From
Leaves of Grass, by
Walt Whitman:
The world below the
brine,
Forests at the bottom of the sea, the branches and leaves,
Sea-lettuce, vast
lichens, strange flowers and seeds, the thick
tangle, openings, and pink turf,
Different colors, pale gray and green, purple, white, and gold,
the play of light through the water,
Dumb swimmers there among the rocks, coral,
gluten, grass,
rushes, and the aliment of the swimmers,
Sluggish existences grazing there suspended, or slowly crawling
close to the bottom,
The
sperm-whale at the surface blowing air and spray, or
disporting with his flukes,
The leaden-eyed shark,
the walrus, the turtle, the hairy sea-
leopard,
and the sting-ray,
Passions there,
wars, pursuits,
tribes, sight in those ocean-depths,
breathing that thick-breathing air, as so many
do,
The change thence to the sight here, and to the
subtle air
breathed by beings like us who walk this
sphere,
The change onward from ours to that of beings who walk
other spheres.