The lines with “a”
a 461 Back to A
- p. iii, line 11[…] rooms of the house . . . perceives that it waits a little while in the door . . . that it was fittest for […]
- p. iii, line 23[…] the day and night. Here is not merely a nation but a teeming nation of nations. Here is action untied from strings […]
- p. iii, line 56[…] their self-esteem and wonderful sympathy—their susceptibility to a slight—the air they have of persons who never knew […]
- p. iii, line 68[…] of nature or the nation were monstrous without a corresponding largeness and generosity of the spirit of the citizen […]
- p. iii, line 77[…] suffice the poet. No reminiscences may suffice either. A live nation can always cut a deep mark and can have the best authority the cheapest […]
- p. iv, line 5[…] America is the race of races. Of them a bard is to be commensurate with a people. To him […]
- p. iv, line 6[…] them a bard is to be commensurate with a people. To him the other continents arrive as contributions . . . he […]
- p. v, line 12[…] High up out of reach he stands turning a concentrated light . . . he turns the pivot with his finger . . . he […]
- p. v, line 21[…] judge judges but as the sun falling around a helpless thing. As he sees the farthest he has the […]
- p. v, line 26[…] he is silent. He sees eternity less like a play with a prologue and denouement . . . . he sees eternity in men and women […]
- p. v, line 35[…] the noblest expressive genius. The poet sees for a certainty how one not a great artist may be just […]
- p. v, line 36[…] poet sees for a certainty how one not a great artist may be just as sacred and perfect as […]
- p. v, line 47[…] or cunning or exclusiveness or the ignominy of a nativity or color or delusion of hell or the necessity […]
- p. v, line 54[…] grandeur and life of the universe. He is a seer . . . . he is individual . . . he is complete in himself . . . . the […]
- p. v, line 65[…] and foreruns the identities of the spiritual world. A single glance of it mocks all the investigations of man […]
- p. v, line 70[…] you have once just opened the space of a peachpit and given audience to far and near and to […]
- p. v, line 88[…] of the unfailing perception of beauty and of a residence of the poetic in outdoor people. They can never […]
- p. v, line 96[…] of rhyme is that it drops seeds of a sweeter and more luxuriant rhyme, and of uniformity that it […]
- p. v, line 102[…] unerringly and loosely as lilacs or roses on a bush, and take shapes as compact as the shapes of […]
- p. v, line 110[…] dependent. All beauty comes from beautiful blood and a beautiful brain. If the greatnesses are in conjunction in a […]
- p. v, line 111[…] brain. If the greatnesses are in conjunction in a man or woman it is enough . . . . the fact will prevail […]
- p. v, line 114[…] the universe . . . . but the gaggery and gilt of a million years will not prevail. Who troubles himself about his […]
- p. vi, line 14[…] own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in […]
- p. vi, line 35[…] with in the sight of the daybreak or a scene of the winter woods or the presence of children […]
- p. vi, line 37[…] or with his arm round the neck of a man or woman. His love above all love has leisure […]
- p. vi, line 61[…] is profuse and impartial . . . that there is not a minute of the light or dark nor an acre of […]
- p. vi, line 95[…] are for or what is beyond . . . . he glows a moment on the extremest verge. He is most wonderful in […]
- p. vii, line 17[…] shall contemplate him. The greatest poet has less a marked style and is more the channel of thoughts and […]
- p. vii, line 30[…] or portray shall go from my composition without a shred of my composition. You shall stand by my side […]
- p. vii, line 36[…] great poets will be proved by their unconstraint. A heroic person walks at his ease through and out of […]
- p. vii, line 120[…] it or educed out of it departs as a dream.What has ever happened . . . . what happens and whatever may […]
- p. viii, line 31[…] of no account. Whatever would put God in a poem or system of philosophy as contending against some being […]
- p. viii, line 69[…] knows no discouragement. The battle rages with many a loud alarm and frequent advance and retreat . . . . the enemy triumphs […]
- p. viii, line 99[…] over the word and deed that put back a helpless innocent person into the gripe of the gripers or […]
- p. viii, line 108[…] the judiciary or congress or the presidency, obtain a response of love and natural deference from the people whether […]
- p. viii, line 110[…] or no . . . . when it is better to be a bound booby and rogue in office at a high salary […]
- p. viii, line 112[…] a bound booby and rogue in office at a high salary than the poorest free mechanic or farmer with […]
- p. viii, line 115[…] unmoved from his head and firm eyes and a candid and generous heart . . . . and when servility by town or […]
- p. viii, line 117[…] or the federal government or any oppression on a largescale or small scale can be tried on without its […]
- p. ix, line 16[…] object or condition or combination or process exhibits a beauty . . . . the multiplication table its—old age its—the carpenter's […]
- p. ix, line 30[…] of the library is not he who holds a legal title to it having bought and paid for it […]
- p. ix, line 48[…] creates unearthly beings or places or contingencies is a nuisance and revolt. Of the human form especially it is […]
