Whitman, as Printed

‹ Leaves of Grass, 1891–92

The lines with “how”

how 231 Back to H

  1. p. 15, line 1HOW they are provided for upon the earth, (appearing at intervals,)
  2. p. 15, line 2How dear and dreadful they are to the earth,
  3. p. 15, line 3How they inure to themselves as much as to any—what a paradox appears their age,
  4. p. 15, line 4How people respond to them, yet know them not,
  5. p. 15, line 5How there is something relentless in their fate all times,
  6. p. 15, line 6How all times mischoose the objects of their adulation and reward,
  7. p. 15, line 7And how the same inexorable price must still be paid for the same great purchase.
  8. p. 19, line 12How curious! how real!
  9. p. 22, line 15None has begun to think how divine he himself is, and how certain the future is.
  10. p. 25, line 11How can the real body ever die and be buried?
  11. p. 25, line 19Whoever you are, how superb and how divine is your body, or any part of it!
  12. p. 28, line 7You oceans that have been calm within me! how I feel you, fathomless, stirring, preparing unprecedented waves and storms.
  13. p. 28, line 11See, on the one side the Western Sea and on the other the Eastern Sea, how they advance and retreat upon my poems as upon their own shores,
  14. p. 32, line 19I mind how once we lay such a transparent summer morning,
  15. p. 32, line 20How you settled your head athwart my hips and gently turn'd over upon me,
  16. p. 33, line 4How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he.
  17. p. 34, line 17(They do not know how immortal, but I know.)
  18. p. 34, line 20For me the man that is proud and feels how it stings to be slighted,
  19. p. 40, line 22The regatta is spread on the bay, the race is begun, (how the white sails sparkle!)
  20. p. 44, line 9How is it I extract strength from the beef I eat?
  21. p. 47, line 11The wonder is always and always how there can be a mean man or an infidel.
  22. p. 49, line 25I cannot tell how my ankles bend, nor whence the cause of my faintest wish,
  23. p. 50, line 8Dazzling and tremendous how quick the sun-rise would kill me,
  24. p. 50, line 18Do you not know O speech how the buds beneath you are folded?
  25. p. 59, line 17How the skipper saw the crowded and rudderless wreck of the steam-ship, and Death chasing it up and down the storm,
  26. p. 59, line 18How he knuckled tight and gave not back an inch, and was faith ful of days and faithful of nights,
  27. p. 59, line 20How he follow'd with them and tack'd with them three days and would not give it up,
  28. p. 59, line 21How he saved the drifting company at last,
  29. p. 59, line 22How the lank loose-gown'd women look'd when boated from the side of their prepared graves,
  30. p. 59, line 23How the silent old-faced infants and the lifted sick, and the sharp-lipp'd unshaved men;
  31. p. 60, line 10I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person,
  32. p. 65, line 26Man or woman, I might tell how I like you, but cannot,
  33. p. 70, line 9How the flukes splash!
  34. p. 70, line 10How they contort rapid as lightning, with spasms and spouts of blood!
  35. p. 76, line 17(No array of terms can say how much I am at peace about God and about death.)
  36. p. 77, line 13If you do not say any thing how can I say any thing?
  37. p. 86, line 8How do you know who shall come from the offspring of his offspring through the centuries?
  38. p. 88, line 23They know how to swim, row, ride, wrestle, shoot, run, strike, retreat, advance, resist, defend themselves,
  39. p. 92, line 20Behold the great rondure, the cohesion of all, how perfect!
  40. p. 93, line 1WE two, how long we were fool'd,
  41. p. 96, line 22For how calm, how solemn it grows to ascend to the atmosphere of lovers,
  42. p. 97, line 15That behind the mask of materials you patiently wait, no matter how long,
  43. p. 101, line 7(How often they dart out of themselves as if to confound me and mock me!
  44. p. 101, line 8How often I think neither I know, nor any man knows, aught of them,)
  45. p. 102, line 19WHEN I heard at the close of the day how my name had been receiv'd with plaudits in the capitol, still it was not a happy night for me that follow'd,
  46. p. 103, line 4And when I thought how my dear friend my lover was on his way coming, O then I was happy,
  47. p. 105, line 25But I wonder'd how it could utter joyous leaves standing alone there without its friend near, for I knew I could not,
  48. p. 106, line 9PASSING stranger! you do not know how longingly I look upon you,
  49. p. 107, line 20But when I hear of the brotherhood of lovers, how it was with them,
  50. p. 107, line 21How together through life, through dangers, odium, unchanging, long and long,
  51. p. 107, line 22Through youth and through middle and old age, how unfaltering, how affectionate and faithful they were,
  52. p. 111, line 18How often I find myself standing and looking at it where it flits,
  53. p. 111, line 19How often I question and doubt whether that is really me;
  54. p. 112, line 5Fancying how happy you were if I could be with you and become your comrade;
  55. p. 129, line 12Crowds of men and women attired in the usual costumes, how curious you are to me!
