by Whitman · Cluster: Birds · Music and Song · Nightingale

Abstract

A short free-verse lyric weighing great books against the simple joy of a caged bird’s song; themes of nature, the book and joy.

Connections

Motifs: Birds, Music and Song, Book Reading Themes & Concepts: Joy, Self-Knowledge

Testo integrale / Full text

Cluster: SANDS AT SEVENTY

Did we count great, O soul, to penetrate the themes of mighty books, Absorbing deep and full from thoughts, plays, speculations? But now from thee to me, caged bird, to feel thy joyous warble, Filling the air, the lonesome room, the long forenoon, Is it not just as great, O soul?