- p. ix, line 51[…] must never be made ridiculous. Of ornaments to a work nothing outre can be allowed . . but those ornaments can […]
- p. ix, line 66[…] justification of perfect personal candor. Then folks echo a new cheap joy and a divine voice leaping from their […]
- p. ix, line 68[…] Then folks echo a new cheap joy and a divine voice leaping from their brains: How beautiful is candor […]
- p. ix, line 75[…] that never since our earth gathered itself in a mass have deceit or subterfuge or prevarication attracted its smallest […]
- p. ix, line 77[…] its smallest particle or the faintest tinge of a shade—and that through the enveloping wealth and rank of […]
- p. ix, line 78[…] that through the enveloping wealth and rank of a state or the whole republic of states a sneak or […]
- p. ix, line 79[…] a state or the whole republic of states a sneak or sly person shall be discovered and despised . . . . and […]
- p. ix, line 83[…] the loving nod of the soul is only a fœtid puff . . . . and there never grew up in any of […]
- p. ix, line 92[…] in any process of formation or reformation anywhere, a being whose instinct hated the truth […]
- p. ix, line 97[…] children, large alimentiveness and destructiveness and causality, with a perfect sense of the oneness of nature and the propriety […]
- p. ix, line 108[…] well for himself and his family and completed a lawful life without debt or crime. The greatest poet sees […]
- p. x, line 4[…] and harvest of it. Beyond the independence of a little sum laid aside for burial-money, and of a few […]
- p. x, line 5[…] little sum laid aside for burial-money, and of a few clapboards around and shingles overhead on a lot of […]
- p. x, line 6[…] a few clapboards around and shingles overhead on a lot of American soil owned, and the easy dollars that […]
- p. x, line 9[…] the melancholy prudence of the abandonment of such a great being as a man is to the toss and pallor of years of […]
- p. x, line 18[…] sickness and desperate revolt at the close of a life without elevation or naivete, and the ghastly chatter of […]
- p. x, line 20[…] elevation or naivete, and the ghastly chatter of a death without serenity or majesty, is the great fraud upon […]
- p. x, line 32[…] What is wisdom that fills the thinness of a year or seventy or eighty years to wisdom spaced out […]
- p. x, line 34[…] spaced out by ages and coming back at a certain time with strong reinforcements and rich presents and the […]
- p. x, line 38[…] else has reference to what ensues. All that a person does or thinks is of consequence. Not a move […]
- p. x, line 39[…] person does or thinks is of consequence. Not a move can a man or woman make that affects him or her in […]
- p. x, line 40[…] woman make that affects him or her in a day or a month or any part of the direct […]
- p. x, line 41[…] affects him or her in a day or a month or any part of the direct lifetime or the […]
- p. x, line 70[…] the last expiration out of it, all that a male or female does that is vigorous and benevolent and […]
- p. x, line 88[…] life for the good old cause, or for a friend's sake or opinion's sake . . . all pains of enthusiasts scoffed […]
- p. xi, line 5[…] so backward without the farthest mentionable spot coming a bit nearer the beginning than any other spot. . . . . Whatever satisfies […]
- p. xi, line 65A great poem is for ages and ages in common and […]
- p. xi, line 67[…] complexions and all departments and sects and for a woman as much as a man and a man as much as a woman. A great poem is […]
- p. xi, line 69[…] a man and a man as much as a woman. A great poem is no finish to a man […]
- p. xi, line 70[…] and a man as much as a woman. A great poem is no finish to a man or woman […]
- p. xi, line 71[…] woman. A great poem is no finish to a man or woman but rather a beginning. Has any one fancied he could sit at last […]
- p. xi, line 86[…] one of the meanings. Now there shall be a man cohered out of tumult and chaos . . . . the elder encourages […]
- p. xi, line 93[…] work is done. They may wait awhile . . perhaps a generation or two . . dropping off by degrees. A superior breed […]
- p. xi, line 94[…] a generation or two . . dropping off by degrees. A superior breed shall take their place . . . . the gangs of kosmos […]
- p. xi, line 96[…] and prophets en masse shall take their place. A new order shall arise and they shall be the priests […]
- p. xi, line 113[…] and full enough. On the tough stock of a race who through all change of circumstance was never withoutthe […]
- p. xii, line 20[…] from the mouths of the people, it throbs a live interrogation in every freeman's and freewoman's heart after that […]
- p. xii, line 30[…] for any individual or nation that serves for a part of my materials. Does this answer? or is it […]
- p. xii, line 39[…] help breed one goodshaped and wellhung man, and a woman to be his perfect and independent mate? Does it […]
- p. xii, line 66[…] advance half-way. An individual is as superb as a nation when he has the qualities which make a superb […]
- p. xii, line 67[…] nation when he has the qualities which make a superb nation. The soul of the largest and wealthiest and […]
- p. xii, line 72[…] true the other is true. The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as […]
- p. 13, line 5I lean and loafe at my ease . . . . observing a spear of summer grass.
