Published Works

Books by Whitman

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To One shortly To Die.

1FROM all the rest I single out you, having a message
for you:

You are to die—Let others tell you what they
please, I cannot prevaricate,

I am exact and merciless, but I love you—There is
no escape for you.

2Softly I lay my right hand upon you—you just
feel it,

I do not argue—I bend my head close, and half-
envelop it,

I sit quietly by—I remain faithful,

I am more than nurse, more than parent or neighbor,

I absolve you from all except yourself, spiritual,
bodily—that is eternal,

(The corpse you will leave will be but excremen-
titious.)

3The sun bursts through in unlooked-for directions!

Strong thoughts fill you, and confidence—you smile!

You forget you are sick, as I forget you are sick,

You do not see the medicines—you do not mind the
weeping friends—I am with you,

I exclude others from you—there is nothing to be
commiserated,

I do not commiserate—I congratulate you.

Distributed under a Creative Commons License. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price, editors.