Whitman, as Printed

‹ Leaves of Grass, 1855

The lines with “but”

but 114 Back to B

  1. p. iii, line 23[…] and night. Here is not merely a nation but a teeming nation of nations. Here is action untied from […]
  2. p. iii, line 41Other states indicate themselves in their deputies . . . . but the genius of the United States is not best or […]
  3. p. iii, line 45[…] parlors, nor even in its newspapers or inventors . . . but always most in the common people. Their manners speech dress […]
  4. p. iv, line 99[…] poet is the equable man. Not in him but off from him things are grotesque or eccentric or fail […]
  5. p. v, line 21[…] judgment. He judges not as the judge judges but as the sun falling around a helpless thing. As he […]
  6. p. v, line 38[…] destroy or remould is freely used by him but never the power of attack. What is past is past […]
  7. p. v, line 63[…] of the eyesight? The other senses corroborate themselves, but this is removed from any proof but its own and foreruns the identities of the spiritual world […]
  8. p. v, line 76[…] forests mountains and rivers, are not small themes . . . but folks expect of the poet to indicate more than the […]
  9. p. v, line 91[…] be assisted by poets to perceive . . . some may but they never can. The poetic quality is not marshalled in […]
  10. p. v, line 94[…] things nor in melancholy complaints or good precepts, but is the life of these and much else and is […]
  11. p. v, line 108[…] music or orations or recitations are not independent but dependent. All beauty comes from beautiful blood and a beautiful […]
  12. p. v, line 114[…] enough . . . . the fact will prevail through the universe . . . . but the gaggery and gilt of a million years will not […]
  13. p. vi, line 15[…] the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and […]
  14. p. vi, line 21[…] ploughed and manured . . . . others may not know it but he shall. He shall go directly to the creation. His […]
  15. p. vi, line 57[…] that were supposed to stand for the rest but in the rest themselves just the same. These understand the […]
  16. p. vi, line 83[…] Past and present and future are not disjoined but joined. The greatest poet forms the consistence of what is […]
  17. p. vi, line 103[…] pride which consists in never acknowledging any lessons but its own. But it has sympathy as measureless as its […]
  18. p. vi, line 104[…] in never acknowledging any lessons but its own. But it has sympathy as measureless as its pride and the […]
  19. p. vii, line 4[…] articulations are powers neither common nor very uncommon. But to speak in literature with the perfect rectitude and insousiance […]
  20. p. vii, line 87[…] movements are no checks on the greatest poet but always his encouragement and support. The outset and remembrance are […]
  21. p. vii, line 97[…] spiritualist mathematician historian and lexicographer are not poets, but they are the lawgivers of poets and their construction underlies […]
  22. p. viii, line 49[…] adherence of heroes wherever men and women exist . . . . but never takes any adherence or welcome from the rest more […]
  23. p. viii, line 85[…] boys are no more christened after the same but christened after tyrants and traitors instead . . . . when the laws of […]
  24. p. viii, line 103[…] who could easier realize the true American character but do not yet—when the swarms of cringers, suckers, doughfaces […]
  25. p. ix, line 52[…] to a work nothing outre can be allowed . . but those ornaments can be allowed that conform to the perfect […]
  26. p. ix, line 111[…] he sees the economies of food and sleep, but has higher notions of prudence than to think he gives […]
  27. p. x, line 42[…] the direct lifetime or the hour of death but the same affects him or her onward afterward through the […]
  28. p. x, line 60[…] or ever can be stamped on the programme but it is duly realized and returned, and that returned in […]
  29. p. xi, line 71[…] is no finish to a man or woman but rather a beginning. Has any one fancied he could sit […]
  30. p. 13, line 8The distillation would intoxicate me also, but I shall not let it.
  31. p. 14, line 10But I do not talk of the beginning or the end.
  32. p. 15, line 14But they are not the Me myself.
  33. p. 17, line 16They do not know how immortal, but I know.
  34. p. 19, line 25The rest did not see her, but she saw them and loved them.
  35. p. 21, line 2The pert may suppose it meaningless, but I listen closer,
  36. p. 24, line 5Not merely of the New World but of Africa Europe or Asia . . . . a wandering savage,
  37. p. 25, line 19I might not tell everybody but I will tell you.
  38. p. 25, line 26That months are vacuums and the ground but wallow and filth,
  39. p. 25, line 27That life is a suck and a sell, and nothing remains at the end but threadbare crape and tears.
  40. p. 31, line 16Encompass worlds but never try to encompass me,
  41. p. 31, line 21I think I will do nothing for a long time but listen,
  42. p. 35, line 10I but use you a moment and then I resign you stallion . . . . and do not need your paces, and outgallop them,
  43. p. 39, line 29Painless after all I lie, exhausted but not so unhappy,
  44. p. 42, line 31These become mine and me every one, and they are but little,
  45. p. 43, line 6Not a mutineer walks handcuffed to the jail, but I am handcuffed to him and walk by his side,
  46. p. 43, line 8Not a youngster is taken for larceny, but I go up too and am tried and sentenced.
  47. p. 43, line 9Not a cholera patient lies at the last gasp, but I also lie at the last gasp,
  48. p. 44, line 20Man or woman! I might tell how I like you, but cannot,
  49. p. 44, line 21And might tell what it is in me and what it is in you, but cannot,
  50. p. 45, line 2You can do nothing and be nothing but what I will infold you.
