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Of Memory, Reminiscence, and Writing: Of Memory, Reminiscence, and Writing

Of Memory, Reminiscence, and Writing
Of Memory, Reminiscence, and Writing
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“Of Memory, Reminiscence, and Writing”

PART TWO

On the Verge

Past and present and future are not disjoined

but joined. The greatest poet forms the consistence

of what is to be from what has been

and is. He drags the dead out of their coffins

and stands them again on their feet. . . . he

says to the past, Rise and walk before me

that I may realize you. He learns the lesson. . . .

he places himself where the future becomes

present. The greatest poet does not

only dazzle his rays over character and scenes

and passions. ... he finally ascends and finishes

all. ... he exhibits the pinnacles that no

man can tell what they are for or what is

beyond. ... he glows a moment on the extremest

verge.

—Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

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