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Here the Frailest Leaves of Me by Walt Whitman

By T.

25 January 2007

4.55k

Here the Frailest Leaves of Me
Walt Whitman

Here the frailest leaves of me, and yet my strongest-lasting:
Here I shade and hide my thoughts—I myself do not expose them,
And yet they expose me more than all my other poems.

MARGINALIA

Calamus, Calamus! Think about Calamus, for pete’s sakes, said my friend. We have skipped class and were sitting at the library steps.

Wished you were here.

ABOUT WALT WHITMAN

Walt Whitman is America’s world poet—a latter-day successor to Homer, Virgil, Dante, and Shakespeare. In Leaves of Grass (1855, 1891-2), he celebrated democracy, nature, love, and friendship. This monumental work chanted praises to the body as well as to the soul, and found beauty and reassurance even in death. Whitman’s self-published Leaves of Grass was inspired in part by his travels through the American frontier and by his admiration for Ralph Waldo Emerson. This… (more)