Poem of the Day: ‘A Song for the Rolling Earth’ by Walt Whitman

It’s only appropriate that Earth Day should fall in National Poetry Month; what more universal Muse have poets known over the centuries than Mother Nature? (Well all right, a case could be made for love, sure, but Mother Nature has surely broken fewer hearts and inspired more odes than laments in comparison.)  In honor of Mother Earth, today’s poem comes from Walt Whitman’s A Song of the Rolling Earth. We’ve highlighted part three of this long poem, which can be found in its entirety in The Complete Poems (Penguin Classics, 2005.)

If you’re looking for something to read out in the open air today, we also recommend Whitman’s Leaves of Grass and Song of Myself.  His rolling verse is perfect for reading in the breeze. Enjoy it all today.

~

Song of the Rolling Earth

3

I swear the earth shall surely be complete to him or her who shall
be complete,
The earth remains jagged and broken only to him or her who
remains jagged and broken.

I swear there is no greatness or power that does not emulate
those of the earth,
There can be no theory of any account unless it corroborate the
theory of the earth,
No politics, song, religion, behavior, or what not, is of account,
unless it compare with the amplitude of the earth,
Unless it face the exactness, vitality, impartiality, rectitude of the
earth.

I swear I begin to see love with sweeter spasms than that which
responds love,
It is that which contains itself, which never invites and never
refuses.

I swear I begin to see little or nothing in audible words,
All merges toward the presentation of the unspoken meanings
of the earth,
Toward him who sings the songs of the body and of the truths
of the earth,
Toward him who makes the dictionaries of words that print can-
not touch.

I swear I see what is better than to tell the best,
It is always to leave the best untold.

When I undertake to tell the best I find I cannot,
My tongue is ineffectual on its pivots,
My breath will not be obedient to its organs,
I become a dumb man.

~Walt Whitman

For extensive information on Walt Whitman, be sure to visit The Walt Whitman Archive. An extensive biography is also available over at www.poets.org.