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"A million people—manners free and superb—open
voices—hospitality—the most courageous and friendly young men,
City of hurried and sparkling waters! city of spires and masts!
City nested in bays! my city!"
Walt Whitman (1819-1892), U.S. poet. Mannahatta (l. 18-20). . .
The Complete Poems [Walt Whitman]. Francis Murphy, ed. (1975; repr. 1986) Penguin Books. |
"O how can it be that the ground itself does not sicken?
How can you be alive you growths of spring?
How can you furnish health you blood of herbs, roots, orchards, grain?
Are they not continually putting distemper'd corpses within you?
Is not every continent work'd over and over with sour dead?"
Walt Whitman (1819-1892), U.S. poet. This Compost (l. 6-10). . .
The Complete Poems [Walt Whitman]. Francis Murphy, ed. (1975; repr. 1986) Penguin Books. |
"I was asking for something specific and perfect for my city,
Whereupon lo! upsprang the aboriginal name.
Now I see what there is in a name, a word, liquid, sane, unruly,
musical, self-sufficient,
I see that the word of my city is that word from of old,
Because I see that word nested in nests of water-bays, superb,
Rich, hemm'd thick all around with sailships and steamships, an
island sixteen miles long, solid-founded,"
Walt Whitman (1819-1892), U.S. poet. Mannahatta (l. 1-6). . .
The Complete Poems [Walt Whitman]. Francis Murphy, ed. (1975; repr. 1986) Penguin Books. |
"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."
Walt Whitman (1819-1892), U.S. poet. To a Common Prostitute. |
"And the voice of my spirit tallied the song of the bird.
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."
Walt Whitman (1819-1892), U.S. poet. Memories of President Lincoln (l. 18-20). . .
The Complete Poems [Walt Whitman]. Francis Murphy, ed. (1975; repr. 1986) Penguin Books. |
"Type of the modern—emblem of motion and
power—pulse of the continent,"
Walt Whitman (1819-1892), U.S. poet. To a Locomotive in Winter (l. 13). . .
The Complete Poems [Walt Whitman]. Francis Murphy, ed. (1975; repr. 1986) Penguin Books. |
"Sing on dearest brother, warble your reedy song,
Loud human song, with voice of uttermost woe.
O liquid and free and tender!
O wild and loose to my soul—O wondrous singer!
You only I hear—yet the star holds me, (but will soon depart,)
Yet the lilac with mastering odor holds me."
Walt Whitman (1819-1892), U.S. poet. Memories of President Lincoln (l. 18-20). . .
The Complete Poems [Walt Whitman]. Francis Murphy, ed. (1975; repr. 1986) Penguin Books. |
"By day thy warning ringing bell to sound its notes,
By night thy silent signal lamps to swing."
Walt Whitman (1819-1892), U.S. poet. To a Locomotive in Winter (l. 16-17). . .
The Complete Poems [Walt Whitman]. Francis Murphy, ed. (1975; repr. 1986) Penguin Books. |
"With the holders holding my hand nearing the call of the bird,
Comrades mine and I in the midst, and their memory ever to keep, for the dead I loved so well,
For the sweetest, wisest soul of all my days and
lands—and this for his dear sake,
Lilac and star and bird twined with the chant of my soul,
There in the fragrant pines and the cedars dusk and dim."
Walt Whitman (1819-1892), U.S. poet. Memories of President Lincoln (l. 18-20). . .
The Complete Poems [Walt Whitman]. (1975,repr. 1986) Penguin Books. |
"Thee for my recitative,
Thee in the driving storm even as now, the snow, the winter-day
declining,
Thee in thy panoply, thy measur'd dual throbbing and thy beat
convulsive,
Thy black cylindric body, golden brass and silvery steel,"
Walt Whitman (1819-1892), U.S. poet. To a Locomotive in Winter (l. 1-4). . .
The Complete Poems [Walt Whitman]. Francis Murphy, ed. (1975; repr. 1986) Penguin Books. |
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Walt Whitman
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