by Whitman · Cluster: Identity · Free Verse · Eternal Return
Abstract
Within the crowd one ‘lover and perfect equal’ picks out the poet by secret signs; love, identity, the city and mutual recognition.
Connections
Motifs: City Themes & Concepts: Romantic Love, Identity, Comradeship
Testo integrale / Full text
Cluster: CALAMUS
Among the men and women the multitude, I perceive one picking me out by secret and divine signs, Acknowledging none else, not parent, wife, husband, brother, child, any nearer than I am, Some are baffled, but that one is not—that one knows me.
Ah lover and perfect equal, I meant that you should discover me so by faint indirections, And I when I meet you mean to discover you by the like in you.