History & Politics
Not Youth Pertains to Me
From Leaves of Grass
History & Politics
Not youth pertains to me,
Nor delicatesse, I cannot beguile the time with talk,
Awkward in the parlor, neither a dancer nor elegant,
In the learn’d coterie sitting constrain’d and still, for learning
inures not to me,
Beauty, knowledge, inure not to me--yet there are two or three things
inure to me,
I have nourish’d the wounded and sooth’d many a dying soldier,
And at intervals waiting or in the midst of camp,
Composed these songs.
Cite this poem
MLA
Whitman, Walt. “Not Youth Pertains to Me.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/whitman/169/.
Chicago
Whitman, Walt. “Not Youth Pertains to Me.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/whitman/169/.
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