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Alone on the Beach at Night
'All nations, colors, barbarisms, civilizations, languages...'
A selection taken from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass
Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions.
Walt Whitman (1819-1892).
Whitman's works available in Penguin Classics are Leaves of Grass and The Complete Poems.
A selection taken from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass
Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions.
Walt Whitman (1819-1892).
Whitman's works available in Penguin Classics are Leaves of Grass and The Complete Poems.
55 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1892
73 people are currently reading
2853 people want to read
About the author
Walt Whitman
1,752 books5,333 followersWalter Whitman Jr. was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature. Whitman incorporated both transcendentalism and realism in his writings and is often called the father of free verse. His work was controversial in his time, particularly his 1855 poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described by some as obscene for its overt sensuality.
Whitman was born in Huntington on Long Island, and lived in Brooklyn as a child and through much of his career. At the age of 11, he left formal schooling to go to work. He worked as a journalist, a teacher, and a government clerk. Whitman's major poetry collection, Leaves of Grass, first published in 1855, was financed with his own money and became well known. The work was an attempt to reach out to the common person with an American epic. Whitman continued expanding and revising Leaves of Grass until his death in 1892.
During the American Civil War, he went to Washington, D.C., and worked in hospitals caring for the wounded. His poetry often focused on both loss and healing. On the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, whom Whitman greatly admired, he authored two poems, "O Captain! My Captain!" and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", and gave a series of lectures on Lincoln. After suffering a stroke towards the end of his life, Whitman moved to Camden, New Jersey, where his health further declined. When he died at the age of 72, his funeral was a public event.
Whitman's influence on poetry remains strong. Art historian Mary Berenson wrote, "You cannot really understand America without Walt Whitman, without Leaves of Grass... He has expressed that civilization, 'up to date,' as he would say, and no student of the philosophy of history can do without him." Modernist poet Ezra Pound called Whitman "America's poet... He is America."
Whitman was born in Huntington on Long Island, and lived in Brooklyn as a child and through much of his career. At the age of 11, he left formal schooling to go to work. He worked as a journalist, a teacher, and a government clerk. Whitman's major poetry collection, Leaves of Grass, first published in 1855, was financed with his own money and became well known. The work was an attempt to reach out to the common person with an American epic. Whitman continued expanding and revising Leaves of Grass until his death in 1892.
During the American Civil War, he went to Washington, D.C., and worked in hospitals caring for the wounded. His poetry often focused on both loss and healing. On the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, whom Whitman greatly admired, he authored two poems, "O Captain! My Captain!" and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", and gave a series of lectures on Lincoln. After suffering a stroke towards the end of his life, Whitman moved to Camden, New Jersey, where his health further declined. When he died at the age of 72, his funeral was a public event.
Whitman's influence on poetry remains strong. Art historian Mary Berenson wrote, "You cannot really understand America without Walt Whitman, without Leaves of Grass... He has expressed that civilization, 'up to date,' as he would say, and no student of the philosophy of history can do without him." Modernist poet Ezra Pound called Whitman "America's poet... He is America."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 253 reviews
March 20, 2018
What am I myself but one of your meteors?
Vol 10 of my Penguin Little Black Classics Box Set. It contains selections from Walt Whitman's famous collection of poems, Leaves of Grass, specifically:
Birds of Passage:
- Song of the Universal
- Pioneers! Oh Pioneers!
- To You
- France, the 18th Year of These States
- Myself and Mine
- Year of Meteors (1859-1860)
- A Broadway Pageant
Sea Drift:
- Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking
- As I Ebb'd with the Ocean Life
- Tears
- To the Man-of-War Bird
- Aboard at Ship's Helm
- On the Beach at Night
- The World Below the Brine
- On the Beach At Night Alone
- Song for All Seas, All Ships
- Patroling Barnegat
- After the Sea-Ship
Let me start by saying I LOVE, LOVE Walt Whitman. I love his voice, his earthy vitality, his humanity. This is a tightly cropped edit of Leaves of Grass that focuses more on man and sky and sea than grass or leaves. I should also probably note I read this tonight while taking a bath and listening to the Police's fantastic album, Outlandos D'Amour, so some of the poems were a bit mixed for me. For example:
A Broadway Pageant: 5/Born in the 50s (Darwin8u Mix).
