Quote of the day by Walt Whitman, “Keep your face always toward the sunshine—and shadows will fall behind you.” Walt Whitman remains the definitive voice of the American spirit, a poet whose influence on national identity is as profound as the founding documents themselves. Born in 1819 in West Hills, New York, Whitman transitioned from a printer’s apprentice to the "Father of Free Verse," forever altering the landscape of global literature. His 1855 masterpiece, Leaves of Grass, broke every established rule of 19th-century poetry.