- p. 13, line 9The atmosphere is not a perfume . . . . it has no taste of the distillation . . . . it is odorless,
- p. 13, line 18A few light kisses . . . . a few embraces . . . . a reaching around of arms,
- p. 14, line 1Have you reckoned a thousand acres much? Have you reckoned the earth much?
- p. 14, line 18Always a knit of identity . . . . always distinction . . . . always a breed of life.
- p. 14, line 21Stout as a horse, affectionate, haughty, electrical,
- p. 14, line 29Not an inch nor a particle of an inch is vile, and none shall be less familiar than the rest.
- p. 15, line 1As God comes a loving bedfellow and sleeps at my side all night and close on the peep of the day,
- p. 15, line 5And forthwith cipher and show me to a cent,
- p. 15, line 27I mind how we lay in June, such a transparent summer morning;
- p. 16, line 3And that a kelson of the creation is love;
- p. 16, line 7A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands;
- p. 16, line 11A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropped,
- p. 16, line 13Or I guess the grass is itself a child . . . . the produced babe of the vegetation.
- p. 16, line 14Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,
- p. 17, line 28I lift the gauze and look a long time, and silently brush away flies with my hand.
- p. 18, line 25In the late afternoon choosing a safe spot to pass the night,
- p. 18, line 26Kindling a fire and broiling the freshkilled game,
- p. 18, line 31I tucked my trowser-ends in my boots and went and had a good time,
- p. 18, line 33I saw the marriage of the trapper in the open air in the far-west . . . . the bride was a red girl,
- p. 19, line 2On a bank lounged the trapper . . . . he was dressed mostly in skins . . . . his luxuriant beard and curls protected his neck,
- p. 19, line 8And went where he sat on a log, and led him in and assured him,
- p. 19, line 9And brought water and filled a tub for his sweated body and bruised feet,
- p. 19, line 10And gave him a room that entered from my own, and gave him some coarse clean clothes,
- p. 19, line 13He staid with me a week before he was recuperated and passed north,
- p. 20, line 6Each has his main-sledge . . . . they are all out . . . . there is a great heat in the fire.
- p. 21, line 8The press of my foot to the earth springs a hundred affections,
- p. 21, line 22The pilot seizes the king-pin, he heaves down with a strong arm,
- p. 21, line 27The farmer stops by the bars of a Sunday and looks at the oats and rye,
- p. 21, line 28The lunatic is carried at last to the asylum a confirmed case,
- p. 21, line 33What is removed drops horribly in a pail;
- p. 22, line 15The young sister holds out the skein, the elder sister winds it off in a ball and stops now and then for the knots,
- p. 22, line 16The one-year wife is recovering and happy, a week ago she bore her first child,
- p. 22, line 32The President holds a cabinet council, he is surrounded by the great secretaries,
- p. 23, line 23Maternal as well as paternal, a child as well as a man,
- p. 23, line 26A southerner soon as a northerner, a planter nonchalant and hospitable,
- p. 23, line 27A Yankee bound my own way . . . . ready for trade . . . . my joints the limberest joints on earth and the sternest joints on earth,
- p. 23, line 28A Kentuckian walking the vale of the Elkhorn in my deerskin leggings,
- p. 23, line 29A boatman over the lakes or bays or along coasts . . . . a Hoosier, a Badger, a Buckeye,
- p. 23, line 30A Louisianian or Georgian, a poke-easy from sandhills and pines,
- p. 24, line 2A learner with the simplest, a teacher of the thoughtfulest,
- p. 24, line 3A novice beginning experient of myriads of seasons,
- p. 24, line 5Not merely of the New World but of Africa Europe or Asia . . . . a wandering savage,
- p. 24, line 6A farmer, mechanic, or artist . . . . a gentleman, sailor, lover or quaker,
- p. 24, line 7A prisoner, fancy-man, rowdy, lawyer, physician or priest.
