8
O western orb sailing the heaven,
Now I know what you must have meant as a month since I walk’d,
As I walk’d in silence the transparent shadowy night,
As I saw you had something to tell as you bent to me night after night,
As you droop’d from the sky low down as if to my side, (while the other stars
all look’d on,)
As we wander’d together the solemn night, (for something I know not what
kept me from sleep,)
As the night advanced, and I saw on the rim of the west how full you were of
woe,
As I stood on the rising ground in the breeze in the cool transparent night,
As I watch’d where you pass’d and was lost in the netherward black of the
night,
As my soul in its trouble dissatisfied sank, as where you sad orb,
Concluded, dropt in the night, and was gone.
Source: Excerpt from
“When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”
By Walt Whitman
By Walt Whitman, Public Domain