All music is is what awakes from you when you are reminded by the instruments.
Walt WhitmanRead
Comerado, this is no book,Who touches this, touches a man,(Is it night? Are we here alone?)It is I you hold, and who holds you,I spring from the pages into your arms-decease calls me forth.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote expresses a deep connection between the reader and the author, emphasizing the intimacy of literature.
In this quote, Walt Whitman conveys the idea that engaging with a book is not merely a solitary activity, but rather a profound interaction between the reader and the author. The phrase 'who touches this, touches a man' suggests that literature is an extension of human experience, capturing the essence of life, emotions, and the shared human condition. Whitman's words invite readers to embrace the personal connection that literature fosters, as if the author is reaching out to them directly, creating a bridge between different lives and experiences.
Themes
LiteratureConnectionBooksHuman ExperienceIntimacy
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a book club discussion to express the emotional impact of literature.
More from Walt Whitman
All quotes →Did you, too, O friend, suppose democracy was only for elections, for politics, and for a party name? I say democracy is only of use there that it may pass on and come to its flower and fruit in manners, in the highest forms of interaction between people, and their beliefs - in religion, literature, colleges and schools- democracy in all public and private life.
Walt WhitmanRead
In the confusion we stay with each other, happy to be together, speaking without uttering a single word.
Walt WhitmanRead
A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.
Walt WhitmanRead
Now, dearest comrade, lift me to your face,_x000D_ _x000D_ We must separate awhileHere! take from my lips this kiss._x000D_ _x000D_ Whoever you are, I give it especially to you;_x000D_ _x000D_ So long!And I hope we shall meet again.
Walt WhitmanRead
And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral drest in his shroud.
Walt WhitmanRead
Similar quotes
We all fear loneliness, madness, dying. Shakespeare and Walt Whitman, Leopardi and Hart Crane will not cure those fears. And yet these poets bring us fire and light.
Harold BloomRead
There is a tendency to presume autobiography in fiction by women or minorities. Guys named Jonathan write universal stories, while there's this sense that everyone else is just fictionalizing their own small experiences.
Rumaan AlamRead
'Who's been repeating all that hard stuff to you?' 'I read it in a book,' said Alice. 'But I had some poetry repeated to me, much easier than that, by - Tweedledee, I think it was.' 'As to poetry, you know,' said Humpty Dumpty, stretching out one of his great hands, 'I can repeat poetry as well as other folk, if it comes to that - ' 'Oh, it needn't come to that!' Alice hastily said, hoping to keep him from beginning.
Lewis CarrollRead
Imaginative literature primarily pleases rather than teaches. It is much easier to be pleased than taught, but much harder to know why one is pleased. Beauty is harder to analyze than truth.
Mortimer AdlerRead
Literature overtakes history, for literature gives you more than one life. It expands experience and opens new opportunities to readers.
Carlos FuentesRead
I think the job of writing and literature is to encourage each one of us to believe that we're living in a story.
Naomi Shihab NyeRead