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
I was in the midst of it all - saw war where war is worst - not on the battlefields, no - in the hospitals ... there I mixed with it: and now I say God damn the wars - allw ars: God damn every war: God damn 'em! God damn 'em!
I see the President almost every day. I see very plainly Abraham Lincoln's dark brown face with its deep-cut lines, the eyes always to me with a deep latent sadness in the expression. None of the artists or pictures has caught the deep, though subtle and indirect expression of this man's face. There is something else there. One of the great portrait painters of two or three centuries ago is needed.
Future years will never know the seething hell and the black infernal background, the countless minor scenes and interiors of the secession war; and it is best they should not. The real war will never get in the books.
Beautiful that war and all its deeds of carnage, must in time be utterly lost;
Strange, (is it not?) that battles, martyrs, blood, even assassination should so condense - perhaps only really lastingly condense - a Nationality.
The real war will never get in the books.
Not I - not anyone else, can travel that road for you, / You must travel it for yourself.
To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle. Every cubic inch of space is a miracle.
To have great poets, there must be great audiences too.
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world
I shall use America and democracy as convertible terms
Do you know that Old Age may come after you with equal grace, force, fascination?
Seeing, hearing and feeling are miracles, and each part and tag of me is a miracle.
O lands! O all so dear to me -- what you are, I become part of that, whatever it is.