Singer in the Prison, The. by Walt Whitman
1 O sight of shame, and pain, and dole! O fearful thought—a convict Soul! RANG the refrain along the hall, the prison, Rose to the roof, the vaults of heaven above, Pouring in floods of melody, in tones so pensive, sweet and strong, the like whereof was never heard, Reaching the far-off sentry, and the […]
Shut Not Your Doors, &c. by Walt Whitman
SHUT not your doors to me, proud libraries, For that which was lacking on all your well-fill’d shelves, yet needed most, I bring; Forth from the army, the war emerging—a book I have made, The words of my book nothing—the drift of it everything; A book separate, not link’d with the rest, nor felt by […]
Ship Starting, The. by Walt Whitman
LO! the unbounded sea! On its breast a Ship starting, spreading all her sails—an ample Ship, carrying even her moonsails; The pennant is flying aloft, as she speeds, she speeds so stately—below, emulous waves press forward, They surround the Ship, with shining curving motions, and foam. ————— The End And that’s the End of the […]
Says. by Walt Whitman
1 I SAY whatever tastes sweet to the most perfect person, that is finally right. 2 I say nourish a great intellect, a great brain; If I have said anything to the contrary, I hereby retract it. 3 I say man shall not hold property in man; I say the least developed person on earth […]
Savantism. by Walt Whitman
THITHER, as I look, I see each result and glory retracing itself and nestling close, always obligated; Thither hours, months, years—thither trades, compacts, establishments, even the most minute; Thither every-day life, speech, utensils, politics, persons, estates; Thither we also, I with my leaves and songs, trustful, admirant, As a father, to his father going, takes […]
Runner, The. by Walt Whitman
ON a flat road runs the well-train’d runner; He is lean and sinewy, with muscular legs; He is thinly clothed—he leans forward as he runs, With lightly closed fists, and arms partially rais’d. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry Monster — the […]
Roaming in Thought. by Walt Whitman
ROAMING in thought over the Universe, I saw the little that is Good steadily hastening towards immortality, And the vast all that is call’d Evil I saw hastening to merge itself and become lost and dead. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry […]
Reconciliation. by Walt Whitman
WORD over all, beautiful as the sky! Beautiful that war, and all its deeds of carnage, must in time be utterly lost; That the hands of the sisters Death and Night, incessantly softly wash again, and ever again, this soil’d world: … For my enemy is dead—a man divine as myself is dead; I look […]
Race of Veterans. by Walt Whitman
RACE of veterans! Race of victors! Race of the soil, ready for conflict! race of the conquering march! (No more credulity’s race, abiding-temper’d race;) Race henceforth owning no law but the law of itself; Race of passion and the storm. 5 ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems […]
Quicksand Years. by Walt Whitman
QUICKSAND years that whirl me I know not whither, Your schemes, politics, fail—lines give way—substances mock and elude me; Only the theme I sing, the great and strong-possess’d Soul, eludes not; One’s-self must never give way—that is the final substance—that out of all is sure; Out of politics, triumphs, battles, life—what at last finally remains? […]
Prayer of Columbus. by Walt Whitman
A BATTER’D, wreck’d old man, Thrown on this savage shore, far, far from home, Pent by the sea, and dark rebellious brows, twelve dreary months, Sore, stiff with many toils, sicken’d, and nigh to death, I take my way along the island’s edge, Venting a heavy heart. I am too full of woe! Haply, I […]
Prairie States, The. by Walt Whitman
A NEWER garden of creation, no primal solitude, Dense, joyous, modern, populous millions, cities and farms, With iron interlaced, composite, tied, many in one, By all the world contributed—freedom’s and law’s and thrift’s society, The crown and teeming paradise, so far, of time’s accumulations, To justify the past. ————— The End And that’s the End […]
Portals. by Walt Whitman
WHAT are those of the known, but to ascend and enter the Unknown? And what are those of life, but for Death? ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry Monster — the ultimate repository of world poetry. Poetry Monster — the multilingual library […]
Poets to Come. by Walt Whitman
POETS to come! orators, singers, musicians to come! Not to-day is to justify me, and answer what I am for; But you, a new brood, native, athletic, continental, greater than before known, Arouse! Arouse—for you must justify me—you must answer. I myself but write one or two indicative words for the future, I but advance […]