- p. 24, line 26This is the trill of a thousand clear cornets and scream of the octave flute and strike of triangles.
- p. 24, line 27I play not a march for victors only . . . . I play great marches for conquered and slain persons.
- p. 25, line 6I will not have a single person slighted or left away,
- p. 25, line 9This is the press of a bashful hand . . . . this is the float and odor of hair,
- p. 25, line 14Well I have . . . . for the April rain has, and the mica on the side of a rock has.
- p. 25, line 22What is a man anyhow? What am I? and what are you?
- p. 25, line 27That life is a suck and a sell, and nothing remains at the end but threadbare crape and tears.
- p. 26, line 1I have pried through the strata and analyzed to a hair,
- p. 26, line 3In all people I see myself, none more and not one a barleycorn less,
- p. 26, line 9I know this orbit of mine cannot be swept by a carpenter's compass,
- p. 26, line 10I know I shall not pass like a child's carlacue cut with a burnt stick at night.
- p. 26, line 27The first I graft and increase upon myself . . . . the latter I translate into a new tongue.
- p. 26, line 29And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man,
- p. 26, line 31I chant a new chant of dilation or pride,
- p. 27, line 2It is a trifle . . . . they will more than arrive there every one, and still pass on.
- p. 27, line 23We must have a turn together . . . . I undress . . . . hurry me out of sight of the land,
- p. 28, line 1Washes and razors for foofoos . . . . for me freckles and a bristling beard.
- p. 28, line 9Witnesses of us . . . . one side a balance and the antipodal side a balance,
- p. 28, line 14What behaved well in the past or behaves well today is not such a wonder,
- p. 28, line 15The wonder is always and always how there can be a mean man or an infidel.
- p. 28, line 17And mine a word of the modern . . . . a word en masse.
- p. 28, line 18A word of the faith that never balks,
- p. 28, line 20A word of reality . . . . materialism first and last imbueing.
- p. 28, line 23This is the lexicographer or chemist . . . . this made a grammar of the old cartouches,
- p. 28, line 25This is the geologist, and this works with the scalpel, and this is a mathematician.
- p. 29, line 3Walt Whitman, an American, one of the roughs, a kosmos,
- p. 29, line 29Seeing hearing and feeling are miracles, and each part and tag of me is a miracle.
- p. 30, line 23A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.
- p. 31, line 21I think I will do nothing for a long time but listen,
- p. 31, line 24I hear the sound of the human voice . . . . a sound I love,
- p. 31, line 28The judge with hands tight to the desk, his shaky lips pronouncing a death-sentence,
- p. 32, line 7I hear the chorus . . . . it is a grand-opera . . . . this indeed is music!
- p. 32, line 8A tenor large and fresh as the creation fills me,
- p. 32, line 26Is this then a touch? . . . . quivering me to a new identity,
- p. 32, line 27Flames and ether making a rush for my veins,
- p. 32, line 33Depriving me of my best as for a purpose,
- p. 33, line 5Then all uniting to stand on a headland and worry me.
- p. 33, line 7They have left me helpless to a red marauder,
- p. 33, line 24What is less or more than a touch?
- p. 33, line 29A minute and a drop of me settle my brain;
- p. 33, line 31And a compend of compends is the meat of a man or woman,
- p. 33, line 32And a summit and flower there is the feeling they have for each other,
- p. 34, line 1I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journeywork of the stars,
- p. 34, line 2And the pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and the egg of the wren,
- p. 34, line 3And the tree-toad is a chef-d'ouvre for the highest,
- p. 34, line 7And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels,
- p. 35, line 5A gigantic beauty of a stallion, fresh and responsive to my caresses,
- p. 35, line 10I but use you a moment and then I resign you stallion . . . . and do not need your paces, and outgallop them,
- p. 35, line 21Prospecting . . . . gold-digging . . . . girdling the trees of a new purchase,
- p. 35, line 23Where the panther walks to and fro on a limb overhead . . . . where the buck turns furiously at the hunter,
- p. 35, line 24Where the rattlesnake suns his flabby length on a rock . . . . where the otter is feeding on fish,
- p. 36, line 2Over the white and brown buckwheat, a hummer and a buzzer there with the rest,
- p. 36, line 18Where the ground-shark's fin cuts like a black chip out of the water,
- p. 36, line 23Under Niagara, the cataract falling like a veil over my countenance;
- p. 36, line 24Upon a door-step . . . . upon the horse-block of hard wood outside,
- p. 36, line 25Upon the race-course, or enjoying pic-nics or jigs or a good game of base-ball,
- p. 36, line 27At the cider-mill, tasting the sweet of the brown sqush . . . . sucking the juice through a straw,
- p. 37, line 2Where the herds of buffalo make a crawling spread of the square miles far and near;
- p. 37, line 5Where beehives range on a gray bench in the garden half-hid by the high weeds;
- p. 37, line 6Where the band-necked partridges roost in a ring on the ground with their heads out;
- p. 37, line 7Where burial coaches enter the arched gates of a cemetery;
- p. 37, line 25By the cot in the hospital reaching lemonade to a feverish patient,
- p. 37, line 26By the coffined corpse when all is still, examining with a candle;
- p. 37, line 30Solitary at midnight in my back yard, my thoughts gone from me a long while,
- p. 38, line 12I anchor my ship for a little while only,
- p. 38, line 14I go hunting polar furs and the seal . . . . leaping chasms with a pike-pointed staff . . . . clinging to topples of brittle and blue.
