Walt Whitman- As I Walk These Broad Majestic Days

As I Walk These Broad Majestic Days

	As I walk these broad majestic days of peace,
	(For the war, the struggle of blood finish’d, wherein, O terrific Ideal,
	Against vast odds erewhile having gloriously won,
	Now thou stridest on, yet perhaps in time toward denser wars,
5	Perhaps to engage in time in still more dreadful contests, dangers,
	Longer campaigns and crises, labors beyond all others,)
	Around me I hear that eclat of the world, politics, produce,
	The announcements of recognized things, science,
	The approved growth of cities and the spread of inventions.
10	I see the ships, (they will last a few years,)
	The vast factories with their foremen and workmen,
	And hear the indorsement of all, and do not object to it.
	But I too announce solid things,
	Science, ships, politics, cities, factories, are not nothing,
15	Like a grand procession to music of distant bugles pouring, triumphantly moving, and grander
	heaving in sight,
	They stand for realities — all is as it should be.
	Then my realities;
	What else is so real as mine?
20	Libertad and the divine average, freedom to every slave on the face of the earth,
	The rapt promises and luminè of seers, the spiritual world, these centuries-lasting songs,
	And our visions, the visions of poets, the most solid announcements of any.

I myself had an illuminating weekend. I connected with others at a Model United Nations conference and felt my visions be illuminated like the “lumine of seers”. I enjoyed political discourse with my fellows from all over: Manhattan, Memphis, China. Most importantly, I was treated with respect and felt like I had a sense of duty there. Meeting Aniket Shah, a junior at Yale who is on the Board of Directors for Amnesty International was truly incredible. To witness the amazing 20 year old as a representative working for human rights blew my mind. It was like I was walking the “broad majestic days of peace”. This idealism dazzled me; I could hear the “éclat of the world [and] politics” like never before. I could see the “ships” (the understanding and hope in our youthful eyes) but I still knew that this would “last  a few” years.

 

Something my Yale Model United Nations chair said to me resonated. Although we gain speaking skills, a little international affairs lingo, and background knowledge of events, MUN is only a simulation. I now realize I am here on this earth to give time to real things. I am done modeling. I am now ready to act and be an activist. Human rights, Darfur, these issues are “realities” and “are not nothing”. I make my own realities. Now I can understand the urgency of Whitman- that “freedom to every slave on the face of the Earth” is necessary.

 

In the end of the poem, my visions are truly solid. They are not just dreams or ideas. They are realities, just like poems are the most solid realities we have.

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