Walt Whitman. 1819-1892. John Bartlett, comp. 1919. Familiar Quotations, 10th ed.

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John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.

Walt Whitman. (1819–1892)

I will write the evangel-poem of comrades and of love.

Starting from Paumanok. 6.

I say the whole earth and all the stars in the sky are for religion’s sake.

Starting from Paumanok. 7.

None has begun to think how divine he himself is and how certain the future is.

Starting from Paumanok. 7.

I say the real and permanent grandeur of these States must be their religion.

Starting from Paumanok. 7.

Nothing can happen more beautiful than death.

Starting from Paumanok. 12.

I loafe and invite my soul.

Song of Myself. 1.

I have no mockings or arguments; I witness and wait.

Song of Myself. 4.

In the faces of men and women I see God.

Song of Myself. 48.

I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.

Song of Myself. 52.

I see Hermes, unsuspected, dying, well-beloved, saying to the people, “Do not weep for me,
This is not my true country, I have lived banished from my true country—I now go back there,
I return to the celestial sphere where every one goes in his turn.”

Salut au Monde. 6.

Each of us inevitable;
Each of us limitless—each of us with his or her right upon the earth.

Salut au Monde. 11.

The great city is that which has the greatest man or woman.

Song of the Broad-Axe.

In this broad earth of ours,
Amid the measureless grossness and the slag,
Enclosed and safe within its central heart,
Nestles the seed perfection.

Song of the Universal. 1.

All, all for immortality,
Love like the light silently wrapping all.

Song of the Universal. 4.

Youth, large, lusty, loving—Youth, full of grace, force, fascination!
Do you know that Old Age may come after you, with equal grace, force, fascination?

Youth, Day, Old Age and Night.

Roaming in thought over the Universe, I saw the little that is Good steadily hastening towards immortality,
And the vast that is evil I saw hastening to merge itself and become lost and dead.

Roaming in Thought. 1

Thunder on! Stride on! Democracy. Strike with vengeful stroke!

Drum-Taps. Rise O Days from your fathomless Deep. 3.

O Banner!
Not houses of peace are you, nor any nor all of their prosperity; if need be you shall have every one of those houses to destroy them;
You thought not to destroy those valuable houses, standing fast, full of comfort, built with money;
May they stand fast then? Not an hour, unless you, above them and all, stand fast.

Drum-Taps. Song of the Banner at Daybreak.

Over all the sky—the sky! far, far out of reach, studded with the eternal stars.

Drum-Taps. Bivouac on a Mountain-side.

Give me the splendid silent sun, with all his beams full-dazzling!

Drum-Taps. Give me the splendid Silent Sun.

Lo! the moon ascending!
Up from the East, the silvery round moon;
Beautiful over the house-tops, ghastly, phantom moon;
Immense and silent moon.

Drum-Taps. Dirge for Two Veterans.

Beautiful that war and all its deeds of carnage, must in time be utterly lost;
That the hands of the sisters Death and Night incessantly softly wash again and ever again, this soiled world.

Drum-Taps. Reconciliation.

When lilacs last in the door-yard bloomed,
And the great star early drooped in the western sky in the night,
I mourned, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.

Memories of President Lincoln. 1.

Come lovely and soothing death,
Undulate round the world, serenely arriving, arriving,
In the day, in the night, to all, to each,
Sooner or later, delicate death.

Memories of President Lincoln. 14.

Praised be the fathomless universe
For life and joy and for objects and knowledge curious;
And for love, sweet love—But praise! O praise and praise
For the sure-enwinding arms of cool-enfolding Death.

Memories of President Lincoln. 14.

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done!
The ship has weathered every wrack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting.

Memories of President Lincoln. O Captain! my Captain!

Liberty is to be subserved, whatever occurs.

To a Foiled European Revolutionaire.

Peace is always beautiful.

The Sleepers. 7.

What do you suppose will satisfy the soul except to walk free and own no superior?

Laws for Creations.

To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle,
Every cubic inch of space is a miracle.

Miracles.

I was thinking the day most splendid, till I saw what the not-day exhibited;
I was thinking this globe enough, till there sprang out so noiseless around me myriads of other globes.

Night on the Prairies.

I see that I am to wait for what will be exhibited by death.

Night on the Prairies.

I swear I think there is nothing but immortality!

To think of Time. 9.

The paths to the house I seek to make,
But leave to those to come the house itself.

Thou Mother with thy Equal Brood. 1.

Society waits unformed and is between things ended and things begun.

Thoughts. 1.

Now obey thy cherished secret wish,
Embrace thy friends—leave all in order;
To port and hawser’s tie no more returning,
Depart upon thy endless cruise, old Sailor!

Now Finalè to the Shore. (To Tennyson).

I announce the great individual, fluid as Nature, chaste, affectionate, compassionate, fully armed;
I announce a life that shall be copious, vehement, spiritual, bold,
And I announce an end that shall lightly and joyfully meet its translation.

So Long!

Note 1.
See Herbert Spencer, page 773. [back]

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