All music is is what awakes from you when you are reminded by the instruments.
I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contained, I stand and look at them long and long.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses a longing for the simplicity and tranquility found in the company of animals compared to human complexities.
Walt Whitman's quote reflects a deep appreciation for the serene nature of animals, suggesting that he finds solace and fulfillment in their presence. By describing animals as 'placid' and 'self-contained', he highlights their ability to exist without the emotional turbulence that often characterizes human relationships, indicating a desire to escape from human societal pressures and embrace a simpler, more harmonious existence.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about environmental conservation, one might quote this to emphasize the importance of protecting animal habitats.
More from Walt Whitman
All quotes βDid 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.
In the confusion we stay with each other, happy to be together, speaking without uttering a single word.
A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.
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.
And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral drest in his shroud.
Similar quotes
We have an economy that tells us it is cheaper to destroy earth in real time rather than renew, restore, and sustain it. You can print money to bail out a bank but you can't print life to bail out a planet.
No living creature, not even man, has achieved, in the centre of his sphere, what the bee has achieved in her own: and were some one from another world to descend and ask of the earth the most perfect creation of the logic of life, we should needs have to offer the humble comb of honey.
A horse is freedom so indominable that it becomes useless to imprison it to serve man: it lets itself be domesticated, but with a simple, rebellious toss of the head-shaking its mane like an abundance of free-flowing hair-it shows that its inner nature is always wild, translucent and free.
Active conservation [of gorillas] involves simply going out into the forest, on foot, day after day after day, attempting to capture poachers, killing-regretfully-poacher dogs, which spread rabies within the park, and cutting down traps.
We are eternally linked not just to each other but our environment.
The spectacle of Nature is always new, for she is always renewing the spectators. Life is her most exquisite invention; and death is her expert contrivance to get plenty of life.