“ Their manners, speech, dress, friendships — the freshness and candor of their physiognomy — the picturesque looseness of their carriage — their deathless attachment to freedom — their aversion to anything indecorous or soft or mean — the practical acknowledgment of the citizens of one state by the citizens of all other states — the fierceness of their roused resentment — their curiosity and welcome of novelty — their self-esteem and wonderful sympathy — their susceptibility to a slight — the air they have of persons who never knew how it felt to stand in the presence of superiors — the fluency of their speech — their delight in music, a sure symptom of manly tenderness and native elegance of soul — their good temper and open-handedness — the terrible significance of their elections, the President's taking off his hat to them, not they to him — these too are unrhymed poetry… ”
- Walt Whitman- Copy
- 338
- 1