Whitman, as Printed

‹ Leaves of Grass, 1891–92

The lines with “be”

be 538 Back to B

  1. p. 9, line 20Be it so, then I answer'd,
  2. p. 10, line 11By sailors young and old haply will I, a reminiscence of the land, be read,
  3. p. 10, line 14Here not the land, firm land, alone appears, may then by them be said,
  4. p. 11, line 9Chanter of Personality, outlining what is yet to be,
  5. p. 11, line 16(I think all war through time was really fought, and ever will be really fought, for thee,)
  6. p. 13, line 30Ever shall be, ever have been and are,
  7. p. 15, line 7And how the same inexorable price must still be paid for the same great purchase.
  8. p. 15, line 21We say to ourselves, Remember, fear not, be candid, promulge the body and the soul,
  9. p. 15, line 22Dwell a while and pass on, be copious, temperate, chaste, magnetic,
  10. p. 15, line 24And may be just as much as the seasons.
  11. p. 16, line 12Me wherever my life is lived, O to be self-balanced for contingencies,
  12. p. 17, line 2Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,
  13. p. 20, line 24Think nothing can ever be greater, nothing can ever deserve more than it deserves,
  14. p. 21, line 7I will make the poems of materials, for I think they are to be the most spiritual poems,
  15. p. 21, line 10I will make a song for these States that no one State may under any circumstances be subjected to another State,
  16. p. 21, line 11And I will make a song that there shall be comity by day and by night between all the States, and between any two of them,
  17. p. 21, line 30And who but I should be the poet of comrades?
  18. p. 22, line 9(It may be I am destin'd to utter the loudest cries there, the winner's pealing shouts,
  19. p. 22, line 16I say that the real and permanent grandeur of these States must be their religion,
  20. p. 22, line 23Your ambition or business whatever it may be?
  21. p. 24, line 12I exultant to be ready for them will now shake out carols stronger and haughtier than have ever yet been heard upon earth.
  22. p. 24, line 17I will effuse egotism and show it underlying all, and I will be the bard of personality,
  23. p. 24, line 20And I will show that there is no imperfection in the present, and can be none in the future,
  24. p. 24, line 21And I will show that whatever happens to anybody it may be turn'd to beautiful results,
  25. p. 25, line 11How can the real body ever die and be buried?
  26. p. 26, line 20I cannot be discharged from you! not from one any sooner than another!
  27. p. 27, line 7Coming among the new ones myself to be their companion and equal, coming personally to you now,
  28. p. 27, line 11(I may have to be persuaded many times before I consent to give myself really to you, but what of that?
  29. p. 27, line 12Must not Nature be persuaded many times?)
  30. p. 27, line 15To be wrestled with as I pass for the solid prizes of the universe,
  31. p. 29, line 25I am mad for it to be in contact with me.
  32. p. 30, line 22And will never be any more perfection than there is now,
  33. p. 31, line 13Not an inch nor a particle of an inch is vile, and none shall be less familiar than the rest.
  34. p. 32, line 15And you must not be abased to the other.
  35. p. 33, line 5I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven.
  36. p. 33, line 16It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men,
  37. p. 33, line 17It may be if I had known them I would have loved them,
  38. p. 33, line 18It may be you are from old people, or from offspring taken soon out of their mothers' laps,
  39. p. 33, line 20This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old mothers,
  40. p. 34, line 10Has any one supposed it lucky to be born?
  41. p. 34, line 20For me the man that is proud and feels how it stings to be slighted,
  42. p. 34, line 26And am around, tenacious, acquisitive, tireless, and cannot be shaken away.
  43. p. 42, line 1And such as it is to be of these more or less I am,
  44. p. 43, line 23There shall be no difference between them and the rest.
  45. p. 44, line 17Why should I pray? why should I venerate and be ceremonious?
  46. p. 44, line 26I know this orbit of mine cannot be swept by a carpenter's compass,
  47. p. 45, line 3I do not trouble my spirit to vindicate itself or be understood,
  48. p. 45, line 7If no other in the world be aware I sit content,
  49. p. 45, line 8And if each and all be aware I sit content.
  50. p. 45, line 19And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man,
  51. p. 46, line 29I am not the poet of goodness only, I do not decline to be the poet of wickedness also.
  52. p. 47, line 4Did you guess the celestial laws are yet to be work'd over and rectified?
  53. p. 47, line 11The wonder is always and always how there can be a mean man or an infidel.
  54. p. 49, line 6If I worship one thing more than another it shall be the spread of my own body, or any part of it,
  55. p. 49, line 7Translucent mould of me it shall be you!
  56. p. 49, line 8Shaded ledges and rests it shall be you!
  57. p. 49, line 9Firm masculine colter it shall be you!
  58. p. 49, line 10Whatever goes to the tilth of me it shall be you!
  59. p. 49, line 12Breast that presses against other breasts it shall be you!
  60. p. 49, line 13My brain it shall be your occult convolutions!
  61. p. 49, line 14Root of wash'd sweet-flag! timorous pond-snipe! nest of guarded duplicate eggs! it shall be you!
  62. p. 49, line 15Mix'd tussled hay of head, beard, brawn, it shall be you!
  63. p. 49, line 16Trickling sap of maple, fibre of manly wheat, it shall be you!
  64. p. 49, line 17Sun so generous it shall be you!
  65. p. 49, line 18Vapors lighting and shading my face it shall be you!
  66. p. 49, line 19You sweaty brooks and dews it shall be you!
  67. p. 49, line 20Winds whose soft-tickling genitals rub against me it shall be you!
  68. p. 49, line 21Broad muscular fields, branches of live oak, loving lounger in my winding paths, it shall be you!
