Sunday, February 05, 2017

Walt's words work well

YEAR THAT TREMBLED AND REEL'D BENEATH ME.   

Year that trembled and reel'd beneath me! 
Your summer wind was warm enough, yet the air I breathed froze me, 
A thick gloom fell through the sunshine and darken'd me, 
Must I change my triumphant songs? said I to myself, 
Must I indeed learn to chant the cold dirges of the baffled? 
And sullen hymns of defeat?

          --Whitman, Walt; The Complete Walt Whitman: Drum-Taps, Leaves of Grass, Patriotic Poems, Complete Prose Works, The Wound Dresser, Letters (Kindle Locations 1292-1298). Bybliotech. Kindle Edition.

I came across this poem yesterday, and liked it, and thought it terribly apropos of the current situation.

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