AH poverties, wincings, and sulky retreats!
Ah you foes that in conflict have overcome me!
(For what is my life, or any man’s life, but a conflict with foes-the old, the
incessant
war?)
You degradations-you tussle with passions and appetites;
You smarts from dissatisfied friendships, (ah wounds, the sharpest of all;)
You toil of painful and choked articulations-you meannesses;
You shallow tongue-talks at tables, (my tongue the shallowest of any;)
You broken resolutions, you racking angers, you smother’d ennuis;
Ah, think not you finally triumph-My real self has yet to come forth;
It shall yet march forth o’ermastering, till all lies beneath me;
It shall yet stand up the soldier of unquestion’d victory.
(Walt Whitman)
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Based on Topics: Man Poems, Life Poems, War & Peace Poems, Success Poems, Soldiers PoemsBased on Keywords: dissatisfied, racking, resolutions, sharpest, sulky, tussle, appetites, angers, smarts, unquestion, ermastering