Whitman, as Printed

‹ Leaves of Grass, 1891–92

The lines with “before”

before 104 Back to B

  1. p. 9, line 11A Phantom arose before me with distrustful aspect,
  2. p. 12, line 7Put first before the rest as light for all and entrance-song of all,
  3. p. 18, line 3But you, a new brood, native, athletic, continental, greater than before known,
  4. p. 25, line 17Indifferently before death and after death.
  5. p. 27, line 11(I may have to be persuaded many times before I consent to give myself really to you, but what of that?
  6. p. 36, line 23He staid with me a week before he was recuperated and pass'd north,
  7. p. 50, line 20The dirt receding before my prophetical screams,
  8. p. 70, line 5One of that centripetal and centrifugal gang I turn and talk like a man leaving charges before a journey.
  9. p. 72, line 4Before I was born out of my mother generations guided me,
  10. p. 74, line 6This day before dawn I ascended a hill and look'd at the crowded heaven,
  11. p. 76, line 14And I say to any man or woman, Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes.
  12. p. 77, line 10(No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before.)
  13. p. 78, line 15Will you speak before I am gone? will you prove already too late?
  14. p. 85, line 15(For before the war I often go to the slave-mart and watch the sale,)
  15. p. 92, line 13Whispering I love you, before long I die,
  16. p. 97, line 22I give you fair warning before you attempt me further,
  17. p. 98, line 1Therefore release me now before troubling yourself any further, let go your hand from my shoulders,
  18. p. 99, line 19Far, far in the forest, or sauntering later in summer, before I think where I go,
  19. p. 104, line 5Love-buds put before you and within you whoever you are,
  20. p. 120, line 5I do not prefer others so very much before you either,
  21. p. 120, line 24Healthy, free, the world before me,
  22. p. 120, line 25The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.
  23. p. 126, line 8You but arrive at the city to which you were destin'd, you hardly settle yourself to satisfaction before you are call'd by an irresistible call to depart,
  24. p. 127, line 17All religion, all solid things, arts, governments—all that was or is apparent upon this globe or any globe, falls into niches and corners before the procession of souls along the grand roads of the universe.
  25. p. 128, line 26Allons! the road is before us!
  26. p. 129, line 7I give you myself before preaching or law;
  27. p. 132, line 22I consider'd long and seriously of you before you were born.
  28. p. 134, line 15To the cities and farms I sing as they spread in the sunshine before me.
  29. p. 134, line 19And I stand before the young man face to face, and take his right hand in my left hand and his left hand in my right hand,
  30. p. 140, line 12Down in Texas the cotton-field, the negro-cabins, drivers driving mules or oxen before rude carts, cotton bales piled on banks and wharves;
  31. p. 144, line 6O the sweetness of the Fifth-month morning upon the water as I row just before sunrise toward the buoys,
  32. p. 146, line 3What attractions are these beyond any before? what bloom more than the bloom of youth?
  33. p. 153, line 13How beggarly appear arguments before a defiant deed!
  34. p. 153, line 14How the floridness of the materials of cities shrivels before a man's or woman's look!
  35. p. 154, line 11Served before any of those the venerable and harmless men of Ethiopia,
  36. p. 154, line 14For the mediæval ages and before the mediæval ages,
  37. p. 161, line 5Shall be dried, clean'd, ginn'd, baled, spun into thread and cloth before you,
  38. p. 161, line 11The photograph, model, watch, pin, nail, shall be created before you.
  39. p. 163, line 23I here personify and call my themes, to make them pass before ye.
  40. p. 177, line 31Holding a mirror day and night tirelessly before her own face.
  41. p. 180, line 3Things are not dismiss'd from the places they held before,
  42. p. 180, line 4The earth is just as positive and direct as it was before,
  43. p. 180, line 5Facts, religions, improvements, politics, trades, are as real as before,
  44. p. 186, line 12Your true soul and body appear before me,
  45. p. 194, line 18As it moves changing, a kaleidoscope divine it moves changing before us.
  46. p. 195, line 16I chant the new empire grander than any before, as in a vision it comes to me,
  47. p. 201, line 5Never again leave me to be the peaceful child I was before what there in the night,
  48. p. 201, line 18Whisper'd me through the night, and very plainly before daybreak,
  49. p. 202, line 28But that before all my arrogant poems the real Me stands yet untouch'd, untold, altogether unreach'd,