  69. p. 49, line 22Hands I have taken, face I have kiss'd, mortal I have ever touch'd, it shall be you.
  70. p. 49, line 27That I walk up my stoop, I pause to consider if it really be,
  71. p. 50, line 7The mocking taunt, See then whether you shall be master!
  72. p. 50, line 17Come now I will not be tantalized, you conceive too much of articulation,
  73. p. 52, line 4To be in any form, what is that?
  74. p. 59, line 6We are approaching some great battle-field in which we are soon to be engaged,
  75. p. 59, line 19And chalk'd in large letters on a board, Be of good cheer, we will not desert you;
  76. p. 62, line 11His was the surly English pluck, and there is no tougher or truer, and never was, and never will be;
  77. p. 63, line 19The flames spite of all that can be done flickering aloft and below,
  78. p. 66, line 8I am not to be denied, I compel, I have stores plenty and to spare,
  79. p. 66, line 11You can do nothing and be nothing but what I will infold you.
  80. p. 67, line 28The supernatural of no account, myself waiting my time to be one of the supremes,
  81. p. 67, line 29The day getting ready for me when I shall do as much good as the best, and be as prodigious;
  82. p. 70, line 11Be at peace bloody flukes of doubters and sullen mopers,
  83. p. 71, line 17I am an acme of things accomplish'd, and I an encloser of things to be.
  84. p. 72, line 21Noiselessly passing handfuls out of their hearts and giving them to be mine.
  85. p. 73, line 4There is no stoppage and never can be stoppage,
  86. p. 73, line 13The Lord will be there and wait till I come on perfect terms,
  87. p. 73, line 14The great Camerado, the lover true for whom I pine will be there.
  88. p. 73, line 15I know I have the best of time and space, and was never measured and never will be measured.
  89. p. 74, line 7And I said to my spirit When we become the enfolders of those orbs, and the pleasure and knowledge of every thing in them, shall we be fill'd and satisfied then?
  90. p. 74, line 18Now I will you to be a bold swimmer,
  91. p. 75, line 12Tied in your mouth, in mine it begins to be loosen'd.)
  92. p. 75, line 26On that solemn night (it may be their last) those that know me seek me.
  93. p. 76, line 15And I say to mankind, Be not curious about God,
  94. p. 76, line 19Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself.
  95. p. 78, line 13Who has done his day's work? who will soonest be through with his supper?
  96. p. 79, line 2But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
  97. p. 80, line 25O let me be lost if it must be so!
  98. p. 80, line 27What is all else to us? only that we enjoy each other and exhaust each other if it must be so;)
  99. p. 83, line 10You would wish long and long to be with him, you would wish to sit by him in the boat that you and he might touch each other.
  100. p. 83, line 11I have perceiv'd that to be with those I like is enough,
  101. p. 83, line 13To be surrounded by beautiful, curious, breathing, laughing flesh is enough,
  102. p. 84, line 10Be not ashamed women, your privilege encloses the rest, and is the exit of the rest,
  103. p. 85, line 18Whatever the bids of the bidders they cannot be high enough for it,
  104. p. 85, line 24They shall be stript that you may see them.
  105. p. 86, line 5This is not only one man, this the father of those who shall be fathers in their turns,
  106. p. 86, line 12She is the bearer of them that shall grow and be mates to the mothers.
  107. p. 88, line 19I see that they are worthy of me, I will be the robust husband of those women.
  108. p. 90, line 16The sensitive, orbic, underlapp'd brothers, that only privileged feelers may be intimate where they are,
  109. p. 90, line 20The torment, the irritable tide that will not be at rest,
  110. p. 91, line 18O to be yielded to you whoever you are, and you to be yielded to me in defiance of the world!
  111. p. 91, line 23To be absolv'd from previous ties and conventions, I from mine and you from yours!
  112. p. 92, line 9To be lost if it must be so!
  113. p. 92, line 23Be not impatient—a little space—know you I salute the air, the ocean and the land,
  114. p. 94, line 8He shall be lawless, rude, illiterate, he shall be one condemn'd by others for deeds done,
  115. p. 94, line 11I come forthwith in your midst, I will be your poet,
  116. p. 94, line 12I will be more to you than to any of the rest.
  117. p. 95, line 16Be not afraid of my body.
  118. p. 96, line 11Leaves from you I glean, I write, to be perused best afterwards,
  119. p. 96, line 21O I think it is not for life I am chanting here my chant of lovers, I think it must be for death,
  120. p. 97, line 8Through me shall the words be said to make death exhilarating,
  121. p. 97, line 21Without one thing all will be useless,
  122. p. 97, line 27You would have to give up all else, I alone would expect to be your sole and exclusive standard,
  123. p. 97, line 28Your novitiate would even then be long and exhausting,
  124. p. 97, line 29The whole past theory of your life and all conformity to the lives around you would have to be abandon'd,
  125. p. 98, line 16And thus touching you would I silently sleep and be carried eternally.
  126. p. 99, line 14And who but I should be the poet of comrades?)
  127. p. 100, line 5And this, O this shall henceforth be the token of comrades, this calamus-root shall,
  128. p. 101, line 2Of the uncertainty after all, that we may be deluded,
  129. p. 101, line 6The skies of day and night, colors, densities, forms, may-be these are (as doubtless they are) only apparitions, and the real something has yet to be known,
  130. p. 102, line 16Who knew too well the sick, sick dread lest the one he lov'd might secretly be indifferent to him,
  131. p. 103, line 16Do you think the friendship of me would be unalloy'd satisfaction?
  132. p. 103, line 20Have you no thought O dreamer that it may be all maya, illusion?
  133. p. 104, line 6Buds to be unfolded on the old terms,
  134. p. 105, line 4Let it all be seen in your light, blushing drops.
