LG1860	1	FREE, fresh, savage,
LG1860	2	Fluent, luxuriant, self-content, fond of persons and places,
LG1860	3	Fond of fish-shape Paumanok, where I was born,
LG1860	4	Fond of the sea—lusty-begotten and various,
LG1860	5	Boy of the Mannahatta, the city of ships, my city,
LG1860	6	Or raised inland, or of the south savannas,
LG1860	7	Or full-breath'd on Californian air, or Texan or Cuban air,
LG1860	8	Tallying, vocalizing all—resounding Niagara—resounding Missouri,
LG1860	9	Or rude in my home in Kanuck woods,
LG1860	10	Or wandering and hunting, my drink water, my diet meat,
LG1860	11	Or withdrawn to muse and meditate in some deep recess,
LG1860	12	Far from the clank of crowds, an interval passing,rapt and happy,
LG1860	13	Stars, vapor, snow, the hills, rocks, the Fifth Month flowers, my amaze, my love,
LG1860	14	Aware of the buffalo, the peace-herds, the bull,strong-breasted and hairy,
LG1860	15	Aware of the mocking-bird of the wilds at day-breakdaybreak,
LG1860	16	Solitary, singing in the west, I strike up for a new world.
LG1860	17	Victory, union, faith, identity, time, the Soul, your-selfyourself, the present and future lands, the indisso-lubleindissoluble compacts, riches, mystery, eternal progress,the kosmos, and the modern reports.
LG1860	18	This then is life,
LG1860	19	Here is what has come to the surface after so many throes and convulsions.
LG1860	20	How curious! How real!
LG1860	21	Underfoot the divine soil—Overhead the sun.
LG1860	22	See, revolving,
LG1860	23	The globe—the ancestor-continents, away, grouped together,
LG1860	24	The present and future continents, north and south,with the isthmus between.
LG1860	25	See, vast, trackless spaces,
LG1860	26	As in a dream, they change, they swiftly fill,
LG1860	27	Countless masses debouch upon them,
LG1860	28	They are now covered with the foremost people, arts,institutions known.
LG1860	29	See projected, through time,
LG1860	30	For me, an audience interminable.
LG1860	31	With firm and regular step they wend—they never stop,
LG1860	32	Successions of men, Americanos, a hundred millions,
LG1860	33	One generation playing its part and passing on,
LG1860	34	And another generation playing its part and passing on in its turn,
LG1860	35	With faces turned sideways or backward toward me to listen,
LG1860	36	With eyes retrospective toward me.
LG1860	37	Americanos! Masters!
LG1860	38	Marches humanitarian! Foremost!
LG1860	39	Century marches! Libertad! Masses!
LG1860	40	For you a programme of chants.
LG1860	41	Chants of the prairies,
LG1860	42	Chants of the long-running Mississippi,
LG1860	43	Chants of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa,and Minnesota,
LG1860	44	Inland chants—chants of Kanzas,
LG1860	45	Chants away down to Mexico, and up north to Oregon—Kanadian chants,
LG1860	46	Chants of teeming and turbulent cities—chants of mechanics,
LG1860	47	Yankee chants—Pennsylvanian chants—chants of Kentucky and Tennessee,
LG1860	48	Chants of dim-lit mines—chants of mountain-tops,
LG1860	49	Chants of sailors—chants of the Eastern Sea and the Western Sea,
LG1860	50	Chants of the Mannahatta, the place of my dearest love, the place surrounded by hurried and sparkling currents,
LG1860	51	Health chants—joy chants—robust chants of young men,
LG1860	52	Chants inclusive—wide reverberating chants,
LG1860	53	Chants of the Many In One.
LG1860	54	In the Year 80 of The States,
LG1860	55	My tongue, every atom of my blood, formed from this soil, this air,
LG1860	56	Born here of parents born here,
LG1860	57	From parents the same, and their parents' parents the same,
LG1860	58	I, now thirty-six years old, in perfect health,begin,
LG1860	59	Hoping to cease not till death.
LG1860	60	Creeds and schools in abeyance,
LG1860	61	Retiring back a while, sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten,
LG1860	62	With accumulations, now coming forward in front,
LG1860	63	Arrived again, I harbor, for good or bad—I permit to speak,
LG1860	64	Nature, without check, with original energy.
LG1860	65	Take my leaves, America!
LG1860	66	Make welcome for them everywhere, for they are your own offspring;
LG1860	67	Surround them, East and West! for they would surround you,
LG1860	68	And you precedents! connect lovingly with them, for they connect lovingly with you.
LG1860	69	I conned old times,
LG1860	70	I sat studying at the feet of the great masters;
LG1860	71	Now, if eligible, O that the great masters might return and study me!
LG1860	72	In the name of These States, shall I scorn the antique?
LG1860	73	Why These are the children of the antique, to justify it.
LG1860	74	Dead poets, philosophs, priests,
LG1860	75	Martyrs, artists, inventors, governments long since,
LG1860	76	Language-shapers, on other shores,
LG1860	77	Nations once powerful, now reduced, withdrawn, or desolate,
LG1860	78	I dare not proceed till I respectfully credit what you have left, wafted hither,
LG1860	79	I have perused it—I own it is admirable,
LG1860	80	I think nothing can ever be greater—Nothing can ever deserve more than it deserves;
LG1860	81	I regard it all intently a long while,
LG1860	82	Then take my place for good with my own day and race here.
LG1860	83	Here lands female and male,
LG1860	84	Here the heirship and heiress-ship of the world—Here the flame of materials,
LG1860	85	Here Spirituality, the translatress, the openly-avowed,
LG1860	86	The ever-tending, the finale of visible forms,
LG1860	87	The satisfier, after due long-waiting, now advancing,
LG1860	88	Yes, here comes the mistress, the Soul.
LG1860	89	The SOUL!
LG1860	90	Forever and forever—Longer than soil is brown and solid—Longer than water ebbs and flows.
LG1860	91	I will make the poems of materials, for I think they are to be the most spiritual poems,
LG1860	92	And I will make the poems of my body and of mortality,
LG1860	93	For I think I shall then supply myself with the poems of my Soul and of immortality.
LG1860	94	I will make a song for These States, that no one State may under any circumstances be subjected to another State,
LG1860	95	And I will make a song that there shall be comity by day and by night between all The States, and between any two of them,
LG1860	96	And I will make a song of the organic bargains of These States—And a shrill song of curses on him who would dissever the Union;
LG1860	97	And I will make a song for the ears of the President,full of weapons with menacing points,
LG1860	98	And behind the weapons countless dissatisfied faces.
LG1860	99	I will acknowledge contemporary lands,
LG1860	100	I will trail the whole geography of the globe, and salute courteously every city large and small;
LG1860	101	And employments! I will put in my poems, that with you is heroism, upon land and sea—And I will report all heroism from an American point of view;
LG1860	102	And sexual organs and acts! do you concentrate in me—For I am determined to tell you with courageous clear voice, to prove you illustrious.
LG1860	103	I will sing the song of companionship,
LG1860	104	I will show what alone must compact These,
LG1860	105	I believe These are to found their own ideal of manly love, indicating it in me;
LG1860	106	I will therefore let flame from me the burning fires that were threatening to consume me,
LG1860	107	I will lift what has too long kept down those smoul-deringsmouldering fires,
LG1860	108	I will give them complete abandonment,
LG1860	109	I will write the evangel-poem of comrades and of love,
LG1860	110	(For who but I should understand love, with all its sorrow and joy?
LG1860	111	And who but I should be the poet of comrades?)
LG1860	112	I am the credulous man of qualities, ages, races,
LG1860	113	I advance from the people en-masse in their own spirit,
LG1860	114	Here is what sings unrestricted faith.
LG1860	115	Omnes! Omnes!
LG1860	116	Let others ignore what they may,
LG1860	117	I make the poem of evil also—I commemorate that part also,
LG1860	118	I am myself just as much evil as good—And I say there is in fact no evil,
LG1860	119	Or if there is, I say it is just as important to you, to the earth, or to me, as anything else.
LG1860	120	I too, following many, and followed by many, inau-gurateinaugurate a Religion—I too go to the wars,
LG1860	121	It may be I am destined to utter the loudest cries thereof, the conqueror's shouts,
LG1860	122	They may rise from me yet, and soar above every thing.
LG1860	123	Each is not for its own sake,
LG1860	124	I say the whole earth, and all the stars in the sky, are for Religion's sake.
LG1860	125	I say no man has ever been half devout enough,
LG1860	126	None has ever adored or worship'd half enough,
LG1860	127	None has begun to think how divine he himself is,and how certain the future is.
LG1860	128	I specifically announce that the real and perma-nentpermanent grandeur of These States must be their Religion,
LG1860	129	Otherwise there is no real and permanent grandeur.
LG1860	130	What are you doing, young man?
LG1860	131	Are you so earnest—so given up to literature,science, art, amours?
LG1860	132	These ostensible realities, materials, points?
LG1860	133	Your ambition or business, whatever it may be?
LG1860	134	It is well—Against such I say not a word—I am their poet also;
LG1860	135	But behold! such swiftly subside—burnt up for Religion's sake,
LG1860	136	For not all matter is fuel to heat, impalpable flame,the essential life of the earth,
LG1860	137	Any more than such are to Religion.
LG1860	138	What do you seek, so pensive and silent?
LG1860	139	What do you need, comrade?
LG1860	140	Mon cher! do you think it is love?
LG1860	141	Proceed, comrade,
LG1860	142	It is a painful thing to love a man or woman to excess—yet it satisfies—it is great,
LG1860	143	But there is something else very great—it makes the whole coincide,
LG1860	144	It, magnificent, beyond materials, with continuous hands, sweeps and provides for all.
LG1860	145	O I see the following poems are indeed to drop in the earth the germs of a greater Religion.
LG1860	146	My comrade!
LG1860	147	For you, to share with me, two greatnesses—And a third one, rising inclusive and more resplendent,
LG1860	148	The greatness of Love and Democracy—and the greatness of Religion.
LG1860	149	Melange mine!
LG1860	150	Mysterious ocean where the streams empty,
LG1860	151	Prophetic spirit of materials shifting and flickering around me,
LG1860	152	Wondrous interplay between the seen and unseen,
LG1860	153	Living beings, identities, now doubtless near us, in the air, that we know not of,
LG1860	154	Extasy everywhere touching and thrilling me,
LG1860	155	Contact daily and hourly that will not release me,
LG1860	156	These selecting—These, in hints, demanded of me.
LG1860	157	Not he, adhesive, kissing me so long with his daily kiss,
LG1860	158	Has winded and twisted around me that which holds me to him,
LG1860	159	Any more than I am held to the heavens, to the spiritual world,
LG1860	160	And to the identities of the Gods, my unknown lovers,
LG1860	161	After what they have done to me, suggesting such themes.
LG1860	162	O such themes! Equalities!
LG1860	163	O amazement of things! O divine average!
LG1860	164	O warblings under the sun—ushered, as now, or at noon, or setting!
LG1860	165	O strain, musical, flowing through ages—now reaching hither,
LG1860	166	I take to your reckless and composite chords—I add to them, and cheerfully pass them forward.
