Skip to main content

Search Results

Search : of captain, my captain!
Section : Published Writings
Year : 1856

32 results

"The Slave Trade"

  • Date: 2 August 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

India or South American port—as far as possible with foreign hands and only American officers—the captain

One of the principals goes as supercargo, unless the captain be a principal.

of this account of the illegal slave trade is strengthened by first-hand accounts such as that of Captain

Captain Delano stated in the "Maryland Colonization Journal" that he "was to take these things to Gardiner's

successful, having landed her cargo somewhere on the coast of Cuba, she is usually burned or sunk, and captain

Annotations Text:

of this account of the illegal slave trade is strengthened by first-hand accounts such as that of Captain

Captain Delano stated in the "Maryland Colonization Journal" that he "was to take these things to Gardiner's

Poem of the Poet.

  • Date: 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

And I stood before the young man face to face, and took his right hand in my left hand, and his left

hand in my right hand, And I answered for his brother, and for men, and I answered for the poet, and

to the President at his levee, And he says, Good-day, my brother!

Then the mechanics take him for a mechanic, And the soldiers suppose him to be a captain, and the sailors

Poem of Walt Whitman, an American.

  • Date: 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

my soul!

my palms cover continents, I am afoot with my vision.

We closed with him, the yards entangled, the can- non cannon touched, My captain lashed fast with his

I laughed content when I heard the voice of my little captain, We have not struck, he composedly cried

Come my children, Come my boys and girls, my women, household, intimates, Now the performer launches

"IV.—Broadway"

  • Date: 9 August 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

to the oppressive factory conditions created by the capitalist factory owners that he called "The Captains

Annotations Text:

to the oppressive factory conditions created by the capitalist factory owners that he called "The Captains

Letter. Leaves of Grass (1856)

  • Date: 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

people and The States face to face, to confront them with an American rude tongue; but the work of my

A few years, and the average annual call for my Poems is ten or twenty thousand copies—more, quite likely

It is all as well done, in my opinion, as could be practicable. Each element here is in condition.

out the lines, build cities, work mines, break up farms; it is yours to have been the original true Captain

Leaves of Grass (1856)

  • Date: 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

my soul!

We closed with him, the yards entangled, the can- non cannon touched, My captain lashed fast with his

I laughed content when I heard the voice of my little captain, We have not struck, he composedly cried

O my body!

my brother or my sister! Keep on!

Clef Poem.

  • Date: 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

distinctly I comprehend no better sphere than this earth, I comprehend no better life than the life of my

I do not know what follows the death of my body, But I know well that whatever it is, it is best for

I am not uneasy but I shall have good housing to myself, 11* But this is my first—how can I like the

, I suppose the pink nipples of the breasts of women with whom I shall sleep will taste the same to my

lips, But this is the nipple of a breast of my mother, always near and always divine to me, her true

Sun-Down Poem.

  • Date: 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

walks home late at night, or as I lay in my bed, they came upon me.

, That I was, I knew was of my body, and what I should be, I knew I should be of my body.

Manhatta, my river and sun-set, and my scallop-edged waves of flood-tide, the sea-gulls oscillating

face, Which fuses me into you now, and pours my meaning into you.

loudly and mu- sically musically call me by my nighest name! Live, old life!

Poem of Wonder at the Resurrection of the Wheat.

  • Date: 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

withdraw from the still woods I loved, I will not go now on the pastures to walk, I will not strip my

clothes from my body to meet my lover the sea, I will not touch my flesh to the earth, as to other flesh

I do not see any of it upon you today—or per- haps perhaps I am deceived, I will run a furrow with my

plough—I will press my spade through the sod, and turn it up underneath, I am sure I shall expose some

That it is safe to allow it to lick my naked body all over with its tongues!

Night Poem.

  • Date: 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

Receive me and my lover too—he will not let me go without him.

Darkness, you are gentler than my lover!

I descend my western course, my sinews are flaccid, Perfume and youth course through me, and I am their

carefully darn my grand-son's stockings.

How he informs against my brother and sister, and takes pay for their blood!

Poem of Perfect Miracles.

  • Date: 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

REALISM is mine, my miracles, Take all of the rest—take freely—I keep but my own—I give only of them,

As to me, I know of nothing else but miracles, Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan, Or dart my sight

any one I love—or sleep in the bed at night with any one I love, Or sit at the table at dinner with my

perfect old man, or the perfect old woman, Or the sick in hospitals, or the dead carried to burial, Or my

Letter. Leaves of Grass (1856)

  • Date: 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

I rubbed my eyes a little, to see if this sunbeam were no illusion; but the solid sense of the book is

I wish to see my benefactor, and have felt much like striking my tasks and visiting New York to pay you

my respects.

Bunch Poem.

  • Date: 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

THE friend I am happy with, The arm of my friend hanging idly over my shoulder, The hill-side whitened

pressed and glued together with love, Earth of chaste love—life that is only life after love, The body of my

and trembling encirling fingers—the young man all colored, red, ashamed, angry; The souse upon me of my

eats in me day and night with hungry gnaw, till I saturate what shall pro- duce produce boys to fill my

Lesson Poem.

  • Date: 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

WHO learns my lesson complete? Boss, journeyman, apprentice? churchman and atheist?

as every one is immortal, I know it is wonderful—but my eye-sight is equally wonderful, and how I was

con- ceived conceived in my mother's womb is equally wonderful, And how I was not palpable once, but

years old in the Year 79 of America, and that I am here anyhow, are all equally wonderful, And that my

Poem of You, Whoever You Are.

