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Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman Quotes

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Famous Walt Whitman Quotes

“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.”

PeopleIfsWorldStatesCertainGrowthUnitedNumbersUnited StatesAudienceGenerationsHavensPoetPersonalityEqualScalesCombinationPrintElsewhereGrandeurImportsGreat Poet
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Walt Whitman (Illustrated)
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“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.”

IfsEnoughHoursMemoriesUnionsConquerLiftsStampsAbrahamCrucifixionWreathsFuture Time
Book:Memoranda During the War
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“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.”

IfsWorldYearsI CanEnoughTodayWaitingMy OwnMillionsThousandTenEqualCheerfulnessLeaves Of Grass
Book:Walt Whitman: Selected Poems 1855-1892
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“You have not known what you are - you 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.”

IfsHas BeensDoneEyePrayerKnownReturnMockerySlumberThrift
Book:Leaves of Grass: A Textual Variorum of the Printed Poems, 1855-1856
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“What do you think has become of the young and old men? And what do you think has become of the women and children? They are alive and well somewhere, The smallest sprout shows there is really no death, And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it, And ceas'd the moment life appear'd. All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses, And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.”

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Author:Walt Whitman
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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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“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.”

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Book:Specimen Days & Collect
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“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.”

IfsWayWritingMindWellsHas BeensI CanReadingLaysCastsBest WaySufficientIronJars
Book:Walt Whitman's Camden conversations
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