Author: Walt Whitman

Cited by

• Paul Collins (1)
  • IN: Banvard's Folly: Thirteen Tales of people who didn't change the world (2001) Non-Fiction, Biography, American
    EPIGRAPH: Have you hear that it was good to gain the day? / I also say it is good to fall, battles are lost / in the same spirit in which they are won... / Vivas to those who have fail'd! / And to those whose war vessels sank in the sea! / And to those themselves who sank in the sea! / And to all generals that lost engagements, / And all overcome heroes / And the numberless unknown heroes equal / to the greatest heroes known!
    FROM: Song of Myself, (1892), Poem, US
• Chang Rae-Lee (1)
  • IN: Native Speaker (1995) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: I turn but do not extricate myself, Confused, a past-reading, another, but with darkness yet.
    FROM: The Sleepers, (1871), Poem, US
• James Baldwin (1)
  • IN: Giovanni's Room (1956) Fiction, Novel, American
    EPIGRAPH: I am the man; I suffered, I was there
    FROM: Song of Myself, (1892), Poem, US
• Michael Cunningham (1)
  • IN: Specimen Days (2005) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Fear not O muse! truy new ways and days receive, surround you, I candidly confess a queer, queer race of novel fashion, And yet the same old human race, the same within, without, Faces and hearts the same old love, beauty and use the same
    FROM: Song of the Exposition, (1871), Poem, US
• David Hare (1)
  • IN: Racing Demon (1990) Play, British
    EPIGRAPH: Why, who makes much of a miracle? I know of nothing else but miracles.
    FROM: Miracles, (1856), Poem, US
• Joseph O'Neill (1)
  • IN: Netherland (2008) Fiction, Irish
    EPIGRAPH: I dream'd in a dream. I saw a city invincible to the attacks of the whole of the rest of the earth; I dream'd that was the new City of Friends.
    FROM: I Dream'd in a Dream, (1867), Poem, US
• Ngugi Wa Thiong'o (1)
  • IN: Weep Not, Child (1964) Fiction, NULL
    EPIGRAPH: Weep not, child Weep not, my darling With these kisses let me remove your tears, The ravening clouds shall not be long victorious, They shall not long possess the sky...
    FROM: On the Beach at Night, (1871), NULL, US
• Evan Roskos (1)
  • IN: Dr. Bird's Advice for Sad Poets (2013) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: And henceforth I will go celebrate any thing I see or am, And sing and laugh and deny nothing.
    FROM: All is Truth, (1871), NULL, US
• Libba Bray (2)
  • IN: Lair of Dreams (2015) Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: I cannot be awake for nothing looks to me as it did before, Or else I am awake for the first time, and all before has been a mean sleep.
    FROM: NULL, (None), NULL, US
• Alexandra Bracken (1)
  • IN: Wayfarer (2017) Fantasy, Young Adult Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Nor I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you. / You must travel it by yourself. / It is not far, it is within reach. / Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know, / Perhaps it is everywhere on water and on land.
    FROM: Song of Myself, (1855), Poem, US
• Julie Chibbaro (2)
  • IN: Into the Dangerous World (2015) Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: I too am not a bit tamed.
    FROM: Song of Myself, (1855), Poem, US
• Jennifer Donnelly (2)
  • IN: Deep Blue (2014) Fantasy, Young Adult Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: For more than once dimly down to the beach gliding, / Silent, avoiding the moonbeams, blending myself with the shadows, / Recalling now the obscure shapes, the echoes, the sounds and sights after their sorts, / The white arms out in the breakers tirelessly tossing, / I, with bare feet, a child, the wind wafting my hair, / Listen'd long and long.
    FROM: Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking, (1871), Poem, US
• Jordana Fraiberg (1)
  • IN: Our Song (2013) Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
    FROM: Song of Myself, (1855), Poem, US
• Katherine Howe (1)
  • IN: The Appearance of Annie Van Sinderen (2015) Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Who knows, for all the distance, but I am as good as looking at you now, for all you cannot see me?
    FROM: Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, (1856), Poem, US
• John Hornor Jacobs (1)
  • IN: The Shibboleth (2014) Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: I am large, I contain multitudes.
    FROM: Song of Myself, (1855), Poem, US
• A. S. King (1)
  • IN: Glory O'Brien's History of the Future (2014) Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: The future is no more uncertain than the present.
    FROM: Song of the Broad-Axe, (1856), Poem, US
• Holly Black (1)
  • IN: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown (2013) Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Nothing can happen more beautiful than Death.
