Walt Whitman
"Love the earth and sun and animals, Despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, Stand up for the stupid and crazy, Devote your income and labor to others . . . And your very flesh shall be a great poem."
Walt Whitman
Saturday, December 22, 2007
"Love the earth and sun and animals, Despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, Stand up for the stupid and crazy, Devote your income and labor to others . . . And your very flesh shall be a great poem."
Walt Whitman
My friend Matisse had this quote on her blog and when I read it I felt new breath in me, my heart was happy and kissed with goodness. I love it.
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6 comments:
I love it too.
Oh it gets even better! There's more to it-- let me go look...
"This is what you shall do: love the earth and sun and animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning god, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families. Read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem.”
...I have it on a magnet. Walt is hands down my favorite poet and Existentialist. Good thoughts.
Hey Cammie! I am so glad you liked the quote. It can be our little song we sing to each other from over seas. Your friend Emily categorizes Whitman as an existentialist. I think a traditional view would disagree as He was a part of the transition between Transcendentalism and Realism. However, I am intrigued, I will need to re-read some of his works from an existentialist's perspective and see what I find. Fascinating! Long live Sartre!
Matisse--yes, it's our song! I'm going to look more into the relationship between Transcendentalism and Existentialism too. I love this discussion already!
Emily--thanks for the rest of the quote! So powerful.
um... I meant Transcendentalist. (And I'm supposed to be the English teacher who EXPLAINS this stuff to kids. Sigh. It WAS 12:37 in the morning when I wrote that. :)
I think I like that quote so much I will have to put it up on my blog- Cammie last night I had a dream about you and Charla we were at a store that Charla opened up in Atlanta- strange.
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