THOU orb aloft full-dazzling! thou hot October noon! <br /> Flooding with sheeny light the gray beach sand, <br /> The sibilant near sea with vistas far and foam, <br /> And tawny streaks and shades and spreading blue; <br /> O sun of noon rufulgent! my special word to thee. <br /> <br /> Hear me illustrious! <br /> Thy lover me, for always I have loved thee, <br /> Even as basking babe, then happy boy alone by some wood edge, thy <br /> touching-distant beams enough, <br /> Or man matured, or young or old, as now to thee I launch my <br /> invocation. <br /> <br /> (Thou canst not with thy dumbness me deceive, 10 <br /> I know before the fitting man all Nature yields, <br /> Though answering not in words, the skies, trees, hear his voice--and <br /> thou O sun, <br /> As for thy throes, thy perturbations, sudden breaks and shafts of <br /> flame gigantic, <br /> I understand them, I know those flames, those perturbations well.) <br /> <br /> Thou that with fructifying heat and light, <br /> O'er myriad farms, o'er lands and waters North and South, <br /> O'er Mississippi's endless course, o'er Texas' grassy plains, <br /> Kanada's woods, <br /> O'er all the globe that turns its face to thee shining in space, <br /> Thou that impartially infoldest all, not only continents, seas, <br /> Thou that to grapes and weeds and little wild flowers givest so <br /> liberally, 20 <br /> Shed, shed thyself on mine and me, with but a fleeting ray out of thy <br /> million millions, <br /> Strike through these chants. <br /> <br /> Nor only launch thy subtle dazzle and thy strength for these, <br /> Prepare the later afternoon of me myself--prepare my lengthening <br /> shadows, <br /> Prepare my starry nights.<br /><br />Walt Whitman<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/thou-orb-aloft-full-dazzling/