  135. p. 106, line 10You must be he I was seeking, or she I was seeking, (it comes to me as of a dream,)
  136. p. 106, line 24O I know we should be brethren and lovers,
  137. p. 106, line 25I know I should be happy with them.
  138. p. 108, line 20Nor will I be able to leave behind me any wealthy bequest to found a hospital or library,
  139. p. 110, line 20If you be not silently selected by lovers and do not silently select lovers,
  140. p. 111, line 14O YOU whom I often and silently come where you are that I may be with you,
  141. p. 112, line 5Fancying how happy you were if I could be with you and become your comrade;
  142. p. 112, line 6Be it as if I were with you. (Be not too certain but I am now with you.)
  143. p. 116, line 15I see them raised high with stones by the marge of restless oceans, that the dead men's spirits when they wearied of their quiet graves might rise up through the mounds and gaze on the tossing billows, and be refresh'd by storms, immensity, liberty, action.
  144. p. 121, line 20They pass, I also pass, any thing passes, none can be interdicted,
  145. p. 121, line 21None but are accepted, none but shall be dear to me.
  146. p. 122, line 7From the living and the dead you have peopled your impassive surfaces, and the spirits thereof would be evident and amicable with me.
  147. p. 122, line 17You shall be more to me than my poem.
  148. p. 122, line 21I think whoever I see must be happy.
  149. p. 123, line 11Whoever accepts me he or she shall be blessed and shall bless me.
  150. p. 123, line 21Wisdom cannot be pass'd from one having it to another not having it,
  151. p. 124, line 8Do you know what it is as you pass to be loved by strangers?
  152. p. 124, line 20What gives me to be free to a woman's and man's good-will? what gives them to be free to mine?
  153. p. 125, line 8Be not discouraged, keep on, there are divine things well envelop'd,
  154. p. 125, line 14Allons! the inducements shall be greater,
  155. p. 126, line 3Listen! I will be honest with you,
  156. p. 126, line 9You shall be treated to the ironical smiles and mockings of those who remain behind you,
  157. p. 128, line 19The goal that was named cannot be countermanded.
  158. p. 128, line 27It is safe—I have tried it—my own feet have tried it well—be not detain'd!
  159. p. 131, line 23That I was I knew was of my body, and what I should be I knew I should be of my body.
  160. p. 132, line 3Nor is it you alone who know what it is to be evil,
  161. p. 132, line 4I am he who knew what it was to be evil,
  162. p. 132, line 26Ah, what can ever be more stately and admirable to me than mast-hemm'd Manhattan?
  163. p. 133, line 18Consider, you who peruse me, whether I may not in unknown ways be looking upon you;
  164. p. 133, line 19Be firm, rail over the river, to support those who lean idly, yet haste with the hasting current;
  165. p. 133, line 24Flaunt away, flags of all nations! be duly lower'd at sunset!
  166. p. 134, line 3About my body for me, and your body for you, be hung our divinest aromas,
  167. p. 134, line 9Not you any more shall be able to foil us, or withhold yourselves from us,
  168. p. 135, line 12What can be answer'd he answers, and what cannot be answer'd he shows how it cannot be answer'd.
  169. p. 136, line 9And the soldiers suppose him to be a soldier, and the sailors that he has follow'd the sea,
  170. p. 138, line 4They bring none to his or her terminus or to be content and full,
  171. p. 138, line 6To launch off with absolute faith, to sweep through the ceaseless rings and never be quiet again.
  172. p. 142, line 8Whoever you are! how can I but offer you divine leaves, that you also be eligible as I am?
  173. p. 143, line 21To continue and be employ'd there all my life,
  174. p. 144, line 3My brood of grown and part-grown boys, who love to be with no one else so well as they love to be with me,
  175. p. 144, line 9There in a huge kettle of boiling water the lobsters shall be boil'd till their color becomes scarlet.
  176. p. 145, line 6To behold his calmness—to be warm'd in the rays of his smile!
  177. p. 145, line 10To taste the savage taste of blood—to be so devilish!
  178. p. 146, line 25To emerge and be of the sky, of the sun and moon and flying clouds, as one with them.
  179. p. 146, line 27To be servile to none, to defer to none, not to any tyrant known or unknown,
  180. p. 147, line 18O while I live to be the ruler of life, not a slave,
  181. p. 147, line 25Myself discharging my excrementitious body to be burn'd, or render'd to powder, or buried,
  182. p. 148, line 2To be entirely alone with them, to find how much one can stand!
  183. p. 148, line 5To be indeed a God!
  184. p. 148, line 13To be a sailor of the world bound for all ports,
  185. p. 148, line 21To be lean'd and to lean on.
  186. p. 150, line 11The floor-men forcing the planks close to be nail'd,
  187. p. 152, line 7Away! these are not to be cherish'd for themselves,
  188. p. 152, line 12If it be a few ragged huts it is still the greatest city in the whole world.
  189. p. 153, line 3Where children are taught to be laws to themselves, and to depend on themselves,
  190. p. 160, line 2And ever henceforth sisters dear be both.
  191. p. 160, line 30Somewhere within their walls shall all that forwards perfect human life be started,
  192. p. 160, line 33But all the workmen of the world here to be represented.
  193. p. 161, line 4The cotton shall be pick'd almost in the very field,
  194. p. 161, line 5Shall be dried, clean'd, ginn'd, baled, spun into thread and cloth before you,
  195. p. 161, line 11The photograph, model, watch, pin, nail, shall be created before you.
  196. p. 161, line 13In another, woods, plants, vegetation shall be illustrated—in another animals, animal life and development.