LG1860	167	As I have walked in Alabama my morning walk,
LG1860	168	I have seen where the she-bird, the mocking-bird, sat on her nest in the briers, hatching her brood.
LG1860	169	I have seen the he-bird also,
LG1860	170	I have paused to hear him, near at hand, inflating his throat, and joyfully singing.
LG1860	171	And while I paused, it came to me that what he really sang for was not there only,
LG1860	172	Nor for his mate nor himself only, nor all sent back by the echoes,
LG1860	173	But subtle, clandestine, away beyond,
LG1860	174	A charge transmitted, and gift occult, for those being born.
LG1860	175	Democracy!
LG1860	176	Near at hand to you a throat is now inflating itself and joyfully singing.
LG1860	177	Ma femme!
LG1860	178	For the brood beyond us and of us,
LG1860	179	For those who belong here, and those to come,
LG1860	180	I, exultant, to be ready for them, will now shake out carols stronger and haughtier than have ever yet been heard upon the earth.
LG1860	181	I will make the songs of passions, to give them their way,
LG1860	182	And your songs, offenders—for I scan you with kindred eyes, and carry you with me the same as any.
LG1860	183	I will make the true poem of riches,
LG1860	184	Namely, to earn for the body and the mind, what adheres, and goes forward, and is not dropt by death.
LG1860	185	I will effuse egotism, and show it underlying all—And I will be the bard of Personality;
LG1860	186	And I will show of male and female that either is but the equal of the other,
LG1860	187	And I will show that there is no imperfection in male or female, or in the earth, or in the present—and can be none in the future,
LG1860	188	And I will show that whatever happens to anybody, it may be turned to beautiful results—And I will show that nothing can happen more beautiful than death;
LG1860	189	And I will thread a thread through my poems that no one thing in the universe is inferior to another thing,
LG1860	190	And that all the things of the universe are perfect miracles, each as profound as any.
LG1860	191	I will not make poems with reference to parts,
LG1860	192	But I will make leaves, poems, poemets, songs, says,thoughts, with reference to ensemble;
LG1860	193	And I will not sing with reference to a day, but with reference to all days,
LG1860	194	And I will not make a poem, nor the least part of a poem, but has reference to the Soul,
LG1860	195	Because, having looked at the objects of the universe,I find there is no one, nor any particle of one,but has reference to the Soul.
LG1860	196	Was somebody asking to see the Soul?
LG1860	197	See! your own shape and countenance—persons,substances, beasts, the trees, the running rivers,the rocks and sands.
LG1860	198	All hold spiritual joys, and afterward loosen them,
LG1860	199	How can the real body ever die, and be buried?
LG1860	200	Of your real body, and any man's or woman's real body, item for item, it will elude the hands of the corpse-cleaners, and pass to fitting spheres,carrying what has accrued to it from the moment of birth to the moment of death.
LG1860	201	Not the types set up by the printer return their im-pressionimpression, the meaning, the main concern, any more than a man's substance and life, or a woman's substance and life, return in the body and the Soul, indifferently before death and after death.
LG1860	202	Behold! the body includes and is the meaning, the main concern—and includes and is the Soul;
LG1860	203	Whoever you are! how superb and how divine is your body, or any part of it.
LG1860	204	Whoever you are! to you endless announcements.
LG1860	205	Daughter of the lands, did you wait for your poet?
LG1860	206	Did you wait for one with a flowing mouth and indicative hand?
LG1860	207	Toward the male of The States, and toward the female of The States,
LG1860	208	Toward the President, the Congress, the diverse Gov-ernorsGovernors, the new Judiciary,
LG1860	209	Live words—words to the lands.
LG1860	210	O the lands!
LG1860	211	Lands scorning invaders! Interlinked, food-yielding lands!
LG1860	212	Land of coal and iron! Land of gold! Lands of cotton, sugar, rice!
LG1860	213	Odorous and sunny land! Floridian land!
LG1860	214	Land of the spinal river, the Mississippi! Land of the Alleghanies! Ohio's land!
LG1860	215	Land of wheat, beef, pork! Land of wool and hemp!Land of the potato, the apple, and the grape!
LG1860	216	Land of the pastoral plains, the grass-fields of the world! Land of those sweet-aired interminable plateaus! Land there of the herd, the garden,the healthy house of adobie! Land there of rapt thought, and of the realization of the stars!Land of simple, holy, untamed lives!
LG1860	217	Lands where the northwest Columbia winds, and where the southwest Colorado winds!
LG1860	218	Land of the Chesapeake! Land of the Delaware!
LG1860	219	Land of Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan!
LG1860	220	Land of the Old Thirteen! Massachusetts land!Land of Vermont and Connecticut!
LG1860	221	Land of many oceans! Land of sierras and peaks!
LG1860	222	Land of boatmen and sailors! Fishermen's land!
LG1860	223	Inextricable lands! the clutched together! the passionate lovers!
LG1860	224	The side by side! the elder and younger brothers!the bony-limbed!
LG1860	225	The great women's land! the feminine! the ex-periencedexperienced sisters and the inexperienced sisters!
LG1860	226	Far breath'd land! Arctic braced! Mexican breezed!the diverse! the compact!
LG1860	227	The Pennsylvanian! the Virginian! the double Carolinian!
LG1860	228	O all and each well-loved by me! my intrepid nations!O I cannot be discharged from you!
LG1860	229	O Death! O for all that, I am yet of you, unseen,this hour, with irrepressible love,
LG1860	230	Walking New England, a friend, a traveller,
LG1860	231	Splashing my bare feet in the edge of the summer ripples, on Paumanok's sands,
LG1860	232	Crossing the prairies—dwelling again in Chicago—dwelling in many towns,
LG1860	233	Observing shows, births, improvements, structures,arts,
LG1860	234	Listening to the orators and the oratresses in public halls,
LG1860	235	Of and through The States, as during life—each man and woman my neighbor,
LG1860	236	The Louisianian, the Georgian, as near to me, and I as near to him and her,
LG1860	237	The Mississippian and Arkansian—the woman and man of Utah, Dakotah, Nebraska, yet with me —and I yet with any of them,
LG1860	238	Yet upon the plains west of the spinal river—yet in my house of adobie,
LG1860	239	Yet returning eastward—yet in the Sea-Side State,or in Maryland,
LG1860	240	Yet a child of the North—yet Kanadian, cheerily braving the winter—the snow and ice welcome to me,
LG1860	241	Yet a true son either of Maine, or of the Granite State, or of the Narragansett Bay State, or of the Empire State,
LG1860	242	Yet sailing to other shores to annex the same—yet welcoming every new brother,
LG1860	243	Hereby applying these leaves to the new ones, from the hour they unite with the old ones,
LG1860	244	Coming among the new ones myself, to be their companion—coming personally to you now,
LG1860	245	Enjoining you to acts, characters, spectacles, with me.
LG1860	246	With me, with firm holding—yet haste, haste on.
LG1860	247	For your life, adhere to me,
LG1860	248	Of all the men of the earth, I only can unloose you and toughen you,
LG1860	249	I may have to be persuaded many times before I consent to give myself to you—but what of that?
LG1860	250	Must not Nature be persuaded many times?
LG1860	251	No dainty dolce affettuoso I;
LG1860	252	Bearded, sunburnt, gray-necked, forbidding, I have arrived,
LG1860	253	To be wrestled with as I pass, for the solid prizes of the universe,
LG1860	254	For such I afford whoever can persevere to win them.
LG1860	255	On my way a moment I pause,
LG1860	256	Here for you! And here for America!
LG1860	257	Still the Present I raise aloft—Still the Future of The States I harbinge, glad and sublime,
LG1860	258	And for the Past I pronounce what the air holds of the red aborigines.
LG1860	259	The red aborigines!
LG1860	260	Leaving natural breaths, sounds of rain and winds,calls as of birds and animals in the woods,syllabled to us for names,
LG1860	261	Okonee, Koosa, Ottawa, Monongahela, Sauk, Natchez,Chattahoochee, Kaqueta, Oronoco.
LG1860	262	Wabash, Miami, Saginaw, Chippewa, Oshkosh, Walla-WallaWalla Walla,
LG1860	263	Leaving such to The States, they melt, they depart,charging the water and the land with names.
LG1860	264	O expanding and swift! O henceforth,
LG1860	265	Elements, breeds, adjustments, turbulent, quick, and audacious,
LG1860	266	A world primal again—Vistas of glory, incessant and branching,
LG1860	267	A new race, dominating previous ones, and grander far,
LG1860	268	New politics—New literatures and religions—New inventions and arts.
LG1860	269	These! These, my voice announcing—I will sleep no more, but arise;
LG1860	270	You oceans that have been calm within me! how I feel you, fathomless, stirring, preparing unprecedented waves and storms.
LG1860	271	See! steamers steaming through my poems!
LG1860	272	See, in my poems immigrants continually coming and landing;
LG1860	273	See, in arriere, the wigwam, the trail, the hunter's hut, the flat-boat, the maize-leaf, the claim, the rude fence, and the backwoods village;
LG1860	274	See, on the one side the Western Sea, and on the other side the Eastern Sea, how they advance and retreat upon my poems, as upon their own shores;
LG1860	275	See, pastures and forests in my poems—See, animals,wild and tame—See, beyond the Kanzas, count-lesscountless herds of buffalo, feeding on short curly grass;
LG1860	276	See, in my poems, old and new cities, solid, vast,inland, with paved streets, with iron and stone edifices, and ceaseless vehicles, and commerce;
LG1860	277	See the populace, millions upon millions, handsome,tall, muscular, both sexes, clothed in easy and dignified clothes—teaching, commanding, mar-ryingmarrying, generating, equally electing and elective;
LG1860	278	See, the many-cylinder'd steam printing-press—See,the electric telegraph—See, the strong and quick locomotive, as it departs, panting, blowing the steam-whistle;
LG1860	279	See, ploughmen, ploughing farms—See, miners,digging mines—See, the numberless factories;
LG1860	280	See, mechanics, busy at their benches, with tools—See from among them, superior judges, philo-sophsphilosophs, Presidents, emerge, dressed in working dresses;
LG1860	281	See, lounging through the shops and fields of The States, me, well-beloved, close-held by day and night,
LG1860	282	Hear the loud echo of my songs there! Read the hints come at last.
LG1860	283	O my comrade!
LG1860	284	O you and me at last—and us two only;
LG1860	285	O power, liberty, eternity at last!
LG1860	286	O to be relieved of distinctions! to make as much of vices as virtues!
LG1860	287	O to level occupations and the sexes! O to bring all to common ground! O adhesiveness!
LG1860	288	O the pensive aching to be together—you know not why, and I know not why.
LG1860	289	O a word to clear one's path ahead endlessly!
LG1860	290	O something extatic and undemonstrable! O music wild!
LG1860	291	O now I triumph—and you shall also;
LG1860	292	O hand in hand—O wholesome pleasure—O one more desirer and lover,
LG1860	293	O haste, firm holding—haste, haste on, with me.
