“Be composed--be at ease with me--I am Walt Whitman, liberal and lusty as Nature, Not till the sun excludes you do I exclude you, Not till the waters refuse to glisten for you and the leaves to rustle for you, do my words refuse to glisten and rustle for you. ”

“I meet new Walt Whitmans everyday. There are a dozen of them afloat. I don't know which Walt Whitman I am.”

“My words itch at your ears till you understand them”

“I mind how once we lay such a transparent summer morning,How you settled your head athwart my hips and gently turn'd over upon me,And parted the shirt from my bosom-bone, and plunged your tongue to my bare-stript heart,And reach'd till you felt my beard, and reach'd till you held my feet.”

“poor boy! I never knew you, Yet I think I could not refuse this moment to die for you, if that would save you”

“I refuse putting from me the best that I am.”

“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”