As I Walk These Broad Majestic Days
As I walk these broad majestic days of peace,
(For the war, the struggle of blood finish’d, wherein, O terrific Ideal,
Against vast odds erewhile having gloriously won,
Now thou stridest on, yet perhaps in time toward denser wars,
Perhaps to engage in time in still more dreadful contests, dangers,
Longer campaigns and crises, labors beyond all others,)
Around me I hear that eclat of the world, politics, produce,
The announcements of recognized things, science,
The approved growth of cities and the spread of inventions.
I see the ships, (they will last a few years,)
The vast factories with their foremen and workmen,
And hear the indorsement of all, and do not object to it.
But I too announce solid things,
Science, ships, politics, cities, factories, are not nothing,
Like a grand procession to music of distant bugles pouring,
triumphantly moving, and grander heaving in sight,
They stand for realities–all is as it should be.
Then my realities;
What else is so real as mine?
Libertad and the divine average, freedom to every slave on the face
of the earth,
The rapt promises and lumine of seers, the spiritual world, these
centuries-lasting songs,
And our visions, the visions of poets, the most solid announcements
of any.
Of all of Whitman’s poems, this struck me the hardest. “What else is so real as mine?” what an amazing question. On countless occasions I have wondered whether or not this life is such a real existence, do we all see the same colors, is this more than a vivid dream? How do we define the realities from the make believe? And once we differentiate the two, how do we know that what we perceive as real, truly isn’t what we had made it believed to be; dreams become realities, are dreams not made up? Whitman’s third and fourth lines of this poem point upon the vast odds we have won, the battles we have yet to meet, tomorrow we wait for a ‘denser wars.” Today’s society is optimistic for tomorrow, trudging on for the greener grass and tomorrow’s blank page. Hey, we forget that today’s battles have been won! Every hump, tough decision, every move from today has been a success, we’ve won today and continue hopes that tomorrow will even better. Like Whitman, I too have solid things to announce, what human doesn’t go through daily life without a wanting to share with another? After all it is in our nature to name and to share.
The World announces to us everyday, businesses announce, people announce, nature announces to us, all in ways that we respond to. We respond by not objecting, or not protesting, or speaking out, taking steps in directions which announce our individual votes or cast our opinions into the world. We make our realities in our own majestic days and I think that is what Whitman’s poem points out the most.
