Walt Whitman's Eyebrows Poem by Rebecca Duncan

“O Captain! My Captain! ” (1)

You have such a memorable set of eyebrows

Yours are raised as if ever in question

But right-sized and definite

Mine are straight lines as if ever in confusion

And barely visible

Do eyebrows a poet make?

If so, I am not a poet

Still, your atoms must surely be my atoms

How did I miss out on eyebrows that express

The inexpressible, the vastness and the minute

You tell the story of the universe and I prattle on about

Inconsistencies and misunderstandings and other small things

Over which I have no control

How to see larger?

How to feel greater?

How to use my

Eyes as a microscope in order to

In order to take in the expanse of the world

You, Mr. Whitman, were my jumping off place

Sidelined, off-tracked, derailed and discontented

Time to get back to that silent sacred space

And you will lead me there,

“O Captain! , O My Captain! ” (1)

You have a mad man’s soul

With the sanity of the ages

Seeing infinite possibilities

Sharing the possibility of infinite possibilities

I am born and sixty-two years later I sit

Bolt upright and am amazed

At the magnitude of that fact

You and I roam the same earth

Greet the same creatures

Listen to the same wind

A part of; not apart from

Able to “...lean and loaf at our ease...” (5)

“...lucky to be born”.../ and “... just as lucky to die...” (34,48)

Whitman, Walt. “O Captain, My Captain”, line 1
Whitman, Walt. “Song of Myself”, stanza 1, line 5 and stanza 7, lines 34,48