To A Certain Civilian
Walt Whitman
DID YOU ask dulcet rhymes from me? Did you seek the civilian's peaceful and languishing rhymes? Did you find what I sang erewhile so hard to follow? Why I was not singing erewhile for you to follow, to understand--nor am I now; (I have been born of the same as the war was born; The drum-corps' harsh rattle is to me sweet music--I love well the martial dirge, With slow wail, and convulsive throb, leading the officer's funeral:) --What to such as you, anyhow, such a poet as I?--therefore leave my works, And go lull yourself with what you can understand--and with piano- tunes; For I lull nobody--and you will never understand me. 10
Next 10 Poems
- Walt Whitman : To A Common Prostitute
- Walt Whitman : To A Foil'd European Revolutionaire
- Walt Whitman : To A Historian
- Walt Whitman : To A Locomotive In Winter
- Walt Whitman : To A President
- Walt Whitman : To A Pupil
- Walt Whitman : To A Stranger
- Walt Whitman : To A Western Boy
- Walt Whitman : To Foreign Lands
- Walt Whitman : To Him That Was Crucified
Previous 10 Poems
- Walt Whitman : To A Certain Cantatrice
- Walt Whitman : Thoughts
- Walt Whitman : Thought
- Walt Whitman : Thou Reader
- Walt Whitman : Thou Orb Aloft Full-dazzling
- Walt Whitman : This Moment, Yearning And Thoughtful
- Walt Whitman : This Dust Was Once The Man
- Walt Whitman : This Day, O Soul
- Walt Whitman : This Compost
- Walt Whitman : Think Of The Soul