  197. p. 161, line 14One stately house shall be the music house,
  198. p. 161, line 15Others for other arts—learning, the sciences, shall all be here,
  199. p. 161, line 16None shall be slighted, none but shall here be honor'd, help'd, exampled.
  200. p. 161, line 17(This, this and these, America, shall be your pyramids and obelisks,
  201. p. 162, line 20To sing in songs how exercise and chemical life are never to be baffled,
  202. p. 164, line 31Delicate beauty, a word to thee, (it may be salutary,)
  203. p. 167, line 6To be in them absorb'd, assimilated.
  204. p. 169, line 4Promis'd to be fulfill'd, our common kind, the race.
  205. p. 169, line 23I will be even with you and you shall be even with me.
  206. p. 170, line 3If your lover, husband, wife, is welcome by day or night, I must be personally as welcome,
  207. p. 171, line 8It is not to be put in a book, it is not in this book,
  208. p. 171, line 19And that it is not something which by luck may turn out well for us, and without luck must be a failure for us,
  209. p. 171, line 20And not something which may yet be retracted in a certain contingency.
  210. p. 172, line 3Have you reckon'd that the landscape took substance and form that it might be painted in a picture?
  211. p. 172, line 4Or men and women that they might be written of, and songs sung?
  212. p. 172, line 7Or the stars to be put in constellations and named fancy names?
  213. p. 173, line 5If you were not breathing and walking here, where would they all be?
  214. p. 173, line 6The most renown'd poems would be ashes, orations and plays would be vacuums.
  215. p. 179, line 7I swear the earth shall surely be complete to him or her who shall be complete,
  216. p. 179, line 10There can be no theory of any account unless it corroborate the theory of the earth,
  217. p. 179, line 23My breath will not be obedient to its organs,
  218. p. 180, line 1The best of the earth cannot be told anyhow, all or any is best,
  219. p. 180, line 16Work on, age after age, nothing is to be lost,
  220. p. 180, line 21The greatest among them shall be he who best knows you, and encloses all and is faithful to all,
  221. p. 180, line 23You shall be fully glorified in them.
  222. p. 185, line 23Never must you be divided, in our ranks you move united,
  223. p. 185, line 35Still be ours the diet hard, and the blanket on the ground,
  224. p. 186, line 14Whoever you are, now I place my hand upon you, that you be my poem,
  225. p. 188, line 17Or that there be no justice in destiny or time?
  226. p. 188, line 20Here too, though long represt, can never be destroy'd,
  227. p. 189, line 6O I hear already the bustle of instruments, they will soon be drowning all that would interrupt them,
  228. p. 189, line 16(There will always be plenty of embroiderers, I welcome them also,)
  229. p. 190, line 12I charge that there be no theory or school founded out of me,
  230. p. 191, line 18As I flit through you hastily, soon to fall and be gone, what is this chant,
  231. p. 191, line 22With all which, had it not been, I would not now be here, as I am,
  232. p. 192, line 28And that to-day is what it must be, and that America is,
  233. p. 192, line 29And that to-day and America could no-how be better than they are.
  234. p. 193, line 3I know that the past was great and the future will be great,
  235. p. 195, line 22Lives, works resumed—the object I know not—but the old, the Asiatic renew'd as it must be,
  236. p. 196, line 5Be considerate with her now and ever hot Libertad, for you are all,
  237. p. 196, line 11They are justified, they are accomplish'd, they shall now be turn'd the other way also, to travel toward you thence,
  238. p. 199, line 16Somewhere listening to catch you must be the one I want.
  239. p. 199, line 27So faint, I must be still, be still to listen,
  240. p. 199, line 33Do not be decoy'd elsewhere,
  241. p. 201, line 4Never more the cries of unsatisfied love be absent from me,
  242. p. 201, line 5Never again leave me to be the peaceful child I was before what there in the night,
  243. p. 206, line 13The ravening clouds shall not long be victorious,
  244. p. 206, line 15Jupiter shall emerge, be patient, watch again another night, the Pleiades shall emerge,
  245. p. 207, line 16All souls, all living bodies though they be ever so different, or in different worlds,
  246. p. 210, line 14For shame old maniacs—bring down those toss'd arms, and let your white hair be,
  247. p. 212, line 26Nevertheless, be ready, be not weary of watching,
  248. p. 213, line 15Be thou my God.
  249. p. 213, line 19Be thou my God.
  250. p. 213, line 22Be thou my God.
  251. p. 213, line 25Be thou my God.
  252. p. 213, line 28Be ye my Gods.
  253. p. 213, line 33Be ye my Gods.
  254. p. 214, line 4Wonders as of those countries, the soil, trees, cities, inhabitants, whatever they may be,
  255. p. 214, line 11Of what was once lacking on earth, and in due time has become supplied—and of what will yet be supplied,
  256. p. 214, line 12Because all I see and know I believe to have its main purport in what will yet be supplied.
  257. p. 215, line 18I mark the ranklings of jealousy and unrequited love attempted to be hid, I see these sights on the earth,
  258. p. 215, line 20I observe a famine at sea, I observe the sailors casting lots who shall be kill'd to preserve the lives of the rest,
  259. p. 216, line 6A traveler's lodging and breakfast as I journey through the States,—why should I be ashamed to own such gifts? why to advertise for them?
  260. p. 217, line 18OF Justice—as if Justice could be any thing but the same ample law, expounded by natural judges and saviors,
  261. p. 217, line 19As if it might be this thing or that thing, according to decisions.
  262. p. 221, line 2War! be it weeks, months, or years, an arm'd race is advancing to welcome it.
  263. p. 222, line 15Would the talkers be talking? would the singer attempt to sing?
