Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

HALCYON DAYS by WALT WHITMAN

Poet Analysis

First Line: NOT FROM SUCCESSFUL LOVE ALONE
Last Line: THE BROODING AND BLISSFUL HALCYON DAYS!
Subject(s): AGING;
Not from successful love alone,
Nor wealth, nor honor'd middle age, nor victories of politics or war;
But as life wanes, and all the turbulent passions calm,
As gorgeous, vapory, silent hues cover the evening sky,
As softness, fulness, rest, suffuse the frame, like
fresher, balmier air,
As the days take on a mellower light, and the apple at last
hangs really finish'd and indolent-ripe on the tree,
Then for the teeming quietest, happiest days of all!
The brooding and blissful halcyon days!



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