by Whitman · Cluster: Death · Silence · Bells
Abstract
A free-verse tribute raising a laurel monument to those cut off by early death before their aspirations were realized; themes of failure, death and heroism.
Connections
Motifs: Death, Fire Themes & Concepts: Heroism, Grief and Loss Forms & Genres: Elegy
Testo integrale / Full text
Cluster: SANDS AT SEVENTY
To those who’ve fail’d, in aspiration vast,
To unnam’d soldiers fallen in front on the lead,
To calm, devoted engineers—to over-ardent travelers—to pilots on
their ships,
To many a lofty song and picture without recognition—I’d rear
laurel-cover’d monument,
High, high above the rest—To all cut off before their time,
Possess’d by some strange spirit of fire,
Quench’d by an early death.