Discover a wealth of wisdom and insight from Walt Whitman through their most impactful and thought-provoking quotes and sayings. Expand your perspective with their inspiring words and share these beautiful Walt Whitman quote pictures with your friends and followers on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or your personal blog - all free of charge. We've compiled the top 629 Walt Whitman quotes for you to explore and share with others.

O Me! O life! ... of the questions of these recurring; Of the endless trains of the faithless - of cities fill'd with the foolish; Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?) Of eyes that vainly crave the light - of the objects mean - of the struggle ever renew'd; Of the poor results of all - of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me; Of the empty and useless years of the rest - with the rest me intertwined; The question, O me! so sad, recurring - What good amid these, O me, O life? Answer.That you are here - that life exists, and identity; That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse. By Walt Whitman Life Faithless Recurring Foolish Rest

Once I passed through a populous city imprinting mybrain for future use with its shows, architecture,customs, traditions,Yet now of all that city I remember only a woman ICasually met there who detained me for love of me,Day by day and night by night we were together - all elseHas long been forgotten by me,I remember I say only that woman who passionately clungTo me,Again we wander, we love, we separate again,Again she holds me by the hand, I must not go,I see her close beside me with silent lips sad and tremulous. By Walt Whitman Architecturecustoms City Remember Woman Love

I SIT and look out upon all the sorrows of the world, and upon all oppression and shame; I hear secret convulsive sobs from young men, at anguish with themselves, remorseful after deeds done; I see, in low life, the mother misused by her children, dying, neglected, gaunt, desperate; I see the wife misused by her husband - I see the treacherous seducer of young women; I mark the ranklings of jealousy and unrequited love, attempted to be hid - I see these sights on the earth; 5I see the workings of battle, pestilence, tyranny - I see martyrs and prisoners; I observe a famine at sea - I observe the sailors casting lots who shall be kill'd, to preserve the lives of the rest; I observe the slights and degradations cast by arrogant persons upon laborers, the poor, and upon negroes, and the like; All these - All the meanness and agony without end, I sitting, look out upon, See, hear, and am silent. By Walt Whitman Observe Misused Hear Young Sit

Allons! the road is before us!It is safe - I have tried it - my own feet have tried it well - be not detain'd!Let the paper remain on the desk unwritten, and the book on the shelf unopen'd!Let the tools remain in the workshop! let the money remain unearn'd!Let the school stand! mind not the cry of the teacher!Let the preacher preach in his pulpit! let the lawyer plead in the court, and the judge expound the law.Camerado, I give you my hand!I give you my love more precious than money,I give you myself before preaching or law;Will you give me yourself? will you come travel with me?Shall we stick by each other as long as we live? By Walt Whitman Give Remain Allons Safe Detain

Whoever you are, I fear you are walking the walks of dreams,I fear these supposed realities are to melt from under your feet and hands,Even now your features, joys, speech, house, trade, manners, troubles, follies, costume, crimes, dissipate away from you,Your true soul and body appear before me,They stand forth out of affairs, out of commerce, shops, work, farms, clothes, the house, buying, selling, eating, drinking, suffering, dying."-from "To You By Walt Whitman House Joys Speech Trade Manners

I am not to speak to you, I am to think of you when I sit alone or wake at night alone, I am to wait, I do not doubt I am to meet you again, I am to see to it that I do not lose you. By Walt Whitman Wait Speak Sit Wake Night

Aboard at a ship's helmA young steersman steering with care.Through fog on a sea-coast dolefully ringing, An ocean-bell - O a warning bell, rock'd by the waves.O you give good notice indeed, you bell by the sea-reefs ringing, Ringing, ringing, to warn the ship from its wreck-place.For as on the alert O steersman, you mind the loud admonition, The bows turn, the freighted ship tacking speeds away under her grey sails, The beautiful and noble ship with all her precious wealth speeds away gaily and safe.But O ship, the immortal ship! O ship aboard the ship! Ship of the body, ship of the soul, voyaging, voyaging, voyaging. By Walt Whitman Ringing Ship Speeds Steersman Bell

Out of the rolling ocean the crowd came a drop gently to me,Whispering I love you, before long I die,I have travel'd a long way merely to look on you to touch you,For I could not die till I once look'd on you,For I fear'd I might afterward lose you. Now we have met, we have look'd, we are safe,Return in peace to the ocean my love,I too am part of that ocean my love, we are not so much separated,Behold the great rondure, the cohesion of all, how perfect!But as for me, for you, the irresistible sea is to separate us,As for an hour carrying us diverse, yet cannot carry us diverse forever;Be not impatient--a little space--know you I salute the air, theocean and the land,Every day at sundown for your dear sake my love. By Walt Whitman Youfor Long Ocean Love Rolling

The process of reading is not a half sleep, but in the highest sense, an exercise, a gymnast's struggle: that the reader is to do something for him or herself, must be on the alert, just construct indeed the poem, argument, history, metaphysical essaythe text furnishing the hints, the clue, the start, the framework. By Walt Whitman Argument History Sleep Sense Exercise

O I see life is not short but immeasurably long"-from "Myself and Mine By Walt Whitman Mine Long Life Short Immeasurably

I keep thinking about you every few minutes all day. By Walt Whitman Day Thinking Minutes

To me, every hour of the light and dark is a miracle, every inch of space is a miracle, every square yard of the surface of the earth is spread with the same, every cubic foot of the interior swarms with the same; every spear of grass-the frames, limbs, organs, of men and women, and all that concerns them, all these to me are unspeakably perfect miracles. By Walt Whitman Miracle Miracles Limbs Organs Frames

I cannot too often repeat that Democracy is a word the real gist of which still sleeps, quite unawakened, notwithstanding the resonance and the many angry tempests out of which its syllables have come, from pen or tongue. It is a great word, whose history, I suppose, remains unwritten because that history has yet to be enacted. By Walt Whitman Democracy Sleeps Unawakened Notwithstanding Tongue

The words of the true poems give you more than poems, they give you to form for yourself poems, religions, politics, war, peace, behavior, histories, essays, daily life, & everything else, they balance the ranks, colors, races, creeds, and the sexes, they do not seek beauty, they are sought, forever touching them or close upon them follows beauty, longing, fain, love-sick. They prepare for death, yet they are not the finish, but rather the outset, they bring none of his or her terminus or to be content & full, whom they take they take into space to behold the birth of the stars, to learn one of the meanings, to launch off with absolute faith, to sweep through the ceaseless rings & never be quiet again. By Walt Whitman Poems Beauty Give Religions Politics

Song of myselfA child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands; How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he. I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven. Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord, A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropt, Bearing the owner's name someway in the corners, that we may see and remark, and say Whose? Or I guess the grass is itself a child, the produced babe of the vegetation. By Walt Whitman Child Guess Song Myselfa Grass

I will leave all and come and make the hymns of you, None has understood you, but I understand you, None has done justice to you, you have not done justice to yourself, None but has found you imperfect, I only find no imperfection in you, None but would subordinate you, I only am he who will never consent to subordinate you, I only am he who places over you no master, owner, better, God, beyond what waits intrinsically in yourself. By Walt Whitman Justice Subordinate God Owner Imperfect

Somehow I cannot let it go yet, funeral though it is,Let it remain back there on its nail suspended,With pink, blue, yellow, all blanch'd, and the white now gray and ashy,One wither'd rose put years ago for thee, dear friend;But I do not forget thee. Hast thou then faded?Is the odor exhaled? Are the colors, vitalities, dead?No, while memories subtly play - the past vivid as ever;For but last night I woke, and in that spectral ring saw thee,Thy smile, eyes, face, calm, silent, loving as ever:So let the wreath hang still awhile within my eye-reach,It is not yet dead to me, nor even pallid. By Walt Whitman Thee Blue Yellow Funeral Pink

Come, said my SoulSuch verses for my Body let us write, (for we are one,)That should I after death invisibly return,Or, long, long hence, in other spheres,There to some group of mates the chants resuming,(Tallying Earth's soil, trees, winds, tumultuous waves,)Ever with pleas'd smiles I may keep on,Ever and ever yet the verses owning - as, first, I here and now,Signing for Soul and Body, set to them my name, By Walt Whitman Body Long Tallying Trees Winds

TO the States or any one of them, or any city of the States, Resist much, obey little, Once unquestioning obedience, once fully enslaved,Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city of this earth, ever after-ward resumes its liberty. By Walt Whitman States Resist City Obey Obedience

Poets to ComePOETS to come! orators, singers, musicians to come!Not to-day is to justify me, and answer what I am for;But you, a new brood, native, athletic, continental, greater than before known,Arouse! Arousefor you must justify meyou must answer.I myself but write one or two indicative words for the future,I but advance a moment, only to wheel and hurry back in the darkness.I am a man who, sauntering along, without fully stopping, turns a casual look upon you, and then averts his face,Leaving it to you to prove and define it,Expecting the main things from you. By Walt Whitman Poets Comepoets Justify Orators Singers

O something unprov'd! something in a trance! O madness amorous! O trembling! O to escape utterly from others' anchors and holds! To drive free! to love free! to dash reckless and dangerous! To court destruction with taunts - with invitations! To ascend - to leap to the heavens of the love indicated to me! To rise thither with my inebriate Soul! To be lost, if it must be so! To feed the remainder of life with one hour of fulness and freedom! With one brief hour of madness and joy. By Walt Whitman Unprov Free Madness Love Hour

A noiseless patient spider,I mark'd where on a little promontory it stood isolated,Mark'd how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,It launch'd forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.And you O my soul where you stand,Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,Till the bridge you will need be form'd, till the ductile anchor hold,Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul. By Walt Whitman Filament Soul Detached Venturing Throwing

And I will show that there is no imperfection in the present, and can be none in the future,And I will show that whatever happens to anybody it may be turn'd to beautiful results,And I will show that nothing can happen more beautiful than death,And I will thread a thread through my poems that time and events are compact,And that all the things of the universe are perfect miracles, each as profound as any. By Walt Whitman Show Beautiful Thread Present Miracles

We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. So medicine, law, business, engineering... these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love... these are what we stay alive for. By Walt Whitman Poetry Write Read Cute Human

HOW solemn, as one by one, As the ranks returning, all worn and sweaty - as the men file by where I stand; As the faces, the masks appear - as I glance at the faces, studying the masks; (As I glance upward out of this page, studying you, dear friend, whoever you are;) How solemn the thought of my whispering soul, to each in the ranks, and to you; I see behind each mask, that wonder, a kindred soul; O the bullet could never kill what you really are, dear friend, Nor the bayonet stab what you really are: ... The soul! yourself I see, great as any, good as the best, Waiting, secure and content, which the bullet could never kill, Nor the bayonet stab, O friend! By Walt Whitman Faces Dear Studying Masks Soul

The strongest and sweetest song remains to be sung By Walt Whitman Sung Strongest Sweetest Song Remains

TO the garden, the world, anew ascending, Potent mates, daughters, sons, preluding, The love, the life of their bodies, meaning and being, Curious, here behold my resurrection, after slumber; The revolving cycles, in their wide sweep, have brought me again, Amorous, mature - all beautiful to me - all wondrous; My limbs, and the quivering fire that ever plays through them, for reasons, most wondrous; Existing, I peer and penetrate still, Content with the present - content with the past, By my side, or back of me, Eve following, Or in front, and I following her just the same. By Walt Whitman Content Wondrous Curious Amorous Existing

I inhale great draught of space...the east and west are mine...and the north and south are mine...I am grandeur than I thought...I did not know i held so much goodness. By Walt Whitman Mine Space Thought Goodness Inhale

A murmuring, fateful, giant voice, out of the earth and sky, Voice of a mighty dying tree in the Redwood forest dense ... [T]he wood-spirits came from their haunts of a thousand years, to join the refrain; But in my soul I plainly heard. Murmuring out of its myriad leaves, Down from its lofty top, rising two hundred feet high, Out of its stalwart trunk and limbs - out of its foot-thick bark, That chant of the seasons and time - chant, not of the past only, but of the future ... By Walt Whitman Voice Redwood Fateful Giant Sky

There is no place like it, no place with an atom of its glory, pride, and exultancy. It lays its hand upon a man's bowels; he grows drunk with ecstasy; he grows young and full of glory, he feels that he can never die. By Walt Whitman Place Pride Glory Exultancy Atom