  264. p. 222, line 22Let not the child's voice be heard, nor the mother's entreaties,
  265. p. 223, line 6To sing first, (to the tap of the war-drum if need be,)
  266. p. 226, line 6We may be terror and carnage, and are so now,
  267. p. 226, line 19They will never to me be any thing, nor do I like money,
  268. p. 226, line 21That pennant I would be and must be.
  269. p. 226, line 23To be that pennant would be too fearful,
  270. p. 227, line 21Not houses of peace indeed are you, nor any nor all their prosperity, (if need be, you shall again have every one of those houses to destroy them,
  271. p. 231, line 7Spring up O city—not for peace alone, but be indeed yourself, warlike!
  272. p. 236, line 13The shrubs and trees, (as I lift my eyes they seem to be stealthily watching me,)
  273. p. 237, line 13At present low, but will soon be better.
  274. p. 237, line 20See, dearest mother, the letter says Pete will soon be better.
  275. p. 237, line 21Alas poor boy, he will never be better, (nor may-be needs to be better, that brave and simple soul,)
  276. p. 237, line 24But the mother needs to be better,
  277. p. 237, line 29To follow, to seek, to be with her dear dead son.
  278. p. 241, line 8For a battle-call, rousing to arms if need be, years, centuries hence.
  279. p. 242, line 2Now be witness again, paint the mightiest armies of earth,
  280. p. 242, line 17Whoever you are, follow without noise and be of strong heart.)
  281. p. 242, line 26Soon to be fill'd with clotted rags and blood, emptied, and fill'd again.
  282. p. 243, line 7(Come sweet death! be persuaded O beautiful death!
  283. p. 247, line 2Be not dishearten'd, affection shall solve the problems of freedom yet,
  284. p. 247, line 5Sons of the Mother of All, you shall yet be victorious,
  285. p. 247, line 8If need be a thousand shall sternly immolate themselves for one.
  286. p. 247, line 9One from Massachusetts shall be a Missourian's comrade,
  287. p. 247, line 10From Maine and from hot Carolina, and another an Oregonese, shall be friends triune,
  288. p. 247, line 14It shall be customary in the houses and streets to see manly affection,
  289. p. 247, line 16The dependence of Liberty shall be lovers,
  290. p. 247, line 17The continuance of Equality shall be comrades.
  291. p. 247, line 20(Were you looking to be held together by lawyers?
  292. p. 250, line 21Beautiful that war and all its deeds of carnage must in time be utterly lost,
  293. p. 251, line 25Or whether we shall be victorious, or utterly quell'd and defeated.
  294. p. 254, line 16Then turn, and be not alarm'd O Libertad—turn your undying face,
  295. p. 258, line 3And what shall my perfume be for the grave of him I love?
  296. p. 258, line 9And what shall the pictures be that I hang on the walls,
  297. p. 260, line 18Prais'd be the fathomless universe,
  298. p. 263, line 15HUSH'D be the camps to-day,
  299. p. 264, line 10I myself make the only growth by which I can be appreciated,
  300. p. 264, line 25Have you thought there could be but a single supreme?
  301. p. 264, line 26There can be any number of supremes—one does not countervail another any more than one eyesight countervails another, or one life countervails another.
  302. p. 265, line 11Who are you that wanted only to be told what you knew before?
  303. p. 265, line 15O lands, would you be freer than all that has ever been before?
  304. p. 265, line 16If you would be freer than all that has been before, come listen to me.
  305. p. 266, line 6And that he shall be fittest for his days.
  306. p. 266, line 8One land must be the promise and reliance of the future.
  307. p. 268, line 4On and on to the grapple with it—Assassin! then your life or ours be the stake, and respite no more.
  308. p. 269, line 1By them all native and grand, by them alone can these States be fused into the compact organism of a Nation.
  309. p. 269, line 5Their Presidents shall not be their common referee so much as their poets shall.
  310. p. 270, line 24Are you he who would assume a place to teach or be a poet here in the States?
  311. p. 270, line 28He shall surely be question'd beforehand by me with many and stern questions.
  312. p. 272, line 13(The proof of a poet shall be sternly deferr'd till his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorb'd it.)
  313. p. 272, line 20There will shortly be no more priests, I say their work is done,
  314. p. 272, line 22Are your body, days, manners, superb? after death you shall be superb,
  315. p. 273, line 16I am willing to wait to be understood by the growth of the taste of myself,
  316. p. 273, line 22It is I who am great or to be great, it is You up there, or any one,
  317. p. 274, line 4I swear I will stand by my own nativity, pious or impious so be it;
  318. p. 275, line 6I will not be outfaced by irrational things,
  319. p. 275, line 14I will know if I am to be less than they,
  320. p. 275, line 17I will see if I am to be less generous than they,
  321. p. 275, line 19I will see if the fishes and birds are to be enough for themselves, and I am not to be enough for myself.
  322. p. 275, line 25I take you specially to be mine, you terrible, rude forms.
  323. p. 276, line 24Let the old propositions be postponed,
  324. p. 283, line 19Affection that will not be gainsay'd, the sense of what is real, the thought if after all it should prove unreal,
  325. p. 285, line 20O how can it be that the ground itself does not sicken?
  326. p. 285, line 21How can you be alive you growths of spring?
  327. p. 287, line 8Keep on—Liberty is to be subserv'd whatever occurs;
  328. p. 287, line 19And stakes his life to be lost at any moment.)
  329. p. 288, line 5Then only shall liberty or the idea of liberty be discharged from that part of the earth,
  330. p. 288, line 13So it is—but now it seems to me, when it cannot be help'd, that defeat is great,
  331. p. 289, line 14I believe that was not the end of those nations or any person of them, any more than this shall be the end of my nation, or of me;
  332. p. 289, line 21The last explanation always remains to be made about prudence,
  333. p. 291, line 4All that is henceforth to be thought or done by you whoever you are, or by any one,
  334. p. 294, line 12Come, let us lag here no longer, let us be up and away!
