The Literary Fly Fisher

Szofi (“mon enfant”) and I stuck at JFK after returning from Europe. Picture by Szofi’s mommy.

Following are some selected stanzas from “Poem of the Road,” by Walt Whitman.  The version from which these stanzas are excerpted is found in the 1860 edition of Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.  The selected words remind me of the transformative power of travel, companionship, and family.

Allons! the road is before us!

It is safe—I have tried it—my own feet have tried it well.

Allons! be not detain’d!

Let the paper remain on the desk unwritten, and the book on the shelf unopen’d!

Let the tools remain in the workshop! let the money remain unearn’d!

Let the school stand! mind not the cry of the teacher!

Let the preacher preach in his pulpit! let the lawyer plead in the court, and the judge expound the law.

Mon enfant! I give you my hand!

I give you my love, more precious than money,

I give you myself, before preaching or law;

Will you give me yourself? will you come travel with me?

Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?

This entry was posted on June 3, 2013 at 12:01 AM and is filed under Fly Fishing, Fly Fishing Literature, The Arts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.