2011-11-01T16:05:00.001-07:00

Walt Whitman (1819–1892). Leaves of Grass. 1900.

130. Give me the Splendid, Silent Sun

1 GIVE me the splendid silent sun, with all his beams full-dazzling;
Give me juicy autumnal fruit, ripe and red from the orchard;
Give me a field where the unmow’d grass grows;
Give me an arbor, give me the trellis’d grape;
Give me fresh corn and wheat—give me serene-moving animals, teaching content;	5
Give me nights perfectly quiet, as on high plateaus west of the Mississippi, and I looking up at the stars;
Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers, where I can walk undisturb’d;
Give me for marriage a sweet-breath’d woman, of whom I should never tire;
Give me a perfect child—give me, away, aside from the noise of the world, a rural, domestic life;
Give me to warble spontaneous songs, reliev’d, recluse by myself, for my own ears only;	10
Give me solitude—give me Nature—give me again, O Nature, your primal sanities!
—These, demanding to have them, (tired with ceaseless excitement, and rack’d by the war-strife;)
These to procure, incessantly asking, rising in cries from my heart,
While yet incessantly asking, still I adhere to my city;
Day upon day, and year upon year, O city, walking your streets,	15
Where you hold me enchain’d a certain time, refusing to give me up;
Yet giving to make me glutted, enrich’d of soul—you give me forever faces;
(O I see what I sought to escape, confronting, reversing my cries;
I see my own soul trampling down what it ask’d for.)

2 Keep your splendid, silent sun;	20
Keep your woods, O Nature, and the quiet places by the woods;
Keep your fields of clover and timothy, and your corn-fields and orchards;
Keep the blossoming buckwheat fields, where the Ninth-month bees hum;
Give me faces and streets! give me these phantoms incessant and endless along the trottoirs!
Give me interminable eyes! give me women! give me comrades and lovers by the thousand!	25
Let me see new ones every day! let me hold new ones by the hand every day!
Give me such shows! give me the streets of Manhattan!
Give me Broadway, with the soldiers marching—give me the sound of the trumpets and drums!
(The soldiers in companies or regiments—some, starting away, flush’d and reckless;
Some, their time up, returning, with thinn’d ranks—young, yet very old, worn, marching, noticing nothing;)	30
—Give me the shores and the wharves heavy-fringed with the black ships!
O such for me! O an intense life! O full to repletion, and varied!
The life of the theatre, bar-room, huge hotel, for me!
The saloon of the steamer! the crowded excursion for me! the torch-light procession!
The dense brigade, bound for the war, with high piled military wagons following;	35
People, endless, streaming, with strong voices, passions, pageants;
Manhattan streets, with their powerful throbs, with the beating drums, as now;
The endless and noisy chorus, the rustle and clank of muskets, (even the sight of the wounded;)
Manhattan crowds, with their turbulent musical chorus—with varied chorus, and light of the sparkling eyes;
Manhattan faces and eyes forever for me.	40

A Wise Person's Words That Mirror Thoughts Of My Own

2011-10-17T08:41:00.000-07:00

I am against nature. I don't dig nature at all. I think nature is very unnatural. I think the truly natural things are dreams, which nature can't touch with decay.
Bob Dylan

My Norah Being Adorable

2011-10-13T12:20:00.000-07:00

A Day At The Beach

2011-10-13T10:05:00.000-07:00

It's not often that I have the ability to enjoy my work after seeing it so many times but these photos that I took for my final project in Art History I still am really happy with. The assignment was to take two works of art that we appreciate and use them to influence your own work. I chose to use Paris: A Rainy Day by Gustave Caillebotte and Bal

let at the Paris Opera by Edgar Degas. Feel free to comment and critique.

What's In a Name?

2011-10-12T19:39:00.000-07:00

The name of this blog came from the idea that I felt the need to take everything I wanted to express and put it in a place that is permanent, a place where it could not be forgotten I guess you could say... Thats what this is My Elephant is.... a blog that never forgets.

Melissa's Elephant

A Wise Person's Words That Mirror Thoughts Of My Own

My Norah Being Adorable

A Day At The Beach

What's In a Name?