When the full-grown poet came,
Out spake pleased Nature (the round impassive globe, with all its shows of day and night,) saying, He is mine;
But out spake too the Soul of man, proud, jealous and unreconciled, Nay, he is mine alone;
—Then the full-grown poet stood between the two, and took each by the hand;
And to-day and ever so stands, as blender, uniter, tightly holding hands,
Which he will never release until he reconciles the two,
And wholly and joyously blends them.
Public-domain source text
When the Full-Grown Poet Came
by Walt Whitman
From Standard Ebooks · standardebooks/walt-whitman_leaves-of-grass
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