Here, Sailor. by Walt Whitman
WHAT ship, puzzled at sea, cons for the true reckoning? Or, coming in, to avoid the bars, and follow the channel, a perfect pilot needs? Here, sailor! Here, ship! take aboard the most perfect pilot, Whom, in a little boat, putting off, and rowing, I, hailing you, offer. ————— The End And that’s the End […]
Turn, O Libertad. by Walt Whitman
TURN, O Libertad, for the war is over, (From it and all henceforth expanding, doubting no more, resolute, sweeping the world,) Turn from lands retrospective, recording proofs of the past; From the singers that sing the trailing glories of the past; From the chants of the feudal world—the triumphs of kings, slavery, caste; Turn to […]
Ah Poverties, Wincings and Sulky Retreats. by Walt Whitman
AH poverties, wincings, and sulky retreats! Ah you foes that in conflict have overcome me! (For what is my life, or any man’s life, but a conflict with foes—the old, the incessant war?) You degradations—you tussle with passions and appetites; You smarts from dissatisfied friendships, (ah wounds, the sharpest of all;) You toil of painful […]
Runagate Runagate by Robert Hayden
Runs falls rises stumbles on from darkness into darkness and the darkness thicketed with shapes of terror and the hunters pursuing and the hounds pursuing and the night cold and the night long and the river to cross and the jack-muh-lanterns beckoning beckoning and blackness ahead and when shall I reach that somewhere morning and […]
Perseus by Robert Hayden
Her sleeping head with its great gelid mass of serpents torpidly astir burned into the mirroring shield– a scathing image dire as hated truth the mind accepts at last and festers on. I struck. The shield flashed bare. Yet even as I lifted up the head and started from that place of gazing silences and […]
O Daedalus, Fly Away Home by Robert Hayden
(For Maia and Julie) Drifting night in the Georgia pines, coonskin drum and jubilee banjo. Pretty Malinda, dance with me. Night is juba, night is congo. Pretty Malinda, dance with me. Night is an African juju man weaving a wish and a weariness together to make two wings. O fly away home fly away Do […]
An Army Corps on the March. by Walt Whitman
WITH its cloud of skirmishers in advance, With now the sound of a single shot, snapping like a whip, and now an irregular volley, The swarming ranks press on and on, the dense brigades press on; Glittering dimly, toiling under the sun—the dust-cover’d men, In columns rise and fall to the undulations of the ground, […]
All is Truth. by Walt Whitman
O ME, man of slack faith so long! Standing aloof—denying portions so long; Only aware to-day of compact, all-diffused truth; Discovering to-day there is no lie, or form of lie, and can be none, but grows as inevitably upon itself as the truth does upon itself, Or as any law of the earth, or any […]
After the Sea-Ship. by Walt Whitman
AFTER the Sea-Ship—after the whistling winds; After the white-gray sails, taut to their spars and ropes, Below, a myriad, myriad waves, hastening, lifting up their necks, Tending in ceaseless flow toward the track of the ship: Waves of the ocean, bubbling and gurgling, blithely prying, Waves, undulating waves—liquid, uneven, emulous waves, Toward that whirling current, […]
Perfections. by Walt Whitman
ONLY themselves understand themselves, and the like of themselves, As Souls only understand Souls. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry Monster — the ultimate repository of world poetry. Poetry Monster — the multilingual library of poetic works. Here you’ll find original poems, […]
Pensive on Her Dead Gazing, I Heard the Mother of All. by Walt Whitman
PENSIVE, on her dead gazing, I heard the Mother of All, Desperate, on the torn bodies, on the forms covering the battle-fields gazing; (As the last gun ceased—but the scent of the powder-smoke linger’d;) As she call’d to her earth with mournful voice while she stalk’d: Absorb them well, O my earth, she cried—I charge […]
Pensive and Faltering. by Walt Whitman
PENSIVE and faltering, The words, the dead, I write; For living are the Dead; (Haply the only living, only real, And I the apparition—I the spectre.) 5 ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry Monster — the ultimate repository of world poetry. Poetry […]
Pensive and Faltering. by Walt Whitman
PENSIVE and faltering, The words, the dead, I write; For living are the Dead; (Haply the only living, only real, And I the apparition—I the spectre.) 5 ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry Monster — the ultimate repository of world poetry. Poetry […]
