Walt Whitman Earrings

These handmade sterling silver domed disc earrings, for pierced ears, are stamped with Walt Whitman’s rallying cry for individual and collective liberty: “Resist much, obey little.” The poem in which the line appears, “Caution,” was first published as one of the “Messenger Leaves” in the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass. The poem was later retitled “To the States.”

The discs are 1" in diameter with a drop length of 1-1/2". The ear wires are hand-formed from sterling silver wire. The artist also lightly stamped a L for left and R for right on the back of each earring so, as she explains, “you don't have to stand in front of a mirror and figure out which one goes on each ear.” Artist Amy Volchok makes these earrings exclusively for The Reader’s Catalog.