To Thee Old Cause
To thee old cause! / Thou peerless, passionate, good cause,
Are You the New Person Drawn Toward Me?
❦
Are you the new person drawn toward me?
To begin with take warning, I am surely far different from what you suppose;
Do you suppose you will find in me your ideal?
Do you think it so easy to have me become your lover?
Do you think the friendship of me would be unalloy'd satisfaction?
Do you think I am trusty and faithful?
Do you see no further than this facade, this smooth and tolerant
manner of me?
Do you suppose yourself advancing on real ground toward a real heroic man?
Have you no thought O dreamer that it may be all maya, illusion?
More poems by Walt Whitman
Queries to My Seventieth Year
Approaching, nearing, curious, / Thou dim, uncertain spectre--bringest thou life or death?
A Noiseless Patient Spider
A noiseless patient spider, / I mark'd where on a little promontory it stood isolated,
As I Ponder'd in Silence
As I ponder'd in silence, / Returning upon my poems, considering, lingering long,