Quotes by Walter Whitman Jr. - Famous American poet, essayist and journalist Serious, inspiring, thoughtful, entertaining, interesting Thoughts

Walter Whitman Jr., famous American poet, essayist and journalist, was born on May 31, 1819, in Huntington, New York. Walter Whitman Jr. is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature. Whitman incorporated transcendentalism and realism in his writing and was called the father of free verse. His ideas and writings were controversial in his time, especially his 1855 poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which some described as pornographic for its overt sensuality. His distinctive style breaks from the course set by his predecessors and includes an eccentric treatment of the body and spirit as well as the self and other. Walter Whitman used unusual images and symbols, including rotting leaves, bunches of straw, and debris. Whitman wrote candidly about death and sexuality, including prostitution.

Whitman wrote in the preface to the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass, The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him with as much affection as it has absorbed him. According to Whitman, there is a vital, symbiotic relationship between the poet and society. In Song of Myself, Whitman emphasized this relationship by using an all-powerful first-person narration. An American epic, it departed from the historical use of an elevated hero and instead assumed the identity of the common people. Leaves of Grass responded to the impact of rapid urbanization in the United States. Literary critic Harold Bloom wrote on the 150th anniversary of Leaves of Grass, If you are American, Walt Whitman is your imaginative father and mother, even if, like me, you have never written a line of poetry. You could nominate a considerable number of literary works as candidates for the secular scripture of the United States. These might include Melville's Moby-Dick, Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Emerson's two series of essays and The Conduct of Life. None of these, even Emerson's, is as important as the first edition of Leaves of Grass.

In reference to the Mexican–American War, Whitman wrote in 1864 that Mexico is the only country "to which we have really done wrong." In 1883, celebrating the 333rd anniversary of Santa Fe, Whitman argued that indigenous and Spanish-Indian elements would supply the leading features in a future composite American identity. As to our aboriginal or Indian population, the Aztecs in the South, and the numerous tribes in the North and West, I know it is agreed that as time goes by they will gradually diminish, and in a few generations leave only a memory, a void. But I am not at all clear about this. America evolves, adapts, combines, faithfully carves out its identity, from its many far-flung sources and existing supplies, should we observe that she gladly accepts and utilizes all the contributions of foreign nations throughout the world and then rejects only those which are her own, the indigenous people? Of the Spanish ancestry of our Southwest it seems certain to me that we do not begin to appreciate the splendor and sterling value of its race element. Who knows whether that element, sinking invisibly for a hundred or two hundred years like the course of some subterranean river, is now about to emerge into broad flow and permanent action? Whitman here means the Red Indians, the original inhabitants of America. Here are some of Walter Whitman Jr.'s serious, inspiring, thoughtful, amusing, interesting quotes

Whatever satisfies the soul is the truth.

What do you express in your eyes? It seems to me more than anything I have read in my life.

Do I contradict myself?

Well, then I contradict myself,

(I am big, there are many in me.)

Protest more, obey less.

Neither I, nor anyone else can walk that path for you.

You must walk that path yourself.

It is not far. It is within your reach.

Perhaps you have been walking it since birth, and you did not know it.

Perhaps it is everywhere, on water and land.

Keep your face always to the sun and the shadows will fall behind you.

I am the worst, but, thank God, I am the best.

Happiness is not to be found in another place but in this place... not for another hour but for this very hour.

We were together. I forgot all else.

I have learned that to be with those I love is enough.

I shout my barbaric voice to the roofs of the world.

Do anything, but let it give pleasure.

We do not read and write poetry because it is lovely. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is full of passions. So medicine, law, business, engineering...these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love...these are what we live for.

I remain as I am.

If no one else in the world is aware I am content.

And if everyone is aware I am content.

One world is aware, and the greatest for me is me, and that is me.

And whether I reach my goal today or in ten thousand or ten million years,

I can accept it happily now, or with just as much happiness, I can wait.

I like the scientific spirit, the desire to pause, to be certain but not too certain, to abandon ideas when the evidence is against them, this is ultimately okay, it always keeps the way forward open, always gives life, thought, affection, the whole human being, a chance to try again after a mistake, after a wrong guess.

Silence is always beautiful.

If at first you fail to find me, keep encouraging. If you lose me in one place, find another. I stop somewhere waiting for you.

That you are here, that life exists, and identity, that the mighty play continues, and that you will contribute a poem. And your body itself will be a great poem.

I find myself on the verge of a common mistake.

I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I become the wounded person myself. These are the days that should be with you.

Pointing to another world will never stop the evils among us, shedding light on this world can only help us.

The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity.

Whoever you are, I lay my hand on you now / That you be my poem / I whisper with my lips to your ear / I have loved many women and men, but I have loved none better than you. -Walter Whitman Jr.

An appeal to the readers -

If you find this information interesting then please share it as much as possible to arouse people's interest in knowing more and support us. Thank you !

#worldhistoryofmay30  #WorldNoTobaccoDay

I Love INDIA & The World