Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ELEMENTAL DRIFTS: 1, by WALT WHITMAN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ELEMENTAL DRIFTS: 1, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: As I ebbed with the ocean of life
Last Line: As I walk'd with that electric self seeking types.
Variant Title(s): As I Ebb'd With The Ocean Of Life: 3;as I Ebb'd With The Ocean Of Life: 1


1

As I ebb'd with the ocean of life,
As I wended the shores I know,
As I walk'd where the ripples continually wash you Paumanok,
Where they rustle up hoarse and sibilant,
Where the fierce old mother endlessly cries for her castaways,
I musing late in the autumn day, gazing off southward,
Held by this electric self out of the pride of which I utter poems,
Was seiz'd by the spirit that trails in the lines underfoot,
The rim, the sediment that stands for all the water and all
the land of the globe.

Fascinated, my eyes reverting from the south, dropt, to
follow those slender windrows,
Chaff, straw, splinters of wood, weeds, and the sea-gluten,
Scum, scales from shining rocks, leaves of salt-lettuce,
left by the tide, Miles walking, the sound of
breaking waves the other side of me,
Paumanok there and then as I thought the old thought of likenesses,
These you presented to me you fish-shaped island,
As I wended the shores I know,
As I walk'd with that electric self seeking types.





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