#whitman

. . . never seen him inspired by any more dangerous stimulant than strong coffee, of which he was very fond & of which [he] drank freely. MacIntosh says that the measure of a man's brain is the amount of coffee he can drink with impunity. SARAH HELEN WHITMAN (POE'S FIANCÉE) TO JOHN INGRAM DECEMBER 13, 1874 ↗

— Andrew Barger

#coffee-with-poe-quotes #poe-quotes #sarah-helen-whitman-quotes #inspirational

Vegas has the Whitman's Sampler of audiences. They come from all different places, so you have to do some crowd psychology. You have to find the heartbeat of the room. It doesn't shift my jokes, but it shifts my timing and my attention. ↗

— Hal Sparks

#audiences #come #crowd #different #different places

There is little premium in poetry in a world that thinks of Pound and Whitman as a weight and a sampler, not an Ezra, a Walt, a thing of beauty, a joy forever. ↗

— Anna Quindlen

#forever #joy #little #poetry #pound

Sure as Life holds all parts together, Death holds all parts together. ↗

— Walt Whitman

#tom-mach #walt-whitman #death

O me! O 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 will contribute a verse. ↗

— Walt Whitman

#poetry #whitman #inspirational

Poets to Come POETS to come! orators, singers, musicians to come! Not to-day is to justify me, and answer what I am for; But you, a new brood, native, athletic, continental, greater than before known, Arouse! Arouse for you must justify me you must answer. I myself but write one or two indicative words for the future, I but advance a moment, only to wheel and hurry back in the darkness. I am a man who, sauntering along, without fully stopping, turns a casual look upon you, and then averts his face, Leaving it to you to prove and define it, Expecting the main things from you. ↗

— Walt Whitman

#poets-to-come #walt-whitman #musician

I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least, Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself. ↗

— Walt Whitman

#god #religion #religious #walt-whitman #religion

American poets celebrate their bodies, very specifically, as Whitman did. ↗

— Diane Wakoski

#bodies #celebrate #did #poets #specifically

And I can’t help but feel that Whitman, for all his blustering beauty, might have been just a bit too optimistic. We can hear others, and we can travel to them without moving, and we can imagine them, and we are all connected one to the other by a crazy root system like so many leaves of grass — but the game makes me wonder whether we can really ever fully become one another. ↗

— John Green

#beauty

Walt Whitman, he who laid end to end words never seen in each other's company before outside of a dictionary. ↗

— David Lodge

#company #dictionary #each #end #laid