Leaves of GrassD.McKay, 1900 - 486 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
1856 under title 56 read 60 read added America amid arms bards beautiful behold blood body breast breath chant child comrades crowd dark dead dear death debouch divine Door-yard Drum earth Eidolons eternal eyes face fill'd forever give grass hand head hear henceforth immortal Kanada land leaves LEAVES OF GRASS Lilacs living look look'd lose my breath lovers Manhattan mother never night old cause pass pass'd Passage to India peace perfect persons phrenology Pioneers poems poet published in 1860 published in Drum-Taps race rest rise rivers sail shape ships shore silent sing sleep soldiers song Soul sound stand stars strong swear sweet thee things thou thought to-day voice wait walk Walt Whitman waves whoever wind woman women woods words young ΙΟ
Popular passages
Page 92 - Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.) I concentrate toward them that are nigh, I wait on the door-slab.
Page 31 - I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
Page 235 - 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 or a certain part of the day, Or for many years or stretching cycles of years.
Page 11 - 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 physiognomy alone nor brain alone is worthy for the Muse; I say the Form complete is worthier far. The Female equally with the Male I sing. 5 Of Life immense in passion, pulse, and power, Cheerful, for freest action form'd under the laws divine, The Modern Man I sing.
Page 35 - A child said What is the grass ? fetching it to me with full hands ; How could I answer the child ? I do not know what it is any more than he. I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven.
Page 373 - Approach strong deliveress, When it is so, when thou hast taken them I joyously sing the dead, Lost in the loving floating ocean of thee, Laved in the flood of thy bliss O death. From me to thee glad serenades, Dances for thee, I propose saluting thee, adornments and feastings for thee And the sights of the open landscape and the high-spread sky are fitting, And life and the fields, and the huge and thoughtful night.
Page 196 - I HEAR America singing, the varied carols I hear, Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong, The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam, The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work, The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck, The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands, The wood-cutter's song, the...
Page 63 - I stand and look at them long and long. They do not sweat and whine about their condition, They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago, Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.
Page 70 - 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.
Page 85 - 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. Before I was born out of my mother generations guided me, My embryo has never been torpid, nothing could overlay it. For it the nebula cohered to an orb, The long slow strata piled to rest it on, Vast vegetables gave it sustenance, Monstrous sauroids transported it in their mouths and deposited it with care. \ All forces have...