    FROM: Starting from Paumanok, (1881), Poem, US
• Julie Bertagna (1)
  • IN: Aurora (2011) Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: The untold want, by life and land ne'er granted, Now, Voyager, sail thou forth, to seek and find.
    FROM: The Untold Want, (1892), Poem, US
• Ann Brashares (2)
  • IN: 3 Willows (2009) Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: The smallest sprout shows there is really no death.
    FROM: Song of Myself, (1855), Poem, US
  • IN: My Name is Memory (2010) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Not asking the sky to come down to my good will, Scattering it freely for ever.
    FROM: Song of Myself, (1855), Poem, US
• Talia Carner (1)
  • IN: Hotel Moscow (2015) Fiction, NULL
    EPIGRAPH: Not I, not any one else can travel that road for you, You must travel it for yourself. It is not far, it is within reach, Perhaps you have been on it since you were born and did not know, Perhaps it is everywhere-on water and on land.
    FROM: "Songs of Myself", Leaves of Grass, (1892), Poem, US
• Edward Abbey (1)
  • IN: The Monkey Wrench Gang (1990) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Resist much. Obey little.
    FROM: Leaves of Grass, (1892), Book, US
• Tim McLoughlin (1)
  • IN: Brooklyn Noir 2 (2005) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: It is not upon you alone the dark patches fall, The dark threw its patches down upon me also
    FROM: Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, (1892), Poem, US
• Ray Bradbury (1)
  • IN: I Sing the Body Electric (1969) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: I Sing the Body Electric; The armies of those I love engirth me, and I engirth them; They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them, And discorrupt them, And charge them full with the charge of the Soul.
    FROM: I Sing the body electric, (1892), Poem, US
• Alice Hoffman (1)
  • IN: The Museum of Extraordinary Things (2014) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the beginning and the end. But I do not talk of the beginning or the end.
    FROM: Song of Myself, (1892), Poem, US
• Jesse Goolsby (1)
  • IN: I'd Walk with My Friends If I Could Find Them (2015) Fiction, NULL
    EPIGRAPH: There was never any more inception than there is now, Nor any more youth or age than there is now, And will never be any more perfection than there is now, Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now. Urge and urge and urge, Always the procreant urge of the world
    FROM: Song of Myself, (1885), Poem, US
• Nelson DeMille (1)
  • IN: Gold Coast (1990) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem.
    FROM: Preface to Leaves of Grass, (1855), Book, US
• J. Aaron Sanders (1)
  • IN: Speakers of the Dead (2016) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: When I read the book, the biography famous, And is this then (said I) what the author calls a man's life? And so will some one when I am dead and gone write my life? (As if any man really knew aught of my life, Why even I myself often think know little or nothing of my real life, Only a few hints, a few diffused faint clews and indirections I seek for my own use to trace out here.)
    FROM: "When I Read the Book", (1881), Poem, US
• Amy Tan (1)
  • IN: The Valley of Amazement (2013) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Quicksand years that whirl me I know not whither, Your schemes, politics, fail, lines give way, substances mock and elude me, Only the theme I sing, the great and strong-possess'd soul, eludes not, One's self, must never give way -- that is the final substance -- that out of all is sure, Out of politics, triumphs, battles, life, what at last finally remains? When shows break up what but One's-Self is sure?
    FROM: "Quicksand Years", (1855), Poem, US
• Antoine Wilson (1)
  • IN: The interloper (2007) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Passing stranger! you do not know how longing I look upon you, You must be he I was seeking, or she I was seeking, (it comes to me, as of a dream,) I have somewhere surely lived a life of joy with you, All is recall'd as we flit by each other, fluid, affectionate, chaste, matured, You grew up with me, were a boy with me, or a girl with me, I ate with you, and slept with you, your body has become not yours only nor left my body mine only, You give me the the pleasure of your eyes, face, flesh, as we pass, you take of my beard, breast, hands, in return, I am not to speak to you, I am to think of you when I sit alone or wake at night alone, I am to wait, I do not doubt I am to meet you again, I am to see to it that I do not lose you.
    FROM: "To a Stranger", (1855), Poem, US
• Laura Pritchett (1)
  • IN: The Blue Hour (2017) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Smile O voluptuous cool-breath'd earth! Earth of the slumbering and liquid trees! Earth of departed sunset -- earth of the mountains misty-topt! Earth of the vitreous pour of the full moon just tinged with blue!... Smile, for your lover comes... O unspeakable passionate love.