- p. 38, line 22I am a free companion . . . . I bivouac by invading watchfires.
- p. 39, line 3And chalked in large letters on a board, Be of good cheer, We will not desert you;
- p. 39, line 10The mother condemned for a witch and burnt with dry wood, and her children gazing on;
- p. 39, line 23My hurt turns livid upon me as I lean on a cane and observe.
- p. 40, line 16Hear now the the tale of a jetblack sunrise,
- p. 40, line 18Retreating they had formed in a hollow square with their baggage for breastworks,
- p. 40, line 23Matchless with a horse, a rifle, a song, a supper or a courtship,
- p. 40, line 26Not a single one over thirty years of age.
- p. 40, line 30Some made a mad and helpless rush . . . . some stood stark and straight,
- p. 40, line 31A few fell at once, shot in the temple or heart . . . . the living and dead lay together,
- p. 41, line 4A youth not seventeen years old seized his assassin till two more came to release him,
- p. 41, line 8And that was a jetblack sunrise.
- p. 41, line 19The master-at-arms loosing the prisoners confined in the after-hold to give them a chance for themselves.
- p. 42, line 3Not a moment's cease,
- p. 42, line 13The captain on the quarter deck coldly giving his orders through a countenance white as a sheet,
- p. 43, line 6Not a mutineer walks handcuffed to the jail, but I am handcuffed to him and walk by his side,
- p. 43, line 8Not a youngster is taken for larceny, but I go up too and am tried and sentenced.
- p. 43, line 9Not a cholera patient lies at the last gasp, but I also lie at the last gasp,
- p. 43, line 16Give me a little time beyond my cuffed head and slumbers and dreams and gaping,
- p. 43, line 17I discover myself on a verge of the usual mistake.
- p. 43, line 20That I could look with a separate look on my own crucifixion and bloody crowning!
- p. 44, line 23Behold I do not give lectures or a little charity,
- p. 45, line 3To a drudge of the cottonfields or emptier of privies I lean . . . . on his right cheek I put the family kiss,
- p. 45, line 26The most they offer for mankind and eternity less than a spirt of my own seminal wet,
- p. 45, line 30In my portfolio placing Manito loose, and Allah on a leaf, and the crucifix engraved,
- p. 45, line 32Honestly taking them all for what they are worth, and not a cent more,
- p. 46, line 3Discovering as much or more in a framer framing a house,
- p. 46, line 5Not objecting to special revelations . . . . considering a curl of smoke or a hair on the back of my hand as curious as any revelation;
- p. 46, line 10Three scythes at harvest whizzing in a row from three lusty angels with shirts bagged out at their waists;
- p. 46, line 19By my life-lumps! becoming already a creator!
- p. 46, line 21. . . . A call in the midst of the crowd,
- p. 47, line 13A few idly owning, and they the wheat continually claiming.
- p. 47, line 26My words are words of a questioning, and to indicate reality;
- p. 48, line 12Making a fetish of the first rock or stump . . . . powowing with sticks in the circle of obis,
- p. 48, line 14Dancing yet through the streets in a phallic procession . . . . rapt and austere in the woods, a gymnosophist,
- p. 48, line 18To the mass kneeling—to the puritan's prayer rising—sitting patiently in a pew,
- p. 48, line 23I turn and talk like a man leaving charges before a journey.
- p. 49, line 6Each who passes is considered, and each who stops is considered, and not a single one can it fail.
- p. 50, line 31Or while I swim in the bath . . . . or drink from the pump at the corner . . . . or the curtain is down at the opera . . . . or I glimpse at a woman's face in the railroad car;
- p. 51, line 12He joins with his partners a group of superior circuit,
- p. 51, line 15If I and you and the worlds and all beneath or upon their surfaces, and all the palpable life, were this moment reduced back to a pallid float, it would not avail in the long run,
- p. 51, line 18A few quadrillions of eras, a few octillions of cubic leagues, do not hazard the span, or make it impatient,
- p. 51, line 19They are but parts . . . . any thing is but a part.
