Lyric Poem · War & Remembrance

O Sun of Real Peace

Reading room

1O SUN of real peace! O hastening light!

2O free and extatic! O what I here, preparing, warble for!

3O the sun of the world will ascend, dazzling, and take his height—and you too, O my

4 Ideal,

5 will surely ascend!

6O so amazing and broad—up there resplendent, darting and burning!

7O vision prophetic, stagger’d with weight of light! with pouring glories!

8O lips of my soul, already becoming powerless!

9O ample and grand Presidentiads! Now the war, the war is over!

10New history! new heroes! I project you!

11Visions of poets! only you really last! sweep on! sweep on!

12O heights too swift and dizzy yet!

13O purged and luminous! you threaten me more than I can stand!

14(I must not venture—the ground under my feet menaces me—it will not support me:

15O future too immense,)—O present, I return, while yet I may, to you.

Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.

Tip: click any line number to copy a ready-made citation for that line.

“O Sun of Real Peace” by Walt Whitman — quilloak.com/poems/o-sun-of-real-peace

Quick facts

Text, source & rights

Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record: Walt Whitman1819–1892
Source record: PoetryDBO Sun of Real Peace by walt-whitman, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision: Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record: Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint: SHA-256 86f62d666c862839…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.