Search Results

"Then you are welcome to my home," Walt Whitman replied, giving him both his hands.

I think the dinner my good friends gave me recently, at Morgan's Hall, gave me a new lease of life.

"At least here I am surrounded by my books, and the roses you see my friends send me daily.

Arnold, you are right welcome to my home."

My second wife, you know, was an American lady, and that gives me a claim on your people.

There was no ceremoniousness about my visit to the President, and as a journalist I liked my brief talk

STARTING NEWSPAPERS (ANOTHER ACCOUNT) Reminiscences —( From the "Camden Courier." )—As I sat taking my

As I cross'd leisurely for an hour in the pleasant night-scene, my young friend's words brought up quite

How it made my heart double-beat to see my piece on the pretty white paper, in nice type.

My first real venture was the "Long Islander," in my own beautiful town of Huntington, in 1839.

I enjoy'd my journey and Louisiana life much.

"I found this in my coat," he said. "I don't often put on this coat.

My names are Song, Love, Art. My poet, now unbar the door."

"Art's dead, Song cannot touch my hear, My once love's name I chant no more."

It puts me in mind of my visit to a church when I was a boy.

It was a Presbyterian church and the preacher was in a high box above my head.

reason I like to drive a stage-coach on Broadway, I feel that the strength of the horses passes into my

veins, my muscles, and after that I can give strength to my poetry."

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done.

Leave you not the little spot Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. II.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells! Rise up!

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still; My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse

But I, with silent tread, Walk the spot my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.

For my part when I meet anyone of erudition I want to get away, it terrifies me.

Not like some of my friends, very thick at first, then falling off."

I should have my friends there, as I have here."

I am feeling pretty well so far (Yet I attribute my feeling pretty well now to my visit for the last

year and a half, to the Creek and farm, and being with my dear friends the S—'s).

Conversations with Walt Whitman: My First Visit MY FIRST VISIT.

S ADAKICHI : "My father is a German, but my mother was a Japanese and I was born in Japan."

ONE of my first visits, after I had returned to Philadelphia from my first European trip, was to the

In my books, in my prose as well as my poetry are many knots to untie."

my captain' with which he generally concluded.

I tell you it's an impossibility to me; why, my whole income from my books during a recent half-year

its eight periods of growth, "hitches," he calls them, he completes them with the annex, "Good-bye my

Whispers of Heavenly Death" cannot be an irreverent person; the impassioned "prayer"— "That Thou, O God, my

For that, O God, be it my latest word, here on my knees, Old, poor, and paralyzed, I thank Thee....

When this is commented upon he laughingly says, "Oh, yes, my friends often tell me there is a book called

As far as my life goes it is written in the past.

For years it was my wish to live long enough to round out my life's story in my little book, 'The Leaves

I continue my work reading or writing to my friends."

as I tried to put it in my books.

It is only the closest student would find it in my works.

There was no hurry in his manner; having found me a seat, and then only leaving hold of my hand, he sad

had thought before (and I do not know that I had) that Whitman was eccentric, unbalanced, violent, my

Putting on his grey slouch hat he sallied forth with evident pleasure, and taking my arm as a support

My original idea was that if I could bring men together by putting before them the heart of man, with

As to my own opinion, why", said Holmes, "I have already given you that.

Visits from English friends are perhaps my chief diversion."

Philadelphia, 1883. is going off slowly—not much cared for by my friends—but I like it.

He asked me somewhat about my life and doings at home.

There is something in my nature furtive like an old hen!

Time alone can absolutely test my poems or any one's.

"My friend." Spoke of Swinburne & Tennyson. Most kind. Head from behind like Darwin. Bought a book.

It is that part of my endeavor which has caused the harshest criticism and prevented candid examination

Still I have gone on adding, building up, persevering, so far as I am able to do, in my original intention

"I am not embittered by my lack of success.

My last volume is in response to the interest of my friends abroad."

I made a call upon Captain Green, one of the vice-presidents of the Penn.

calmly: As at thy portals also, death, Entering thy sovereign, dim, illimitable grounds, To memories of my

I twice questioned my informer before I could believe it."