  335. p. 295, line 27The student, boy or girl, led forward to be taught,
  336. p. 299, line 14There shall be no subject too pronounced—all works shall illustrate the divine law of indirections.
  337. p. 299, line 21BE composed—be at ease with me—I am Walt Whitman, liberal and lusty as Nature,
  338. p. 300, line 1My girl I appoint with you an appointment, and I charge you that you make preparation to be worthy to meet me,
  339. p. 300, line 2And I charge you that you be patient and perfect till I come.
  340. p. 302, line 16Go, dear friend, if need be give up all else, and commence to-day to inure yourself to pluck, reality, self-esteem, definiteness, elevatedness,
  341. p. 302, line 21Unfolded only out of the perfect body of a woman can a man be form'd of perfect body,
  342. p. 303, line 8First the man is shaped in the woman, he can then be shaped in himself.
  343. p. 305, line 4Is it wonderful that I should be immortal? as every one is immortal;
  344. p. 305, line 9And that I can remind you, and you think them and know them to be true, is just as wonderful.
  345. p. 307, line 24Now I marvel what it can be he appears to them, (books, politics, poems, depart—all else departs,)
  346. p. 309, line 2If worms, snakes, loathsome grubs, may to sweet spiritual songs be turn'd,
  347. p. 309, line 3If vermin so transposed, so used and bless'd may be,
  348. p. 309, line 5Who knows but these may be the lessons fit for you?
  349. p. 316, line 19The earth to be spann'd, connected by network,
  350. p. 316, line 20The races, neighbors, to marry and be given in marriage,
  351. p. 316, line 21The oceans to be cross'd, the distant brought near,
  352. p. 316, line 22The lands to be welded together.
  353. p. 318, line 24Yet soul be sure the first intent remains, and shall be carried out,
  354. p. 318, line 31Then not your deeds only O voyagers, O scientists and inventors, shall be justified,
  355. p. 319, line 1All these hearts as of fretted children shall be sooth'd,
  356. p. 319, line 2All affection shall be fully responded to, the secret shall be told,
  357. p. 319, line 3All these separations and gaps shall be taken up and hook'd and link'd together,
  358. p. 319, line 4The whole earth, this cold, impassive, voiceless earth, shall be completely justified,
  359. p. 319, line 5Trinitas divine shall be gloriously accomplish'd and compacted by the true son of God, the poet,
  360. p. 319, line 8Nature and Man shall be disjoin'd and diffused no more,
  361. p. 320, line 2Doubts to be solv'd, the map incognita, blanks to be fill'd,
  362. p. 324, line 19Haply the swords I know may there indeed be turn'd to reaping-tools,
  363. p. 324, line 26For that O God, be it my latest word, here on my knees,
  364. p. 326, line 3The murderer that is to be hung next day, how does he sleep?
  365. p. 326, line 30He who has been famous and he who shall be famous after to-day,
  366. p. 327, line 12Be careful darkness! already what was it touch'd me?
  367. p. 327, line 23(It seems to me that every thing in the light and air ought to be happy,
  368. p. 331, line 13What has arrived is in its place and what waits shall be in its place,
  369. p. 331, line 17The diverse shall be no less diverse, but they shall flow and unite—they unite now.
  370. p. 332, line 13Why should I be afraid to trust myself to you?
  371. p. 332, line 20Let judges and criminals be transposed—let the prison-keepers be put in prison—let those that were prisoners take the keys;
  372. p. 333, line 5Have you fear'd the future would be nothing to you?
  373. p. 334, line 2To think others shall be just as eager, and we quite indifferent.
  374. p. 334, line 6He that was President was buried, and he that is now President shall surely be buried.
  375. p. 334, line 21Had known what it was to be flush, grew low-spirited toward the last, sicken'd, was help'd by a contribution,
  376. p. 335, line 12To think there will still be farms, profits, crops, yet for you of what avail?
  377. p. 335, line 13What will be will be well, for what is is well,
  378. p. 335, line 14To take interest is well, and not to take interest shall be well.
  379. p. 336, line 1It is not that you should be undecided, but that you should be decided,
  380. p. 336, line 8He is one of those who are beautiful and happy, he is one of those that to look upon and be with is enough.
  381. p. 336, line 9The law of the past cannot be eluded,
  382. p. 336, line 10The law of the present and future cannot be eluded,
  383. p. 336, line 11The law of the living cannot be eluded, it is eternal,
  384. p. 336, line 12The law of promotion and transformation cannot be eluded,
  385. p. 336, line 13The law of heroes and good-doers cannot be eluded,
  386. p. 336, line 14The law of drunkards, informers, mean persons, not one iota thereof can be eluded.
  387. p. 336, line 19The known leaders and inventors and the rich owners and pious and distinguish'd may be well,
  388. p. 336, line 25I have dream'd that we are not to be changed so much, nor the law of us changed,
  389. p. 337, line 1I have dream'd that heroes and good-doers shall be under the present and past law,
  390. p. 337, line 2And that murderers, drunkards, liars, shall be under the present and past law,
  391. p. 339, line 18Many times have I been rejected, taunted, put in prison, and crucified, and many times shall be again,
  392. p. 340, line 7(Though it was thought I was baffled and dispel'd, and my wiles done, but that will never be,)
  393. p. 341, line 5And if the memorials of the dead were put up indifferently everywhere, even in the room where I eat or sleep, I should be satisfied,
  394. p. 341, line 6And if the corpse of any one I love, or if my own corpse, be duly render'd to powder and pour'd in the sea, I shall be satisfied,
  395. p. 341, line 7Or if it be distributed to the winds I shall be satisfied.
