Upton Sinclair, ed. (1878–1968). rn The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest. 1915.
As a Strong Bird on Pinions FreeWhitman, Walt
Walt Whitman
(Americas most original and creative poet, 18191892; printer and journalist, during the war an army nurse, and later a government clerk, discharged for publishing what his superiors considered an indecent book)B
Like a limitless golden cloud, filling the western sky.…
Thou Wonder World, yet undefined, unformed—neither do I define thee;
How can I pierce the impenetrable blank of the future?
I feel thy ominous greatness, evil as well as good;
I watch thee, advancing, absorbing the present, transcending the past;
I see thy light lighting and thy shadow shadowing, as if the entire globe;
But I do not undertake to define thee—hardly to comprehend thee;
I but thee name—thee prophesy—as now!