Whitman, as Printed

‹ Leaves of Grass, 1891–92

The lines with “were”

were 112 Back to W

  1. p. 21, line 25I will therefore let flame from me the burning fires that were threatening to consume me,
  2. p. 30, line 18I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the beginning and the end,
  3. p. 44, line 12Else it were time lost listening to me.
  4. p. 52, line 6If nothing lay more develop'd the quahaug in its callous shell were enough.
  5. p. 61, line 17They were the glory of the race of rangers,
  6. p. 61, line 22The second First-day morning they were brought out in squads and massacred, it was beautiful early summer,
  7. p. 62, line 2These were despatch'd with bayonets or batter'd with the blunts of muskets,
  8. p. 62, line 4The three were all torn and cover'd with the boy's blood.
  9. p. 67, line 12Admitting they were alive and did the work of their days,
  10. p. 71, line 13Were mankind murderous or jealous upon you, my brother, my sister?
  11. p. 73, line 5If I, you, and the worlds, and all beneath or upon their surfaces, were this moment reduced back to a pallid float, it would not avail in the long run,
  12. p. 73, line 27Perhaps you have been on it since you were born and did not know,
  13. p. 79, line 19From that of myself without which I were nothing,
  14. p. 81, line 23And if the body were not the soul, what is the soul?
  15. p. 83, line 4He was six feet tall, he was over eighty years old, his sons were massive, clean, bearded, tan-faced, handsome,
  16. 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,
  17. p. 88, line 7Yet all were lacking if sex were lacking, or if the moisture of the right man were lacking.
  18. p. 93, line 1WE two, how long we were fool'd,
  19. p. 94, line 15Day by day and night by night we were together—all else has long been forgotten by me,
  20. p. 102, line 17Whose happiest days were far away through fields, in woods, on hills, he and another wandering hand in hand, they twain apart from other men,
  21. p. 102, line 20And else when I carous'd, or when my plans were accomplish'd, still I was not happy,
  22. p. 104, line 22From wounds made to free you whence you were prison'd,
  23. p. 106, line 13You grew up with me, were a boy with me or a girl with me,
  24. p. 107, line 22Through youth and through middle and old age, how unfaltering, how affectionate and faithful they were,
  25. p. 112, line 5Fancying how happy you were if I could be with you and become your comrade;
  26. p. 112, line 6Be it as if I were with you. (Be not too certain but I am now with you.)
  27. p. 122, line 18I think heroic deeds were all conceiv'd in the open air, and all free poems also,
  28. p. 123, line 12Now if a thousand perfect men were to appear it would not amaze me,
  29. 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,
  30. p. 130, line 24Saw their approach, saw aboard those that were near me,
  31. p. 131, line 8These and all else were to me the same as they are to you,
  32. p. 131, line 10The men and women I saw were all near to me,
  33. p. 132, line 2My great thoughts as I supposed them, were they not in reality meagre?
  34. p. 132, line 22I consider'd long and seriously of you before you were born.
  35. p. 150, line 7Setting the studs by their tenons in the mortises according as they were prepared,
  36. p. 169, line 16Were all educations practical and ornamental well display'd out of me, what would it amount to?
  37. p. 169, line 17Were I as the head teacher, charitable proprietor, wise statesman, what would it amount to?
  38. p. 169, line 18Were I to you as the boss employing and paying you, would that satisfy you?
  39. p. 170, line 12(Because you are greasy or pimpled, or were once drunk, or a thief,
  40. p. 173, line 5If you were not breathing and walking here, where would they all be?
  41. p. 176, line 2Were you thinking that those were the words, those upright lines? those curves, angles, dots?
  42. p. 176, line 5Were you thinking that those were the words, those delicious sounds out of your friends' mouths?
  43. p. 176, line 12Though it were told in the three thousand languages, what would air, soil, water, fire, know of my name?
  44. p. 180, line 10(If they did not echo the phrases of souls what were they then?
  45. p. 180, line 11If they had not reference to you in especial what were they then?)
  46. p. 192, line 26I assert that all past days were what they must have been,
  47. p. 192, line 27And that they could no-how have been better than they were,
  48. p. 196, line 8Were the children straying westward so long? so wide the tramping?
  49. p. 196, line 9Were the precedent dim ages debouching westward from Paradise so long?
  50. p. 196, line 10Were the centuries steadily footing it that way, all the while unknown, for you, for reasons?
  51. p. 196, line 18Up from the mystic play of shadows twining and twisting as if they were alive,
  52. p. 205, line 14What joys! what joys were thine!
  53. p. 212, line 19They were purified by death, they were taught and exalted.
  54. p. 214, line 14When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
  55. p. 218, line 10OF Equality—as if it harm'd me, giving others the same chances and rights as myself—as if it were not indispensable to my own rights that others possess the same.
  56. p. 219, line 14How your soft opera-music changed, and the drum and fife were heard in their stead,
