Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman

contents | previous | next

WARBLE me now for joy of lilac-time, (returning in reminiscence,)

Sort me O tongue and lips for Nature's sake, souvenirs of earliest
summer,

Gather the welcome signs, (as children with pebbles or stringing
shells,)

Put in April and May, the hylas croaking in the ponds, the elastic
air,

Bees, butterflies, the sparrow with its simple notes,

View Page 294

Blue-bird and darting swallow, nor forget the high-hole flashing
his golden wings,

The tranquil sunny haze, the clinging smoke, the vapor,

Shimmer of waters with fish in them, the cerulean above,

All that is jocund and sparkling, the brooks running,

The maple woods, the crisp February days and the sugar-making,

The robin where he hops, bright-eyed, brown-breasted,

With musical clear call at sunrise, and again at sunset,

Or flitting among the trees of the apple-orchard, building the nest
of his mate,

The melted snow of March, the willow sending forth its yellow-
green sprouts,

For spring-time is here! the summer is here! and what is this
in it and from it?

Thou, soul, unloosen'd—the restlessness after I know not what;

Come, let us lag here no longer, let us be up and away!

O if one could but fly like a bird!

O to escape, to sail forth as in a ship!

To glide with thee O soul, o'er all, in all, as a ship o'er the waters;

Gathering these hints, the preludes, the blue sky, the grass, the
morning drops of dew,

The lilac-scent, the bushes with dark green heart-shaped leaves,

Wood-violets, the little delicate pale blossoms called innocence,

Samples and sorts not for themselves alone, but for their atmo-
sphere,

To grace the bush I love—to sing with the birds,

A warble for joy of lilac-time, returning in reminiscence.

contents | previous | next