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 with, friendship, walt and/or whitman:
“I never see that man without feeling that he is one to become personally attach’d to, for his combination of purest, heartiest tenderness, and native western form of manliness.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“A woman may very well form a friendship with a man, but for this to endure, it must be assisted by a little physical antipathy.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide: in cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in palaces, treason; and the bond cracked ‘twixt son and father.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“I saw you, Walt Whitman, childless, lonely old grubber, poking
among the meats in the refrigerator and eyeing the grocery boys.”
—Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926)
“And the voice of my spirit tallied the song of the bird.
Come lovely and soothing death,
Undulate round the world, serenely arriving, arriving,
In the day, in the night, to all, to each,
Sooner or later delicate death.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)