Walt Whitman Poems : 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 Presidentiad,
I would sing how an old man, tall, with white hair, mounted the
scaffold in Virginia,
(I was at hand, silent I stood with teeth shut close, I watch'd,
I stood very near you old man when cool and indifferent, but trembling
with age and your unheal'd wounds you mounted the scaffold;)
I would sing in my copious song your census returns of the States,
The tables of population and products, I would sing of your ships
and their cargoes,
The proud black ships of Manhattan arriving, some fill'd with
immigrants, some from the isthmus with cargoes of gold,
Songs thereof would I sing, to all that hitherward comes would welcome give,
And you would I sing, fair stripling! welcome to you from me, young
prince of England!
(Remember you surging Manhattan's crowds as you pass'd with your
cortege of nobles?
There in the crowds stood I, and singled you out with attachment;)
Nor forget I to sing of the wonder, the ship as she swam up my bay,
Well-shaped and stately the Great Eastern swam up my bay, she was
600 feet long,
Her moving swiftly surrounded by myriads of small craft I forget not
to sing;
Nor the comet that came unannounced out of the north flaring in heaven,
Nor the strange huge meteor-procession dazzling and clear shooting
over our heads,
(A moment, a moment long it sail'd its balls of unearthly light over
our heads,
Then departed, dropt in the night, and was gone;)
Of such, and fitful as they, I sing--with gleams from them would
gleam and patch these chants,
Your chants, O year all mottled with evil and good--year of forebodings!
Year of comets and meteors transient and strange--lo! even here one
equally transient and strange!
As I flit through you hastily, soon to fall and be gone, what is this chant,
What am I myself but one of your meteors?

Submited by

Miércoles, Abril 13, 2011 - 16:57

Poesia Consagrada :

Sin votos aún

Walt Whitman

Imagen de Walt Whitman
Desconectado
Título: Membro
Last seen: Hace 13 años 50 semanas
Integró: 04/08/2011
Posts:
Points: 849

Add comment

Inicie sesión para enviar comentarios

other contents of Walt Whitman

Tema Título Respuestas Lecturas Último envíoordenar por icono Idioma
Poesia Consagrada/Biografía Walt Whitman Biography 0 6.015 04/13/2011 - 17:13 Inglés
Poesia Consagrada/Biografía Walt Whitman Biografia 0 11.929 04/13/2011 - 17:10 Español
Poesia Consagrada/Biografía Walt Whitman Biografia 0 10.560 04/13/2011 - 17:05 Portuguese
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman Poems : Youth, Day, Old Age and Night 0 6.080 04/13/2011 - 17:03 Inglés
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman Poems : You Felons on Trial in Courts 0 9.154 04/13/2011 - 17:01 Inglés
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman Poems : Yonnondio 0 6.276 04/13/2011 - 17:00 Inglés
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman Poems : Yet, Yet Ye Downcast Hours 0 6.231 04/13/2011 - 16:59 Inglés
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman Poems : Years of the Modern 0 5.827 04/13/2011 - 16:59 Inglés
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman Poems : Year of Meteors [1859-60] 0 6.462 04/13/2011 - 16:57 Inglés
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman Poems : The Wound-Dresser 0 7.492 04/13/2011 - 16:56 Inglés
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman Poems : The World Below the Brine 0 6.423 04/13/2011 - 16:55 Inglés
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman Poems : A Woman Waits for Me 0 6.636 04/13/2011 - 16:53 Inglés
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman Poems : With Husky-Haughty Lips, O Sea! 0 8.308 04/13/2011 - 16:52 Inglés
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman Poems : With Antecedents 0 8.239 04/13/2011 - 16:51 Inglés
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman Poems : Who Learns My Lesson Complete? 0 7.062 04/13/2011 - 16:50 Inglés
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman Poems : Whoever You Are Holding Me Now in Hand 0 6.319 04/13/2011 - 16:48 Inglés
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman Poems : Whispers of Heavenly Death 0 5.366 04/13/2011 - 16:47 Inglés
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman Poems : When the Full-Grown Poet Came 0 7.554 04/13/2011 - 16:46 Inglés
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman Poems : When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd 0 6.858 04/13/2011 - 16:45 Inglés
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman Poems : When I Read the Book 0 5.868 04/13/2011 - 16:43 Inglés
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman Poems : When I Peruse the Conquer'd Fame 0 8.520 04/13/2011 - 16:42 Inglés
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman Poems : When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer 0 12.460 04/13/2011 - 16:41 Inglés
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman Poems : When I Heard at the Close of the Day 0 6.962 04/13/2011 - 16:40 Inglés
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman Poems : What Think You I Take My Pen in Hand? 0 6.323 04/13/2011 - 16:38 Inglés
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman Poems : What Ship Puzzled at Sea 0 10.393 04/13/2011 - 16:37 Inglés