“I inhale great draught of space...the east and west are mine...and the north and south are mine...I am grandeur than I thought...I did not know i held so much goodness. ”

“I swear I begin to see the meaning of these things. It is not the earth, it is not America, who is so great, it is I who am great or to be great…”

“I act as the tongue of you,... tied in your mouth . . . . in mine it begins to be loosened.”

“I am as bad as the worst, but, thank God, I am as good as the best. ”

“Henceforth I ask not good fortune. I myself am good fortune.”

“Out of the rolling ocean the crowd came a drop gently to me,Whispering I love you, before long I die,I have travel'd a long way merely to look on you to touch you,For I could not die till I once look'd on you,For I fear'd I might afterward lose you. Now we have met, we have look'd, we are safe,Return in peace to the ocean my love,I too am part of that ocean my love, we are not so much separated,Behold the great rondure, the cohesion of all, how perfect!But as for me, for you, the irresistible sea is to separate us,As for an hour carrying us diverse, yet cannot carry us diverse forever;Be not impatient--a little space--know you I salute the air, theocean and the land,Every day at sundown for your dear sake my love.”

“Songs of myselfI am the poet of the Body and I am the poet of the Soul, The pleasures of heaven are with me and the pains of hell are with me, The first I graft and increase upon myself, the latter I translate into new tongue. I am the poet of the woman the same as the man, And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man,..”