Inner circular parapet wall of escalator well at station north entrance.

Excerpt from poem "The Dresser", 2007
Walt Whitman
Poem engraved in granite
Wall: 219' circumference

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In tribute to the response by volunteers and caregivers to the needs of people living with HIV and AIDS in DC, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities collaborated to engrave an excerpt from Walt Whitman's poem "The Dresser" on the north granite circular entrance to the Dupont Circle Metrorail station. A contemporary poem, "We Embrace", written by E. Ethelbert Miller in 2005, is inscribed on the ground around a circular bench located above the station.

The Dresser / The Wound-Dresser (excerpt),
Walt Whitman

Thus in silence in dreams' projections,
Returning, resuming, I thread my way through the hospitals;
The hurt and wounded I pacify with soothing hand,
I sit by the restless all the dark night - some are so young;
Some suffer so much - I recall the experience sweet and sad . . .

Walter "Walt" Whitman (1819-1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. He is known to have written one of the great literary classics, a poetry collection titled, Leaves of Grass.

This project was made possible in part by the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities and was donated to WMATA.