by Whitman · Cluster: Nature · Book of Nature · Natural Order
Abstract
Grand as the visible cosmos is, the unseen soul comprehending and lighting it is grander, more lasting and evolutionary than all the seen.
Connections
Motifs: Stars Themes & Concepts: Self-Knowledge, Self and Cosmos, Immortality, Sublime, Appearance vs Reality Forms & Genres: Free Verse
Testo integrale / Full text
Cluster: GOOD-BYE MY FANCY
Grand is the seen, the light, to me—grand are the sky and stars,
Grand is the earth, and grand are lasting time and space,
And grand their laws, so multiform, puzzling, evolutionary;
But grander far the unseen soul of me, comprehending, endowing all those,
Lighting the light, the sky and stars, delving the earth, sailing
the sea,
(What were all those, indeed, without thee, unseen soul? of what
amount without thee?)
More evolutionary, vast, puzzling, O my soul!
More multiform far—more lasting thou than they.