Showing posts with label Walt Whitman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Walt Whitman. Show all posts

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Whispers of Heavenly Death, Whitman

WHISPERS OF HEAVENLY DEATH

BY WALT WHITMAN

1.

WHISPERS of heavenly death, murmur'd I hear;
Labial gossip of night—sibilant chorals;
Footsteps gently ascending—mystical breezes, wafted soft and low;
Ripples of unseen rivers—tides of current, flowing, forever flowing;
(Or is it the plashing of tears? the measureless waters of human tears?)

I see, just see, skyward, great cloud-masses;
Mournfully, slowly they roll, silently swelling and mixing;
With, at times, a half-dimm'd, sadden'd, far-off star,
Appearing and disappearing.

Some parturition, rather— some solemn, immortal birth:
On the frontiers, to eyes impenetrable,
Some Soul is passing over.