American Literature Exam Quotes 1
American Literature 1 Final Exam Potential Quotations List
Fall 2010—Dr. Halbert
The following quotes were submitted by the class as candidates for the exam. The ten quotes on
the exam will come from this list. You will need to identify the author, the title, and give an
explanation of the significance of five of them. If you can identify the author and title of other
quotes, you may do so for extra credit.
QUOTE: I mean not to exhibit horror for the purposes of provoking revenge, but to awaken us
from fatal and unmanly slumbers, that we may pursue determinately some fixed object. ‘Tis not
in the power of Britain or of Europe to conquer America, if she doth not conquer herself by delay
and timidity.
SOURCE: Thomas Paine. Common Sense. Vol A. Pg. 996
QUOTE: ...and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you
to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them
than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember
all Men would be tyrants if they could.
SOURCE: Abigail Adams, Letter from Abigail Adams to John Adam, March 31, 1776, pg 1011
QUOTE: We might shew that America, though but a child of yesterday, has already given
hopeful proofs of genius, as well of the nobler kinds, which arouse the best feelings of man,
which call him into action, which substantiate his freedom, and conduct him to happiness, as of
the subordinate, which serve to amuse him only.
SOURCE: Thomas Jefferson. Notes on the State of Virginia. Pg. 1031.
QUOTE: Remember Christians, Negros, black as Cain
May be refin’d, and join th’angelic train.
SOURCE: Phillis Wheatley, "On Being Brought from Africa to America," P1307 (Volume A)
QUOTE: To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature. Most persons do not see the sun. At
least they have a very superficial seeing. The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines
into the eye and the heart of the child.
SOURCE: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature (1,709)
QUOTE: Within these plantations of God, a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festival is
dressed, and the guest sees not how he should tire of them in a thousand years. In the woods, we
return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life-- no disgrace, no
calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair.
SOURCE: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature, P1709
American Literature Exam Quotes 2
QUOTE: “The shows of day, the dewy morning, the rainbow, mountains, orchards in blossom,
stars, moonlight, shadows in still water, and the like, if too eagerly hunted, become shows
merely, and mock us with their unreality.”
SOURCE: From Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson page 1712
QUOTE: To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty, and in the same field,
it beholds, every hour, a picture which was never seen before, and which shall never be seen
again.
SOURCE: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature, P1712.
QUOTE: “The production of a work of art throws a light upon the mystery of humanity. A work
of art is an abstract or epitome of the world.”
SOURCE: From Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson page 1714
QUOTE: Nature is a sea of forms radically alike and even unique. A leaf, a sun-beam, a
landscape, the ocean, make an analogous impression on the mind. What is common to them
all,—that perfectness and harmony is beauty.
SOURCE: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Beauty, Pg. 1714
QUOTE: the world proceeds from the same spirit as the body on of man. It is a remoter and
inferior incarnation of God, a projection of God in the unconscious.
SOURCE: Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature” p1729
QUOTE: There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is
ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he ust take himself for better, for worse, as his portion;
that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but
through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.
SOURCE: Ralph Waldo Emerson Self Reliance (P. 1747)
QUOTE: we are men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and
not minors and invalids in a protected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but
guides, redeemers, and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort, and advancing on Chaos and
the Dark.
SOURCE: Self Reliance: Emerson 1747
QUOTE: A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best;
but what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace. It is a deliverance which does
not deliver. In the attempt his genius deserts him; no muse be friends him; no invention, no hope.
SOURCE: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance, pg 1747
American Literature Exam Quotes 3
QUOTE: To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart,
is true for all men —that is genius.
SOURCE: Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self Reliance” p1747
QUOTE: The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is
which he can do, nor does he knew until he has tried.
SOURCE: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance, Vol. B Pg. 1747
QUOTE: Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.
SOURCE: Self-Reliance – Ralph Waldo Emerson – page 1748
QUOTE: These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones;
they are for what they are; they exist with God to-day. There is not time to them. There is simply
the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence.”
SOURCE: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-reliance, pg 1754
QUOTE: The government is best which governments not at all; and when are prepared for it, that
will be the kind of government which they will have.
SOURCE: Henry David Thoreau. “Resistance to Civil Government” p1862
The only obligation which I have a right to assume, is to do at any time what I think right.
SOURCE: Henry David Thoreau, Resistance to Civil Government, P1863
QUOTE: Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and
wrong, but conscience?—in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of
expediency is applicable? Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his
conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be
men first, and subjects afterward.
SOURCE: Henry David Thoreau. Resistance to Civil Government. Pg. 1863.
QUOTE: But a government in which the majority rule in all cases cannot be based on justice,
even as far as men understand it. Can there not be a government in which majorities do not
virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience?
SOURCE: Henry David Thoreau Resistance to Civil Government (P. 1863)
QUOTE: I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government. Let everyman
make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step
toward obtaining it.
American Literature Exam Quotes 4
SOURCE: Henry David Thoreau, Resistance to Civil Government (1,863)
QUOTE: It does not keep a country free. It does not settle the west. It does not educate. The
character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would
have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way.
SOURCE: David Thoreau. Resistance to the Civil Government. Vol B. Pg. 1863
QUOTE: A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish to prevail through the
power of the majority. There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men.
SOURCE: Henry David Thoreau, Resistance to Civil Government, pg 1866
QUOTE: Men generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they
have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy is
worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide reform?
Why does it not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its faults, and do better than
it would have them? Why does it always crucify Christ, and excommunicate Copernicus and
Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin Rebels?
SOURCE: Resistance to Civil Government: Henry Thoreau 1867
QUOTE: I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it,
be it good or bad. A man has not everything to do, but something; and because he cannot do
every thing, it is not necessary that he should do something wrong.
SOURCE: Resistance to Civil Government – Thoreau – page 1868
QUOTE: The progress from an absolute to a limited monarchy, from a limited monarchy to a
democracy, is a progress toward a true respect for the individual. Is a democracy, such as we
know it, the last improvement possible in government? Is it not possible to take a step further
towards recognizing and organizing the rights of man? There will never be a really free and
enlightened State, until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent
power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.
SOURCE: Henry David Thoreau, Resistance to Civil Government, Pg. 1876
QUOTE: I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record
containing it.
SOURCE: Douglass: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave p 2045
QUOTE: A want of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness to me even
during childhood. The white children could all tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be
deprived of the same privilege.
American Literature Exam Quotes 5
SOURCE: Frederick Douglass. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.
Vol B. Pg. 2045
QUOTE: …he must not only whip them himself, but must stand by and see one white son tie up
his brother, of but a few shades darker complexion than himself, and ply the gory lash to his
naked back
SOURCE: Frederick Douglass, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, P2046.
QUOTE: Whilst I was saddened by the thought of losing the aid of my kind mistress, I was
gladdened by the invaluable instruction which, by the merest accident, I had gained from my
master.
SOURCE: Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave,
Vol. B Pg. 2046
QUOTE: The overseer’s name was Plummer. Mr. Plummer was a miserable drunkard, a profane
swearer, and a savage monster. He always went armed with a cowskin and a heavy cudgel.
SOURCE: Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (2,047)
QUOTE: “I have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heartending shrieks of an
old aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was
literally covered in blood. No words, no tears, no prayers, from his gory victim, seemed to move
his iron heart from its bloody purpose.”
SOURCE: Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, An American Slave: Douglass 2047
QUOTE: …he commenced to lay on the heavy cowskin, and soon the warm, red blood (amid
heart-rending shrieks from her, and horrid oaths from him) came dripping to the floor. I was so
terrified and horror=stricken at the sight, that I hid myself in a closet, and dared not venture out
till long after the bloody transaction was over. I expected it would be my turn next. It was all
new to me. I had never seen anything like it.
SOURCE: Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave,
P2048
QUOTE: I have often sung to drown my sorrow, but seldom to express my happiness. Crying for
joy, and singing for joy, were alike the uncommon to me while in the jaws of slavery. The
singing of a man cast away upon a desolate island might be as appropriately considered as
evidence of contentment and happiness, as the singing of a slave; the songs of the one and of the
other are prompted by the same emotion.
SOURCE: Frederick Douglass. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.
Pg. 2051.
American Literature Exam Quotes 6
QUOTE: He was immediately chained and handcuffed; and thus, without a moment’s warning,
he was snatched away, and forever sundered, from his family and friends, by a hand more
unrelenting than death. This is the penalty of telling the truth, of telling the simple truth, in
answer to a series of plain questions.
SOURCE: Frederick Douglass, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, P2053.
QUOTE: Fashionable women regard themselves and are regarded by men, as pretty toys or as
mere instruments of pleasure; and the vacuity of mind, the heartlessness, the frivolity which is
the necessary result of this false kind of debasing and estimate of women, can only be fully
understood by those who have mingled in the folly and wickedness of fashionable life.
SOURCE: Sarah Moore Grimke. Letters on the Equality of the Sexes. Vol B. Pg. 2238
QUOTE: The influence of women over the minds and character of children of both sexes, is
allowed to be far greater than that of men.
SOURCE: Sarah Moore Grimke Letters on the Equality of the Sexes, and the Condition of
Woman (P. 2239)
QUOTE: A man who is engaged in teaching, can always, I believe, command a higher price for
tuition than a woman-even when he teaches the same branches, and is not in any respect superior
to the woman.
SOURCE: Sarah Moore Grimke, Letters on the Equality of the Sexes, and the Condition of
Woman, Vol. B Pg. 2239
QUOTE: In most families, it is considered a matter of far more consequence to call a girl off
from making a pie, or a pudding, than to interrupt her whilst engaged in her studies. This mode
of training necessarily exalts, in their view, the animal above the intellectual and spiritual nature,
and teaches women to regard themselves as a kind of machinery, necessary to keep the domestic
engine in order, but of little value as the intelligent companions of men.
SOURCE: Sarah Moore Grimke, Letters on the Equality of the Sexes, pg 2239
QUOTE: All I complain of is, that our education so almost exclusively in culinary and other
manual operations. I do long to see the time, when it will no longer be necessary for women to
expend so many precious hours in furnishing “a well spread table,” but that their husbands will
forego some of their accustomed indulgences in this way, and encourage their wives to devote
some portion of their time to mental cultivation, even at the expense of having to dine sometimes
on baked potatoes, or bread and butter…
American Literature Exam Quotes 7
SOURCE: Sarah Moore Grimke, Letters on the Equality of the Sexes (2,239)
QUOTE: Our brethren may reject my doctrine, because it runs counter to common opinions, and
because it wounds their pride; but I believe they would be “partakers of the benefit” resulting
from the Equality of the Sexes, and would find that woman, as their equal, was unspeakably
more valuable than woman as their inferior, both as a moral and an intellectual being.
SOURCE: Sarah Moore Grimke, Letters on the Equality of the Sexes, P2241
QUOTE: “Human beings have rights, because they are moral beings: the rights of all men grow
out of their moral nature; and as all men have the same moral nature, they have essentially the
same rights…Now if rights are founded in the nature of our moral being, then the mere
circumstance of sex does not give to man higher rights and responsibilities, than to woman.”
(Angelina Grimke page 2246)
SOURCE: Letters to Catharine Beecher: Angelina Grimke page 2246
QUOTE: I recognize no rights but human rights--I know nothing of men’s rights and women’s
rights; for in Christ Jesus, there is neither male nor female.”
SOURCE: Angelina Grimke, Letters to Catharine Beecher, P2247
QUOTE: A companion and equal, not placed under his authority as a subject, but by his side, on
the same platform of human rights, under the government of God only.
SOURCE: Sarah Moore Grimke. “Human Rights Not Founded on Sex. P2247
QUOTE: Now, I believe it is woman’s right to have a voice in all the laws and regulations by
which she is to be governed, whether in Church or State; and that the present arrangements of
society, on these points, are a violation of human rights, a rank usurpation of power.
SOURCE: Angelina Grimke, Letters to Catherine Beecher, Vol. B Pg. 2247
QUOTE: The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of
man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her.
SOURCE: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “Declaration of Sentiments”. P2270
QUOTE: After depriving her of all rights as a married woman, if single, and the owner of
property, he has taxed her to support a government which recognizes her only when her property
can be made profitable to it.
SOURCE: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Declaration of Sentiments (2,271)
QUOTE: “Granted that lady-novels are not all that they should be—is such shallow, unfair,
wholesale, sneering criticism (?) the way to reform them?”
American Literature Exam Quotes 8
SOURCE: "Male Criticism on Ladies Books" by Fanny Fern page 2262
QUOTE: No—no—bless your simple soul; a man never stoops to meanness. There never was a
criticism yet, born of envy, or malice, or repulsed love, or disappointed ambition. No—no.
Thank the gods, I have a more exalted opinion of masculinity.
SOURCE: Fanny Fern, "Critics," P2260.
