"I began with the desire to speak with the dead."

Pavlov's Cat cannot quite provide medium services, so there'll be no actual speaking with the dead. But I can do the second best thing and invite you to listen to the dead, which I promise you is quite spooky and sobering enough to be going on with, not least because of the innocence and promise in those 19th-century words.

If you can't quite make out what he's saying, here it is:

“America, centre of equal daughters, equal sons,
All, all alike, endeared, grown, ungrown, young or old,
Strong, ample, fair, enduring, capable, rich,
Perennial with the earth, with Freedom, Law, and Love.”

Now go here.


Whitman, Walt. "America" (audio file). The Walt Whitman Archive. Ed. Ed Folsom and Kenneth M. Price. 11 September 2003 .