LG1860	294	I CELEBRATE myself,
LG1860	295	And what I assume you shall assume,
LG1860	296	For every atom belonging to me, as good belongs to you.
LG1860	297	I loafe and invite my Soul,
LG1860	298	I lean and loafe at my ease, observing a spear of summer grass.
LG1860	299	Houses and rooms are full of perfumes—the shelves are crowded with perfumes,
LG1860	300	I breathe the fragrance myself, and know it and like it,
LG1860	301	The distillation would intoxicate me also, but I shall not let it.
LG1860	302	The atmosphere is not a perfume—it has no taste of the distillation, it is odorless,
LG1860	303	It is for my mouth forever—I am in love with it,
LG1860	304	I will go to the bank by the wood, and become undisguised and naked,
LG1860	305	I am mad for it to be in contact with me.
LG1860	306	The smoke of my own breath,
LG1860	307	Echoes, ripples, buzzed whispers, love-root, silk-thread, crotch and vine,
LG1860	308	My respiration and inspiration, the beating of my heart, the passing of blood and air through my lungs,
LG1860	309	The sniff of green leaves and dry leaves, and of the shore, and dark-colored sea-rocks, and of hay in the barn,
LG1860	310	The sound of the belched words of my voice, words loosed to the eddies of the wind,
LG1860	311	A few light kisses, a few embraces, a reaching around of arms,
LG1860	312	The play of shine and shade on the trees as the supple boughs wag,
LG1860	313	The delight alone, or in the rush of the streets, or along the fields and hill-sides,
LG1860	314	The feeling of health, the full-noon trill, the song of me rising from bed and meeting the sun.
LG1860	315	Have you reckoned a thousand acres much? Have you reckoned the earth much?
LG1860	316	Have you practised so long to learn to read?
LG1860	317	Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?
LG1860	318	Stop this day and night with me, and you shall pos-sesspossess the origin of all poems,
LG1860	319	You shall possess the good of the earth and sun—there are millions of suns left,
LG1860	320	You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look through the eyes of the dead,nor feed on the spectres in books.
LG1860	321	You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,
LG1860	322	You shall listen to all sides, and filter them from yourself.
LG1860	323	I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the beginning and the end,
LG1860	324	But I do not talk of the beginning or the end.
LG1860	325	There was never any more inception than there is now,
LG1860	326	Nor any more youth or age than there is now,
LG1860	327	And will never be any more perfection than there is now,
LG1860	328	Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.
LG1860	329	Urge, and urge, and urge,
LG1860	330	Always the procreant urge of the world.
LG1860	331	Out of the dimness opposite equals advance—always substance and increase, always sex,
LG1860	332	Always a knit of identity—always distinction—always a breed of life.
LG1860	333	To elaborate is no avail—learned and unlearned feel that it is so.
LG1860	334	Sure as the most certain sure, plumb in the uprights,well entretied, braced in the beams,
LG1860	335	Stout as a horse, affectionate, haughty, electrical,
LG1860	336	I and this mystery here we stand.
LG1860	337	Clear and sweet is my Soul, and clear and sweet is all that is not my Soul.
LG1860	338	Lack one lacks both, and the unseen is proved by the seen,
LG1860	339	Till that becomes unseen, and receives proof in its turn.
LG1860	340	Showing the best, and dividing it from the worst, age vexes age,
LG1860	341	Knowing the perfect fitness and equanimity of things,while they discuss I am silent, and go bathe and admire myself.
LG1860	342	Welcome is every organ and attribute of me, and of any man hearty and clean,
LG1860	343	Not an inch, nor a particle of an inch, is vile, and none shall be less familiar than the rest.
LG1860	344	I am satisfied—I see, dance, laugh, sing;
LG1860	345	As the hugging and loving Bed-fellow sleeps at my side through the night, and withdraws at the peep of the day,
LG1860	346	And leaves for me baskets covered with white towels,swelling the house with their plenty,
LG1860	347	Shall I postpone my acceptation and realization, and scream at my eyes,
LG1860	348	That they turn from gazing after and down the road,
LG1860	349	And forthwith cipher and show me to a cent,
LG1860	350	Exactly the contents of one, and exactly the contents of two, and which is ahead?
LG1860	351	Trippers and askers surround me,
LG1860	352	People I meet—the effect upon me of my early life,or the ward and city I live in, or the nation,
LG1860	353	The latest news, discoveries, inventions, societies,authors old and new,
LG1860	354	My dinner, dress, associates, looks, work, compliments,dues,
LG1860	355	The real or fancied indifference of some man or woman I love,
LG1860	356	The sickness of one of my folks, or of myself, or ill-doing, or loss or lack of money, or depressions or exaltations,
LG1860	357	These come to me days and nights, and go from me again,
LG1860	358	But they are not the Me myself.
LG1860	359	Apart from the pulling and hauling stands what I am,
LG1860	360	Stands amused, complacent, compassionating, idle,unitary,
LG1860	361	Looks down, is erect, or bends an arm on an impalpable certain rest,
LG1860	362	Looking with side-curved head, curious what will come next,
LG1860	363	Both in and out of the game, and watching and wondering at it.
LG1860	364	Backward I see in my own days where I sweated through fog with linguists and contenders,
LG1860	365	I have no mockings or arguments—I witness and wait.
LG1860	366	I believe in you, my Soul—the other I am must not abase itself to you,
LG1860	367	And you must not be abased to the other.
LG1860	368	Loafe with me on the grass—loose the stop from your throat,
LG1860	369	Not words, not music or rhyme I want—not custom or lecture, not even the best,
LG1860	370	Only the lull I like, the hum of your valved voice.
LG1860	371	I mind how once we lay, such a transparent summer morning,
LG1860	372	How you settled your head athwart my hips, and gently turned over upon me,
LG1860	373	And parted the shirt from my bosom-bone, and plunged your tongue to my bare-stript heart,
LG1860	374	And reached till you felt my beard, and reached till you held my feet.
LG1860	375	Swiftly arose and spread around me the peace and joy and knowledge that pass all the art and argument of the earth,
LG1860	376	And I know that the hand of God is the promise of my own,
LG1860	377	And I know that the spirit of God is the brother of my own,
LG1860	378	And that all the men ever born are also my brothers,and the women my sisters and lovers,
LG1860	379	And that a kelson of the creation is love,
LG1860	380	And limitless are leaves, stiff or drooping in the fields,
LG1860	381	And brown ants in the little wells beneath them,
LG1860	382	And mossy scabs of the worm-fence, and heaped stones, elder, mullen, and pokeweed.
LG1860	383	A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands;
LG1860	384	How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is, any more than he.
LG1860	385	I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven.
LG1860	386	Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,
LG1860	387	A scented gift and remembrancer, designedly dropped,
LG1860	388	Bearing the owner's name someway in the corners,that we may see and remark, and say Whose?
LG1860	389	Or I guess the grass is itself a child, the produced babe of the vegetation.
LG1860	390	Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,
LG1860	391	And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow zones,
LG1860	392	Growing among black folks as among white,
LG1860	393	Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the same, I receive them the same.
LG1860	394	And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.
LG1860	395	Tenderly will I use you, curling grass,
LG1860	396	It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men,
LG1860	397	It may be if I had known them I would have loved them,
LG1860	398	It may be you are from old people, and from women,and from offspring taken soon out of their mothers' laps,
LG1860	399	And here you are the mothers' laps.
LG1860	400	This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old mothers,
LG1860	401	Darker than the colorless beards of old men,
LG1860	402	Dark to come from under the faint red roofs of mouths.
LG1860	403	O I perceive after all so many uttering tongues!
LG1860	404	And I perceive they do not come from the roofs of mouths for nothing.
LG1860	405	I wish I could translate the hints about the dead young men and women,
LG1860	406	And the hints about old men and mothers, and the offspring taken soon out of their laps.
LG1860	407	What do you think has become of the young and old men?
LG1860	408	And what do you think has become of the women and children?
LG1860	409	They are alive and well somewhere,
LG1860	410	The smallest sprout shows there is really no death,
LG1860	411	And if ever there was, it led forward life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it,
LG1860	412	And ceased the moment life appeared.
LG1860	413	All goes onward and outward—nothing collapses,
LG1860	414	And to die is different from what any one supposed,and luckier.
LG1860	415	Has any one supposed it lucky to be born?
LG1860	416	I hasten to inform him or her, it is just as lucky to die, and I know it.
LG1860	417	I pass death with the dying, and birth with the new-washed babe, and am not contained between my hat and boots,
LG1860	418	And peruse manifold objects, no two alike, and every one good,
LG1860	419	The earth good, and the stars good, and their adjuncts all good.
LG1860	420	I am not an earth, nor an adjunct of an earth,
LG1860	421	I am the mate and companion of people, all just as immortal and fathomless as myself;
LG1860	422	They do not know how immortal, but I know.
LG1860	423	Every kind for itself and its own—for me mine, male and female,
LG1860	424	For me those that have been boys, and that love women,
LG1860	425	For me the man that is proud, and feels how it stings to be slighted,
LG1860	426	For me the sweetheart and the old maid—for me mothers, and the mothers of mothers,
LG1860	427	For me lips that have smiled, eyes that have shed tears,
LG1860	428	For me children, and the begetters of children.
LG1860	429	Who need be afraid of the merge?
LG1860	430	Undrape! you are not guilty to me, nor stale, nor discarded,
LG1860	431	I see through the broadcloth and gingham, whether or no,
LG1860	432	And am around, tenacious, acquisitive, tireless, and can never be shaken away.
LG1860	433	The little one sleeps in its cradle,
LG1860	434	I lift the gauze and look a long time, and silently brush away flies with my hand.
LG1860	435	The youngster and the red-faced girl turn aside up the bushy hill,
LG1860	436	I peeringly view them from the top.
LG1860	437	The suicide sprawls on the bloody floor of the bedroom;
LG1860	438	It is so—I witnessed the corpse—there the pistol had fallen.
LG1860	439	The blab of the pave, the tires of carts, sluff of boot-soles, talk of the promenaders,
LG1860	440	The heavy omnibus, the driver with his interrogating thumb, the clank of the shod horses on the granite floor,
LG1860	441	The snow-sleighs, the clinking, shouted jokes, pelts of snow-balls,
LG1860	442	The hurrahs for popular favorites, the fury of roused mobs,
LG1860	443	The flap of the curtained litter, a sick man inside,borne to the hospital,
LG1860	444	The meeting of enemies, the sudden oath, the blows and fall,
LG1860	445	The excited crowd, the policeman with his star,quickly working his passage to the centre of the crowd,
LG1860	446	The impassive stones that receive and return so many echoes,
LG1860	447	The Souls moving along—(are they invisible, while the least of the stones is visible?)
LG1860	448	What groans of over-fed or half-starved who fall sun-strucksunstruck, or in fits,
LG1860	449	What exclamations of women taken suddenly, who hurry home and give birth to babes,
LG1860	450	What living and buried speech is always vibrating here—what howls restrained by decorum,
LG1860	451	Arrests of criminals, slights, adulterous offers made,acceptances, rejections with convex lips,
LG1860	452	I mind them or the show or resonance of them—I come and I depart.