QUOTE: Now follow them to the large, black-looking building, where several hundred of them
are manufacturing hoop-skirts. If you are a woman you have worn plenty; but you little thought
what passed in the heads of these girls as their busy fingers glazed the wire, or prepared the
spools for covering them, or secured the tapes which held them in their places.
SOURCE: Fanny Fern, “The Working Girls of New York." p2265
QUOTE: Now the truth is just this, and I wish all the women on earth had but one ear in
common, so that I could put this little bit of gospel into it: Just as long as a man isn’t quite as
sure as if he knew for certain, whether nothing on earth could ever disturb your affection for him,
he is your humble servant, but the very second he finds out (or thinks he does) that he has
possession of every inch of your heart, and no neutral territory- he will turn his heel and march
off whistling “Yankee Doodle!”
SOURCE: Fanny Fern: Hints to young Wives p 2257
QUOTE: At last my hair begun to come out by the roots, and then I was mad to be took
advantage of in that way. I swore at the varmind, till the tree shed all its leaves, and the sky
turned yaller.
SOURCE: Davy Crockett A Pretty Predicament (P.2280)
QUOTE: I felt raal ridiculous. I can assure you; so I began to talk to the varmint, and telled him
to help me get my head out, like a man, and I would give him five dollars before I killed him
SOURCE: Davy Crockett. A Pretty Predicament. Vol B. Pg. 2280
QUOTE: I can hit like fourth-proof lightnin' an' every lick I make in the woods lets in an acre o'
sunshine.
SOURCE: Mike Fink, Mike Fink's brag, pg 2283
QUOTE: In a word these unhappy mortals may be compared to children, in whom the
development of reason is not completed.
SOURCE: Washington Irving, A History of New York, Vol. B Pg. 2302
QUOTE: They learned to cheat, lie, to swear, to gamble, to quarrel, to cut each other’s throats, in
short, to excel in all the accomplishments that had originally marked the superiority of their
Christian visitors.
American Literature Exam Quotes 9
SOURCE: Washington Irving: A History of New York p 2305
QUOTE: Thus were the European worthies who first discovered America, clearly entitled to the
soil; and not only to the soil, but likewise to the eternal thanks of these infidel savages, for
having come so far, endured so many perils by sea and land, and taken such unwearied pains, for
no other purpose under heaven but to improve their forlorn, uncivilized and heathenish
condition—for having made them acquainted with the comforts of life, such as gin, rum, brandy,
and the smallpox; for having introduced among them the light of religion, and finally—for
having hurried them out of the world, to enjoy its reward!
SOURCE: Washington Irving, A History of New York, Pg.2306
QUOTE: Let us suppose then, that the inhabitants of the moon, by astonishing advancement in
science, and by a profound insight into that ineffable lunar philosophy, the mere fliskerings of
which, have of late years, dazzled the feeble optics, and addles the shallow brains of the good
people of our globe-SOURCE: Washington Irving A History of New York (P. 2306)
QUOTE: Let us suppose, moreover, that the aerial voyagers, finding this planet to be nothing but
a howling wilderness, inhabited by us, poor savages and wild beasts, shall take formal
possession of it, in the name of his most gracious and philosophic excellency, the man in the
moon. Finding however, that their numbers are incompetent to hold it in complete subjection, on
account of the ferocious barbarity of its inhabitants; they shall take our worthy President, the
King of England, the Emperor of Hayti, the mighty little Bonaparte, and the great King of
Bantam, and returning to their native planet; shall carry them to court, as were the Indian chiefs
led about as spectacles in the courts of Europe.
SOURCE: Washington Irving, A History of New York, Pg. 2307
QUOTE: I lain awake whole nights, debating in my mind whether it was most probable we should first
discover and civilize the moon, or the moon discover and civilize our globe.
SOURCE: Washington Irving, A history of new york, pg 2307
QUOTE: “That- whereas a certain crew of lunatics have lately discovered and taken possession
of that dirty little planet, called the earth- and that whereas it is inhabited by none but a race of
two legged animals, that carry their heads on their shoulders instead of under their arms; cannot
talk the lunatic language; have two eyes instead of one; are destitute of tails, and of horrible
whiteness, instead of pea green.
SOURCE: A history of New York: 2308 Washington Irving
QUOTE: ‘The five uncouth monsters…were once very important chiefs among their fellow
savages; for the inhabitants of the newly discovered globe are totally destitute of the common
attributes of humanity, inasmuch as they carry their heads upon their shoulders, instead of under
their arms—have two eyes instead of one—are utterly destitute of tails, and of a variety of
American Literature Exam Quotes 10
unseemly complexions, particularly of a horrible whiteness—whereas all the inhabitants of the
moon are pea green.’
