Leaves of Grass

How it opens

Come, said my soul, Such verses for my Body let us write, (for we are one,) That should I after return, Or, long, long hence, in other spheres, There to some group of mates the chants resuming, (Tallying Earth’s soil, trees, winds, tumultuous waves,) Ever with pleas’d smile I may keep on, Ever and ever yet the verses owning--as, first, I here and now Signing for Soul and Body, set to them my name,…

Details

• AuthorWalt Whitman
• SourceProject Gutenberg #1322
• Length120,125 words · 8h 01m of reading
• Chapters350
• DictionaryNot yet generated
• CopyrightPublic domain in the United States
• Source checked2026-08-28

Contents

350 chapters

Recovered from the original source text, so you can open the book at any of them.

1. 01By Walt Whitman
2. 02One’s-Self I Sing
3. 03As I Ponder’d in Silence
4. 04In Cabin’d Ships at Sea
5. 05To Foreign Lands
6. 06To a Historian
7. 07To Thee Old Cause
8. 08Eidolons
9. 09For Him I Sing
10. 10When I Read the Book
11. 11Beginning My Studies
12. 12Beginners
13. 13To the States
14. 14On Journeys Through the States
15. 15To a Certain Cantatrice
16. 16Me Imperturbe
17. 17Savantism
18. 18The Ship Starting
19. 19I Hear America Singing
20. 20Still Though the One I Sing
21. 21Shut Not Your Doors
22. 22Poets to Come
23. 23To You
24. 24Thou Reader
25. 25Starting from Paumanok
26. 26Song of Myself
27. 27To the Garden the World
28. 28From Pent-Up Aching Rivers
29. 29I Sing the Body Electric
30. 30A Woman Waits for Me
31. 31Spontaneous Me
32. 32One Hour to Madness and Joy
33. 33Out of the Rolling Ocean the Crowd
34. 34Ages and Ages Returning at Intervals
35. 35We Two, How Long We Were Fool’d
36. 36I Am He That Aches with Love
37. 37Native Moments
38. 38Once I Pass’d Through a Populous City
39. 39I Heard You Solemn-Sweet Pipes of the Organ
40. 40Facing West from California’s Shores
41. 41As Adam Early in the Morning
42. 42In Paths Untrodden
43. 43Scented Herbage of My Breast
44. 44Whoever You Are Holding Me Now in Hand
45. 45For You, O Democracy
46. 46These I Singing in Spring
47. 47Not Heaving from My Ribb’d Breast Only
48. 48Of the Terrible Doubt of Appearances
49. 49The Base of All Metaphysics
50. 50Recorders Ages Hence
51. 51Roots and Leaves Themselves Alone
52. 52Not Heat Flames Up and Consumes
53. 53Trickle Drops
54. 54City of Orgies
55. 55Behold This Swarthy Face
56. 56I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing
57. 57To a Stranger
58. 58This Moment Yearning and Thoughtful
59. 59I Hear It Was Charged Against Me
60. 60The Prairie-Grass Dividing
61. 61When I Peruse the Conquer’d Fame
62. 62We Two Boys Together Clinging
63. 63A Promise to California
64. 64Here the Frailest Leaves of Me
65. 65No Labor-Saving Machine
66. 66A Glimpse
67. 67A Leaf for Hand in Hand
68. 68Earth, My Likeness
69. 69I Dream’d in a Dream
70. 70To the East and to the West
71. 71Sometimes with One I Love
72. 72To a Western Boy
73. 73Among the Multitude
74. 74O You Whom I Often and Silently Come
75. 75That Shadow My Likeness
76. 76Full of Life Now
77. 77BOOK VI
78. 78Song of the Open Road
79. 79Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
80. 80Song of the Answerer
81. 81Our Old Feuillage
82. 82A Song of Joys
83. 83Song of the Broad-Axe
84. 84Song of the Exposition
85. 85Song of the Redwood-Tree
86. 86A Song for Occupations
87. 87A Song of the Rolling Earth
88. 88Youth, Day, Old Age and Night
89. 89Song of the Universal
90. 90To You
91. 91France [the 18th Year of these States
92. 92Myself and Mine
93. 93Year of Meteors [1859-60
94. 94With Antecedents
95. 95A Broadway Pageant
96. 96Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking
97. 97As I Ebb’d with the Ocean of Life
98. 98Tears
