By Walt Whitman
from “Calamus” in Leaves of Grass, 1867
Are you the new person drawn toward me?
To begin with, take warning, I am surely far different from what you suppose;
Do you suppose you will find in me your ideal?
Do you think it so easy to have me become your lover?
Do you think the friendship of me would be unalloy’d satisfaction?
Do you think I am trusty and faithful?
Do you see no further than this façade, this smooth and tolerant manner of me?
Do you suppose yourself advancing on real ground toward a real heroic man?
Have you no thought, O dreamer, that it may be all maya, illusion?
Lois
/ July 30, 2012I am very ignorant about the poetry of Whitman: can you recommend what I should start with?
Jeremiah Walton
/ July 31, 2012Read Leaves Of Grass. It’s a collection he added onto it again and again, creating new editions through out his lifetime. Read the newest edition if you want the most of it, but all his poetry is well written and thought out.
Lois
/ July 31, 2012Thanks! I’m looking forward to this!