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Lyric Poem · Death & Loss

Whispers of Heavenly Death

by Walt Whitman

WHISPERS of heavenly death, murmur’d I hear;

Labial gossip of night—sibilant chorals;

Footsteps gently ascending—mystical breezes, wafted soft and low;

Ripples of unseen rivers—tides of a current, flowing, forever flowing;

(Or is it the plashing of tears? the measureless waters of human tears?)

I see, just see, skyward, great cloud-masses;

Mournfully, slowly they roll, silently swelling and mixing;

With, at times, a half-dimm’d, sadden’d, far-off star,

Appearing and disappearing.

(Some parturition, rather—some solemn, immortal birth:

On the frontiers, to eyes impenetrable,

Some Soul is passing over.)

This poem is in the public domain.

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