Leaves of Grass and Democratic VistasJ. M. Dent, 1916 - 359 pages |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
America amid arms Assyria beautiful behold blood body breast breath CALIFORNIA song Cape Lopatka chant comrades crowd curious dark dead dear death debouch democracy divine Dondra Head drest earth eidólons eternal eyes face fall fill'd give grass hand head hear heard hold immortal islands Journeyers Kanada Kneph land leaves Leaves of Grass limbs lips literature living look look'd lovers Manhattan mother mountains neck never night ocean pass pass'd perfect persons Pioneers poems poet politics post-and-rail fences quintillions race race the sun rest rise rivers sail shape ships shore silent sing skald sleep soldiers song soul sound spirit square miles stand stars sweet thee things thou thought to-day touch voice Wacho wait walk Walt Walt Whitman waves Whitman whoever wild wind woman women woods words young
Popular passages
Page 30 - 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 76 - I have said that the soul is not more than the body, ' And I have said that the body is not more than the soul, And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one's self is, And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral drest in his shroud...
Page 137 - I too had been struck from the float forever held in solution, I too had receiv'd identity by my body, That I was I knew was of my body, and what I should be I knew I should be of my body.
Page 275 - With ranging hills on the banks, with many a line against the sky, and shadows, And the city at hand with dwellings so dense, and stacks of chimneys, And all the scenes of life and the workshops, and the workmen homeward returning.
Page 30 - Or I guess the grass is itself a child, the produced babe of the vegetation. Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic, And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow zones, Growing among black folks as among white, Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the same, I receive them the same.
Page 280 - O CAPTAIN ! my Captain ! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.
Page 74 - Here are biscuits to eat and here is milk to drink, But as soon as you sleep and renew yourself in sweet clothes, I kiss you with a good-by kiss and open the gate for your egress hence.
Page 26 - Houses and rooms are full of perfumes, the shelves are crowded with perfumes, I breathe the fragrance myself and know it and like it, The distillation would intoxicate me also, but I shall not let it. The atmosphere is not a perfume, it has no taste of the distillation, it is odorless, It is for my mouth forever, I am in love with it, I will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised and naked, I am mad for it to be in contact with me.
Page 140 - You have waited, you always wait, you dumb, beautiful ministers, We receive you with free sense at last, and are insatiate henceforward, Not you any more shall be able to foil us, or withhold yourselves from us, We use you, and do not cast you aside — we plant you permanently within us, ^ We fathom you not — we love you — there is perfection in you also, } You furnish your parts toward eternity, Great or small, you furnish your parts toward the soul.
Page 26 - I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.