99. 99To the Man-of-War-Bird
100. 100Aboard at a Ship’s Helm
101. 101On the Beach at Night
102. 102The World below the Brine
103. 103On the Beach at Night Alone
104. 104Song for All Seas, All Ships
105. 105Patroling Barnegat
106. 106After the Sea-Ship
107. 107A Boston Ballad [1854]
108. 108A Hand-Mirror
109. 109Gods
110. 110Germs
111. 111Thoughts
112. 112When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer
113. 113Perfections
114. 114To a President
115. 115I Sit and Look Out
116. 116To Rich Givers
117. 117The Dalliance of the Eagles
118. 118Roaming in Thought [After reading Hegel]
119. 119A Farm Picture
120. 120A Child’s Amaze
121. 121The Runner
122. 122Beautiful Women
123. 123Mother and Babe
124. 124Thought
125. 125Visor’d
126. 126Thought
127. 127Gliding O’er all
128. 128Hast Never Come to Thee an Hour
129. 129Thought
130. 130To Old Age
131. 131Locations and Times
132. 132Offerings
133. 133First O Songs for a Prelude
134. 134Eighteen Sixty-One
135. 135From Paumanok Starting I Fly Like a Bird
136. 136Song of the Banner at Daybreak
137. 137Rise O Days from Your Fathomless Deeps
138. 138Virginia--The West
139. 139City of Ships
140. 140The Centenarian’s Story
141. 141Cavalry Crossing a Ford
142. 142Bivouac on a Mountain Side
143. 143An Army Corps on the March
144. 144By the Bivouac’s Fitful Flame
145. 145Come Up from the Fields Father
146. 146As Toilsome I Wander’d Virginia’s Woods
147. 147Not the Pilot
148. 148Year That Trembled and Reel’d Beneath Me
149. 149The Wound-Dresser
150. 150Long, Too Long America
151. 151Give Me the Splendid Silent Sun
152. 152Dirge for Two Veterans
153. 153Over the Carnage Rose Prophetic a Voice
154. 154I Saw Old General at Bay
155. 155The Artilleryman’s Vision
156. 156Ethiopia Saluting the Colors
157. 157Not Youth Pertains to Me
158. 158Race of Veterans
159. 159World Take Good Notice
160. 160O Tan-Faced Prairie-Boy
161. 161Look Down Fair Moon
162. 162Reconciliation
163. 163Delicate Cluster
164. 164To a Certain Civilian
165. 165Lo, Victress on the Peaks
166. 166Spirit Whose Work Is Done [Washington City, 1865]
167. 167Adieu to a Soldier
168. 168Turn O Libertad
169. 169To the Leaven’d Soil They Trod
170. 170When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d
171. 171Hush’d Be the Camps To-Day [May 4, 1865
172. 172This Dust Was Once the Man
173. 173By Blue Ontario’s Shore
174. 174Reversals
175. 175BOOK XXIV. AUTUMN RIVULETS
176. 176The Return of the Heroes
177. 177There Was a Child Went Forth
178. 178Old Ireland
179. 179The City Dead-House
180. 180This Compost
181. 181To a Foil’d European Revolutionaire
182. 182Unnamed Land
183. 183Song of Prudence
184. 184The Singer in the Prison
185. 185Warble for Lilac-Time
186. 186Vocalism
187. 187To Him That Was Crucified
188. 188You Felons on Trial in Courts
189. 189Laws for Creations
190. 190To a Common Prostitute
191. 191I Was Looking a Long While
192. 192Thought
193. 193Miracles
194. 194Sparkles from the Wheel
195. 195To a Pupil
196. 196Unfolded out of the Folds
197. 197What Am I After All
198. 198Kosmos
199. 199Others May Praise What They Like
200. 200Tests
201. 201The Torch
202. 202O Star of France [1870-71]
203. 203The Ox-Tamer
204. 204Wandering at Morn
205. 205With All Thy Gifts
206. 206My Picture-Gallery
207. 207The Prairie States
208. 208Proud Music of the Storm
209. 209Passage to India
210. 210Prayer of Columbus
211. 211The Sleepers
212. 212Transpositions
213. 213To Think of Time
214. 214Darest Thou Now O Soul
215. 215Whispers of Heavenly Death
216. 216Chanting the Square Deific
217. 217Of Him I Love Day and Night
218. 218Yet, Yet, Ye Downcast Hours
219. 219As If a Phantom Caress’d Me
220. 220Assurances
221. 221Quicksand Years
222. 222That Music Always Round Me