For I too, raising my voice, join the ranks of this pageant; 55
I am the chanter—I chant aloud over the pageant;
My mother cried
When president Kennedy died
She said it was the communists
But I knew better
I chant the world on my Western Sea;
I chant, copious, the islands beyond, thick as stars in the sky;
We were born
Born in the fifties
Born
Born in the fifties
Born
Born in the fifties
Born
Born in the fifties
I chant the new empire, grander than any before—As in a vision it comes to me;
I chant America, the Mistress—I chant a greater supremacy; 60
Would they drop the bomb on us
While we made love on the beach
We were the class they couldn't teach
'Cause we knew better
I chant, projected, a thousand blooming cities yet, in time, on those groups of sea-islands;
I chant my sail-ships and steam-ships threading the archipelagoes;
We were born
Born in the fifties
Born
Born in the fifties
Born
Born in the fifties
Born
Born in the fifties
I chant my stars and stripes fluttering in the wind;
I chant commerce opening, the sleep of ages having done its work—races, reborn, refresh’d;
They screamed
When the Beatles sang
And they laughed when the King fell down the steps
Oh they should've known better
Lives, works, resumed—The object I know not—but the old, the Asiatic, renew’d, as it must be, 65
Commencing from this day, surrounded by the world.
We were born
Born in the fifties
Born
Born in the fifties
Born
Born in the fifties
Born
Born in the fifties
Vol 10 of my Penguin Little Black Classics Box Set. It contains selections from Walt Whitman's famous collection of poems, Leaves of Grass, specifically:
Birds of Passage:
- Song of the Universal
- Pioneers! Oh Pioneers!
- To You
- France, the 18th Year of These States
- Myself and Mine
- Year of Meteors (1859-1860)
- A Broadway Pageant
Sea Drift:
- Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking
- As I Ebb'd with the Ocean Life
- Tears
- To the Man-of-War Bird
- Aboard at Ship's Helm
- On the Beach at Night
- The World Below the Brine
- On the Beach At Night Alone
- Song for All Seas, All Ships
- Patroling Barnegat
- After the Sea-Ship
Let me start by saying I LOVE, LOVE Walt Whitman. I love his voice, his earthy vitality, his humanity. This is a tightly cropped edit of Leaves of Grass that focuses more on man and sky and sea than grass or leaves. I should also probably note I read this tonight while taking a bath and listening to the Police's fantastic album, Outlandos D'Amour, so some of the poems were a bit mixed for me. For example:
A Broadway Pageant: 5/Born in the 50s (Darwin8u Mix).
For I too, raising my voice, join the ranks of this pageant; 55
I am the chanter—I chant aloud over the pageant;
My mother cried
When president Kennedy died
She said it was the communists
But I knew better
I chant the world on my Western Sea;
I chant, copious, the islands beyond, thick as stars in the sky;
We were born
Born in the fifties
Born
Born in the fifties
Born
Born in the fifties
Born
Born in the fifties
I chant the new empire, grander than any before—As in a vision it comes to me;
I chant America, the Mistress—I chant a greater supremacy; 60
Would they drop the bomb on us
While we made love on the beach
We were the class they couldn't teach
'Cause we knew better
I chant, projected, a thousand blooming cities yet, in time, on those groups of sea-islands;
I chant my sail-ships and steam-ships threading the archipelagoes;
We were born
Born in the fifties
Born
Born in the fifties
Born
Born in the fifties
Born
Born in the fifties
I chant my stars and stripes fluttering in the wind;
I chant commerce opening, the sleep of ages having done its work—races, reborn, refresh’d;
They screamed
When the Beatles sang
And they laughed when the King fell down the steps
Oh they should've known better
Lives, works, resumed—The object I know not—but the old, the Asiatic, renew’d, as it must be, 65
Commencing from this day, surrounded by the world.
