DID You Ask Dulcet Rhymes from Me?

by Walt Whitman · 1867
Published 01/07/1867

DID YOU ask dulcet rhymes from me?

Did you find what I sang erewhile so hard to follow, to understand?

Why I was not singing erewhile for you to follow, to understand—nor am I now;

—What to such as you, anyhow, such a poet as I?

      —therefore leave my works,

And go lull yourself with what you can understand;

For I lull nobody—and you will never understand me.

#artistic alienation #communication breakdown #existential isolation #walt whitman

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