Whitman, as Printed

‹ Leaves of Grass, 1891–92

The lines with “am”

am 247 Back to A

  1. p. 10, line 3Lo, I too am come, chanting the chant of battles,
  2. p. 14, line 20And so will some one when I am dead and gone write my life?
  3. p. 18, line 2Not to-day is to justify me and answer what I am for,
  4. p. 18, line 7I am a man who, sauntering along without fully stopping, turns a casual look upon you and then averts his face,
  5. p. 22, line 1I am the credulous man of qualities, ages, races,
  6. p. 22, line 6I am myself just as much evil as good, and my nation is—and I say there is in fact no evil,
  7. p. 22, line 9(It may be I am destin'd to utter the loudest cries there, the winner's pealing shouts,
  8. p. 22, line 24It is well—against such I say not a word, I am their poet also,
  9. p. 23, line 21Any more than I am held to the heavens and all the spiritual world,
  10. p. 24, line 19And sexual organs and acts! do you concentrate in me, for I am determin'd to tell you with courageous clear voice to prove you illustrious,
  11. p. 26, line 21O death! O for all that, I am yet of you unseen this hour with irrepressible love,
  12. p. 29, line 23It is for my mouth forever, I am in love with it,
  13. p. 29, line 25I am mad for it to be in contact with me.
  14. p. 31, line 11Knowing the perfect fitness and equanimity of things, while they discuss I am silent, and go bathe and admire myself.
  15. p. 31, line 14I am satisfied—I see, dance, laugh, sing;
  16. p. 32, line 7Apart from the pulling and hauling stands what I am,
  17. p. 32, line 14I believe in you my soul, the other I am must not abase itself to you,
  18. p. 34, line 12I pass death with the dying and birth with the new-wash'd babe, and am not contain'd between my hat and boots,
  19. p. 34, line 15I am not an earth nor an adjunct of an earth,
  20. p. 34, line 16I am the mate and companion of people, all just as immortal and fathomless as myself,
  21. p. 34, line 26And am around, tenacious, acquisitive, tireless, and cannot be shaken away.
  22. p. 35, line 24I am there, I help, I came stretch'd atop of the load,
  23. p. 39, line 7I am enamour'd of growing out-doors,
  24. p. 42, line 1And such as it is to be of these more or less I am,
  25. p. 42, line 3I am of old and young, of the foolish as much as the wise,
  26. p. 42, line 19Of every hue and caste am I, of every rank and religion,
  27. p. 42, line 24And am not stuck up, and am in my place.
  28. p. 44, line 10What is a man anyhow? what am I? what are you?
  29. p. 44, line 22I know I am solid and sound,
  30. p. 44, line 25I know I am deathless,
  31. p. 45, line 2I know I am august,
  32. p. 45, line 6I exist as I am, that is enough,
  33. p. 45, line 15I am the poet of the Body and I am the poet of the Soul,
  34. p. 45, line 18I am the poet of the woman the same as the man,
  35. p. 45, line 26I am he that walks with the tender and growing night,
  36. p. 46, line 24I am integral with you, I too am of one phase and of all phases.
  37. p. 46, line 27I am he attesting sympathy,
  38. p. 46, line 29I am not the poet of goodness only, I do not decline to be the poet of wickedness also.
  39. p. 49, line 3Divine am I inside and out, and I make holy whatever I touch or am touch'd from,
  40. p. 50, line 24My final merit I refuse you, I refuse putting from me what I really am,
  41. p. 51, line 26I am cut by bitter and angry hail, I lose my breath,
  42. p. 52, line 10I merely stir, press, feel with my fingers, and am happy,
  43. p. 52, line 30I am given up by traitors,
  44. p. 52, line 31I talk wildly, I have lost my wits, I and nobody else am the greatest traitor,
  45. p. 54, line 7And am stucco'd with quadrupeds and birds all over,
  46. p. 55, line 21I am afoot with my vision.
