Tao Te Ching
Leaves of Grass
By Walt Whitman
Beginning with it’s first, self-published edition in 1855 with only 12 poems until it’s 1892 version with over 400 poems in Whitman’s last year of life, Leaves of Grass captivated the world’s imagination. In praise of nature, experience, and the sacredness of the human experience; he pioneered new forms, captured the lessons needed for the times and expressed them in ways common people could understand. The US government during WWII gave soldiers copies of these poems to inspired them in their protection of American values and culture. With the themes of universal acceptance, identification with all and with everyone’s experience, the simultaneous rejecting and respecting of all beliefs; this magnificent work in may ways continues Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching; and, as Will Durant writes, “What Homer had been to Greece, Virgil to Rome, Dante to Italy, Shakespeare to England, this was to be for America.”
Quotes from Leaves of Grass
“Behold a woman! The old face of the mother of many children, clearer and more beautiful than the sky. The sun just shines on her old white head. The melodious character of the earth, the finish beyond which philosophy cannot go and does not wish to go, the justified mother of men”
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“Come Muse, migrate from Greece and Ionia...
I heard that you asked for something to prove this puzzle, the New World,
And to define America, her athletic democracy;
Therefore I send you my poems”
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“I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.”
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“If life and the soul are sacred, the human body is sacred;
And in man or woman, a clean strong firmfibred body is beautiful as the most beautiful face...
Who degrades or defiles the living human body is cursed”
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“Liberty is poorly served by men whose good intent is quelled from one failure or two failures or any number of failures”
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“Liberty relies upon itself, invites no one, promises nothing, sits in calmness and light, is positive and composed, and knows no discouragement.”
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“Long enough have you dream'd contemptible dreams,
Now I wash the gum from your eyes,
You must habit yourself to the dazzle of the light
and of every moment of your life”
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“O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done…
Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
But I with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.”
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“The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity.”
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“We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. So medicine, law, business, engineering... these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love... these are what we stay alive for.”
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Quotes about Leaves of Grass (3 quotes)
“[Whitman's] all-embracing words lock arms with workers and farmers, Negroes and whites, Asiatics and Europeans, serfs, and free men, beaming democracy to all”
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“Why did Emerson endorse Leaves of Grass... Emerson, the symbol of American idealism and intellectual and moral probity? Whitman himself knew that the book was 'an incongruous hash of mud and gold.'”
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“I am not blind to the worth of the wonderful give of Leaves of Grass. I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom has yet contributed... I rubbed my eyes a little to see if this sunbeam were no illusion; for the solid sense of the book is a sober certainty”
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