We descend upon you and all things - we arrest you all; We realize the soul only by you, you faithful solids and fluids; Through you color, form, location, sublimity, ideality; Through you every proof, comparison, and all the suggestions and determinations of ourselves. You have waited, you always wait, you dumb, beautiful ministers! you novices! We receive you with free sense at last, and are insatiate henceforward; Not you any more shall be able to foil us, or withhold yourselves from us; We use you, and do not cast you aside - we plant you permanently within us; We fathom you not - we love you - there is perfection in you also; You furnish your parts toward eternity; Great or small, you furnish your parts toward the soul. By Walt Whitman Form Location Sublimity Ideality Comparison

Allons! whoever you are come travel with me!Traveling with me you find what never tires.The earth never tires,The earth is rude, silent, incomprehensible at first, Nature is rude and incomprehensible at first,Be not discouraged, keep on, there are divine things well envelop'd,I swear to you there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell.Allons! we must not stop here,However sweet these laid-up stores, however convenient this dwelling we cannot remain here,However shelter'd this port and however calm these waters we must not anchor here,However welcome the hospitality that surrounds us we are permitted to receive it but a little while."-from "Song of the Open Road By Walt Whitman Allons Divine Traveling Nature Herehowever

O captain! My Captain!Our fearful trip is done. The ship has weather'd every wrackThe prize we sought is wonThe port is near, the bells I hearThe people all exultingWhile follow eyes, the steady keelThe vessel grim and daringBut Heart! Heart! Heart! O the bleeding drops of redWhere on the deck my captain liesFallen cold and dead. By Walt Whitman Captain Heart Fearful Trip Eyes

This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body. By Walt Whitman Love God Animals Despise Riches

I swear to you, there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell By Walt Whitman Swear Divine Things Beautiful Words

Through me many long dumb voices,Voices of the interminable generation of prisoners and slaves,Voices of the diseas'd and despairing and of thieves and dwarfs,Voices of cycles of preparation and accretion,And of the threads that connect the stars, and of wombs and of the father-stuff,And of the rights of them the others are down upon,Of the deform'd, trivial, flat, foolish, despised,Fog in the air, beetles rolling balls of dung.Through me forbidden voices,Voices of sexes and lusts, voices veil'd and I remove the veil,Voices indecent by me clarified and transfigur'd.I do not press my fingers across my mouth,I keep as delicate around the bowels as around the head and heart,Copulation is no more rank to me than death is.I believe in the flesh and the appetites,Seeing, hearing, feeling, are miracles, and each part and tag of me is a miracle."-from "Song of Myself By Walt Whitman Voicesvoices Song Trivial Flat Foolish

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,And what I assume you shall assume,For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.I loafe and invite my soul,I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.32. I think I could turn and live with animals, they're so placid and self-contained,I stand and look at them and long.They do not sweat and whine about their condition.They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins.They do not make me sick discussiong their duty to God,Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things,Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago,Not one is respectable or unhappy over the earth.52. The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains of my gab and loitering.I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,I sound my barbaric YAWP over the roofs of the world. By Walt Whitman Loafe Summer Celebrate Sing Myselfand

I sleep - I sleep long.I do not know it - it is without name - it is a word unsaid,It is not in any dictionary, utterance, symbol.Something it swings on more than the earth I swing on,To it the creation is the friend whose embracing awakes me.Perhaps I might tell more. Outlines! I plead for my brothers and sisters.Do you see O my brothers and sisters?It is not chaos or death - it is form, union, plan - it is eternallife - it is Happiness.from "Song of Myself," Strophe 50. By Walt Whitman Sleep Utterance Dictionary Symbolsomething Swings

To me the sea is a continual miracle; The fishes that swim - the rocks - the motion of the waves - the ships, with men in them, what stranger miracles are there? By Walt Whitman Swim Rocks Waves Ships Sea

All space, all time, The stars, the terrible perturbations of the suns, Swelling, collapsing, ending, serving their longer, shorter use, Fill'd with eidolons only. The noiseless myriads, The infinite oceans where the rivers empty, The separate countless free identities, like eyesight, The true realities, eidolons. Not this the world, Nor these the universes, they the universes, Purport and end, ever the permanent life of life, Eidolons, eidolons ... By Walt Whitman Eidolons Swelling Fill Collapsing Ending

I sing the body electric,The armies of those I love engirth me and I engirth them,They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them,And discorrupt them, and charge them full with the charge of the soul. By Walt Whitman Engirth Charge Respond Soul Sing

Song of myselfSmile O voluptuous cool-breath'd earth! Earth of the slumbering and liquid trees! Earth of departed sunsetearth of the mountains misty-topt! Earth of the vitreous pour of the full moon just tinged with blue! Earth of shine and dark mottling the tide of the river! Earth of the limpid gray of clouds brighter and clearer for my sake! Far-swooping elbow'd earthrich apple-blossom'd earth! Smile, for your lover comes. By Walt Whitman Earth Song Myselfsmile Voluptuous Coolbreath

Sail, sail thy best, ship of democracy,Of value is thy freight, 'tis not the present only,The past is also stored in thee,Thou holdest not the venture of thyself alone, not of the western continent alone,Earth's resume entire floats upon thy keel, O ship, is steadied by thy spars,With thee Time voyages in trust, the antecedent nations sink or swim with thee,With all their ancient struggles , martyrs, heroes, epics, wars, thou bear'st the other continents,Theirs, theirs as much as thine, the destination-port triumphant.. By Walt Whitman Thy Sail Ship Time Martyrs

As to scenery (giving my own thought and feeling), while I know the standard claim is that Yosemite, Niagara Falls, the Upper Yellowstone and the like afford the greatest natural shows, I am not so sure but the prairies and plains, while less stunning at first sight, last longer, fill the esthetic sense fuller, precede all the rest, and make North America's characteristic landscape. By Walt Whitman Yosemite Niagara Falls Upper Yellowstone

Shocked? I consider Bob one of the constellations of our time - of our country - America - a bright, magnificent constellation. Besides, all the constellations - not alone of this but of any time - shock the average intelligence for a while. In one respect that helps to prove it a constellation. Think of Voltaire, Paine, Hicks, not to say anything of modern men whom we could mention.{Whitman's thoughts on his close friend, the great Robert Ingersoll} By Walt Whitman Shocked Time America Constellations Bob

A word of the faith that never balks,Here or henceforward it is all the same to me, I accept Time absolutely.It alone is without flaw, it alone rounds and completes all,That mystic baffling wonder alone completes all. By Walt Whitman Time Completes Flaw Word Faith

Why should I be afraid to trust myself to you? I am not afraid, I have been well brought forward by you ... By Walt Whitman Afraid Trust Brought Forward

Love, that is day and night - love, that is sun and moon and stars, Love, that is crimson, sumptuous, sick with perfume, no other words but words of love, no other thought but love. By Walt Whitman Love Sumptuous Words Night Stars

The land and sea, the animals, fishes, and birds, the sky of heaven and the orbs, the forests, mountains, and rivers, are not small themes ... but folks expect of the poet to indicate more than the beauty and dignity which always attach to dumb real objects ... they expect him to indicate the path between reality and their souls. By Walt Whitman Fishes Mountains Sea Animals Birds

Listen! I will be honest with you,I do not offer the old smooth prizes, but offer rough new prizes,These are the days that must happen to you:You shall not heap up what is call'd riches,You shall scatter with lavish hand all that you earn or achieve,You but arrive at the city to which you were destin'd, you hardly settle yourself to satisfaction before you are call'd by an irresistible call to depart,You shall be treated to the ironical smiles and mockings of those who remain behind you,What beckonings of love you receive you shall only answer with passionate kisses of parting,You shall not allow the hold of those who spread their reach'd hands toward you."-from "Song of the Open Road By Walt Whitman Listen Call Offer Song Road

Note, to-day, an instructive, curious spectacle and conflict. Science, (twin, in its fields, of Democracy in its) - Science, testing absolutely all thoughts, all works, has already burst well upon the world - a sun, mounting, most illuminating, most glorious - surely never again to set. But against it, deeply entrench'd, holding possession, yet remains, (not only through the churches and schools, but by imaginative literature, and unregenerate poetry,) the fossil theology of the mythic-materialistic, superstitious, untaught and credulous, fable-loving, primitive ages of humanity. By Walt Whitman Science Note Today Instructive Curious

Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space. By Walt Whitman Surrounded Detached Space Measureless Oceans

Of Equalityas if it harm'd me, giving others the same chances and rights as myselfas if it were not indispensable to my own rights that others possess the same. By Walt Whitman Equalityas Giving Harm Chances Myselfas

I see behind each mask that wonder a kindred soul ... By Walt Whitman Soul Mask Kindred

WE two boys together clinging,One the other never leaving,Up and down the roads going, North and South excursions making,Power enjoying, elbows stretching, fingers clutching,Arm'd and fearless, eating, drinking, sleeping, loving.No law less than ourselves owning, sailing, soldiering, thieving,threatening,Misers, menials, priests alarming, air breathing, water drinking, onthe turf or the sea-beach dancing,Cities wrenching, ease scorning, statutes mocking, feeblenesschasing,Fulfilling our foray. By Walt Whitman Drinking Fingers Eating Sleeping Sailing

The truest and greatest Poetry, (while subtly and necessarily always rhythmic, and distinguishable easily enough) can never again, in the English language, be express'd in arbitrary and rhyming metre, any more than the greatest eloquence, or the truest power and passion. By Walt Whitman Poetry Truest English Greatest Rhythmic

The swarms of cringers, suckers, doughfaces, lice of politics, planners of sly involutions for their own preferment to city offices or state legislatures or the judiciary or congress or the presidency, obtain a response of love and natural deference from the people whether they get the offices or no ... when it is better to be a bound booby and rogue in office at a high salary than the poorest free mechanic or farmer with his hat unmoved from his head and firm eyes and a candid and generous heart ... and when servility by town or state or the federal government or any oppression on a large scale or small scale can be tried on without its own punishment following duly after in exact proportion against the smallest chance of escape ... or rather when all life and all the souls of men and women are discharged from any part of the earth - then only shall the instinct of liberty be discharged from that part of the earth. By Walt Whitman Offices State Suckers Doughfaces Earth

Have you reckon'd a thousand acres much? have you reckon'd the earth much? Have you practis'd so long to learn to read? Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems? By Walt Whitman Reckon Thousand Acres Earth Read

Life breaks into beauty again and we realize that man may bring hell itself into the world, but that Nature ever patiently waits to be his natural paradise. By Walt Whitman Nature Life World Paradise Breaks

I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I loveIf you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.You will hardly know who I am or what I meanBut I shall be good health to you nonethelessAnd filter and fibre your blood. By Walt Whitman Blood Bequeath Dirt Grow Grass

Poor boy! I never knew you, Yet I think I could not refuse this moment to die for you, if that would save you By Walt Whitman Poor Boy Knew Refuse Moment

This is what you should do:Love the earth and sun and animals,Despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks,Stand up for the stupid and crazy,Devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants,Argue not concerning God,Have patience and indulgence toward the people ... Reexamine all you have been told in school or church or in any book,Dismiss what insults your very soul,And your flesh shall become a great poem. By Walt Whitman Love Riches Give Hate People

You want to know a sure way to lose money? Buy what's popular and don't know what you are investing in. By Walt Whitman Money Lose Buy Popular Investing

Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you. By Walt Whitman Sunshine Face Shadows Fall

My respiration and inspiration ... the beating of my heart ... the passing of blood and air through my lungs, the sniff of green leaves and dry leaves and of the short and dark colored sea-rocks and of hay in the barn ... the delight alone or in the rush of the streets, or along the fields and hillsides, the feeling of health ... the full moon trill ... the song of me rising from bed and meeting the sun. By Walt Whitman Inspiration Respiration Leaves Heart Beating

For we cannot tarry here,We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger,We, the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend, Pioneers! O pioneers! By Walt Whitman Pioneers Darlings Dangerwe Races Depend

What doesn't kill you leaves scars, ruins your lungs, dries out all your tears, leaves you lying awake at 4 in the morningwishing you weren't alive. By Walt Whitman Leaves Scars Ruins Lungs Dries