"He flung it down at my door, as though the fellow meant some injury: an Italian would have handled it

I remember Thoreau saying once, when walking with him in my favourite favorite Brooklyn—"What is there

My friends laugh, and say I am getting Conservative—but I am tired of mock radicalism.'

"Well, honour honor is the subject of my story," —was the commencement of a favourite speech with him

my Captain!

O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies Fallen cold and dead. O Captain!

my Captain!

My Captain does not answer; his lips are pale and still; My Father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse

But I, with mournful tread, Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.

The table was set for four, and I, the youngest of the party and the sole representative of my sex, had

for my vis-à-vis the ample figure of the poet clad in light gray linen, his wide rolling shirt collar

I mentioned a name that had more than once come to my mind, as we talked,—Victor Hugo.

My companion assented. I added with enthusiasm, "It has been a perfectly happy day to me, Mr.

My last glimpse of him was in his house at Camden, when he was recovering from a long illness.

It is my own spirit, my own feeling—to accept and try and listen, and don't be too quick to reject, and

my fig tree.

I ask myself more than a little if my best friends have not been women. My friend Mrs.

My attempt at "Leaves of Grass"—my attempt at my own expression—is after all this: to thoroughly equip

Eyre .— I want to call attention to "My Captain," a poem which has in it the element of the dramatic

These were my first years with Emerson, and the questions provoked by my confession of this fact would

He lifted my common experience into biblical sanctity, and impelled my whole life to expanding issues

He thoroughly respected my autonomy, never once crossing my transactions with printer or binder.

Can I have won my battle after all?...

If I go there with a magazine under my arm, or a paper in my pocket, he is quite likely to ask me to

Finally he hitched a little closer and leaned forward to look in my face.

But he nodded, and grinned and hitched again, bringing his face close to my ear, then in a voice husky

he finally yelled right in my ear.

At Montreal I came to the end of my purse and was obliged to remain at the St.

supervisorships, so that Seymour shall get half the patronage of the treasury, an institution which my

I opened the door, and stood for a moment on the threshold before I could find my voice to speak.

What was my horror when, right in the midst of the exposure, the old bard waved his hand majestically

My original intention was to create a comprehensive edition of Whitman interviews, an ambition that seemed

My research into the development of the interview genre made it clear that conceiving interviews as necessarily

Among my earliest indiscretions was Walt Whitman.

fame and no peril to my immortal soul, not to speak of my standing in society?

Whitman was the author of the lines, and my quoting them among my earliest indiscretions.

No one can read "My Captain" or "Pioneers" without seeing that there was capacity for music in the man

Bend down and touch lightly with my lips the white face in the coffin.

"My eyes are feeling pretty badly, and yesterday and to-day I consulted Dr.

I have lost my poise in walking and cannot promenade at all.

I go out every day in my carriage, and a friend of mine, Willie Duckett, a neighbor's little boy, always

I still retain my hopeful, bouyant spirits. I feel better to-night than I have for several days."

"It used to be the delight of my life to ride on a stage coach," said he.

There was my friend Jack Finley.

Oh, yes, I was answering your question as to how I spent my time. Well, it is very monotonous.

At the marriage of a German prince with an English princess, when the bridegroom said, "With all my worldly

Me, master, years a hundred since from my parents sundered.

Of my own life and writings I estimate the giving thanks part, with what it infers, as essentially the

treated me kindly, and the young people made a great deal of me, but, perhaps, that was on account of my

printing-house, and superintended everything, even the type in which the book was printed, and they made my

"I spent considerable time in New York," he adds, "and a number of weeks on Long Island, my native place

S o many of my good friends are here that I must call it my home."

"My words itch at your ears till you understand them," he had said.

My heart was palpitating, my nerves tingling, and every sense was alert as we entered the little house

I paused—my nervousness quite gone—feasting my eyes, warming my heart,—when lo!

I have dismissed whatever insulted my own soul or defiled my body.

"My rendezvous is appointed," I murmured, as I kissed him.

"As for poetry, my boy, listen to this."

Now, however, I put my faith in humanity.

He said simply but without petulance, and as if he rather pitied my intelligence: "Of course my poetry

And, after all, in "O Captain! my Captain!"

