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Walt Whitman: a prelude to Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot

One of the first poets to utilize free verse

  • A Promise to California
  • 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
  • American love; 
  • For I know very well that I and robust love belong among you, inland, and along the
  • Western Sea; 
  • For These States tend inland, and toward the Western Sea--and I will also.
  • A Clear Midnight
  • 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 emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the themes thou lovest best. 
  • Night, sleep, death and the stars.
  • A Noiseless Patient Spider
  • 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, out of itself;  
  • Ever unreeling them—ever tirelessly speeding them.
  • And you, O my Soul, where you stand,  
  • Surrounded, surrounded, in measureless oceans of space,  
  • Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing,—seeking the spheres, to connect them;  
  • Till the bridge you will need, be form’d—till the ductile anchor hold;
  • Till the gossamer thread you fling, catch somewhere, O my Soul.
  • A Glimpse
  • 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 in a corner; 
  • Of a youth who loves me, and whom I love, silently approaching, and seating himself
  • near, that he may hold me by the hand; 
  • A long while, amid the noises of coming and going--of drinking and oath and smutty
  • jest, 
  • There we two, content, happy in being together, speaking little, perhaps not a word.
  • A Farm Picture
  • 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, fading away.
Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman (1819-1892) was one of the premier poets of American verse, and one of the most influential poets in both American and world literature. One of the first poets to utilize free verse—poetry that employs neither a strict rhyme scheme nor a strict metrical or stanza pattern—Whitman serves as a prelude to modernist poets such as Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot. Whitman collected his poems in a single volume, Leaves of Grass, which celebrates humanity in all its forms and occupations, and also sang the praises of the unique contributions which American democracy and republicanism have made to human freedom and human dignity.

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  • A Promise to California
  • 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
  • American love; 
  • For I know very well that I and robust love belong among you, inland, and along the
  • Western Sea; 
  • For These States tend inland, and toward the Western Sea--and I will also.
  • A Clear Midnight
  • 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 emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the themes thou lovest best. 
  • Night, sleep, death and the stars.
  • A Noiseless Patient Spider
  • 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, out of itself;  
  • Ever unreeling them—ever tirelessly speeding them.
  • And you, O my Soul, where you stand,  
  • Surrounded, surrounded, in measureless oceans of space,  
  • Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing,—seeking the spheres, to connect them;  
  • Till the bridge you will need, be form’d—till the ductile anchor hold;
  • Till the gossamer thread you fling, catch somewhere, O my Soul.
  • A Glimpse
  • 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 in a corner; 
  • Of a youth who loves me, and whom I love, silently approaching, and seating himself
  • near, that he may hold me by the hand; 
  • A long while, amid the noises of coming and going--of drinking and oath and smutty
  • jest, 
  • There we two, content, happy in being together, speaking little, perhaps not a word.
  • A Farm Picture
  • 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, fading away.
Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman (1819-1892) was one of the premier poets of American verse, and one of the most influential poets in both American and world literature. One of the first poets to utilize free verse—poetry that employs neither a strict rhyme scheme nor a strict metrical or stanza pattern—Whitman serves as a prelude to modernist poets such as Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot. Whitman collected his poems in a single volume, Leaves of Grass, which celebrates humanity in all its forms and occupations, and also sang the praises of the unique contributions which American democracy and republicanism have made to human freedom and human dignity.

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Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Bait and Switch at San Diego Symphony

Concentric contemporary dims Dvorak
Next Article

Trophy truck crushes four at Baja 1000

"Two other racers on quads died too,"
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4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
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