Quotes from Walt Whitman

Agonies are one of my changes of garments, I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person, My hurts turn livid upon me as I lean on a cane and observe.

Each of us inevitable, Each of us limitless—each of us with his or her right upon the earth, Each of us allow'd the eternal purports of the earth, Each of us here as divinely as any is here.

dash me with amorous wet, i can repay you

Camerado, this is no book, Who touches this touches a man, (Is it night? are we here together alone?) It is I you hold and who holds you, I spring from the pages into your arms—decease calls me forth.

Be composed--be at ease with me--I am Walt Whitman, liberal and lusty as Nature, Not till the sun excludes you do I exclude you, Not till the waters refuse to glisten for you and the leaves to rustle for you, do my words refuse to glisten and rustle for you.

From this hour, freedom! Going where I like, my own master...

not one escaped to tell the fall of Alamo, The hundred & fifty are dumb yet at Alamo.

I have loved many women and men, but I love none better than you. -from To You

The poet is individual—he is complete in himself: the others are as good as he; only he sees it, and they do not.

Of all the earth her heart most full of sorrow because most full of love.

We consider bibles and religions divine—I do not say they are not divine, I say they have all grown out of you, and may grow out of you still, It is not they who give the life, it is you who give the life, Leaves are not more shed from the trees, or trees from the earth, than they are shed out of you. -from A Song of Occupations

Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city of this earth, ever afterward resumes its liberty.

Gliding o'er all, through all,Through Nature, Time, and Space, As a ship on the waters advancing, The voyage of the soul—not life alone, Death, many deaths I'll sing.

Remember my words, I may again return, I love you, I depart from materials, I am as one disembodied, triumphant, dead.

To drive free, to love free, to court destruction with taunts. One brief house of madness and joy!

Language is not an abstract construction of the learned, or of dictionary-makers, but is something arising out of the work, needs, ties, joys, affections, tastes, of long generations of humanity, and has its bases broad and low, close to the ground.

I see the cliffs, glaciers, torrents, valleys of Switzerland - I mark the long winters and the isolation.

I will go to the bank by the wood, and become undisguised and naked;

Lack one lacks both, and the unseen is proved by the seen, Till that becomes unseen and receives proof in its turn.

When the materials are ready, the architects shall appear.

I swear I begin to see the meaning of these things. It is not the earth, it is not America, who is so great, it is I who am great or to be great…

Sure as Life holds all parts together, Death holds all parts together.

The earth never tires, The earth is rude, silent, incomprehensible at first, Nature is rude and incomprehensible at first, Be not discouraged, keep on, there are divine things well envelop'd, I swear to you there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell.

I sing the Equalities, modern or old, I sing the endless finales of things; I say Nature continues—Glory continues; I praise with electric voice; For I do not see one imperfection in the universe; And I do not see one cause or result lamentable at last in the universe. O setting sun! though the time has come, I still warble under you, if none else does, unmitigated adoration.