The Walt Whitman Archive
Published Works
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About this Item
Title: A Prairie Sunset
Creator: Walt Whitman
Date: March 9, 1888
Whitman Archive ID: per.00119
Source: New York Herald 9 March 1888: 6. 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 |
[FOR THE NEW YORK HERALD.]
A Prairie Sunset.1
Shot gold, maroon and violet, dazzling silver,
emerald, fawn,
emerald, fawn,
The earth's whole amplitude and nature's mul-
tiform power consigned for once to colors;
tiform power consigned for once to colors;
The light, the genial air possessed by them—
colors till now unknown,
colors till now unknown,
No limit, confine—not the Western sky alone—
the high meridian—North, South, all,
the high meridian—North, South, all,
Pure luminous color fighting the silent shadows
to the last.
to the last.
WALT WHITMAN.