Leaves of Grass: The Original 1855 Edition (Illustrated)

by Walt Whitman

have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body. .

He shall know that the ground is always ready ploughed and manured . .

The known universe has one complete lover and that is the greatest

His love above all love has leisure and expanse . .

Nothing can jar him . . . . suffering and darkness cannot—death and fear cannot.

The sea is not surer of the shore or the shore of the sea than he is of the fruition of his love and of all perfection and beauty. The

The greatest poet does not moralize or make applications of morals . . . he knows the soul. The soul has that measureless pride which consists in never acknowledging any lessons but its own.

The greatest poet has lain close betwixt both and they are vital in his style and thoughts.

The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters is simplicity. Nothing is better than simplicity . . . . nothing can make up for excess or for the lack of definiteness.