." 

This review was very short and anonymous. Dont know if it holds much merit, but it's an opinion of one person who is uncomfortable with Walt's new way of thinking and acting.

The assumptions about poetry in this era seem to be that poetry should be flowery, in line with society, for mere pleasure and unconcerning, and avoiding disconcertion at all costs. The thought seems to be that a poet is not allowed to take such a public societal stand against the ideal, that he should write for the pleasure and comfort of the people. Walt writes to make people uncomfortable, he is true and raw he pushes them out of their caves with his poetry; the complete opposite of what society wants their poets to do. 

These days, I think we want our poetry/writing to challenge thought, to challenge societal views, bring up what is wrong with society and to question what is considered normal. We encourage the new and peculiar.