Walter Whitman (1819 - 1892)

Walt Whitman was een Amerikaans dichter, essayist, journalist en humanist. Zijn bekendste werk is de dichtbundel Leaves of Grass, waaruit onderstaande stukken komen. Het kreeg in de V.S. aanvankelijk weinig bekendheid, maar in Europa des te meer. Daar kreeg zijn humanisme en naturalisme een duidelijke invloed. Hij beschreef onder andere de grootsheid en onuitsprekelijkheid van het zelf-zijn. Soms zijn er stukken tekst die naar de non-dualiteit wijzen, maar hij bleef daarin dubbelzinnig.

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Trippers and askers surround me,?People I meet, the effect upon me of my early life or the ward and?city I live in, or the nation,?The latest dates, discoveries, inventions, societies, authors old?and new,?My dinner, dress, associates, looks, compliments, dues,?The real or fancied indifference of some man or woman I love,?The sickness of one of my folks or of myself, or ill-doing or loss?or lack of money, or depressions or exaltations,?Battles, the horrors of fratricidal war, the fever of doubtful news,?the fitful events;?These come to me days and nights and go from me again,?But they are not the Me myself.??Apart from the pulling and hauling stands what I am,?Stands amused, complacent, compassionating, idle, unitary,?Looks down, is erect, or bends an arm on an impalpable certain rest,?Looking with side-curved head curious what will come next,?Both in and out of the game and watching and wondering at it.??Backward I see in my own days where I sweated through fog with?linguists and contenders,?I have no mockings or arguments, I witness and wait.

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There is something that comes home to one now and perpetually,
It is not what is printed or preached or discussed . . . . it eludes discussion and print,
It is not to be put in a book . . . . it is not in this book,
It is for you whoever you are . . . . it is no farther from you than your hearing and sight are from you,
It is hinted by nearest and commonest and readiest . . . . it is not them, though it is endlessly provoked by them . . . . What is there ready and near you now?


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Swiftly arose and spread around me the peace and joy and knowledge that pass all the art and argument of the earth;
And I know that the hand of God is the elderhand of my own,
And I know that the spirit of God is the eldest brother of my own,
And that all the men ever born are also my brothers . . . . and the women my sisters and lovers,
And that a kelson of the creation is love;
And limitless are leaves stiff or drooping in the fields,
And brown ants in the little wells beneath them,
And mossy scabs of the wormfence, and heaped stones, and elder and mullen and pokeweed.

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