Walt Whitman

[ZombieSlayer]

this guy was cool i love his poem o captian my captian, as well as some of his other things

[Noah]

Yes, Whitman would be cool. I only read an excerpt of one of his poems in "Dead Poet Society", but I quote it all the time. I'd love to read something . . . wholesome . . . yeah . . .

[Admin]

he is definitely on the list.

[Noah]

Wow, thanks! :D

[ZombieSlayer]

groovy here come some whitman

[rex_yuan]

Whitman himself is a poem. As is said by Longinus, "sublimity is the echo of a great soul," Whitman writes his poems with his life not only his pen. Please remember that he tended those wounded soldiers just like brothers when he was not required to do so.

[rex_yuan]

Whitman's Poems are vehement in passion.


AS I EBB'D WITH THE OCEAN OF LIFE
I
As I ebb'd with the ocean of life,
As I wended the shores I know,
As I walk'd where the ripples continually wash you Paumanok,
Where they rustle up hoarse and sibilant,
Where the fierce old mother endlessly cries for her castaways,
I musing late in the autumn day, gazing off southward,
Held by this electric self out of the pride of which I utter poems,
Was seiz'd by the spirit that trails in the lines underfoot,
The rim, the sediment that stands for all the water and all the land
of the globe.

Fascinated, my eyes reverting from the south, dropt, to follow those
slender windrows,
Chaff, straw, splinters of wood, weeds, and the sea-gluten,
Scum, scales from shining rocks, leaves of salt-lettuce, left by the
tide,
Miles walking, the sound of breaking waves the other side of me,
Paumanok there and then as I thought the old thought of likenesses,
These you presented to me you fish-shaped island,
As I wended the shores I know,
As I walk'd with that electric self seeking types.

2
As I wend to the shores I know not,
As I list to the dirge, the voices of men and women wreck'd,
As I inhale the impalpable breezes that set in upon me,
As the ocean so mysterious rolls toward me closer and closer,
I too but signify at the utmost a little wash'd-up drift,
A few sands and dead leaves to gather,
Gather, and merge myself as part of the sands and drift.

O baffled, balk'd, bent to the very earth,
Oppress'd with myself that I have dared to open my mouth,
Aware now that amid all that blab whose echoes recoil upon me I have
not once had the least idea who or what I am,
But that before all my arrogant poems the real Me stands yet
untouch'd, untold, altogether unreach'd,
Withdrawn far, mocking me with mock-congratulatory signs and bows,
With peals of distant ironical laughter at every word I have
written,
Pointing in silence to these songs, and then to the sand beneath.

LEAVES OF GRASS.

______
The best of the earth cannot be told anyhow, all or any is best,
It is not what you anticipated, it is cheaper, easier, nearer,
Things are not dismiss'd from the places they held before,
The earth is just as positive and direct as it was before,
Facts, religions, improvements, politics, trades, are as real as
before,
But the soul is also real, it too is positive and direct,
No reasoning, no proof has establish'd it,
Undeniable growth has establish'd it.

4
These to echo the tones of souls and the phrases of souls,
(If they did not echo the phrases of souls what were they then?
If they had not reference to you in especial what were they then?)

I swear I will never henceforth have to do with the faith that tells
the best,
I will have to do only with that faith that leaves the best untold.

Say on, sayers! sing on, singers!
Delve! mould! pile the words of the earth!
Work on, age after age, nothing is to be lost,
It may have to wait long, but it will certainly come in use,
When the materials are all prepared and ready, the architects shall
appear.

I swear to you the architects shall appear without fall,
I swear to you they will understand you and justify you,
The greatest among them shall be he who best knows you, and encloses
all and is faithful to all,
He and the rest shall not forget you, they shall perceive that you
are not an iota less than they,
You shall be fully glorified in them.

[Tabac]

Please remember that he tended those wounded soldiers just like brothers when he was not required to do so.

It is very common, in literature as well in real life, for the homosexual in a battle area to care for the wounded. Just an example of Whitman's kindness, gentleness and generous concern for fellow human beings.

[emily655321]

It's "common" for all kind people to help others. I don't see how his sexuality is relevant.

[Eraser]

Hi,

I´m from Germany and my English is not the best. So I have to say sorry for my bad English!

The quotation "I went to the woods, because I wished to live deliberately..." is originally not from Walt Witman. It is a quotation from Henry David Thoreau`s novel "Walden". May be you remember the scenes from "Dead Poets Society".

Here you can convince yourself: an Excerpt from "Walden":
http://www.peterweircave.com/dps/walden.html

Bye

Ben from Germany

[emily655321]

Hi Ben! :) Welcome. You're right, I couldn't remember what quote was in the movie (we watched it in 10th grade English and I slept through most of it). But that's true, that one is from Walden. Thanks for the information. :nod:

Don't worry about your English. There are people here from all over the world. That's what makes it fun. :D And I would imagine it's a good way to refine language skills, too.

Where in Germany are you from? :banana:

[junbiaobill]

i am a Chinese from Republic of Chinese People. i love reading Whitman's poems.
i first read the Chinese translation of his poems in high shcool, at that time i
was begining to learen English. now i start to read the English text. My favourite is When Lilacs last in the Dooryard Bloom'd.

i only have a book of his poems, <Selected Lyrical Poems of Whitman, English-Chinese>. It is a little book, but some import pomes are seelcted, such as:
Song of Myself
I sing the Body Eletric
The Sleepers
Salut au Monde!
Song of the Open Road
Song of the Broad-Axe
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking
Song of the Banner at Daybreak
Pioneers! O Pioneer!
When Lilacs last in the Dooryard Bloom'd
Proud Music of the Storm
Passage to India
Song of the Redwood-Tree
Prayer of Columbus

That's all i know about Whitman.

Whitman's pome My Captain(Chinese translation) has once been selected in the high scholl Chinese textbook.

[IrishBlues]

Heres a great poem by Whitman:


O Me! O Life!


O ME! O life!... of the questions of these recurring;
Of the endless trains of the faithless—of cities fill’d with the foolish;
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light—of the objects mean—of the struggle ever renew’d;
Of the poor results of all—of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me; 5
Of the empty and useless years of the rest—with the rest me intertwined;
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?

Answer.

That you are here—that life exists, and identity;
That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.

[Kerry Wallace]

Yes, Whitman would be cool. I only read an excerpt of one of his poems in "Dead Poet Society", but I quote it all the time. I'd love to read something . . . wholesome . . . yeah . . .

Sorry dude but you quoted Henry David Thoreau and it goes like this: "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion."