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Lyric Poem · War & Remembrance

O Sun of Real Peace

by Walt Whitman

O SUN of real peace! O hastening light!

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

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

Ideal,

will surely ascend!

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

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

O lips of my soul, already becoming powerless!

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

New history! new heroes! I project you!

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

O heights too swift and dizzy yet!

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

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

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

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Quick facts

Poem
O Sun of Real Peace
Poet
Walt Whitman
Length
15 lines
Form
Lyric Poem
Themes
War & Remembrance, Peace

Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

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.
Jurisdiction-specific, never a worldwide claimRights policyReport a text or rights issue

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