Friendship With Walt Whitman
Ingersoll enjoyed a friendship with the poet Walt Whitman, who considered Ingersoll the greatest orator of his time. "It should not be surprising that I am drawn to Ingersoll, for he is Leaves of Grass... He lives, embodies, the individuality, I preach. I see in Bob the noblest specimen—American-flavored—pure out of the soil, spreading, giving, demanding light."
The feeling was mutual. Upon Whitman's death in 1892, Ingersoll delivered the eulogy at the poet's funeral. The eulogy was published to great acclaim and is considered a classic panegyric.
Read more about this topic: Robert G. Ingersoll
Famous quotes containing the words walt whitman, friendship and/or whitman:
“O past! O happy life! O songs of joy!
In the air, in the woods, over fields,
Loved! loved! loved! loved! loved!
But my mate no more, no more with me!
We two together no more.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“Better to go down dignified
With boughten friendship at your side
Than none at all. Provide, provide!”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Be composed—be at ease with me—I am Walt Whitman, liberal and lusty
as Nature,
Not till the sun excludes you do I exclude you,
Not till the waters refuse to glisten for you and the leaves to rustle for you, do my words refuse to glisten and rustle for you.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)