SOURCE: Washington Irving, A History of New York, P2308.
QUOTE: Nevermore!
SOURCE: "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe page 2567
QUOTE: The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me—
Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my ANNABEL LEE.
SOURCE: Edgar Allan Poe, Annabel Lee, Pg. 2571
QUOTE:
But out love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we—
Of many far wiser than we—
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.
SOURCE: Edgar Allan Poe. “Annabel Lee.” Pg. 2571. Lines 27-33.
QUOTE: “…but I feel the bright eyes/Of the beautiful Annabel Lee:/And so, all the night-tide, I
lie down by the side/Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride,/In the sepulcher there
by the sea—In her tomb by the sounding sea.”
SOURCE: From "Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allan Poe page 2571—
QUOTE:Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen
me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded -- with what caution -- with what foresight -- with
what dissimulation I went to work!
SOURCE: Edgar Allen Poe, The Tell Tale Heart, pg 2517.
QUOTE: It took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that I could see
him as he lay upon his bed. Ha!—would a madman have been so wise as this?
SOURCE: Edgar Allen Poe. "The Tell –Tale Heart." Vol B. Pg. 2517
QUOTE: True!-Nervous-very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say
that I am mad?
American Literature Exam Quotes 11
SOURCE: Edgar Allan Poe: the Tell Tale Heart p 2517
QUOTE: Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never
wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire.
SOURCE: The Tell-Tale Heart – Edgar Allen Poe – page 2517
QUOTE: I took my visitors all over the house. I had them search—search well. I led them, at
length, to his chamber…In the enthusiasm of my confidence, I brought chairs into the room, and
desired them here to rest from their fatigues, while I myself, in the wild audacity of my perfect
triumph, placed my own seat upon the very spot beneath which reposed the corpse of the victim.
SOURCE: Edgar Allan Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, P2520.
QUOTE: It grew louder – louder – louder! And still the men chatted pleasantly and smiled. Was
it possible they heard not? Almighty God! – no, no! They heard! – they suspected! – they knew!
– they were making a mockery of my horror!
SOURCE: Edgar Allen Poe, The Tell Tale Heart, pg 2520
QUOTE: We sat down; and for some moments, while he spoke not, I gazed upon him with a
feeling half of pity, half of awe. Surely, man had never before so terribly altered, in so brief a
period, as had Roderick Usher!
SOURCE: Edgar Allan Poe, "The Fall of the House of Usher" (2,500)
QUOTE: ‘I dread the events of the future, not in themselves, but in their results. I shudder at the
thought of any, even the most trivial, incident which may operate upon this intolerable agitation
of soul…I feel that the period will sooner or later arrive when I must abandon life and reason
together, in some struggle with the grim phantasm, FEAR.’
SOURCE: Edgar Allan Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, P2501.
QUOTE: ‘Not Hear it?—yes, I hear it, and I have heard it. Long—long—long—many minutes,
many hours, many days, have I heard it—yet I dared not—oh, pity me, miserable wretch that I
am!—I dared not—I dared not speak! We have put her living in the tomb! Said I not that my
senses were acute? I now tell you that I heard her first feeble movements in the hallow
coffin…Have I not heard her footsteps on the stair? Do I not distinguish that heavy and horrible
beating of her heart? MADMAN!’
SOURCE: Edgar Allan Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher, Pg. 2510
QUOTE: I can not rest, O God—I can not eat or drink or sleep,
Till I put forth myself, my prayer, once more to Thee,
Breathe, bathe myself once more in Thee—commune with Thee,
Report myself once more to Thee.
American Literature Exam Quotes 12
SOURCE: "Prayer of Columbus" – Walt Whitman – 3097
QUOTE:
Falling upon them all and among them all, enveloping me with the
rest,
Appear’d the cloud, appear’d the long black trail,
And I knew death, its thought, and the sacred knowledge of death,
Then with the knowledge of death as walking one side of me,
And the thought of death close-walking the other side of me,
And I in the middle as with companions, and as holding hands
of companions,
I fled forth to the hiding receiving night that talks not,
Down to the shores of the water, the path by the swamp in the
dimness,
To the solemn shadowy cedars and ghostly pines so still.
SOURCE: Walt Whitman, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d, Pg. 3093