That which eludes this verse and any verse,Unheard by sharpest ear, unform’d in clearest eye or cunningest mind,Nor lore nor fame, nor happiness nor wealth,And yet the pulse of every heart and life throughout the world incessantly,Which you and I and all pursuing ever ever miss,Open but still a secret, the real of the real,…
A Promise To California By Walt Whitman
A promise to California,Also to the great Pastoral Plains, and for Oregon:Sojourning east a while longer, soon I travel toward you, to remain,to teach robust…
A Paumanok Picture By Walt Whitman
Two boats with nets lying off the sea-beach, quite still,Ten fishermen waiting–they discover a thick school of mossbonkers–they drop the join’d seine-ends in the water,The…
A Noiseless Patient Spider By Walt Whitman
A noiseless, patient spider,I mark’d, where, on a little promontory, it stood, isolated;Mark’d how, to explore the vacant, vast surrounding,It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament,…
A March In The Ranks, Hard-Prest By Walt Whitman
A march in the ranks hard-prest, and the road unknown;A route through a heavy wood, with muffled steps in the darkness;Our army foil’d with loss…
A Leaf For Hand In Hand By Walt Whitman
A leaf for hand in hand!You natural persons old and young!You on the Mississippi, and on all the branches and bayous of theMississippi!You friendly boatmen…
A Hand-Mirror By Walt Whitman
Hold it up sternly! See this it sends back! (Who is it? Is it you?)Outside fair costume–within ashes and filth,No more a flashing eye–no more…
A Glimpse By Walt Whitman
A glimpse, through an interstice caught,Of a crowd of workmen and drivers in a bar-room, around the stove,late of a winter night–And I unremark’d seated…
A Farm-Picture By Walt Whitman
Through the ample open door of the peaceful country barn,A sun-lit pasture field, with cattle and horses feeding;And haze, and vista, and the far horizon,…
A Clear Midnight By Walt Whitman
This is thy hour O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless,Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done,Thee fully forth…