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Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman Quotes

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Famous Walt Whitman Quotes

“Smile O voluptuous coolbreathed earth! Earth of the slumbering and liquid trees! Earth of departed sunset! Earth 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 elbowed earth! Rich apple-blossomed earth! Smile, for your lover comes!”

EarthDarkRichTreeLoversMoonMountainRiversBlueShiningSakeCloudsApplesSunsetGrayTidesBrighterLiquidDepartedFull MoonMistyVoluptuous
Book:Walt Whitman's Song of Myself: A Sourcebook and Critical Edition
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“There was a child went forth everyday, And the first object he looked upon and received with wonder or pity or dread, that object he became, And that object became part of him for the day or a certain part of the day... or for many years or stretching cycles of years.”

YearsFirstsChildrenArtCertainWonderObjectsEverydayPityCyclesDreadStretching
Book:Leaves of Grass: A Textual Variorum of the Printed Poems, 1855-1856
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“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.”

IfsLoveFormTermSunTreeColorFlowerFruitTallWarmthWetWithin YouPerfumeBudBlancheWarmth Of The Sun
Book:Walt Whitman: Selected Poems 1855-1892
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“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!”

WorldSeemsActionAmericaBeautifulNamesWaterCitiesNew YorkFitDemocraticAtmosphereIslandsSunshineTallNew WorldTidesSparklingAboriginalVistasSpires
Book:Prose Works 1892, Volume II: Collect and Other Prose
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“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.”

WellsMatterStruggleGreaterEssenceNo Matter WhatUnderstand MeFruition
Book:Annotated LEAVES OF GRASS with English Grammar Exercises: by Walt Whitman (Author), Robert Powell (Editor)
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“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.”

I CanNightSpaceForeverEdgesSpreadExpandingStar GazingRimsCiphers
Book:Leaves of Grass: A Textual Variorum of the Printed Poems, 1855-1856
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“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!”

LooksFacesDeathJoySufferingPerfectEnemyStruggleGunPrisonTortureOddsPopularityStrifeFace To FaceLife StruggleGod LifeMuzzleUndauntedNonchalance
Book:Passage to India
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“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.”

KnowsStarsAnimalAirFieldsQuietMoonSpringBirdMiracleShiningAnimal RightsDelicateFeedingCurvesInsectsExquisiteNew Moon
Author:Walt Whitman
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“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.”

SongCitiesSunStreetsFieldsGreenSmellHandleGrassSoilFarmsPitcherLawnsWheatForksTastingHayNimbleCity StreetsGreen GrassMaize
Book:Leaves of Grass: Vol. I-III: A Textual Variorum of the Printed Poems, 1855-1856
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“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.”

MenLightEarthHoursDarkSpacePerfectFeetMen And WomenConcernMiracleSpreadSurfaceGrassSquaresInchesOrgansYardsInteriorsLimbsSpearsLight And DarkSwarms
Book:Whitman: The Mystic Poets
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