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 | Leaves of grass. |  |
3
4 What do you hear, Walt
Whitman?
5 I hear the workman singing, and the farmer's wife singing;
I hear in the distance the sounds of children, and of animals early in the day;
I hear quick rifle-cracks from the riflemen of East Tennessee and Kentucky, hunting on hills;
I hear emulous shouts of Australians, pursuing the wild horse;
I hear the Spanish dance, with castanets, in the chest- nut shade, to the rebeck and guitar;
I hear continual echoes from the Thames;
I hear fierce French liberty songs;
I hear of the Italian boat-sculler the musical recita- tive of old poems;
I hear the Virginia plantation chorus of negroes, of a harvest night, in the glare of pine knots;
I hear the strong baritone of the 'long-shore-men of Mannahatta;
I hear the stevedores unlading the cargoes, and sing- ing;
I hear the screams of the water-fowl of solitary north- west lakes;
I hear the rustling pattering of locusts, as they strike the grain and grass with the showers of their terrible clouds;
I hear the Coptic refrain, toward sundown, pensively falling on the breast of the black venerable vast mother, the Nile;
I hear the bugles of raft-tenders on the streams of
Kanada;
I hear the chirp of the Mexican muleteer, and the bells of the mule;
I hear the Arab muezzin, calling from the top of the mosque;
I hear the Christian priests at the altars of their churches — I hear the responsive base and soprano;
I hear the wail of utter despair of the white-hair'd Irish grand-parents, when they learn the death of their grandson;
I hear the cry of the Cossack, and the sailor's voice, putting to sea at Okotsk;
I hear the wheeze of the slave-coffle, as the slaves march on — as the husky gangs pass on by twos and threes, fasten'd together with wrist-chains and ankle-chains;
I hear the entreaties of women tied up for punishment — I hear the sibilant whisk of thongs through the air;
I hear the Hebrew reading his records and psalms;
I hear the rhythmic myths of the Greeks, and the strong legends of the Romans;
I hear the tale of the divine life and bloody death of the beautiful God, the Christ;
I hear the Hindoo teaching his favorite pupil the loves, wars, adages, transmitted safely to this day from poets who wrote three thousand years ago.
5 I hear the workman singing, and the farmer's wife singing;
I hear in the distance the sounds of children, and of animals early in the day;
I hear quick rifle-cracks from the riflemen of East Tennessee and Kentucky, hunting on hills;
I hear emulous shouts of Australians, pursuing the wild horse;
I hear the Spanish dance, with castanets, in the chest- nut shade, to the rebeck and guitar;
I hear continual echoes from the Thames;
I hear fierce French liberty songs;
I hear of the Italian boat-sculler the musical recita- tive of old poems;
I hear the Virginia plantation chorus of negroes, of a harvest night, in the glare of pine knots;
I hear the strong baritone of the 'long-shore-men of Mannahatta;
I hear the stevedores unlading the cargoes, and sing- ing;
I hear the screams of the water-fowl of solitary north- west lakes;
I hear the rustling pattering of locusts, as they strike the grain and grass with the showers of their terrible clouds;
I hear the Coptic refrain, toward sundown, pensively falling on the breast of the black venerable vast mother, the Nile;
147
I hear the chirp of the Mexican muleteer, and the bells of the mule;
I hear the Arab muezzin, calling from the top of the mosque;
I hear the Christian priests at the altars of their churches — I hear the responsive base and soprano;
I hear the wail of utter despair of the white-hair'd Irish grand-parents, when they learn the death of their grandson;
I hear the cry of the Cossack, and the sailor's voice, putting to sea at Okotsk;
I hear the wheeze of the slave-coffle, as the slaves march on — as the husky gangs pass on by twos and threes, fasten'd together with wrist-chains and ankle-chains;
I hear the entreaties of women tied up for punishment — I hear the sibilant whisk of thongs through the air;
I hear the Hebrew reading his records and psalms;
I hear the rhythmic myths of the Greeks, and the strong legends of the Romans;
I hear the tale of the divine life and bloody death of the beautiful God, the Christ;
I hear the Hindoo teaching his favorite pupil the loves, wars, adages, transmitted safely to this day from poets who wrote three thousand years ago.
| Leaves of grass. | |