  47. p. 59, line 10I am a free companion, I bivouac by invading watchfires,
  48. p. 59, line 25I am the man, I suffer'd, I was there.
  49. p. 60, line 2All these I feel or am.
  50. p. 60, line 3I am the hounded slave, I wince at the bite of the dogs,
  51. p. 60, line 12I am the mash'd fireman with breast-bone broken,
  52. p. 60, line 22They show as the dial or move as the hands of me, I am the clock myself.
  53. p. 60, line 23I am an old artillerist, I tell of my fort's bombardment,
  54. p. 60, line 24I am there again.
  55. p. 64, line 4In at the conquer'd doors they crowd! I am possess'd!
  56. p. 64, line 10Not a mutineer walks handcuff'd to jail but I am handcuff'd to him and walk by his side,
  57. p. 64, line 11(I am less the jolly one there, and more the silent one with sweat on my twitching lips.)
  58. p. 64, line 12Not a youngster is taken for larceny but I go up too, and am tried and sentenced.
  59. p. 64, line 15Askers embody themselves in me and I am embodied in them,
  60. p. 66, line 8I am not to be denied, I compel, I have stores plenty and to spare,
  61. p. 66, line 16(This day I am jetting the stuff of far more arrogant republics.)
  62. p. 66, line 30I am he bringing help for the sick as they pant on their backs,
  63. p. 68, line 24This is the city and I am one of the citizens,
  64. p. 69, line 1I am aware who they are, (they are positively not worms or fleas,)
  65. p. 71, line 14I am sorry for you, they are not murderous or jealous upon me,
  66. p. 71, line 17I am an acme of things accomplish'd, and I an encloser of things to be.
  67. p. 74, line 20I am the teacher of athletes,
  68. p. 76, line 16For I who am curious about each am not curious about God,
  69. p. 76, line 17(No array of terms can say how much I am at peace about God and about death.)
  70. p. 78, line 11(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
  71. p. 78, line 15Will you speak before I am gone? will you prove already too late?
  72. p. 78, line 17I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,
  73. p. 79, line 1You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
  74. p. 79, line 20From what I am determin'd to make illustrious, even if I stand sole among men,
  75. p. 82, line 19Such-like I love—I loosen myself, pass freely, am at the mother's breast with the little child,
  76. p. 83, line 21I am drawn by its breath as if I were no more than a helpless vapor, all falls aside but myself and it,
  77. p. 88, line 20They are not one jot less than I am,
  78. p. 89, line 3I am for you, and you are for me, not only for our own sake, but for others' sakes,
  79. p. 89, line 7I am stern, acrid, large, undissuadable, but I love you,
  80. p. 89, line 22The loving day, the mounting sun, the friend I am happy with,
  81. p. 91, line 8The greed that eats me day and night with hungry gnaw, till I saturate what shall produce boys to fill my place when I am through,
  82. p. 92, line 2To have the feeling to-day or any day I am sufficient as I am.
  83. p. 92, line 19I too am part of that ocean my love, we are not so much separated,
  84. p. 93, line 24I AM he that aches with amorous love;
  85. p. 94, line 5I am for those who believe in loose delights, I share the midnight orgies of young men,
  86. p. 96, line 21O I think it is not for life I am chanting here my chant of lovers, I think it must be for death,
  87. p. 96, line 23Death or life I am then indifferent, my soul declines to prefer,
  88. p. 96, line 24(I am not sure but the high soul of lovers welcomes death most,)
  89. p. 97, line 2Come I am determin'd to unbare this broad breast of mine, I have long enough stifled and choked;
  90. p. 97, line 23I am not what you supposed, but far different.
  91. p. 98, line 11For I am the new husband and I am the comrade.
  92. p. 99, line 11For you, for you I am trilling these songs.
  93. p. 100, line 13I will give of it, but only to them that love as I myself am capable of loving.