I am larger, better than I thought; I did not know I held so much goodness.All seems beautiful to me.Whoever denies me, it shall not trouble me; Whoever accepts me, he or she shall be blessed, and shall bless me. By Walt Whitman Larger Thought Blessed Held Goodnessall

O public road, I say back I am not afraid to leave you, yet I love you, you express me better than I can express myself. By Walt Whitman Express Road Public Back Afraid

Love-buds, put before you and within you, whoever you are, Buds to be unfolded on the old terms; If you bring the warmth of the sun to them, they will open, and bring form, color, perfume, to you; If you become the aliment and the wet, they will become flowers, fruits, tall blanches and trees. By Walt Whitman Buds Bring Lovebuds Color Perfume

I think I could always live with animals. The more you're around people, the more you love animals. By Walt Whitman Animals Live People Love

Of all the earth her heart most full of sorrow because most full of love. By Walt Whitman Full Love Earth Heart Sorrow

I have loved many women and men, but I love none better than you."-from "To You By Walt Whitman Men You Loved Women Love

A GlimpseA glimpse through an interstice caught,Of a crowd of workmen and drivers in a bar-room around the stove late of a winter night, and I unremark'd seated in a corner,Of a youth who loves me and whom I love, silently approaching and seating himself near, that he may hold me by the hand,A long while amid the noises of coming and going, of drinking and oath and smutty jest,There we two, content, happy in being together, speaking little, perhaps not a word. By Walt Whitman Content Night Silently Happy Speaking

I dreamed in a dream, I saw a city invincible to the attacks of the whole of the rest of the earth; I dreamed that was the new City of Friends; Nothing was greater there than the quality of robust love - it led the rest; It was seen every hour in the actions of the men of that city, And in all their looks and words. By Walt Whitman City Dreamed Rest Friends Dream

People who serve you without love get even behind your back. By Walt Whitman People Back Serve Love

Life doesn't give You the people you want, It gives you The people you need: To love you, To hate you, To make you, To break you, And to make you the person you Were meant to be. By Walt Whitman People Make Life Give Gives

Sometimes with one I love, I fill myself with rage, for fear I effuse unreturn'd love; But now I think there is no unreturn'd love - the pay is certain, one way or another; (I loved a certain person ardently, and my love was not return'd; Yet out of that, I have written these songs.) By Walt Whitman Love Unreturn Rage Ardently Return

Some are baffled, but that one is notthat one knows me.Ah lover and perfect equal,I meant that you should discover me so by faint indirections. By Walt Whitman Baffled Indirections Notthat Meah Lover

Be not dishearten'd Affection shall solve the problems of Freedom yet;Those who love each other shall become invincible. By Walt Whitman Affection Freedom Invincible Dishearten Solve

Day by day and night by night we were together - all else has long been forgotten by me. By Walt Whitman Day Night Long Forgotten

O you singer, solitary, singing by yourself - projecting me;O solitary me, listening - nevermore shall I cease perpetuating you;Never more shall I escape, never more the reverberations,Never more the cries of unsatisfied love be absent from me,Never again leave me to be the peaceful child I was before what there, in the night,By the sea, under the yellow and sagging moon,The messenger there arous'd - the fire, the sweet hell within,The unknown want, the destiny of me. By Walt Whitman Solitary Listening Singer Singing Projecting

Now I will do nothing but listen to accrue what I hear into this song. To let sounds contribute toward it. I hear the sound I love. The sound of the human voice. I hear all sounds running together. By Walt Whitman Hear Song Listen Accrue Sounds

In the dooryard fronting an old farm-house near the white-wash'd palings, Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with heart-shaped leaves of rich green, with many a pointed blossom rising delicate, with the perfume strong I love, With every leaf a miracle - and from this bush in the dooryard, With delicate-color'd blossoms and heart-shaped leaves of rich green, A sprig with its flower I break. By Walt Whitman Green Leaves Rich Dooryard Heartshaped

Swiftly arose and spread around me the peace and knowledge that pass all the argument of the earth,And I know that the hand of God is the promise of my own,And I know that the spirit of God is the brother of my own,And that all the men ever born are also my brothers, and the women my sisters and lovers,And that a kelson of the creation is love,And limitless are leaves stiff or drooping in the fields,And brown ants in the little wells beneath them,And mossy scabs of the worm fence, heap'd stones, elder, mullein and poke-weed. By Walt Whitman God Ownand Elder Swiftly Fence

Blind loving wrestling touch, sheath'd hooded sharp-tooth'd touch!Did it make you ache so, leaving me? By Walt Whitman Touch Blind Sheath Leaving Loving

I hear the sound I love, the sound of the human voice, By Walt Whitman Sound Love Voice Hear Human

When I give, I give myself By Walt Whitman Give

I love doctors and hate their medicine. By Walt Whitman Medicine Love Doctors Hate

The past, the future, majesty, love - if they are vacant of you, you are vacant of them. By Walt Whitman Majesty Love Vacant Past Future

We all have great things on our bucket lists like skydiving, seeing the Northern Lights etc, but what about simply falling in love? Isn't that the most amazing thing we can do? By Walt Whitman Northern Lights Skydiving Love Great

The moon gives you light, and the bugles and the drums give you music, and my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans, my heart gives you love. By Walt Whitman Heart Light Music Soldiers Veterans

What do you seek, so pensive and silent? What do you need, Camerado? Dear son! do you think it is love? Listen, dear son - listen, America, daughter or son! It is a painful thing to love a man or woman to excess - and yet it satisfies - it is great; But there is something else very great - it makes the whole coincide; It, magnificent, beyond materials, with continuous hands, sweeps and provides for all. By Walt Whitman Son Seek Silent Camerado Listen

To drive free, to love free, to court destruction with taunts. One brief house of madness and joy! By Walt Whitman Free Taunts Drive Love Court

Remember my words, I may again return,I love you, I depart from materials,I am as one disembodied, triumphant, dead. By Walt Whitman Triumphant Dead Remember Words Disembodied

I will be your poet, I will be more to you than to any of the rest. By Walt Whitman Poet Rest

I give you my hand, I give you my love more precious than money, I give you myself before preaching or law; Will you give me yourself? By Walt Whitman Give Hand Money Law Love

Now, dearest comrade, lift me to your face,We must separate awhileHere! take from my lips this kiss.Whoever you are, I give it especially to you;So long!And I hope we shall meet again. By Walt Whitman Dearest Comrade Lift Awhilehere Facewe

Behold I do not give lectures or a little charity, when I give I give myself. By Walt Whitman Give Behold Charity Lectures

I will write the evangel-poem of comrades and of love. By Walt Whitman Love Write Evangelpoem Comrades

The Americans, like the English, probably make love worse than any other race. By Walt Whitman Americans English Race Make Love

For who but I should understand love, with all its sorrow and joy? By Walt Whitman Love Joy Understand Sorrow

When he whom I love travels with me or sits a long while holding me by the hand, ... Then I am charged with untold and untellable wisdom, I am silent, I require nothing further, I cannot answer the question of appearances or that of identity beyond the grave, But I walk or sit indifferent, I am satisfied, He ahold of my hand has completely satisfied me. By Walt Whitman Hand Love Travels Long Holding

Whoever you are, now I place my hand upon you/ That you may be my poem/ I whisper with my lips close to your ear/ I have loved many women and men, but I love none better than you. By Walt Whitman Poem Ear Men Place Hand

And now it [grass] seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves, Tenderly will I use you curling grass,It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men, It may be if I had known them I would have loved them, It may be you from old people, or from offspring taken soon out of their mother's laps, And here you are the mothers' laps.- Song of Myself: 6 By Walt Whitman Tenderly Song Grass Graves Men

The female that loves unrequited sleeps, And the male that loves unrequited sleeps, The head of the money-maker that plotted all day sleeps, And the enraged and treacherous dispositions, all, all sleep. By Walt Whitman Sleeps Loves Unrequited Sleep Dispositions

The Last InvocationAt the last, tenderly,From the walls of the powerful, fortress'd house,From the clasp of the knitted locks - from the keep of the well-closed doors,Let me be wafted.Let me glide noiselessly forth;With the key of softness unlock the locks - with a whisper,Set ope the doors, O Soul!Tenderly! be not impatient!(Strong is your hold, O mortal flesh!Strong is your hold, O love.) By Walt Whitman Locks Tenderly Soul Strong Hold

I swear I will never mention love or death inside a house,And I swear I never will translate myself at all, only to him or her who privately stays with me in the open air. By Walt Whitman Swear Air Mention Love Death

Soothe! soothe! soothe!Close on its wave soothes the wave behind, And again another behind embracing and lapping, every one close,But my love soothes not me, not me."-from "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking By Walt Whitman Soothe Soothes Close Rocking Wave

O magnet-South! O glistening perfumed South! My South! O quick mettle, rich blood, impulse and love! Good and evil! O all dear to me! By Walt Whitman South Magnetsouth Glistening Perfumed Mettle

Dearest comrades, all is over and long gone, But love is not over ... By Walt Whitman Dearest Comrades Long Love

Now I see that there is no such thing as love unreturn'd. The pay is certain, one way or another. By Walt Whitman Unreturn Thing Love Pay

The new rule shall rule as the soul rules, and as the love and justice and equality that are in the soul rule. By Walt Whitman Soul Rule Love Justice Equality

I have perceiv'd that to be with those I like is enough, To stop in company with the rest at evening is enough, To be surrounded by beautiful, curious, breathing, laughing flesh is enough, To pass among them, or touch any one, or rest my arm ever so lightly round his or her neck for a moment - what is this, then? I do not ask any more delight - I swim in it, as in a sea. By Walt Whitman Curious Breathing Rest Beautiful Laughing

I like the scientific spirit - the holding off, the being sure but not too sure, the willingness to surrender ideas when the evidence is against them: this is ultimately fine - it always keeps the way beyond open - always gives life, thought, affection, the whole man, a chance to try over again after a mistake - after a wrong guess. By Walt Whitman Thought Affection Spirit Fine Open

Sea of stretch'd ground-swells,Sea breathing broad and convulsive breaths,Sea of the brine of life and of unshovell'd yet always-ready graves,Howler and scooper of storms, capricious and dainty sea,I am integral with you, I too am of one phase and of all phases. By Walt Whitman Sea Stretch Breathing Storms Capricious

Sail Forth- Steer for the deep waters only. Reckless O soul, exploring. I with thee and thou with me. For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared go. And we will risk the ship, ourselves, and all. By Walt Whitman Steer Sail Deep Waters Exploring

My ties and ballasts leave me - I travel - I sail - My elbows rest in the sea-gaps. I skirt the sierras. My palms cover continents - I am afoot with my vision. By Walt Whitman Travel Sail Seagaps Ties Ballasts

Afoot and lighthearted I take to the open road, healthy, free, the world before me. By Walt Whitman Healthy Free Afoot Road Lighthearted

A great poem is no finish to a man or woman but rather a beginning. By Walt Whitman Beginning Great Poem Finish Man

Books are to be called for and supplied on the assumption that the process of reading is not a half-sleep, but in the highest sense an exercise, a gymnastic struggle; that the reader is to do something for himself. By Walt Whitman Books Halfsleep Exercise Struggle Called

Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you.You must travel it by yourself.It is not far. It is within reach.Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know. Perhaps it is everywhere - on water and land. By Walt Whitman Travel Road Youyou Yourselfit Born

A perfect writer would make words sing, dance, kiss, do the male and female act, bear children, weep, bleed, rage, stab, steal, fire cannon, steer ships, sack cities, charge with cavalry or infantry, or do anything that man or woman or the natural powers can do. By Walt Whitman Dance Kiss Weep Bleed Rage

Silence? What can New York-noisy, roaring, rumbling, tumbling, bustling, story, turbulent New York-have to do with silence? Amid the universal clatter, the incessant din of business, the all swallowing vortex of the great money whirlpool-who has any, even distant, idea of the profound repose ... of silence? By Walt Whitman Silence Yorknoisy Yorkhave Roaring Rumbling

