hermionejg:

From Song of the Open Road by Walt Whitman

I am Walt Whitman.

(Source: twitter.com)

Someone is wrong on the Internet.

This is what Whitman actually wrote:

“Leaves of Grass” (1900)

26.

ONCE I pass’d through a populous city, imprinting my brain, for future use, with its shows, architecture, customs, and traditions;

Yet now, of all that city, I remember only a woman I casually met there, who detain’d me for love of me;

Day by day and night by night we were together,—All else has long been forgotten by me;

I remember, I say, only that woman who passionately clung to me;

Again we wander—we love—we separate again;

Again she holds me by the hand—I must not go!

I see her close beside me, with silent lips, sad and tremulous.

It’s nowhere near as simple as “We were together. I forget the rest.” He visited the city in order to “imprint it” in his mind for future reference—and yet an unexpected fling derailed his plains so that his impression of an entire city is overshadowed by the memory of their brief time together. Crucially, though, the brevity of their connection doesn’t void it. We human beings “wander—-we love—we separate again,” and we’re all better off for it. He’s haunted by the memories of transient connections, as we all are, to the extent that they grow to define places he visited for the sole purpose of memorizing for poetic fodder. No matter how much we try to guard against the hurt when they’re gone, relationships of all kinds matter more to us than most anything else.

I’m just saying: source your shit, Internet! The original is probably better than you expect!

(via hermionejg)

nypl:

Walt Whitman manuscript, “Go, said his soul to a poet.”

The manuscript is comprised of two unequal-sized sheets of paper pasted together. Note in ink in Whitman’s hand running along upper left says: “Scrap of Rough Draft / W Whitman.” Additional note in Whitman’s hand written in red ink along seam where the two sheets are joined: “inscription on title page last edition Leaves of Grass.”

From the Berg Collection of English and American Literature.

Like, what if I took someone on a date to the Berg Collection? Or the Library of Congress? Or the NYPL’s Cullman Center? What if I dated someone who was like, “Oh my god, tell me all about your research! What did it feel like to see those manuscripts? Did you smell them? Please tell me you smelled them.”

0613. my best friend

(Source: theohpioneer, via fuckingmultiverse)

stencils:

From Upfest Walt Whitman portrait (by 237project)