  396. p. 342, line 5I do not doubt that the orbs and the systems of orbs play their swift sports through the air on purpose, and that I shall one day be eligible to do as much as they, and more than they,
  397. p. 343, line 22Till the bridge you will need be form'd, till the ductile anchor hold,
  398. p. 344, line 15The corpse you will leave will be but excrementitious.
  399. p. 344, line 20I exclude others from you, there is nothing to be commiserated,
  400. p. 345, line 13I see that I am to wait for what will be exhibited by death.
  401. p. 346, line 4Let me be wafted.
  402. p. 346, line 8Tenderly—be not impatient,
  403. p. 347, line 3I'd show away ahead thy real Union, and how it may be accomplish'd.
  404. p. 347, line 12Such be the thought I'd think of thee America,
  405. p. 347, line 13Such be the recitative I'd bring for thee.
  406. p. 347, line 26By thee fact to be justified, blended with thought,
  407. p. 349, line 9Ready, collected here, a freer, vast, electric world, to be constructed here,
  408. p. 350, line 13Land in the realms of God to be a realm unto thyself,
  409. p. 350, line 14Under the rule of God to be a rule unto thyself.
  410. p. 350, line 16To be thy natal stars my country, Ensemble, Evolution, Freedom,
  411. p. 350, line 25(Wert capable of war, its tug and trials? be capable of peace, its trials,
  412. p. 351, line 5Whatever they are to-day and whatever through time they may be,
  413. p. 353, line 16Do you suppose I could be content with all if I thought them their own finalè?
  414. p. 353, line 18Some abject louse asking leave to be, cringing for it,
  415. p. 354, line 14You'll be unmuzzled, you certainly will.
  416. p. 358, line 26Enough to merely be! enough to breathe!
  417. p. 360, line 16O to be a Virginian where I grew up! O to be a Carolinian!
  418. p. 361, line 21Discovering to-day there is no lie or form of lie, and can be none, but grows as inevitably upon itself as the truth does upon itself,
  419. p. 361, line 23(This is curious and may not be realized immediately, but it must be realized,
  420. p. 363, line 6How all superbest deeds since Time began are traceable to it—and shall be to the end!
  421. p. 363, line 16And who has been just? for I would be the most just person of the earth,
  422. p. 363, line 17And who most cautious? for I would be more cautious,
  423. p. 363, line 20And who proudest? for I think I have reason to be the proudest son alive—for I am the son of the brawny and tall-topt city,
  424. p. 363, line 21And who has been bold and true? for I would be the boldest and truest being of the universe,
  425. p. 365, line 1They shall be alimentive, amative, perceptive,
  426. p. 365, line 2They shall be complete women and men, their pose brawny and supple, their drink water, their blood clean and clear,
  427. p. 365, line 5Strong and sweet shall their tongues be, poems and materials of poems shall come from their lives, they shall be makers and finders,
  428. p. 365, line 7Characters, events, retrospections, shall be convey'd in gospels, trees, animals, waters, shall be convey'd,
  429. p. 365, line 8Death, the future, the invisible faith, shall all be convey'd.
  430. p. 369, line 16They stand for realities—all is as it should be.
  431. p. 371, line 6Are all nations communing? is there going to be but one heart to the globe?
  432. p. 371, line 11Unborn deeds, things soon to be, project their shapes around me,
  433. p. 373, line 13And how these of mine and of the States will in their turn be convuls'd, and serve other parturitions and transitions,
  434. p. 373, line 18Of what Indiana, Kentucky, Arkansas, and the rest, are to be,
  435. p. 375, line 7Wonderful to be here!
  436. p. 375, line 12To be conscious of my body, so satisfied, so large!
  437. p. 375, line 13To be this incredible God I am!
  438. p. 377, line 20Exhale me them centuries hence, breathe me their breath, let not an atom be lost,
  439. p. 381, line 4I announce adhesiveness, I say it shall be limitless, unloosen'd,
  440. p. 381, line 8I announce a life that shall be copious, vehement, spiritual, bold,
  441. p. 384, line 54[…] of the Rain, 399 Soon Shall the Winter's Foil Be Here, 399 While Not the Past Forgetting, 399 The Dying Veteran, 400 Stronger […]
  442. p. 391, line 13'Twould not be you, Niagara—nor you, ye limitless prairies—nor your huge rifts of canyons, Colorado,
  443. p. 396, line 1Nothing is ever really lost, or can be lost,
  444. p. 399, line 11Soon shall the winter's foil be here;
  445. p. 399, line 13And air, soil, wave, suffused shall be in softness, bloom and growth—a thousand forms shall rise
  446. p. 401, line 21The sun just gone, the eager light dispell'd—(I too will soon be gone, dispell'd,)
  447. p. 404, line 19Soon to be lost for aye in the darkness—loth, O so loth to depart!
  448. p. 407, line 25However that may be, I feel like improving to-day's opportunity and wind up. During […]
  449. p. 408, line 4[…] for the said grim and time-bang'd conch to be got at last out of inherited good spirits and primal […]
  450. p. 408, line 15[…] is a glum one, but I dare not be sorry for the fact of it in the past, nor […]
  451. p. 411, line 38[…] and would like to talk a little, or be talk'd to. Intellectual and emotional natures would be at their […]
  452. p. 411, line 39[…] be talk'd to. Intellectual and emotional natures would be at their best: Deaths were always easier; medicines seem'd to […]
  453. p. 413, line 35[…] and beaming on its dying gasps, Sheridan's will be bright. One consideration rising out of the now dead soldier's […]
  454. p. 415, line 23The height to be superb humanity.