Among the men and women, the multitude, I perceive one picking me out by secret and divine signs, Acknowledging none else - not parent, wife, husband, brother, child, any nearer than I am; Some are baffled - But that one is not - that one knows me. Ah, lover and perfect equal!I meant that you should discover me so, by my faint indirections; And I, when I meet you, mean to discover you by the like in you. By Walt Whitman Acknowledging Wife Husband Brother Child

With music strong I come, with my cornets and my drums, I play not marches for accepted victors only, I play marches for conquer'd and slain persons. Have you heard that it was good to gain the day? I also say it is good to fall, battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won. I beat and pound for the dead, I blow through my embouchures my loudest and gayest for them. By Walt Whitman Play Marches Drums Persons Music

Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all poems,You shall possess the good of the earth and sun ... there are millions of suns left,You shall no longer take things at second or third hand ... nor look through the eyes of the dead ... nor feed on the spectres in books,You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,You shall listen to all sides and filter them from yourself. By Walt Whitman Possess Stop Day Night Origin

I mind how once we lay such a transparent summer morning, How you settled your head athwart my hips and gently turn'd over upon me, And parted the shirt from my bosom-bone, and plunged your tongue to my bare-stript heart, And reach'd till you felt my beard, and reach'd till you held my feet. By Walt Whitman Reach Till Morning Bosombone Heart

Nothing endures but personal qualities. By Walt Whitman Qualities Endures Personal

I am for those who believe in loose delights, I share the midnight orgies of young men, I dance with the dancers and drink with the drinkers. By Walt Whitman Delights Men Drinkers Loose Share

All the past we leave behind; We debouch upon a newer, mightier world, varied world, Fresh and strong the world we seize, world of labor and the march, Pioneers! O Pioneers! By Walt Whitman Pioneers Fresh World Newer Mightier

O you youths, Western youths,So impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and friendship,Plain I see you Western youths, see you tramping with the foremost,Pioneers! O pioneers! By Walt Whitman Full Western Youths Impatient Action

Youth, Day, Old Age and Night Youth, large, lusty, loving - youth full of grace, force, fascination, Do you know that Old Age may come after you with equal grace, force, fascination? By Walt Whitman Force Fascination Day Age Grace

Great is Youthequally great is Old Agegreat are Day and Night.Great is Wealthgreat is Povertygreat is Expression-great is Silence. By Walt Whitman Great Silence Youthequally Agegreat Day

Songs of myselfI am the poet of the Body and I am the poet of the Soul, The pleasures of heaven are with me and the pains of hell are with me, The first I graft and increase upon myself, the latter I translate into new tongue. I am the poet of the woman the same as the man, And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man,.. By Walt Whitman Poet Soul Body Songs Tongue

A fitly born and bred race, growing up in right conditions of outdoor as much as indoor harmony, activity and development, would probably, from and in those conditions, find it enough merely to live - and would, in their relations to the sky, air, water, trees, etc., and to the countless common shows, and in the fact of life itself, discover and achieve happiness - with Being suffused night and day by wholesome ecstasy, surpassing all the pleasures that wealth, amusement, and even gratified intellect, erudition, or the sense of art, can give. By Walt Whitman Conditions Air Water Trees Etc

My lovers suffocate me! Crowding my lips, and thick in the pores of my skin, Jostling me through streets and public halls ... coming naked to me at night, Crying by day Ahoy from the rocks of the river ... swinging and chirping over my head, Calling my name from flowerbeds or vines or tangled underbrush, Or while I swim in the bath ... or drink from the pump on the corner ... or the curtain is down at the opera ... or I glimpse at a woman's face in the railroad car; Lighting on every moment of my life, Bussing my body with soft and balsamic busses, Noiselessly passing handfuls out of their hearts and giving them to be mine By Walt Whitman Lovers Suffocate Jostling Crying Ahoy

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,Those of mechanics, each one singing his as itshould be blithe and strong,The carpenter singing his as he measures his plankor beam,The mason singing his as he makes ready for work,or leaves off work,The boatman singing what belongs to him in hisboat, the deckhand singing on the steamboatdeck,The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, thehatter singing as he stands,The wood-cutter's song, the ploughboy's on hisway in the morning, or at noon intermissionor at sundown,The delicious singing of the mother, or of theyoung wife at work, or of the girl sewing orwashing,Each singing what belongs to him or her and tonone else,The day what belongs to the day - at night theparty of young fellows, robust, friendly,Singing with open mouths their strong melodioussongs. By Walt Whitman Singing Belongs Day America Robust

It avails not, time nor placedistance avails not,I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so manygenerations hence,Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky, so I felt,Just as any of you is one of a living crowd, I was one of a crowd,Just as you are refresh'd by the gladness of the river and thebright flow, I was refresh'd,Just as you stand and lean on the rail, yet hurry with the swiftcurrent, I stood yet was hurried,Just as you look on the numberless masts of ships and thethick-stemm'd pipes of steamboats, I look'd. By Walt Whitman River Avails Time Generation Sky

Finding my occupation, poverty, notoriety, foibles, crimes, less important than I thought, By Walt Whitman Poverty Notoriety Foibles Crimes Finding

I announce the great individual, fluid as Nature, chaste, affectionate, compassionate, fully armed; I announce a life that shall be copious, vehement, spiritual, bold, And I announce an end that shall lightly and joyfully meet its translation. By Walt Whitman Announce Nature Chaste Affectionate Compassionate

Wisdom is not finally tested by the schools, Wisdom cannot be pass'd from one having it to another not having it, Wisdom is of the soul, is not susceptible of proof, is its own proof. By Walt Whitman Wisdom Proof Schools Soul Finally

I sing the Equalities, modern or old, I sing the endless finales of things; I say Nature continues - Glory continues;I praise with electric voice; For I do not see one imperfection in the universe; And I do not see one cause or result lamentable at last in the universe. O setting sun! though the time has come, I still warble under you, if none else does, unmitigated adoration. By Walt Whitman Universe Sing Continues Equalities Glory

Without enough wilderness America will change. Democracy, with its myriad personalities and increasing sophistication, must be fibred and vitalized by regular contact with outdoor growths - animals, trees, sun warmth and free skies - or it will dwindle and pale. By Walt Whitman America Change Wilderness Democracy Animals

It is not upon you alone the dark patches fall, The dark threw patches down upon me also; The best I had done seemed to me blank and suspicious; My great thoughts, as I supposed them, were they not in reality meagre? would not people laugh at me? It is not you alone who know what it is to be evil; I am he who knew what it was to be evil; I too knitted the old knot of contrariety, Blabbed, blushed, resented, lied, stole, grudged; Had guile, anger, lust, hot wishes I dared not speak; Was wayward, vain, greedy, shallow, sly, cowardly, malignant; The wolf, the snake, the hog, not wanting in me; The cheating look, the frivolous word, the adulterous wish, not wanting; Refusals, hates, postponements, meanness, laziness, none of these wanting. By Walt Whitman Dark Patches Fall Suspicious Thoughts

O amazement of things-even the least particle! By Walt Whitman Particle Amazement Thingseven

And I or you pocketless of a dime, may purchase the pick of the earth. By Walt Whitman Dime Earth Pocketless Purchase Pick

Sun so generous it shall be you- Leaves of Grass By Walt Whitman Leaves Grass Sun Generous

Something there is more immortal even than the stars. By Walt Whitman Stars Immortal

Re-examine all you have been told in school or church or in any book, and dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem, and have the richest fluency, not only in its words, but in the silent lines of its lips and face, and between the lashes of your eyes, and in every motion and joint of your body.[From the preface to Leaves Grass] By Walt Whitman Grass Leaves Reexamine Book Soul

Beautiful that war and all its deeds of carnage, must in time be utterly lost; By Walt Whitman Beautiful Carnage Lost War Deeds

And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels. By Walt Whitman Infidels Mouse Miracle Stagger Sextillions

Somehow I have been stunned. Stand back!Give me a little time beyond my cuffed head and slumbers and dreams and gaping,I discover myself on the verge of the usual mistake. By Walt Whitman Stunned Give Stand Back Mistake

Here is not merely a nation but a teeming nation of nations. By Walt Whitman Nation Teeming Nations

When the materials are ready, the architects shall appear. By Walt Whitman Ready Materials Architects

Say on, sayers! sing on, singers! Delve! mould! pile the words of the earth! Work on, age after age, nothing is to be lost, It may have to wait long, but it will certainly come in use, When the materials are all prepared and ready, the architects shall appear. By Walt Whitman Sayers Singers Age Delve Sing

Dazzling and tremendous how quick the sun-rise would kill me, if I could not now and always send sun-rise out of me. By Walt Whitman Dazzling Sunrise Tremendous Quick Kill

This is thy hour O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless, Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done,Thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the themes thou lovest best. Night, sleep, and the stars. By Walt Whitman Soul Thy Silent Gazing Wordless

All music is what awakes from you when you are reminded by the instruments. It is not the violins and the cornets-it is not the oboe nor the beating drums, nor the score of the baritone singer singing his sweet romanza-nor that of the women's chorus; it is nearer and farther than they. By Walt Whitman Instruments Music Awakes Reminded Drums

And if the body were not the soul, what is the soul? By Walt Whitman Soul Body

I do not ask who you are, that is not important to me, You can do nothing and be nothing but what I will infold you. By Walt Whitman Important Infold

To a Certain Cantatrice Here, take this gift, I was reserving it for some hero, speaker, or general, One who should serve the good old cause, the great idea, the progress and freedom of the race, Some brave confronter of despots, some daring rebel; But I see that what I was reserving belongs to you just as much as to any. By Walt Whitman Speaker Reserving Cantatrice Gift Hero

What do you suppose will satisfy the soul, except to walk free and own no superior? By Walt Whitman Soul Superior Suppose Satisfy Walk

What a devil art thou, Poverty! How many desires - how many aspirations after goodness and truth - how many noble thoughts, loving wishes toward our fellows, beautiful imaginings thou hast crushed under thy heel, without remorse or pause! By Walt Whitman Poverty Thou Devil Art Desires

Victory, union, faith, identity, time,The indissoluble compacts, riches, mystery,Eternal progress, the kosmos, and the modern reports.This, then, is life;Here is what has come to the surface after so many throes and convulsions."-from "Starting from Paumanok By Walt Whitman Victory Union Faith Identity Riches

It is a beautiful truth that all men contain something of the artist in them. And perhaps it is the case that the greatest artists live and die, the world and themselves alike ignorant what they possess. By Walt Whitman Beautiful Truth Men Artist Artists

What is that you express in your eyes? It seems to me more than all the print I have read in my life. By Walt Whitman Eyes Express Life Print Read

Have the past struggles succeeded?What has succeeded? yourself? your nation? Nature?Now understand me well - it is provided in the essence of things that from any fruition of success, no matter what, shall come forth something to make a greater struggle necessary."-from "Songs of the Open Road By Walt Whitman Succeeded Past Songs Road Nature

What will be will be well - for what is is well,To take interest is well, and not to take interest is well. By Walt Whitman Interest Wellto

All music is is what awakes from you when you are reminded by the instruments. By Walt Whitman Instruments Music Awakes Reminded

Beautiful dripping fragments - the negligent list of one after another, as I happen to call them to me, or think of them, The real poems, (what we call poems being merely pictures,) The poems of the privacy of the night, and of men like me, This poem, drooping shy and unseen, that I always carry, and that all men carry By Walt Whitman Carry Poems Call Men Beautiful

But where is what I started for so long ago?And why is it yet unfound? By Walt Whitman Ago Unfound Started Long

What blurt is this about virtue and about vice?Evil propels me and reform of evil propels me, I stand indifferent,My gait is no fault-finder's or rejecter's gait,I moisten the roots of all that has grown. By Walt Whitman Evil Propels Vice Grown Blurt

Out of every fruition of success, no matter what, comes forth something to make a new effort necessary. By Walt Whitman Success Fruition Matter Make Effort

Come I am determin'd to unbare this broad breast of mine, I have long enough stifled and choked; Emblematic and capricious blades I leave you, now you serve me not, I will say what I have to say by itself, I will sound myself and comrades only, I will never again utter a call only their call, I will raise with it immortal reverberations through the States, I will give an example to lovers to take permanent shape and will through the States, By Walt Whitman States Call Emblematic Mine Choked