- p. 51, line 24I tramp a perpetual journey,
- p. 51, line 25My signs are a rain-proof coat and good shoes and a staff cut from the woods;
- p. 51, line 28I lead no man to a dinner-table or library or exchange,
- p. 52, line 1But each man and each woman of you I lead upon a knoll,
- p. 52, line 3My right hand points to landscapes of continents, and a plain public road.
- p. 52, line 14This day before dawn I ascended a hill and looked at the crowded heaven,
- p. 52, line 25Long have you timidly waded, holding a plank by the shore,
- p. 52, line 26Now I will you to be a bold swimmer,
- p. 52, line 29He that by me spreads a wider breast than my own proves the width of my own,
- p. 53, line 1The boy I love, the same becomes a man not through derived power but in his own right,
- p. 53, line 4Unrequited love or a slight cutting him worse than a wound cuts,
- p. 53, line 5First rate to ride, to fight, to hit the bull's eye, to sail a skiff, to sing a song or play on the banjo,
- p. 53, line 10I do not say these things for a dollar, or to fill up the time while I wait for a boat;
- p. 53, line 13I swear I will never mention love or death inside a house,
- p. 53, line 16The nearest gnat is an explanation and a drop or the motion of waves a key,
- p. 53, line 27The girl and the wife rest the needle a moment and forget where they are,
- p. 53, line 32And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral, dressed in his shroud,
- p. 54, line 1And I or you pocketless of a dime may purchase the pick of the earth,
- p. 54, line 2And to glance with an eye or show a bean in its pod confounds the learning of all times,
- p. 54, line 3And there is no trade or employment but the young man following it may become a hero,
- p. 54, line 4And there is no object so soft but it makes a hub for the wheeled universe,
- p. 54, line 5And any man or woman shall stand cool and supercilious before a million universes.
- p. 55, line 7I do not know it . . . . it is without name . . . . it is a word unsaid,
- p. 55, line 18Talk honestly, for no one else hears you, and I stay only a minute longer.
- p. 55, line 27I too am not a bit tamed . . . . I too am untranslatable,
- p. 57, line 12A man like me, and never the usual terms.
- p. 57, line 13Neither a servant nor a master am I,
- p. 57, line 14I take no sooner a large price than a small price . . . . I will have my own whoever enjoys me,
- p. 57, line 16If you are a workman or workwoman I stand as nigh as the nighest that works in the same shop,
- p. 58, line 5If you see a good deal remarkable in me I see just as much remarkable in you.
- p. 58, line 9Because you are greasy or pimpled—or that you was once drunk, or a thief, or diseased, or rheumatic, or a prostitute—or are so now—or from frivolity or impotence—or that you are no scholar, and never saw your name in print . . . . do you give in that you are any less immortal?
- p. 58, line 14I see not merely that you are polite or whitefaced . . . . married or single . . . . citizens of old states or citizens of new states . . . . eminent in some profession . . . . a lady or gentleman in a parlor . . . . or dressed in the jail uniform . . . . or pulpit uniform,
- p. 59, line 2The naive . . . . the simple and hardy . . . . he going to the polls to vote . . . . he who has a good time, and he who has a bad time;
- p. 59, line 11It is not to be put in a book . . . . it is not in this book,
- p. 59, line 20And that the enclosing purport of us here is not a speculation, or bon-mot or reconnoissance,
- p. 59, line 21And that it is not something which by luck may turn out well for us, and without luck must be a failure for us,
- p. 59, line 22And not something which may yet be retracted in a certain contingency.
- p. 60, line 1Have you reckoned them as mainly for a trade or farmwork? or for the profits of a store? or to achieve yourself a position? or to fill a gentleman's leisure or a lady's leisure?
- p. 60, line 2Have you reckoned the landscape took substance and form that it might be painted in a picture?
- p. 60, line 10I rate them as high as the highest . . . . but a child born of a woman and man I rate beyond all rate.
- p. 61, line 7Can each see the signs of the best by a look in the lookingglass? Is there nothing greater or more?
- p. 63, line 8The snowplough and two engines pushing it . . . . the ride in the express train of only one car . . . . the swift go through a howling storm:
- p. 64, line 9When a university course convinces like a slumbering woman and child convince,
- p. 65, line 10Not a day passes . . not a minute or second without an accouchement;
- p. 65, line 11Not a day passes . . not a minute or second without a corpse.