223. 223What Ship Puzzled at Sea
224. 224A Noiseless Patient Spider
225. 225O Living Always, Always Dying
226. 226To One Shortly to Die
227. 227Night on the Prairies
228. 228Thought
229. 229The Last Invocation
230. 230As I Watch the Ploughman Ploughing
231. 231Pensive and Faltering
232. 232Thou Mother with Thy Equal Brood
233. 233A Paumanok Picture
234. 234Thou Orb Aloft Full-Dazzling
235. 235Faces
236. 236The Mystic Trumpeter
237. 237To a Locomotive in Winter
238. 238O Magnet-South
239. 239Mannahatta
240. 240All Is Truth
241. 241A Riddle Song
242. 242Excelsior
243. 243Ah Poverties, Wincings, and Sulky Retreats
244. 244Thoughts
245. 245Mediums
246. 246Weave in, My Hardy Life
247. 247Spain, 1873-74
248. 248By Broad Potomac’s Shore
249. 249From Far Dakota’s Canyons [June 25, 1876]
250. 250Old War-Dreams
251. 251Thick-Sprinkled Bunting
252. 252As I Walk These Broad Majestic Days
253. 253A Clear Midnight
254. 254As the Time Draws Nigh
255. 255Years of the Modern
256. 256Ashes of Soldiers
257. 257Thoughts
258. 258Song at Sunset
259. 259As at Thy Portals Also Death
260. 260My Legacy
261. 261Pensive on Her Dead Gazing
262. 262Camps of Green
263. 263As They Draw to a Close
264. 264The Untold Want
265. 265Portals
266. 266These Carols
267. 267Now Finale to the Shore
268. 268Mannahatta
269. 269Paumanok
270. 270From Montauk Point
271. 271To Those Who’ve Fail’d
272. 272A Carol Closing Sixty-Nine
273. 273The Bravest Soldiers
274. 274A Font of Type
275. 275As I Sit Writing Here
276. 276My Canary Bird
277. 277Queries to My Seventieth Year
278. 278The Wallabout Martyrs
279. 279The First Dandelion
280. 280America
281. 281Memories
282. 282To-Day and Thee
283. 283After the Dazzle of Day
284. 284Abraham Lincoln, Born Feb. 12, 1809
285. 285Out of May’s Shows Selected
286. 286Halcyon Days
287. 287FANCIES AT NAVESINK
288. 288Election Day, November, 1884
289. 289Death of General Grant
290. 290Red Jacket (From Aloft)
291. 291Washington’s Monument February, 1885
292. 292Of That Blithe Throat of Thine
293. 293Broadway
294. 294To Get the Final Lilt of Songs
295. 295Old Salt Kossabone
296. 296The Dead Tenor
297. 297Continuities
298. 298Yonnondio
299. 299Life
300. 300Small the Theme of My Chant
301. 301True Conquerors
302. 302The United States to Old World Critics
303. 303The Calming Thought of All
304. 304Thanks in Old Age
305. 305Life and Death
306. 306The Voice of the Rain
307. 307Soon Shall the Winter’s Foil Be Here
308. 308While Not the Past Forgetting
309. 309The Dying Veteran
310. 310Stronger Lessons
311. 311A Prairie Sunset
312. 312Twenty Years
313. 313Orange Buds by Mail from Florida
314. 314Twilight
315. 315You Lingering Sparse Leaves of Me
316. 316Not Meagre, Latent Boughs Alone
317. 317The Dead Emperor
318. 318As the Greek’s Signal Flame
319. 319The Dismantled Ship
320. 320Now Precedent Songs, Farewell
321. 321An Evening Lull
322. 322Old Age’s Lambent Peaks
323. 323After the Supper and Talk
324. 324BOOKXXXV. GOOD-BYE MY FANCY
325. 325Lingering Last Drops
326. 326Good-Bye My Fancy
327. 327MY 71st Year
328. 328Apparitions
329. 329The Pallid Wreath
330. 330An Ended Day
331. 331Old Age’s Ship & Crafty Death’s
332. 332To the Pending Year
333. 333Shakspere-Bacon’s Cipher
334. 334Long, Long Hence
335. 335Interpolation Sounds
336. 336To the Sun-Set Breeze
337. 337Old Chants
338. 338A Christmas Greeting
339. 339Sounds of the Winter
340. 340A Twilight Song
341. 341When the Full-Grown Poet Came
342. 342Osceola
343. 343A Voice from Death
344. 344A Persian Lesson
345. 345The Commonplace
346. 346Mirages
347. 347L. of G.’s Purport
348. 348The Unexpress’d
349. 349Grand Is the Seen
350. 350Unseen Buds

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