What is commonest and cheapest and nearest and easiest is Me, Me going in for my chances, spending for vast returns, Adorning myself to bestow myself on the first that will take me, Not asking the sky to come down to my goodwill, Scattering if freely forever. By Walt Whitman Adorning Scattering Chances Spending Returns

I see that I am to wait for what will be exhibited by death. By Walt Whitman Death Wait Exhibited

This is the female form, vapor, A divine nimbus exhales from it from head to foot, It attracts with fierce undeniable attraction, I am drawn by its breath as if I were no more than a helpless vapor, all falls aside but myself and it, Books, art, religion, time, the visible and solid earth, and what was expected of heavaen or fear'd of hell, are now consumed, Mad filament, ungovernable shoots play out of it, the response likewise ungovernable ... By Walt Whitman Books Vapor Mad Art Religion

Sweet, sane, still Nakedness in Nature! - ah if poor, sick, prurient humanity in cities might really know you once more! Is not nakedness then indecent? No, not inherently. It is your thought, your sophistication, your fear, your respectability that is indecent. There come moods when these clothes of ours are not only too irksome to wear, but are themselves indecent. Perhaps indeed he or she to whom the free exhilarating ecstasy of nakedness in Nature has never been eligible (and how many thousands there are!) has not really known what purity is - nor what faith or art or health really is. By Walt Whitman Sweet Sane Nakedness Indecent Nature

To the real artist in humanity, what are called bad manners are often the most picturesque and significant of all. By Walt Whitman Humanity Real Artist Called Bad

We arrange our lives-even the best and boldest men and women that exist, just as much as the most limited-with reference to what society conventionally rules and makes right. By Walt Whitman Exist Arrange Liveseven Boldest Men

O lands! O all so dear to me - what you are, I become part of that, whatever it is. By Walt Whitman Lands Dear Part

LET us twain walk aside from the rest; Now we are together privately, do you discard ceremony, Come! vouchsafe to me what has yet been vouchsafed to none - Tell me the whole story, Tell me what you would not tell your brother, wife, husband, or physician. By Walt Whitman Rest Privately Ceremony Twain Walk

To be in any form, what is that?(round and round we go, all of us, and ever come back thither,)If nothing lay more develop'd the quahung in it's callous shell were enough.Mine is no callous shell.I have instant conductors all over me whether I pass or stop,they seize every object and lead it harmlessly through me.I merely stir, press, feel with my fingers, and I am happy, to touch my person to someone else's is about as much as I can stand. By Walt Whitman Press Round Callous Form Thither

All architecture is what you do to it when you look upon it; By Walt Whitman Architecture

What is commonest, cheapest, nearest, easiest, is Me,Me going in for my chances, spending for vast returns,Adorning myself to bestow myself on the first that will take me,Not asking the sky to come down to my good will,Scattering it freely forever. By Walt Whitman Cheapest Nearest Easiest Commonest Chances

WHAT am I, after all, but a child, pleas'd with the sound of my own name? repeating it over and over; I stand apart to hear - it never tires me. To you, your name also; Did you think there was nothing but two or three pronunciations in the sound of your name? By Walt Whitman Child Pleas Sound Repeating Hear

I swear I see what is better than to tell the best,It is always to leave the best untold."-from "A Song of the Rolling Earth By Walt Whitman Earth Song Rolling Untold Swear

What stays with you longest and deepest? Of curious panics, of hard-fought engagements or sieges tremendous what deepest remains? By Walt Whitman Deepest Stays Longest Panics Remains

America does not repel the past or what it has produced under its forms or amid other politics or the idea of castes or the old religions . . . . accepts the lesson with calmness ... is not so impatient as has been supposed that the slough still sticks to opinions and manners and literature while the life which served its requirements has passed into the new life of the new forms ... perceives that the corpse is slowly borne from the eating and sleeping rooms of the house ... perceives that it waits a little while in the door ... that it was fittest for its days ... that its action has descended to the stalwart and wellshaped heir who approaches ... and that he shall be fittest for his days. By Walt Whitman America Religions Repel Past Produced

Come I should like to hear you tell me what there is in yourself that is not just as wonderful,And I should like to hear the name of anything between Sunday morning and Saturday night that is not just as wonderful. By Walt Whitman Hear Sunday Saturday Wonderful Wonderfuland

You sea! I resign myself to you also-I guess what you mean, I behold from the beach your crooked fingers, I believe you refuse to go back without feeling of me.We must have a turn together,I undress, hurry me out of sight of the land,Cushion me soft, rock me billowy drowse,Dash me with amorous wet, I can repay you. By Walt Whitman Sea Fingers Undress Hurry Soft

What beauty there is in words; what a lurking curious charm in the sound some words. By Walt Whitman Words Beauty Lurking Curious Charm

Seasons pursuing each other the indescribable crowd is gathered, it is the fourth of Seventh-month, (what salutes of cannon and small arms! By Walt Whitman Seventhmonth Seasons Gathered Arms Pursuing

You will hardly know who I am or what I mean By Walt Whitman

What is a man anyhow? what am I? what are you? By Walt Whitman Man

And to die is different from what anyone supposed, and luckier. If no other in the world be aware I sit content, and if each and all be aware I sit content. By Walt Whitman Content Supposed Luckier Aware Sit

You have not known what you areyou have slumber'd upon yourself all your life; Your eye-lids have been the same as closed most of the time;What you have done returns already in mockeries;Your thrift, knowledge, prayers, if they do not return in mockeries, what is their return?The mockeries are not you;Underneath them, and within them, I see you lurk; By Walt Whitman Mockeries Underneath Knowledge Prayers Return

This minute that comesto me over the pastDecillions.There is no better than itAnd now. What behaves wellIn the past or behaves wellTo-day is not such a wonder.The wonder is always andAlways how there can beA mean man or an infidel. By Walt Whitman Minute Comesto Pastdecillionsthere Itand Behaves

TO FOREIGN LANDS. I heard that you ask'd for something to prove this puzzle the New World, And to define America, her athletic Democracy, Therefore I send you my poems that you behold in them what you wanted. By Walt Whitman Lands Foreign World America Democracy

The Past the dark unfathomed retrospect! The teeming gulf the sleepers and the shadows! The past! the infinite greatness of the past! For what is the present after all but a growth out of the past? By Walt Whitman Past Retrospect Dark Unfathomed Shadows

At times it has been doubtful to me if Emerson really knows or feels what Poetry is at its highest, as in the Bible, for instance, or Homer or Shakspeare. I see he covertly or plainly likes best superb verbal polish, or something old or odd By Walt Whitman Bible Shakspeare Emerson Poetry Homer

A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books. By Walt Whitman Books Morningglory Window Satisfies Metaphysics

Suddenly, out of its stale and drowsy air, the air of slaves,Like lightning Europe le'pt forth,Sombre, superb and terrible. By Walt Whitman Suddenly Europe Forthsombre Superb Terrible

Great is life ... and real and mystical ... wherever and whoever, Great is death ... Sure as life holds all parts together, death holds all parts together; Sure as the stars return again after they merge on the light, death is as great as life. By Walt Whitman Great Life Mystical Death Real

Of two simple men I saw today on the pier in the midst of the crowd, parting the parting of dear friends, the one to remain hung on the other's neck and passionately kissed him. While the one to depart tightly pressed the one to remain in his arms. By Walt Whitman Parting Remain Crowd Friends Simple

I sing the body electric. By Walt Whitman Electric Sing Body

I sing the body that is electric! I celebrate the Self yet to be unveiled! By Walt Whitman Electric Sing Body Unveiled Celebrate

The thin red jellies within you or within me, the bones and the marrow in the bones, The exquisite realization of health;O I say these are not the parts and poems of the body only, but of the soul,O I say now these are the soul! By Walt Whitman Bones Health Soul Thin Red

My little notebooks were beginnings - they were the ground into which I dropped the seed ... I would work in this way when I was out in the crowds, then put the stuff together at home. By Walt Whitman Beginnings Seed Notebooks Ground Dropped

The wild gander leads his flock through the cool night, Ya-honk! he says, and sounds it down to me like an invitation: The pert may suppose it meaningless, but I listen closer, I find its purpose and place up there toward the November sky. By Walt Whitman Yahonk Night Wild Gander Leads

Conceiv'd out of the fullest heat and pulse of European feudalism -personifying ill unparalleled ways the medieval aristocracy, its towering spirit of ruthless and gigantic caste, with its own peculiar air and arrogance (no mere imitation) -only one of the "wolfish earls" so plenteous in the plays themselves, or some born descendant and knower, might seem to be the true author of those amazing works -works in some respects greater than anything else ill recorded literature. By Walt Whitman Ill Works European Conceiv Feudalism

Happiness, not in another place but this place ... not for another hour, but this hour. By Walt Whitman Happiness Place Hour

Exact science and its practical movements are no checks on the greatest poet, but always his encouragement and support ... The sailor and traveller, the anatomist, chemist, astronomer, geologist, phrenologist, spiritualist, mathematician, historian and lexicographer are not poets, but they are the lawgivers of poets and their construction underlies the structure of every perfect poem. By Walt Whitman Exact Support Poets Science Practical

To speak in literature with the perfect rectitude and insouciance of the movements of animals and the unimpeachable of the sentiment of trees in the woods and grass by the roadside is the flawless triumph of art. By Walt Whitman Art Speak Literature Perfect Rectitude

There's a man in the world who is never turned down, whatever he chances to stray; he gets the glad hand in the populous town, or out where the farmers makes hay; he's greeted with pleasure on deserts of sand, and deep in the aisles of the woods; wherever he goes there's a welcoming hand-he's the man who delivers the goods. By Walt Whitman Man Stray Town Hay Sand

The real war will never get in the books. By Walt Whitman Books Real War

The shallow consider liberty a release from all law, from every constraint. The wise man sees in it, on the contrary, the potent Law of Laws. By Walt Whitman Law Constraint Shallow Liberty Release

So here I sit in the early candle-light of old age-I and my book-casting backward glances over out travel'd road. By Walt Whitman Road Sit Early Candlelight Agei

Walt Whitman, a kosmos, of Manhattan the son, Turbulent, fleshy, sensual, eating, drinking and breeding, No sentimentalist, no stander above men and women or apart from them, No more modest than immodest. By Walt Whitman Turbulent Fleshy Sensual Eating Whitman

I no doubt deserved my enemies, but I don't believe I deserved my friends. By Walt Whitman Deserved Enemies Friends Doubt

All beauty comes from beautiful blood and a beautiful brain. By Walt Whitman Brain Beautiful Beauty Blood

O soul, thou pleasest me - I thee;Sailing these seas, or on the hills, or waking in the night,Thoughts, silent thoughts, of Time, and Space, and Death, like waters flowing,Bear me, indeed, as through the regions infinite,Whose air I breathe, whose ripples hear - lave me all over;Bathe me, O God, in thee - mounting to thee,I and my soul to range in range of thee.O Thou transcendent,Nameless, the fibre and the breath.from "Passage to India By Walt Whitman Thee Thou Sailing Time Space

When the full-grown poet came,Out spake pleased Nature (the round impassive globe, with all its shows of day and night,) saying, He is mine;But out spake too the Soul of man, proud, jealous and unreconciled, Nay, he is mine alone; - Then the full-grown poet stood between the two, and took each by the hand;And to-day and ever so stands, as blender, uniter, tightly holding hands,Which he will never release until he reconciles the two,And wholly and joyously blends them. By Walt Whitman Fullgrown Nay Poet Mine Nature

I am he that walks with the tender and growing night; I call to the earth and sea half-held by the night. Press close barebosomed night! Press close magnetic nourishing night! Night of south winds! Night of the large few stars! Still nodding night! Mad naked summer night! Smile By Walt Whitman Night Press Close Walks Tender

When I Read the BookWhen I read the book, the biography famous, And is this then (said I) what the author calls a man's life? And so will some one when I am dead and gone write my life? (As if any man really knew aught of my life,Why even I myself I often think know little or nothing of my real life, Only a few hints, a few diffused faint clews and indirections I seek for my own use to trace out here.) By Walt Whitman Read Life Book Famous Bookwhen

If anything is sacred, the human body is sacred. By Walt Whitman Sacred Human Body

