Quotes by Walt Whitman

About Walt Whitman:

Walter "Walt" 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.
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I have perceived that to be with those i like is enough, To stop in company with the rest at evening is enough, To be surrounded by beautiful, curious, breathing, laughing flesh is enough, To pass among them or touch any one, or rest my arm ever so l...

Walt Whitman

Love is like the wild rose-briar; Friendship like the holly-tree. The holly is dark when the rose-briar blooms, but which will bloom most constantly?

Walt Whitman

Not knowing when the dawn will come I open every door.

Walt Whitman

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee, One clover, and a bee, And revery. The revery alone will do, If bees are few.

Walt Whitman

Music, when soft voices die, vibrates in the memory.

Walt Whitman

We look before and after, And pine for what is not; Our sincerest laughter With some pain is fraught; Our sweetest songs are those that tell Of saddest thought.

Walt Whitman

Nature is a haunted house--but Art--is a house that tries to be haunted.

Walt Whitman

Give me juicy autumnal fruit, ripe and red from the orchard." [ ]

Walt Whitman

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness! Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run; To bend with apples the moss'd cottage trees, And fill all fruit with rip...

Walt Whitman

Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know

Walt Whitman

Only my books anoint me, and a few friends, those who reach into my veins.

Walt Whitman

A precious, mouldering pleasure ’t is To meet an antique book, In just the dress his century wore; A privilege, I think.

Walt Whitman

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, And Mourners to and fro Kept treading – treading – till it seemed That Sense was breaking through – And when they all were seated, A Service, like a Drum – Kept beating – beating – till I thought My Mind was...

Walt Whitman

The cat's asleep; I whisper "kitten" Till he stirs a little and begins to purr-- He doesn't wake. Today out on the limb (The limb he thinks he can't climb down from) He mewed until I heard him in the house. I climbed up to get him down: he mewed. Wha...

Walt Whitman

We rest; a dream has power to poison sleep. We rise; one wand'ring thought pollutes the day. We feel, conceive, or reason; laugh or weep, Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away; It is the same: for, be it joy or sorrow, The path of its departure st...

Walt Whitman

How blest was the created state Of man and woman, ere they fell, Compared to our unhappy fate: We need not fear another hell.

Walt Whitman

One need not be a chamber to be haunted.

Walt Whitman

I sing to use the waiting, My bonnet but to tie, And shut the door unto my house; No more to do have I, Till, his best step approaching, We journey to the day, And tell each other how we sang To keep the dark away.

Walt Whitman

Presentiment is that long shadow on the lawn Indicative that suns go down; The notice to the startled grass That darkness is about to pass.

Walt Whitman

Remember me when I am gone away, Gone far away into the silent land; When you can no more hold me by the hand, Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay. Remember me when no more, day by day, You tell me of our future that you planned: Only remember me;...

Walt Whitman

Music, when soft voices die, Vibrates in the memory; Odours, when sweet violets sicken, Live within the sense they quicken. Rose leaves, when the rose is dead, Are heap'd for the belovèd's bed; And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone, Love itself sh...

Walt Whitman

Author Bio

  • NameWalt Whitman
  • DescriptionAmerican poet, essayist and journalist
  • AliasesWalter "Walt" Whitman; Walter Whitman
  • BornMay 31, 1819
  • DiedMarch 26, 1892
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionNurse; Poet; Novelist; Journalist; Essayist; Writer