  51. p. 45, line 23It is middling well as far as it goes . . . . but is that all?
  52. p. 47, line 1Music rolls, but not from the organ . . . . folks are around me, but they are no household of mine.
  53. p. 47, line 11Tickets buying or taking or selling, but in to the feast never once going;
  54. p. 47, line 27This printed and bound book . . . . but the printer and the printing-office boy?
  55. p. 47, line 28The marriage estate and settlement . . . . but the body and mind of the bridegroom? also those of the bride?
  56. p. 47, line 29The panorama of the sea . . . . but the sea itself?
  57. p. 48, line 1The well-taken photographs . . . . but your wife or friend close and solid in your arms?
  58. p. 48, line 2The fleet of ships of the line and all the modern improvements . . . . but the craft and pluck of the admiral?
  59. p. 48, line 3The dishes and fare and furniture . . . . but the host and hostess, and the look out of their eyes?
  60. p. 48, line 5The saints and sages in history . . . . but you yourself?
  61. p. 48, line 6Sermons and creeds and theology . . . . but the human brain, and what is called reason, and what is called love, and what is called life?
  62. p. 49, line 5But I know it is sure and alive and sufficient.
  63. p. 49, line 19The clock indicates the moment . . . . but what does eternity indicate?
  64. p. 51, line 8And all I see, multiplied as high as I can cipher, edge but the rim of the farther systems.
  65. p. 51, line 19They are but parts . . . . any thing is but a part.
  66. p. 52, line 1But each man and each woman of you I lead upon a knoll,
  67. p. 52, line 21But as soon as you sleep and renew yourself in sweet clothes I will certainly kiss you with my goodbye kiss and open the gate for your egress hence.
  68. p. 53, line 1The boy I love, the same becomes a man not through derived power but in his own right,
  69. p. 53, line 19But roughs and little children better than they.
  70. p. 54, line 3And there is no trade or employment but the young man following it may become a hero,
  71. p. 54, line 4And there is no object so soft but it makes a hub for the wheeled universe,
  72. p. 54, line 20And as to you corpse I think you are good manure, but that does not offend me,
  73. p. 55, line 4There is that in me . . . . I do not know what it is . . . . but I know it is in me.
  74. p. 56, line 8But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
  75. p. 59, line 4All these I see . . . . but nigher and farther the same I see;
  76. p. 59, line 7I bring not money or amours or dress or eating . . . . but I bring as good;
  77. p. 59, line 8And send no agent or medium . . . . and offer no representative of value—but offer the value itself.
  78. 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.
  79. p. 60, line 14But I am eternally in love with you and with all my fellows upon the earth.
  80. p. 63, line 24But I say that none lead to greater or sadder or happier than those lead to.
  81. p. 64, line 2Happiness not in another place, but this place . . not for another hour, but this hour,
  82. p. 66, line 2But without eyesight lingers a different living and looks curiously on the corpse.
  83. p. 67, line 13But in due time you and I shall take less interest in them.
  84. p. 68, line 2It is not that you should be undecided, but that you should be decided;
  85. p. 68, line 20But there is more account than that . . . . there is strict account of all.
  86. p. 69, line 11If otherwise, all these things came but to ashes of dung;
  87. p. 69, line 16Whither I walk I cannot define, but I know it is good,
  88. p. 70, line 1I swear I think there is nothing but immortality!
  89. p. 73, line 14I turn but do not extricate myself;
  90. p. 73, line 15Confused . . . . a pastreading . . . . another, but with darkness yet.
  91. p. 73, line 20I can but rush to the surf and let it drench me and freeze upon me.
  92. p. 74, line 15She had no work to give her but she gave her remembrance and fondness.
  93. p. 74, line 20But the red squaw never came nor was heard of there again.
  94. p. 76, line 10The diverse shall be no less diverse, but they shall flow and unite . . . . they unite now.
  95. p. 76, line 28I stay awhile away O night, but I return to you again and love you;
  96. p. 77, line 3I love the rich running day, but I do not desert her in whom I lay so long:
  97. p. 77, line 4I know not how I came of you, and I know not where I go with you . . . . but I know I came well and shall go well.
  98. p. 79, line 12All things please the soul, but these please the soul well.
  99. 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,
  100. p. 83, line 19Its veins down the neck distend . . . . its eyes roll till they show nothing but their whites,
  101. p. 86, line 4Nothing for any one but what is for him . . . . near and far are for him,
  102. p. 87, line 18But what are verses beyond the flowing character you could have? . . . . or beyond beautiful manners and behaviour?
  103. p. 88, line 8But the sweetness of mercy brewed bitter destruction, and the frightened rulers come back:
  104. p. 88, line 24Not a grave of the murdered for freedom but grows seed for freedom . . . . in its turn to bear seed,
  105. p. 88, line 27But it stalks invisibly over the earth . . whispering counseling cautioning.
  106. p. 89, line 27But there is one thing that belongs here . . . . Shall I tell you what it is, gentlemen of Boston?
  107. p. 92, line 20I know it is wonderful . . . . but my eyesight is equally wonderful . . . . and how I was conceived in my mother's womb is equally wonderful,
  108. 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.
  109. p. 94, line 1But then the soul's wealth—which is candor and knowledge and pride and enfolding love:
  110. p. 95, line 12I do not know what it is any more than I know what health is . . . . but I know it is great.