The Walt Whitman Archive
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About this Item
Title: Queries to My Seventieth Year
Creator: Walt Whitman
Date: May 2, 1888
Whitman Archive ID: per.00122
Source: New York Herald 2 May 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 |
[WRITTEN FOR THE HERALD.]
Queries to My Seventieth Year.1
Approaching, nearing, curious,
Thou dim, uncertain spectre—bringest thou life
or death?
or death?
Strength, weakness, blindness, more paralysis
and heavier?
and heavier?
Or placid skies and sun? Wilt stir the waters
yet?
yet?
Or haply cut me short for good? Or leave me
here as now,
here as now,
Dull, parrot-like and old with crack'd voice
harping, screeching?
harping, screeching?
WALT WHITMAN.
CAMDEN, May 1, 1888.