Poem by Walt Whitman

Leaves of Grass. 33. Songs of Parting. 6. As at Thy Portals Also Death

As at thy portals also death,
Entering thy sovereign, dim, illimitable grounds,
To memories of my mother, to the divine blending, maternity,
To her, buried and gone, yet buried not, gone not from me,
(I see again the calm benignant face fresh and beautiful still,
I sit by the form in the coffin,
I kiss and kiss convulsively again the sweet old lips, the cheeks,
      the closed eyes in the coffin;)
To her, the ideal woman, practical, spiritual, of all of earth,
      life, love, to me the best,
I grave a monumental line, before I go, amid these songs,
And set a tombstone here.

1. Leaves of Grass. 35. Good-Bye My Fancy. 18. Sounds of the Winter
2. Leaves of Grass. 20. By the Roadside. 28. Offerings
3. Leaves of Grass. 34. Sands at Seventy. 28. Old Salt Kossabone
4. Leaves of Grass. 34. Sands at Seventy. 42. While Not the Past Forgetting
5. Leaves of Grass. 35. Good-Bye My Fancy. 14. Interpolation Sounds

Print

1305 Views

Last Poems

To Russian version