We were born
Born in the fifties
Born
Born in the fifties
Born
Born in the fifties
Born
Born in the fifties
October 25, 2019
This slim volume contains two sections (“Birds of Passage” and “Sea-Drift”) plucked from the middle of Leaves of Grass. I must confess that the actual meaning of some of these poems went way over my head. However, the feeling that emerges from reading them is as clear as day. Whitman conveys a sense of uplifted splendour — sometimes borderline annoyingly grandiloquent — at the contemplation of the New World as a new Eden of cosmic proportions, where people from all over the world gather together in a universal spirit (in hindsight some of this feels a bit delusional).
The scope of these poems is astounding and renders the elements, the virgin wilderness, the limitless ocean, in a genuinely sublime manner. In many ways, they reminded me of the landscape paintings of Thomas Cole or the Hudson River School. The influence of Walt Whitman on Pablo Neruda’s Odas elementales is quite evident, by the way.
While I was reading this, it occurred to me that the America of Donald Trump, and the pettiness and nastiness around him, has come a long way since the epic days of Walt Whitman.
The scope of these poems is astounding and renders the elements, the virgin wilderness, the limitless ocean, in a genuinely sublime manner. In many ways, they reminded me of the landscape paintings of Thomas Cole or the Hudson River School. The influence of Walt Whitman on Pablo Neruda’s Odas elementales is quite evident, by the way.
While I was reading this, it occurred to me that the America of Donald Trump, and the pettiness and nastiness around him, has come a long way since the epic days of Walt Whitman.
May 22, 2020
Is it a dream?
Nay but the lack of it the dream,
And failing it life's lore and wealth a dream,
And all the world a dream.
***
O I see life is not short, but immeasurably long,
I henceforth tread the world chaste, temperate, an early riser, a steady grower,
Every hour the semen of centuries, and still of centuries.
I must follow up these continual lessons of the air, water, earth,
I perceive I have no time to lose.
***
My own songs awakened from that time,
And with them the key, the word up from the waves,
The word of the sweetest song and all songs,
That strong and delicious word which, creeping to my feet,
The sea whisper'd me.
***
We, capricious, brought hither we know not whence,
spread out before you,
You up there walking or sitting,
Whoever you are, we too lie in drifts at your feet.
***
Something there is,
Something there is more immortal than even the stars,
Something that shall endure longer even than lustrous Jupiter,
Longer than sun or any revolving satellite,
Or the radiant sisters the Pleiades.
Nay but the lack of it the dream,
And failing it life's lore and wealth a dream,
And all the world a dream.
***
O I see life is not short, but immeasurably long,
I henceforth tread the world chaste, temperate, an early riser, a steady grower,
Every hour the semen of centuries, and still of centuries.
I must follow up these continual lessons of the air, water, earth,
I perceive I have no time to lose.
***
My own songs awakened from that time,
And with them the key, the word up from the waves,
The word of the sweetest song and all songs,
That strong and delicious word which, creeping to my feet,
The sea whisper'd me.
***
We, capricious, brought hither we know not whence,
spread out before you,
You up there walking or sitting,
Whoever you are, we too lie in drifts at your feet.
***
Something there is,
Something there is more immortal than even the stars,
Something that shall endure longer even than lustrous Jupiter,
Longer than sun or any revolving satellite,
Or the radiant sisters the Pleiades.
April 10, 2016
Just kill me now.
This is one book I didn’t want to review. I’ve been avoiding this thing, this monster, for months. I just don’t get along with Whitman anymore. This edition is essentially random verses from Whitman’s Leaves of Grass and perhaps that’s the problem. The verses are taken out of their respective contexts and shoved in here. So not only do we have obscure and, well let’s just face it, weird poetry, but we also having it not making any sense with the rest of the poems. But I don’t overly care, I’d never read the full work anyway. Here’s the one for which this edition was named:
On the beach at night alone,
As the old mother sways her to and fro singing her husky song,
As I watched the bright stars shinning, I think a thought of the clef of the universes and the future.
