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What I experience or portray shall go from my composition without a shred of my composition.

I lie in the night air in my red shirt… the pervading hush is for my sake.

We close with him: the yards entangled… the masts touched: My captain lashed fast with his own hands.

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

Serene stood the little captain: He was not hurried…his voice was neither high or low— His eyes gave

Grier notes that a portion of this notebook (beginning "How spied the captain and sailors") describes

/ My children and grand-children, my white hair and beard, / My largeness, calmness, majesty, out of

the long stretch of my life" (145).

received pay.— from the lips and fingers hands of the vict captors victors.— How fared The young captain

the greatness and beau large hearts of heroes, All the courage of olden time and How spied the the captain

Grier notes that a portion of this notebook (beginning "How spied the captain and sailors") describes

Grier notes that a portion of this notebook (beginning "How spied the captain and sailors") describes

Earth of the limpid gray of clouds brighter and clearer for my sake! Far-swooping elbowed earth!

darkness , Our vessel riddled and slowly sinking…preparations to pass to the one we had conquered, The captain

We closed with him . . . . the yards entangled . . . . the cannon touched, My captain lashed fast with

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

Only three guns were in use, One was directed by the captain himself against the enemy's mainmast, Two

Serene stood the little captain, He was not hurried . . . . his voice was neither high nor low, His eyes

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

whom we knew not before Then the great authors take him for an author And the great soldiers for a captain

O laugh when my eyes settle the land The imagery and phrasing of these lines bears some resemblance to

and dwells serenely behind it.— When out of a feast I eat bread only corn and roast potatoes fo for my

dinner, through my own voluntary choice it is very well and I much content, but if some arrogant head

inspiration . . . . the beating of my heart . . . . the passing of blood and air through my lungs.

In the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass , Whitman included the lines: "Who learns my lesson complete?

My Lesson Have you learned my lesson complete: It is well—it is but the gate to a larger lesson—and And

mother generations guided me, / My embryo has never been torpid . . . . nothing could overlay it; /

All forces have been steadily employed to complete and delight me, / Now I stand on this spot with my

White noted a relationship between these pages and the poems "Who Learns My Lesson Complete?

White noted a relationship between these pages and the poems "Who Learns My Lesson Complete?

These words are for the five or six grand poets, too; and the masters of artists: — I waste no ink, nor my

receive you, and attach and clasp hands with you, / The facts are useful and real . . . . they are not my

senses all men is truth; Logic and sermons never convince ; me; The dew of the night drives deep er into my

/ Logic and sermons never convince, / The damp of the night drives deeper into my soul. / Only what proves

bit of pathos—indubitably human—in my eye, confess now am I not a man and a brother?"

place, with my own day, here."

my dwell- dwelling .)"

'O the life of my senses and flesh, transcending my senses and flesh.'

my South! O quick mettle, rich blood, impulse and love! good and evil! O all dear to me!"

my South!O quick mettle, rich blood, impulse and love! good and evil! O all dear to me!"

White noted a relationship between these pages and the poems Who Learns My Lesson Complete?

as two—as my soul and I; and I gu reckon it is the same with all oth men and women.— I know that my

trousers around my boots, and my cuffs back from my wrists and go among the rough drivers and boatmen

I tell you just as beautiful to die; For I take my death with the dying And my birth with the new-born

lips, to the palms of my hands, and whatever my hands hold.

hands, and my head my head mocked with a prickly I am here after I remember crucifixion and bloody coronation

sings as well as I, because although she reads no newspaper; never learned the gamut; And to shake my

The first lines of the notebook poem were revised and published as "My Picture-Gallery" in The American

Poem in the 1856 edition of Leaves of Grass: "The best I had done seemed to me blank and suspicious, / My

The lines "I am too great to be a mere President or Major General / I remain with my fellows—with mechanics

fool and the wise thinker" may be related to a similar phrase in the poem eventually titled Who Learns My

though I lie so sleepy and sluggish, my tap is death" (1855, p. 74).

philosopher's life in the quiet woodland ways, Where if I cannot be gay let a passionless peace be my

And my heart is a handful of dust, And the wheels go over my head, And my bones are shaken with pain,

What I experience or portray shall go from my composition without a shred of my composition.

