English poetry

Poets • Biographies • Poems by Themes • Random Poem •
The Rating of Poets • The Rating of Poems

Poem by Walt Whitman


Leaves of Grass. 21. Drum-Taps. 42. Turn O Libertad


Turn O Libertad, for the war is over,
From it and all henceforth expanding, doubting no more, resolute,
      sweeping the world,
Turn from lands retrospective recording proofs of the past,
From the singers that sing the trailing glories of the past,
From the chants of the feudal world, the triumphs of kings, slavery, caste,
Turn to the world, the triumphs reserv'd and to come—give up that
      backward world,
Leave to the singers of hitherto, give them the trailing past,
But what remains remains for singers for you—wars to come are for you,
(Lo, how the wars of the past have duly inured to you, and the wars
      of the present also inure;)
Then turn, and be not alarm'd O Libertad—turn your undying face,
To where the future, greater than all the past,
Is swiftly, surely preparing for you.



Walt Whitman


Walt Whitman's other poems:
  1. Leaves of Grass. 34. Sands at Seventy. 56. Old Age's Lambent Peaks
  2. Leaves of Grass. 34. Sands at Seventy. 32. Life
  3. Leaves of Grass. 5. Calamus. 16. Behold This Swarthy Face
  4. Leaves of Grass. 5. Calamus. 21. The Prairie-Grass Dividing
  5. Leaves of Grass. 21. Drum-Taps. 12. An Army Corps on the March


Poem to print Print

2665 Views



Last Poems


To Russian version



English Poetry. E-mail eng-poetry.ru@yandex.ru