Poems List
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To The Leaven'd Soil They Trod
To The Leaven'd Soil They Trod
TO the leaven'd soil they trod, calling, I sing, for the last;
(Not cities, nor man alone, nor war, nor the dead,
But fort…
To The Reader At Parting
To The Reader At Parting
NOW, dearest comrade, lift me to your face,
We must separate awhile--Here! take from my lips this kiss.
Whoever you are, I give …
To The East And To The West
To The East And To The West
TO the East and to the West;
To the man of the Seaside State, and of Pennsylvania,
To the Kanadian of the North--to the South…
To Oratists
To Oratists
TO ORATISTS--to male or female,
Vocalism, measure, concentration, determination, and the divine power
to use words.
Are you full-lung'd…
To Foreign Lands
To Foreign Lands
I HEARD that you ask'd for something to prove this puzzle, the New
World,
And to define America, her athletic Democracy;
To Old Age
To Old Age
I SEE in you the estuary that enlarges and spreads itself grandly as
it pours in the great Sea.
To A President
To A President
ALL you are doing and saying is to America dangled mirages,
You have not learn'd of Nature--of the politics of Nature, you have
not …
To A Stranger
To A Stranger
PASSING stranger! you do not know how longingly I look upon you,
You must be he I was seeking, or she I was seeking, (it comes to me,
…
To A Historian
To A Historian
YOU who celebrate bygones!
Who have explored the outward, the surfaces of the races--the life
that has exhibited itself;
Who have tr…
To A Common Prostitute
To A Common Prostitute
To a Common Prostitute
BE composed--be at ease with me--I am Walt Whitman, liberal and lusty
as Nature;
Not till…
To A Certain Cantatrice
To A Certain Cantatrice
HERE, take this gift!
I was reserving it for some hero, speaker, or General,
One who should serve the good old cause,…
Thought
Thought
OF obedience, faith, adhesiveness;
As I stand aloof and look, there is to me something profoundly
affecting in large masses of men, followi…
Thou Orb Aloft Full-Dazzling
Thou Orb Aloft Full-Dazzling
THOU orb aloft full-dazzling! thou hot October noon!
Flooding with sheeny light the gray beach sand,
The sibilant near sea w…
This Dust Was Once The Man
This Dust Was Once The Man
THIS dust was once the Man,
Gentle, plain, just and resolute--under whose cautious hand,
Against the foulest crime in history …
Thick-Sprinkled Bunting
Thick-Sprinkled Bunting
THICK-SPRINKLED bunting! Flag of stars!
Long yet your road, fateful flag!--long yet your road, and lined with
bloody …
This Compost
This Compost
SOMETHING startles me where I thought I was safest;
I withdraw from the still woods I loved;
I will not go now on the pastures to walk;
The Wound Dresser
The Wound Dresser
1
AN old man bending, I come, among new faces,
Years looking backward, resuming, in answer to children,
Come tell us, old m…
These Carols
These Carols
THESE Carols, sung to cheer my passage through the world I see,
For completion, I dedicate to the Invisible World.
The Untold Want
The Untold Want
THE untold want, by life and land ne'er granted,
Now, Voyager, sail thou forth, to seek and find.
The Torch
The Torch
ON my northwest coast in the midst of the night, a fishermen's group
stands watching;
Out on the lake, that expands before them, others are spe…
The Ship Starting
The Ship Starting
LO! THE unbounded sea!
On its breast a Ship starting, spreading all her sails--an ample
Ship, carrying even her moonsails;
The pe…
The Sleepers
The Sleepers
I WANDER all night in my vision,
Stepping with light feet, swiftly and noiselessly stepping and
stopping,
Bending with ope…
The Ox tamer
The Ox tamer
IN a faraway northern county, in the placid, pastoral region,
Lives my farmer friend, the theme of my recitative, a famous Tamer of
Oxen:
The Prairie-Grass Dividing
The Prairie-Grass Dividing
THE prairie-grass dividing--its special odor breathing,
I demand of it the spiritual corresponding,
Demand the most copious an…