Leaves of Grass

Leaves of Grass
by Walt Whitman

Finally I get to a book that is all about everything, yet decided upon only one thing. ”It is what it is.” His writing is with good measurement but without judgment or opinion. Whitman wrote this book in 1855 with the distinct advantage of living through the “splendid isolation years” of America. He defines what a poet is. He brings respect to poets and artists alike, for they are free to express their observations of the world with absolutely no obligation but to say it like he or she sees it. With such a freedom however, Whitman does not abuse his liberty by imposing his opinion in anything he writes. He is even handed on religion, as he is spiritual, but not necessarily attached to any one sect. He is respectful of government and its role on society of 1855. In every poem he gives equal consideration to the sexes and the ages. Most of all he impressed me with his recognition that all people are all connected and have a measure of impact on each other. The measure of that interaction is an absolute decision of the individual, Liberty. Were the times just that good in 1855, or was it Whitman? The words he chooses to convey an observation of life allows agreement from diverse views and as such, places him as arbiter of peace. The following are samples of universal descriptions of life’s challenges.


And the hand of God is the elder hand of my own. And I know that the spirit of God is the eldest brother of my own.

I guess it must be the flag of my disposition

I pass death with dyeing; and am not contained between my hat-and boots.

Obedience does not master him, he masters it

The city sleeps and the country sleeps, The living sleeps for their time ....the dead sleep for their time, The old husband sleeps by his wife and the young husband sleeps by his wife, And these one and all tend inward to me, and I tend outward to them, And such it is to be of these more or less I am.

These are the thoughts of all men in all ages and lands; they are not original with me,
If they are yours as much as mine they are nothing or next to nothing,
If they do not enclose everything they are next to nothing,
If they are not the riddle and the untying of the riddle they are nothing,
If they are not just as close as they are at a distance they are nothing.
This is the grass that grows wherever the land is and the water is,
This is the common air that bathes the globe

This is the trill of a thousand clear cornets and scream of the octave flute and strike of triangles. Dazzling and tremendous how quick the sunrise would kill me, If I could not now and always send sunrise out of me. We also ascend dazzling and tremendous as the sun; we found our own my soul in the calm and cool of daybreak.
My voice goes after what my eyes cannot reach,
While the twirl of my tongue I encompass words and volumes of worlds.
Speech is the twin of my vision... it is unequal to measure itself.
It provokes me forever; it says sarcastically,
Walt you understand enough...why don't you let it out then?

Logic and sermons never convince,
The damp of the night drive deeper into my soul,
Only what proves itself to every man and women is so, only what nobody denies is so.

How quickly I ascend to the nest in the fissure in the cliff.

We consider the bibles and religions divine.... I do not say they are divine, I say they have all grown out of you and may grow out of you still, It is not they who give life.... it is you who give life: Leaves are not more shed from the tree or trees from the earth than they are shed out of you. The sum of all known value and respect I add up in you whoever you are.

I suppose though that poets and leaders should indeed be in their separate place. Yet a good leader should have a poet as his advisor. To place Whitman in our thoughts of today, one would draw a contrast to Islam. It is a tenant of the Koran that no religious leaders shall be in government positions, yet all government decisions shall give full consideration to their religion. Should we send Leaves of Grass to all religious leaders of Islamic countries enslaved by fanatisism?