Passage to india walt whitman. Walt Whitman's "Passage to India" 2022-12-13
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Walt Whitman's "Passage to India" is a poem that explores the vastness and diversity of the Indian subcontinent, and the sense of connection and unity that Whitman feels with the people and cultures of India.
The poem begins with a description of the vastness of India, with its "hundred-gated Thebes" and "spicy groves" that stretch out to the horizon. Whitman evokes the sense of wonder and awe that he feels as he contemplates the vastness of India, and the endless possibilities that it holds.
As the poem progresses, Whitman begins to reflect on the many cultures and traditions that make up India, and the ways in which they are all connected and interwoven. He speaks of the "Hindus, Buddhists, Mohemmedans" and the "Parsees" as all being part of the same great tapestry, and he celebrates the diversity and richness of the Indian people.
Whitman also reflects on the deep spiritual connections that he feels with India, and the ways in which the country has shaped his own understanding of the world and his place within it. He speaks of the "gods" that he encounters in India, and the sense of mystery and transcendence that they bring to his life.
Overall, "Passage to India" is a powerful and moving celebration of the vastness and diversity of India, and the sense of connection and unity that Whitman feels with the people and cultures of the country. Through his evocative language and vivid imagery, Whitman captures the essence of India and the deep spiritual connections that he feels with it.
Walt Whitman
Alternate light and day, and the teeming, spiritual darkness; Unspeakable, high processions of sun and moon, and countless stars, above; Below, the manifold grass and waters, animals, mountains, trees; With inscrutable purposeāsome hidden, prophetic intention; Now, first, it seems, my thought begins to span thee. O secret of the earth and sky! Are they not all the seas of God? What dreams of the ideal? After asking himself if he is ready to go further on his journey, the reply is an eventual yes and he commands the anchor to be lifted. Soundest below the Sanscrit and the Vedas? Physical unity has been achieved, but the great spiritual problem remains: And who shall soothe iMse feverish children? Leaves of Grass: A Textual Variorum of the Printed Poems, 1855-1856. With laugh, and many a kiss, Let others deprecateālet others weep for sin, remorse, humiliation; O soul, thou pleasest meāI thee. About Walt Whitman Whitman worked as a nurse during the Civil War and traveled throughout the New York area recording what he saw. The far-darting beams of the spirit! After the seas are all cross'd, as they seem already cross'd, After the great captains and engineers have accomplish'd their work, After the noble inventorsāafter the scientists, the chemist, the geologist, ethnologist, Finally shall come the Poet, worthy that name; The true Son of God shall come, singing his songs.
Who bind it to us? Have we not darken'd and dazed ourselves with books long enough? Waitest not haply for us, somewhere there, the Comrade perfect? Year of the marriage of continents, climates and oceans! Waitest not haply for us, somewhere there, the Comrade perfect? Yet, soul, be sure the first intent remainsāand shall be carried out; Perhaps even now the time has arrived. Passage to you, to mastership of you, ye strangling problems! Ah, who shall soothe these feverish children? O daring joy, but safe! The poet must give a new faith, a new light, for the future generations: The Pastāthe dark unfathomed retrospect! Down from the gardens of Asia, descending, radiating, Adam and Eve appear, then their myriad progeny after them, Wandering, yearning, curiousāwith restless explorations, With questionings, baffled, formless, feverishāwith never-happy hearts, With that sad, incessant refrain, Wherefore, unsatisfied Soul? With laugh, and many a kiss, Let others deprecateālet others weep for sin, remorse, humiliation O soul, thou pleasest meāI thee. Ah, more than any priest, O soul, we too believe in God; But with the mystery of God we dare not dally. The speaker now directly addresses the nations of the world who no longer have the gusto they once had for exploration. And who art thou, sad shade? Towers of fables immortal, fashion'd from mortal dreams! Greater than stars or suns, Bounding, O soul, thou journeyest forth; āWhat love, than thine and ours could wider amplify? Of you, strong mountains of my land! Not you alone, proud truths of the world! Not you alone, proud truths of the world! Nor you alone, ye facts of modern science! We too take ship, O soul! The pull of exploration is like a current running through the human race and he is a part of it and wants to feel the connectivity of the earth. Not lands and seas aloneāthy own clear freshness, The young maturity of brood and bloom; To realms of budding bibles.
