Poem by Walt Whitman

Leaves of Grass. 34. Sands at Seventy. 40. The Voice of the Rain

And who art thou? said I to the soft-falling shower,
Which, strange to tell, gave me an answer, as here translated:
I am the Poem of Earth, said the voice of the rain,
Eternal I rise impalpable out of the land and the bottomless sea,
Upward to heaven, whence, vaguely form'd, altogether changed, and
      yet the same,
I descend to lave the drouths, atomies, dust-layers of the globe,
And all that in them without me were seeds only, latent, unborn;
And forever, by day and night, I give back life to my own origin,
      and make pure and beautify it;
(For song, issuing from its birth-place, after fulfilment, wandering,
Reck'd or unreck'd, duly with love returns.)

1. Leaves of Grass. 34. Sands at Seventy. 47. Orange Buds by Mail from Florida
2. Leaves of Grass. 34. Sands at Seventy. 31. Yonnondio
3. Leaves of Grass. 34. Sands at Seventy. 39. Life and Death
4. Leaves of Grass. 20. By the Roadside. 8. Perfections
5. Leaves of Grass. 20. By the Roadside. 28. Offerings

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