The Walt Whitman Archive
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About this Item
Title: The Singing Thrush
Creator: Walt Whitman
Date: March 15, 1873
Whitman Archive ID: per.00129
Source: New York Daily Graphic 15 March 1873: 2. 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 |
THE SINGING THRUSH.1
———
Wandering at morn,
Emerging from the night, from the gloomy thoughts—
thee in my thoughts,
thee in my thoughts,
Yearning for thee, harmonious Union! thee, Singing
Bird divine!
Bird divine!
Thee, seated coil'd in evil times, my country, with
craft and black dismay—with every meanness,
treason thrust upon thee;
craft and black dismay—with every meanness,
treason thrust upon thee;
—Wandering—this common marvel I beheld—the
parent thrush I watched, feeding its young,
parent thrush I watched, feeding its young,
(The singing thrush, whose tones of joy and faith
ecstatic,
ecstatic,
Fail not to certify and cheer my soul.
There felt I, saw I,
If worms, snakes, loathsome grubs, may to sweet
spiritual songs be turn'd,
spiritual songs be turn'd,
If vermin so transposed, so used, so bless'd may be,
Then may I trust in you, your States, my country;
—Who knows but these may be the lessons fit for
you?
you?
Who knows—perhaps the diet fit to-day for you?
These, these, to-day for your preparing nest, O
Union! even from these,
Union! even from these,
From these your future song may rise, with joyous
trills,
trills,
Destin'd to fill the world.
WALT WHITMAN.
Washington, March 10.