leaves of
grass A story about leaves & grass
by Walt Whitman
leaves of
grass A story about leaves & grass
by Walt Whitman
Leaves of Grass by
Walt Whitman
New York:
Harper & Brothers, Publishers London: Richard Bentley
1851
THE PAGE WHERE YOU FIGURE OUT WHERE AND WHAT THE OTHER PAGES ARE. (aka the table of contents)
Introduction Perfections A farm picture A child’s amaze The Runner Cit of Ships What am I afterall Tests The Torch With All Thy Gifts My Picture-Gallery Bibliography Index
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IN TR OD UC TI
This book contains 10 poems from Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. He is a poet and he knows it.
1
PERFECTIONS
2
Only themselves understand themselves and the like of themselves, As souls only understand souls.
A FARM Through the ample open door of the peaceful country barn, A sunlit pasture field with cattle and horses feeding, And haze and vista, and the far horizon fading away.
PICTURE
3
A CHILD’S M A Z E
Silent and amazed even when a little boy, I remember I heard the preacher every Sunday put God in his statements, As contending against some being or influence.
“I like writing poetry and chewing bubblegum, and I’m all out of bubblegum.” -Walt Whitman
4
THE RUNNER On a f lat road runs the welltrain'd runner, He is lean and sinewy with muscular legs, He is thinly clothed, he leans forward as he runs, With lightly closed fists and arms partially rais'd. Did you know? This is a poem about a dude running.
5
WHAT AM I What am I after all but a child, pleas'd with the sound of my own name? repeating it over and over; I stand apart to hear—it never tires me. To you your name also; Did you think there was nothing but two or three pronunciations in the sound of your name?
AFTER ALL
CITY OF City of ships! (O the black ships! O the fierce ships! O the beautiful sharp-bow'd steam-ships and sailships!) City of the world! (for all races are here, All the lands of the earth make contributions here;) City of the sea! city of hurried and glittering tides! City whose gleeful tides continually rush or recede, whirling in and out with eddies and foam! City of wharves and stores—city of tall facades of marble and iron! Proud and passionate city— mettlesome, mad, extravagant city!
Did you know? This is a poem about a bunch of ships.
7
SHIPS
Spring up O city—not for peace alone, but be indeed yourself, warlike! Fear not—submit to no models but your own O city! Behold me—incarnate me as I have incarnated you! I have rejected nothing you offer’d me —whom you adopted I have adopted, Good or bad I never question you—I love all—I do not condemn any thing, I chant and celebrate all that is yours—yet peace no more, In peace I chanted peace, but now the drum of war is mine, War, red war is my song through your streets, O city!
8
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 corroborate far and near without one exception.
Did you know? Walt Whitman wrote a poem about tests; this is it.
T E S T S 9
THE TORCH On my Northwest coast in the midst of the night a fishermen's group stands watching, Out on the lake that expands before them, others are spearing salmon, The canoe, a dim shadowy thing, moves across the black water, Bearing a torch ablaze at the prow.
Did you know? Walt Whitman went fishing with a torch. 10
WITH ALL THY GIFTS With all thy gifts America, Standing secure, rapidly tending, overlooking the world, Power, wealth, extent, vouchsafed to thee— with these and like of these vouchsafed to thee, What if one gift thou lackest? (the ultimate human problem never solving,) The gift of perfect women fit for thee—what if that gift of gifts thou lackest? The towering feminine of thee? the beauty, health, completion, fit for thee? The mothers fit for thee? 11
MY
In a little house keep I pictures suspended, it is not a fix'd house, It is round, it is only a few inches from one side to the other; Yet behold, it has room for all the shows of the world, all memories! Here the tableaus of life, and here the groupings of death; Here, do you know this? this is cicerone himself, With finger rais'd he points to the prodigal pictures.
P IC TU RE
G AL LE RY
THE PAGE WHERE THE SOURCES ARE LISTED. (aka the bibliography)
1. Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Project Gutenberg EBook. Release date: August 24, 2008 [EBook #1322]
13
THE PAGE WHERE YOU FIGURE OUT WHERE THE POEMS ARE AT, BUT LOCATED IN THE BACK OF THE BOOK (aka the index)
Perfections A farm picture A child’s amaze The Runner City of Ships What am I afterall Tests The Torch With All Thy Gifts My Picture-Gallery
14
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