Walt Whitman

Make no puns
funny remarks
Double entendres
“witty” remarks
ironies
Sarcasms
Only that which
is simply earnest
meant, —harmless
to anyone’s feelings
—unadorned
unvarnished
nothing to
excite a
laugh
silence
silence
silence
silence
laconic
taciturn.*





















*Walt Whitman instructs himself in an 1855-56 notebook about the Second Edition of Leaves of Grass.