The poet judges not as a judge judges but as the sun falling around a helpless thing. By Walt Whitman Thing Judges Poet Sun Falling

O YOU whom I often and silently come where you are, that I may be with you; As I walk by your side, or sit near, or remain in the same room with you, Little you know the subtle electric fire that for your sake is playing within me. By Walt Whitman Side Silently Walk Sit Remain

Roaming in thought over the Universe, I saw the little that isGood steadily hastening towards immortality,And the vast all that is called Evil I saw hastening to merge itself and become lost and dead. By Walt Whitman Universe Evil Hastening Roaming Dead

I say that democracy can never prove itself beyond cavil, until it founds and luxuriantly grows its own forms of art, poems, schools, theology, displacing all that exists, or that has been produced anywhere in the past, under opposite influences. By Walt Whitman Poems Schools Theology Cavil Art

Why who makes much of a miracle? As to me I know nothing else but miracles, whether they be animals feeding in the fields, Or, birds, or the wonderfulness of insects in the air, Or the wonderfulness of the sundown, or of stars shining so quiet and bright, Or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon in spring; These, with the rest, one and all, are to me, miracles. By Walt Whitman Miracles Wonderfulness Makes Miracle Birds

That's beautiful: the hurrah game! well - it's our game: that's the chief fact in connection with it: America's game: has the snap, go fling, of the American atmosphere - belongs as much to our institutions, fits into them as significantly, as our constitutions, laws: is just as important in the sum total of our historic life. By Walt Whitman Game Beautiful Hurrah America American

The dirtiest book of all is the expurgated book. By Walt Whitman Book Dirtiest Expurgated

From imperfection's murkiest cloud,Darts always forth one ray of perfect light,One flash of Heaven's glory."-from "Song of the Universal By Walt Whitman Song Universal Heaven Glory Imperfection

O the joy of my spiritit is uncagedit darts like lightning!It is not enough to have this globe or a certain time,I will have thousands of globes and all time. By Walt Whitman Lightning Time Joy Spiritit Uncagedit

The mother condemned for a witch and burnt with drywood, and her children gazing on;The hounded slave that flags in the race and leans by thefence, blowing and covered with sweat,The twinges that sting like needles his legs and neck,The murderous buckshot and the bullets,All these I feel or am. By Walt Whitman Drywood Thefence Blowing Mother Condemned

But the people are ungrammatical, untidy, and their sins gaunt and ill-bred. By Walt Whitman Untidy Ungrammatical Illbred People Sins

while theydiscuss I am silent, and go bathe and admire myself.Welcome is every organ and attribute of me, and ofany manhearty and clean,Not an inch nor a particle of an inch is vile, andnone shall beless familiar than the rest. By Walt Whitman Inch Silent Vile Andnone Rest

These are the days that must happen to you. By Walt Whitman Days Happen

Sure as Life holds all parts together, Death holds all parts together. By Walt Whitman Death Parts Life Holds

And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral drest in his shroud. By Walt Whitman Shroud Walks Furlong Sympathy Funeral

More and more too, the old name absorbs into me. Mannahatta, 'the place encircled by many swift tides and sparkling waters.' How fit a name for America's great democratic island city! The word itself, how beautiful! how aboriginal! how it seems to rise with tall spires, glistening in sunshine, with such New World atmosphere, vista and action! By Walt Whitman Absorbs Mannahatta America Waters World

Like a stone dropped into a pond, an article of that sort may spread out its concentric circles of consequences. By Walt Whitman Pond Consequences Stone Dropped Article

There is that indescribable freshness and unconsciousness about an illiterate person that humbles and mocks the power of the noblest expressive genius. By Walt Whitman Genius Indescribable Freshness Unconsciousness Illiterate

The American bards shall be marked for generosity and affection and for encouraging competitors ... . The great poets are also to be known by the absence in them of tricks and by the justification of perfect personal candor ... . How beautiful is candor! All faults may be forgiven of him who has perfect candor. By Walt Whitman American Candor Competitors Bards Marked

If the United States haven't grown poets, on any scale of grandeur, it is certain that they import, print, and read more poetry than any equal number of people elsewhere probably more than the rest of the world combined. Poetry (like a grand personality) is a growth of many generations many rare combinations. To have great poets, there must be great audiences too. By Walt Whitman United States Print Grandeur Import

My call is the call of battle- I nourish active rebellion;/ He going with me must go well armed. By Walt Whitman Battle Rebellion Armed Call Nourish

Do you see O my brothers and sisters? It is not chaos or death, it is form, union, plan, it is eternal life, it is happiness. By Walt Whitman Sisters Brothers Union Plan Death

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;Rise up - for you the flag is flung - for you the bugle trills ... By Walt Whitman Captain Rise Bells Flung Trills

I am of old and young, of the foolish as much as the wise,Regardless of others, ever regardful of others,Maternal as well as paternal, a child as well as a man,Stuffed with the stuff that is course, and stuffed with the stuff that is fine, one of the nation, of many nations, the smallest the same and the the largest By Walt Whitman Stuff Nation Nations Young Paternal

I know perfectly well my own egotism,And know my omnivorous words, and cannot say any less,And would fetch you whoever you are flush with myself. By Walt Whitman Words Perfectly Egotismand Omnivorous Lessand

How beggarly appear arguments before a defiant deed! By Walt Whitman Deed Beggarly Arguments Defiant

The road to wisdom is paved with excess. The mark of a true writer is their ability to mystify the familiar and familiarize the strange. By Walt Whitman Excess Road Wisdom Paved Strange

I saw battle-corpses, myriads of them,And the white skeletons of young men-I saw them;I saw the debris and debris of all the dead soldiers of the war;But I saw they were not as was thought;They themselves were fully at rest-they suffer'd not;The living remain'd and suffer'd-the mother suffer'd,And the wife and the child, and the musing comrade suffer'd,And the armies that remain'd suffer'd. By Walt Whitman Debris Suffer Remain Mother Battlecorpses

I cannot be awake, for nothing looks to me as it did before, or else I am awake for the first time, and all before has been a mean sleep. By Walt Whitman Time Sleep Awake

The greatest country, the richest country, is not that which has the most capitalists, monopolists, immense grabbings, vast fortunes, with its sad, sad soil of extreme, degrading, damning poverty, but the land in which there are the most homesteads, freeholds - where wealth does not show such contrasts high and low, where all men have enough - a modest living- and no man is made possessor beyond the sane and beautiful necessities. By Walt Whitman Country Sad Monopolists Degrading Freeholds

Let that which stood in front go behind, let that which was behind advance to the front, let bigots, fools, unclean persons, offer new propositions, let the old propositions be postponed. By Walt Whitman Fools Front Propositions Bigots Unclean

But I am not the sea nor the red sun, I am not the wind with girlish laughter, Not the immense wind which strengthens, not the wind which lashes, Not the spirit that ever lashes its own body to terror and death, But I am that which unseen comes and sings, sings, sings, Which babbles in brooks and scoots in showers on the land, Which the birds know in the woods mornings and evenings, And the shore-sands know and the hissing wave, and that banner and pennant, Aloft there flapping and flapping. By Walt Whitman Sings Wind Lashes Flapping Aloft

Undrape! you are not guilty to me, nor stale nor discarded, I see through the broadcloth and gingham whether or no, And am around, tenacious, acquisitive, tireless, and cannot be shaken away. By Walt Whitman Undrape Tenacious Acquisitive Tireless Discarded

I think I could turn and live with the animals, they are so placid and self contained;I stand and look at them long and long.They do not sweat and whine about their condition;They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins;They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God;Not one is dissatisfied-not one is demented with the mania of owning things;Not one kneels to another, nor his kind that lived thousands of years ago;Not one is responsible or industrious over the whole earth. By Walt Whitman God Animals Contained Condition Sins

Not one is dissatisfied ... not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not By Walt Whitman Dissatisfied Things Demented Mania Owning

Solitary the thrush,The hermit withdrawn to himself, avoiding thesettlements,Sings by himself a song.Song of the bleeding throat! By Walt Whitman Solitary Avoiding Throat Thrushthe Hermit

No specification is necessary - to add or subtract or divide is in vain. Little or big, learned or unlearned, white or black, legal or illegal, sick or well, from the first inspiration down the windpipe to the last expiration out of it, all that a male or female does that is vigorous and benevolent and clean is so much sure profit to him or her in the unshakable order of the universe and through the whole scope of it for ever. By Walt Whitman Vain Specification Add Subtract Divide

A Hand-Mirror Hold it up sternly - see this it sends back, (who is it? is it you?) Outside fair costume, within ashes and filth, No more a flashing eye, no more a sonorous voice or springy step, Now some slave's eye, voice, hands, step, A drunkard's breath, unwholesome eater's face, venerealee's flesh, Lungs rotting away piecemeal, stomach sour and cankerous, Joints rheumatic, bowels clogged with abomination, Blood circulating dark and poisonous streams, Words babble, hearing and touch callous, No brain, no heart left, no magnetism of sex; Such from one look in this looking-glass ere you go hence, Such a result so soon - and from such a beginning! By Walt Whitman Hold Sternly Back Eye Step

I see the President almost every day. I see very plainly Abraham Lincoln's dark brown face with its deep-cut lines, the eyes always to me with a deep latent sadness in the expression. None of the artists or pictures has caught the deep, though subtle and indirect expression of this man's face. There is something else there. One of the great portrait painters of two or three centuries ago is needed. By Walt Whitman President Day Face Deep Expression

Though he would sometimes not touch a book for a week, he generally spent part of each day in reading ... if he sat in the library an hour, he would have half a dozen volumes around him, on the table, on chairs and on the floor. He seemed to read a few pages here and a few pages there, and pass from place to place, from volume to volume ... sometimes (though very rarely) he would get sufficiently interested in a volume to read it all. By Walt Whitman Week Reading Volume Touch Book

Why are there trees I never walk under but large and melodious thoughts descend upon me? By Walt Whitman Trees Walk Large Melodious Thoughts

O joy of suffering! To struggle against great odds! to meet enemies undaunted! To be entirely alone with them! to find how much one can stand! To look strife, torture, prison, popular odium, death, face to face! To mount the scaffold! to advance to the muzzles of guns with perfect nonchalance! To be indeed a God! By Walt Whitman Suffering Joy Face Odds Struggle

The purpose of democracy - supplanting old belief in the necessary absoluteness of establish'd dynastic rulership, temporal, ecclesiastical, and scholastic, as furnishing the only security against chaos, crime, and ignorance - is, through many transmigrations, and amid endless ridicules, arguments, and ostensible failures By Walt Whitman Temporal Ecclesiastical Crime Arguments Democracy

There can be no theory of any account unless it corroborate with the theory of the earth. By Walt Whitman Theory Earth Account Corroborate

The eager and often inconsiderate appeals of reformers and revolutionists are indispensable to counterbalance the inertia and fossilism marking so large a part of human institutions. By Walt Whitman Institutions Eager Inconsiderate Appeals Reformers

A Song of the good green grass! A song no more of the city streets; A song of farms - a song of the soil of fields. A song with the smell of sun-dried hay, where the nimble pitchers handle the pitch-fork; A song tasting of new wheat, and of fresh-husk'd maize. By Walt Whitman Song Grass Good Green Streets

Lo, the unbounded sea, On its breast a ship starting, spreading all sails, carrying even her moonsails. The pennant is flying aloft as she speeds she speeds so stately - below emulous waves press forward, They surround the ship with shining curving motions and foam. I By Walt Whitman Sea Starting Spreading Sails Carrying

Vivas to those who have fail'd!And to those whose war-vessels sank in the sea!And to those themselves who sank in the sea!And to all generals that lost engagements, and all overcome heroes!And the numberless unknown heroes equal to the greatest heroes known! By Walt Whitman Sea Heroes Sank Vivas Fail

As soon as histories are properly told there is no more need of romances. By Walt Whitman Romances Histories Properly Told

I wander all night in my vision, Stepping with light feet, swiftly and noiselessly stepping and stopping, Bending with open eyes over the shut eyes of sleepers ... By Walt Whitman Bending Stepping Vision Feet Swiftly

