Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman

contents | previous | next

FOR his o'erarching and last lesson the greybeard sufi,

In the fresh scent of the morning in the open air,

On the slope of a teeming Persian rose-garden,

Under an ancient chestnut-tree wide spreading its branches,

Spoke to the young priests and students.

View Page 419

"Finally my children, to envelop each word, each part of the
rest,

Allah is all, all, all—is immanent in every life and object,

May-be at many and many-a-more removes—yet Allah, Allah,
Allah is there.

"Has the estray wander'd far? Is the reason-why strangely
hidden?

Would you sound below the restless ocean of the entire world?

Would you know the dissatisfaction? the urge and spur of every
life;

The something never still'd—never entirely gone? the invisible
need of every seed?

"It is the central urge in every atom,

(Often unconscious, often evil, downfallen,)

To return to its divine source and origin, however distant,

Latent the same in subject and in object, without one exception."

contents | previous | next