Walt Whitman (1819 – 1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. Much of his work was considered controversial in its time, and he received little public acclaim for his poems during his lifetime. Whitman worked as a journalist, a teacher, a government clerk, and — in addition to publishing his poetry — was a volunteer nurse during the American Civil War.
Quotes by Walt Whitman…
And as to you Death, and you bitter hug of mortality, it is idle to try to alarm me…
And as to you Corpse I think you are good manure, but that does not offend me,
I smell the white roses sweet-scented and growing,
I reach to the leafy lips, I reach to the polish’d breasts of melons.
And as to you Life I reckon you are the leavings of many deaths,
(No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before.)
These are the days that must happen to you.
I do not give lectures or a little charity, when I give I give myself.
It is time to explain myself… let us stand up.
There are divine things more beautiful than words can tell.
Now understand me well — it is provided in the essence of things that from any fruition of success, no matter what, shall come forth something to make a greater struggle necessary… the road is before us! It is safe… I have tried it.
Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road. Healthy, free, the world before me… leading wherever I choose.
This is the meal equally set, this is the meat for natural hunger, it is for the wicked just the same as the righteous, I make appointment with all, I will not have a single person slighted or kept away.
Nothing is ever really lost, or can be lost, no birth, identity, form — no object in the world, nor life, nor any visible thing; appearance must not foil, nor shifted sphere confuse thy brain. Ample are time and space — ample the fields of Nature.
What do you suppose will satisfy the soul except to walk free and own no superior?