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1819–1892

You Tides with Ceaseless Swell

Walt Whitman

You tides with ceaseless swell! you power that does this work! You unseen force, centripetal, centrifugal, through space's spread, Rapport of sun, moon, earth, and all the constellations, What are the messages by you from distant stars to us? what Sirius’? what Capella's?

What central heart — and you the pulse — vivifies all? what boundless aggregate of all? What subtle indirection and significance in you? what clue to all in you? what fluid, vast identity, Holding the universe with all its parts as one — as sailing in a ship?

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