To One Shortly To Die
Walt Whitman 1819 (West Hills) – 1892 (Camden)
FROM all the rest I single out you, having a message for you:
You are to die--Let others tell you what they please, I cannot
prevaricate,
I am exact and merciless, but I love you--There is no escape for you.
Softly I lay my right hand upon you--you just feel it,
I do not argue--I bend my head close, and half envelope it,
I sit quietly by--I remain faithful,
I am more than nurse, more than parent or neighbor,
I absolve you from all except yourself, spiritual, bodily--that is
eternal--you yourself will surely escape,
The corpse you will leave will be but excrementitious.
The sun bursts through in unlooked-for directions! 10
Strong thoughts fill you, and confidence--you smile!
You forget you are sick, as I forget you are sick,
You do not see the medicines--you do not mind the weeping friends--I
am with you,
I exclude others from you--there is nothing to be commiserated,
I do not commiserate--I congratulate you.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 06, 2023
- 48 sec read
- 224 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABXA CCXXDXD XXXXABA |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 1,000 |
Words | 162 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 7, 7 |
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"To One Shortly To Die" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 12 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/38213/to-one-shortly-to-die>.
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