  94. p. 101, line 13Then I am charged with untold and untellable wisdom, I am silent, I require nothing further,
  95. p. 101, line 15But I walk or sit indifferent, I am satisfied,
  96. p. 103, line 13To begin with take warning, I am surely far different from what you suppose;
  97. p. 103, line 17Do you think I am trusty and faithful?
  98. p. 106, line 16I am not to speak to you, I am to think of you when I sit alone or wake at night alone,
  99. p. 106, line 17I am to wait, I do not doubt I am to meet you again,
  100. p. 106, line 18I am to see to it that I do not lose you.
  101. p. 107, line 2But really I am neither for nor against institutions,
  102. p. 107, line 23Then I am pensive—I hastily walk away fill'd with the bitterest envy.
  103. p. 111, line 9Acknowledging none else, not parent, wife, husband, brother, child, any nearer than I am,
  104. p. 112, line 3When you read these I that was visible am become invisible,
  105. p. 112, line 6Be it as if I were with you. (Be not too certain but I am now with you.)
  106. p. 117, line 12I am a real Parisian,
  107. p. 117, line 13I am a habitan of Vienna, St. Petersburg, Berlin, Constantinople,
  108. p. 117, line 14I am of Adelaide, Sidney, Melbourne,
  109. p. 117, line 15I am of London, Manchester, Bristol, Edinburgh, Limerick,
  110. p. 117, line 16I am of Madrid, Cadiz, Barcelona, Oporto, Lyons, Brussels, Berne, Frankfort, Stuttgart, Turin, Florence,
  111. p. 121, line 1Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune,
  112. p. 121, line 12I am fill'd with them, and I will fill them in return.)
  113. p. 122, line 14Do you say I am already prepared, I am well-beaten and undenied, adhere to me?
  114. p. 122, line 15O public road, I say back I am not afraid to leave you, yet I love you,
  115. p. 123, line 3I am larger, better than I thought,
  116. p. 130, line 8I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so many generations hence,
  117. p. 132, line 4I am he who knew what it was to be evil,
  118. p. 132, line 24Who knows but I am enjoying this?
  119. p. 132, line 25Who knows, for all the distance, but I am as good as looking at you now, for all you cannot see me?
  120. p. 142, line 8Whoever you are! how can I but offer you divine leaves, that you also be eligible as I am?
  121. p. 146, line 1I am more than eighty years of age, I am the most venerable mother,
  122. p. 172, line 14I am this day just as much in love with them as you,
  123. p. 172, line 15Then I am in love with You, and with all my fellows upon the earth.
  124. p. 176, line 11I myself am a word with them—my qualities interpenetrate with theirs—my name is nothing to them,
  125. p. 177, line 4I speak not, yet if you hear me not of what avail am I to you?
  126. p. 177, line 5To bear, to better, lacking these of what avail am I?
  127. p. 184, line 11O I mourn and yet exult, I am rapt with love for all,
  128. p. 186, line 24None but would subordinate you, I only am he who will never consent to subordinate you,
  129. p. 186, line 25I only am he who places over you no master, owner, better, God, beyond what waits intrinsically in yourself,
  130. p. 191, line 19What am I myself but one of your meteors?
  131. p. 191, line 22With all which, had it not been, I would not now be here, as I am,
  132. p. 192, line 19I have the idea of all, and am all and believe in all,
  133. p. 193, line 6And that where I am or you are this present day, there is the centre of all days, all races,
  134. p. 195, line 10And I am seiz'd by them, and friendlily held by them,
  135. p. 195, line 13I am the chanter, I chant aloud over the pageant,
  136. p. 199, line 3You must know who I am, my love.
  137. p. 199, line 10For I am almost sure I see her dimly whichever way I look.
  138. p. 199, line 30Here I am! here!
  139. p. 200, line 4O I am very sick and sorrowful.
  140. p. 200, line 31Now in a moment I know what I am for, I awake,
  141. p. 201, line 10O if I am to have so much, let me have more!
