10 short quotes from Walt Whitman

10 short quotes from Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman, American poet, was born in 1819 and died in 1892. Throughout his life, in addition to leaving us such magnificent works as Oh, Captain! My captain! "," The extent of my body "," Blades of grass " o "Song of myself", He left innumerable phrases that we could well find a brief life teaching in each one of them.

There were many poets who were influenced by his modern poetry, including greats like Rubén Darío, Wallace Stevens, DH Lawrence, Fernando Pessoa, Federico Garcia Lorca, Jorge Luis Borges, Pablo Neruda, etc.

Then we leave you with 10 short quotes from Walt Whitman that tell us a lot about him, his character, his humanism ...

Short phrases and quotes

10 short phrases of Walt Whitman -

  • “When I meet someone I don't care if they are white, black, Jewish or Muslim. It is enough for me to know that he is a human being.
  • «He who walks a minute without love, walks shrouded towards his own funeral».
  • If I reach my destination right now, I will gladly accept it, and if I do not arrive until ten million years have passed, I will happily wait too.
  • «Take the roses while you can
    time flies fast.
    The same flower that you admire today,
    tomorrow she will be dead ... ».
  • «That I contradict myself? Well yes, I contradict myself. And that? (I am immense, I contain multitudes).
  • "For me, every hour of the day and night, is an indescribable and perfect miracle."
  • "Look as far as you can, there is unlimited space there, count as many hours as you can, there is unlimited time before and after."
  • "Do not despair if you do not find me soon. If I'm not in a place, look for me in another. Somewhere I'll be waiting for you.
  • «We were together, afterwards I have forgotten».
  • «I have learned that being with what I like is enough».

Subtitled documentary about Walt Whitman

And as you already know from other recent articles of mine, I am very much to look for in the magnificent YouTube platform, videos or documentaries that talk about the writer we are dealing with. Here I present a very good one that I have found about Walt Whitman, it is subtitled.

Enjoy it!

Curiosities of Walt Whitman

2019 marked the 200th anniversary of Walt Whitman, one of the poets considered one of the America's best in the second half of the XNUMXth century. However, like any person, there are some traits that make it unique, or that attract our attention.

We want to collect some of the most striking curiosities of this author. And some of them will surprise you quite a bit.

Walt Whitman's father

Walt Whitman lived from 1819 to 1892. He is said to be the "father" of modern poetry in America and a man who transformed poetry. However, something that can be taken from his poems, especially the autobiographical "There was a boy who went forward" is that his relationship with his father was not idyllic.

In fact, he tells of him that he was a strong man, authoritarian, wicked, unjust and angry. In other words, a person who could turn violent if he didn't do what he wanted. Now, we are talking about a time when this attitude was common in many families and parents.

Obsessed with reviewing his work

For Whitman, perfection was very important. So much so that he even did it with his own works. I was always changing something because I thought I could improve it. That is why he also had trouble getting his writings to light.

He kept correcting them, changing them, modifying things. In fact, his work "Leaves of Grass" consisted of 12 poems and throughout his life he constantly changed them because he was not satisfied with them.

He became a self-promotion of his own work

When an author talks about his book, it is normal for him to do so in the first person and praise what he has done. But Whitman went a bit further. And is that, seeing that he had many negative reviews, reasonable if we take into account that his poetry was not within the "normal" at that time, he acted.

What did? Well take advantage of his work in newspapers to write reviews, under other names, praising the work and arguing that it was good but that they did not know him and did not know what he was missing. And all those self-criticisms were part of the editions that were coming out of his book.

The fitness tips Walt Whitman left behind

Well yes, it is not something that we have invented. Actually, this poet wrote the "Guide to Men's Health and Fitness." Actually, these were articles that the author published in the New York Atlas, specifically in its fitness section.

He did it under the pseudonym Mose Velsor, one of the ones he used to work as a journalist when he had financial problems. And his advice is eye-catching. For example, eat three meals a day (breakfast, lunch and dinner). But it didn't stop there. He told you what you had to eat in each one: fresh meat with cooked potatoes; fresh meat; and fruit or compote. That was his diet.

An hour of exercise in the morning to exercise the whole body, not spending much time with women but with friends, or growing a beard and wearing socks were other tips that the poet left reflected in those articles.

Walt Whitman's brain was thrown in the trash

Whitman thought that to meet a man, you had to go into his brain. Perhaps that was why, when he passed away, his brain was sent to the American Anthropometric Society. There they dealt with weighing and measuring that organ to establish relationships about the life of that person.

The problem is, the brain fell to the ground and shattered, eventually being thrown away. An outcome that no one should go through.

Other well-known quotes from Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman has left many phrases that are known, like the previous ones that we have presented to you. However, there are others that, in themselves, are important and were spoken or written at momentous moments in your life.

So much so, that we want to compile some of those that, when you read them, can activate a mechanism in you. Do you want to know which are our chosen ones?

  • I exist as I am, that is enough, if no one else in the world notices it, I feel happy, and if each and everyone notices it, I feel happy.

  • How strange, if you come to meet me and want to talk to me, why don't you talk to me? And why shouldn't I talk to you?

  • I meet new Walt Whitmans's every day. There are a dozen of them afloat. I do not know who I am.

  • The dirtiest book of all is the expunged book.

  • Rest with me on the grass, let go of the top of your throat; What I want is not words, or music or rhyme, or customs or lectures, not even the best; Only the calm that I like, the hum of your valuable voice.

  • Stop with me day and night and you will possess the origin of all poems, you will possess the good of the earth and the sun ... there are millions of suns left, you will no longer take second or third hand things ... nor will you look through the eyes of the dead ... nor will you feed on the specters in the books, nor will you look through my eyes, nor will you take things from me, listen everywhere and filter them from yourself.

  • The future is no more uncertain than the present.

  • The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunlight of letters is simplicity

  • The smallest leaf of grass teaches us that death does not exist; that if it ever existed, it was only to produce life.

  • The infinite unknown heroes are worth as much as the greatest heroes in history.

  • I celebrate and sing to myself. And what I say about myself now, I say about you, because what I have is yours, and every atom of my body is yours as well.

  • Battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won.

  • And the invisible is tested by the visible, until the visible becomes invisible and is tested in turn.

  • Have you learned the lessons only from those who admired you, were tender with you, and pushed you aside? Have you not learned great lessons from those who prepared against you and disputed passages with you?

  • The secret of everything is to write in the moment, the heartbeat, the flood of the moment, leaving things without deliberation, without worrying about your style, without waiting for a suitable moment or place. I always worked that way. I took the first piece of paper, the first door, the first desk, and I wrote, I wrote, I wrote… By writing in the instant, the heartbeat of life is caught.

  • The path to wisdom is paved with excess. The mark of a true writer is his ability to mystify the familiar and familiarize the strange.

  • A writer can do nothing for men other than simply reveal to them the infinite possibility of their own souls.

  • I exist as I am, that is enough, if no one else in the world notices it, I feel happy, and if each and everyone notices it, I feel happy.


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  1.   Victor rivera pasco said

    The verse that more or less reads like this is missing:

    Stay with me one day and one night
    and you will know the origin of all the poems ... »