by Whitman · Cluster: Self-Knowledge · Immortality · Self-Reliance
Abstract
Lyric address summoning the soul to walk into the unknown region beyond death, where only Time and Space remain and the self bursts forth fulfilled.
Connections
Topoi: Night Journey Vision Motifs: Death Themes & Concepts: Self-Knowledge, Soul’s Journey, Immortality Forms & Genres: Lyric
Testo integrale / Full text
Cluster: WHISPERS OF HEAVENLY DEATH
Darest thou now O soul,
Walk out with me toward the unknown region,
Where neither ground is for the feet nor any path to follow?
No map there, nor guide,
Nor voice sounding, nor touch of human hand,
Nor face with blooming flesh, nor lips, nor eyes, are in that land.
I know it not O soul,
Nor dost thou, all is a blank before us,
All waits undream’d of in that region, that inaccessible land.
Till when the ties loosen,
All but the ties eternal, Time and Space,
Nor darkness, gravitation, sense, nor any bounds bounding us.
Then we burst forth, we float,
In Time and Space O soul, prepared for them,
Equal, equipt at last, (O joy! O fruit of all!) them to fulfil O soul.