Home ⇒ 📌Walt Whitman ⇒ Of the Terrible Doubt of Appearances
Of the Terrible Doubt of Appearances
OF the terrible doubt of appearances,
Of the uncertainty after all-that we may be deluded,
That may-be reliance and hope are but speculations after all,
That may-be identity beyond the grave is a beautiful fable only,
May-be the things I perceive-the animals, plants, men, hills, shining and flowing
waters,
The skies of day and night-colors, densities, forms-May-be these are, (as
doubtless
they
are,) only apparitions, and the real something has yet to be known;
(How often they dart out of themselves, as if to confound me and mock me!
How often I think neither I know, nor any man knows, aught of them;)
May-be seeming to me what they are, (as doubtless they indeed but seem,) as from my
present
point of
view-And might prove, (as of course they would,) naught of what they appear, or
naught
any how,
from entirely changed points of view;
-To me, these, and the like of these,
dear
friends;
When he whom I love travels with me, or sits a long while holding me by the hand,
When the subtle air, the impalpable, the sense that words and reason hold not, surround us
and
pervade us,
Then I am charged with untold and untellable wisdom-I am silent-I require
nothing
further,
I cannot answer the question of appearances, or that of identity beyond the grave;
But I walk or sit indifferent-I am satisfied,
He ahold of my hand has completely satisfied me.
(2 votes, average: 2.50 out of 5)Related poetry:
- It don't sound so terrible quite as it did It don’t sound so terrible quite as it did I run it over “Dead”, Brain, “Dead.” Put it in Latin left of my school Seems it don’t shriek so under rule. Turn it, a little full in the face A Trouble looks bitterest Shift it just Say “When Tomorrow comes this way I shall have […]...
- The Terrible Abstractions The naked hunter’s fist, bunched round his spear, Was tight and wet inside with sweat of fear; He heard behind him what the hunted hear. The silence in the undergrowth crept near; Its mischief tickled in his nervous ear And he became the prey, the quivering deer. The naked hunter feared the threat he knew: […]...
- Shut Not Your Doors, &c SHUT not your doors to me, proud libraries, For that which was lacking on all your well-fill’d shelves, yet needed most, I bring; Forth from the army, the war emerging-a book I have made, The words of my book nothing-the drift of it everything; A book separate, not link’d with the rest, nor felt by […]...
- The Two Friends AXIOCHUS, a handsome youth of old, And Alcibiades, (both gay and bold,) So well agreed, they kept a beauteous belle, With whom by turns they equally would dwell. IT happened, one of them so nicely played, The fav’rite lass produced a little maid, Which both extolled, and each his own believed, Though doubtless one or […]...
- Doubt 1 They bade me cast the thing away, 2 They pointed to my hands all bleeding, 3 They listened not to all my pleading; 4 The thing I meant I could not say; 5 I knew that I should rue the day 6 If once I cast that thing away. 7 I grasped it firm, […]...
- A doubt if it be Us A doubt if it be Us Assists the staggering Mind In an extremer Anguish Until it footing find. An Unreality is lent, A merciful Mirage That makes the living possible While it suspends the lives....
- Doubt My soul lives in my body’s house, And you have both the house and her- But sometimes she is less your own Than a wild, gay adventurer; A restless and an eager wraith, How can I tell what she will do- Oh, I am sure of my body’s faith, But what if my soul broke […]...
- Oh! Doubt Me Not Oh! doubt me not the season Is o’er when Folly made me rove, And now the vestal, Reason, Shall watch the fire awaked by Love. Although this heart was early blown, And fairest hands disturb’d the tree, They only shook some blossoms down Its fruit has all been kept for thee. Then doubt me not […]...
- Passport They did not recognize me in the shadows That suck away my color in this Passport And to them my wound was an exhibit For a tourist Who loves to collect photographs They did not recognize me, Ah. . . Don’t leave The palm of my hand without the sun Because the trees recognize me […]...
- Sanity I’ve held you all these years, Supporting you through all. I plead for your hand just this once, Then I realise I was always alone, Suffering with my hidden pain, Struggling with my past. These wounds won’t mend. I’m tired of being around, Caught up in my fears each day, Time cannot rub them out. […]...
- A Doubt of Martyrdom O for some honest lover’s ghost, Some kind unbodied post Sent from the shades below! I strangely long to know Whether the noble chaplets wear Those that their mistress’ scorn did bear Or those that were used kindly. For whatsoe’er they tell us here To make those sufferings dear, ‘Twill there, I fear, be found […]...
