Sing Of The Banner At Day-Break
July 6, 2023Scented Herbage Of My Breast
July 6, 2023Shut Not Your Doors, &c.
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 the intellect,
But you, ye untold latencies, will thrill to every page;
Through Space and Time fused in a chant, and the flowing, eternal
Identity,
To Nature, encompassing these, encompassing God–to the joyous,
electric All,
To the sense of Death–and accepting, exulting in Death, in its turn,
the same as life,
The entrance of Man I sing.
Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman (1819-1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist, often referred to as the "father of free verse". His best-known work, "Leaves of Grass," is a celebration of American democracy, individualism, and the common people. Whitman's poetry also explored themes of sexuality and the body. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature.