To a Common Prostitute. by Walt Whitman
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. My girl, I appoint with […]
To a Certain Civilian. by Walt Whitman
DID you ask dulcet rhymes from me? Did you seek the civilian’s peaceful and languishing rhymes? Did you find what I sang erewhile so hard to follow? Why I was not singing erewhile for you to follow, to understand—nor am I now; (I have been born of the same as the war was born; The […]
To a Certain Cantatrice. by Walt Whitman
HERE, take this gift! I was reserving it for some hero, speaker, or General, One who should serve the good old cause, the great Idea, the progress and freedom of the race; Some brave confronter of despots—some daring rebel; —But I see that what I was reserving, belongs to you just as much as to […]
Thoughts. by Walt Whitman
1 OF these years I sing, How they pass and have pass’d, through convuls’d pains as through parturitions; How America illustrates birth, muscular youth, the promise, the sure fulfillment, the Absolute Success, despite of people—Illustrates evil as well as good; How many hold despairingly yet to the models departed, caste, myths, obedience, compulsion, and to […]
Thoughts. by Walt Whitman
1 OF ownership—As if one fit to own things could not at pleasure enter upon all, and incorporate them into himself or herself. 2 Of waters, forests, hills; Of the earth at large, whispering through medium of me; Of vista—Suppose some sight in arriere, through the formative chaos, presuming the growth, fulness, life, now attain’d […]
Thought. by Walt Whitman
AS I sit with others, at a great feast, suddenly, while the music is playing, To my mind, (whence it comes I know not,) spectral, in mist, of a wreck at sea; Of certain ships—how they sail from port with flying streamers, and wafted kisses—and that is the last of them! Of the solemn and […]
Thought. by Walt Whitman
OF what I write from myself—As if that were not the resumé; Of Histories—As if such, however complete, were not less complete than the preceding poems; As if those shreds, the records of nations, could possibly be as lasting as the preceding poems; As if here were not the amount of all nations, and of […]
Thought. by Walt Whitman
AS they draw to a close, Of what underlies the precedent songs—of my aims in them; Of the seed I have sought to plant in them; Of joy, sweet joy, through many a year, in them; (For them—for them have I lived—In them my work is done;) Of many an aspiration fond—of many a dream […]
Thought. by Walt Whitman
OF obedience, faith, adhesiveness; As I stand aloof and look, there is to me something profoundly affecting in large masses of men, following the lead of those who do not believe in men. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry Monster — the […]
Thought. by Walt Whitman
OF persons arrived at high positions, ceremonies, wealth, scholarships, and the like; To me, all that those persons have arrived at, sinks away from them, except as it results to their Bodies and Souls, So that often to me they appear gaunt and naked; And often, to me, each one mocks the others, and mocks […]
Thought. by Walt Whitman
OF Justice—As if Justice could be anything but the same ample law, expounded by natural judges and saviors, As if it might be this thing or that thing, according to decisions. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry Monster — the ultimate repository […]
Thou Reader. by Walt Whitman
THOU reader throbbest life and pride and love the same as I, Therefore for thee the following chants. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry Monster — the ultimate repository of world poetry. Poetry Monster — the multilingual library of poetic works. Here […]
Thou Orb Aloft Full-Dazzling. by Walt Whitman
THOU orb aloft full-dazzling! thou hot October noon! Flooding with sheeny light the gray beach sand, The sibilant near sea with vistas far and foam, And tawny streaks and shades and spreading blue; O sun of noon rufulgent! my special word to thee. Hear me illustrious! Thy lover me, for always I have loved thee, […]
This Moment, Yearning and Thoughtful. by Walt Whitman
THIS moment yearning and thoughtful, sitting alone, It seems to me there are other men in other lands, yearning and thoughtful; It seems to me I can look over and behold them, in Germany, Italy, France, Spain—or far, far away, in China, or in Russia or India—talking other dialects; And it seems to me if […]
This Dust was Once the Man. by Walt Whitman
