​
​Walt Whitman
​
American Poet 1819-1892

"I tilt my hat any way I choose." 
​ 

From Song of Myself

{1}
I celebrate myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. 

{5}
Loafe with me on the grass, loose the stop from your throat,
Not words, not music or rhyme I want, not custom or lecture,
​Only the lull I like, the hum of your valved voice. 

{21}
I am the poet of the body, 
and I am the poet of the soul. 

---

​{24}  
Walt Whitman, an American, one of the roughs, a kosmos.                  
{25}  
Encompass worlds but never try to encompass me,
I crowd your noisiest talk by looking toward you. 

{52}
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world. 

​“The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem.”
                           -Walt Whitman