The Walt Whitman Archive
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About this Item
Title: Spain
Creator: Walt Whitman
Date: March 24, 1873
Whitman Archive ID: per.00130
Source: New York Daily Graphic 24 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 |
SPAIN.1
———
Out of murk the heaviest clouds,
Out of the feudal wrecks, and heap'd-up skeletons of
Kings,
Kings,
Out of that old entire European debris—the shatter'd
mummeries,
mummeries,
Ruin'd cathedrals, crumble of palaces, tombs of
priests,
priests,
Lo! Freedom's features, fresh, undimm'd, look
forth—the same immortal face looks forth;
forth—the same immortal face looks forth;
(A glimpse as of thy Mother's face, Columbia,
A flash significant as of a sword,
Beaming towards thee.)
Nor think we forget thee, Maternal;
Lagg'st thou so long? Shall the clouds close again
upon thee?
upon thee?
Ah, but thou hast Thyself now appear'd to us—we
know thee;
know thee;
Thou hast given us a sure proof, the glimpse of Thy-
self;
self;
Thou waitest there, as everywhere, thy time.
WALT WHITMAN.
Washington, March 22, 1873.