THIS dust was once the Man, Gentle, plain, just and resolute—under whose cautious hand, Against the foulest crime in history known in any land or age, Was saved the Union of These States. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry Monster — the […]
This Day, O Soul. by Walt Whitman
THIS day, O Soul, I give you a wondrous mirror; Long in the dark, in tarnish and cloud it lay—But the cloud has pass’d, and the tarnish gone; … Behold, O Soul! it is now a clean and bright mirror, Faithfully showing you all the things of the world. ————— The End And that’s the […]
This Compost. by Walt Whitman
1 SOMETHING startles me where I thought I was safest; I withdraw from the still woods I loved; I will not go now on the pastures to walk; I will not strip the clothes from my body to meet my lover the sea; I will not touch my flesh to the earth, as to other […]
Think of the Soul. by Walt Whitman
THINK of the Soul; I swear to you that body of yours gives proportions to your Soul somehow to live in other spheres; I do not know how, but I know it is so. Think of loving and being loved; I swear to you, whoever you are, you can interfuse yourself with such things that […]
Thick-Sprinkled Bunting. by Walt Whitman
THICK-SPRINKLED bunting! Flag of stars! Long yet your road, fateful flag!—long yet your road, and lined with bloody death! For the prize I see at issue, at last is the world! All its ships and shores I see, interwoven with your threads, greedy banner! —Dream’d again the flags of kings, highest born, to flaunt unrival’d? […]
These, I, Singing in Spring. by Walt Whitman
THESE, I, singing in spring, collect for lovers, (For who but I should understand lovers, and all their sorrow and joy? And who but I should be the poet of comrades?) Collecting, I traverse the garden, the world—but soon I pass the gates, Now along the pond-side—now wading in a little, fearing not the wet, […]
There was a Child went Forth. by Walt Whitman
THERE was a child went forth every day; And the first object he look’d upon, that object he became; And that object became part of him for the day, or a certain part of the day, or for many years, or stretching cycles of years.<THERE was a child went forth every day; And the first […]
The Wound-Dresser by Walt Whitman
1 AN old man bending I come among new faces, Years looking backward resuming in answer to children, Come tell us old man, as from young men and maidens that love me, (Arous’d and angry, I’d thought to beat the alarum, and urge relentless war, But soon my fingers fail’d me, my face droop’d and […]
That Shadow, my Likeness. by Walt Whitman
THAT shadow, my likeness, that goes to and fro, seeking a livelihood, chattering, chaffering; How often I find myself standing and looking at it where it flits; How often I question and doubt whether that is really me; —But in these, and among my lovers, and caroling my songs, O I never doubt whether that […]
That Music Always Round Me. by Walt Whitman
THAT music always round me, unceasing, unbeginning—yet long untaught I did not hear; But now the chorus I hear, and am elated; A tenor, strong, ascending, with power and health, with glad notes of day-break I hear, A soprano, at intervals, sailing buoyantly over the tops of immense waves, A transparent bass, shuddering lusciously under […]
Tests. by Walt Whitman
ALL submit to them, where they sit, inner, secure, unapproachable to analysis, in the Soul; Not traditions—not the outer authorities are the judges—they are the judges of outer authorities, and of all traditions; They corroborate as they go, only whatever corroborates themselves, and touches themselves; For all that, they have it forever in themselves to […]
Tears. by Walt Whitman
TEARS! tears! tears! In the night, in solitude, tears; On the white shore dripping, dripping, suck’d in by the sand; Tears—not a star shining—all dark and desolate; Moist tears from the eyes of a muffled head: —O who is that ghost?—that form in the dark, with tears? What shapeless lump is that, bent, crouch’d there […]
Still, though the One I Sing. by Walt Whitman
STILL, though the one I sing, (One, yet of contradictions made,) I dedicate to Nationality, I leave in him Revolt, (O latent right of insurrection! O quenchless, indispensable fire!) ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry Monster — the ultimate repository of world […]
States! by Walt Whitman
STATES! Were you looking to be held together by the lawyers? By an agreement on a paper? Or by arms? Away! I arrive, bringing these, beyond all the forces of courts and arms, These! to hold you together as firmly as the earth itself is held together. The old breath of life, ever new, Here! […]