LG1860	453	The big doors of the country-barn stand open and ready,
LG1860	454	The dried grass of the harvest-time loads the slow-drawn wagon,
LG1860	455	The clear light plays on the brown gray and green intertinged,
LG1860	456	The armfuls are packed to the sagging mow.
LG1860	457	I am there—I help—I came stretched atop of the load,
LG1860	458	I felt its soft jolts—one leg reclined on the other;
LG1860	459	I jump from the cross-beams and seize the clover and timothy,
LG1860	460	And roll head over heels, and tangle my hair full of wisps.
LG1860	461	Alone, far in the wilds and mountains, I hunt,
LG1860	462	Wandering, amazed at my own lightness and glee,
LG1860	463	In the late afternoon choosing a safe spot to pass the night,
LG1860	464	Kindling a fire and broiling the fresh-killed game,
LG1860	465	Soundly falling asleep on the gathered leaves, with my dog and gun by my side.
LG1860	466	The Yankee clipper is under her three sky-sails—she cuts the sparkle and scud,
LG1860	467	My eyes settle the land—I bend at her prow, or shout joyously from the deck.
LG1860	468	The boatmen and clam-diggers arose early and stopped for me,
LG1860	469	I tucked my trowser-ends in my boots, and went and had a good time;
LG1860	470	You should have been with us that day round the chowder-kettle.
LG1860	471	I saw the marriage of the trapper in the open air in the far-west—the bride was a red girl,
LG1860	472	Her father and his friends sat near, cross-legged and dumbly smoking—they had moccasons to their feet, and large thick blankets hanging from their shoulders;
LG1860	473	On a bank lounged the trapper—he was dressed mostly in skins—his luxuriant beard and curls protected his neck,
LG1860	474	One hand rested on his rifle—the other hand held firmly the wrist of the red girl,
LG1860	475	She had long eyelashes—her head was bare—her coarse straight locks descended upon her volup-tuousvoluptuous limbs and reached to her feet.
LG1860	476	The runaway slave came to my house and stopped outside,
LG1860	477	I heard his motions crackling the twigs of the wood-pilewoodpile,
LG1860	478	Through the swung half-door of the kitchen I saw him limpsy and weak,
LG1860	479	And went where he sat on a log, and led him in and assured him,
LG1860	480	And brought water, and filled a tub for his sweated body and bruised feet,
LG1860	481	And gave him a room that entered from my own, and gave him some coarse clean clothes,
LG1860	482	And remember perfectly well his revolving eyes and his awkwardness,
LG1860	483	And remember putting plasters on the galls of his neck and ankles;
LG1860	484	He staid with me a week before he was recuperated and passed north,
LG1860	485	I had him sit next me at table—my fire-lock leaned in the corner.
LG1860	486	Twenty-eight young men bathe by the shore,
LG1860	487	Twenty-eight young men, and all so friendly;
LG1860	488	Twenty-eight years of womanly life, and all so lonesome.
LG1860	489	She owns the fine house by the rise of the bank,
LG1860	490	She hides, handsome and richly drest, aft the blinds of the window.
LG1860	491	Which of the young men does she like the best?
LG1860	492	Ah, the homeliest of them is beautiful to her.
LG1860	493	Where are you off to, lady? for I see you,
LG1860	494	You splash in the water there, yet stay stock still in your room.
LG1860	495	Dancing and laughing along the beach came the twenty-ninth bather,
LG1860	496	The rest did not see her, but she saw them and loved them.
LG1860	497	The beards of the young men glistened with wet, it ran from their long hair,
LG1860	498	Little streams passed all over their bodies.
LG1860	499	An unseen hand also passed over their bodies,
LG1860	500	It descended tremblingly from their temples and ribs.
LG1860	501	The young men float on their backs—their white bellies bulge to the sun—they do not ask who seizes fast to them,
LG1860	502	They do not know who puffs and declines with pendant and bending arch,
LG1860	503	They do not think whom they souse with spray.
LG1860	504	The butcher-boy puts off his killing-clothes, or sharp-enssharpens his knife at the stall in the market,
LG1860	505	I loiter, enjoying his repartee and his shuffle and break-down.
LG1860	506	Blacksmiths with grimed and hairy chests environ the anvil,
LG1860	507	Each has his main-sledge—they are all out—there is a great heat in the fire.
LG1860	508	From the cinder-strewed threshold I follow their movements,
LG1860	509	The lithe sheer of their waists plays even with their massive arms,
LG1860	510	Overhand the hammers roll—overhand so slow—overhand so sure,
LG1860	511	They do not hasten—each man hits in his place.
LG1860	512	The negro holds firmly the reins of his four horses —the blocks swags underneath on its tied-over chain,
LG1860	513	The negro that drives the huge dray of the stone-yard —steady and tall he stands, poised on one leg on the string-piece,
LG1860	514	His blue shirt exposes his ample neck and breast, and loosens over his hip-band,
LG1860	515	His glance is calm and commanding—he tosses the slouch of his hat away from his forehead,
LG1860	516	The sun falls on his crispy hair and moustache—falls on the black of his polished and perfect limbs.
LG1860	517	I behold the picturesque giant and love him—and I do not stop there,
LG1860	518	I go with the team also.
LG1860	519	In me the caresser of life wherever moving—back-wardbackward as well as forward slueing,
LG1860	520	To niches aside and junior bending.
LG1860	521	Oxen that rattle the yoke or halt in the shade! what is that you express in your eyes?
LG1860	522	It seems to me more than all the print I have read in my life.
LG1860	523	My tread scares the wood-drake and wood-duck, on my distant and day-long ramble,
LG1860	524	They rise together—they slowly circle around.
LG1860	525	I believe in those winged purposes,
LG1860	526	And acknowledge red, yellow, white, playing within me,
LG1860	527	And consider green and violet, and the tufted crown,intentional,
LG1860	528	And do not call the tortoise unworthy because she is not something else,
LG1860	529	And the mocking-bird in the swamp never studied the gamut, yet trills pretty well to me,
LG1860	530	And the look of the bay mare shames silliness out of me.
LG1860	531	The wild gander leads his flock through the cool night,
LG1860	532	Ya-honk! he says, and sounds it down to me like an invitation;
LG1860	533	The pert may suppose it meaningless, but I listen close,
LG1860	534	I find its purpose and place up there toward the wintry sky.
LG1860	535	The sharp-hoofed moose of the north, the cat on the house-sill, the chickadee, the prairie-dog,
LG1860	536	The litter of the grunting sow as they tug at her teats,
LG1860	537	The brood of the turkey-hen, and she with her half-spread wings,
LG1860	538	I see in them and myself the same old law.
LG1860	539	The press of my foot to the earth springs a hundred affections,
LG1860	540	They scorn the best I can do to relate them.
LG1860	541	I am enamoured of growing outdoors.
LG1860	542	Of men that live among cattle, or taste of the ocean or woods,
LG1860	543	Of the builders and steerers of ships, and the wielders of axes and mauls, and the drivers of horses,
LG1860	544	I can eat and sleep with them week in and week out.
LG1860	545	What is commonest, cheapest, nearest, easiest, is Me,
LG1860	546	Me going in for my chances, spending for vast returns,
LG1860	547	Adorning myself to bestow myself on the first that will take me,
LG1860	548	Not asking the sky to come down to my good will,
LG1860	549	Scattering it freely forever.
LG1860	550	The pure contralto sings in the organ loft,
LG1860	551	The carpenter dresses his plank—the tongue of his foreplane whistles its wild ascending lisp,
LG1860	552	The married and unmarried children ride home to their Thanksgiving dinner,
LG1860	553	The pilot seizes the king-pin—he heaves down with a strong arm,
LG1860	554	The mate stands braced in the whale-boat—lance and harpoon are ready,
LG1860	555	The duck-shooter walks by silent and cautious stretches,
LG1860	556	The deacons are ordained with crossed hands at the altar,
LG1860	557	The spinning-girl retreats and advances to the hum of the big wheel,
LG1860	558	The farmer stops by the bars, as he walks on a First Day loafe, and looks at the oats and rye,
LG1860	559	The lunatic is carried at last to the asylum, a con-firmedconfirmed case,
LG1860	560	He will never sleep any more as he did in the cot in his mother's bedroom;
LG1860	561	The jour printer with gray head and gaunt jaws works at his case,
LG1860	562	He turns his quid of tobacco, while his eyes blurr with the manuscript;
LG1860	563	The malformed limbs are tied to the anatomist's table,
LG1860	564	What is removed drops horribly in a pail;
LG1860	565	The quadroon girl is sold at the stand—the drunkard nods by the bar-room stove,
LG1860	566	The machinist rolls up his sleeves—the policeman travels his beat—the gate-keeper marks who pass,
LG1860	567	The young fellow drives the express-wagon—I love him, though I do not know him,
LG1860	568	The half-breed straps on his light boots to compete in the race,
LG1860	569	The western turkey-shooting draws old and young—some lean on their rifles, some sit on logs,
LG1860	570	Out from the crowd steps the marksman, takes his position, levels his piece;
LG1860	571	The groups of newly-come emigrants cover the wharf or levee,
LG1860	572	As the woolly-pates hoe in the sugar-field, the over-seeroverseer views them from his saddle,
LG1860	573	The bugle calls in the ball-room, the gentlemen run for their partners, the dancers bow to each other,
LG1860	574	The youth lies awake in the cedar-roofed garret, and harks to the musical rain,
LG1860	575	The Wolverine sets traps on the creek that helps fill the Huron,
LG1860	576	The reformer ascends the platform, he spouts with his mouth and nose,
LG1860	577	The company returns from its excursion, the darkey brings up the rear and bears the well-riddled target,
LG1860	578	The squaw, wrapt in her yellow-hemmed cloth, is offering moccasons and bead-bags for sale,
LG1860	579	The connoisseur peers along the exhibition-gallery with half-shut eyes bent side-ways,
LG1860	580	As the deck-hands make fast the steamboat, the plank is thrown for the shore-going passengers,
LG1860	581	The young sister holds out the skein, while the elder sister winds it off in a ball, and stops now and then for the knots,
LG1860	582	The one-year wife is recovering and happy, having a week ago borne her first child,
LG1860	583	The clean-haired Yankee girl works with her sewing-machine, or in the factory or mill,
LG1860	584	The nine months' gone is in the parturition chamber,her faintness and pains are advancing,
LG1860	585	The paving-man leans on his two-handed rammer —the reporter's lead flies swiftly over the note-booknotebook—the sign-painter is lettering with red and gold,
LG1860	586	The canal-boy trots on the tow-path—the bookkeeper counts at his desk—the shoemaker waxes his thread,
LG1860	587	The conductor beats time for the band, and all the performers follow him,
LG1860	588	The child is baptized—the convert is making his first professions,
LG1860	589	The regatta is spread on the bay—how the white sails sparkle!