One's-Self I Sing One's-self I sing, a simple separate person, Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-Masse. Of physiology from top to toe I sing, Not physiognomy alone nor brain alone is worthy for the Muse, I say the Form complete is worthier far, The Female equally with the Male I sing. Of Life immense in passion, pulse, and power, Cheerful, for freest action form'd under the laws divine, The Modern Man I sing. By Walt Whitman Sing Democratic Word Person Enmasse

I will sleep no more but arise, You oceans that have been calm within me! how I feel you, fathomless, stirring, preparing unprecedented waves and storms. By Walt Whitman Arise Fathomless Stirring Sleep Oceans

Failing to fetch me at first, keep encouraged. Missing me one place, search another. I stop somewhere waiting for you. By Walt Whitman Failing Encouraged Fetch Missing Place

Oh captain my captain By Walt Whitman Captain

Pointing to another world will never stop vice among us; shedding light over this world can alone help us. By Walt Whitman Pointing Shedding World Stop Vice

All forces have been steadily employ'd to complete and delight me, Now on this spot I stand with my robust soul. By Walt Whitman Soul Forces Steadily Employ Complete

I exist as I am, that is enough, If no other in the world be aware I sit content, And if each and all be aware I sit content. One world is aware, and by the far the largest to me, and that is myself, And whether I come to my own today or in ten thousand or ten million years, I can cheerfully take it now, or with equal cheerfulness, I can wait. By Walt Whitman Content Sit Aware World Exist

Of all mankind the great poet is the equable man. Not in him but off from him things are grotesque or eccentric or fail of their sanity. By Walt Whitman Man Mankind Great Poet Equable

Long and long has the grass been growing,Long and long has the rain been falling,Long has the globe been rolling round. By Walt Whitman Long Round Grass Growinglong Rain

Song of myself think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contain'd, I stand and look at them long and long. They do not sweat and whine about their condition, They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins, They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago, Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth. So they show their relations to me and I accept them, They bring me tokens of myself, they evince them plainly in their possession. I wonder where they get those tokens, Did I pass that way huge times ago and negligently drop them? By Walt Whitman Long Song Animals Selfcontain Turn

The untold want, by life and land ne'er granted,Now, Voyager, sail thou forth, to seek and find. By Walt Whitman Voyager Grantednow Sail Find Untold

Have you learned the lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you? Have you not learned great lessons from those who braced themselves against you, and disputed passage with you? By Walt Whitman Learned Lessons Admired Tender Stood

Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes. By Walt Whitman Universes Soul Stand Cool Composed

I say no body of men are fit to make Presidents, judges and generals, unless they themselves supply the best specimens of the same; and that supplying one or two such specimens illuminates the whole body for a thousand years. By Walt Whitman Presidents Body Specimens Judges Generals

O the joy of the strong-brawn'd fighter, towering in the arena in perfect condition, conscious of power, thirsting to meet his opponent. By Walt Whitman Fighter Towering Condition Conscious Power

Give me juicy autumnal fruit, ripe and red from the orchard.[Give me the splendid silent sun] By Walt Whitman Give Fruit Ripe Orchard Sun

I dream in my dream all the dreams of the other dreamers,And I become the other dreamers. By Walt Whitman Dreamers Dream Dreamersand Dreams

SKIRTING the river road, (my forenoon walk, my rest,) Skyward in air a sudden muffled sound, the dalliance of the eagles, The rushing amorous contact high in space together, The clinching interlocking claws, a living, fierce, gyrating wheel, Four beating wings, two beaks, a swirling mass tight grappling, 5In tumbling turning clustering loops, straight downward falling, Till o'er the river pois'd, the twain yet one, a moment's lull, A motionless still balance in the air, then parting, talons loosing, Upward again on slow-firm pinions slanting, their separate diverse flight, She hers, he his, pursuing. By Walt Whitman River Air Skirting Skyward Till

I know nothing grander, better exercise, better digestion, more positive proof of the past, the triumphant result of faith in human kind, than a well-contested American national election. By Walt Whitman American Grander Exercise Digestion Past

Well, every man has a religion; has something in heaven or earth which he will give up everything else for - something which absorbs him - which may be regarded by others as being useless - yet it is his dream, it is his lodestar, it is his master. That, whatever it is, seized upon me, made me its servant, slave - induced me to set aside the other ambitions a trail of glory in the heavens, which I followed, followed with a full heart ... When once I am convinced, I never let go ... By Walt Whitman Religion Useless Dream Lodestar Master

Great is the faith of the flush of knowledge and of the investigation of the depths of qualities and things. By Walt Whitman Great Things Faith Flush Knowledge

In this broad earth of ours, Amid the measureless grossness and the slag, Enclosed and safe within its central heart, Nestles the seed of perfection. By Walt Whitman Amid Enclosed Nestles Slag Heart

Camden was originally an accident, but I shall never be sorry I was left over in Camden. It has brought me blessed returns. By Walt Whitman Camden Accident Originally Left Returns

I see great things in baseball. It's our game - the American game. By Walt Whitman Baseball Game Great Things American

Why should I pray? Why should I venerate and be ceremonious? By Walt Whitman Pray Ceremonious Venerate

When I heard the learn'd astronomer; When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me; When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them; When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room, How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;Till rising and gliding out, I wander'd off by myself, In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars. By Walt Whitman Astronomer Heard Time Till Divide

O, to be a ruler of life not a slave, To meet life as a powerful conqueror, No fumes no ennui no more complaints or scornful criticisms. O me repellent and ugly, O to these proud laws of the air, the water and the ground, proving my interior Soul impregnable, And nothing exterior shall ever take command of me. By Walt Whitman Life Slave Conqueror Criticisms Ruler

I believe in the flesh and the appetites; Seeing, hearing, feeling, are miracles, and each part and tag of me is a miracle. Divine am I inside and out, and I make holy whatever I touch or am touch'd from;The scent of these arm-pits, aroma finer than prayer; This head more than churches, bibles, and all the creeds. By Walt Whitman Hearing Feeling Miracles Miracle Appetites

Whitman's poems present no trace of rhyme, save in a couple or so of chance instances. Parts of them, indeed, may be regarded as a warp of prose amid the weft of poetry, By Walt Whitman Whitman Rhyme Save Instances Poems

You must not know too much or be too precise or scientific about birds and trees and flowers and watercraft; a certain free-margin , or even vagueness - ignorance, credulity - helps your enjoyment of these things. By Walt Whitman Ignorance Credulity Watercraft Freemargin Vagueness

He most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher."-from "Song of Myself By Walt Whitman Song Teacher Honors Style Learns

And I say to mankind, be not curious about god, For I who am curious about each am not curious about God, (No array of terms can say how much I am at peace about God & about death.) I hear & behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least, Nor do I understand there can be more wonderful than myself. Why should I wish to see God better than this day? I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, & each moment then, in the faces of men & women I see God, & in my own face in the glass, I find letters from God dropt in the street, & every one is signed by God's name, & I leave them where they are, for I know that wheresoever I go, others will punctually come for ever & ever. By Walt Whitman God Curious Mankind Death Array

Why should I wish to see God better than this day?I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, and each moment then,In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass;I find letters from God dropped in the street, and every one is signed by God's name,And I leave them where they are,for I know that others will punctually come forever and ever. By Walt Whitman God Day Twentyfour Glass Street

Peace is always beautiful. By Walt Whitman Peace Beautiful

As I see my soul reflected in Nature, As I see through a mist, One with inexpressible completeness, sanity, beauty,See the bent head and arms folded over the breast, the Female I see. By Walt Whitman Sanity Nature Female Mist Completeness

My rule has been, so far as I could have any rule (I could have no cast-iron rule) - my rule has been, to write what I have to say the best way I can - then lay it aside - taking it up again after some time and reading it afresh - the mind new to it. If there's no jar in the new reading, well and good - that's sufficient for me. By Walt Whitman Rule Taking Afresh Reading Castiron

Sex contains all, Bodies, Souls, meanings, proofs, purities, delicacies, results, promulgations, Songs, commands, health, pride, the maternal mystery, the seminal milk; All hopes, benefactions, bestowals, All the passions, loves, beauties, delights of the earth, All the governments, judges, gods, follow'd persons of the earth, These are contain'd in sex, as parts of itself, and justifications of itself. By Walt Whitman Earth Bodies Souls Songs Sex

God is a mean-spirited, pugnacious bully bent on revenge against His children for failing to live up to his impossible standards. By Walt Whitman God Meanspirited Pugnacious Standards Bully

Seeing, hearing, feeling, are miracles, and each part and tag of me is a miracle. By Walt Whitman Hearing Feeling Miracles Miracle Part

The genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives or legislatures, nor in its ambassadors or authors or colleges, or churches, or parlors, nor even in its newspapers or inventors, but always most in the common people. By Walt Whitman United States Legislatures Colleges Churches

The orchestra whirls me wider than Uranus flies, It wrenches such ardors from me I did not know I possess'd them By Walt Whitman Uranus Flies Orchestra Whirls Wider

The souls moving along ... are they invisible while the least atom of the stones is visible? By Walt Whitman Visible Souls Moving Invisible Atom

I swear to you the architects shall appear without fall, I swear to you they will understand you and justify you, The greatest among them shall be he who best knows you, and encloses all and is faithful to all, He and the rest shall not forget you, they shall perceive that you are not an iota less than they, You shall be fully glorified in them. By Walt Whitman Swear Fall Architects Understand Justify

Unscrew the locks from the doors ! Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs ! By Walt Whitman Unscrew Doors Jambs Locks

Whoever you are holding me now in hand,Without one thing all will be useless,I give you fair warning before you attempt me further,I am not what you supposed, but far different."-from "Whoever You Are Holding Me Now in Hand By Walt Whitman Holding Hand Supposed Different Handwithout

Not one escaped to tell the fall of Alamo,The hundred & fifty are dumb yet at Alamo. By Walt Whitman Alamo Hundred Fifty Escaped Fall

I henceforth tread the world, chaste, temperate, an early riser, a steady grower. By Walt Whitman Chaste Temperate World Riser Grower

America doesn't know today how proud she ought to be of her Ingersoll. By Walt Whitman Ingersoll America Today Proud

Resist much, obey little. By Walt Whitman Resist Obey

Songs of myselfThese are really the thoughts of all men in all ages and lands, they are not original with me, If they are not yours as much as mine they are nothing, or next to nothing, If they are not the riddle and the untying of the riddle they are nothing, If they are not just as close as they are distant they are nothing. This is the grass that grows wherever the land is and the water is, This the common air that bathes the globe. By Walt Whitman Riddle Songs Myselfthese Thoughts Men

O to be self-balanced for contingencies, to confront night, storms, hunger, ridicule, accidents, rebuffs, as the trees and animals do. By Walt Whitman Storms Hunger Ridicule Accidents Rebuffs

Here the frailest leaves of me and yet my strongest lasting, Here I shade and hide my thoughts, I myself do not expose them, And yet they expose me more than all my other poems By Walt Whitman Expose Lasting Thoughts Poems Frailest

Everybody is writing, writing, writing - worst of all, writing poetry. It'd be better if the whole tribe of the scribblers - every damned one of us - were sent off somewhere with tool chests to do some honest work. By Walt Whitman Writing Worst Poetry Scribblers Work

If you want me again look for me under your boot soles. By Walt Whitman Soles Boot

Joy, shipmate, joy! (Pleased to my soul at death I cry), Our life is closed, our life begins, The long, long anchorage we leave, The ship is clear at last, she leaps! She swiftly courses from the shore, Joy, shipmate, joy! By Walt Whitman Joy Shipmate Pleased Life Long

Long have you timidly waded Holding a plank by the shore, Now I will you to be a bold swimmer, To jump off in the midst of the sea, Rise again, nod to me, shout, And laughingly dash with your hair. By Walt Whitman Shout Rise Holding Long Shore

I see Hermes, unsuspected, dying, well-beloved, saying to the people, "Do not weep for me, This is not my true country, I have lived banished from my true country - I now go back there, I return to the celestial sphere where every one goes in his turn." By Walt Whitman Country True Hermes Unsuspected Dying

He cleanest expression is that which finds no sphere worthy of itself and makes one By Walt Whitman Cleanest Expression Finds Sphere Worthy

Or may-be one who is puzzled at me.As if I were not puzzled at myself! By Walt Whitman Puzzled Maybe Meas

