Famous Quotes by Walt Whitman
- When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns... More
- How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off... More
- When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with such applause in the lecture... More
- Come lovely and soothing death,
Undulate round the world, serenely arriving, arriving,
In... More
- Youth, large, lusty, loving—Youth, full of grace, force, fascination.
Do you know that Old... More
- A glimpse through an interstice caught,
Of a crowd of workmen and drivers in a barroom around... More
- O lands! O all so dear to me—what you are (whatever it is), I become
part of that, whatever... More
- Our leading men are not of much account and never have been, but the average of the people is... More
- It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,
Ever unreeling them, ever... More
- A noiseless patient spider, More
- Ebb, ocean of life, (the flow will return,)
Cease not your moaning you fierce old... More
- Just as much for us that sobbing dirge of Nature,
Just as much whence we come that blare of... More
- As I ebb’d with the ocean of life,
As I wended the shores I know,
As I walk’d where... More
- I perceive I have not really understood any thing, not a single
object, and that no man ever... More
- I too but signify at the utmost a little wash’d-up drift,
A few sands and dead leaves to... More
- Was seiz’d by the spirit that trails in the lines underfoot,
The rim, the sediment that... More
- Three forms I see on stretchers lying, brought out there untended
lying,
Over each the... More
- Then to the third—a face nor child nor old, very calm,
as of beautiful yellow-white... More
- Sex contains all, bodies, souls,
Meanings, proofs, purities, delicacies, results,... More
- Beat! beat! drums!—blow! bugles! blow!
Through the windows—through doors—burst like a... More
- Mind not the old man beseeching the young man;
Let not the child’s voice be heard, nor the... More
- And over all the sky—the sky! far, far out of reach,
studded, breaking out, the eternal stars. More
- I see before me now a traveling army halting,
Below a fertile valley spread, with barns and... More
- By the bivouac’s fitful flame,
A procession winding around me, solemn and sweet and slow More
- The shrubs and trees, (as I lift my eyes they seem to be stealthily
watching me.)
While... More
- O the joy of the strong-brawn’d fighter, towering in the arena in perfect condition, conscious... More
- O the orator’s joys!
To inflate the chest, to roll the thunder of the voice out from the... More
- Scarlet, and blue, and snowy white,
The guidon flags flutter gaily in the wind. More
- A line in long array, where they wind betwixt green islands;
They take a serpentine... More
- While they stand at home at the door he is dead already,
The only son is dead.
But... More
- Open the envelope quickly,
O this is not our son’s writing, yet his name is sign’d,
O... More
- Come up from the fields father, here’s a letter from our Pete,
And come to the front door... More
- Others will see the islands large and small;
Fifty years hence, others will see them as they... More
- What is it then between us?
What is the count of the scores or hundreds of years between... More
- What is more subtle than this which ties me to the woman or man
that looks in my... More
- You have waited, you always wait, you dumb, beautiful ministers,
We receive you with free... More
- Flood-tide below me! I see you face to face!
Clouds of the west—sun there half an... More
- What a devil art thou, Poverty! How many desires—how many aspirations after goodness and... More
- The last sunbeam
Lightly falls from the finished Sabbath,
On the pavement here, and there... More
- For the son is brought with the father,
(On the foremost ranks of the fierce assault they... More
- The moon gives you light,
And the bugles and the drums give you music,
And my heart, O my... More
- To the real artist in humanity, what are called bad manners are often the most picturesque and... More
- This face is a dog’s snout sniffing for garbage,
Snakes nest in that mouth, I hear the... More
- The shallow consider liberty a release from all law, from every constraint. The wise man sees in... More
- Give me the splendid silent sun
with all his beams full-dazzling,
Give me juicy autumnal... More
- (O I see what I sought to escape, confronting, reversing my cries,
I see my own soul... More
- Manhattan streets with their powerful throbs, with beating drums as
now,
The endless and... More
- These demanding to have them, (tired with ceaseless excitement, and
rack’d by the... More
- Yet let me not be too hasty,
Long indeed have we lived, slept, filtered, become really... More
- Good-bye my Fancy!
Farewell dear mate, dear love!
I’m going away, I know not... More
- Maybe it is yourself now really ushering me to the true songs, (who knows?),
Maybe it is you... More
- I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as... More
- Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
The day what belongs to the... More
- I saw in Louisiana a live-oak growing,
All alone stood it and the moss hung down from the... More
- I sit and look out upon all the sorrows of the world, and upon all
oppression and shame, More
- Joy, shipmate, joy!
(Pleas’d to my soul at death I cry,)
Our life is closed, our life... More
- The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it. More
- Their manners, speech, dress, friendships,—the freshness and candor of their physiognomy—the... More
- The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity. More
- There is that indescribable freshness and unconsciousness about an illiterate person that humbles... More
- The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem. More
- The genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives or legislatures, nor in its... More
- As soon as histories are properly told there is no more need of romances. More
- In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass,
I find letters from... More
- A million people—manners free and superb—open
voices—hospitality—the most courageous... More
- I was asking for something specific and perfect for my city,
Whereupon lo! upsprang the... More
- And the voice of my spirit tallied the song of the bird.
Come lovely and soothing... More
- Sing on dearest brother, warble your reedy song,
Loud human song, with voice of uttermost... More
- With the holders holding my hand nearing the call of the bird,
Comrades mine and I in the... More
- When lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed
And the great star early drooped in the western sky... More
- In the swamp in secluded recesses,
A shy and hidden bird is warbling a... More
- O western orb sailing the heaven,
Now I know what you must have meant as a month since I... More
- O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the... More
- I cease my song for thee,
From my gaze on thee in the west, fronting the west, communing with... More
- Over the tree-tops I float thee a song,
Over the rising and sinking waves, over the myriad... More
- I am for those who believe in loose delights, I share the midnight orgies of young men,
I... More
- After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and so on—have... More
- O magnet-south! O glistening, perfumed South! my South!
O quick mettle, rich blood, impulse... More
- Once I pass’d through a populous city imprinting my brain for
future use with its shows,... More
- I see her close beside me with silent lips sad and tremulous. More
- From the beach the child holding the hand of her father,
Those burial clouds that lower... More
- Then dearest child mournest thou only for Jupiter?
Considerest thou alone the burial of the... More
- Something there is more immortal even than the stars,
(Many the burials, many the days and... More
- On the beach at night,
Stands a child with her father,
Watching the east, the autumn... More
- Two feathered guests from Alabama, two together,
And their nest, and four light-green eggs... More
- My own songs awakened from that hour,
And with them the key, the word up from the... More
- A man, yet by these tears a little boy again,
Throwing myself on the sand, confronting the... More
- O past! O happy life! O songs of joy!
In the air, in the woods, over fields,
Loved!... More
- O you singers solitary, singing by yourself, projecting me,
O solitary me listening, never... More
- Out of the cradle endlessly rocking,
Out of the mocking-bird’s throat, the musical... More
- Pour down your warmth, great sun!
While we bask, we two together.
Two... More
- The Past—the dark unfathom’d retrospect!
The teeming gulf—the sleepers and the... More
- For my enemy is dead, a man divine as myself is dead,
I look where he lies white-faced and... More
- Let that which stood in front go behind,
Let that which was behind advance to the... More
- Viewed freely, the English language is the accretion and growth of every dialect, race, and range... More
- Camerado! This is no book;
Who touches this touches a man. More
- I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
My tongue, every atom of... More
- Is this then a touch? quivering me to a new identity,
Flames and ether making a rush for my... More
- There is no object so soft but it makes a hub for the wheel’d universe. More
- Here or henceforward it is all the same to me, I accept Time absolutely. More
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