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Good-Bye My Fancy!

Good-bye my Fancy!
Farewell dear mate, dear love!
I'm going away, I know not where,
Or to what fortune, or whether I may ever see you again,
So Good-bye my Fancy.
Now for my last-let me look back a moment;
The slower fainter ticking of the clock is in me,
Exit, nightfall, and soon the heart-thud stopping.

Long have we lived, joy'd, caress'd together;
Delightful!-now separation-Good-bye my Fancy.

Yet let me not be too hasty,
Long indeed have we lived, slept, filter'd, become really


blended into one;
Then if we die we die together, (yes,we'll remain one,)
If we go anywhere we'll be better off and blither, and learn something,
May-be it is yourself now really ushering me

to the true songs, (who knows?)
May-be it is you the mortal knob really undoing, turning

-so now finally,
Good-bye-and hail! my Fancy!

Notes

Whitman wrote this poem in 1891,
a year before his death.

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Comments

  • Nam
    September 29, 2004
    Edit | Reply
    Just seems to be about saying good-bye to a lover or a friend. I am thinking it's more-over a lover.

    Seeing how it was written a year before his death, perhaps it was written to the world?

    A good piece none-the-less.