    FROM: Leaves of Grass, (1892), Book, US
• Alexandre Vidal Porto (1)
  • IN: Sergio Y. (2015) Fiction, NULL
    EPIGRAPH: What is then between us? What is the count of the scores of hundreds of years between us?
    FROM: Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, (1892), Poem, US
• Padgett Powell (1)
  • IN: The Interrogative Mood (2009) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Do you take it I would astonish? Does the daylight astonish? or the early redstart twittering through the woords? Do I astonish more than they?
    FROM: Song of Myself, (1892), Poem, US
• Sue Peebles (1)
  • IN: Snake Road (2013) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: This is thy hour O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless, away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done, Thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the themes thou lovest best, Night, sleep, death and the stars.
    FROM: A Clear Midnight, (1892), Poem, US
• Michelle Campbell (1)
  • IN: It's always the husband (2017) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: I no doubt deserved my enemies but I don't believe I deserved my friends.
    FROM: NULL, (None), NULL, US
• Ami McKay (1)
  • IN: The Virgin Cure (2012) Fiction, NULL
    EPIGRAPH: Recall ages -- One age is but a part -- ages are but a part; Recall the angers, bickerings, delusions, superstitions, of the idea of caste, Recall the bloody cruelties and crimes. Anticipate the best women; I say an unnumbered new race of hardy and well-defined women are to spread through all These States, I say a girl fit for These States must be free, capable, dauntless, just the same as a boy.
    FROM: Leaves of Grass, (1892), Poem, US
• Bernice L. McFadden (1)
  • IN: The Book of Harlan (2016) Fiction, NULL
    EPIGRAPH: I am the man, I suffered, I was there.
    FROM: "Song of Myself", (1892), Poem, US
• John Loveday (1)
  • IN: Halo (1992) Fiction, NULL
    EPIGRAPH: This hour I tell things in confidence, I might not tell everybody but I will tell you. I am the poet of the woman the same as the man...
    FROM: Leaves of Grass, (1892), Poem, US
• Norman Lock (1)
  • IN: American Meteor (2015) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: What am I myself but one of your meteors?
    FROM: Year of Meteors, (1892), Poem, US
• Reif Larsen (1)
  • IN: I Am Radar (2015) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: I sing the body electric; The armies of those I love engirth me and I engirth them, They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them, And discorrupt them, and charge them full with the charge of the soul.
    FROM: Leaves of Grass, (1855), Poem, NULL
• Jim Krusoe (2)
  • IN: Erased (2009) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Darest thou now O soul, Walk out with me toward the unknown region, Where neither ground is for the feet nor any path to follow?
    FROM: Darest Thou Now O Soul, (1868), Poem, US
  • IN: The Sleep Garden (2016) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Everyone that sleeps is beautiful, every thing in the dim light is beautiful...
    FROM: The Sleepers, (1855), Poem, US
• Niven Govinden (1)
  • IN: All the Days and Nights (2014) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: I do not trouble my spirit to vindicate itself or be understood.
    FROM: Song of Myself, (1855), Poem, US
• John Miller (1)
  • IN: The First Assassin (2009) Thriller, Suspense, Historical Fiction, Political fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: The real war will never get in the books.
    FROM: The Real War Will Never Get in the Books, (1883), Essay, US
• Paulo Coelho (1)
  • IN: The Winner Stands Alone (2008) Fiction, NULL
    EPIGRAPH: Whoever you are holding me now in hand, Without one thing all will be useless, I give you fair warning before you attempt me further, I am not what you supposed, but far different. Who is he that would become my follower? Who would sign himself a candidate for my affections? The way is suspicious, the result uncertain, perhaps destructive, You would have to give up all else, I alone would expect to be your sole and exclusive standard, Your novitiate would even then be long and exhausting, The whole past theory of your life and all conformity to the lives around you would have to be abandon’d, Therefore release me now before troubling yourself any further, let go your hand from my shoulders, Put me down and depart on your way.
    FROM: Leaves of Grass, (1892), Poem, US
• Harry Bingham (1)
  • IN: The Dead House (2016) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: Jupiter shall emerge, be patient, watch again another night, the Pleiades shall emerge, They are immortal.
    FROM: On the Beach at Night', (1856), poem, US
• Catherine and Ellison, J.T. Coulter (1)
  • IN: The Lost Key (2014) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done; The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won; The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.
