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How did Walt Whitman use free verse in Leaves of Grass?

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“Walt Whitman, an American, one of the roughs, a kosmos” — Walt Whitman American poet Walt Whitman, photograph by Mathew Brady.

In Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman utilized free verse as a deliberate departure from the traditional rhyme and meter that characterized the poetry of his contemporaries.12

To express his persona as the shaggy, untamed poetic spokesman of a proud, young nation, Whitman developed a style defined by the following characteristics:

Oratorical Rhythms: Instead of conventional poetic structures, he employed sweeping, oratorical cadences that mirrored his ambitious, prophetic voice.1
Enumerative Style: He frequently used long, chanted lists of American objects and place-names. He handled this technique with great subtlety to create a sense of vast space and movement.1
Unconventional Form: By eschewing regular patterns, he sought to create a literature that felt "shaggy and unshorn," reflecting the ruggedness and vitality of the American continent.1

While many of his contemporaries initially dismissed this approach as "unpoetic," Whitman’s free verse allowed him to transcend traditional constraints, enabling him to bind the past, present, and future within his work.12