From Section 2:
I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
2. "The Bridge" by Hart Crane
From Section 1:
Over the sea-wall’s edge, under the sea-clouds’ pale/ Fringe, there went a shadow of stain, a tarnished/ Line; and there a face, haggard with tide, hung/ And wavered—a wan girl’s face, whose eyes seemed/ To question, without answer, with a gaze/ Of such despair as empties all the eyes/ Of men whose days are spent in the pursuit/ Of endless horizons.
3. "The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot
From Part 1:
April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
4. "A Dream of Love" by Langston Hughes
In the twilight’s hush I dream of you
When day is done and shadows fall,
And twilight’s soft enfolding arms surround me,
Your form is in the mist before me.
Your voice, like music in my soul’s deep silence,
Your touch, like cool wind on a hot desert,
Your presence fills my heart with an exquisite pain.
5. "The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson"
Because I could not stop for Death
He kindly stopped for me
The Carriage held but just Ourselves
And Immortality.
We slowly drove — He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His civility —