AS at thy portals also death, <br /> Entering thy sovereign, dim, illimitable grounds, <br /> To memories of my mother, to the divine blending, maternity, <br /> To her, buried and gone, yet buried not, gone not from me, <br /> (I see again the calm benignant face fresh and beautiful still, <br /> I sit by the form in the coffin, <br /> I kiss and kiss convulsively again the sweet old lips, the cheeks, <br /> the closed eyes in the coffin;) <br /> To her, the ideal woman, practical, spiritual, of all of earth, life, <br /> love, to me the best, <br /> I grave a monumental line, before I go, amid these songs, <br /> And set a tombstone here. 10<br /><br />Walt Whitman<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/as-at-thy-portals-also-death/
