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World Below the Brine

 
uploaded: Fri, May 21, 2021 @ 3:28 PM last modified: Fri, May 21, 2021 @ 3:39 PM  (add)
bySnowflake
FeaturingWalt Whitman
length1:37
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PART OF THIS REMIX

I fell under the spell of Walt Whitman’s poetry when I was just sixteen. I’m still enamored with him.

This poem felt sympatico with Oscar’s powerful whale songs.

Thanks for listening.

World Below the Brine
by Walt Whitman

The world below the brine,
Forests at the bottom of the sea, the branches and leaves,
Sea-lettuce, vast lichens, strange flowers and seeds, the thick tangle, openings, and pink turf,
Different colors, pale gray and green, purple, white, and gold, the play of light through the water,
Dumb swimmers there among the rocks, coral, gluten, grass, rushes, and the aliment of the swimmers,
Sluggish existences grazing there suspended, or slowly crawling close to the bottom,
The sperm-whale at the surface blowing air and spray, or disporting with his flukes,
The leaden-eyed shark, the walrus, the turtle, the hairy sea-leopard, and the sting-ray,
Passions there, wars, pursuits, tribes, sight in those ocean-depths, breathing that thick-breathing air, as so many do,
The change thence to the sight here, and to the subtle air breathed by beings like us who walk this sphere,
The change onward from ours to that of beings who walk other spheres.
 

"World Below the Brine"
by Snowflake

2021 - Licensed under
Creative Commons
Attribution (3.0)



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