You shall stand by my side, and look in the mirror with me."

I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven.

I say to my own greatness, Away!

outward" (1855, p. 51). may be related to a similar phrase in the poem eventually titled "Who Learns My

in the 1856 edition of Leaves of Grass : "The best I had done seemed to me blank and suspicious, / My

—I doubt whether who my greatest thoughts, as I had supposed them, are not shallow.

—My pride is impotent; my love gets no response.

I loafe, and invite my soul; I lean and loafe at my ease— Observing a spear of Summer grass."

I know that the hand of God is the elderhand of my own, And I know that the spirit of God is the eldest

brother of my own, And that all the men ever born are also my brothers…and the women my sisters and

I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven.

is as big to me as any, Logic and sermons never convince, The damp of the night drives deeper into my

"What I experience or portray shall go from my composition without a shred of my composition.

You shall stand by my side and look in the mirror with me."

"I am the teacher of Athletes; He that by me spreads a wider breast than my own, proves the width of

my own; He most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher; The boy I love, the same

Clean er shaved and more grammatical folks I call Mister, and lay the tips of my fingers inside their

headline in the morning papers, and pass the time as comfortably as the law allows.— But for the others, my

.— I assume this day, the whole debt of all I take my place by right among the sudorous or sweaty men

a handsomer man with be has better finer health and cleaner shaped limbs than I, who do business in my

; Or rude in my home in Dakotah's woods, my diet meat, my drink from the spring; Or withdrawn to muse

He even dates from the United States era; in 1856, he writes: In the Year 80 of the States, My tongue

place, with my own day, here.

List close, my scholars dear!

I approached him, gave my name and reason for searching him out, and asked him if he did not find the

night walkers And do no better for me— Who am a regular gentlemen or lady, With a marble broad stoop to my

And is the day here when I vote at the polls, One with the immigrant that last August strewed lime in my

though I lie so sleepy and sluggish, my tap is death" (1855, p. 74).

man who claims or takes the power to own another man as his property, stabs me in that the heart of my

own The one scratches me a little on the cheek forehead , the other draws his murderous razor through my

t T hat black and huge lethargic mass, my sportsmen, dull and sleepy as it seems, has holds the lightning

eventually titled "Song of Myself": "Buying drafts of Osiris and Isis and Belus and Brahma and Adonai, / In my

not smell— —I smell the your beautiful white roses— I kiss their soft your leafy lips—I reach slide my

Who would suspect that this comic strain proceeded from the author of "My Study Window," and "Among my

I'm dull at prayers: I could not keep awake Counting my beads.

I love my fellow-men: the worst I know I would do good to.

Now, when storms of fate o'ercast Darkly my Present and my Past, Let my Future radiant shine With sweet

The "In Memoriam" explains itself,—the "Watchman of Ephriam," as Osee says, "was with my God."

first several lines of that poem (not including the line in question) were revised and published as My

.— (He could say) I know well enough the perpetual myself in my poems—but it is because the universe

camping with lumber-men, Along the ruts of the turnpike . . . along the dry gulch and rivulet bed, Hoeing my

gold-digging . . . girdling the trees of a new purchase, Scorched ankle-deep by the hot sand . . . hauling my

first poem of the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass , later called "Song of Myself": "I do not trouble my

The first several lines of the notebook (not including this line) were revised and published as "My Picture-Gallery

just granting his request, with great commiseration, when an old lady from the gallery cries out "O my

with me about God; I can yet just begin to comprehend nothing more wonderful than so tremendous as my

He swears to his art, I will not be meddlesome, I will not have in my writing any elegance or effect

What I experience or portray shall go from my composition without a shred of my composition.

You shall stand by my side and look in the mirror with me.

Is it uniform with my country? Are its disposals without ignominious distinctions?

what answers for me an American must answer for any individual or nation that serves for a part of my

I sound triumphal drums for the dead—I fling thro' my embouchures the loudest and gayest music for them