Poetic Interlude: Whitman

Have you reckon'd a thousand acres much?  have you
   reckon'd the earth much?
Have you practis'd so long to learn to read?
Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?

Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the
   origin of all poems,
You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, (there are
   millions of suns left,)
You shall no longer take things at second or third hand,
   nor look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the
   spectres in books,
You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things
   from me,
You shall lilsten to all sides and filter them from yourself.

3
I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the
   beginning and the end,
But I do not talk of the beginning or the end.

There was never any more inception than there is now,
Nor any more youth or age than there is now,
And will never be any more perfection than there is now,
Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.

from Whitman's "Song of Myself"--the end of section 2 and star of section 3
bold font marks my favorite lines today


Despite Whitman's warning about spectres in books, Happy New Year, Happy Inception.

In a future post, I will explain what some of these lines have meant, and still mean, for my work with students over the years.