LG1860	590	The drover, watching his drove, sings out to them that would stray,
LG1860	591	The pedler sweats with his pack on his back, the purchaser higgling about the odd cent,
LG1860	592	The camera and plate are prepared, the lady must sit for her daguerreotype,
LG1860	593	The bride unrumples her white dress, the minute-hand of the clock moves slowly,
LG1860	594	The opium-eater reclines with rigid head and just-opened lips,
LG1860	595	The prostitute draggles her shawl, her bonnet bobs on her tipsy and pimpled neck,
LG1860	596	The crowd laugh at her blackguard oaths, the men jeer and wink to each other,
LG1860	597	(Miserable!-I do not laugh at your oaths, nor jeer you;)
LG1860	598	The President, holding a cabinet council, is sur-roundedsurrounded by the Great Secretaries,
LG1860	599	On the piazza walk five friendly matrons with twined arms,
LG1860	600	The crew of the fish-smack pack repeated layers of halibut in the hold,
LG1860	601	The Missourian crosses the plains, toting his wares and his cattle,
LG1860	602	As the fare-collector goes through the train, he gives notice by the jingling of loose change,
LG1860	603	The floor-men are laying the floor—the tinners are tinning the roof—the masons are calling for mortar,
LG1860	604	In single file, each shouldering his hod, pass onward the laborers,
LG1860	605	Seasons pursuing each other, the indescribable crowd is gathered—it is the Fourth of Seventh Month —What salutes of cannon and small arms!
LG1860	606	Seasons pursuing each other, the plougher ploughs,the mower mows, and the winter-grain falls in the ground,
LG1860	607	Off on the lakes the pike-fisher watches and waits by the hole in the frozen surface,
LG1860	608	The stumps stand thick round the clearing, the squatter strikes deep with his axe,
LG1860	609	Flatboatmen make fast, towards dusk, near the cotton-woodcottonwood or pekan-trees,
LG1860	610	Coon-seekers go through the regions of the Red river,or through those drained by the Tennessee, or through those of the Arkansaw,
LG1860	611	Torches shine in the dark that hangs on the Chatta-hoocheChattahooche or Altamahaw,
LG1860	612	Patriarchs sit at supper with sons and grandsons and great-grandsons around them,
LG1860	613	In walls of adobie, in canvas tents, rest hunters and trappers after their day's sport,
LG1860	614	The city sleeps and the country sleeps,
LG1860	615	The living sleep for their time, the dead sleep for their time,
LG1860	616	The old husband sleeps by his wife, and the young husband sleeps by his wife;
LG1860	617	And these one and all tend inward to me, and I tend outward to them,
LG1860	618	And such as it is to be of these, more or less, I am.
LG1860	619	I am of old and young, of the foolish as much as the wise,
LG1860	620	Regardless of others, ever regardful of others,
LG1860	621	Maternal as well as paternal, a child as well as a man,
LG1860	622	Stuffed with the stuff that is coarse, and stuffed with the stuff that is fine,
LG1860	623	One of the great nation, the nation of many nations,the smallest the same, and the largest the same,
LG1860	624	A southerner soon as a northerner, a planter non-chalantnonchalant and hospitable,
LG1860	625	A Yankee, bound my own way, ready for trade, my joints the limberest joints on earth and the sternest joints on earth,
LG1860	626	A Kentuckian, walking the vale of the Elkhorn in my deer-skin leggings,
LG1860	627	A boatman over lakes or bays, or along coasts—a Hoosier, Badger, Buckeye,
LG1860	628	A Louisianian or Georgian—a Poke-easy from sand-hills and pines,
LG1860	629	At home on Kanadian snow-shoes, or up in the bush,or with fishermen off Newfoundland,
LG1860	630	At home in the fleet of ice-boats, sailing with the rest,and tacking,
LG1860	631	At home on the hills of Vermont, or in the woods of Maine, or the Texan ranch,
LG1860	632	Comrade of Californians—comrade of free north-westerners, and loving their big proportions,
LG1860	633	Comrade of raftsmen and coalmen—comrade of all who shake hands and welcome to drink and meat,
LG1860	634	A learner with the simplest, a teacher of the thought-fullestthoughtfullest,
LG1860	635	A novice beginning, yet experient of myriads of seasons,
LG1860	636	Of every hue, trade, rank, caste and religion,
LG1860	637	Not merely of the New World, but of Africa, Europe,Asia—a wandering savage,
LG1860	638	A farmer, mechanic, artist, gentleman, sailor, lover,quaker,
LG1860	639	A prisoner, fancy-man, rowdy, lawyer, physician,priest.
LG1860	640	I resist anything better than my own diversity,
LG1860	641	And breathe the air, and leave plenty after me,
LG1860	642	And am not stuck up, and am in my place.
LG1860	643	The moth and the fish-eggs are in their place,
LG1860	644	The suns I see, and the suns I cannot see, are in their place,
LG1860	645	The palpable is in its place, and the impalpable is in its place.
LG1860	646	These are the thoughts of all men in all ages and lands—they are not original with me,
LG1860	647	If they are not yours as much as mine, they are nothing, or next to nothing,
LG1860	648	If they do not enclose everything, they are next to nothing,
LG1860	649	If they are not the riddle and the untying of the riddle, they are nothing,
LG1860	650	If they are not just as close as they are distant, they are nothing.
LG1860	651	This is the grass that grows wherever the land is and the water is,
LG1860	652	This is the common air that bathes the globe.
LG1860	653	This is the breath for America, because it is my breath,
LG1860	654	This is for laws, songs, behavior,
LG1860	655	This is the tasteless water of Souls—this is the true sustenance.
LG1860	656	This is for the illiterate, and for the judges of the Supreme Court, and for the Federal capitol and the State capitols,
LG1860	657	And for the admirable communes of literats, com-poserscomposers, singers, lecturers, engineers, and savans,
LG1860	658	And for the endless races of work-people, farmers,and seamen.
LG1860	659	This is the trilling of thousands of clear cornets,screaming of octave flutes, striking of triangles.
LG1860	660	I play not here marches for victors only—I play great marches for conquered and slain persons.
LG1860	661	Have you heard that it was good to gain the day?
LG1860	662	I also say it is good to fall—battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won.
LG1860	663	I beat triumphal drums for the dead,
LG1860	664	I blow through my embouchures my loudest and gayest music to them.
LG1860	665	Vivas to those who have failed!
LG1860	666	And to those whose war-vessels sank in the sea!
LG1860	667	And those themselves who sank in the sea!
LG1860	668	And to all generals that lost engagements! and all overcome heroes!
LG1860	669	And the numberless unknown heroes, equal to the greatest heroes known.
LG1860	670	This is the meal pleasantly set—this is the meat and drink for natural hunger,
LG1860	671	It is for the wicked just the same as the righteous—I make appointments with all,
LG1860	672	I will not have a single person slighted or left away,
LG1860	673	The kept-woman, sponger, thief, are hereby invited,
LG1860	674	The heavy-lipped slave is invited—the venerealee is invited,
LG1860	675	There shall be no difference between them and the rest.
LG1860	676	This is the press of a bashful hand—this is the float and odor of hair,
LG1860	677	This is the touch of my lips to yours—this is the murmur of yearning,
LG1860	678	This is the far-off depth and height reflecting my own face,
LG1860	679	This is the thoughtful merge of myself, and the outlet again.
LG1860	680	Do you guess I have some intricate purpose?
LG1860	681	Well, I have—for the Fourth Month showers have,and the mica on the side of a rock has.
LG1860	682	Do you take it I would astonish?
LG1860	683	Does the daylight astonish? Does the early redstart,twittering through the woods?
LG1860	684	Do I astonish more than they?
LG1860	685	This hour I tell things in confidence,
LG1860	686	I might not tell everybody, but I will tell you.
LG1860	687	Who goes there! hankering, gross, mystical, nude?
LG1860	688	How is it I extract strength from the beef I eat?
LG1860	689	What is a man anyhow? What am I? What are you?
LG1860	690	All I mark as my own, you shall offset it with your own,
LG1860	691	Else it were time lost listening to me.
LG1860	692	I do not snivel that snivel the world over,
LG1860	693	That months are vacuums, and the ground but wallow and filth,
LG1860	694	That life is a suck and a sell, and nothing remains at the end but threadbare crape, and tears.
LG1860	695	Whimpering and truckling fold with powders for invalids—conformity goes to the fourth-removed,
LG1860	696	I cock my hat as I please, indoors or out.
LG1860	697	Why should I pray? Why should I venerate and be ceremonious?
LG1860	698	Having pried through the strata, analyzed to a hair,counsell'd with doctors, and calculated close,
LG1860	699	I find no sweeter fat than sticks to my own bones.
LG1860	700	In all people I see myself—none more, and not one a barleycorn less,
LG1860	701	And the good or bad I say of myself I say of them.
LG1860	702	And I know I am solid and sound,
LG1860	703	To me the converging objects of the universe per-petuallyperpetually flow,
LG1860	704	All are written to me, and I must get what the writing means.
LG1860	705	I know I am deathless,I know this orbit of mine cannot be swept by a carpenter's compass,
LG1860	706	I know I shall not pass like a child's carlacue cut with a burnt stick at night.
LG1860	707	I know I am august,
LG1860	708	I do not trouble my spirit to vindicate itself or be understood,
LG1860	709	I see that the elementary laws never apologize,
LG1860	710	I reckon I behave no prouder than the level I plant my house by, after all.
LG1860	711	I exist as I am—that is enough,
LG1860	712	If no other in the world be aware, I sit content,
LG1860	713	And if each and all be aware, I sit content.
LG1860	714	One world is aware, and by far the largest to me, and that is myself,
LG1860	715	And whether I come to my own to-day, or in ten thousand or ten million years,
LG1860	716	I can cheerfully take it now, or with equal cheerful-nesscheerfulness I can wait
LG1860	717	My foothold is tenoned and mortised in granite,
LG1860	718	I laugh at what you call dissolution,
LG1860	719	And I know the amplitude of time.
LG1860	720	I am the poet of the body,
LG1860	721	And I am the poet of the Soul.
LG1860	722	The pleasures of heaven are with me, and the pains of hell are with me,
LG1860	723	The first I graft and increase upon myself—the latter I translate into a new tongue.
LG1860	724	I am the poet of the woman the same as the man,
LG1860	725	And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man,
LG1860	726	And I say there is nothing greater than the mother of men.
LG1860	727	I chant the chant of dilation or pride,
LG1860	728	We have had ducking and deprecating about enough,
LG1860	729	I show that size is only development.
LG1860	730	Have you outstript the rest? Are you the President?
LG1860	731	It is a trifle—they will more than arrive there every one, and still pass on.
LG1860	732	I am He that walks with the tender and growing Night,
LG1860	733	I call to the earth and sea, half-held by the Night.
LG1860	734	Press close, bare-bosomed Night! Press close, mag-neticmagnetic, nourishing Night!
LG1860	735	Night of south winds! Night of the large few stars!
LG1860	736	Still, nodding night! Mad, naked, summer night.
LG1860	737	Smile, O voluptuous, cool-breathed Earth!
LG1860	738	Earth of the slumbering and liquid trees!
LG1860	739	Earth of departed sunset! Earth of the mountains,misty-topt!
