Singers and Poets by Walt Whitman — Read

1. The indications and tally of time; / Perfect sanity shows the master among philosophs; / Time, always without flaw, indicates itself in parts; / What always indicates the poet is the crowd of the pleasant company of / singers, and their words; / The words of the singers are the hours or minutes of the light or dark -- but / the words of the maker of poems are the general light and dark; / The maker of poems settles justice, reality, immortality, / His insight and power encircle things and the human race, / He is the glory and extract, thus far, of things and of the human race.

2. The singers do not beget -- only the POET begets; / The singers are welcomed, understood, appear often enough -- but rare has the / day been, likewise the spot, of the birth of the maker of poems; / Not every century, or every five centuries, has contained such a day, for / all its names. / The singers of successive hours of centuries may have ostensible names, but / the name of each of them is one of the singers; / The name of each is eye-singer, ear-singer, head-singer, / sweet-singer, echo-singer, parlour-singer, love-singer, or something else.