- Doubt No More That Oberon Doubt no more that Oberon- Never doubt that Pan Lived, and played a reed, and ran After nymphs in a dark forest, In the merry, credulous days,- Lived, and led a fairy band Over the indulgent land! Ah, for in this dourest, sorest Age man’s eye has looked upon, Death to fauns and death to […]...
- Not the Pilot NOT the pilot has charged himself to bring his ship into port, though beaten back, and many times baffled; Not the path-finder, penetrating inland, weary and long, By deserts parch’d, snows-chill’d, rivers wet, perseveres till he reaches his destination, More than I have charged myself, heeded or unheeded, to compose a free march for These […]...
- Doubt Me! My Dim Companion! Doubt Me! My Dim Companion! Why, God, would be content With but a fraction of the Life Poured thee, without a stint The whole of me forever What more the Woman can, Say quick, that I may dower thee With last Delight I own! It cannot be my Spirit For that was thine, before I […]...
- My Worthiness is all my Doubt My Worthiness is all my Doubt His Merit all my fear Contrasting which, my quality Do lowlier appear Lest I should insufficient prove For His beloved Need The Chiefest Apprehension Upon my thronging Mind ‘Tis true that Deity to stoop Inherently incline For nothing higher than Itself Itself can rest upon So I the undivine […]...
- Benefit of doubt It’s a ruling from the field of pain (devoid of antique nave, A judgement process aptly named ‘benefit of doubt’); You’ve encountered it without veneer in waning times Where referees decline to rule on what is dreamed – where benefits per se are favoured the brave. I endeavoured to design a way to aid our […]...
- Me prove it now Whoever doubt Me prove it now Whoever doubt Me stop to prove it now Make haste the Scruple! Death be scant For Opportunity The River reaches to my feet As yet My Heart be dry Oh Lover Life could not convince Might Death enable Thee The River reaches to My Breast Still still My Hands above Proclaim […]...
- Why make it doubt it hurts it so Why make it doubt it hurts it so So sick to guess So strong to know So brave upon its little Bed To tell the very last They said Unto Itself and smile And shake For that dear distant dangerous Sake But the Instead the Pinching fear That Something it did do or dare Offend […]...
- A Leader THOUGH your eyes with tears were blind, Pain upon the path you trod: Well we knew, the hosts behind, Voice and shining of a god. For your darkness was our day: Signal fires, your pains untold Lit us on our wandering way To the mystic heart of gold. Naught we knew of the high land, […]...
- It always felt to me a wrong It always felt to me a wrong To that Old Moses done To let him see the Canaan Without the entering And tho’ in soberer moments No Moses there can be I’m satisfied the Romance In point of injury Surpasses sharper stated Of Stephen or of Paul For these were only put to death While […]...
- Hiawathas' photographing ( Part II ) First the Governor, the Father: He suggested velvet curtains Looped about a massy pillar; And the corner of a table, Of a rosewood dining-table. He would hold a scroll of something, Hold it firmly in his left-hand; He would keep his right-hand buried (Like Napoleon) in his waistcoat; He would contemplate the distance With a […]...
- Of Him I Love Day and Night OF him I love day and night, I dream’d I heard he was dead; And I dream’d I went where they had buried him I love—but he was not in that place; And I dream’d I wander’d, searching among burial-places, to find him; And I found that every place was a burial-place; The houses full […]...
- Next Day Moving from Cheer to Joy, from Joy to All, I take a box And add it to my wild rice, my Cornish game hens. The slacked or shorted, basketed, identical Food-gathering flocks Are selves I overlook. Wisdom, said William James, Is learning what to overlook. And I am wise If that is wisdom. Yet somehow, […]...
- Sonnet 136: If thy soul check thee that I come so near If thy soul check thee that I come so near, Swear to thy blind soul that I was thy Will, And will thy soul knows is admitted there; Thus far for love, my love suit, sweet, fulfil. Will will fulfil the treasure of thy love, Ay, fill it full with wills, and my will one. […]...
- Sonnet CXXXVI If thy soul cheque thee that I come so near, Swear to thy blind soul that I was thy ‘Will,’ And will, thy soul knows, is admitted there; Thus far for love my love-suit, sweet, fulfil. ‘Will’ will fulfil the treasure of thy love, Ay, fill it full with wills, and my will one. In […]...
