"As the Time Draws Nigh"...for a friend.

As the time draws nigh, glooming, a cloud,

A dread beyond, of I know not what, darkens me.

I shall go forth,

I shall traverse The States awhile - but I cannot tell whither or

how long;

Perhaps soon, some day or night while I am singing, my voice

will suddenly cease.

O book, O chants! must all then amount to but this?

Must we barely arrive at this beginning of us?...And yet it

is enough, O soul !

O soul ! we have positively appear'd - that is enough.

From Walt Whitman's "Songs of Parting", Leaves of Grass, 1865.