Patroling Barnegat. by Walt Whitman
WILD, wild the storm, and the sea high running, Steady the roar of the gale, with incessant undertone muttering, Shouts of demoniac laughter fitfully piercing and pealing, Waves, air, midnight, their savagest trinity lashing, Out in the shadows there milk-white combs careering, On beachy slush and sand spirts of snow fierce slanting, Where through the […]
Out from Behind this Mask. by Walt Whitman
1 OUT from behind this bending, rough-cut Mask, (All straighter, liker Masks rejected—this preferr’d,) This common curtain of the face, contain’d in me for me, in you for you, in each for each, (Tragedies, sorrows, laughter, tears—O heaven! The passionate, teeming plays this curtain hid!) This glaze of God’s serenest, purest sky, This film of […]
Others may Praise what They Like. by Walt Whitman
OTHERS may praise what they like; But I, from the banks of the running Missouri, praise nothing, in art, or aught else, Till it has well inhaled the atmosphere of this river—also the western prairie-scent, And fully exudes it again. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by […]
One Sweeps By. by Walt Whitman
ONE sweeps by, attended by an immense train, All emblematic of peace—not a soldier or menial among them. One sweeps by, old, with black eyes, and profuse white hair, He has the simple magnificence of health and strength, His face strikes as with flashes of lightning whoever it turns toward. Three old men slowly pass, […]
One’s-Self I Sing. by Walt Whitman
ONE’S-SELF I sing—a simple, separate Person; Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-masse. Of Physiology from top to toe I sing; Not physiognomy alone, nor brain alone, is worthy for the muse—I say the Form complete is worthier far; The Female equally with the male I sing. Of Life immense in passion, pulse, and […]
On the Beach at Night, Alone. by Walt Whitman
ON the beach at night alone, As the old mother sways her to and fro, singing her husky song, As I watch the bright stars shining—I think a thought of the clef of the universes, and of the future. A VAST SIMILITUDE interlocks all, All spheres, grown, ungrown, small, large, suns, moons, planets, comets, asteroids, […]
Offerings. by Walt Whitman
A THOUSAND perfect men and women appear, Around each gathers a cluster of friends, and gay children and youths, with offerings. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry Monster — the ultimate repository of world poetry. Poetry Monster — the multilingual library of […]
Of the Visage of Things. by Walt Whitman
OF the visages of things—And of piercing through to the accepted hells beneath; Of ugliness—To me there is just as much in it as there is in beauty—And now the ugliness of human beings is acceptable to me; Of detected persons—To me, detected persons are not, in any respect, worse than undetected persons—and are not […]
O You Whom I Often and Silently Come. by Walt Whitman
O YOU whom I often and silently come where you are, that I may be with you; As I walk by your side, or sit near, or remain in the same room with you, Little you know the subtle electric fire that for your sake is playing within me. ————— The End And that’s the […]
O Tan-faced Prairie Boy. by Walt Whitman
O TAN-FACED prairie-boy! Before you came to camp, came many a welcome gift; Praises and presents came, and nourishing food—till at last, among the recruits, You came, taciturn, with nothing to give—we but look’d on each other, When lo! more than all the gifts of the world, you gave me. 5 ————— The End And […]
O Sun of Real Peace. by Walt Whitman
O SUN of real peace! O hastening light! O free and extatic! O what I here, preparing, warble for! O the sun of the world will ascend, dazzling, and take his height—and you too, O my Ideal, will surely ascend! O so amazing and broad—up there resplendent, darting and burning! O vision prophetic, stagger’d with […]
O Star of France. by Walt Whitman
1 O STAR of France! The brightness of thy hope and strength and fame, Like some proud ship that led the fleet so long, Beseems to-day a wreck, driven by the gale—a mastless hulk; And ’mid its teeming, madden’d, half-drown’d crowds, Nor helm nor helmsman. 2 Dim, smitten star! Orb not of France alone—pale symbol […]
O Living Always—Always Dying. by Walt Whitman
O LIVING always—always dying! O the burials of me, past and present! O me, while I stride ahead, material, visible, imperious as ever! O me, what I was for years, now dead, (I lament not—I am content;) O to disengage myself from those corpses of me, which I turn and look at, where I cast […]