leaves of grass with leaves of grass passage to india Full Book
O daring joy, but safe! O day and night, passage to you! Of you, strong mountains of my land! O pensive soul of me! What aspirations, wishes, outvie thine and ours, O soul? O secret of the earth and sky! Thou mightier centre of the true, the good, the loving! Joyous, we too launch out on trackless seas! Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me; For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go, And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all. Section 2 Passage, O soul, to India! Along all history, down the slopes, As a rivulet running, sinking now, and now again to the surface rising, A ceaseless thought, a varied traināLo, soul! Of you, O waters of the sea! Ah, who shall soothe these feverish children? Nor you alone, ye facts of modern science! Ah, who shall soothe these feverish children? Gigantic, visionary, thyself a visionary, With majestic limbs, and pious, beaming eyes, Spreading around, with every look of thine, a golden world, Enhuing it with gorgeous hues. Disportest thou on waters such as these? In his view, every perspective is worth celebrating. Passage to you, your shores, ye aged fierce enigmas! Nor you alone, ye facts of modern science! Bradley, Sculley; Blodgett, Harold W. O farther, farther, farther sail! Curious, in time, I stand, noting the efforts of heroes; Is the deferment long? Soundest below the Sanscrit and the Vedas? Fearless, for unknown shores, on waves of extasy to sail, Amid the wafting winds, thou pressing me to thee, I thee to me, O soul, Caroling freeāsinging our song of God, Chanting our chant of pleasant exploration. O winding creeks and rivers! He thinks of 1492 when Columbus first landed in America and how that discovery awakened the world, but that time is dying.
You too I welcome, and fully, the same as the rest; You too with joy I sing. Section 13 Passage to more than India! How should I thinkāhow breathe a single breathāhow speakāif, out of myself, I could not launch, to those, superior universes? Gigantic, visionary, thyself a visionary, With majestic limbs, and pious, beaming eyes, Spreading around, with every look of thine, a golden world, Enhuing it with gorgeous hues. What dreams of the ideal? Are they not all the seas of God? Lo, soul, the retrospect, brought forward; The old, most populous, wealthiest of Earth's lands, The streams of the Indus and the Ganges, and their many affluents; I, my shores of America walking to-day, behold, resuming all, The tale of Alexander, on his warlike marches, suddenly dying, On one side China, and on the other side Persia and Arabia, To the south the great seas, and the Bay of Bengal; The flowing literatures, tremendous epics, religions, castes, Old occult Brahma, interminably far backāthe tender and junior Buddha, Central and southern empires, and all their belongings, possessors, The wars of Tamerlane, the reign of Aurungzebe, The traders, rulers, explorers, Moslems, Venetians, Byzantium, the Arabs, Portuguese, The first travelers, famous yet, Marco Polo, Batouta the Moor, Doubts to be solv'd, the map incognita, blanks to be fill'd, The foot of man unstay'd, the hands never at rest, Thyself, O soul, that will not brook a challenge. O secret of the earth and sky! Disportest thou on waters such as these? The P assage to India is not easy, many have died on the way. O farther, farther, farther sail! Down from the gardens of Asia, descending, radiating, Adam and Eve appear, then their myriad progeny after them, Wandering, yearning, curiousāwith restless explorations, With questionings, baffled, formless, feverishāwith never-happy hearts, With that sad, incessant refrain, Wherefore, unsatisfied Soul? O day and night, passage to you! Complexity and richness has been achieved by the use of a number of complex, growing and evolving symbols. O farther, farther, farther sail! O sun and moon, and all you stars! Swiftly I shrivel at the thought of God, At Nature and its wonders, Time and Space and Death, But that I, turning, call to thee, O soul, thou actual Me, And lo! These works, the Suez Canal, the great American Railway, and the transatlantic cable allowed men and women to know one another in a new way.
This section begins with the poet describing the lands of America. Whitman credits both technology and art here. A resident of San Francisco, she received a 2007 Rona. But myths and fables of eldāAsia's, Africa's fables! His verse argues that there are different ways of knowingāthrough scientific knowledge and through the wisdom of ancient stories. Whitman did not make much sense to back then.
