Poem by Walt Whitman

Leaves of Grass. 30. Whispers of Heavenly Death. 15. Thought

As I sit with others at a great feast, suddenly while the music is playing,
To my mind, (whence it comes I know not,) spectral in mist of a
      wreck at sea,
Of certain ships, how they sail from port with flying streamers and
      wafted kisses, and that is the last of them,
Of the solemn and murky mystery about the fate of the President,
Of the flower of the marine science of fifty generations founder'd
      off the Northeast coast and going down—of the steamship Arctic
      going down,
Of the veil'd tableau-women gather'd together on deck, pale, heroic,
      waiting the moment that draws so close—O the moment!

A huge sob—a few bubbles—the white foam spirting up—and then the
      women gone,
Sinking there while the passionless wet flows on—and I now
      pondering, Are those women indeed gone?
Are souls drown'd and destroy'd so?
Is only matter triumphant?

1. Leaves of Grass. 21. Drum-Taps. 35. How Solemn As One by One [Washington City, 1865]
2. Leaves of Grass. 30. Whispers of Heavenly Death. 5. Yet, Yet, Ye Downcast Hours
3. Leaves of Grass. 35. Good-Bye My Fancy. 7. The Pallid Wreath
4. Leaves of Grass. 32. From Noon to Starry Night. 9. Excelsior
5. Leaves of Grass. 34. Sands at Seventy. 11. The Wallabout Martyrs

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