  142. p. 202, line 27Aware now that amid all that blab whose echoes recoil upon me I have not once had the least idea who or what I am,
  143. p. 203, line 12I too am but a trail of drift and debris,
  144. p. 216, line 3See, hear, and am silent.
  145. p. 216, line 7For I myself am not one who bestows nothing upon man and woman,
  146. p. 224, line 16But I am not the sea nor the red sun,
  147. p. 224, line 17I am not the wind with girlish laughter,
  148. p. 224, line 20But I am that which unseen comes and sings, sings, sings,
  149. p. 230, line 8But now I no longer wait, I am fully satisfied, I am glutted,
  150. p. 234, line 22I myself as connecter, as chansonnier of a great future, am now speaking.
  151. p. 242, line 29I am firm with each, the pangs are sharp yet unavoidable,
  152. p. 243, line 20I am faithful, I do not give out,
  153. p. 251, line 17I know I am restless and make others so,
  154. p. 251, line 20I am more resolute because all have denied me than I could ever have been had all accepted me,
  155. p. 252, line 12Why I was not singing erewhile for you to follow, to understand—nor am I now;
  156. p. 265, line 8I am he who tauntingly compels men, women, nations,
  157. p. 265, line 10I am he who walks the States with a barb'd tongue, questioning every one I meet,
  158. p. 273, line 16I am willing to wait to be understood by the growth of the taste of myself,
  159. p. 273, line 22It is I who am great or to be great, it is You up there, or any one,
  160. p. 274, line 5I swear I am charm'd with nothing except nativity,
  161. p. 275, line 1I am for those that have never been master'd,
  162. p. 275, line 4I am for those who walk abreast with the whole earth,
  163. p. 275, line 14I will know if I am to be less than they,
  164. p. 275, line 15I will see if I am not as majestic as they,
  165. p. 275, line 16I will see if I am not as subtle and real as they,
  166. p. 275, line 17I will see if I am to be less generous than they,
  167. p. 275, line 19I will see if the fishes and birds are to be enough for themselves, and I am not to be enough for myself.
  168. p. 286, line 2I do not see any of it upon you to-day, or perhaps I am deceiv'd,
  169. p. 286, line 4I am sure I shall expose some of the foul meat.
  170. p. 287, line 1Now I am terrified at the Earth, it is that calm and patient,
  171. p. 287, line 17For I am the sworn poet of every dauntless rebel the world over,
  172. p. 288, line 9I do not know what you are for, (I do not know what I am for myself, nor what any thing is for,)
  173. p. 298, line 19Who am I too that I am not on trial or in prison?
  174. p. 298, line 22Who am I that I should call you more obscene than myself?
  175. p. 299, line 8I feel I am of them—I belong to those convicts and prostitutes myself,
  176. p. 299, line 21BE composed—be at ease with me—I am Walt Whitman, liberal and lusty as Nature,
  177. p. 303, line 9WHAT am I after all but a child, pleas'd with the sound of my own name? repeating it over and over;
  178. p. 304, line 15I am of the same style, for I am their friend,
  179. p. 323, line 19I am too full of woe!
  180. p. 324, line 7O I am sure they really came from Thee,
  181. p. 325, line 1Is it the prophet's thought I speak, or am I raving?
  182. p. 326, line 18I am a dance—play up there! the fit is whirling me fast!
  183. p. 326, line 19I am the ever-laughing—it is new moon and twilight,
  184. p. 326, line 24I reckon I am their boss and they make me a pet besides,
  185. p. 326, line 28I am the actor, the actress, the voter, the politician,
  186. p. 327, line 1I am she who adorn'd herself and folded her hair expectantly,
  187. p. 327, line 16Perfume and youth course through me and I am their wake.
