That Music Always Round Me

Walt Whitman

   THAT music always round me, unceasing, unbeginning--yet long untaught
         I did not hear;
   But now the chorus I hear, and am elated;
   A tenor, strong, ascending, with power and health, with glad notes of
         day-break I hear,
   A soprano, at intervals, sailing buoyantly over the tops of immense
         waves,
   A transparent bass, shuddering lusciously under and through the
         universe,
   The triumphant tutti--the funeral wailings, with sweet flutes and
         violins--all these I fill myself with;
   I hear not the volumes of sound merely--I am moved by the exquisite
         meanings,
   I listen to the different voices winding in and out, striving,
         contending with fiery vehemence to excel each other in emotion;
   I do not think the performers know themselves--but now I think I
         begin to know them.

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