Walt Whitman

1855 Leaves of Grass, little by little, over and over.

[Walt Whitman @TweetsOfGrass]

An announcement.

[Walt Whitman @TweetsOfGrass]

An announcement.

[Walt Whitman @TweetsOfGrass]

The shape of his head, the richness and breadth of his manners, the pale yellow and white of his hair and beard, the immeasurable meaning of his black eyes,

[Walt Whitman @TweetsOfGrass]

This man was of wonderful vigor and calmness and beauty of person;

[Walt Whitman @TweetsOfGrass]

I knew a man . . . . he was a common farmer . . . . he was the father of five sons . . . and in them were the fathers of sons . . . and in them were the fathers of sons.

[Walt Whitman @TweetsOfGrass]

And swim with the swimmer, and wrestle with wrestlers, and march in line with the firemen, and pause and listen and count.

[Walt Whitman @TweetsOfGrass]

Suchlike I love . . . . I loosen myself and pass freely . . . . and am at the mother's breast with the little child,

[Walt Whitman @TweetsOfGrass]

The natural perfect and varied attitudes . . . . the bent head, the curved neck, the counting:

[Walt Whitman @TweetsOfGrass]

The slow return from the fire . . . . the pause when the bell strikes suddenly again—the listening on the alert,

[Walt Whitman @TweetsOfGrass]

The march of firemen in their own costumes—the play of the masculine muscle through cleansetting trowsers and waistbands,

[Walt Whitman @TweetsOfGrass]

The upperhold and underhold—the hair rumpled over and blinding the eyes;

[Walt Whitman @TweetsOfGrass]

The coats vests and caps thrown down . . the embrace of love and resistance,

[Walt Whitman @TweetsOfGrass]

The wrestle of wrestlers . . two apprentice-boys, quite grown, lusty, goodnatured, nativeborn, out on the vacant lot at sundown after work,

[Walt Whitman @TweetsOfGrass]

The woodman rapidly swinging his axe in the woods . . . . the young fellow hoeing corn . . . . the sleighdriver guiding his six horses through the crowd,

[Walt Whitman @TweetsOfGrass]

The female soothing a child . . . . the farmer's daughter in the garden or cowyard,

[Walt Whitman @TweetsOfGrass]

The group of laborers seated at noontime with their open dinnerkettles, and their wives waiting,

[Walt Whitman @TweetsOfGrass]

Girls and mothers and housekeepers in all their exquisite offices,

[Walt Whitman @TweetsOfGrass]

The bending forward and backward of rowers in rowboats . . . . the horseman in his saddle;

[Walt Whitman @TweetsOfGrass]

Framers bare-armed framing a house . . hoisting the beams in their places . . or using the mallet and mortising-chisel,

[Walt Whitman @TweetsOfGrass]

The swimmer naked in the swimmingbath . . seen as he swims through the salt transparent greenshine, or lies on his back and rolls silently with the heave of the water;