Lyric Poem · Life
This Moment, Yearning and Thoughtful
by Walt Whitman
1THIS moment yearning and thoughtful, sitting alone,
2It seems to me there are other men in other lands, yearning and thoughtful;
3It seems to me I can look over and behold them, in Germany, Italy, France, Spain—or far,
4 far
5 away,
6 in China, or in Russia or India—talking other dialects;
7And it seems to me if I could know those men, I should become attached to them, as I do to
8 men
9 in my
10 own lands;
11O I know we should be brethren and lovers,
12I know I should be happy with them.
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“This Moment, Yearning and Thoughtful” by Walt Whitman — quilloak.com/poems/this-moment-yearning-and-thoughtful
Quick facts
- Poem
- This Moment, Yearning and Thoughtful
- Poet
- Walt Whitman
- Length
- 12 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Life
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
- PoetryDBThis Moment, Yearning and Thoughtful 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 189aec6466e104d5…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.