"Miracles" by Walt Whitman

 

Miracles

Why, who makes much of a miracle?

As to me I know of nothing else but miracles,

Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,

Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,

Or wade with naked feet along the beach just in the edge of the water,

Or stand under trees in the woods,

Or talk by day with any one I love, or sleep in the bed at night with any one I love,

Or sit at table at dinner with the rest,

Or look at strangers opposite me riding in the car,

Or watch honey-bees busy around the hive of a summer forenoon,

Or animals feeding in the fields,

Or birds, or the wonderfulness of insects in the air,

Or the wonderfulness of the sundown, or of stars shining so quiet and bright,

Or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon in spring;

These with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles,

The whole referring, yet each distinct and in its place.

 

To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle,

Every cubic inch of space is a miracle,

Every square yard of the surface of the earth is spread with the same,

Every foot of the interior swarms with the same.

 

To me the sea is a continual miracle,

The fishes that swim—the rocks—the motion of the waves—the

ships with men in them,

What stranger miracles are there?

 

Enjoy the poem with beautiful music.

poem video👇

https://youtu.be/iP_X3WPzQYU

Who wrote the poem "Miracles"?

Walt Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892)

Walt Whitman was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. Whitman is one of the most important American poets, often called the father of free verse. His major poetry collection, Leaves of Grass, was first published in 1855 at his own expense and became popular and controversial due to its overt sensuality. Whitman greatly admired Abraham Lincoln, and on Lincoln’s death, he wrote famous poems, “O Captain! My Captain!” and “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.” Modernist poet Ezra Pound called Whitman “America’s poet… He is America.”

"Miracles"  explanation

The speaker in this poem finds miracles in seemingly mundane aspects related to humanity and nature. Whitman grew up as a Quaker, which perhaps is why the poem shows somewhat religious undertones.