by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892)
Lo! keen‑eyed, towering Science!
Language: English
Lo! keen-eyed, towering Science! As from tall peaks the Modern overlooking, Successive, absolute fiats issuing. Yet again, lo! the Soul -- above all science; For it, has History gather'd like a husk around the globe; For it, the entire star-myriads roll through the sky. In spiral roads, by long detours, (As a much-tacking ship upon the sea,) For it, the partial to the permanent flowing, For it, the Real to the Ideal tends. For it, the mystic evolution; Not the right only justified -- what we call evil also justified. Forth from their masks, no matter what, From the huge, festering trunk -- from craft and guile and tears, Health to emerge, and joy -- joy universal. Out of the bulk, the morbid and the shallow, Out of the bad majority -- the varied, countless frauds of men and States, Electric, antiseptic yet -- cleaving, suffusing all, Only the good is universal.
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
- by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), no title, appears in Song of the Universal, no. 2 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- [ None yet in the database ]
This text (or a part of it) is used in a work
- by Homer Albert Norris (1860?5 - 1920), "Come, said the Muse", published 1903 [vocal trio for soprano, tenor, and baritone with piano], from The Flight of the Eagle.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2009-02-11
Line count: 19
Word count: 146