Of all races and eras these States with veins full of poetical stuff most need poets, By Walt Whitman States Poets Races Eras Veins

A great city is that which has the greatest men and women. By Walt Whitman Women Great City Greatest Men

In all people I see myself - none more, and not one a barleycorn less; And the good or bad I say of myself, I say of them. By Walt Whitman People Barleycorn Good Bad

And a summit and flower there is the feeling they have for each other,And they are to branch boundlessly out of that lesson until it becomes omnific,And until one and all shall delight us, and we them. By Walt Whitman Summit Flower Feeling Otherand Branch

Many a good man I have seen go under. By Walt Whitman Good Man

I visit the orchards of God and look at the spheric productAnd look at quintillions ripened, and look at quintillions green. By Walt Whitman Quintillions God Ripened Green Visit

The greatest poet does not moralize or make applications of morals ... he knows the soul. The soul has that measureless pride which consists in never acknowledging any lessons but its own. By Walt Whitman Morals Greatest Poet Moralize Make

I announce adhesiveness-I say it shall be limitless, unloosen'd;I say you shall yet find the friend you were looking for. By Walt Whitman Unloosen Limitless Announce Adhesivenessi Find

Be curious not judgemental. By Walt Whitman Judgemental Curious

And there is no trade or employment but the young man following it may become a hero. By Walt Whitman Hero Trade Employment Young Man

I will go to the bank by the wood, and become undisguised and naked; By Walt Whitman Wood Naked Bank Undisguised

And as to you death, and you bitter hug of mortality ... it is idle to try to alarm me By Walt Whitman Death Mortality Bitter Hug Idle

An individual is as superb as a nation when he has the qualities which make a superb nation. By Walt Whitman Superb Nation Individual Qualities Make

Agonies are one of my changes of garments. By Walt Whitman Agonies Garments

Shut not your doors to me proud libraries. By Walt Whitman Shut Libraries Doors Proud

Stout as a horse By Walt Whitman Stout Horse

Forsake all inhibitions, Pursue thy dreams. By Walt Whitman Pursue Forsake Inhibitions Dreams Thy

Apart from the pulling and hauling stands what I am, Stands amused, complacent, compassionating, idle, unitary, Looks down, is erect, or bends an arm on an impalpable certain rest, Looking with side-curved head curious what will come next, Both in and out of the game and watching and wondering at it. By Walt Whitman Stands Complacent Compassionating Idle Unitary

Slang, too, is the wholesome fermentation or eructation of those processes eternally active in language, by which froth and specks are thrown up, mostly to pass away; though occasionally to settle and permanently chrystallize. By Walt Whitman Slang Language Chrystallize Wholesome Fermentation

I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person. By Walt Whitman Wounded Person Feels

Though the live-oak glistens there in Louisiana solitary in a wide flat space,Uttering joyous leaves all its life without a friend a lover near,I know very well I could not."- from "I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing By Walt Whitman Louisiana Growing Liveoak Not Glistens

The press of my foot to the earth springs a hundred affections,They scorn the best I can do to relate them. By Walt Whitman Press Foot Earth Springs Hundred

Through the ample open door of the peaceful country barn, A sun-lit pasture field, with cattle and horses feeding; And haze, and vista, and the far horizon, fading away. By Walt Whitman Barn Field Feeding Haze Vista

There is no flaw or vacuum in the amount of the truth - but all is truth without exception; And henceforth I will go celebrate any thing I see or am, And sing and laugh and deny nothing. By Walt Whitman Truth Exception Flaw Vacuum Amount

I do not snivel that snivel the world over,That months are vacuums and the ground but wallow and filth,That life is a suck and a sell, and nothing remains at the end but threadbare crape and tears. By Walt Whitman Snivel Sell Tears World Overthat

Language is not an abstract construction of the learned, or of dictionary-makers, but is something arising out of the work, needs, ties, joys, affections, tastes, of long generations of humanity, and has its bases broad and low, close to the ground. By Walt Whitman Ties Joys Affections Tastes Language

The youth lies awake in the cedar-roof'd garret and harks to the musical rain, By Walt Whitman Rain Youth Lies Awake Cedarroof

The most affluent man is he that confronts all the shows he sees by equivalents out of the stronger wealth of himself. By Walt Whitman Affluent Man Confronts Shows Equivalents

Now I see the secret of making the best person: it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth. By Walt Whitman Person Earth Secret Making Grow

My spirit has pass'd in compassion and determination around the whole earth.I have look'd for equals and lovers an found them ready for me in all lands,I think some divine rapport has equalized me with them By Walt Whitman Spirit Pass Compassion Determination Earthi

To behold the day-break! The little light fades the immense and diaphanous shadows, The air tastes good to my palate. By Walt Whitman Daybreak Behold Shadows Palate Light

THIS dust was once the Man, / Gentle, plain, just and resolute - under whose cautious hand, / Against the foulest crime in history known in any land or age, / Was saved the Union of These States. By Walt Whitman Gentle Plain Man States Union

I open my scuttle at night and see the far-sprinkled systems, All all I see multiplied as high as I can cipher edge but the rim of the farther systems. Wider and wider they spread, expanding, always expanding, Outward and outward and forever outward. By Walt Whitman Systems Outward Expanding Open Scuttle

If you done it, it ain't bragging. By Walt Whitman Bragging

I exist as I am, that is enough. By Walt Whitman Exist

Day full-blown and splendid-day of the immense sun, action, ambition, laughter, The Night follows close with millions of suns, and sleep and restoring darkness. By Walt Whitman Action Ambition Laughter Night Day

There will soon be no more priests ... They may wait awhile, perhaps a generation or two, dropping off by degrees. A superior breed shall take their place. A new order shall arise and they shall be the priests of man, and every man shall be his own priest. By Walt Whitman Priests Man Awhile Dropping Degrees

Touch me, touch the palm of your hand to my body as I pass,Be not afraid of my body. By Walt Whitman Touch Body Palm Hand Passbe

Lo! body and soul!this land! Mighty Manhattan, with spires, and The sparkling and hurrying tides, and the ships; The varied and ample land,the South And the North in the lightOhio's shores, and flashing Missouri, And ever the far-spreading prairies, covered with grass and corn. By Walt Whitman Manhattan Missouri South North Body

There's no doubt that I've deserved my enemies, but I don't think I've deserved my friends. By Walt Whitman Deserved Enemies Friends Doubt

I see the cliffs, glaciers, torrents, valleys of Switzerland - I mark the long winters and the isolation. By Walt Whitman Glaciers Torrents Switzerland Cliffs Valleys

The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it. By Walt Whitman Proof Poet Country Absorbs Affectionately

If there were nothing else of Abraham Lincoln for history to stamp him with, it is enough to send him with his wreath to the memory of all future time, that he endured that hour, that day, bitterer than gall - indeed a crucifixion day - that it did not conquer him - that he unflinchingly stemmed it, and resolved to lift himself and the Union out of it. By Walt Whitman Day Abraham Lincoln Union Time

I pass death with the dying and birth with the new-wash'd babe, and am not contained between my hat and my boots, By Walt Whitman Babe Boots Pass Death Dying

he can make every word he speaks draw blood, By Walt Whitman Blood Make Word Speaks Draw

I know I am deathless...We have thus far exhausted trillions of winters and summers, There are trillions ahead, and trillions ahead of them. By Walt Whitman Trillions Ahead Deathless Summers Exhausted

HAVE you learned lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you? Have you not learned the great lessons of those who rejected you, and braced themselves against you? or who treated you with contempt, or disputed the passage with you? Have you had no practice to receive opponents when they come? By Walt Whitman Learned Lessons Admired Tender Stood

Give me such showsgive me the streets of Manhattan! By Walt Whitman Manhattan Give Showsgive Streets

When I undertake to tell the best, I find I cannot. My tongue is ineffectual on its pivots, My breath will not be obedient to its organs, I become a dumb man. By Walt Whitman Undertake Find Pivots Organs Man

Where joyous full of faith, spreading white sails, She cleaves the ether mid the sparkle and the foam of day, or under many a star at night, By sailors young and old haply will I, a reminiscence of the land, be read, By Walt Whitman Faith Spreading Sails Day Night

Great is language ... it is the mightiest of the sciences,It is the fulness and color and form and diversity of the earth ... and of men and women ... and of all qualities and processes;It is greater than wealth ... it is greater than buildings or ships or religions or paintings or music. By Walt Whitman Great Language Greater Earth Women

I do not say these things for a dollar, or to fill up the time while I wait for a boat; By Walt Whitman Dollar Boat Things Fill Time

The sum of all known value and respect, I add up in you, whoever you are. By Walt Whitman Respect Sum Add

I do not doubt but the majest and beauty of the world are latent in any iota of the world; I do not doubt there is far more in trivialities, insects, vulgar persons, slaves, dwarfs, weeds, rejected refuse than I have supposed. By Walt Whitman Insects Slaves Dwarfs Weeds Doubt

Storming, enjoying, planning, loving, cautioning,Backing and filling, appearing and disappearing,I tread day and night such roads. By Walt Whitman Storming Enjoying Planning Loving Cautioningbacking

Divine am I inside and out, and I make holy whatever I touch or am touched from; The scent of these arm-pits is aroma finer than prayer, This head is more than churches or bibles or creeds. By Walt Whitman Divine Prayer Creeds Inside Make

The scent of these arm-pits is aroma finer than prayer ... By Walt Whitman Prayer Scent Armpits Aroma Finer

Strange, (is it not?) that battles, martyrs, blood, even assassination should so condense - perhaps only really lastingly condense - a Nationality. By Walt Whitman Strange Martyrs Blood Nationality Condense

O Earth, that hast no voice, confide to me a voice!O harvest of my lands! O boundless summer growths!O lavish, brown, parturient earth! O infinite, teeming womb!A verse to seek, to see, to narrate thee. By Walt Whitman Voice Earth Confide Lands Hast

An electric chain seems to vibrate, as it were, between our brain and him or her preserved there [in a Daguerreotype] so well by the limner's cunning. Time, space, both are annihilated, and we identify the semblance with the reality. By Walt Whitman Daguerreotype Vibrate Cunning Electric Chain

Praised be the fathomless universe, for life and joy, and for objects and knowledge curious. By Walt Whitman Praised Universe Joy Curious Fathomless

Their Presidents shall not be their common referee so much as their poets shall. By Walt Whitman Presidents Common Referee Poets

Lo, the most excellent sun so calm and haughty, The violet and purple morn with just-felt breezes, The gentle soft-born measureless light, The miracle spreading bathing all, the fulfill'd noon, The coming eve delicious, the welcome night and the stars, Over my cities shining all, enveloping man and land. By Walt Whitman Haughty Breezes Light Noon Delicious

I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable. By Walt Whitman Tamed Untranslatable Bit

Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms,Strong and content I travel the open road. By Walt Whitman Libraries Henceforth Postpone Complaints Querulous

Every moment of light and dark is a miracle. By Walt Whitman Miracle Moment Light Dark

It is only the novice in political economy who thinks it is the duty of government to make its citizens happy - government has no such office. By Walt Whitman Happy Office Government Novice Political

All I mark as my own you shall offset it with your own,Else it were time lost listening to me. By Walt Whitman Mark Offset Ownelse Time Lost

Give me the splendid, silent sun with all his beams full-dazzling. By Walt Whitman Give Splendid Silent Fulldazzling Sun

Speech is the twin of my vision, it is unequal to measure itself, it provokes me forever, it says sarcastically, Walt you contain enough, why don't you let it out then? By Walt Whitman Walt Speech Vision Forever Sarcastically

I will make the poems of materials, for I think they are to be the most spiritual poems; And I will make the poems of my body and of mortality, For I think I shall then supply myself with the poems of my soul, and of immortality. By Walt Whitman Poems Make Materials Mortality Soul

Wisdom is not finally tested in schools, Wisdom cannot be pass'd from one having it to another not having it, Wisdom is of the soul, is not susceptible of proof, is its own proof, Applies to all stages and objects and qualities and is content, Is the certainty of the reality and immortality of things, and the excellence of things; Something there is in the float of the sight of things that provokes it out of the soul. By Walt Whitman Wisdom