“Whoever you are come travel with me. Traveling with me you find what never tires.”

Whitman croppedThe poem continues: “The earth never tires.  The earth is rude, silent incomprehensible at first. . . be not discouraged, keep on. . . there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell.”  I once wrote these words on my kitchen wall so that my kids would grow up thinking that “traveling” is part of life and a source of poetry.  Here’s more:  “Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you.  You must travel it by yourself. . . Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know.  Perhaps it is everywhere — on water and land.”

Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (Garden City, NJ:  Doubleday & Company, Inc., year unknown), 127.



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2 Responses to “Whoever you are come travel with me. Traveling with me you find what never tires.”

  1. I love Walt Whitman..he is my favorite Am. author. Thanks for sharing.

  2. essayist56 says:

    Who doesn’t love Walt Whitman and Leaves of Grass. Quintessential American yearning for the “frontier” – someplace other than where we are now which is certain to be better – or at least more interesting than what we have grown used to. Travel is a wonderful thing, though. Nothing exposes your limitations like traveling in a country where you don’t speak the language. And yet nothing also expands your possibilities like traveling. Thanks for a good post!

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