The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1892-04-08
Walt Whitman.

III present indications are correct the
man who had Shakespeare arrested TO,
deer poaching will be scarcely more fa
nous than Hon, James Harlan, the
United States secretary Of the interior
who turned Walt Whitman out of a
clerkship in his department because the
poet was the author of LEAVES of
Grass" This was in July, 1868. An.
other officer Of the government, how
ever, was of a different mind and gave
Mr.. Whitman a moderately well paying
place Immediately, From this time till
1878 the man whom many critics in
Great Britain consider the greatest poet
America has produced had his happiest
years, although his genius was not ap.
preciated in his own country till very
recently.
In 1878 the evil fate which seemed to
follow him all his life touched him and
paralyzed him. While nursing wounded
soldiers after the bloody fights of the
Wilderness, in 1864, Whitman contract
ed hospital malaria and never was him
self again. The trouble which began
here finally eliminated in the paralysis.
Whitman was forty-two years old when
he went into camp and hospital to nurse
soldiers. He was magnificent speci-
men of manhood physically, a perfect
picture of strength and natural grace.
Since 1878 he has been simply broken
down man, waiting for the death which
was all too long in coming. Only the
fewest number appreciated him at
home; his writings brought in the
merest pittance, yet still the brave soul
struggled on, writing because he could
not help it. Meantime his fame grew
wider and wider abroad. In England
there would have been establishment
had it been known how poor and neg
lected he was at home. His poems
most admired and best known are
when Lilacs Last in the Dooryard
Bloomed,' Captain, My Captain" and
a welcome to Sweet Death"
Sweet death tarried long. Persons Of
extraordinary vitality live in spite of
themselves under wasting disease, even
when it is their dearest wish to depart.
The strong, deep breathing body fights
mechanically and yields only inch by
inch. A weak physique would have
succumbed years ago to the infrmities
under which Walt Whitman suffered
and fingered nearly twenty years, writ
ing marvellous poems when his disease
gave him respite enough. The most re-
markable fact in connection with these
years is that during all the time the
poet would have been glad to escape
from the stricken body, which never
theless was so strong that it detained
him unwilling. IF | could take you
with me l could make you young again."
said Edwin Arnold to him last fall But
he could not take him.
1t is worthy of note that the last lines
printed from his pen appeared in Har-
per's Magazine the day before he passed
"lovely death" Following is a portion
of this poem, DEATHS Valley:'
| have seen many wounded soldiers die,
After dread suffering-have seen their lives
pass off with smiles;
And have watch'd the death hours of the old
and seen the infant die;
The rich, with all his nurses and his doctors;
And the poor, in meagerness and poverty;
And myself for long, o Death, have breathed
my every breath
Amid the nearness and the silent thought of
thee.
And out of these and thee,
make scene, song, brief mot fear of thee,
Nor gloom's ravines, nor bleak, nor dark-for
do not fear thee,
Nor celebrate the struggle or contortion OF
,ue eaEa te8B ana air. with
meadows, ripping tides and trees and
flowers and grass,
And the low hum of living breeze-and in the
midst Gods beautiful eternal right hand,
Thee. hottest minister of heaven--thee, envoy,
usherer, guide at last of all,
Rich, fiorid, loosener of the structure knot
call'd life,
Sweet, peaceful, welcome Death.