LG1860	740	Earth of the vitreous pour of the full moon, just tinged with blue!
LG1860	741	Earth of shine and dark, mottling the tide of the river!
LG1860	742	Earth of the limpid gray of clouds, brighter and clearer for my sake!
LG1860	743	Far-swooping elbowed Earth! Rich, apple-blossomed Earth!
LG1860	744	Smile, for YOUR LOVER comes!
LG1860	745	Prodigal, you have given me love! Therefore I to you give love!
LG1860	746	O unspeakable passionate love!
LG1860	747	Thruster holding me tight, and that I hold tight!
LG1860	748	We hurt each other as the bridegroom and the bride hurt each other.
LG1860	749	You Sea! I resign myself to you also—I guess what you mean,
LG1860	750	I behold from the beach your crooked inviting fingers,
LG1860	751	I believe you refuse to go back without feeling of me;
LG1860	752	We must have a turn together—I undress—hurry me out of sight of the land,
LG1860	753	Cushion me soft, rock me in billowy drowse,
LG1860	754	Dash me with amorous wet—I can repay you.
LG1860	755	Sea of stretched ground-swells!
LG1860	756	Sea breathing broad and convulsive breaths!
LG1860	757	Sea of the brine of life! Sea of unshovelled and always-ready graves!
LG1860	758	Howler and scooper of storms! Capricious and dainty Sea!
LG1860	759	I am integral with you—I too am of one phase, and of all phases.
LG1860	760	Partaker of influx and efflux—extoller of hate and conciliation,
LG1860	761	Extoller of amies, and those that sleep in each others'arms.
LG1860	762	I am he attesting sympathy,
LG1860	763	Shall I make my list of things in the house, and skip the house that supports them?
LG1860	764	I am the poet of common sense, and of the demon-strabledemonstrable, and of immortality,
LG1860	765	And am not the poet of goodness only—I do not decline to be the poet of wickedness also.
LG1860	766	Washes and razors for foofoos—for me freckles and a bristling beard.
LG1860	767	What blurt is this about virtue and about vice?
LG1860	768	Evil propels me, and reform of evil propels me—I stand indifferent,
LG1860	769	My gait is no fault-finder's or rejecter's gait,
LG1860	770	I moisten the roots of all that has grown.
LG1860	771	Did you fear some scrofula out of the unflagging pregnancy?
LG1860	772	Did you guess the celestial laws are yet to be worked over and rectified?
LG1860	773	I step up to say that what we do is right, and what we affirm is right—and some is only the ore of right,
LG1860	774	Witnesses of us—one side a balance, and the antip-odalantipodal side a balance,
LG1860	775	Soft doctrine as steady help as stable doctrine,
LG1860	776	Thoughts and deeds of the present, our rouse and early start.
LG1860	777	This minute that comes to me over the past decillions,
LG1860	778	There is no better than it and now.
LG1860	779	What behaved well in the past, or behaves well to-day, is not such a wonder,
LG1860	780	The wonder is, always and always, how can there be a mean man or an infidel.
LG1860	781	Endless unfolding of words of ages!
LG1860	782	And mine a word of the modern—a word en-masse.
LG1860	783	A word of the faith that never balks,
LG1860	784	One time as good as another time—here or hence-forwardhenceforward, it is all the same to me.
LG1860	785	A word of reality—materialism first and last im-buingimbuing.
LG1860	786	Hurrah for positive Science! long live exact demon-strationdemonstration!
LG1860	787	Fetch stonecrop, mixt with cedar and branches of lilac,
LG1860	788	This is the lexicographer—this the chemist—this made a grammar of the old cartouches,
LG1860	789	These mariners put the ship through dangerous un-knownunknown seas,
LG1860	790	This is the geologist—this works with the scalpel—and this is a mathematician.
LG1860	791	Gentlemen! I receive you, and attach and clasp hands with you,
LG1860	792	The facts are useful and real—they are not my dwelling—I enter by them to an area of the dwelling.
LG1860	793	I am less the reminder of property or qualities, and more the reminder of life,
LG1860	794	And go on the square for my own sake and for others'sakes,
LG1860	795	And make short account of neuters and geldings, and favor men and women fully equipped,
LG1860	796	And beat the gong of revolt, and stop with fugitives,and them that plot and conspire.
LG1860	797	Walt Whitman, an American, one of the roughs, a kosmos,
LG1860	798	Disorderly, fleshy, sensual, eating, drinking, breeding,
LG1860	799	No sentimentalist—no stander above men and wo-menwomen, or apart from them,
LG1860	800	No more modest than immodest.
LG1860	801	Unscrew the locks from the doors!
LG1860	802	Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs!
LG1860	803	Whoever degrades another degrades me,
LG1860	804	And whatever is done or said returns at last to me,
LG1860	805	And whatever I do or say, I also return.
LG1860	806	Through me the afflatus surging and surging—through me the current and index.
LG1860	807	I speak the pass-word primeval—I give the sign of democracy,
LG1860	808	By God! I will accept nothing which all cannot have their counterpart of on the same terms.
LG1860	809	Through me many long dumb voices,
LG1860	810	Voices of the interminable generations of slaves,
LG1860	811	Voices of prostitutes, and of deformed persons,
LG1860	812	Voices of the diseased and despairing, and of thieves and dwarfs,
LG1860	813	Voices of cycles of preparation and accretion,
LG1860	814	And of the threads that connect the stars—and of wombs, and of the fatherstuff,
LG1860	815	And of the rights of them the others are down upon,
LG1860	816	Of the trivial, flat, foolish, despised,
LG1860	817	Fog in the air, beetles rolling balls of dung.
LG1860	818	Through me forbidden voices,
LG1860	819	Voices of sexes and lusts—voices veiled, and I remove the veil,
LG1860	820	Voices indecent, by me clarified and transfigured.
LG1860	821	I do not press my finger across my mouth,
LG1860	822	I keep as delicate around the bowels as around the head and heart,
LG1860	823	Copulation is no more rank to me than death is.
LG1860	824	I believe in the flesh and the appetites,
LG1860	825	Seeing, hearing, feeling, are miracles, and each part and tag of me is a miracle.
LG1860	826	Divine am I inside and out, and I make holy what-everwhatever I touch or am touched from,
LG1860	827	The scent of these arm-pits, aroma finer than prayer,
LG1860	828	This head more than churches, bibles, and all the creeds.
LG1860	829	If I worship any particular thing, it shall be some of the spread of my own body.
LG1860	830	Translucent mould of me, it shall be you!
LG1860	831	Shaded ledges and rests, it shall be you!
LG1860	832	Firm masculine colter, it shall be you.
LG1860	833	Whatever goes to the tilth of me, it shall be you!
LG1860	834	You my rich blood! Your milky stream, pale strip-pingsstrippings of my life.
LG1860	835	Breast that presses against other breasts, it shall be you!
LG1860	836	My brain, it shall be your occult convolutions.
LG1860	837	Root of washed sweet-flag! Timorous pond-snipe!Nest of guarded duplicate eggs! it shall be you!
LG1860	838	Mixed tussled hay of head, beard, brawn, it shall be you!
LG1860	839	Trickling sap of maple! Fibre of manly wheat! it shall be you!
LG1860	840	Sun so generous, it shall be you!
LG1860	841	Vapors lighting and shading my face, it shall be you!
LG1860	842	You sweaty brooks and dews, it shall be you!
LG1860	843	Winds whose soft-tickling genitals rub against me, it shall be you!
LG1860	844	Broad, muscular fields! Branches of live oak! Lov-ingLoving lounger in my winding paths! it shall be you!
LG1860	845	Hands I have taken—face I have kissed—mortal I have ever touched! it shall be you.
LG1860	846	I dote on myself—there is that lot of me, and all so luscious,
LG1860	847	Each moment, and whatever happens, thrills me with joy.
LG1860	848	O I am so wonderful!
LG1860	849	I cannot tell how my ankles bend, nor whence the cause of my faintest wish,
LG1860	850	Nor the cause of the friendship I emit, nor the cause of the friendship I take again.
LG1860	851	That I walk up my stoop, I pause to consider if it really be,
LG1860	852	That I eat and drink is spectacle enough for the great authors and schools,
LG1860	853	A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.
LG1860	854	To behold the day-break!
LG1860	855	The little light fades the immense and diaphanous shadows,
LG1860	856	The air tastes good to my palate.
LG1860	857	Hefts of the moving world, at innocent gambols,silently rising, freshly exuding,
LG1860	858	Scooting obliquely high and low.
LG1860	859	Something I cannot see puts upward libidinous prongs,
LG1860	860	Seas of bright juice suffuse heaven.
LG1860	861	The earth by the sky staid with—the daily close of their junction,
LG1860	862	The heaved challenge from the east that moment over my head,
LG1860	863	The mocking taunt, See then whether you shall be master!
LG1860	864	Dazzling and tremendous, how quick the sun-rise would kill me,
LG1860	865	If I could not now and always send sun-rise out of me.
LG1860	866	We also ascend, dazzling and tremendous as the sun,
LG1860	867	We found our own, O my Soul, in the calm and cool of the day-break.
LG1860	868	My voice goes after what my eyes cannot reach,
LG1860	869	With the twirl of my tongue I encompass worlds, and volumes of worlds.
LG1860	870	Speech is the twin of my vision—it is unequal to measure itself;
LG1860	871	It provokes me forever,
LG1860	872	It says sarcastically, Walt, you understand enough— why don't you let it out then?
LG1860	873	Come now, I will not be tantalized—you conceive too much of articulation.
LG1860	874	Do you not know how the buds beneath are folded?
LG1860	875	Waiting in gloom, protected by frost,
LG1860	876	The dirt receding before my prophetical screams,
LG1860	877	I underlying causes, to balance them at last,
LG1860	878	My knowledge my live parts—it keeping tally with the meaning of things,
LG1860	879	Happiness—which, whoever hears me, let him or her set out in search of this day.
LG1860	880	My final merit I refuse you—I refuse putting from me the best I am.
LG1860	881	Encompass worlds, but never try to encompass me,
LG1860	882	I crowd your sleekest talk by simply looking toward you.
LG1860	883	Writing and talk do not prove me,
LG1860	884	I carry the plenum of proof, and everything else, in my face,
LG1860	885	With the hush of my lips I confound the topmost skeptic.
LG1860	886	I think I will do nothing for a long time but listen,
LG1860	887	To accrue what I hear into myself—to let sounds contribute toward me.
LG1860	888	I hear bravuras of birds, bustle of growing wheat,gossip of flames, clack of sticks cooking my meals.
