After the Supper and Talk

Walt Whitman (1819–1892) · Leaves of Grass · Sands at Seventy · 1888

After the supper and talk⁠—after the day is done,
As a friend from friends his final withdrawal prolonging,
Goodbye and Goodbye with emotional lips repeating,
(So hard for his hand to release those hands⁠—no more will they meet,
No more for communion of sorrow and joy, of old and young,
A far-stretching journey awaits him, to return no more,)
Shunning, postponing severance⁠—seeking to ward off the last word ever so little,
E’en at the exit-door turning⁠—charges superfluous calling back⁠—e’en as he descends the steps,
Something to eke out a minute additional⁠—shadows of nightfall deepening,
Farewells, messages lessening⁠—dimmer the forthgoer’s visage and form,
Soon to be lost for aye in the darkness⁠—loth, O so loth to depart!
Garrulous to the very last.

Where this text comes from

First published in November Boughs (Philadelphia: David McKay, 1888). Printed in “Sands at Seventy,” the verse section of November Boughs, and gathered into Leaves of Grass as the First Annex in 1891–92, which is the arrangement the corpus text follows. First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established. [1] [2]

Structure read from the source's markup; the words have not been compared against a page scan. Last checked 2026-08-12.

Taken from Standard Ebooks, standardebooks/walt-whitman_leaves-of-grass, sands-at-seventy.xhtml. Rights: public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931).

Earlier sources (2)

This poem as JSON or plain text. Line anchors #L1–#L12.

Cite this poem

Walt Whitman (1819–1892). “After the Supper and Talk.” First published in November Boughs (Philadelphia: David McKay, 1888). Text: Poem Index, https://poemindex.org/walt-whitman/after-the-supper-and-talk/. Append #L14 to cite line 14, or #L4-L9 for lines 4–9.

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