Walt Whitman

"Afoot and light-hearted, I take to the open road, Healthy, free, the world before me, The long brown path before me, leading wherever I choose. He"

"Ah poverties, wincings, and sulky retreats! Ah you foes that in conflict have overcome me! (For what is my life, or any man's life, but a conflict w"

"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 glanc"

"One sweeps by, attended by an immense train, All emblematic of peace - not a soldier or menial among them. One sweeps by, old, with black eyes, and"

"The indications, and tally of time; Perfect sanity shows the master among philosophs; Time, always without flaw, indicates itself in parts; What al"

"Skirting the river road, (my forenoon walk, my rest,) Skyward in air a sudden muffled sound, the dalliance of the eagles, The rushing amorous contac"

"O boy of the West! To you many things to absorb, I teach, to help you become eleve of mine: Yet if blood like mine circle not in your veins; If you"

"Thee for my recitative! Thee in the driving storm, even as now the snow the winter-day declining; Thee in thy panoply, thy measured dual throbbing,"

"In a little house keep I pictures suspended, it is not a fix'd house, It is round, it is only a few inches from one side to the other; Yet behold, i"

"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 physiog"

"O me, man of slack faith so long! Standing aloof--denying portions so long; Only aware to-day of compact, all-diffused truth; Discovering to-day th"

"Thou orb aloft full-dazzling! thou hot October noon! Flooding with sheeny light the gray beach sand, The sibilant near sea with vistas far and foam,"

"He is wisest who has the most caution, He only wins who goes far enough. Any thing is as good as established, when that is established that will pr"

"When 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 an"

"Poets 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, c"

"O to make the most jubilant poem! Even to set off these, and merge with these, the carols of Death. O full of music! full of manhood, womanhood, inf"

"Once I pass'd through a populous city, imprinting my brain, for future use, with its shows, architecture, customs, and traditions; Yet now, of all th"

"A California song! A prophecy and indirection a thought impalpable, to breathe, as air; A chorus of dryads, fading, departing or hamadryads departin"

"Two boats with nets lying off the sea-beach, quite still, Ten fishermen waiting--they discover a thick school of mossbonkers-- they drop the join'd"

"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"

"Over the carnage rose prophetic a voice, Be not dishearten'd - Affection shall solve the problems of Freedom yet; Those who love each other shall be"

"Full of life, now, compact, visible, I, forty years old the Eighty-third Year of The States, To one a century hence, or any number of centuries henc"

"By the bivouac's fitful flame, A procession winding around me, solemn and sweet and slow;--but first I note, The tents of the sleeping army, the fie"

"O bitter sprig! Confession sprig! In the bouquet I give you place also - I bind you in, Proceeding no further till, humbled publicly, I give fair w"

"Had I the choice to tally greatest bards, To limn their portraits, stately, beautiful, and emulate at will, Homer with all his wars and warriors, He"

"Elemental drifts! How I wish I could impress others as you have just been impressing me! As I ebb'd with an ebb of the ocean of life, As I wended"

"Pensive, on her dead gazing, I heard the Mother of All, Desperate, on the torn bodies, on the forms covering the battle-fields gazing; (As the last"

"All submit to them, where they sit, inner, secure, unapproachable to analysis, in the Soul; Not traditions not the outer authorities are the judges t"

"PRIMEVAL my love for the woman I love, O bride! O wife! more resistless, more enduring than I can tell, the thought of you! Then separate, as disembod"

"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! O dear to me m"

"1 AFOOT and light-hearted, I take to the open road, Healthy, free, the world before me, The long brown path before me, leading wherever I choose. Hen"

"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, Souvenirs"

"1 OR, from that Sea of Time, Spray, blown by the wind—a double winrow-drift of weeds and shells; (O little shells, so curious-convolute! so limpid-col"

"Where the city's ceaseless crowd moves on, the live-long day, Withdrawn, I join a group of children watching I pause aside with them. By the curb,"

"Now list to my morning's romanza - I tell the signs of the Answerer; To the cities and farms I sing, as they spread in the sunshine before me. A yo"

"A march in the ranks hard-prest, and the road unknown; A route through a heavy wood, with muffled steps in the darkness; Our army foil'd with loss s"

"Native moments! when you come upon me - Ah you are here now! Give me now libidinous joys only! Give me the drench of my passions! Give me life c"

"This day, O Soul, I give you a wondrous mirror; Long in the dark, in tarnish and cloud it lay But the cloud has pass'd, and the tarnish gone; Behold"

"Primeval my love for the woman I love, O bride! O wife! more resistless, more enduring than I can tell, the thought of you! Then separate, as disemb"

"There was a child went forth every day; And the first object he look'd upon, that object he became; And that object became part of him for the day,"

"Spontaneous me, Nature, The loving day, the mounting sun, the friend I am happy with, The arm of my friend hanging idly over my shoulder, The hill-"

"Again a verse for sake of you, You soldiers in the ranks--you Volunteers, Who bravely fighting, silent fell, To fill unmention'd graves. Ashes of"

"With antecedents; With my fathers and mothers, and the accumulations of past ages; With all which, had it not been, I would not now be here, as I am"

"Yet, yet, ye downcast hours, I know ye also; Weights of lead, how ye clog and cling at my ankles! Earth to a chamber of mourning turns, I hear the o"

"After all, not to create only, or found only, But to bring, perhaps from afar, what is already founded, To give it our own identity, average, limitl"

"Still, though the one I sing, (One, yet of contradictions made,) I dedicate to Nationality, I leave in him Revolt, (O latent right of insurrection!"

"Not my enemies ever invade me - no harm to my pride from them I fear; But the lovers I recklessly love - lo! how they master me! Lo! me, ever open a"

"What think you I take my pen in hand to record? The battle-ship, perfect-model'd, majestic, that I saw pass the offing to-day under full sail? The s"

"AS a strong bird on pinions free, Joyous, the amplest spaces heavenward cleaving, Such be the thought I'd think to-day of thee, America, Such be th"

"Not heat flames up and consumes, Not sea-waves hurry in and out, Not the air, delicious and dry, the air of the ripe summer, bears lightly along whi"

"Pensive and faltering, The words, the dead, I write; For living are the Dead; (Haply the only living, only real, And I the apparition - I the spec"

"When lilacs last in the door-yard bloomd, And the great star early droopd in the western sky in the night, I mourndand yet shall mourn with ever"

"As the time draws nigh, glooming, a cloud, A dread beyond, of I know not what, darkens me. I shall go forth, I shall traverse The States awhile--b"

"A thousand perfect men and women appear, Around each gathers a cluster of friends, and gay children and youths, with offerings."

"While my wife at my side lies slumbering, and the wars are over long, And my head on the pillow rests at home, and the vacant midnight passes, And t"

"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 l"

"Wild, wild the storm, and the sea high running, Steady the roar of the gale, with incessant undertone muttering, Shouts of demoniac laughter fitfull"

"States! Were you looking to be held together by the lawyers? By an agreement on a paper? Or by arms? Away! I arrive, bringing these, beyond all t"

"Splendor of ended day, floating and filling me! Hour prophetic hour resuming the past! Inflating my throat you, divine average! You, Earth and Life"

"Brother of all, with generous hand, Of thee, pondering on thee, as o'er thy tomb, I and my Soul, A thought to launch in memory of thee, A burial ve"