Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

RECONCILIATION by WALT WHITMAN

Poet Analysis

First Line: WORD OVER ALL, BEAUTIFUL AS THE SKY
Last Line: BEND DOWN AND TOUCH LIGHTLY WITH MY LIPS THE WHITE FACE IN THE COFFIN.
Subject(s): AMERICAN CIVIL WAR; UNITED STATES - HISTORY;
Word over all, beautiful as the sky,
Beautiful that war and all its deeds of carnage must in
time be utterly lost,
That the hands of the sisters Death and Night incessantly
softly wash again, and ever again, this soil'd world;
For my enemy is dead, a man divine as myself is dead,
I look where he lies white-faced and still in the coffin--I draw near,
Bend down and touch lightly with my lips the white face in the coffin.



Home: PoetryExplorer.net