LG1860	889	I hear the sound I love, the sound of the human voice,
LG1860	890	I hear all sounds running together, combined, fused or following,
LG1860	891	Sounds of the city and sounds out of the city—sounds of the day and night,
LG1860	892	Talkative young ones to those that like them—the recitative of fish-pedlers and fruit-pedlers—the loud laugh of work-people at their meals,
LG1860	893	The angry base of disjointed friendship—the faint tones of the sick,
LG1860	894	The judge with hands tight to the desk, his shaky lips pronouncing a death-sentence,
LG1860	895	The heave'e'yo of stevedores unlading ships by the wharves—the refrain of the anchor-lifters,
LG1860	896	The ring of alarm-bells—the cry of fire—the whirr of swift-streaking engines and hose-carts, with premonitory tinkles, and colored lights,
LG1860	897	The steam-whistle—the solid roll of the train of approaching cars,
LG1860	898	The slow-march played at night at the head of the association, marching two and two,
LG1860	899	(They go to guard some corpse—the flag-tops are draped with black muslin.)
LG1860	900	I hear the violoncello, or man's heart's complaint;
LG1860	901	I hear the keyed cornet—it glides quickly in through my ears,
LG1860	902	It shakes mad-sweet pangs through my belly and breast.
LG1860	903	I hear the chorus—it is a grand-opera,
LG1860	904	Ah, this indeed is music! This suits me.
LG1860	905	A tenor large and fresh as the creation fills me,
LG1860	906	The orbic flex of his mouth is pouring and filling me full.
LG1860	907	I hear the trained soprano—she convulses me like the climax of my love-grip,
LG1860	908	The orchestra wrenches such ardors from me, I did not know I possessed them,
LG1860	909	It throbs me to gulps of the farthest down horror,
LG1860	910	It sails me—I dab with bare feet—they are licked by the indolent waves,
LG1860	911	I am exposed, cut by bitter and poisoned hail,
LG1860	912	Steeped amid honeyed morphine, my windpipe throt-tledthrottled in fakes of death,
LG1860	913	At length let up again to feel the puzzle of puzzles,
LG1860	914	And that we call BEING.
LG1860	915	To be in any form—what is that?
LG1860	916	(Round and round we go, all of us, and ever come back thither,)
LG1860	917	If nothing lay more developed, the quahaug in its callous shell were enough.
LG1860	918	Mine is no callous shell,
LG1860	919	I have instant conductors all over me, whether I pass or stop,
LG1860	920	They seize every object, and lead it harmlessly through me.
LG1860	921	I merely stir, press, feel with my fingers, and am happy,
LG1860	922	To touch my person to some one else's is about as much as I can stand.
LG1860	923	Is this then a touch? quivering me to a new identity,
LG1860	924	Flames and ether making a rush for my veins,
LG1860	925	Treacherous tip of me reaching and crowding to help them,
LG1860	926	My flesh and blood playing out lightning to strike what is hardly different from myself,
LG1860	927	On all sides prurient provokers stiffening my limbs,
LG1860	928	Straining the udder of my heart for its withheld drip,
LG1860	929	Behaving licentious toward me, taking no denial,
LG1860	930	Depriving me of my best, as for a purpose,
LG1860	931	Unbuttoning my clothes, holding me by the bare waist,
LG1860	932	Deluding my confusion with the calm of the sun-light and pasture-fields,
LG1860	933	Immodestly sliding the fellow-senses away,
LG1860	934	They bribed to swap off with touch, and go and graze at the edges of me,
LG1860	935	No consideration, no regard for my draining strength or my anger,
LG1860	936	Fetching the rest of the herd around to enjoy them a while,
LG1860	937	Then all uniting to stand on a headland and worry me.
LG1860	938	The sentries desert every other part of me,
LG1860	939	They have left me helpless to a red marauder,
LG1860	940	They all come to the headland, to witness and assist against me.
LG1860	941	I am given up by traitors,
LG1860	942	I talk wildly—I have lost my wits—I and nobody else am the greatest traitor,
LG1860	943	I went myself first to the headland—my own hands carried me there.
LG1860	944	You villain touch! what are you doing? My breath is tight in its throat,
LG1860	945	Unclench your floodgates! you are too much for me.
LG1860	946	Blind, loving, wrestling touch! sheathed, hooded,sharp-toothed touch!
LG1860	947	Did it make you ache so, leaving me?
LG1860	948	Parting, tracked by arriving—perpetual payment of perpetual loan,
LG1860	949	Rich showering rain, and recompense richer after-wardafterward.
LG1860	950	Sprouts take and accumulate—stand by the curb prolific and vital,
LG1860	951	Landscapes, projected, masculine, full-sized, and golden.
LG1860	952	All truths wait in all things,
LG1860	953	They neither hasten their own delivery, nor resist it,
LG1860	954	They do not need the obstetric forceps of the surgeon,
LG1860	955	The insignificant is as big to me as any,
LG1860	956	What is less or more than a touch?
LG1860	957	Logic and sermons never convince,
LG1860	958	The damp of the night drives deeper into my Soul.
LG1860	959	Only what proves itself to every man and woman is so,
LG1860	960	Only what nobody denies is so.
LG1860	961	A minute and a drop of me settle my brain,
LG1860	962	I believe the soggy clods shall become lovers and lamps,
LG1860	963	And a compend of compends is the meat of a man or woman,
LG1860	964	And a summit and flower there is the feeling they have for each other,
LG1860	965	And they are to branch boundlessly out of that lesson until it becomes omnific,
LG1860	966	And until every one shall delight us, and we them.
LG1860	967	I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-workjourneywork of the stars,
LG1860	968	And the pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and the egg of the wren,
LG1860	969	And the tree-toad is a chef-d'œuvre for the highest,
LG1860	970	And the running blackberry would adorn the parlors of heaven,
LG1860	971	And the narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery,
LG1860	972	And the cow crunching with depressed head surpasses any statue,
LG1860	973	And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels,
LG1860	974	And I could come every afternoon of my life to look at the farmer's girl boiling her iron tea-kettle and baking short-cake.
LG1860	975	I find I incorporate gneiss, coal, long-threaded moss,fruits, grains, esculent roots,
LG1860	976	And am stuccoed with quadrupeds and birds all over,
LG1860	977	And have distanced what is behind me for good reasons,
LG1860	978	And call anything close again, when I desire it.
LG1860	979	In vain the speeding or shyness,
LG1860	980	In vain the plutonic rocks send their old heat against my approach,
LG1860	981	In vain the mastodon retreats beneath its own pow-deredpowdered bones,
LG1860	982	In vain objects stand leagues off, and assume manifold shapes,
LG1860	983	In vain the ocean settling in hollows, and the great monsters lying low,
LG1860	984	In vain the buzzard houses herself with the sky,
LG1860	985	In vain the snake slides through the creepers and logs,
LG1860	986	In vain the elk takes to the inner passes of the woods,
LG1860	987	In vain the razor-billed auk sails far north to Labrador,
LG1860	988	I follow quickly, I ascend to the nest in the fissure of the cliff.
LG1860	989	I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contained,
LG1860	990	I stand and look at them sometimes an hour at a stretch.
LG1860	991	They do not sweat and whine about their condition,
LG1860	992	They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,
LG1860	993	They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,
LG1860	994	No one is dissatisfied—not one is demented with the mania of owning things,
LG1860	995	Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago,
LG1860	996	Not one is respectable or industrious over the whole earth.
LG1860	997	So they show their relations to me, and I accept them,
LG1860	998	They bring me tokens of myself—they evince them plainly in their possession.
LG1860	999	I do not know where they get those tokens,
LG1860	1000	I may have passed that way untold times ago, and negligently dropt them,
LG1860	1001	Myself moving forward then and now forever,
LG1860	1002	Gathering and showing more always and with velocity,
LG1860	1003	Infinite and omnigenous, and the like of these among them,
LG1860	1004	Not too exclusive toward the reachers of my remem-brancersremembrancers,
LG1860	1005	Picking out here one that I love, to go with on brotherly terms.
LG1860	1006	A gigantic beauty of a stallion, fresh and responsive to my caresses,
LG1860	1007	Head high in the forehead, wide between the ears,
LG1860	1008	Limbs glossy and supple, tail dusting the ground,
LG1860	1009	Eyes well apart, full of sparkling wickedness—ears finely cut, flexibly moving.
LG1860	1010	His nostrils dilate, as my heels embrace him,
LG1860	1011	His well-built limbs tremble with pleasure, as we speed around and return.
LG1860	1012	I but use you a moment, then I resign you stallion,
LG1860	1013	Why do I need your paces, when I myself out-gallop them?
LG1860	1014	Even, as I stand or sit, passing faster than you.
LG1860	1015	O swift wind! Space! my Soul! now I know it is true, what I guessed at,
LG1860	1016	What I guessed when I loafed on the grass,
LG1860	1017	What I guessed while I lay alone in my bed,
LG1860	1018	And again as I walked the beach under the paling stars of the morning.
LG1860	1019	My ties and ballasts leave me—I travel—I sail—my elbows rest in the sea-gaps,
LG1860	1020	I skirt the sierras—my palms cover continents,
LG1860	1021	I am afoot with my vision.
