And who art thou? said I to the soft falling shower,
Which, strange to tell, gave me an answer, as here translated
I am the poem of earth, said the voice of the rain.
Eternal I rise impalpable out of the land and the bottomless sea,
Upwards to heaven, whence, vague form’d altogether changed, and yet the same
I descend to have the droughts, atomies, dust-layers of the globe,
And all that in them without me were seeds only, latent, unborn.
And forever, by day and night, I give back life to my own origin,
And make pure and beautiful it; ( For song, issuing from its birth place,
after fulfilment, wandering
Reck’d or unreck’d, duly with love returns. )
WALT WHITMAN
Impalpable : something that can’t be touched
Atomies : tiny particles
Latent : hidden