  56. p. 130, line 16Saw how the glistening yellow lit up parts of their bodies and left the rest in strong shadow,
  57. p. 134, line 17How shall the young man know the whether and when of his brother?
  58. p. 135, line 12What can be answer'd he answers, and what cannot be answer'd he shows how it cannot be answer'd.
  59. p. 136, line 2One part does not counteract another part, he is the joiner, he sees how they join.
  60. p. 136, line 3He says indifferently and alike How are you friend? to the President at his levee,
  61. p. 140, line 9Children at play, or on his father's lap a young boy fallen asleep, (how his lips move! how he smiles in his sleep!)
  62. p. 142, line 7These affording, in all their particulars, the old feuillage to me and to America, how can I do less than pass the clew of the union of them, to afford the like to you?
  63. p. 142, line 8Whoever you are! how can I but offer you divine leaves, that you also be eligible as I am?
  64. p. 142, line 9How can I but as here chanting, invite you for yourself to collect bouquets of the incomparable feuillage of these States?
  65. p. 146, line 2How clear is my mind—how all people draw nigh to me!
  66. p. 147, line 29How it is I know not—yet behold! the something which obeys none of the rest,
  67. p. 147, line 30It is offensive, never defensive—yet how magnetic it draws.
  68. p. 148, line 2To be entirely alone with them, to find how much one can stand!
  69. p. 153, line 13How beggarly appear arguments before a defiant deed!
  70. p. 153, line 14How the floridness of the materials of cities shrivels before a man's or woman's look!
  71. p. 157, line 25How near his work is holding him to God,
  72. p. 158, line 7While how little the New after all, how much the Old, Old World!
  73. p. 161, line 7You shall see the various grains and how flour is made and then bread baked by the bakers,
  74. p. 161, line 9You shall watch how the printer sets type, and learn what a composing-stick is,
  75. p. 162, line 20To sing in songs how exercise and chemical life are never to be baffled,
  76. p. 164, line 5How the ash writhes under those muscular arms!
  77. p. 164, line 12See, from their chimneys how the tall flame-fires stream.
  78. p. 186, line 6Far, far off the daybreak call—hark! how loud and clear I hear it wind,
  79. p. 189, line 1But remember the little voice that I heard wailing, and wait with perfect trust, no matter how long,
  80. p. 190, line 1Unwitting to-day that you do not know how to speak properly a single word?)
  81. p. 190, line 23I would sing how an old man, tall, with white hair, mounted the scaffold in Virginia,
  82. p. 210, line 1How bright shine the cutlasses of the foremost troops!
  83. p. 210, line 16See how well dress'd, see how orderly they conduct themselves.
  84. p. 214, line 17How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
  85. p. 219, line 9How she led the rest to arms, how she gave the cue,
  86. p. 219, line 10How at once with lithe limbs unwaiting a moment she sprang,
  87. p. 219, line 13How you sprang—how you threw off the costumes of peace with indifferent hand,
  88. p. 219, line 14How your soft opera-music changed, and the drum and fife were heard in their stead,
  89. p. 219, line 15How you led to the war, (that shall serve for our prelude, songs of soldiers,)
  90. p. 219, line 16How Manhattan drum-taps led.
  91. p. 220, line 10The new recruits, even boys, the old men show them how to wear their accoutrements, they buckle the straps carefully,
  92. p. 220, line 14(How good they look as they tramp down to the river, sweaty, with their guns on their shoulders!
  93. p. 220, line 15How I love them! how I could hug them, with their brown faces and their clothes and knapsacks cover'd with dust!)
  94. p. 224, line 9These, ah these, how valued and toil'd for these!
  95. p. 224, line 10How envied by all the earth.
  96. p. 229, line 19How it climbs with daring feet and hands—how it dashes!
  97. p. 229, line 20How the true thunder bellows after the lightning—how bright the flashes of lightning!
  98. p. 229, line 21How Democracy with desperate vengeful port strides on, shown through the dark by those flashes of lightning!
  99. p. 233, line 3Of that brigade I tell, and how steadily it march'd,
  100. p. 233, line 4And how long and well it stood confronting death.
  101. p. 233, line 15But O from the hills how the cannon were thinning and thinning them!
  102. p. 233, line 18I saw how he wrung his hands in anguish.