  57. p. 221, line 11Often in peace and wealth you were pensive or covertly frown'd amid all your children,
  58. p. 229, line 13What, to pavements and homesteads here, what were those storms of the mountains and sea?
  59. p. 232, line 8And below there where the boys were drilling, and up the slopes they ran,
  60. p. 232, line 30Twenty thousand were brought against us,
  61. p. 233, line 15But O from the hills how the cannon were thinning and thinning them!
  62. p. 234, line 10Silent as a ghost while they thought they were sure of him, my General retreated.
  63. p. 234, line 13My General waited till the soldiers and wounded were all pass'd over,
  64. p. 236, line 25Smell you the buckwheat where the bees were lately buzzing?)
  65. p. 247, line 20(Were you looking to be held together by lawyers?
  66. p. 247, line 27I saw a hundred and more step forth from the ranks, but two or three were selected,
  67. p. 257, line 19As the night advanced, and I saw on the rim of the west how full you were of woe,
  68. p. 261, line 26But I saw they were not as was thought,
  69. p. 261, line 27They themselves were fully at rest, they suffer'd not,
  70. p. 275, line 10(Democracy, while weapons were everywhere aim'd at your breast,
  71. p. 276, line 7Strange large men, long unwaked, undisclosed, were disclosed to me.
  72. p. 279, line 10Sad were the shows around me with deafening noises of hatred and smoke of war;
  73. p. 288, line 22Who were witty and wise, who beautiful and poetic, who brutish and undevelop'd,
  74. p. 288, line 24O I know that those men and women were not for nothing, any more than we are for nothing,
  75. p. 295, line 20Were groups of friendly journeymen, mechanics young and old,
  76. p. 332, line 20Let judges and criminals be transposed—let the prison-keepers be put in prison—let those that were prisoners take the keys;
  77. p. 333, line 8To think that the sun rose in the east—that men and women were flexible, real, alive—that every thing was alive,
  78. p. 335, line 21It is not to diffuse you that you were born of your mother and father, it is to identify you,
  79. p. 336, line 4The threads that were spun are gather'd, the weft crosses the warp, the pattern is systematic.
  80. p. 337, line 9Do you suspect death? if I were to suspect death I should die now,
  81. p. 340, line 16Ethereal, pervading all, (for without me what were all? what were God?)
  82. p. 340, line 25The houses full of life were equally full of death, (this house is now,)
  83. p. 340, line 26The streets, the shipping, the places of amusement, the Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, the Mannahatta, were as full of the dead as of the living,
  84. p. 341, line 5And if the memorials of the dead were put up indifferently everywhere, even in the room where I eat or sleep, I should be satisfied,
  85. p. 355, line 24I heard what the singers were singing so long,
  86. p. 368, line 17Were all so justified.
  87. p. 370, line 22Never were such sharp questions ask'd as this day,
  88. p. 372, line 3With all the perils were yours.)
  89. p. 381, line 5I say you shall yet find the friend you were looking for.
  90. p. 386, line 10Brave, brave were the soldiers (high named to-day) who lived through the fight;
  91. p. 399, line 7And all that in them without me were seeds only, latent, unborn;
  92. p. 400, line 19Have you learn'd lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you?
  93. p. 409, line 13That we linger'd and lagg'd—but were wafted at last, and are now here,
  94. p. 411, line 39[…] emotional natures would be at their best: Deaths were always easier; medicines seem'd to have better effect when given […]
  95. p. 421, line 16(What were all those, indeed, without thee, unseen soul? of what amount without thee?)
  96. p. 425, line 12[…] over our travel'd road. After completing, as it were, the journey—(a varied jaunt of years, with many halts […]
  97. p. 426, line 28[…] reviewing all my intentions, I feel that they were creditable—and I accept the result, whatever it may be […]
  98. p. 429, line 11[…] of such presupposition. I should say, indeed, it were useless to attempt reading the book without first carefully tallying […]
  99. p. 429, line 24[…] magnitude and limitlessness suitable to the human soul, were never possible before. It is certain that a poetry of […]
  100. p. 431, line 8[…] New, are from them—and though if I were ask'd to name the most precious bequest to current American […]
  101. p. 433, line 19[…] from lower b flat up to g) they were melodious expressions, and perhaps never excell'd ones, of certain pronounc'd […]
  102. p. 434, line 17[…] I did not then, at least not definitely) were bases and object-urgings toward those "Leaves" from the first. The […]
  103. p. 435, line 8[…] Nineteenth Century as chosen knights, gentlemen and warriors were the ideals of the centuries of European feudalism) it has […]
  104. p. 435, line 42Without yielding an inch the working-man and working-woman were to be in my pages from first to last. The […]
  105. p. 436, line 3[…] more eligible now than any times of old were. I will also want my utterances (I said to myself […]
  106. p. 436, line 20[…] pieces might as well have been left unwritten were those lines omitted. Difficult as it will be, it has […]