Observations placeholder
Whitman, Walt - Leaves of Grass - Alone far in the wilds and mountains I hunt
Identifier
016242
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Walt Whitman – Leaves of Grass
Alone far in the wilds and mountains I hunt
Wandering amazed at my own lightness and glee
In the late afternoon choosing a safe spot to pass the night
Kindling a fire and broiling the fresh killed game
Soundly falling asleep on the gathered leaves, my dog and gun by my side
The Yankee clipper is under her three shy sails, she cuts the sparkle and sand
My eyes settle the land... I bend at her prow or shout joyously from the deck
The boatmen and clam diggers arose early and stopped for me
I tucked my trouser ends in my boots and went and had a good time
You should have been with us that day round the chowder kettle
…..............................
The little one sleeps in its cradle
I lift the gauze and look a long time, and silently brush away flies with my hand
The youngster and the redfaced girl turn aside up the busy hill
I peeringly view them from the top
The suicide sprawls on the bloody floor of the bedroom
It is so …. I witnessed the corpse …. there the pistol had fallen
The blab of the pave... the tires of carts and shift of bootsoles and talk of the promenaders
The heavy omnibus, the driver with his interrogating thumb, the clank of the shod horses on the granite floor
The carnival of sleighs, the clinking and shouted jokes and pelts of snowballs
The hurrahs for popular favourites … the fury of the roused mobs
The flap of the curtained litter – the sick man inside, borne to the hospital
The meeting of enemies, the sudden oath, the blows and fall
The excited crowd, the policeman with his star, quickly working his passage to the centre of the crowd
The impassive stones that receive and return so many echoes
The soul moving along.... are they invisible while the least atom of the stones is visible?
What groans of overfed or half starved who fall on the flags sunstruck or in fies
What exclamations of women taken suddenly, who hurry home and give birth to babes
What living and buried speech is always vibrating here …. what howls restrained by decorum
Arrests of criminals, slights, adulterous offers made, acceptances, rejections with convex lips
I mind them on the resonance of them … I come again and again