by Whitman · Cluster: Self-Knowledge · Immortality · Self-Reliance

Abstract

A prophecy of poetic immortality: only after ages of accumulation and myriad readers will the poet’s songs reach their fruition.

Connections

Topoi: Immortality Through Verse Motifs: Book Reading Themes & Concepts: Immortality of Art Fame, Memory and Time Forms & Genres: Free Verse

Testo integrale / Full text

Cluster: GOOD-BYE MY FANCY

After a long, long course, hundreds of years, denials,
Accumulations, rous’d love and joy and thought,
Hopes, wishes, aspirations, ponderings, victories, myriads of readers,
Coating, compassing, covering—after ages’ and ages’ encrustations,
Then only may these songs reach fruition.