Walt Whitman

"An old man bending, I come, among new faces, Years looking backward, resuming, in answer to children, Come tell us, old man, as from young men and m"

"I say whatever tastes sweet to the most perfect person, that is finally right. I say nourish a great intellect, a great brain; If I have said anyth"

"Suddenly out of its stale and drowsy lair, the lair of slaves, Like lightning it le'pt forth half startled at itself, Its feet upon the ashes and th"

"I saw in Louisiana a live-oak growing, All alone stood it, and the moss hung down from the branches; Without any companion it grew there, uttering j"

"Laws for Creations, For strong artists and leaders - for fresh broods of teachers, and perfect literats for America, For noble savans, and coming mu"

"Recorders ages hence! Come, I will take you down underneath this impassive exterior I will tell you what to say of me; Publish my name and hang up m"

"A 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."

"Scented herbage of my breast, Leaves from you I yield, I write, to be perused best afterwards, Tomb-leaves, body-leaves, growing up above me, above"

"O sun of real peace! O hastening light! O free and extatic! O what I here, preparing, warble for! O the sun of the world will ascend, dazzling, and"

"A line in long array, where they wind betwixt green islands; They take a serpentine course--their arms flash in the sun--Hark to the musical clank;"

"Solid, ironical, rolling orb! Master of all, and matter of fact! at last I accept your terms; Bringing to practical, vulgar tests, of all my ideal d"

"That music always round me, unceasing, unbeginning yet long untaught I did not hear; But now the chorus I hear, and am elated; A tenor, strong, asce"

"Me imperturbe, standing at ease in Nature, Master of all, or mistress of all - aplomb in the midst of irrational things, Imbued as they - passive, r"

"Why! who makes much of a miracle? As to me, I know of nothing else but miracles, Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan, Or dart my sight over the"

"Two Rivulets side by side, Two blended, parallel, strolling tides, Companions, travelers, gossiping as they journey. For the Eternal Ocean bound,"

"Of him I love day and night, I dream'd I heard he was dead; And I dream'd I went where they had buried him I love - but he was not in that place; An"

"Women sit, or move to and fro--some old, some young; The young are beautiful--but the old are more beautiful than the young."

"As I ebb'd with the ocean of life, As I wended the shores I know, As I walk'd where the ripples continually wash you Paumanok, Where they rustle up"

"The sobbing of the bells, the sudden death-news everywhere, The slumberers rouse, the rapport of the People, (Full well they know that message in th"

"An old man's thought of School; An old man, gathering youthful memories and blooms, that youth itself cannot. Now only do I know you! O fair auror"

"That which eludes this verse and any verse, Unheard by sharpest ear, unform'd in clearest eye or cunningest mind, Nor lore nor fame, nor happiness n"

"Why reclining, interrogating? Why myself and all drowsing? What deepening twilight! scum floating atop of the waters! Who are they, as bats and nigh"

"Over the western sea, hither from Niphon come, Courteous, the swart-cheek'd two-sworded envoys, Leaning back in their open barouches, bare-headed, i"

"Facing west, from California's shores, Inquiring, tireless, seeking what is yet unfound, I, a child, very old, over waves, towards the house of mate"

"A woman waits for me--she contains all, nothing is lacking, Yet all were lacking, if sex were lacking, or if the moisture of the right man were lack"

"Chanting the square deific, out of the One advancing, out of the sides; Out of the old and new--out of the square entirely divine, Solid, four-sided"

"What you give me, I cheerfully accept, A little sustenance, a hut and garden, a little money these, as I rendezvous with my poems; A traveler's lodg"

"Hast never come to thee an hour, A sudden gleam divine, precipitating, bursting all these bubbles, fashions, wealth? These eager business aims--book"

"Warble me now, for joy of Lilac-time, Sort me, O tongue and lips, for Nature's sake, and sweet life's sake, and death's the same as life's, Souvenir"

"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 w"

"After the Sea-Ship--after the whistling winds; After the white-gray sails, taut to their spars and ropes, Below, a myriad, myriad waves, hastening,"

"How they are provided for upon the earth, (appearing at intervals;) How dear and dreadful they are to the earth; How they inure to themselves as muc"

"In paths untrodden, In the growth by margins of pond-waters, Escaped from the life that exhibits itself, From all the standards hitherto publish'd"

"I see in you the estuary that enlarges and spreads itself grandly as it pours in the great Sea."

"You who celebrate bygones! Who have explored the outward, the surfaces of the races, the life that has exhibited itself; Who have treated of man as"

"Rise, O days, from your fathomless deeps, till you loftier, fiercer sweep! Long for my soul, hungering gymnastic, I devour'd what the earth gave me;"

"Through the soft evening air enwrinding all, Rocks, woods, fort, cannon, pacing sentries, endless wilds, In dulcet streams, in flutes' and cornets'"

"Trickle, drops! my blue veins O drops of me! trickle, slow drops, Candid, from me falling, drip, bleeding drops, From wounds made to free you whenc"

"A song of the good green grass! A song no more of the city streets; A song of farmsa song of the soil of fields.      A song with the smell of"

"I was asking for something specific and perfect for my city, Whereupon, lo! upsprang the aboriginal name! Now I see what there is in a name, a word"

"My spirit to yours, dear brother; Do not mind because many, sounding your name, do not understand you; I do not sound your name, but I understand yo"

"A 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"

"Behold this swarthy face--these gray eyes, This beard--the white wool, unclipt upon my neck, My brown hands, and the silent manner of me, without ch"

"Long, too long, O land, Traveling roads all even and peaceful, you learn'd from joys and prosperity only; But now, ah now, to learn from crises of a"

"As Adam, early in the morning, Walking forth from the bower, refresh'd with sleep; Behold me where I pass--hear my voice--approach, Touch me--touch"

"When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom'd When lilacs last in the door-yard bloom'd, And the great star early droop'd in the western sky in the nig"

"O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done; The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won; The port is near, the bells I hear,"

"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"

"One hour to madness and joy! O furious! O confine me not! (What is this that frees me so in storms? What do my shouts amid lightnings and raging wi"

"This moment yearning and thoughtful, sitting alone, It seems to me there are other men in other lands, yearning and thoughtful; It seems to me I can"

"Hush'd be the camps to-day; And, soldiers, let us drape our war-worn weapons; And each with musing soul retire, to celebrate, Our dear commander's"

"Are you the new person drawn toward me? To begin with, take warning--I am surely far different from what you suppose; Do you suppose you will find i"

"Starting from fish-shape Paumanok, where I was born, Well-begotten, and rais'd by a perfect mother; After roaming many lands lover of populous pavem"

"All you are doing and saying is to America dangled mirages, You have not learn'd of Nature, of the politics of Nature, you have not learn'd the great"

"You just maturing youth! You male or female! Remember the organic compact of These States, Remember the pledge of the Old Thirteen thenceforward to"

"City of ships! (O the black ships! O the fierce ships! O the beautiful, sharp-bow'd steam-ships and sail-ships!) City of the world! (for all races"

"Lo! The unbounded sea! On its breast a Ship starting, spreading all her sails an ample Ship, carrying even her moonsails; The pennant is flying alof"

"A sight in camp in the day-break grey and dim, As from my tent I emerge so early, sleepless, As slow I walk in the cool fresh air, the path near by"

"O tan-faced prairie-boy! Before you came to camp, came many a welcome gift; Praises and presents came, and nourishing food - till at last, among the"

"Weapon, shapely, naked, wan! Head from the mother's bowels drawn! Wooded flesh and metal bone! limb only one, and lip only one! Gray-blue leaf by r"