Poem by Walt Whitman

Leaves of Grass. 33. Songs of Parting. 6. As at Thy Portals Also Death

As at thy portals also death,
Entering thy sovereign, dim, illimitable grounds,
To memories of my mother, to the divine blending, maternity,
To her, buried and gone, yet buried not, gone not from me,
(I see again the calm benignant face fresh and beautiful still,
I sit by the form in the coffin,
I kiss and kiss convulsively again the sweet old lips, the cheeks,
      the closed eyes in the coffin;)
To her, the ideal woman, practical, spiritual, of all of earth,
      life, love, to me the best,
I grave a monumental line, before I go, amid these songs,
And set a tombstone here.

1. Leaves of Grass. 34. Sands at Seventy. 39. Life and Death
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3. Leaves of Grass. 34. Sands at Seventy. 47. Orange Buds by Mail from Florida
4. Leaves of Grass. 34. Sands at Seventy. 46. Twenty Years
5. Leaves of Grass. 34. Sands at Seventy. Fancies at Navesink. 6. Proudly the Flood Comes In

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