  455. p. 416, line 13Henceforth to be, deep, deep within my heart recording, for many a future year,
  456. p. 420, line 7People and scenes, animals, trees, colors and lines, plain as could be,
  457. p. 422, line 11Yet let me not be too hasty,
  458. p. 422, line 15May-be we'll be better off and blither, and learn something,
  459. p. 426, line 13[…] it unerringly on record—the value thereof to be decided by time […]
  460. p. 426, line 15[…] than I am. Behind all else that can be said, I consider "Leaves of Grass" and its theory experimental […]
  461. p. 426, line 17[…] sense, I consider our American republic itself to be, with its theory. (I think I have at least enough […]
  462. p. 426, line 18[…] I have at least enough philosophy not to be too absolutely certain of any thing, or any results.) In […]
  463. p. 426, line 25[…] throughout, the main object. Now it seems to be achiev'd, I am certainly contented to waive any otherwise momentous […]
  464. p. 426, line 29[…] and I accept the result, whatever it may be […]
  465. p. 426, line 36[…] a special desire and conviction. Or rather, to be quite exact, a desire that had been flitting through my […]
  466. p. 427, line 6[…] view, "Leaves of Grass " is, or seeks to be, simply a faithful and doubtless self-will'd record. In the midst […]
  467. p. 427, line 14[…] and to-day. Modern science and democracy seem'd to be throwing out their challenge to poetry to put them in […]
  468. p. 427, line 40[…] to its all-devouring force, poetry would cease to be read in fifty years." But I anticipate the very contrary […]
  469. p. 428, line 21[…] America in them! Proud, proud indeed may we be, if we have cull'd enough of that period in its […]
  470. p. 428, line 32Also it must be carefully remember'd that first-class literature does not shine by any […]
  471. p. 429, line 28[…] Nationality, or, on the other hand, what may be call'd the negative and lack of it, (as in Goethe's […]
  472. p. 430, line 15[…] been done overwhelmingly and well, probably never to be excell'd—but that while in such æsthetic presentation of objects […]
  473. p. 430, line 19[…] bequests of the past, it still remains to be said that there is even towards all those a subjective […]
  474. p. 430, line 26[…] not the time arrived when, (if it must be plainly said, for democratic America's sake, if for no other […]
  475. p. 430, line 35[…] what they prelude and necessitate, and are to be in future)—to conform with and build on the concrete […]
  476. p. 431, line 16[…] to them as they are and are to be? Is there one whose underlying basis is not a denial […]
  477. p. 431, line 34[…] persons and institutes they depict. True, it may be said, the emotional, moral, and æsthetic natures of humanity have […]
  478. p. 431, line 44[…] for America. Another and separate point must now be candidly stated. If I had not stood before those poems […]
  479. p. 432, line 14[…] the democratic average and basic equality, which shall be greater. In the centre of all, and object of all […]
  480. p. 432, line 19[…] friends have more than once suggested—or may be the garrulity of advancing age is possessing me—some further […]
  481. p. 433, line 23[…] rate for our occasions, our day) there can be no such thing as a long poem. The same thought […]
  482. p. 433, line 32[…] return from straying however far a distance, must be an identical body and soul, a personality—which personality, after […]
  483. p. 433, line 34[…] many considerations and ponderings I deliberately settled should be myself—indeed could not be any other. I also felt strongly (whether I have shown […]
  484. p. 434, line 14[…] they gave, "Leaves of Grass" would not now be existing […]
  485. p. 434, line 27[…] and acknowledg'd sense than hitherto. Other word-signs would be Good Cheer, Content, and Hope […]
  486. p. 435, line 3[…] normally resident in the race, forever eligible to be appeal'd to and relied on […]
  487. p. 435, line 16[…] of man in himself," and permit it to be more or less a motif of nearly all my verse […]
  488. p. 435, line 33[…] of them—modern science and democracy appear to be endangering, perhaps eliminating. But that forms an appearance only; the […]
  489. p. 435, line 38[…] Iliad to Shakspere inclusive can happily never again be realized—but the elements of courageous and lofty manhood are […]
  490. p. 435, line 42[…] an inch the working-man and working-woman were to be in my pages from first to last. The ranges of […]
  491. p. 436, line 4[…] utterances (I said to myself before beginning) to be in spirit the poems of the morning. (They have been […]
  492. p. 436, line 6[…] of my life.) I will want them to be the poems of women entirely as much as men. I […]
  493. p. 436, line 9[…] if they live and are read, it must be just as much South as North—just as much along […]
  494. p. 436, line 15[…] will duly emerge; and all are sought to be lifted into a different light and atmosphere. Of this feature […]
  495. p. 436, line 20[…] were those lines omitted. Difficult as it will be, it has become, in my opinion, imperative to achieve a […]
  496. p. 436, line 37[…] only a genuine diagnosis of serious cases can be built. And in respect to editions of " Leaves of Grass […]
  497. p. 436, line 38[…] Grass" in time to come (if there should be such) I take occasion now to confirm those lines with […]
  498. p. 437, line 2[…] over and beneath all. Ever since what might be call'd thought, or the budding of thought, fairly began in […]
  499. p. 437, line 9[…] every thought or fact should directly or indirectly be or connive at an implicit belief in the wisdom, health […]
  500. p. 437, line 22[…] crowning growth of the United States is to be spiritual and heroic. To help start and favor that growth […]
  501. p. 437, line 36[…] anyhow, "is self-regulated, and no original art can be regulated from without; it carries its own counterpoise, and does […]
  502. p. 438, line 24[…] long as the States continue to absorb and be dominated by the poetry of the Old World, and remain […]
  503. p. 438, line 38[…] the strongest and sweetest songs yet remain to be sung […]