Section: «Poems»
Verse (ancient Greek ὁ στίχος — row, structure), a term in versification used in several meanings:
artistic speech organized by division into rhythmically commensurate segments; poetry in the narrow sense; in particular, it implies the properties of versification of a particular tradition ("antique verse", "Akhmatova's verse", etc.);
a line of poetic text organized according to a certain rhythmic pattern ("My uncle of the most honest rules").
Song Of Myself, XII
The butcher-boy puts off his killing-clothes, or sharpens his knife at the stall in the market,I loiter enjoying his repartee and his shuffle and..
© Walt Whitman
Song Of Myself, VIII
The little one sleeps in its cradle,I lift the gauze and look a long time, and silently brush away flies with my hand.The youngster and the red-faced..
© Walt Whitman
Song Of Myself, VII
Has any one supposed it lucky to be born?I hasten to inform him or her it is just as lucky to die, and I know it.I pass death with the dying and..
© Walt Whitman
Song Of Myself, VI
A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands;How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he.I guess it..
© Walt Whitman
Song Of Myself, V
I believe in you my soul, the other I am must not abase itself to you,And you must not be abased to the other.Loafe with me on the grass, loose the..
© Walt Whitman
Song Of Myself, XXVIII
Is this then a touch? quivering me to a new identity,Flames and ether making a rush for my veins,Treacherous tip of me reaching and crowding to help..
© Walt Whitman
Song Of Myself, XXVII
To be in any form, what is that?(Round and round we go, all of us, and ever come back thither,)If nothing lay more develop'd the quahaug in its..
© Walt Whitman
Song Of Myself, XXVI
Now I will do nothing but listen,To accrue what I hear into this song, to let sounds contribute toward it.I hear bravuras of birds, bustle of growing..
© Walt Whitman
Song Of Myself, XXV
Dazzling and tremendous how quick the sun-rise would kill me,If I could not now and always send sun-rise out of me.We also ascend dazzling and..
© Walt Whitman
Song Of Myself, XXIV
Walt Whitman, a kosmos, of Manhattan the son,Turbulent, fleshy, sensual, eating, drinking and breeding,No sentimentalist, no stander above men and..
© Walt Whitman
Song Of Myself, XXIII
Endless unfolding of words of ages!And mine a word of the modern, the word En-Masse.A word of the faith that never balks,Here or henceforward it is..
© Walt Whitman
Song Of Myself, XXII
You sea! I resign myself to you also—I guess what you mean,I behold from the beach your crooked inviting fingers,I believe you refuse to go back..
© Walt Whitman
Song Of Myself, XXI
I am the poet of the Body and I am the poet of the Soul,The pleasures of heaven are with me and the pains of hell are with me,The first I graft and..
© Walt Whitman
Song Of Myself, XX
Who goes there? hankering, gross, mystical, nude;How is it I extract strength from the beef I eat?What is a man anyhow? what am I? what are you?All I..
© Walt Whitman
Song Of Myself, IV
Trippers and askers surround me,People I meet, the effect upon me of my early life or the ward and city I live in, or the nation,The latest dates..
© Walt Whitman
Song Of Myself, IX
The big doors of the country barn stand open and ready,The dried grass of the harvest-time loads the slow-drawn wagon,The clear light plays on the..
© Walt Whitman
The Great City
The place where a great city stands is not the place of stretch'd wharves, docks, manufactures, deposits of produce merely,Nor the place of ceaseless..
© Walt Whitman
Song Of Myself, LI
The past and present wilt—I have fill'd them, emptied them.And proceed to fill my next fold of the future.Listener up there! what have you to confide..
© Walt Whitman
The Return Of The Heroes
For the lands, and for these passionate days, and for myself,Now I awhile return to thee, O soil of autumn fields,Reclining on thy breast, giving..
© Walt Whitman
Longings For Home
O MAGNET-SOUTH! O glistening, perfumed South! My South!O quick mettle, rich blood, impulse, and love! Good and evil! O all dear to me!O dear to me my..
© Walt Whitman
Red Jacket (From Aloft)
Upon this scene, this show,Yielded to-day by fashion, learning, wealth,(Nor in caprice alone- some grains of deepest meaning,)Haply, aloft, (who..
© Walt Whitman
Virgil Strange I Kept On The Field
VIGIL strange I kept on the field one night:When you, my son and my comrade, dropt at my side that day,One look I but gave, which your dear eyes..
© Walt Whitman
These Carols
THESE Carols, sung to cheer my passage through the world I see,For completion, I dedicate to the Invisible World.
© Walt Whitman
Visor'D
A MASK--a perpetual natural disguiser of herself,Concealing her face, concealing her form,Changes and transformations every hour, every..
© Walt Whitman
To Oratists
TO ORATISTS--to male or female,Vocalism, measure, concentration, determination, and the divine powerto use words.Are you full-lung'd and..
© Walt Whitman