And guess what that amazing thought is. Guess what Whitman reveals with such perception. Go on, guess. Okay, I’ll tell you. Whitman’s penetrating analysis, his words of wisdom and infinite truth, is that everything that has existed did so in the universe. GREAT! Thanks Whitman. I feel like that poem really helped me understand things………
As you can probably tell I don’t like Whitman. I knew when I got this series that there’d be a few I didn’t like, and some that I even hated. Whitman’s style just annoys me so much. When he isn’t pointing out the obvious, he is representing such vague concepts that make no sense. The language of the poems felt like prose, and at times it’s comparable to informal dialogue. It’s terribly repetitive. I’m sure some Whitman fan may be reading this with a clenched fist and a grim expression whilst wishing for a dislike button on goodreads reviews, but, for me, Whitman’s “writing” doesn’t even feel like poetry to me. I can’t consider it is such. I just don’t like it. I never will.
Penguin Little Black Classic- 10
The Little Black Classic Collection by penguin looks like it contains lots of hidden gems. I couldn’t help it; they looked so good that I went and bought them all. I shall post a short review after reading each one. No doubt it will take me several months to get through all of them! Hopefully I will find some classic authors, from across the ages, that I may not have come across had I not bought this collection.
This is one book I didn’t want to review. I’ve been avoiding this thing, this monster, for months. I just don’t get along with Whitman anymore. This edition is essentially random verses from Whitman’s Leaves of Grass and perhaps that’s the problem. The verses are taken out of their respective contexts and shoved in here. So not only do we have obscure and, well let’s just face it, weird poetry, but we also having it not making any sense with the rest of the poems. But I don’t overly care, I’d never read the full work anyway. Here’s the one for which this edition was named:
On the beach at night alone,
As the old mother sways her to and fro singing her husky song,
As I watched the bright stars shinning, I think a thought of the clef of the universes and the future.
And guess what that amazing thought is. Guess what Whitman reveals with such perception. Go on, guess. Okay, I’ll tell you. Whitman’s penetrating analysis, his words of wisdom and infinite truth, is that everything that has existed did so in the universe. GREAT! Thanks Whitman. I feel like that poem really helped me understand things………
As you can probably tell I don’t like Whitman. I knew when I got this series that there’d be a few I didn’t like, and some that I even hated. Whitman’s style just annoys me so much. When he isn’t pointing out the obvious, he is representing such vague concepts that make no sense. The language of the poems felt like prose, and at times it’s comparable to informal dialogue. It’s terribly repetitive. I’m sure some Whitman fan may be reading this with a clenched fist and a grim expression whilst wishing for a dislike button on goodreads reviews, but, for me, Whitman’s “writing” doesn’t even feel like poetry to me. I can’t consider it is such. I just don’t like it. I never will.
Penguin Little Black Classic- 10
The Little Black Classic Collection by penguin looks like it contains lots of hidden gems. I couldn’t help it; they looked so good that I went and bought them all. I shall post a short review after reading each one. No doubt it will take me several months to get through all of them! Hopefully I will find some classic authors, from across the ages, that I may not have come across had I not bought this collection.
July 10, 2016
No. Just no. I'm sure it was grand at the time, but it's more like political or nationalistic exclamations than art. Whitman doesn't age well. After I got to a reference to "semen of centuries" (page 19), I couldn't take it anymore.
December 31, 2019
He's my favorite poet... That's my review. That's it! 🤣💕
July 10, 2016
"None have understood you, but I understand you; None have done justice to you—you have not done justice to yourself..."
This Little Black Classic was another one that provided me with an overview of an author whose work I have not had the pleasure of reading yet. After finishing this, there are two things I am certain about: Walt Whitman likes his anaphoras and we'll probably cross paths again in the future.
