At the last, tenderly, From the walls of the powerful, fortress'd house, From the clasp of the knitted locks -- from the keep of the well-closed doors, Let me be wafted. Let me glide noiselessly forth; With the key of softness unlock the locks -- with a whisper, Set [ope]1 the doors, O Soul! Tenderly! be not impatient! (Strong is your hold, O mortal flesh! Strong is your hold, O Love.)
Three Poems Of Walt Whitman
Song Cycle by Andrew Hudson
1. At the last  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
Text Authorship:
- by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), "The last invocation", appears in Leaves of Grass, first published 1900
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View original text (without footnotes)1 Bacon: "up"; Pederson: "open"
Research team for this page: Ted Perry , Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]
2. I celebrate myself  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. I loafe and invite my soul, I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass. My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this soil, this air, Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same, I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin, Hoping to cease not till death. Creeds and schools in abeyance, Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten, I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard, Nature without check with original energy.
Text Authorship:
- by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), no title, appears in Song of Myself, no. 1
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]3. I sing the body electric  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
I sing the Body electric; The armies of those I love engirth me, and I engirth them; They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them, And discorrupt them, and charge them full with the charge of the Soul. Was it doubted that those who corrupt their own bodies conceal themselves; And if those who defile the living are as bad as they who defile the dead? And if the body does not do as much as the Soul? And if the body were not the Soul, what is the Soul?
Text Authorship:
- by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), no title, appears in I Sing the Body Electric, no. 1
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]Total word count: 288