Starting from Paumanok. by Walt Whitman
1 STARTING from fish-shape Paumanok, where I was born, Well-begotten, and rais’d by a perfect mother; After roaming many lands—lover of populous pavements; Dweller in Mannahatta, my city—or on southern savannas; Or a soldier camp’d, or carrying my knapsack and gun—or a miner in California; Or rude in my home in Dakota’s woods, my diet […]
Spontaneous Me. by Walt Whitman
SPONTANEOUS me, Nature, The loving day, the mounting sun, the friend I am happy with, The arm of my friend hanging idly over my shoulder, The hill-side whiten’d with blossoms of the mountain ash, The same, late in autumn—the hues of red, yellow, drab, purple, and light and dark green, The rich coverlid of the […]
Spirit whose Work is Done. by Walt Whitman
SPIRIT whose work is done! spirit of dreadful hours! Ere, departing, fade from my eyes your forests of bayonets; Spirit of gloomiest fears and doubts, (yet onward ever unfaltering pressing;) Spirit of many a solemn day, and many a savage scene! Electric spirit! That with muttering voice, through the war now closed, like a tireless […]
Spirit That Form’d This Scene. by Walt Whitman
SPIRIT that form’d this scene, These tumbled rock-piles grim and red, These reckless heaven-ambitious peaks, These gorges, turbulent-clear streams, this naked freshness, These formless wild arrays, for reasons of their own, I know thee, savage spirit—we have communed together, Mine too such wild arrays, for reasons of their own; Was’t charged against my chants they […]
Sparkles from The Wheel. by Walt Whitman
1 WHERE the city’s ceaseless crowd moves on, the live-long day, Withdrawn, I join a group of children watching—I pause aside with them. By the curb, toward the edge of the flagging, A knife-grinder works at his wheel, sharpening a great knife; Bending over, he carefully holds it to the stone—by foot and knee, With […]
Spain 1873–’74. by Walt Whitman
OUT of the murk of heaviest clouds, Out of the feudal wrecks, and heap’d-up skeletons of kings, Out of that old entire European debris—the shatter’d mummeries, Ruin’d cathedrals, crumble of palaces, tombs of priests, Lo! Freedom’s features, fresh, undimm’d, look forth—the same immortal face looks forth; (A glimpse as of thy mother’s face, Columbia, A […]
Souvenirs of Democracy. by Walt Whitman
THE business man, the acquirer vast, After assiduous years, surveying results, preparing for departure, Devises houses and lands to his children—bequeaths stocks, goods—funds for a school or hospital, Leaves money to certain companions to buy tokens, souvenirs of gems and gold; Parceling out with care—And then, to prevent all cavil, His name to his testament […]
Song of the Universal. by Walt Whitman
1 COME, said the Muse, Sing me a song no poet yet has chanted, Sing me the Universal. In this broad Earth of ours, Amid the measureless grossness and the slag, Enclosed and safe within its central heart, Nestles the seed Perfection. By every life a share, or more or less, None born but it […]
Song of the Redwood-Tree. by Walt Whitman
1 A CALIFORNIA song! A prophecy and indirection—a thought impalpable, to breathe, as air; A chorus of dryads, fading, departing—or hamadryads departing; A murmuring, fateful, giant voice, out of the earth and sky, Voice of a mighty dying tree in the Redwood forest dense. Farewell, my brethren, Farewell, O earth and sky—farewell, ye neighboring waters; […]
Song of the Open Road. by Walt Whitman
1 AFOOT and light-hearted, I take to the open road, Healthy, free, the world before me, The long brown path before me, leading wherever I choose. Henceforth I ask not good-fortune—I myself am good fortune; Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing, Strong and content, I travel the open road. The earth—that […]
Song of the Exposition. by Walt Whitman
1 AFTER all, not to create only, or found only, But to bring, perhaps from afar, what is already founded, To give it our own identity, average, limitless, free; To fill the gross, the torpid bulk with vital religious fire; Not to repel or destroy, so much as accept, fuse, rehabilitate; To obey, as well […]
Song of the Broad-Axe. by Walt Whitman
1 WEAPON, shapely, naked, wan! Head from the mother’s bowels drawn! Wooded flesh and metal bone! limb only one, and lip only one! Gray-blue leaf by red-heat grown! helve produced from a little seed sown! Resting the grass amid and upon, To be lean’d, and to lean on. Strong shapes, and attributes of strong shapes—masculine […]