Eclaircise the myths Asiatic, the primitive fables. Not you alone, proud truths of the world! Curious, in time, I stand, noting the efforts of heroes; Is the deferment long? O sun and moon, and all you stars! And he actually ordered me lunch simply because I discovered it for himā¦ lol. What is this Earth, to our affections? Each phrase, almost hyperbolic in its sentiments, is lush in its diction. Of these visionaries, one dominated the rest, Columbus. Have we not grovell'd here long enough, eating and drinking like mere brutes? Who speak the secret of impassive Earth? The sense of inclusiveness is ultimately one of the sentiments Whitman is trying to convey here. What dreams of the ideal? Repetition plays a key role in his praise.
Walt Whitman: Ć¢ā¬ÅA Passage to IndiaĆ¢ā¬Ā by Robin Ekiss
Have we not stood here like trees in the ground long enough? O you fables, spurning the known, eluding the hold of the known, mounting to heaven! And who will be able to soothe those that desire travel? In one, again, different, yet thine, all thine, O soul, the same, I see over my own continent the Pacific Railroad, surmounting every barrier; I see continual trains of cars winding along the Platte, carrying freight and passengers; I hear the locomotives rushing and roaring, and the shrill steam- whistle, I hear the echoes reverberate through the grandest scenery in the world; I cross the Laramie plainsāI note the rocks in grotesque shapesāthe buttes; I see the plentiful larkspur and wild onionsāthe barren, colorless, sage-deserts; I see in glimpses afar, or towering immediately above me, the great mountainsāI see the Wind River and the Wahsatch mountains; I see the Monument mountain and the Eagle's NestāI pass the PromontoryāI ascend the Nevadas; I scan the noble Elk mountain, and wind around its base; I see the Humboldt rangeāI thread the valley and cross the river, I see the clear waters of Lake TahoeāI see forests of majestic pines, Or, crossing the great desert, the alkaline plains, I behold enchanting mirages of waters and meadows; Marking through these, and after all, in duplicate slender lines, Bridging the three or four thousand miles of land travel, Tying the Eastern to the Western sea, The road between Europe and Asia. It sinks and rises but is always there. The far-darting beams of the spirit! O day and night, passage to you! O soul, thou pleasest meāI thee; Sailing these seas, or on the hills, or waking in the night, Thoughts, silent thoughts, of Time, and Space, and Death, like waters flowing, Bear me, indeed, as through the regions infinite, Whose air I breathe, whose ripples hearālave me all over; Bathe me, O God, in theeāmounting to thee, I and my soul to range in range of thee. Year at whose open'd, wide-flung door I sing! You too I welcome, and fully, the same as the rest; You too with joy I sing. What is this separate Nature, so unnatural? Who bind it to us? O you fables, spurning the known, eluding the hold of the known, mounting to heaven! Fearless, for unknown shores, on waves of extasy to sail, Amid the wafting winds, thou pressing me to thee, I thee to me, O soul, Caroling freeāsinging our song of God, Chanting our chant of pleasant exploration. From his spiritual and mental position, the specter of all those has come before he greets his travels. By joining the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea via an artificial waterway, it allowed transportation and trade between Europe and Asia in record time, without navigating around Africa.
O daring joy, but safe! How should I thinkāhow breathe a single breathāhow speakāif, out of myself, I could not launch, to those, superior universes? For others' sake to suffer all? For what is the present, after all, but a growth out of the past? The canal promised to change the face of world commerce, but it also extended the possibilities of cultural exchange between nations. Waitest not haply for us, somewhere there, the Comrade perfect? Centuries after thou art laid in thy grave, The shore thou foundest verifies thy dream! Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me; For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go, And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all. O pensive soul of me! Of you, O woods and fields! The deep diving bibles and legends; The daring plots of the poetsāthe elder religions; āO you temples fairer than lilies, pour'd over by the rising sun! This long poem in nine sections has, as its prevailing theme mysticism, and hence its appeal has been universal. Of you, O waters of the sea! O daring joy, but safe! We too take ship, O soul! Thou mightier centre of the true, the good, the loving! Union of all is the quest of the human soul and purpose of God. Joyous, we too launch out on trackless seas! What aspirations, wishes, outvie thine and ours, O soul? Passage, O soul, to India! Who speak the secret of impassive Earth? Year of the purpose accomplish'd! Disportest thou on waters such as these? Ah, who shall soothe these feverish children? Passage to more than India! O Soul, voyagest thou indeed on voyages like these? His spirit will be bathed in God and his soul will be lifted to God-like proportions.
