Today is Poet's Day, when authors and fans celebrate the talent and vision of those lyrical wordsmiths.
Walt Whitman (1819–1892), portrayed in today's medal, wrote this gem.
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Compose Some Verse!
Today is Poet's Day, when authors and fans celebrate the talent and vision of those lyrical wordsmiths.
Walt Whitman (1819–1892), portrayed in today's medal, wrote this gem.
A Noiseless Patient Spider
A noiseless patient spider,
I mark'd where on a little promontory it stood isolated,
Mark'd how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,
It launch'd forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.
And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,
Till the bridge you will need be form'd, till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.
Source: Walt Whitman. Leaves of Grass (Boston: James R. Osgood & Company, 1881–1882).
Pictured: Paul Wayland Bartlett, 1865 USA–1925 France, Walt Whitman, modeled about 1887–1889, bronze relief, 9 5/8 in. diam., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Armistead Peter, III.