This collection of poetry features an excerpt from the 19th-century American poet's famous Leaves of Grass. The first part mainly deals with the greatness of American pioneers (nay), while the second part focusses on the beauty and the impact of nature (yay). As many of the Little Black Classics unfortunately do, this one suffered from the lack of context and background information. The poems felt scattered and it made reading them harder than it should have been.
As a non-American I can only appreciate the devotion to his country he portrays from a distance and it makes his work interesting, yet more in a curios than in a "I can relate, because you speak from my heart" way. Apart from that much of his writing feels like eloquent rambling and while that might make the poems less impactful to some, I think it's part of their charm.
Roughly a year ago Penguin introduced the Little Black Classics series to celebrate Penguin's 80th birthday. Including little stories from "around the world and across many centuries" as the publisher describes, I have been intrigued to read those for a long time, before finally having started. I hope to sooner or later read and review all of them!
This Little Black Classic was another one that provided me with an overview of an author whose work I have not had the pleasure of reading yet. After finishing this, there are two things I am certain about: Walt Whitman likes his anaphoras and we'll probably cross paths again in the future.
This collection of poetry features an excerpt from the 19th-century American poet's famous Leaves of Grass. The first part mainly deals with the greatness of American pioneers (nay), while the second part focusses on the beauty and the impact of nature (yay). As many of the Little Black Classics unfortunately do, this one suffered from the lack of context and background information. The poems felt scattered and it made reading them harder than it should have been.
As a non-American I can only appreciate the devotion to his country he portrays from a distance and it makes his work interesting, yet more in a curios than in a "I can relate, because you speak from my heart" way. Apart from that much of his writing feels like eloquent rambling and while that might make the poems less impactful to some, I think it's part of their charm.
Roughly a year ago Penguin introduced the Little Black Classics series to celebrate Penguin's 80th birthday. Including little stories from "around the world and across many centuries" as the publisher describes, I have been intrigued to read those for a long time, before finally having started. I hope to sooner or later read and review all of them!
November 8, 2022
Ok i re-read it and i'm bumping it up to a 5 star from my previous 3 star rating... so much emotion and love in so few words and it makes me want to buy all the work from the author
----
I might re-read this soon to understand it better. It fit so much emotion in 55 pages and yeah, would love to come back to this soon!
----
I might re-read this soon to understand it better. It fit so much emotion in 55 pages and yeah, would love to come back to this soon!
March 9, 2024
after reading ‘to you’ i was going to give this four stars. after ‘out of the cradle endlessly rocking’, i have decided upon five.
April 28, 2017
Favorite poem : Patroling Barnegat
Favorite quotes :
Whoever you are, now I place my hand upon you, that you be my poem
(page 11)
But that before all my arrogant poems the real Me stands
yet untouch'd, untold, altogether unreach'd
(page 41)
Personally, I liked the poems about nature more than the patriotic ones about America, but they were overall interesting and nice enough.
Favorite quotes :
Whoever you are, now I place my hand upon you, that you be my poem
(page 11)
But that before all my arrogant poems the real Me stands
yet untouch'd, untold, altogether unreach'd
(page 41)
Personally, I liked the poems about nature more than the patriotic ones about America, but they were overall interesting and nice enough.
April 1, 2020
This was shit. Absolutely useless. I already forgot what the individual poems were about and I only read it two days ago. These poems didn't move me in the slightest. The selection was super random. The language wasn't beautiful. I'm seriously underwhelmed by Whitman!
February 12, 2024
Walt Whitman basadisimo la colección es súper extraña tho solo cogieron todos los poemas de leaves of grass que tenian algo acuático metido y dijeron hmmmmmmmm
November 28, 2016
Read all my reviews on http://urlphantomhive.booklikes.com
This one wasn't for me. I had of course heard of the author, but had never read anything by him. Based on this collection, a selection from Leaves of Grass, I don't think I will either.
With the Little Black Classics you never know up front what to expect, there have been some very nice surprises so far, but also some that disappointed, like this one. I didn't like Whitman's style and most likely won't be picking up more of his work.
