I am the poet of the Body and the poet of the Soul.

The pleasures of heaven are with me and pains of hell are with me.

The first I graft and increase upon myself, the latter I translate into a new tongue.


I am the poet of the woman the same as the man,

And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man,

And I say there is nothing greater than the mother of men.


Walt Whitman

Song of Myself