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Rather long, but definitely worth the read. I consider this poem extremely inspiring since I almost always end up writing something after I've read it. Enjoy![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]by Walt Whitman[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif](1819-1892)[/FONT]
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Out of the cradle endlessly rocking,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Out of the mocking-bird's throat, the musical shuttle,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Out of the Ninth-month midnight,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Over the sterile sands and the fields beyond, where the child[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]leaving his bed wander'd alone, bareheaded, barefoot,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Down from the shower'd halo,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Up from the mystic play of shadows twining and twisting as if they[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]were alive,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Out from the patches of briers and blackberries,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]From the memories of the bird that chanted to me,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]From your memories sad brother, from the fitful risings and fallings I heard,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]From under that yellow half-moon late-risen and swollen as if with tears,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]From those beginning notes of yearning and love there in the mist,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]From the thousand responses of my heart never to cease,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]From the myriad thence-arous'd words,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]From the word stronger and more delicious than any,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]From such as now they start the scene revisiting,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]As a flock, twittering, rising, or overhead passing,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Borne hither, ere all eludes me, hurriedly,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]A man, yet by these tears a little boy again,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Throwing myself on the sand, confronting the waves,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]I, chanter of pains and joys, uniter of here and hereafter,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Taking all hints to use them, but swiftly leaping beyond them,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]A reminiscence sing.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Once Paumanok,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]When the lilac-scent was in the air and Fifth-month grass was growing,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Up this seashore in some briers,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Two feather'd guests from Alabama, two together,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]And their nest, and four light-green eggs spotted with brown,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]And every day the he-bird to and fro near at hand,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]And every day the she-bird crouch'd on her nest, silent, with bright eyes,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]And every day I, a curious boy, never too close, never disturbing[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]them,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Cautiously peering, absorbing, translating.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Shine! shine! shine![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Pour down your warmth, great sun.'[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]While we bask, we two together.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Two together![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Winds blow south, or winds blow north,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Day come white, or night come black,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Home, or rivers and mountains from home,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Singing all time, minding no time,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]While we two keep together.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Till of a sudden,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]May-be kill'd, unknown to her mate,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]One forenoon the she-bird crouch'd not on the nest,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Nor return'd that afternoon, nor the next,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Nor ever appear'd again.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]And thenceforward all summer in the sound of the sea,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]And at night under the full of the moon in calmer weather,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Over the hoarse surging of the sea,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Or flitting from brier to brier by day,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]I saw, I heard at intervals the remaining one, the he-bird,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The solitary guest from Alabama.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Blow! blow! blow![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Blow up sea-winds along Paumanok's shore;[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]I wait and I wait till you blow my mate to me.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Yes, when the stars glisten'd,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]All night long on the prong of a moss-scallop'd stake,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Down almost amid the slapping waves,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Sat the lone singer wonderful causing tears.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]He call'd on his mate,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]He pour'd forth the meanings which I of all men know.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Yes my brother I know,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The rest might not, but I have treasur'd every note,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]For more than once dimly down to the beach gliding,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Silent, avoiding the moonbeams, blending myself with the shadows,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Recalling now the obscure shapes, the echoes, the sounds and sights[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]after their sorts,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The white arms out in the breakers tirelessly tossing,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]I, with bare feet, a child, the wind wafting my hair,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Listen'd long and long.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Listen'd to keep, to sing, now translating the notes,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Following you my brother.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Soothe! soothe! soothe![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Close on its wave soothes the wave behind,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]And again another behind embracing and lapping, every one close,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]But my love soothes not me, not me.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Low hangs the moon, it rose late,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]It is lagging--O I think it is heavy with love, with love.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]O madly the sea pushes upon the land,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]With love, with love.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]O night! do I not see my love fluttering out among the breakers?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]What is that little black thing I see there in the white?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Loud! loud! loud![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Loud I call to you, my love![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]High and clear I shoot my voice over the waves,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Surely you must know who is here, is here,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]You must know who I am, my love.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Low-hanging moon![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]What is that dusky spot in your brown yellow?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]O it is the shape, the shape of my mate.'[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]O moon do not keep her from me any longer.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Land! land! O land![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Whichever way I turn, O I think you could give me my mate back again[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]if you only would,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]For I am almost sure I see her dimly whichever way I look.