Little Black Classics #10
This one wasn't for me. I had of course heard of the author, but had never read anything by him. Based on this collection, a selection from Leaves of Grass, I don't think I will either.
With the Little Black Classics you never know up front what to expect, there have been some very nice surprises so far, but also some that disappointed, like this one. I didn't like Whitman's style and most likely won't be picking up more of his work.
Little Black Classics #10
February 1, 2017
The selection of the poems felt very disjointed and I did not understand everything and felt some parts were very boring, but there were one or two poems that really touched me. It was a really strange feeling for someone who hardly reads/likes any poetry. And I'm not even sure WHY I liked the parts I liked and why I disliked the ones I disliked.
Whoever you are, now I place my hand upon you, that you be my poem;
I whisper with my lips close to your ear,
I have loved many women and men, but I love none better than you.
O I have been dilatory and dumb;
I should have made my way straight to you long ago;
I should have blabb’d nothing but you, I should have chanted nothing
but you.
I will leave all, and come and make the hymns of you;
None have understood you, but I understand you;
None have done justice to you–you have not done justice to yourself;
None but have found you imperfect–I only find no imperfection in
you;
None but would subordinate you–I only am he who will never consent
to subordinate you;
I only am he who places over you no master, owner, better, God,
beyond what waits intrinsically in yourself.
Whoever you are, now I place my hand upon you, that you be my poem;
I whisper with my lips close to your ear,
I have loved many women and men, but I love none better than you.
O I have been dilatory and dumb;
I should have made my way straight to you long ago;
I should have blabb’d nothing but you, I should have chanted nothing
but you.
I will leave all, and come and make the hymns of you;
None have understood you, but I understand you;
None have done justice to you–you have not done justice to yourself;
None but have found you imperfect–I only find no imperfection in
you;
None but would subordinate you–I only am he who will never consent
to subordinate you;
I only am he who places over you no master, owner, better, God,
beyond what waits intrinsically in yourself.
January 8, 2016
I am so bad at reading poetry, but I want to learn. I liked this and all the different ways he talked about the sea and the beach, my favourite places to be.
April 18, 2021
On the Beach at Night Alone
‘On the beach at night alone,
As the old mother sways her to and fro singing her husky song,
As I watch the bright stars shining, I think a thought of the clef of the universes and of the future.
A vast similitude interlocks all,
All spheres, grown, ungrown, small, large, suns, moons, planets,
All distances of place however wide,
All distances of time, all inanimate forms,
All souls, all living bodies though they be ever so different, or in different worlds,
All gaseous, watery, vegetable, mineral processes, the fishes, the brutes,
All nations, colors, barbarisms, civilizations, languages,
All identities that have existed or may exist on this globe, or any globe,
All lives and deaths, all of the past, present, future,
This vast similitude spans them, and always has spann’d,
And shall forever span them and compactly hold and enclose them.’
‘On the beach at night alone,
As the old mother sways her to and fro singing her husky song,
As I watch the bright stars shining, I think a thought of the clef of the universes and of the future.
A vast similitude interlocks all,
All spheres, grown, ungrown, small, large, suns, moons, planets,
All distances of place however wide,
All distances of time, all inanimate forms,
All souls, all living bodies though they be ever so different, or in different worlds,
All gaseous, watery, vegetable, mineral processes, the fishes, the brutes,
All nations, colors, barbarisms, civilizations, languages,
All identities that have existed or may exist on this globe, or any globe,
All lives and deaths, all of the past, present, future,
This vast similitude spans them, and always has spann’d,
And shall forever span them and compactly hold and enclose them.’
December 31, 2024
IK HEB MIJN GOODREADS GOAL GEWOON GEHAALD VOOR DE EERSTE KEER IN 4 JAAR!!!!!
Deze collectie vond ik dus wel niet zo heel speciaal:((
Sommige gedichten/zinnen waren wel mooi, maar er stond niet echt iets tussen dat ik ga onthouden.
