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
• Length122,727 words · 8h 11m of reading
• Chapters349
• DictionaryIncluded
• CopyrightPublic domain in the United States
• Source checked2026-08-28

Contents

349 chapters

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

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

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