Walt Whitman citations

Page 3

“Touch me, touch the palm of your hand to my body as I pass,
Be not afraid of my body.”

“I act as the tongue of you,
… tied in your mouth…. in mine it begins to be loosened.”

“Let your soul stand cool and composed
before a million universes.”

“A writer can do nothing for men more necessary, satisfying, than just simply to reveal to them the infinite possibility of their own souls.”

“My words itch at your ears till you understand them”

“I am larger, better than I thought; I did not know I held so much goodness.

All seems beautiful to me.

Whoever denies me, it shall not trouble me;
Whoever accepts me, he or she shall be blessed, and shall bless me.”

“To me, every hour of the day and night is an unspeakably perfect miracle.”

“You will hardly know who I am or what I mean”

“I will sleep no more but arise, You oceans that have been calm within me! how I feel you, fathomless, stirring, preparing unprecedented waves and storms.”

“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 the far the largest to me, and that is myself.”

“I accept Time absolutely.
It alone is without flaw,
It alone rounds and completes all,
That mystic baffling wonder.”

“This hour I tell things in confidence/ I might not tell everybody, but I will tell you.”

“it makes such differenceyou read”

“I will You, in all, Myself, with promise to never desert you,
To which I sign my name.”

“There was never any more inception than there is now,
Nor any more youth or age than there is now;
And will never be any more perfection than there is now,
Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.”

“If anything is sacred, the human body is sacred.”

“I and this mystery, here we stand.”

“I swear to you, there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell”

“have you learned the lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you? Have you not learned great lessons from those who braced themselves against you, and disputed passage with you?”

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

“But where is what I started for so long ago?
And why is it yet unfound?”

“Nothing can happen more beautiful than death.”

“storming, enjoying, planning, loving, cautioning,
Backing and filling, appearing and disappearing,
I tread day and night such roads.”

“Loafe with me on the grass—loose the stop from your throat;
Not words, not music or rhyme I want—not custom or lecture, not even the best;
Only the lull I like, the hum of your valved voice.”

“The road to wisdom is paved with excess.

The mark of a true writer is their ability to mystify the familiar and familiarize the strange.”

“The untold want, by life and land ne'er granted,
Now, Voyager, sail thou forth, to seek and find.”

“The question, O me! so sad, recurring -
What good amid these, O me, O life?
That you are here - that life
exists and identity,
that the powerful play goes on,
and you may contribute a verse.”

“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.”

“Long have you timidly waded
Holding a plank by the shore,
Now I will you to be a bold swimmer,
To jump off in the midst of the sea,
Rise again, nod to me, shout,
And laughingly dash with your hair.”