    FROM: O Captain! My Captain!, (1865), Poem, US
• Maggie Shen King (1)
  • IN: An Excess Male (2017) Fiction, NULL
    EPIGRAPH: And you O my soul where you stand, Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space, Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them, Till the bridge you will need be form'd, till the ductile anchor hold, Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.
    FROM: "A Noiseless Patient Spider", (1868), Poem, US
• Mathias Malzieu (1)
  • IN: Diary of a Vampire in Pyjamas (2016) Fiction, French
    EPIGRAPH: Speed on, my Book! spread your white sails, my little bark, athwart the imperious waves! Chant on - sail on - bear o'er the boundless blue, from me, to every shore, This song for mariners and all their ships.
    FROM: In Cabin'd Ships at Sea, (1892), NULL, US
• Paul Monette (1)
  • IN: Becoming A Man (1967) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: I hear it was charged against me that I sought to destroy instituitions But really I am neither for nor against instituitions, (What indeed have I in common with them? or what with the destruction of them?) Only I will establish in the Manhatta and in every city of these States inland and seaboard, And in the fields and woods, and above every keel little or large that dents the water, Without edifices or rules or trustees or any argument, The instituition of the dear love of comrades.
    FROM: I Hear it was Charged Against Me, (1867), Poem, US
• Catherine Poulain (1)
  • IN: Woman At Sea (2008) Fiction, French
    EPIGRAPH: O you singer, solitary, singing by yourself -- projecting me; O solitary me, listening -- nevermore shall I cease perpetuating you; Never more shall I escape, never more the reverberations, Never more the cries of unsatisfied love be absent from me, Never again leave me to to be the peaceful child I was before what there, in the night, By the sea, under the yellow and sagging moon, The messenger there arous'd -- the fire, the sweet hell within, The unknown want, the destiny of me.
    FROM: Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking, (1859), Poem, US
• Michael Redhill (1)
  • IN: Bellevue Square (2017) Fiction, NULL
    EPIGRAPH: I and this mystery here we stand.
    FROM: "Song of Myself", (1855), Poem, US
• M. G. Vassanji (1)
  • IN: Amriika (1999) Fiction, NULL
    EPIGRAPH: Facing west from California's shores, ... I, a child, very old, over waves, towards the house of maternity, the land of migrations, look afar, Look off the shores of my Western sea, the circle almost circled; ... Now I face home again, very pleas'd and joyous, (But where is what I started for so long ago? And why is it yet unfound?)
    FROM: "Facing West from California's Shores", (1860), Poem, US
• E. L. Doctorow (1)
  • IN: The Book of Daniel (1971) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: With music strong I come, with my cornets and my drums, I play not marches for accepted visitors only. I play marches for conquer'd and slain persons.
    FROM: Song of Myself, (1855), Poem, US
• Marjorie Liu (1)
  • IN: In the Dark of Dreams (2010) Romace, Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: My own songs awakened from that hour, And with them the key, the word up from the waves, The word of the sweetest song and all songs, That strong and delicious word which, creeping to my feet, (or like some old crone rocking the cradle, swathed in sweet garments, bending aside) The sea whispered me.
    FROM: “Sea Drift” Leaves of Grass, (1855), Poem, US
• Marcel Theroux (1)
  • IN: The Secret Books (2017) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: This hour I tell things in confidence, I might not tell everybody, but I will tell you.
    FROM: Song of Myself', Leaves of Grass, (1855), Poem, US
• Joyce Carol Oates (1)
  • IN: Mudwoman (2012) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Here the frailest leaves of me and yet my strongest lasting, Here I shade and hide my thoughts, I myself do not expore them, And yet they expose me more than all my other poems.
    FROM: "Here the Frailest Leaves of Me", (1860), Poem, US
• Laurie Frankel (1)
  • IN: This is How it Always Is (2017) Fiction, NULL
    EPIGRAPH: Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)
    FROM: "Song of Myself", (1855), Poem, US
• Lilian Nattel (1)
  • IN: Web of Angels (2012) Fiction, NULL
    EPIGRAPH: Do you take it I would astonish? Does the daylight astonish? does the early redstart twittering through the woods? Do I astonish more than they? This hour I tell things in confidence, I might not tell everybody, but I will tell you. (I am large, I contain multitudes)
    FROM: Song of Myself, Verses 19 and 51, (1855), Poem, US