The Walt Whitman Archive
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About this Item
Title: Ah, Not This Granite Dead and Cold
Creator: Walt Whitman
Date: February 22, 1885
Whitman Archive ID: per.00068
Source: The Philadelphia Press 22 February 1885: 4. Our transcription is based on a digital image of a microfilm copy of an original issue. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the periodical poems, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Elizabeth Lorang, April Lambert, and Susan Belasco
 image 1 |  cropped image 1 |
Ah, Not This Granite Dead and Cold.1
Ah, not this granite, dead and cold!
Far from its base and shaft expanding—the
round zones circling, comprehending;
round zones circling, comprehending;
Thou, WASHINGTON, art all the worlds, the
continent's entire—not yours alone,
America;
continent's entire—not yours alone,
America;
Europe's as well, in every part, castle of lord
or laborer's cot,
or laborer's cot,
On frozen North, or sultry South—the Arab's in
his tent—the African's;
his tent—the African's;
Old Asia's there with venerable smile, seated
amid her ruins;
amid her ruins;
(Greets the antique the hero new? 'tis but the
same—the heir legitimate, continued
ever,
same—the heir legitimate, continued
ever,
The indomitable heart and arm—proofs of the
never-broken line,
never-broken line,
Courage, alertness, patience, faith, the same—
e'en in defeat defeated not, the same:)
e'en in defeat defeated not, the same:)
Wherever sails a ship, or house is built on land,
or day or night,
or day or night,
Through teeming cities' streets, indoors or out,
factories or farms,
factories or farms,
Now, or to come, or past—where patriot wills
existed or exist,
existed or exist,
Wherever Freedom, poised by Toleration,
swayed by Law,
swayed by Law,
Stands or is rising thy true monument.
February 21, 1885.
WALT WHITMAN.
Notes:
1. Reprinted as "Washington's Monument, February, 1885" in the "Sands at Seventy" annex to Leaves of Grass (1888). [back]