As at Thy Portals Also Death
As at Thy Portals Also Death - meaning Summary
Grief and Maternal Memory
Whitman’s short poem is a direct meditation on maternal loss and enduring memory. Approaching death, the speaker revisits intimate recollections of his mother—her face, the coffin, and repeated kisses—affirming that physical absence does not erase her presence. He elevates her to an idealized, earthly and spiritual figure, declaring a lasting monument in verse as a way to secure her permanence amid his songs and impending mortality.
Read Complete AnalysesAS at thy portals also death, Entering thy sovereign, dim, illimitable grounds, To memories of my mother, to the divine blending, maternity, To her, buried and gone, yet buried not, gone not from me, (I see again the calm benignant face fresh and beautiful still, I sit by the form in the coffin, I kiss and kiss convulsively again the sweet old lips, the cheeks, the closed eyes in the coffin;) To her, the ideal woman, practical, spiritual, of all of earth, life, love, to me the best, I grave a monumental line, before I go, amid these songs, And set a tombstone here.
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