by Whitman · Cluster: Swords and Weapons · Power and Corruption · Tyrant
Abstract
A confessional address to a comrade: the poet’s restless dangerous words unsettle settled laws, urging onward without knowing the destination; comradeship, rebellion and uncertain quest.
Connections
Topoi: Open Road Homecoming Archetypes: Rebel Motifs: Swords and Weapons Themes & Concepts: Comradeship, Doubt
Testo integrale / Full text
Cluster: DRUM-TAPS
As I lay with my head in your lap camerado, The confession I made I resume, what I said to you and the open air I resume, I know I am restless and make others so, I know my words are weapons full of danger, full of death, For I confront peace, security, and all the settled laws, to unsettle them, I am more resolute because all have denied me than I could ever have been had all accepted me, I heed not and have never heeded either experience, cautions, majorities, nor ridicule, And the threat of what is call’d hell is little or nothing to me, And the lure of what is call’d heaven is little or nothing to me; Dear camerado! I confess I have urged you onward with me, and still urge you, without the least idea what is our destination, Or whether we shall be victorious, or utterly quell’d and defeated.