- Last Night the Rain Spoke to Me Last night The rain Spoke to me Slowly, saying, What joy To come falling Out of the brisk cloud, To be happy again In a new way On the earth! That’s what it said As it dropped, Smelling of iron, And vanished Like a dream of the ocean Into the branches And the grass below. […]...
- Tired And Unhappy, You Think Of Houses Tired and unhappy, you think of houses Soft-carpeted and warm in the December evening, While snow’s white pieces fall past the window, And the orange firelight leaps. A young girl sings That song of Gluck where Orpheus pleads with Death; Her elders watch, nodding their happiness To see time fresh again in her self-conscious eyes: […]...
- Gettysburg O Pride of the days in prime of the months Now trebled in great renown, When before the ark of our holy cause Fell Dagon down- Dagon foredoomed, who, armed and targed, Never his impious heart enlarged Beyond that hour; God walled his power, And there the last invader charged. He charged, and in that […]...
- An Immorality Sing we for love and idleness, Naught else is worth the having. Though I have been in many a land, There is naught else in living. And I would rather have my sweet, Though rose-leaves die of grieving, Than do high deeds in Hungary To pass all men’s believing....
- Mohini Chatterjee I asked if I should pray. But the Brahmin said, ‘pray for nothing, say Every night in bed, ‘I have been a king, I have been a slave, Nor is there anything. Fool, rascal, knave, That I have not been, And yet upon my breast A myriad heads have lain.’ That he might Set at […]...
- An Arundel Tomb Side by side, their faces blurred, The earl and countess lie in stone, Their proper habits vaguely shown As jointed armour, stiffened pleat, And that faint hint of the absurd – The little dogs under their feet. Such plainness of the pre-baroque Hardly involves the eye, until It meets his left-hand gauntlet, still Clasped empty […]...
- In Memory of a Happy Day in February Blessed be Thou for all the joy My soul has felt today! O let its memory stay with me And never pass away! I was alone, for those I loved Were far away from me, The sun shone on the withered grass, The wind blew fresh and free. Was it the smile of early spring […]...
- Easter Week (In memory of Joseph Mary Plunkett) (“Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone, It’s with O’Leary in the grave.”) William Butler Yeats. “Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone, It’s with O’Leary in the grave.” Then, Yeats, what gave that Easter dawn A hue so radiantly brave? There was a rain of blood that day, Red rain in gay […]...
- So Long 1 TO conclude-I announce what comes after me; I announce mightier offspring, orators, days, and then, for the present, depart. I remember I said, before my leaves sprang at all, I would raise my voice jocund and strong, with reference to consummations. When America does what was promis’d, When there are plentiful athletic bards, inland […]...
- Son He hurried away, young heart of joy, under our Devon sky! And I watched him go, my beautiful boy, and a weary woman was I. For my hair is grey, and his was gold; he’d the best of his life to live; And I’d loved him so, and I’m old, I’m old; and he’s all […]...
- The Remonstrance I was at peace until you came And set a careless mind aflame; I lived in quiet; cold, content; All longing in safe banishment, Until your ghostly lips and eyes Made wisdom unwise. Naught was in me to tempt your feet To seek a lodging. Quite forgot Lay the sweet solitude we two In childhood […]...
- Lines from I’d rather have my verses win A place in common people’s hearts, Who, toiling through the strife and din Of life’s great thoroughfares, and marts, May read some line my hand has penned; Some simple verse, not fine, or grand, But what their hearts can understand And hold me henceforth as a friend, I’d rather […]...
- Tom O'Roughley ‘Though logic-choppers rule the town, And every man and maid and boy Has marked a distant object down, An aimless joy is a pure joy,’ Or so did Tom O’Roughley say That saw the surges running by. ‘And wisdom is a butterfly And not a gloomy bird of prey. ‘If little planned is little sinned […]...
- Oh, For The Time When I Shall Sleep Oh, for the time when I shall sleep Without identity, And never care how rain may steep, Or snow may cover me! No promised heaven these wild desires Could all, or half, fulful; No threatened hell, with quenchless fires, Subdue this quenchless will! So said I, and still say the same; Still, to my death, […]...
- Melancholia The sickness of desire, that in dark days Looks on the imagination of despair, Forgetteth man, and stinteth God his praise; Nor but in sleep findeth a cure for care. Incertainty that once gave scope to dream Of laughing enterprise and glory untold, Is now a blackness that no stars redeem, A wall of terror […]...