All 23 Uses of
theme
in
Leaves of Grass
- As I Ponder'd in Silence As I ponder'd in silence, Returning upon my poems, considering, lingering long, A Phantom arose before me with distrustful aspect, Terrible in beauty, age, and power, The genius of poets of old lands, As to me directing like flame its eyes, With finger pointing to many immortal songs, And menacing voice, What singest thou? it said, Know'st thou not there is but one theme for ever-enduring bards?†
Chpt 1
- And that is the theme of War, the fortune of battles, The making of perfect soldiers.†
Chpt 1
- Not he with a daily kiss onward from childhood kissing me, Has winded and twisted around me that which holds me to him, Any more than I am held to the heavens and all the spiritual world, After what they have done to me, suggesting themes.†
Chpt 2
- O such themes—equalities!†
Chpt 2 *
- Yes, if you will allow me to say so, I, my friends, if you do not, can plainly see her, The same undying soul of earth's, activity's, beauty's, heroism's expression, Out from her evolutions hither come, ended the strata of her former themes, Hidden and cover'd by to-day's, foundation of to-day's, Ended, deceas'd through time, her voice by Castaly's fountain, Silent the broken-lipp'd Sphynx in Egypt, silent all those centurybaffling tombs, Ended for aye the epics of Asia's, Europe's…†
Chpt 13
- In your vast state vaster than all the old, Echoed through long, long centuries to come, To sound of different, prouder songs, with stronger themes, Practical, peaceful life, the people's life, the People themselves, Lifted, illumin'd, bathed in peace—elate, secure in peace.†
Chpt 13
- 7 Away with themes of war! away with war itself!†
Chpt 13
- To you ye reverent sane sisters, I raise a voice for far superber themes for poets and for art, To exalt the present and the real, To teach the average man the glory of his daily walk and trade, To sing in songs how exercise and chemical life are never to be baffled, To manual work for each and all, to plough, hoe, dig, To plant and tend the tree, the berry, vegetables, flowers, For every man to see to it that he really do something, for every woman too; To use the hammer and the saw,…†
Chpt 13
- And by the spells which ye vouchsafe to those your ministers in earnest, I here personify and call my themes, to make them pass before ye.†
Chpt 13
- In that and them the heft of the heaviest—in that and them far more than you estimated, (and far less also,) In them realities for you and me, in them poems for you and me, In them, not yourself-you and your soul enclose all things, regardless of estimation, In them the development good—in them all themes, hints, possibilities.†
Chpt 15
- Poet: My limbs, my veins dilate, my theme is clear at last, Banner so broad advancing out of the night, I sing you haughty and resolute, I burst through where I waited long, too long, deafen'd and blinded, My hearing and tongue are come to me, (a little child taught me,) I hear from above O pennant of war your ironical call and demand, Insensate! insensate!†
Chpt 21
- 19 Thus by blue Ontario's shore, While the winds fann'd me and the waves came trooping toward me, I thrill'd with the power's pulsations, and the charm of my theme was upon me, Till the tissues that held me parted their ties upon me.†
Chpt 23
- The Ox-Tamer In a far-away northern county in the placid pastoral region, Lives my farmer friend, the theme of my recitative, a famous tamer of oxen, There they bring him the three-year-olds and the four-year-olds to break them, He will take the wildest steer in the world and break him and tame him, He will go fearless without any whip where the young bullock chafes up and down the yard, The bullock's head tosses restless high in the air with raging eyes, Yet see you! how soon his rage…†
Chpt 24
- Quicksand Years Quicksand years that whirl me I know not whither, Your schemes, politics, fail, lines give way, substances mock and elude me, Only the theme I sing, the great and strong-possess'd soul, eludes not, One's-self must never give way—that is the final substance—that out of all is sure, Out of politics, triumphs, battles, life, what at last finally remains?†
Chpt 30
- 5 Blow again trumpeter! and for thy theme, Take now the enclosing theme of all, the solvent and the setting, Love, that is pulse of all, the sustenance and the pang, The heart of man and woman all for love, No other theme but love—knitting, enclosing, all-diffusing love.†
Chpt 32
- 5 Blow again trumpeter! and for thy theme, Take now the enclosing theme of all, the solvent and the setting, Love, that is pulse of all, the sustenance and the pang, The heart of man and woman all for love, No other theme but love—knitting, enclosing, all-diffusing love.†
Chpt 32
- 5 Blow again trumpeter! and for thy theme, Take now the enclosing theme of all, the solvent and the setting, Love, that is pulse of all, the sustenance and the pang, The heart of man and woman all for love, No other theme but love—knitting, enclosing, all-diffusing love.†
Chpt 32
- A Clear Midnight This is thy hour O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless, Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done, Thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the themes thou lovest best, Night, sleep, death and the stars.†
Chpt 32
- My Canary Bird Did we count great, O soul, to penetrate the themes of mighty books, Absorbing deep and full from thoughts, plays, speculations?†
Chpt 34
- Small the Theme of My Chant Small the theme of my Chant, yet the greatest—namely, One's-Self— a simple, separate person.†
Chpt 34
- Small the theme of my Chant, yet the greatest——namely, One's-Self—— a simple, separate person.†
Chpt 34
- Nor cease at the theme of One's-Self.†
Chpt 34
- Old Chants An ancient song, reciting, ending, Once gazing toward thee, Mother of All, Musing, seeking themes fitted for thee, Accept me, thou saidst, the elder ballads, And name for me before thou goest each ancient poet.†
Chpt 34
Definition:
-
(theme as in: theme of the novel) a basic idea that underlies what is being said or done -- especially in a literary or artistic work