Section: «Poems»
Verse (ancient Greek ὁ στίχος — row, structure), a term in versification used in several meanings:
artistic speech organized by division into rhythmically commensurate segments; poetry in the narrow sense; in particular, it implies the properties of versification of a particular tradition ("antique verse", "Akhmatova's verse", etc.);
a line of poetic text organized according to a certain rhythmic pattern ("My uncle of the most honest rules").
Respondez!
RESPONDEZ! Respondez!(The war is completed--the price is paid--the title is settled beyondrecall;)Let every one answer! let those who sleep be waked!..
© Walt Whitman
O Bitter Sprig! Confession Sprig!
O BITTER sprig! Confession sprig!In the bouquet I give you place also--I bind you in,Proceeding no further till, humbled publicly,I give fair..
© Walt Whitman
Year Of Meteors, 1859 '60
YEAR of meteors! brooding year!I would bind in words retrospective, some of your deeds and signs;I would sing your contest for the 19th..
© Walt Whitman
From Far Dakota's Canons
FROM far Dakota's cañons,Lands of the wild ravine, the dusky Sioux, the lonesome stretch, thesilence,Haply to-day a mournful wail, haply a..
© Walt Whitman
Mediums
THEY shall arise in the States,They shall report Nature, laws, physiology, and happiness;They shall illustrate Democracy and the kosmos;They shall be..
© Walt Whitman
Delicate Cluster
DELICATE cluster! flag of teeming life!Covering all my lands! all my sea-shores lining!Flag of death! (how I watch'd you through the smoke of..
© Walt Whitman
Song Of The Exposition
AFTER all, not to create only, or found only,But to bring, perhaps from afar, what is already founded,To give it our own identity, average..
© Walt Whitman
I Saw Old General At Bay
I SAW old General at bay;(Old as he was, his grey eyes yet shone out in battle like stars;)His small force was now completely hemm'd in, in his..
© Walt Whitman
Europe, The 72d And 73d Years Of These States
SUDDENLY, out of its stale and drowsy lair, the lair of slaves,Like lightning it le'pt forth, half startled at itself,Its feet upon the ashes and the..
© Walt Whitman
Not My Enemies Ever Invade Me
NOT my enemies ever invade me--no harm to my pride from them I fear;But the lovers I recklessly love--lo! how they master me!Lo! me, ever open and..
© Walt Whitman
The City Dead-House
BY the City Dead-House, by the gate,As idly sauntering, wending my way from the clangor,I curious pause--for lo! an outcast form, a poor dead..
© Walt Whitman
O Tan-Faced Prairie Boy
O TAN-FACED prairie-boy!Before you came to camp, came many a welcome gift;Praises and presents came, and nourishing food--till at last, amongthe..
© Walt Whitman
Not The Pilot
NOT the pilot has charged himself to bring his ship into port, thoughbeaten back, and many times baffled;Not the path-finder, penetrating inland..
© Walt Whitman
Not Heat Flames Up And Consumes
NOT heat flames up and consumes,Not sea-waves hurry in and out,Not the air, delicious and dry, the air of the ripe summer, bearslightly along white..
© Walt Whitman
Night On The Prairies
NIGHT on the prairies;The supper is over--the fire on the ground burns low;The wearied emigrants sleep, wrapt in their blankets:I walk by myself--I..
© Walt Whitman
The Dresser
AN old man bending, I come, among new faces,Years looking backward, resuming, in answer to children,Come tell us, old man, as from young men and..
© Walt Whitman
Rise, O Days
RISE, O days, from your fathomless deeps, till you loftier, fiercersweep!Long for my soul, hungering gymnastic, I devour'd what the earth gaveme;Long..
© Walt Whitman
The Last Invocation
At the last, tenderly,From the walls of the powerful fortress'd house,From the clasp of the knitted locks, from the keep of the well-closed doors,Let..
© Walt Whitman
Behold This Swarthy Face
BEHOLD this swarthy face--these gray eyes,This beard--the white wool, unclipt upon my neck,My brown hands, and the silent manner of me, without..
© Walt Whitman
Joy, Shipmate, Joy!
Joy! shipmate--joy!(Pleas'd to my Soul at death I cry;)Our life is closed--our life begins;The long, long anchorage we leave,The ship is clear at..
© Walt Whitman
Sparkles From The Wheel
WHERE the city's ceaseless crowd moves on, the live-long day,Withdrawn, I join a group of children watching--I pause aside withthem.By the curb..
© Walt Whitman
Native Moments
NATIVE moments! when you come upon me--Ah you are here now! Give me nowlibidinous joys only! Give me the drench of my passions! Give me lifecoarse..
© Walt Whitman
Chanting The Square Deific
CHANTING the square deific, out of the One advancing, out of thesides;Out of the old and new--out of the square entirely divine,Solid, four-sided..
© Walt Whitman
Starting From Paumanok
STARTING from fish-shape Paumanok, where I was born,Well-begotten, and rais'd by a perfect mother;After roaming many lands--lover of populous..
© Walt Whitman
Hush'D Be The Camps Today
Hush'd be the camps today,And soldiers let us drape our war-worn weapons,And each with musing soul retire to celebrate,Our dear commander's death.No..
© Walt Whitman