- p. 66, line 2But without eyesight lingers a different living and looks curiously on the corpse.
- p. 66, line 7I see one building the house that serves him a few years . . . . or seventy or eighty years at most;
- p. 66, line 13A gray discouraged sky overhead . . . . the short last daylight of December,
- p. 66, line 14A hearse and stages . . . . other vehicles give place,
- p. 66, line 19The earth is swiftly shovelled in . . . . a minute . . no one moves or speaks . . . . it is done,
- p. 66, line 21He was a goodfellow,
- p. 66, line 23Witty, sensitive to a slight, ready with life or death for a friend,
- p. 66, line 25Had known what it was to be flush . . grew lowspirited toward the last . . sickened . . was helped by a contribution,
- p. 67, line 6The vulgar and the refined . . . . what you call sin and what you call goodness . . to think how wide a difference;
- p. 67, line 10Do you enjoy yourself in the city? or engaged in business? or planning a nomination and election? or with your wife and family?
- p. 68, line 24A zambo or a foreheadless Crowfoot or a Camanche is not nothing,
- p. 69, line 8We cannot be stopped at a given point . . . . that is no satisfaction;
- p. 69, line 9To show us a good thing or a few good things for a space of time—that is no satisfaction;
- p. 71, line 8I pass my hands soothingly to and fro a few inches from them;
- p. 71, line 15I am a dance . . . . Play up there! the fit is whirling me fast.
- p. 71, line 21I reckon I am their boss, and they make me a pet besides,
- p. 71, line 24Onward we move, a gay gang of blackguards with mirthshouting music and wild-flapping pennants of joy.
- p. 72, line 1I roll myself upon you as upon a bed . . . . I resign myself to the dusk.
- p. 72, line 18The cloth laps a first sweet eating and drinking,
- p. 72, line 25I sit low in a strawbottom chair and carefully darn my grandson's stockings.
- p. 72, line 28A shroud I see—and I am the shroud . . . . I wrap a body and lie in the coffin;
- p. 73, line 3I see a beautiful gigantic swimmer swimming naked through the eddies of the sea,
- p. 73, line 15Confused . . . . a pastreading . . . . another, but with darkness yet.
- p. 73, line 22In the morning I help pick up the dead and lay them in rows in a barn.
- p. 73, line 24Washington stands inside the lines . . he stands on the entrenched hills amid a crowd of officers,
- p. 74, line 5Of when she was a nearly grown girl living home with her parents on the old homestead.
- p. 74, line 6A red squaw came one breakfasttime to the old homestead,
- p. 74, line 7On her back she carried a bundle of rushes for rushbottoming chairs;
- p. 74, line 14She made her sit on a bench by the jamb of the fireplace . . . . she cooked food for her,
- p. 74, line 18All the week she thought of her . . . . she watched for her many a month,
- p. 74, line 19She remembered her many a winter and many a summer,
- p. 74, line 29A show of the summer softness . . . . a contact of something unseen . . . . an amour of the light and air;
- p. 77, line 5I will stop only a time with the night . . . . and rise betimes.
- p. 77, line 15The expression of a wellmade man appears not only in his face,
- p. 78, line 6Framers bare-armed framing a house . . hoisting the beams in their places . . or using the mallet and mortising-chisel,
- p. 78, line 10The female soothing a child . . . . the farmer's daughter in the garden or cowyard,
- p. 78, line 20I knew a man . . . . he was a common farmer . . . . he was the father of five sons . . . and in them were the fathers of sons . . . and in them were the fathers of sons.
- p. 79, line 3He was a frequent gunner and fisher . . . he sailed his boat himself . . . he had a fine one presented to him by a shipjoiner . . . . he had fowling-pieces, presented to him by men that loved him;
- p. 79, line 9To pass among them . . to touch any one . . . . to rest my arm ever so lightly round his or her neck for a moment . . . . what is this then?
- p. 79, line 10I do not ask any more delight . . . . I swim in it as in a sea.
- p. 79, line 14A divine nimbus exhales from it from head to foot,
- p. 79, line 16I am drawn by its breath as if I were no more than a helpless vapor . . . . all falls aside but myself and it,
- p. 80, line 5As I see my soul reflected in nature . . . . as I see through a mist one with inexpressible completeness and beauty . . . . see the bent head and arms folded over the breast . . . . the female I see,
- p. 80, line 16Is it a slave? Is it one of the dullfaced immigrants just landed on the wharf?
- p. 80, line 19All is a procession,
- p. 80, line 20The universe is a procession with measured and beautiful motion.
