Leaves of Grass Quotes

Question 1

Poet of the Body and Soul

Answer 1

I am the poet of the Body and I am the poet of the Soul, /
The pleasures of heaven are with me and the pains of hell are with me, /
The first I graft and increase upon myself, the latter I translate into a new tongue.

Song of Myself, 21

Question 2

celebration of self

Answer 2

I celebrate myself, and sing myself /
And what I assume you shall assume, /
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

Song of Myself, 1

Question 3

leisure

Answer 3

I loaf and invite my soul, I lean and loaf at my ease … observing a spear of summer grass.

Song of Myself

Question 4

contradiction

Answer 4

Do I contradict myself? /
Very well then I contradict myself, /
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

Song of Myself, 51

Question 5

arias

Answer 5

Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking

When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d

Question 6

The commonplace

Answer 6

“the commonplace I sing”

The Commonplace

Question 7

The poet as president

Answer 7

Their Presidents shall not be their common referee so much as their poets shall.

By Blue Ontario’s Shore

Question 8

rhythm

Answer 8

a new rhythmus fitted for thee (soul/vocative)

Proud Music of the Storm

Question 9

war and book are one

Answer 9

My book and the war are one

To Thee Old Cause (Inscriptions)

Question 10

bards and war

Answer 10

Know’st thou not there is but one theme for ever-enduring bards? /
And that is the theme of war

As I Ponder’d in Silence (Inscriptions)

Question 11

Brain of the new world

Answer 11

Brain of the New World, what a task is thine, … to recast poems, churches, art /
(Recast, may-be discard them, end them - may-be their work is done, who knows?

Thou Mother with Thy Equal Brood

Question 12

untamed Walt

Answer 12

I too am not a bit tamed, I too am unstranslatable, /
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.

Song of Myself, 52

Question 13

defining America

Answer 13

I heard that you ask’d for something to prove this puzzle of the New World, /
And to define America, her athletic Democracy, /
Therefore I send you my poems that you behold in them what you wnated”

To Foreign Lands (whole poem)

Question 14

take my leaves

Answer 14

take my leaves, America, take them South and take them North

Starting from Paumanok

Question 15

changing songs

Answer 15

Must I change my triumphant songs? said I to myself, /
Must I indeed learn to chant the cold dirges of the baffled? /
And sullen hymns of defeat?

Year That Trembled and Reel’d Beneath Me

Question 16

becoming the other

Answer 16

I am the hounded slave, I wince at the bite of dogs, /
…
I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person

Song of Myself, 33

Question 17

poet as doctor

Answer 17

I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fiber your blood.

Song of Myself, 52

Question 18

final farewell

Answer 18

Is there a single final farewell?

So Long! 1860 - last poem

Question 19

opening line of So Long!

Answer 19

To conclude, I announce what comes after me.

Question 20

sex

Answer 20

Sex contains all

A Woman Waits for Me

Question 21

sperm

Answer 21

love-flesh swelling and deliciously aching, /
Limitless limpid jets of love hot and enormous, quivering jelly of love

I Sing the Body Electric

Question 22

the poet is a Christ-like figure

Answer 22

my own crucifixion and bloody crowning.

Song of Myself, 38

Question 23

poet as teacher

Answer 23

Eleves, I salute you! come forward! /
Continue your annotations, continue your questionings.

Song of Myself, 38