We are parts of a vaster thing than we, Not isolated aliens astray: We walk and breathe in a totality That links all men in its organic sway. Vaster than this, we grow within a one That clasps all things that grow within its heart; Yes, all the lifelessness from sun to sun Shares in the body in which we have part. How can the part prove traitor to the whole, Or how rebel against itself? No more Than body could rebel against the soul, Or soul betray the body that it wore. We are, for all our struts and ecstasies, Inexorably one with all that is. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...COMPANIONS by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON ADMETUS; TO MY FRIEND RALPH WALDO EMERSON by EMMA LAZARUS THAT NATURE IS A HERACLITEAN FIRE & OF THE COMFORT OF THE RESURRECTION by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS THE HOUSE WITH NOBODY IN IT by ALFRED JOYCE KILMER |