20 Whitman Quotes for You to Enjoy

More than any other poet, Whitman is what we make him; more than any other poet, his greatest value is in what he suggests and implies rather than in what he portrays, and more than any other poet must he wait to be understood by the growth of the taste of himself. John Burroughs

I think that with Bob Dylan around, we're living in an era where we have Whitman presenting new work, we have Dickens presenting new work, we have Yeats and Shakespeare presenting new work. It's that level. Benmont Tench

Work Living Think Shakespeare New Around Era Yeats Dickens Where Dylan Bob Bob Dylan Whitman Level Presenting

The type of mind of Whitman's, which seldom or never emerges as a mere mentality, an independent thinking and knowing faculty, but always as a personality, always as a complete human entity, never can expound itself, because its operations are synthetic and not analytic; its mainspring is love and not mere knowledge. John Burroughs

Love Knowledge Personality Mind Thinking Analytic Type Complete Synthetic Independent Emerges Entity Mentality Seldom Never Faculty Mere Knowing Operations Because Always Itself Human Which Whitman

Whitman will always be a strange and unwonted figure among his country's poets, and among English poets generally: a cropping out again, after so many centuries, of the old bardic prophetic strain. John Burroughs

Strange Old Will Country Out Poets Prophetic Generally Always His After Again Centuries Strain Whitman Figure English Many Among

The major poets of New Jersey have all suffered, whether it's Whitman, who lost his job for 'Leaves of Grass,' or William Carlos Williams, who was called a communist, or Ginsberg, whose 'Howl' was prosecuted, or myself. If you practise poetry the way I think it needs to be done, you're going to put yourself in jeopardy. Amiri Baraka

Myself Needs You Yourself Job Lost Grass Think Way William Williams Poetry Poets Put Prosecuted New Major Practise New Jersey Leaves Howl His Done Going Whether Communist Whitman Who Jeopardy Whose Suffered Jersey

Walt Whitman is the only great modern poet who does not seem to experience discord when he faces his world. Not even solitude - his monologue is a universal chorus. Octavio Paz

My heroes are, above all, the great 19th-century Americans: Emerson, Whitman, Dickinson and the others. I love the way they think. Marilynne Robinson

Love Great Heroes Think Others Way Above Emerson American Whitman

I always knew in my heart Walt Whitman's mind to be more like my own than any other man's living. As he is a very great scoundrel this is not a pleasant confession. Gerard Manley Hopkins

The first thing I did on television was a PBS thing where I played a priest. It was a Walt Whitman or Carl Sandburg story - I can't quite remember - but I was a turn-of-the-20th-century priest kind of guy. Never saw it; don't know if I was any good or not. Kelsey Grammer

Vegas has the Whitman's Sampler of audiences. They come from all different places, so you have to do some crowd psychology. You have to find the heartbeat of the room. It doesn't shift my jokes, but it shifts my timing and my attention. Hal Sparks

You Jokes Timing Find Some Crowd Vegas Attention Come Audiences Shift Shifts Heartbeat Different Psychology Places Room Whitman Different Places

Shane Johnson and I coincidently went to Whitman College. This is notable because Whitman is teeny-tiny, with only 1,200 students. He graduated the spring before I started, so we didn't know each other. Lela Loren

College Spring Before Other Only Johnson Shane Students He Know Because Graduated Notable Whitman Each Started

I always thought I was going to be a great poet, and go and live in New York, where the great poets lived - you know, where Whitman had walked the streets. Garth Risk Hallberg

Great You Thought Poet Live Poets Had New Know Always Go Walked York Going New York Where Whitman Lived Streets

I really love poetry. I'm a big E.E. Cummings fan and a big Walt Whitman fan, and I have a big book of poetry. Mae Whitman

Love Book Big Poetry Walt Walt Whitman Fan Really Whitman

As far as I can see, the best writers in the last two hundred years have been Whitman, Rilke, Proust, Kafka. Their best works: 'Leaves of Grass - 1855;' 'Duino Elegies;' 'The Captive & The Fugitive;' 'The Castle.' Jesse Ball

Some of his own closeness to nature, his great love for human beings, was passed on by Whitman to all of us who knew and loved him. Ella R. Bloor

Love Great Nature Own Great Love Some Knew Him Passed His Closeness Human Human Beings Loved Us Whitman Who Beings