Quote of the Day (Walt Whitman, on How ‘Every Hour of the Light and Dark is a Miracle’)

“To me, every hour of the light and dark is a miracle,
Every inch of space is a miracle,
Every square yard of the surface of the earth is
  spread with the same,
 
Every cubic foot of the interior swarms with the same;
Every spear of grass—the frames, limbs, organs,
  of men and women, and all that concerns them,
All these to me are unspeakably perfect miracles.”—American poet and editor Walt Whitman (1819-1892), “Poem of Perfect Miracles,” in Leaves of Grass (1856 edition)

Quote of the Day (Walt Whitman, on ‘That Music Always Round Me’)

“That music always round me, unceasing, unbeginning,

yet long untaught I did not hear,

But now the chorus I hear and am elated,

A tenor, strong, ascending with power and health, with glad notes of daybreak I hear,

A soprano at intervals sailing buoyantly over the tops of immense waves,

A transparent base shuddering lusciously under and through the universe,

The triumphant tutti, the funeral wailings with sweet flutes and violins, all of these I fill myself with,

I hear not the volumes of sound merely, I am moved by the exquisite meanings,

I listen to the different voices winding in and out, striving, contending with fiery vehemence to excel each other in emotion;

I do not think the performers know themselves-but now I think I begin to know them.” —American poet Walt Whitman (1819-1892), "That Music Always Round Me," in the "Whispers of Heavenly Death" section in Whitman's last edition of Leaves of Grass

Quote of the Day (Walt Whitman, on the Soul’s ‘Flight Into the Wordless’)

"This is thy hour O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless,

Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done,

Thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the themes thou lovest best.

Night, sleep, death and the stars."— Walt Whitman, “A Clear Midnight," in Leaves of Grass, Seventh Edition (1881)

Quote of the Day (Walt Whitman, on the Road Within Reach)

“Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you.

You must travel it by yourself.

It is not far. It is within reach.

Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know.

Perhaps it is everywhere - on water and land.” —Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (1855)

Quote of the Day (Walt Whitman, on the ‘Powerful Play’ of Life)

“Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,

Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,

Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)

Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,

Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,

Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,

The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?

Answer.

That you are here—that life exists and identity,

That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.” —Walt Whitman, "O Me! O Life!", from Leaves of Grass (1892)

Quote of the Day (Walt Whitman, on the ‘Genius of the United States’)

“Other states indicate themselves in their deputies … but the genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives or legislatures, nor in its ambassadors or authors or colleges or churches or parlors, nor even in its newspapers or inventors … but always most in the common people. Their manners, speech, dress, friendship—the freshness and candor of their physiognomy—the picturesque looseness of their carriage … their deathless attachment to freedom—their aversion to anything indecorous or soft or mean—the practical acknowledgment of the citizens of one state by the citizens of all other states—the fierceness of their roused resentment—their curiosity and welcome of novelty—their self-esteem and wonderful sympathy—their susceptibility to a slight—the air they have of persons who never knew how it felt to stand in the presence of superiors—the fluency of their speech—their delight in music, the sure symptom of manly tenderness and native elegance of soul … their good temper and open handedness—the terrible significance of their elections—the President’s taking off his hat to them, not they to him—these too are unrhymed poetry. It awaits the gigantic and generous treatment worthy of it.”-- Walt Whitman, Preface to Leaves of Grass (1855)

(Thanks to Gretel DeRuiter, instructor this week for “Walt Whitman: Cosmic Poet of the American People,” at the Chautauqua Institution, for drawing the attention of the class to this preface, a prose counterpart to his hymn to the American republic.)