At the time of my acquaintance I could not lay my finger on any more definite example of this than his

table, a knock at the door of our room—which served both as dining and sitting room—was answered by my

O'Connor offered to go out on the search with him; but before they started my husband asked me, aside

Walt had left his "carpet bag" with my husband, on his way down, wishing to be burdened with as little

When I expressed my doubts about his coming to us on his return from camp,— my husband's answer was,

My own first impression after reading the quarto edition of Leaves of Grass, recommended by Emerson to

"My 'Leaves of Grass,'" said the old gentleman, "I will publish as I wrote it, minor revisions excepted

"So my friends tell me, but I never met him." "Don't you think, Mr.

"What's all this about, my boy?"

"Is it a patent of nobility, or is it an address from a lot of my young friends?"

My paralysis has made me so lame lately that I had to give up even my walks for health, let alone my

rambles in the country, and my constitution has suffered for exercise.

TO EASE MY DECLINING YEARS.

Whitman recited "John Anderson, my Jo, John."

But renewing the old fires of the rebellion was not to my taste.

"You want to know in a word, then, the sum total of my life philosophy as I have tried to live it and

as I have tried to put it in my books.

It is only the closest student who would find it in my works.

The sum total of my view of life has always been to humbly accept and thank God for whatever inspiration

I am trying to cheer him up and strengthen him with my magnetism."

Come to my house on Sunday evening, and I will have him there to meet you."

It would give me great pleasure to grant this request, out of my regard to Mr.

it, as he showed when I went to give him an account of my interview with the Secretary.

" 'I cock my hat as I please, indoors and out,' " I quoted.

"Publish my name and hang up my picture as that of the tenderest lover." — Leaves of Grass .

To my reminiscences of the poet in his later years, and my description of his homes and haunts, let me

The deeply felt emotion with which "My Captain" is read invariably brings tears to the eyes of hearers

My health is reasonably good."

, My Captain," (encouraged by a gentle-kindly ejaculation of "Bravo, bravo!"

The moment Garfield came over to our side of the car, I gave him my seat and I took his.

with countless cartridges of money coming up, and of endless change going down—to none of these were my

or forbidden; and, of all men in Philadelphia, he it was whom I most desired to see and to thank for my

In a strong round hand he inscribed my name in the volume we had discussed, gave me some precious pictures

Sir Edwin rushed toward him and exclaimed, "My dear friend, I am delighted to see you."

It stirs the cockle of my blood to read the nice things you say of me."

"Have you some of my poetry in your memory?" exclaimed the aged poet.

My recollections of Walt Whitman date back to three or four years prior to the civil war.

Our chambers were the meeting places for several small circles of my young men friends.

My Captain!

But I, with mournful tread, Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead."

my captain!" above quoted. But the little KEEPSAKE is prized not the less on that account.

of my friends.

, probably my last.

It is called 'Good-bye, My Fancy,' and is now in the press.

with me and encouraged me in my theories.

Give my regards to all my friends, and particularly to the press fellows, for I never forget that I was

"Every fine day I have my stalwart attendant wheel me out, often to the Federal street ferry, where,

As Carlyle says in his life of John Sterling, many of my seances with O'Reilly are written in star-fire

meeting at Young's was a most memorable one, and Emerson was kind enough to select the passages from my

England are imperative and I must soon sail for merrie England, and after a short stay I will keep my

promise to visit you and to renew my pleasant memories of the Pacific slope.'

My publisher has only sent me $80 as profits on my books for over a year.

But my friends everywhere are remembering me.

It would not be the truth to say that my only friends are in England.

My spirits are buoyant and my health fair: I am indeed content."

I am compelled to admit that my Western experiences are behind all of my life work.

It will be the whole expression of the design which I had in my mind When I Began to Write.

Now, that is the way it has been with my book. It has been twenty-five years building.

My theory in making the book is to give A Recognition of All Elements compacted in one— e pluribus unum

"My poetry," continued Mr.

Many of my friends have no patience with my opinion on this matter.

"I rode through it to-day with my friend, Senator Armstrong, and went to see my other ancient friend,

I also poid my respects to that most intelligent octogenarian, Mr.

found out the great secret, and I hope to meet their posterity and their friends and followers during my