  103. p. 238, line 24Vigil for comrade swiftly slain, vigil I never forget, how as day brighten'd,
  104. p. 251, line 4HOW solemn as one by one,
  105. p. 251, line 8How solemn the thought of my whispering soul to each in the ranks, and to you,
  106. p. 252, line 3Flag of death! (how I watch'd you through the smoke of battle pressing!
  107. p. 252, line 4How I heard you flap and rustle, cloth defiant!)
  108. p. 254, line 15(Lo, how the wars of the past have duly inured to you, and the wars of the present also inure;)
  109. p. 257, line 19As the night advanced, and I saw on the rim of the west how full you were of woe,
  110. p. 258, line 1O how shall I warble myself for the dead one there I loved?
  111. p. 258, line 2And how shall I deck my song for the large sweet soul that has gone?
  112. p. 259, line 18The many-moving sea-tides, and I saw the ships how they sail'd,
  113. p. 259, line 20And the infinite separate houses, how they all went on, each with its meals and minutia of daily usages,
  114. p. 259, line 21And the streets how their throbbings throbb'd, and the cities pent—lo, then and there,
  115. p. 267, line 17Responding their manners, speech, dress, friendships, the gait they have of persons who never knew how it felt to stand in the presence of superiors,
  116. p. 269, line 8Ah Mother, prolific and full in all besides, yet how long barren, barren?)
  117. p. 272, line 24How dare you place any thing before a man?
  118. p. 279, line 21How elate I stood and watch'd you, where starting off you march'd.
  119. p. 283, line 20The doubts of day-time and the doubts of night-time, the curious whether and how,
  120. p. 285, line 20O how can it be that the ground itself does not sicken?
  121. p. 285, line 21How can you be alive you growths of spring?
  122. p. 285, line 22How can you furnish health you blood of herbs, roots, orchards, grain?
  123. p. 299, line 9And henceforth I will not deny them—for how can I deny myself?
  124. p. 302, line 3The scene and all its belongings, how they seize and affect me,
  125. p. 302, line 13You! do you not see how it would serve to have eyes, blood, complexion, clean and sweet?
  126. p. 302, line 14Do you not see how it would serve to have such a body and soul that when you enter the crowd an atmosphere of desire and command enters with you, and every one is impress'd with your Personality?
  127. p. 305, line 5I know it is wonderful, but my eyesight is equally wonderful, and how I was conceived in my mother's womb is equally wonderful,
  128. p. 307, line 14Yet see you! how soon his rage subsides—how soon this tamer tames him;
  129. p. 307, line 21How straight and square they stand on their legs—what fine sagacious eyes!
  130. p. 307, line 22How they watch their tamer—they wish him near them—how they turn to look after him!
  131. p. 307, line 23What yearning expression! how uneasy they are when he moves away from them;
  132. p. 312, line 9Thou knowest soul how to me all sounds became music,
  133. p. 321, line 30How should I think, how breathe a single breath, how speak, if, out of myself,
  134. p. 323, line 29Thou knowest how before I commenced I devoted all to come to Thee,
  135. p. 325, line 17How solemn they look there, stretch'd and still,
  136. p. 325, line 18How quiet they breathe, the little children in their cradles.
  137. p. 326, line 3The murderer that is to be hung next day, how does he sleep?
  138. p. 326, line 4And the murder'd person, how does he sleep?
  139. p. 332, line 16I know not how I came of you and I know not where I go with you, but I know I came well and shall go well.
  140. p. 334, line 1To think how eager we are in building our houses,
  141. p. 335, line 4The vulgar and the refined, what you call sin and what you call goodness, to think how wide a difference,
  142. p. 335, line 6To think how much pleasure there is,
  143. p. 335, line 11Your farm, profits, crops—to think how engross'd you are,
  144. p. 337, line 15How beautiful and perfect are the animals!
  145. p. 337, line 16How perfect the earth, and the minutest thing upon it!
  146. p. 341, line 9Weights of lead, how ye clog and cling at my ankles,
  147. p. 342, line 4I do not doubt I am limitless, and that the universes are limitless, in vain I try to think how limitless,
  148. p. 343, line 16Mark'd how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,
  149. p. 345, line 3How plenteous! how spiritual! how resumé!
  150. p. 345, line 16Of certain ships, how they sail from port with flying streamers and wafted kisses, and that is the last of them,
  151. p. 347, line 3I'd show away ahead thy real Union, and how it may be accomplish'd.
  152. p. 349, line 12How can I pierce the impenetrable blank of the future?
  153. p. 357, line 6I see the Crusaders' tumultuous armies—hark, how the cymbals clang,
  154. p. 357, line 13O how the immortal phantoms crowd around me!
