Now I am terrified at the Earth, it is that calm and patient, It…

Now I am terrified at the Earth, it is that calm and patient, It grows such sweet things out of such corruptions, It turns harmless and stainless on its axis, with such endless successions of diseas’d corpses, It distills such exquisite winds out of such infused fetor, It renews with such unwitting looks its prodigal, annual, sumptuous crops, It gives such divine materials to men, and accepts such leavings from them at last.

Walt Whitman1819–1892 · poet · 1800s USAWalt Whitman was an American poet whose bold, free-flowing collection Leaves of Grass broke away from traditional rhyme and rhythm to celebrate everyday people, nature, and democracy.47 quotes

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How sure this is: 95% sureThese words were traced back to where they first appeared. That source is listed below.
What turned up: This Compost, Leaves of Grass; Exact wording and attribution checked. Complete final verse paragraph on Earth transforming decay into growth. This is poetic wonder at decomposition, not a scientific claim that soil or water cannot transmit disease.
Work: This Compost, Leaves of Grass
Sources checked: gutenberg.orgChecked using manual, 21 October 2026This Compost, Leaves of Grass; Exact wording and attribution checked. Complete final verse paragraph on Earth transforming decay into growth. This is poetic wonder at decomposition, not a scientific claim that soil or water cannot transmit disease.