“Out of the Rolling Ocean” by Walt Whitman

Out of the rolling ocean, the crowd, came a drop to me

Whispering:  I love you, before long I die,

I have travel’d a long way, merely to look on you, to touch you,

For I could not die till I once look’d on you,

For I fear’d I might afterward lose you.

*

(Now we have met, we have look’d, we are safe;

Return in peace to the ocean, my love;

I too am part of that ocean, my love — we are not so much separated;

Behold the great rondure — the cohesion of all, how perfect!

But as for me, for you, the irresistible sea is to separate us,

As for an hour, carrying us diverse — yet cannot carry us diverse for ever;

Be not impatient –a little space — Know you, I salute the air, the ocean, and the land,

Every day, at sundown, for your dear sake, my love.)

*

Walt Whitman

Leaves of Grass (1900)