Leaves of Grass
Vocabulary

1 use

Kosmos Who includes diversity and is Nature, ... Who holds duly his or her triune proportion of realism, spiritualism, and of the aesthetic or intellectual, Who ...

aesthetic = sense of what is beautiful

2 uses

All, all for immortality, Love like the light silently wrapping all, Nature's amelioration blessing all, The blossoms, fruits of ages, orchards divine and certain, Forms, objects, growths, humanities, to spiritual images ripening.†

amelioration = to improve — especially a bad situation

4 uses

2 O but it is not the years—it is I, it is You, We touch all laws and tally all antecedents, We are the skald, the oracle, the monk and the knight, we easily include them and more, We stand amid time beginningless and endless, we stand amid evil and good, All swings around us, there is as much darkness as light, The very sun swings itself and its system of planets around us, Its sun, and its again, all swing around us.†

antecedents = something that happened previous to something else; or anything that precedes something

1 use

alike in their apathy

apathy = lack of interest and enthusiasm

29 uses

the moon ascending, Up from the east

ascending = moving upward

1 use

extoller of hate and conciliation, Extoller of armies and those that sleep in each others' arms.

conciliation = actions intended to end bad feelings or build trust

3 uses

There can be any number of supremes—one does not countervail another any more than one eyesight countervails another, or one life countervails another.†

countervails = compensate for or counterbalance

27 uses

large and melodious thoughts descend upon me

descend = come

2 meanings, 2 uses

25 uses

Simple and fresh and fair from winter's close emerging,

emerging = coming out or appearing

2 uses

I swear there is no greatness or power that does not emulate those of the earth,

emulate = imitate

3 uses

Forth from their masks, ... from craft and guile and...

guile = cunning (shrewd, clever) and deceitful

49 uses

O how the immortal phantoms crowd around me!

immortal = lasting forever

17 uses

I am then indifferent, my soul declines to prefer

indifferent = without interest

3 uses

I dab with bare feet, they are lick'd by the indolent waves,

indolent = slow and lazy

6 uses

Discovering today there is no lie or form of lie, and can be none, but grows as inevitably upon itself as the truth does upon itself,

inevitably = certainly that it will happen

30 uses

Its effusion of strength and will overwhelms law and mocks all authority and all argument against it.

mocks = ridicules

(editor's note:  In this case, the author is saying it makes fun of authority because authority is so inadequate in comparison.)

2 uses

The sum of all known reverence I add up in you whoever you are,

reverence = feelings of deep respect and admiration

2 uses

why should I venerate and be ceremonious?

venerate = respectful and reverent