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Ah, not this granite dead and cold

About This Item

  • Title: Ah, not this granite dead and cold
  • Date: February 1885
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: pml.00001
  • Source: The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. Transcribed from digital images of the original. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the manuscripts, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Editorial note: "Ah, Not This Granite Dead and Cold" was published first on February 22, 1885, in the Philadelphia Press. The poem was ultimately titled "Washington's Monument, February 22, 1885." This manuscript was probably written in February 1885, shortly before the poem was published. The verso image of this manuscript is currently unavailable.
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Ah, not this granite dead and cold." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 25 April 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: pml.00001.xml (TEI)

Key

Textual Feature Appearance
Overwritten brown with strikethrough
Added inline purple with double underline
Uncertain gray with wavy underline
Supplied from another source turquoise with brackets
Metamark green with triple underline
Long deletion gray background with top and bottom border
  [begin leaf 1 recto]

Beyond this Ah, not this granite dead and cold.

Beyond this Ah not theis granite dead and cold, Far, far far from this base and shaft expanding—the 
  round zones circling, comprehending, No lurid fame exceptional, nor monstrous intellect, nor conquest's dominations c Thou, Washington, aret ^all the world's, humanity's freedom's  
  Freedom's, Law's, —not yours alone, America Thy fame, (no lurid fame exceptional, for the nor 
  intellect, nor conquest's domination,) By deathless waves of emanation the race's 
  common ownership, Europe's, ^as well, in castle or in cot laborer's cot—the 
  Arab's in his tent—the African's, Old Asia's there with venerable smile seated 
  amid the past, (Greets the antique the hero new? 'tis but the  
  same—the eternal heart and arm—the 
  heir legitimate Courage, alertness, patience, hope, the same— 
  e'en in defeat defeated not, the same;) No lurid fame exceptional, nor monstrous intellect, nor conquest's domination;) Through teeming cities' streets, indoors or out, 
  factories or farms, Where'er ship sails, or house is built on land, 
  or night or day, Now, or to come, or past—where patriot 
  bra wills existed or exist Wherever Freedom, pois'd by toleration, sway'd by Law, Rising or risen, of thee are monuments there are is thy monumentst.
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