So I asked for a book of poems for Christmas, and my mom got me
Leaves of Grass. Hey, I'm not complaining.
To You
Stranger, if you should passing meet me and desire to speak to me,
why should you not speak to me?
And why should I not speak to you?
Beautiful Women
Women sit or move to and fro, some old, some young,
The young are beautiful - but the old are more beautiful than the young.
Thought
Of obedience, faith, adhesiveness;
As I stand aloof and look there is to me something profoundly
affecting
in large masses of men following the lead of those who do
not believe in men.
I don't know much about Walt Whitman, except what I've gleaned from
the page-long introduction to Leaves of Grass (a book, by the
way, which I highly recommend). Something I find intriguing about
Walt is that he titled many poems "Thought". Perhaps that is a sign of
greatness... but I'm no literary critic. He lived from 1819 to 1892,
published the first edition of Leaves in 1855, and continued to
revise and add to it for his entire life. Talk about persistence. Yow.
Get this: "He was a clerk in the Department of Interior until the
interior secretary discovered he was the author of a 'vulgar' book and
dismissed him." (Leaves bio) How funny! I'm not nearly through
all the poems in this book. I'm not a big fan of lengthy poems, but
I've read a couple of Walt's and enjoyed them. That shouldn't be
taken lightly.
Oh yeah... and he was gay. :)