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]O rising stars![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Perhaps the one I want so much will rise, will rise with some of you.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]O throat! O trembling throat![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Sound clearer through the atmosphere![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Pierce the woods, the earth,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Somewhere listening to catch you must be the one I want.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Shake out carols![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Solitary here, the night's carols![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Carols of lonesome love! death's carols![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Carols under that lagging, yellow, waning moon![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]O under that moon where she droops almost down into the sea![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]O reckless despairing carols.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]But soft! sink low![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Soft! let me just murmur,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]And do you wait a moment you husky-nois'd sea,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]For somewhere I believe I heard my mate responding to me,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]So faint, I must be still, be still to listen,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]But not altogether still, for then she might not come immediately to me.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hither my love![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Here I am! here![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]With this just-sustain'd note I announce myself to you,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]This gentle call is for you my love, for you.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Do not be decoy'd elsewhere,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]That is the whistle of the wind, it is not my voice,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]That is the fluttering, the fluttering of the spray,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Those are the shadows of leaves.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]O darkness! O in vain![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]O I am very sick and sorrowful[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]O brown halo in the sky near the moon, drooping upon the sea![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]O troubled reflection in the sea![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]O throat! O throbbing heart![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]And I singing uselessly, uselessly all the night.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]O past! O happy life! O songs of joy![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]In the air, in the woods, over fields,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Loved! loved! loved! loved! loved![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]But my mate no more, no more with me![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]We two together no more.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The aria sinking,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]All else continuing, the stars shining,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The winds blowing, the notes of the bird continuous echoing,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]With angry moans the fierce old mother incessantly moaning,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]On the sands of Paumanok's shore gray and rustling,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The yellow half-moon enlarged, sagging down, drooping, the face of[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]the sea almost touching,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The boy ecstatic, with his bare feet the waves, with his hair the[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]atmosphere dallying,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The love in the heart long pent, now loose, now at last tumultuously[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]bursting,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The aria's meaning, the ears, the soul, swiftly depositing,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The strange tears down the cheeks coursing,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The colloquy there, the trio, each uttering,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The undertone, the savage old mother incessantly crying,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]To the boy's soul's questions sullenly timing, some drown'd secret hissing,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]To the outsetting bard.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Demon or bird! (said the boy's soul,)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Is it indeed toward your mate you sing? or is it really to me?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]For I, that was a child, my tongue's use sleeping, now I have heard you,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Now in a moment I know what I am for, I awake,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]And already a thousand singers, a thousand songs, clearer, louder[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]and more sorrowful than yours,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]A thousand warbling echoes have started to life within me, never to die.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]O you singer solitary, singing by yourself, projecting me,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]O solitary me listening, never more shall I cease perpetuating you,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Never more shall I escape, never more the reverberations,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Never more the cries of unsatisfied love be absent from me,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Never again leave me to be the peaceful child I was before what[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]there in the night,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]By the sea under the yellow and sagging moon,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The messenger there arous'd, the fire, the sweet hell within,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The unknown want, the destiny of me.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]O give me the clue! (it lurks in the night here somewhere,)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]O if I am to have so much, let me have more![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]A word then, (for I will conquer it,)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The word final, superior to all,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Subtle, sent up--what is it?--I listen;[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Are you whispering it, and have been all the time, you sea-waves?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Is that it from your liquid rims and wet sands?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Whereto answering, the sea,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Delaying not, hurrying not,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Whisper'd me through the night, and very plainly before daybreak,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Lisp'd to me the low and delicious word death,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]And again death, death, death, death[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hissing melodious, neither like the bird nor like my arous'd child's heart,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]But edging near as privately for me rustling at my feet,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Creeping thence steadily up to my ears and laving me softly all over,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Death, death, death, death, death.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Which I do not forget.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]But fuse the song of my dusky demon and brother,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]That he sang to me in the moonlight on Paumanok's gray beach,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]With the thousand responsive songs at random,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]My own songs awaked from that hour,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]And with them the key, the word up from the waves,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The word of the sweetest song and all songs,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]That strong and delicious word which, creeping to my feet,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif](Or like some old crone rocking the cradle, swathed in sweet[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]garments, bending aside,)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The sea whisper'd me.[/FONT]