Now an excerpt from “Song of the Answerer,” or the “Poem of the Poet” as its original title indicates, naming the poet as the answerer. Once again, the poet is giving his message of death, faith, eternal life, which shows the way to transcend our physical life on this planet. The passage below, from section 1, portrays in the first part Whitman’s flowing percussion, even when describing a daily scene, and, in the second part, the poet’s simplicity, by which he could be taken for anyone, as he always preferred to be called, “one of the roughs.”
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WHITMAN:
He says indifferently and alike How are you friend? to the President at his levee,
And he says Good-day my brother, to Cudge that hoes in the sugar-field,
And both understand him and know that his speech is right.
He walks with perfect ease in the capitol,
He walks among the Congress, and one Representative says to another, Here is our equal appearing and new.
Then the mechanics take him for a mechanic,
And the soldiers suppose him to be a soldier, and the sailors that he has follow’d the sea,
And the authors take him for an author, and the artists for an artist,
And the laborers perceive he could labor with them and love them,
No matter what the work is, that he is the one to follow it or has follow’d it,
No matter what the nation, that he might find his brothers and sisters there.
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OUR RE-CREATION (“Canção do Respondente“):
Ele diz indiferentemente e igual Como estás amigo? ao Presidente em sua recepção,
E diz Bom dia meu irmão, ao Cudge que capina no canavial,
E ambos o entendem e sabem que seu discurso é correto.
Ele caminha com perfeita facilidade no capitólio,
Ele caminha pelo Congresso, e um Representante diz a outro, Eis nosso igual manifesto e novo.
Assim os mecânicos o tomam por mecânico,
E os soldados o supõem um soldado, e os marujos que ele serviu no mar,
E os autores o tomam por autor, e os artistas por artista,
E os operários percebem que ele poderia trabalhar com eles e os amar,
Não importa o trabalho, ele é aquele que o segue ou seguiu,
Não importa a nação, ele poderia achar seus irmãos e irmãs nela.
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