Quotes from Walt Whitman

Alone far in the wilds and mountains I hunt, Wandering amazed at my own lightness and glee, In the late afternoon choosing a safe spot to pass the night, Kindling a fire and broiling the freshkilled game, Soundly falling asleep on the gathered leaves, my dog and gun by my side.

I cannot answer the question of appearances or that of identity beyond the grave, But I walk or sit indifferent, I am satisfied, He ahold of my hand has completely satisfied me.

O You Whom I Often and Silently Come O you whom I often and silently come where you are that I may be with you, As I walk by your side or sit near, or remain in the same room with you, Little you know the subtle electric fire that for your sake is playing within me.

Re-examine all that you have been told... Dismiss that which insults your soul.

My rendezvous is appointed, it is certain, The Lord will be there and wait till I come on perfect terms, The great Camerado, the lover true for whom I pine will be there.

And while I paus'd it came to me that what he really sang for was not there only, Nor for his mate nor himself only, nor all sent back by the echoes, But subtle, clandestine, away beyond, A charge transmitted and gift occult for those being born.

Without shame the man I like knows and avows the deliciousness of his sex,   Without shame the woman I like knows and avows hers.

All this I swallow and it tastes good . . . . I like it well, and it becomes mine, I am the man . . . . I suffered . . . . I was there.

The weakest and shallowest is deathless with me, What I do and say the same waits for them, Every thought that flounders in me the same flounders in them.

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.

You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me, You shall listen to all sides and filter them from yourself.

These are the thoughts of all men in all ages and lands, they are not original with me. If they are not yours as much as mine they are nothing or next to nothing, if they do not enclose everything they are next to nothing, if they are not the riddle and the untying of the riddle they are nothing. If they are not just as close as they are distant they are nothing.

I exist as I am, that is enough, If not other in the world be aware I sit content, And if each and all be aware I sit content.

Let your barbaric yop be heard through the rooftops!

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 far the largest to me, and that is myself

I have embraced you and henceforth possess you to myself, and when you rise in the morning you will find what I tell you is so.

I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love, If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.

Cycles ferried my cradle, rowing and rowing like cheerful boatmen; For room to me stars kept aside in their own rings, They sent influences to look after what was to hold me.

The powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

Here by myself away from the clank of the world,   Tallying and talk'd to here by tongues aromatic

Here is what sings unrestricted faith.

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; The mockeries are not you; Underneath them, and within them, I see you lurk;

In politics--just as it is in religion--some people get an idea of the necessity of believing certain things, not so much from weight of evidence, out or in,--but from mere mental and emotional set-ness: they intend believing--and that [is] all there is about it!

I will not be outfaced by irrational things, I will penetrate what it is in them that is sarcastic upon me