- p. 80, line 22Do you suppose you have a right to a good sight . . . and he or she has no right to a sight?
- p. 80, line 24A slave at auction!
- p. 81, line 20A woman at auction,
- p. 81, line 26Have you ever loved a woman?
- p. 82, line 4And the glory and sweet of a man is the token of manhood untainted,
- p. 82, line 5And in man or woman a clean strong firmfibred body is beautiful as the most beautiful face.
- p. 83, line 2The face as of a dream . . . . the face of an immobile rock,
- p. 83, line 3The face withdrawn of its good and bad . . a castrated face,
- p. 83, line 4A wild hawk . . his wings clipped by the clipper,
- p. 83, line 5A stallion that yielded at last to the thongs and knife of the gelder.
- p. 83, line 9This now is too lamentable a face for a man;
- p. 83, line 12This face is a dog's snout sniffing for garbage;
- p. 83, line 14This face is a haze more chill than the arctic sea,
- p. 83, line 16This is a face of bitter herbs . . . . this an emetic . . . . they need no label,
- p. 83, line 23And this is some murderer's knife with a halfpulled scabbard.
- p. 84, line 7And I shall look again in a score or two of ages,
- p. 84, line 14This face is a lifeboat;
- p. 84, line 17This face of a healthy honest boy is the programme of all good.
- p. 84, line 21In each house is the ovum . . . . it comes forth after a thousand years.
- p. 84, line 25This is a fullgrown lily's face,
- p. 85, line 7Behold a woman!
- p. 85, line 16A YOUNG man came to me with a message from his brother,
- p. 86, line 11A man is a summons and challenge,
- p. 87, line 2Then the mechanics take him for a mechanic,
- p. 87, line 3And the soldiers suppose him to be a captain . . . . and the sailors that he has followed the sea,
- p. 87, line 9A Jew to the Jew he seems . . . . a Russ to the Russ . . . . usual and near . . removed from none.
- p. 87, line 23O hope and faith! O aching close of lives! O many a sickened heart!
- p. 88, line 5For many a promise sworn by royal lips, And broken, and laughed at in the breaking,
- p. 88, line 10Yet behind all, lo, a Shape,
- p. 88, line 14One finger pointed high over the top, like the head of a snake appears.
- p. 88, line 24Not a grave of the murdered for freedom but grows seed for freedom . . . . in its turn to bear seed,
- p. 88, line 26Not a disembodied spirit can the weapons of tyrants let loose,
- p. 89, line 5Here's a good place at the corner . . . . I must stand and see the show.
- p. 89, line 9A fog follows . . . . antiques of the same come limping,
- p. 89, line 11Why this is a show! It has called the dead out of the earth,
- p. 89, line 28I will whisper it to the Mayor . . . . he shall send a committee to England,
- p. 89, line 29They shall get a grant from the Parliament, and go with a cart to the royal vault,
- p. 90, line 1Dig out King George's coffin . . . . unwrap him quick from the graveclothes . . . . box up his bones for a journey:
- p. 90, line 2Find a swift Yankee clipper . . . . here is freight for you blackbellied clipper,
- p. 90, line 6Here is a centrepiece for them:
- p. 90, line 9And clap the skull on top of the ribs, and clap a crown on top of the skull.
- p. 90, line 11Stick your hands in your pockets Jonathan . . . . you are a made man from this day,
- p. 90, line 13THERE was a child went forth every day,
- p. 90, line 15And that object became part of him for the day or a certain part of the day . . . . or for many years or stretching cycles of years.
- p. 91, line 7The mother with mild words . . . . clean her cap and gown . . . . a wholesome odor falling off her person and clothes as she walks by:
- p. 92, line 5It is no lesson . . . . it lets down the bars to a good lesson,
- p. 92, line 13It is no little matter, this round and delicious globe, moving so exactly in its orbit forever and ever, without one jolt or the untruth of a single second;
- p. 92, line 15Nor planned and built one thing after another, as an architect plans and builds a house.
- p. 92, line 16I do not think seventy years is the time of a man or woman,
- p. 92, line 17Nor that seventy millions of years is the time of a man or woman,
- p. 92, line 21And how I was not palpable once but am now . . . . and was born on the last day of May 1819 . . . . and passed from a babe in the creeping trance of three summers and three winters to articulate and walk . . . . are all equally wonderful.
- p. 92, line 22And that I grew six feet high . . . . and that I have become a man thirty-six years old in 1855 . . . . and that I am here anyhow—are all equally wonderful;
- p. 94, line 22Great is the English brood . . . . What brood has so vast a destiny as the English?
- p. 95, line 14Do you call that a paradox? It certainly is a paradox.