Walt Whitman writing of a walk in the woods —and now that we’re left to walk outdoors somewhat alone and think… :
A Quintette
“While I have been kept by the rain under the shelter of my great oak, (perfectly dry and comfortable, to the rattle of the drops all around,) I have penceill’d of the mood of the hour in a little quintette, which I will give to you:
………… At vacancy with Nature,
………… Acceptive and at ease,
………… Distilling the present hour,
………… Whatever, wherever it is,
………… And over the past, oblivion.
Can you get hold of it, reader dear? And how do you like it anyhow?”
Walt Whitman
from Whitman, Poetry and Prose
Viking Press, 1982