  188. p. 327, line 21A shroud I see and I am the shroud, I wrap a body and lie in the coffin,
  189. p. 330, line 2I am jealous and overwhelm'd with friendliness,
  190. p. 332, line 14I am not afraid, I have been well brought forward by you,
  191. p. 339, line 3Solid, four-sided, (all the sides needed,) from this side Jehovah am I,
  192. p. 339, line 4Old Brahm I, and I Saturnius am;
  193. p. 339, line 5Not Time affects me—I am Time, old, modern as any,
  194. p. 339, line 14With gentle hand extended, the mightier God am I,
  195. p. 339, line 21For I am affection, I am the cheer-bringing God, with hope and all-enclosing charity,
  196. p. 339, line 23Young and strong I pass knowing well I am destin'd myself to an early death;
  197. p. 341, line 4And now I am willing to disregard burial-places and dispense with them,
  198. p. 341, line 14The sea I am quickly to sail, come tell me,
  199. p. 341, line 15Come tell me where I am speeding, tell me my destination.
  200. p. 342, line 1I NEED no assurances, I am a man who is pre-occupied of his own soul;
  201. p. 342, line 2I do not doubt that from under the feet and beside the hands and face I am cognizant of, are now looking faces I am not cognizant of, calm and actual faces,
  202. p. 342, line 4I do not doubt I am limitless, and that the universes are limitless, in vain I try to think how limitless,
  203. p. 343, line 2But now the chorus I hear and am elated,
  204. p. 343, line 7I hear not the volumes of sound merely, I am moved by the exquisite meanings,
  205. p. 344, line 4O me, what I was for years, now dead, (I lament not, I am content;)
  206. p. 344, line 9I am exact and merciless, but I love you—there is no escape for you.
  207. p. 344, line 13I am more than nurse, more than parent or neighbor,
  208. p. 344, line 19You do not see the medicines, you do not mind the weeping friends, I am with you,
  209. p. 345, line 13I see that I am to wait for what will be exhibited by death.
  210. p. 353, line 15I see them and complain not, and am content with all.
  211. p. 355, line 19Whist! I am fully content.
  212. p. 358, line 1O trumpeter, methinks I am myself the instrument thou playest,
  213. p. 362, line 8And henceforth I will go celebrate any thing I see or am,
  214. p. 363, line 20And who proudest? for I think I have reason to be the proudest son alive—for I am the son of the brawny and tall-topt city,
  215. p. 363, line 26And who has made hymns fit for the earth? for I am mad with devouring ecstasy to make joyous hymns for the whole earth.
  216. p. 370, line 5Perhaps soon some day or night while I am singing my voice will suddenly cease.
  217. p. 375, line 13To be this incredible God I am!
  218. p. 381, line 15It appears to me I am dying.
  219. p. 382, line 25I am as one disembodied, triumphant, dead.
  220. p. 399, line 3I am the Poem of Earth, said the voice of the rain,
  221. p. 407, line 7[…] afraid of careless touches, from the first—and am not now—nor of parrot-like repetitions—nor platitudes and the […]
  222. p. 407, line 8[…] repetitions—nor platitudes and the commonplace. Perhaps I am too democratic for such avoidances. Besides, is not the verse-field […]
  223. p. 407, line 33In fact, here I am these current years 1890 and '91, (each successive fortnight getting stiffer and […]
  224. p. 408, line 9[…] July 5, 1890) are so sunny-fine. And old as I am I feel to-day almost a part of some frolicsome wave […]
  225. p. 425, line 17[…] discomfitures at last)—After completing my poems, I am curious to review them in the light of their own […]
  226. p. 426, line 15[…] Dr. Bucke are far more peremptory than I am. Behind all else that can be said, I consider "Leaves […]
  227. p. 426, line 26[…] object. Now it seems to be achiev'd, I am certainly contented to waive any otherwise momentous drawbacks, as of […]
  228. p. 431, line 10[…] American civilization from all the hitherto ages, I am not sure but I would name those old and less […]
  229. p. 436, line 24[…] the emotions, and a theme in literature. I am not going to argue the question by itself; it does […]