Walt Whitman Poems

WHISPERS of heavenly death, murmur'd I hear;
Labial gossip of night--sibilant chorals;
Footsteps gently ascending--mystical breezes, wafted soft and low;
...

As toilsome I wander'd Virginia's woods,
To the music of rustling leaves kick'd by my feet, (for 'twas autumn,)
I mark'd at the foot of a tree the grave of a soldier;
Mortally wounded he and buried on the retreat, (easily all I could understand,)
...

O MATER! O fils!
O brood continental!
O flowers of the prairies!
O space boundless! O hum of mighty products!
...

SINGING my days,
Singing the great achievements of the present,
Singing the strong, light works of engineers,
...

ONE song, America, before I go,
I'd sing, o'er all the rest, with trumpet sound,
For thee--the Future.
...

ELEMENTAL drifts!
How I wish I could impress others as you have just been impressing
me!
...

IN paths untrodden,
In the growth by margins of pond-waters,
Escaped from the life that exhibits itself,
...

SPLENDOR of ended day, floating and filling me!
Hour prophetic--hour resuming the past!
Inflating my throat--you, divine average!
...

WHEN I heard at the close of the day how my name had been receiv'd
with plaudits in the capitol, still it was not a happy night
for me that follow'd;
...

WHO has gone farthest? For lo! have not I gone farther?
And who has been just? For I would be the most just person of the
earth;
...