  50. p. 204, line 10We, capricious, brought hither we know not whence, spread out before you,
  51. p. 214, line 14When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
  52. p. 222, line 16Would the lawyer rise in the court to state his case before the judge?
  53. p. 230, line 2One doubt nauseous undulating like a snake, crawl'd on the ground before me,
  54. p. 235, line 17I SEE before me now a traveling army halting,
  55. p. 237, line 11All swims before her eyes, flashes with black, she catches the main words only,
  56. p. 239, line 13Then before I depart I sweep my eyes o'er the scene fain to absorb it all,
  57. p. 241, line 2Comes before me the unknown soldier's grave, comes the inscription rude in Virginia's woods,
  58. p. 248, line 12All the scenes at the batteries rise in detail before me again,
  59. p. 250, line 12Before you came to camp came many a welcome gift,
  60. p. 264, line 6And sing me before you go the song of the throes of Democracy.
  61. p. 265, line 11Who are you that wanted only to be told what you knew before?
  62. p. 265, line 15O lands, would you be freer than all that has ever been before?
  63. p. 265, line 16If you would be freer than all that has been before, come listen to me.
  64. p. 271, line 17Is it not something that has been better told or done before?
  65. p. 272, line 24How dare you place any thing before a man?
  66. p. 273, line 2A man before all—myself, typical, before all.
  67. p. 273, line 19Have I not through life kept you and yours before me?)
  68. p. 276, line 6The loftiest bards of past ages strode before me,
  69. p. 281, line 4All till'd and untill'd fields expand before me,
  70. p. 288, line 15NATIONS ten thousand years before these States, and many times ten thousand years before these States,
  71. p. 290, line 8But has results beyond death as really as before death.
  72. p. 298, line 7I specify you with joy O my comrade to salute you, and to salute those who are with you, before and since, and those to come also,
  73. p. 305, line 18Out on the lake that expands before them, others are spearing salmon,
  74. p. 309, line 12(Yet strangely fitting even here, meanings unknown before,
  75. p. 319, line 16The lands, geographies, dancing before you, holding a festival garland,
  76. p. 320, line 5The mediæval navigators rise before me,
  77. p. 323, line 29Thou knowest how before I commenced I devoted all to come to Thee,
  78. p. 325, line 4Dim ever-shifting guesses of it spread before me,
  79. p. 329, line 18Never before had she seen such wonderful beauty and purity,
  80. p. 334, line 24Boss, spotter, starter, hostler, somebody loafing on you, you loafing on somebody, headway, man before and man behind,
  81. p. 338, line 8Nor dost thou, all is a blank before us,
  82. p. 344, line 25I walk by myself—I stand and look at the stars, which I think now I never realized before.
  83. p. 346, line 22A special song before I go I'd sing o'er all the rest,
  84. p. 352, line 11I know before the fitting man all Nature yields,
  85. p. 357, line 1What charm thy music works! thou makest pass before me,
  86. p. 366, line 15Give me of you O spring, before I close, to put between its pages!
  87. p. 366, line 16O forenoon purple of the hills, before I close, of you!
  88. p. 376, line 21I grave a monumental line, before I go, amid these songs,
  89. p. 380, line 12I remember I said before my leaves sprang at all,
  90. p. 385, line 18High, high above the rest—To all cut off before their time,
  91. p. 404, line 7Bro't out by them alone—so much (perhaps the best) unreck'd before;
  92. p. 412, line 18(Different—something unreck'd before—some unsuspected author,)
  93. p. 413, line 1ADD to your show, before you close it, France,
  94. p. 414, line 21And name for me before thou goest each ancient poet.
  95. p. 417, line 4Call'd for vermilion paint (his looking-glass was held before him,)
  96. p. 420, line 2Times again, now mostly just after sunrise or before sunset,
  97. p. 429, line 9[…] no reason for being, so "Leaves of Grass," before a line was written, presupposed something different from any other […]
  98. p. 429, line 25[…] suitable to the human soul, were never possible before. It is certain that a poetry of absolute faith and […]
  99. p. 432, line 1[…] be candidly stated. If I had not stood before those poems with uncover'd head, fully aware of their colossal […]
  100. p. 433, line 24[…] The same thought had been haunting my mind before, but Poe's argument, though short, work'd the sum out and […]
  101. p. 433, line 43[…] say, that, although I had made a start before, only from the occurrence of the Secession War, and what […]
  102. p. 436, line 4[…] also want my utterances (I said to myself before beginning) to be in spirit the poems of the morning […]