Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman
Walter "Walt" Whitmanwas an American poet, essayist, and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described as obscene for its overt sexuality...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth31 May 1819
CountryUnited States of America
Have you heard that it was good to gain the day? I also say it is good to fall, battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won.
He most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher.
The beautiful uncut hair of graves.
I heard what was said of the universe, heard it and heard it of several thousand years; it is middling well as far as it goes - but is that all?
Other lands have their vitality in a few, a class, but we have it in the bulk of our people.
The words of my book nothing, the drift of it everything.
There is no object so soft but it makes a hub for the wheeled universe.
There is that indescribable freshness and unconsciousness about an illiterate person that humbles and mocks the power of the noblest expressive genius.
I am for those who believe in loose delights, I share the midnight orgies of young men, I dance with the dancers and drink with the drinkers.
A simple separate person is not contained between his hat and his boots.
Whoever is not in his coffin and the dark grave, let him know he has enough.
I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love, If you want me again look for me under your bootsoles.
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space.
I mind how once we lay such a transparent summer morning, How you settled your head athwart my hips and gently turn'd over upon me, And parted the shirt from my bosom-bone, and plunged your tongue to my bare-stript heart, And reach'd till you felt my beard, and reach'd till you held my feet.