  • Date: 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

Whoever you are, now I place my hand upon you, that you be my poem, I whisper with my lips close to your

O I have been dilatory and dumb, I should have made my way straight to you long ago, I should have blabbed

light, But I paint myriads of heads, but paint no head without its nimbus of gold-colored light, From my

Poem of Many in One.

  • Date: 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

myself make the only growth by which I can be appreciated, I reject none, accept all, reproduce all in my

Have you studied out my land, its idioms and men?

What is this you bring my America? Is it uniform with my country?

Will it absorb into me as I absorb food, air, nobility, meanness—to appear again in my strength, gait

Underneath all is nativity, I swear I will stand by my own nativity—pious or impious, so be it!

Poem of Faces.

  • Date: 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

Features of my equals, would you trick me with your creased and cadaverous march?

I saw the face of the most smeared and slobbering idiot they had at the asylum, And I knew for my consolation

what they knew not, I knew of the agents that emptied and broke my brother, The same wait to clear the

she blushingly cries—Come nigh to me, limber-hipp'd man, and give me your finger and thumb, Stand at my

upon you, Fill me with albescent honey, bend down to me, Rub to me with your chafing beard, rub to my

Poem of Salutation.

  • Date: 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

O TAKE my hand, Walt Whitman! Such gliding wonders! Such sights and sounds!

change of the light and shade, I see distant lands, as real and near to the inhabitants of them as my

see Hermes, unsuspected, dying, well-beloved, saying to the people, Do not weep for me, this is not my

I do not refuse you my hand, or prefer others before you, I do not say one word against you.

way myself, I find my home wherever there are any homes of men.

Poem of the Road.

  • Date: 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

You objects that call from diffusion my meanings and give them shape!

Why are there men and women that while they are nigh me the sun-light expands my blood?

Why when they leave me do my pennants of joy sink flat and lank?

It is safe—I have tried it—my own feet have tried it well. Allons! be not detained!

I give you my hand!

Liberty Poem for Asia, Africa, Europe, America, Australia, Cuba, and the Archipelagoes of the Sea.

  • Date: 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

my brother or my sister! Keep on!

Poem of the Sayers of the Words of the Earth.

  • Date: 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

without shame or the need of shame Air, soil, water, fire, these are words, I myself am a word with them—my

qualities interpenetrate with theirs—my name is noth- ing nothing to them, Though it were told in the

three thousand lan- guages languages , what would air, soil, water, fire, know of my name?

When I undertake to tell the best, I find I can- not cannot , My tongue is ineffectual on its pivots,

My breath will not be obedient to its organs, I become a dumb man.

Poem of Procreation.

  • Date: 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

It is I, you women—I make my way, I am stern, acrid, large, undissuadable—but I love you, I do not hurt

babes I beget upon you are to beget babes in their turn, I shall demand perfect men and women out of my

Burial Poem.

  • Date: 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

How perfect is my soul! How perfect the earth, and the minutest thing upon it!

My soul! if I realize you, I have satisfaction, Animals and vegetables!

I cannot define my satisfaction, yet it is so, I cannot define my life, yet it is so.

Poem of the Daily Work of the Workmen and Workwomen of These States.

  • Date: 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

COME closer to me, Push close, my lovers, and take the best I possess, Yield closer and closer, and give

Neither a servant nor a master am I, I take no sooner a large price than a small price —I will have my

become so for your sake, If you remember your foolish and outlawed deeds, do you think I cannot remember my

this day just as much in love with them as you, Then I am eternally in love with you, and with all my

friendly companions, I intend to reach them my hand, and make as much of them as I do of men and women

Poem of the Body.

  • Date: 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

curious, breath- ing breathing , laughing flesh is enough, To pass among them, to touch any one, to rest my

As I see my soul reflected in nature, as I see through a mist, one with inexpressible com- pleteness

O my body!

are to stand or fall with the likes of the soul, I believe the likes of you shall stand or fall with my

instep, foot-ball, toes, toe-joints, the heel, All attitudes, all the shapeliness, all the belongings of my

Poem of Women.

  • Date: 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

Unfolded only out of the inimitable poem of the woman can come the poems of man — only thence have my

Review. Leaves of Grass (1856)

  • Date: 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

not Walt Whitman, might have written this: I too am not a bit tamed—I too am untranslatable, I sound my

I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun; I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it

Faith Poem.

  • Date: 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

do not doubt there is more in myself than I have supposed—and more in all men and women —and more in my

Poem of the Propositions of Nakedness.

  • Date: 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

and let one line of my poem contradict another! Let the people sprawl with yearning aimless hands!

Let him who is without my poems be assas- sinated assassinated !

Poem of the Last Explanation of Prudence.

  • Date: 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

ALL day I have walked the city and talked with my friends, and thought of prudence, Of time, space, reality—of

Broad-Axe Poem.

  • Date: 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

untrodden and mouldy, I see no longer any axe upon it, I see the mighty and friendly emblem of the power of my

I do not vaunt my love for you, I have what I have. The axe leaps!

response, Take what I have then, (saying fain,) take the pay you approached for, Take the white tears of my

Review. Leaves of Grass (1856)

  • Date: 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

Emerson in the printed letter sent to us—"I rubbed my eyes a little, to see if this sunbeam were no illusion

Back to top