Or From That Sea Of Time

Walt Whitman 1819 (West Hills) – 1892 (Camden)




   OR, from that Sea of Time,
   Spray, blown by the wind--a double winrow-drift of weeds and shells;
   (O little shells, so curious-convolute! so limpid-cold and voiceless!
   Yet will you not, to the tympans of temples held,
   Murmurs and echoes still bring up--Eternity's music, faint and far,
   Wafted inland, sent from Atlantica's rim--strains for the Soul of the
         Prairies,
   Whisper'd reverberations--chords for the ear of the West, joyously
         sounding
   Your tidings old, yet ever new and untranslatable;)
   Infinitessimals out of my life, and many a life,
   (For not my life and years alone I give--all, all I give;)         10
   These thoughts and Songs--waifs from the deep--here, cast high and
         dry,
   Wash'd on America's shores.

   Currents of starting a Continent new,
   Overtures sent to the solid out of the liquid,
   Fusion of ocean and land--tender and pensive waves,
   (Not safe and peaceful only--waves rous'd and ominous too.
   Out of the depths, the storm's abysms--Who knows whence? Death's
         waves,
   Raging over the vast, with many a broken spar and tatter'd sail.)

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

54 sec read
100

Quick analysis:

Scheme XXXXXXXAXAXXXXX BXCBXCA
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 1,121
Words 173
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 15, 7

Walt Whitman

Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. more…

All Walt Whitman poems | Walt Whitman Books

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