A piece of art made from a page of Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. Most of the page is painted black. A seated woman is drawn in the center of the page using negative space. The woman is wearing sun earrings and her eyes are closed.A piece of art made from a page of Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. Most of the page is painted black. A seated woman is drawn in the center of the page using negative space. The woman is wearing sun earrings and her eyes are closed.

By anonymous 

ase shuddering lusciously under and throug
phant tutti, the funeral wailings with sweet flutes and
ns, all these I fill myself with,
ot the volumes of sound merely, I am moved by the
isite meanings,
o the different voices winding in and out, striving, con-
ng with fiery vehemence to excel each other in emotion;
think the performers know themselves—but now I think
in to know them.

WHAT SHIP PUZZLED AT SEA

at sea, cons for the true reckoning?
avoid the bars and follow the channel a perfect
e, ship! take aboard the most perfect pilot,
le boat, putting off and rowing, I hailing you

NOISELESS PATIENT SPIDER

ent spider,
on a little p montory it stood isolated,
explore the vacant vast surrounding,
filament, ment, filament out of itse
hem, ever  lessly speeding them.
y soul wh  you stand,
etached, i  measureless oceans of space,
y musicing, ve  ring, throwing, seeking the sphe  to
nect them,

he gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere,

O LIVING ALWAYS, ALWAYS DYING

O LIVING always, always dying!
O the burials of me past and present
O me while I stride ahead, material, visible, imperious as
O me, what I was for years, now dead (I lament no
content;)
O to disengage myself from those corpses of me, whic
and look at where I cast them,
To pass on (O living! always living!) and leave th
behind.

TO ONE SHORTLY TO

FROM all the rest I single out you, having a mess
You are to die—let others tell you what they
prevaricate,
I am exact and merciless, but I love you—there
you.

Softly I lay my right hand upon you, you just f
I do not argue, I bend my head  lose and half env
I sit quietly by, I remain faithful,
I am  than nurse, more than pa nt or neigh
I abs  you from all except your spiritual
you yourself will surely  ape
Th  you will leave will be but  rementiti
T n bursts through in unlooked-for  ections,
Stro  thoughts fill you and confidence,  u smile,
You forget you are sick, as I forget you are sick,