Great Throughts Treasury

"Saw I your gait and saw I your sinewy limbs, clothed in blue, bearing weapons, robust year; heard your determin'd voice, launch'd forth again and again; year that suddenly sang by the mouths of the round lipp'd cannon, I repeat you, hurrying, crashing, sad, distracted year."

"Say on, sayers! sing on, singers! Delve! mould! pile the words of the earth! Work on, age after age, nothing is to be lost, It may have to wait long, but it will certainly come in use, When the materials are all prepared and ready, the architects shall appear."

"Scarlet, and blue, and snowy white, the guidon flags flutter gaily in the wind."

"Sea of stretch'd ground-swells, sea breathing broad and convulsive breaths, sea of the brine of life and of unshovell'd yet always-ready graves, howler and scooper of storms, capricious and dainty sea, I am integral with you, I too am of one phase and of all phases."

"Seas of bright juice suffuse heaven. The earth by the sky staid with, the daily close of their junction, the heav'd challenge from the east that moment over my head, the mocking taunt, See then whether you shall be master!"

"Seasons pursuing each other the indescribable crowd is gathered, it is the fourth of Seventh-month, (what salutes of cannon and small arms!)"

"Seeing, hearing, feeling, are miracles, and each part and tag of me is a miracle."

"Serene stands the little captain, he is not hurried, his voice is neither high nor low, his eyes give more light to us than our battle-lanterns. Toward twelve there in the beams of the moon they surrender to us."

"Sex contains all, bodies, souls, meanings, proofs, purities, delicacies, results, promulgations, songs, commands, health, pride, the maternal mystery, the seminal milk, all hopes, benefactions, bestowals, all the passions, loves, beauties, delights of the earth, all the governments, judges, gods."

"Shut not your doors to me, proud libraries, for that which was lacking among you all, yet needed most, I bring; a book I have made for your dear sake, O soldiers, and for you, O soul of man, and you, love of comrades; the words of my book nothing, the life of it everything; a book separate, not link'd with the rest, nor felt by the intellect; but you will feel every word, O Libertad! arm'd Libertad! It shall pass by the intellect to swim the sea, the air, with joy with you, O soul of man."

"Silence? What can New York-noisy, roaring, rumbling, tumbling, bustling, story, turbulent New York-have to do with silence? Amid the universal clatter, the incessant din of business, the all swallowing vortex of the great money whirlpool-who has any, even distant, idea of the profound repose......of silence?"

"Sing on dearest brother, warble your reedy song, loud human song, with voice of uttermost woe. O liquid and free and tender! O wild and loose to my soul—O wondrous singer! You only I hear—yet the star holds me, (but will soon depart,) yet the lilac with mastering odor holds me."

"Skirting the river road, (my forenoon walk, my rest,) skyward in air a sudden muffled sound, the dalliance of the eagles, the rushing amorous contact high in space together, the clinching interlocking claws, a living, fierce, gyrating wheel, four beating wings, two beaks, a swirling mass tight grappling, in tumbling turning clustering loops, straight downward falling, till o’er the river pois’d, the twain yet one, a moment’s lull,"

"Slang, too, is the wholesome fermentation or eructation of those processes eternally active in language, by which froth and specks are thrown up, mostly to pass away; though occasionally to settle and permanently chrystallize."

"Smile O voluptuous cool-breath'd earth! Earth of the slumbering and liquid trees! Earth of departed sunset--earth of the mountains misty-topt! Earth of the vitreous pour of the full moon just tinged with blue! Earth of shine and dark mottling the tide of the river! Earth of the limpid gray of clouds brighter and clearer for my sake! Far-swooping elbow'd earth--rich apple-blossom'd earth! Smile, for your lover comes."

"So, dull and damp and another day; but the night of that, mist lifting, rain ceasing, silent as a ghost, while they thought they were sure of him, my General retreated."

"Somehow I have been stunned. Stand back! Give me a little time beyond my cuffed head and slumbers and dreams and gaping, I discover myself on the verge of the usual mistake."

"Something there is more immortal even than the stars, (Many the burials, many the days and nights, passing away,) something that shall endure longer even than lustrous Jupiter, longer than sun or any revolving satellite, or the radiant sisters the Pleiades."

"Sometimes with one I love, I fill myself with rage, for fear I effuse unreturn'd love;"

"Speech is the twin of my vision, it is unequal to measure itself, it provokes me forever, it says sarcastically, Walt you contain enough, why don't you let it out then?"

"Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all poems, you shall possess the good of the earth and sun.... there are millions of suns left, you shall no longer take things at second or third hand.... nor look through the eyes of the dead.... nor feed on the spectres in books, you shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me, you shall listen to all sides and filter them from yourself."

"Storming, enjoying, planning, loving, cautioning, backing and filling, appearing and disappearing, I tread day and night such roads."

"Stranger, if you passing meet me and desire to speak to me, why should you not speak to me? And why should I not speak to you?"

"Strong and content I travel the open road."

"Sun so generous it shall be you! Vapors lighting and shading my face it shall be you! You sweaty brooks and dews it shall be you! Winds whose soft-tickling genitals rub against me it shall be you! Broad muscular fields, branches of live oak, loving lounger in my winding paths, it shall be you! Hands I have taken, face I have kissed, mortal I have ever touched, it shall be you."

"Sure as the most certain sure, plumb in the uprights, well entertied, braced in the beams, stout as a horse, affectionate, haughty, electrical, I and this mystery here we stand."

"Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space."

"Talk not so much, then, young artist, of the great old masters, who but painted and chisell’d. Study not only their productions. There is a still higher school for him who would kindle his fire with coal from the altar of the loftiest and purest art. It is the school of all grand actions and grand virtues, of heroism, of the death of patriots and martyrs — of all the mighty deeds written in the pages of history — deeds of daring, and enthusiasm, devotion, and fortitude."

"Tenderly, be not impatient, (Strong is your hold O mortal flesh, Strong is your hold O love.)"

"That sport'st amid the lightning-flash and thunder-cloud, in them, in thy experiences, had'st thou my soul, what joys! what joys were thine!"

"That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse."

"That you are here—that life exists and identity, that the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse."

"The American bards shall be marked for generosity and affection and for encouraging competitors… The great poets are also to be known by the absence in them of tricks and by the justification of perfect personal candor… How beautiful is candor! All faults may be forgiven of him who has perfect candor."

"The atmosphere is not a perfume, it has no taste of the distillation, it is odorless, it is for my mouth forever, I am in love with it, I will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised and naked, I am mad for it to be in contact with me."

"The beautiful uncut hair of graves."

"The beauty of independence, departure, actions that rely on themselves."

"The butcher in his killing clothes."

"The carpenter dresses his plank--the tongue of his fore-plane whistles its wild ascending lisp."

"The city fireman-the fire that suddenly bursts forth in the close-pack'd square, the arriving engines, the hoarse shouts, the nimble stepping and daring, the strong command through the fire-trumpets, the falling in line, the rise and fall of the arms forcing the water, the slender, spasmic, blue-white jets-the bringing to bear of the hooks and ladders, and their execution, the crash and cut away of connecting wood-work, or through floors, if the fire smolders under them, the crowd with their lit faces, watching-the glare and dense shadows."

"The city sleeps and the country sleeps, the living sleep for their time, the dead sleep for their time, the old husband sleeps by his wife and the young husband sleeps by his wife; and these tend inward to me, and I tend outward to them, and such as it is to be of these more or less I am, and of these one and all I weave the song of myself."

"The cleanest expression is that which finds no sphere worthy of itself and makes one."

"The crowded line of masons with trowels in their right hands, rapidly laying the long sidewall, the flexible rise and fall of backs, the continual click of the trowels striking the bricks, the bricks, one after another, each laid so workmanlike in its place, and set with a knock of the trowel-handle. The house-builder at work in cities or anywhere, the preparatory jointing, squaring, sawing, mortising, the hoist-up of beams, the push of them in their places, laying them regular, setting the studs by their tenons in the mortises, according as they were prepared, the blows of the mallets and hammers."

"The culmination and fruit of literary artistic expression, and its final fields of pleasure for the human soul, are in metaphysics, including the mysteries of the spiritual world, the soul itself, and the question of immortal continuation of our identify."

"The damp of the night drives deeper into my soul."

"The dirtiest book of all is the expurgated book."

"The earth is rude, silent, incomprehensible at first; Be not discouraged-- keep on-- there are divine things, well envelop'd; I swear to you there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell."

"The earth, that is sufficient, I do not want the constellations any nearer, I know they are very well where they are, I know they suffice for those who belong to them"

"The female that loves unrequited sleeps, and the male that loves unrequited sleeps, the head of the money-maker that plotted all day sleeps, and the enraged and treacherous dispositions, all, all sleep."

"The genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives or legislatures, nor in its ambassadors or authors or colleges, or churches, or parlors, nor even in its newspapers or inventors, but always most in the common people."

"The great city is that which has the greatest man or woman: if it be a few ragged huts, it is still the greatest city in the whole world."