- Oct 2024
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www.poetryfoundation.org www.poetryfoundation.org
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Come lovely and soothing death, Undulate round the world, serenely arriving, arriving, In the day, in the night, to all, to each, Sooner or later delicate death. Prais’d be the fathomless universe, For life and joy, and for objects and knowledge curious, And for love, sweet love—but praise! praise! praise! For the sure-enwinding arms of cool-enfolding death. Dark mother always gliding near with soft feet, Have none chanted for thee a chant of fullest welcome? Then I chant it for thee, I glorify thee above all, I bring thee a song that when thou must indeed come, come unfalteringly. Approach strong deliveress, When it is so, when thou hast taken them I joyously sing the dead, Lost in the loving floating ocean of thee, Laved in the flood of thy bliss O death. From me to thee glad serenades, Dances for thee I propose saluting thee, adornments and feastings for thee, And the sights of the open landscape and the high-spread sky are fitting, And life and the fields, and the huge and thoughtful night. The night in silence under many a star, The ocean shore and the husky whispering wave whose voice I know, And the soul turning to thee O vast and well-veil’d death, And the body gratefully nestling close to thee. Over the tree-tops I float thee a song, Over the rising and sinking waves, over the myriad fields and the prairies wide, Over the dense-pack’d cities all and the teeming wharves and ways, I float this carol with joy, with joy to thee O death.
In the seven consecutive unrhymed four-line stanzas, Whitman provides the song's lyrics. An apostrophe directly addresses the celebration of death in these stanzas. Whitman wishes for death to arrive since he believes it will eventually come to everyone, day or night, and he sees it as a peaceful incident. He praises the universe and love in the second of these stanzas, but he also hails death, as if it were an equal partner in love. He addresses death as a mother and welcomes her in the song's third verse. The fifth verse claims that Whitman will sing with the dead when their time comes since death is an ocean of love and happiness, using the bird's song as a metaphor. This subject is carried over into the last three stanzas of the bird's song. Death, for body and soul alike, is welcome wherever it occurs. The song in favor of death is spread throughout the nation, over cities, fields, and prairies, as the final verse makes clear. It is a song of joy even if it is a song of death.
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Comrades mine and I in the midst, and their memory ever to keep, for the dead I loved so well, For the sweetest, wisest soul of all my days and lands—and this for his dear sake, Lilac and star and bird twined with the chant of my soul,
Whitman leaves behind his vision of the battlefield, the lilac plant blooming in the dooryard, the sight of the evening star, and the song of the bird and the song it inspired in him. But for the sake of the deceased guy he loved, he will always remember them all.
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Sadly sinking and fainting, as warning and warning, and yet again bursting with joy,
Leaves all of these memories behind with joy
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But I saw they were not as was thought, They themselves were fully at rest, they suffer’d not, The living remain’d and suffer’d, the mother suffer’d, And the wife and the child and the musing comrade suffer’d, And the armies that remain’d suffer’d.
Though he sees countless skeletons and bodies, he understands that these troops are now at peace and are no longer in pain. The living are the ones who suffer—the surviving soldiers, the surviving loved ones of the deceased, and the legions of survivors.
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The violet and purple morn with just-felt breezes, The gentle soft-born measureless light, The miracle spreading bathing all, the fulfill’d noon, The coming eve delicious, the welcome night and the stars,
Whitman expands this mental image to involve Manhattan in New York City as well as the entire country, extending from north to south and east to west. He praises the sun in the morning, midday, and evening, as well as the stars and the night sky. He calls the whole thing a miracle.
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Sea-winds blown from east and west, Blown from the Eastern sea and blown from the Western sea, till there on the prairies meeting, These and with these and the breath of my chant, I’ll perfume the grave of him I love.
Whitman questions himself how he can show the man he loved the most that he has lost. What melodies can he perform, what scent can he leave behind after he dies? He chooses to use a metaphor to describe the winds as the breath of his song, which originate in the east and meet in the prairies. He's going to cover the grave with that perfume.
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But a moment I linger, for the lustrous star has detain’d me, The star my departing comrade holds and detains me.
The star, which represents a person's loss, seeks to distract the bird while it sings, holding and imprisoning him.
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I hear, I come presently, I understand you,
Whitman listens, understands, and encourages the singing bird to keep singing.
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(Nor for you, for one alone, Blossoms and branches green to coffins all I bring, For fresh as the morning, thus would I chant a song for you O sane and sacred death.
Whitman embraces "death" with his fresh-picked lilacs and other flowers. He wishes to share the beauty he sees in these flowers with the other coffins in addition to this one.
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Carrying a corpse to where it shall rest in the grave, Night and day journeys a coffin.
Whitman's description of a corpse being carried across the country, through towns and countryside to its final resting place, makes it less depressing by the vivid images he provides.
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great cloud darkening the land,
grief
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The hermit withdrawn to himself, avoiding the settlements, Sings by himself a song. Song of the bleeding throat, Death’s outlet song of life, (for well dear brother I know, If thou wast not granted to sing thou would’st surely die.)
In the loneliness of the swamp, the thrush sings a song that hurts its throat; if the bird hadn't given it the ability to sing, he would have preferred to die.
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In the dooryard fronting an old farm-house near the white-wash’d palings, Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with heart-shaped leaves of rich green, With many a pointed blossom rising delicate, with the perfume strong I love, With every leaf a miracle—and from this bush in the dooryard, With delicate-color’d blossoms and heart-shaped leaves of rich green, A sprig with its flower I break.
Whitman gives the lilac bush a heart and a strong scent which he loves. With its delicate color, heart shaped leaves with miracle, to which he proceeds to breaks off a twig of the bush, with its flower.
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In the dooryard fronting an old farm-house near the white-wash’d palings, Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with heart-shaped leaves of rich green, With many a pointed blossom rising delicate, with the perfume strong I love, With every leaf a miracle—and from this bush in the dooryard, With delicate-color’d blossoms and heart-shaped leaves of rich green, A sprig with its flower I break.
Whitman gives the lilac bush a heart and a strong scent which he loves. With its delicate color, heart shaped leaves with miracles, to which he proceeds to breaks off a twig of the bush, with its flower.
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O shades of night—O moody, tearful night! O great star disappear’d—O the black murk that hides the star!
Associating the darkness with grief
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When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d, And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night, I mourn’d, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring. Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring, Lilac blooming perennial and drooping star in the west, And thought of him I love.
Every Spring Whitman mourns when the lilacs were blooming and the evening star (Venus), was visible in the sky at night, as it reminds him of a man he loved.
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- Sep 2024
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www.poetryfoundation.org www.poetryfoundation.org
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A Past of Plank and Nail
"A Past of Plank" alludes to your past, "and Nail" in the Christian tradition, nails are often associated with the crucifixion of Christ and his passion.
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Hath the perfected Life – A Past of Plank and Nail And slowness – then the scaffolds drop Affirming it a Soul –
Dickinson describes the slow process of realizing our true selves and the perfection of life, as well as the affirmation of the soul.
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And cease to recollect The Augur and the Carpenter – Just such a retrospect
As the body diminishes, the soul has an ability to remember or revisit the incidents, the people or things that contributed to the death, and the final experiences you had before passing away.
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And adequate, erect, The House support itself
Accepting the soul's withdraw, the body supports itself.
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Until the House is built And then the Props withdraw
The soul leaves the body until it completely decomposes.
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The Props assist the House
Dickinson draws a comparison between the construction of a house and the development of a soul while death is taking place. It describes how props—in this example, a dead body assist the soul.
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