Walt Whitman’s free verse captured the voice of a burgeoning nation and the truth of a stirring American spirit. “Leaves of Grass,” a living collection of literature the writer revised throughout his life in order to more accurately reflect his personal experience, constantly pursued truth, dispelled fears, and celebrated the self.

Creating a narrative directly from the pages of the “Leaves of Grass,” director Vincent Williamson’s poetic film “Whitman” explores the enduring themes that filled the poet’s compelling works. Painted in the dark-toned shadows of civil war, the film captures a spiritual odyssey “along the grand roads of the universe” where Whitman encounters the characters from his writings and his reflections on their experiences.

The writer’s timeless words reveal Whitman bearing witness to an America becoming a nation just as Williamson’s images, verse, and score transport the “Leaves of Grass” from the pages of literature to the medium of film.