Public-domain source text

The Sobbing of the Bells

by Walt Whitman

From Standard Ebooks · standardebooks/walt-whitman_leaves-of-grass

(Midnight, Sept. 19⁠–⁠20, 1881)

The sobbing of the bells, the sudden death-news everywhere, The slumberers rouse, the rapport of the People, (Full well they know that message in the darkness, Full well return, respond within their breasts, their brains, the sad reverberations,) The passionate toll and clang⁠—city to city, joining, sounding, passing, Those heart-beats of a Nation in the night.

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This is a source transcription from Standard Ebooks, published in Past Poetry’s public-domain archive without line-by-line editorial notes. Public-domain source edition. Availability can vary by territory.

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