1
5
The soft voluptuous opiate shades,
The sun just gone, the eager light dispelld (I too will soon be
gone, dispelld,)
A haze nirwana rest and night oblivion.
This short poem is a kind of variation of a haiku; a 3-line nature poem, in which the lines are [respectively] short-long-short, rather than the more strict 5-7-5 [the number of syllables in each respective line of a standard haiku].
In this case, “Twilight” stands for two natural events – 1)a just-completed sunset, and 2)the nearly-complete life of the poet: Just as the light disappears, so Whitman’s life is vanishing. Whitman even uses the exact same word, “dispell’d” to describe both events.
Though discussing [his inevitable] Death, Whitman does not treat the event with sorrow. Rather, as indicated in the first line, this is almost a sensuous, beautiful event.
The word “opiate” could indicate either, 1)a relaxing effect, or 2)a deadening, apathy-inducing effect. It seems, with its placement after “soft voluptuous” that “opiate” would here indicate a relaxing feeling.
However, even assuming Whitman had wished to suggest apathy, this alternate “opiate” still indicates that his inevitable death does not bother him.
Whitman’s mention of “nirwana” [nirvana] actually cements both earlier meanings of “opiate” as probable, for nirvana is both a place of joy and relaxation, and a place of “disinterested wisdom” [perhaps the ideal of apathy].