Hopelijk brengt 2025 eindelijk terug is wat boeken met zich mee die ik meer dan 3 sterren kan geven🙏
Deze collectie vond ik dus wel niet zo heel speciaal:((
Sommige gedichten/zinnen waren wel mooi, maar er stond niet echt iets tussen dat ik ga onthouden.
Hopelijk brengt 2025 eindelijk terug is wat boeken met zich mee die ik meer dan 3 sterren kan geven🙏
July 5, 2025
O wild and dismal night storm, with
wind — O belching and desperate!
O shade so sedate and decorous by
day, with calm countenance and
regulated pace,
But away at night as you fly, none
looking — O then the unloosen'd
ocean,
Of tears! tears! tears!
wind — O belching and desperate!
O shade so sedate and decorous by
day, with calm countenance and
regulated pace,
But away at night as you fly, none
looking — O then the unloosen'd
ocean,
Of tears! tears! tears!
February 23, 2025
“To You”.
May 31, 2016
Not the Whitman poems I would chose, especially considering part of the purpose of these books is to give people a taste of a writer.
January 21, 2025
“On the beach at night alone,
As the old mother sways her to and fro singing her husky song,
As I watch the bright stars shining, I think a thought of the clef of the universes and of the future.
A vast similitude interlocks all,
All spheres, grown, ungrown, small, large, suns, moons, planets,
All distances of place however wide,
All distances of time, all inanimate forms,
All souls, all living bodies though they be ever so different, or in different worlds,
All gaseous, watery, vegetable, mineral processes, the fishes, the brutes,
All nations, colors, barbarisms, civilizations, languages,
All identities that have existed or may exist on this globe, or any globe,
All lives and deaths, all of the past, present, future,
This vast similitude spans them, and always has spann’d,
And shall forever span them and compactly hold and enclose them.”
As the old mother sways her to and fro singing her husky song,
As I watch the bright stars shining, I think a thought of the clef of the universes and of the future.
A vast similitude interlocks all,
All spheres, grown, ungrown, small, large, suns, moons, planets,
All distances of place however wide,
All distances of time, all inanimate forms,
All souls, all living bodies though they be ever so different, or in different worlds,
All gaseous, watery, vegetable, mineral processes, the fishes, the brutes,
All nations, colors, barbarisms, civilizations, languages,
All identities that have existed or may exist on this globe, or any globe,
All lives and deaths, all of the past, present, future,
This vast similitude spans them, and always has spann’d,
And shall forever span them and compactly hold and enclose them.”
May 12, 2023
I love reading poetry, but I have no idea how to analyze it because I only rely on how it makes me feel. Most of the poems in this collection didn't have any impact on me, except "To You," which is sooo beautiful. It feels completely different when the poem speaks to you directly. Even though I'm certain that most of his poems won't resonate with me in terms of the subjects he talks about, I still want to read the complete collection in Leaves of Grass, in the hopes of finding another lovely gem like "To you."
November 20, 2024
I don’t know, this just didn’t really do anything for me. I would love to be a poetry person, but alas it seems to be increasingly evident that I am not, and so much of this probably washed over me (haha). Nothing about it ostensibly wrong or offensive though, and I did notice pleasant wave-like oscillations in the rhythms of the poems.
April 11, 2017
Δεν είχα διαβάσει ποτέ ξανά στο παρελθόν ξενόγλωσση ποιηση. Μου αρεσε πολυ, αλλα θα χρειαστει να επανελθω καποια στιγμη σε αυτο το βιβλιο.
October 16, 2021
just not really the style of poetry i like
December 31, 2022
1.5 stars. really not my style.
February 10, 2025
just finished reading this and already forgot what 95% of the poems were about. not my cup of tea.
January 27, 2025
"what am i myself but one of your meteors?"
August 15, 2020
I think our good friend Walt Whitman put a bit too much faith in America and it's a bit painful to read.
June 30, 2025
2.5 STARS:
Just not for me.
Just not for me.
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