  155. p. 363, line 1How ardently for it!
  156. p. 363, line 2How many ships have sail'd and sunk for it!
  157. p. 363, line 3How many travelers started from their homes and ne'er return'd!
  158. p. 363, line 4How much of genius boldly staked and lost for it!
  159. p. 363, line 6How all superbest deeds since Time began are traceable to it—and shall be to the end!
  160. p. 363, line 7How all heroic martyrdoms to it!
  161. p. 363, line 8How, justified by it, the horrors, evils, battles of the earth!
  162. p. 363, line 9How the bright fascinating lambent flames of it, in every age and land, have drawn men's eyes,
  163. p. 364, line 13Of a calm and cool fiat sooner or later, (how impassive! how certain and final!)
  164. p. 366, line 29O lesson opportune, O how I welcome thee!
  165. p. 370, line 4I shall traverse the States awhile, but I cannot tell whither or how long,
  166. p. 371, line 1Lo, how he urges and urges, leaving the masses no rest!
  167. p. 371, line 13Your dreams O years, how they penetrate through me! (I know not whether I sleep or wake;)
  168. p. 373, line 2How they pass and have pass'd through convuls'd pains, as through parturitions,
  169. p. 373, line 3How America illustrates birth, muscular youth, the promise, the sure fulfilment, the absolute success, despite of people—illustrates evil as well as good,
  170. p. 373, line 5How many hold despairingly yet to the models departed, caste, myths, obedience, compulsion, and to infidelity,
  171. p. 373, line 6How few see the arrived models, the athletes, the Western States, or see freedom or spirituality, or hold any faith in results,
  172. p. 373, line 8How the great cities appear—how the Democratic masses, turbulent, wilful, as I love them,
  173. p. 373, line 9How the whirl, the contest, the wrestle of evil with good, the sounding and resounding, keep on and on,
  174. p. 373, line 10How society waits unform'd, and is for a while between things ended and things begun,
  175. p. 373, line 11How America is the continent of glories, and of the triumph of freedom and of the Democracies, and of the fruits of society, and of all that is begun,
  176. p. 373, line 12And how the States are complete in themselves—and how all triumphs and glories are complete in themselves, to lead onward,
  177. p. 373, line 13And how these of mine and of the States will in their turn be convuls'd, and serve other parturitions and transitions,
  178. p. 373, line 14And how all people, sights, combinations, the democratic masses too, serve—and how every fact, and war itself, with all its horrors, serves,
  179. p. 373, line 15And how now or at any time each serves the exquisite transition of death.
  180. p. 375, line 9To breathe the air, how delicious!
  181. p. 375, line 15Wonderful how I celebrate you and myself!
  182. p. 375, line 16How my thoughts play subtly at the spectacles around!
  183. p. 375, line 17How the clouds pass silently overhead!
  184. p. 375, line 18How the earth darts on and on! and how the sun, moon, stars, dart on and on!
  185. p. 375, line 19How the water sports and sings! (surely it is alive!)
  186. p. 375, line 20How the trees rise and stand up, with strong trunks, with branches and leaves!
  187. p. 382, line 12O how your fingers drowse me,
  188. p. 387, line 22How sweet the silent backward tracings!
  189. p. 390, line 6How they sweep down and out! how they mutter!
  190. p. 395, line 2Old Salt Kossabone, I'll tell you how he died:
  191. p. 395, line 17How much from thee! the revelation of the singing voice from thee!
  192. p. 395, line 20How through those strains distill'd—how the rapt ears, the soul of me, absorbing
  193. p. 397, line 15Old farmers, travelers, workmen (no matter how crippled or bent,)
  194. p. 401, line 5How changed the place—all the old land-marks gone—the parents dead;
  195. p. 410, line 22(Sometimes how strange and clear to the soul,
  196. p. 418, line 22How ill to e'er forget thee!
  197. p. 419, line 13How cheap is health! how cheap nobility!
  198. p. 421, line 1HOW dare one say it?
  199. p. 425, line 8[…] back past, with all their practical excitations gone. How the soul loves to float amid such reminiscences […]
  200. p. 429, line 20[…] poets of past or present Europe, no matter how great their genius. Think of the absence and ignorance, in […]
  201. p. 432, line 21[…] embryonic facts of "Leaves of Grass," and especially how I enter'd upon them. Dr. Bucke has, in his volume […]
  202. p. 433, line 29[…] time my enterprise and questionings positively shaped themselves (how best can I express my own distinctive era and surroundings […]
  203. p. 434, line 32[…] amount of faith report these things? Up to how recent a date is the song carried? What the equipment […]