LG1860	1022	By the city's quadrangular houses—in log huts—camping with lumbermen,
LG1860	1023	Along the ruts of the turnpike—along the dry gulch and rivulet bed,
LG1860	1024	Weeding my onion-patch, or hoeing rows of carrots and parsnips—crossing savannas—trailing in forests,
LG1860	1025	Prospecting—gold-digging—girdling the trees of a new purchase,
LG1860	1026	Scorched ankle-deep by the hot sand—hauling my boat down the shallow river,
LG1860	1027	Where the panther walks to and fro on a limb over-headoverhead—Where the buck turns furiously at the hunter,
LG1860	1028	Where the rattlesnake suns his flabby length on a rock—Where the otter is feeding on fish,
LG1860	1029	Where the alligator in his tough pimples sleeps by the bayou,
LG1860	1030	Where the black bear is searching for roots or honey —Where the beaver pats the mud with his paddle-tail,
LG1860	1031	Over the growing sugar—over the cotton plant—over the rice in its low moist field,
LG1860	1032	Over the sharp-peaked farm house, with its scalloped scum and slender shoots from the gutters,
LG1860	1033	Over the western persimmon—over the long-leaved corn—over the delicate blue-flowered flax,
LG1860	1034	Over the white and brown buckwheat, a hummer and buzzer there with the rest,
LG1860	1035	Over the dusky green of the rye as it ripples and shades in the breeze,
LG1860	1036	Scaling mountains, pulling myself cautiously up,holding on by low scragged limbs,
LG1860	1037	Walking the path worn in the grass and beat through the leaves of the brush,
LG1860	1038	Where the quail is whistling betwixt the woods and the wheat-lot,
LG1860	1039	Where the bat flies in the Seventh Month eve—
LG1860	1040	Where the great gold-bug drops through the dark,
LG1860	1041	Where the flails keep time on the barn floor,
LG1860	1042	Where the brook puts out of the roots of the old tree and flows to the meadow,
LG1860	1043	Where cattle stand and shake away flies with the tremulous shuddering of their hides,
LG1860	1044	Where the cheese-cloth hangs in the kitchen—Where andirons straddle the hearth-slab—Where cob-webscobwebs fall in festoons from the rafters,
LG1860	1045	Where trip-hammers crash—Where the press is whirling its cylinders,
LG1860	1046	Wherever the human heart beats with terrible throes out of its ribs,
LG1860	1047	Where the pear-shaped balloon is floating aloft, float-ingfloating in it myself and looking composedly down,
LG1860	1048	Where the life-car is drawn on the slip-noose—Where the heat hatches pale-green eggs in the dented sand,
LG1860	1049	Where the she-whale swims with her calf, and never forsakes it,
LG1860	1050	Where the steam-ship trails hind-ways its long pen-nantpennant of smoke,
LG1860	1051	Where the fin of the shark cuts like a black chip out of the water,
LG1860	1052	Where the half-burned brig is riding on unknown currents,
LG1860	1053	Where shells grow to her slimy deck—Where the dead are corrupting below,
LG1860	1054	Where the striped and starred flag is borne at the head of the regiments,
LG1860	1055	Approaching Manhattan, up by the long-stretching island,
LG1860	1056	Under Niagara, the cataract falling like a veil over my countenance,
LG1860	1057	Upon a door-step—upon the horse-block of hard wood outside,
LG1860	1058	Upon the race-course, or enjoying picnics or jigs, or a good game of base-ball,
LG1860	1059	At he-festivals, with blackguard gibes, ironical license,bull-dances, drinking, laughter,
LG1860	1060	At the cider-mill, tasting the sweet of the brown sqush, sucking the juice through a straw,
LG1860	1061	At apple-peelings, wanting kisses for all the red fruit I find,
LG1860	1062	At musters, beach-parties, friendly bees, huskings,house-raisings;
LG1860	1063	Where the mocking-bird sounds his delicious gur-glesgurgles, cackles, screams, weeps,
LG1860	1064	Where the hay-rick stands in the barn-yard—Where the dry-stalks are scattered—Where the brood cow waits in the hovel,
LG1860	1065	Where the bull advances to do his masculine work—Where the stud to the mare—Where the cock is treading the hen,
LG1860	1066	Where heifers browse—Where geese nip their food with short jerks,
LG1860	1067	Where sun-down shadows lengthen over the limitless and lonesome prairie,
LG1860	1068	Where herds of buffalo make a crawling spread of the square miles far and near,
LG1860	1069	Where the humming-bird shimmers—Where the neck of the long-lived swan is curving and winding,
LG1860	1070	Where the laughing-gull scoots by the shore, where she laughs her near-human laugh,
LG1860	1071	Where bee-hives range on a gray bench in the garden,half hid by the high weeds,
LG1860	1072	Where band-necked partridges roost in a ring on the ground with their heads out,
LG1860	1073	Where burial coaches enter the arched gates of a cemetery,
LG1860	1074	Where winter wolves bark amid wastes of snow and icicled trees,
LG1860	1075	Where the yellow-crowned heron comes to the edge of the marsh at night and feeds upon small crabs,
LG1860	1076	Where the splash of swimmers and divers cools the warm noon,
LG1860	1077	Where the katy-did works her chromatic reed on the walnut-tree over the well,
LG1860	1078	Through patches of citrons and cucumbers with silver-wired leaves,
LG1860	1079	Through the salt-lick or orange glade, or under con-icalconical firs,
LG1860	1080	Through the gymnasium—through the curtained saloon—through the office or public hall,
LG1860	1081	Pleased with the native, and pleased with the foreign —pleased with the new and old,
LG1860	1082	Pleased with women, the homely as well as the handsome,
LG1860	1083	Pleased with the quakeress as she puts off her bonnet and talks melodiously,
LG1860	1084	Pleased with the tunes of the choir of the white-washedwhitewashed church,
LG1860	1085	Pleased with the earnest words of the sweating Methodist preacher, or any preacher—Impressed seriously at the camp-meeting,
LG1860	1086	Looking in at the shop-windows of Broadway the whole forenoon—flatting the flesh of my nose on the thick plate-glass,
LG1860	1087	Wandering the same afternoon with my face turned up to the clouds,
LG1860	1088	My right and left arms round the sides of two friends, and I in the middle;
LG1860	1089	Coming home with the silent and dark-cheeked bush-boy—riding behind him at the drape of the day,
LG1860	1090	Far from the settlements, studying the print of ani-malsanimals' feet, or the moccason print,
LG1860	1091	By the cot in the hospital, reaching lemonade to a feverish patient,
LG1860	1092	By the coffined corpse when all is still, examining with a candle,
LG1860	1093	Voyaging to every port, to dicker and adventure,
LG1860	1094	Hurrying with the modern crowd, as eager and fickle as any,
LG1860	1095	Hot toward one I hate, ready in my madness to knife him,
LG1860	1096	Solitary at midnight in my back yard, my thoughts gone from me a long while,
LG1860	1097	Walking the old hills of Judea, with the beautiful gentle God by my side,
LG1860	1098	Speeding through space—speeding through heaven and the stars,
LG1860	1099	Speeding amid the seven satellites, and the broad ring, and the diameter of eighty thousand miles,
LG1860	1100	Speeding with tailed meteors—throwing fire-balls like the rest,
LG1860	1101	Carrying the crescent child that carries its own full mother in its belly,
LG1860	1102	Storming, enjoying, planning, loving, cautioning,
LG1860	1103	Backing and filling, appearing and disappearing,
LG1860	1104	I tread day and night such roads.
LG1860	1105	I visit the orchards of spheres, and look at the product,
LG1860	1106	And look at quintillions ripened, and look at quin-tillionsquintillions green.
LG1860	1107	I fly the flight of the fluid and swallowing soul,
LG1860	1108	My course runs below the soundings of plummets.
LG1860	1109	I help myself to material and immaterial,
LG1860	1110	No guard can shut me off, nor law prevent me.
LG1860	1111	I anchor my ship for a little while only,
LG1860	1112	My messengers continually cruise away, or bring their returns to me.
LG1860	1113	I go hunting polar furs and the seal—Leaping chasms with a pike-pointed staff—Clinging to topples of brittle and blue.
LG1860	1114	I ascend to the foretruck,
LG1860	1115	I take my place late at night in the crow's-nest,
LG1860	1116	We sail the arctic sea—it is plenty light enough,
LG1860	1117	Through the clear atmosphere I stretch around on the wonderful beauty,
LG1860	1118	The enormous masses of ice pass me, and I pass them —the scenery is plain in all directions,
LG1860	1119	The white-topped mountains show in the distance—I fling out my fancies toward them,
LG1860	1120	We are approaching some great battle-field in which we are soon to be engaged,
LG1860	1121	We pass the colossal out-posts of the encampment—we pass with still feet and caution,
LG1860	1122	Or we are entering by the suburbs some vast and ruined city,
LG1860	1123	The blocks and fallen architecture more than all the living cities of the globe.
LG1860	1124	I am a free companion—I bivouac by invading watchfires.
LG1860	1125	I turn the bridegroom out of bed, and stay with the bride myself,
LG1860	1126	I tighten her all night to my thighs and lips.
LG1860	1127	My voice is the wife's voice, the screech by the rail of the stairs,
LG1860	1128	They fetch my man's body up, dripping and drowned.
LG1860	1129	I understand the large hearts of heroes,
LG1860	1130	The courage of present times and all times,
LG1860	1131	How the skipper saw the crowded and rudderless wreck of the steam-ship, and Death chasing it up and down the storm,
LG1860	1132	How he knuckled tight, and gave not back one inch,and was faithful of days and faithful of nights,
LG1860	1133	And chalked in large letters, on a board, Be of good cheer, We will not desert you,
LG1860	1134	How he followed with them, and tacked with them—and would not give it up,
LG1860	1135	How he saved the drifting company at last,
LG1860	1136	How the lank loose-gowned women looked when boated from the side of their prepared graves,
LG1860	1137	How the silent old-faced infants, and the lifted sick,and the sharp-lipped unshaved men,
LG1860	1138	All this I swallow—it tastes good—I like it well—it becomes mine,
LG1860	1139	I am the man—I suffered—I was there.
LG1860	1140	The disdain and calmness of martyrs,
LG1860	1141	The mother, condemned for a witch, burnt with dry wood, her children gazing on,
LG1860	1142	The hounded slave that flags in the race, leans by the the fence, blowing, covered with sweat,
LG1860	1143	The twinges that sting like needles his legs and neck —the murderous buck-shot and the bullets,
LG1860	1144	All these I feel or am.
LG1860	1145	I am the hounded slave, I wince at the bite of the dogs,
LG1860	1146	Hell and despair are upon me, crack and again crack the marksmen,
LG1860	1147	I clutch the rails of the fence, my gore dribs, thinned with the ooze of my skin,
LG1860	1148	I fall on the weeds and stones,
LG1860	1149	The riders spur their unwilling horses, haul close,
LG1860	1150	Taunt my dizzy ears, and beat me violently over the head with whip-stocks.
LG1860	1151	Agonies are one of my changes of garments,
LG1860	1152	I do not ask the wounded person how he feels—I myself become the wounded person,
LG1860	1153	My hurt turns livid upon me as I lean on a cane and observe.
LG1860	1154	I am the mashed fireman with breastbone broken,
LG1860	1155	Tumbling walls buried me in their debris,
LG1860	1156	Heat and smoke I inspired—I heard the yelling shouts of my comrades,
LG1860	1157	I heard the distant click of their picks and shovels,
LG1860	1158	They have cleared the beams away—they tenderly lift me forth.
LG1860	1159	I lie in the night air in my red shirt—the pervading hush is for my sake,
LG1860	1160	Painless after all I lie, exhausted but not so unhappy,
LG1860	1161	White and beautiful are the faces around me—the heads are bared of their fire-caps,
LG1860	1162	The kneeling crowd fades with the light of the torches.
LG1860	1163	Distant and dead resuscitate,
LG1860	1164	They show as the dial or move as the hands of me—I am the clock myself.
LG1860	1165	I am an old artillerist—I tell of my fort's bombard-mentbombardment,
LG1860	1166	I am there again.
LG1860	1167	Again the reveille of drummers,
LG1860	1168	Again the attacking cannon, mortars, howitzers,
LG1860	1169	Again the attacked send cannon responsive.
LG1860	1170	I take part—I see and hear the whole,
LG1860	1171	The cries, curses, roar—the plaudits for well-aimed shots,
LG1860	1172	The ambulanza slowly passing, trailing its red drip,
LG1860	1173	Workmen searching after damages, making indis-pensableindispensable repairs,
LG1860	1174	The fall of grenades through the rent roof—the fan-shaped explosion,
LG1860	1175	The whizz of limbs, heads, stone, wood, iron, high in the air.
LG1860	1176	Again gurgles the mouth of my dying general—he furiously waves with his hand,
LG1860	1177	He gasps through the clot, Mind not me—mind— the entrenchments.
LG1860	1178	I tell not the fall of Alamo,
LG1860	1179	Not one escaped to tell the fall of Alamo,
LG1860	1180	The hundred and fifty are dumb yet at Alamo.
LG1860	1181	Hear now the tale of the murder in cold blood of four hundred and twelve young men.
LG1860	1182	Retreating, they had formed in a hollow square, with their baggage for breastworks,
LG1860	1183	Nine hundred lives out of the surrounding enemy's,nine times their number, was the price they took in advance,
LG1860	1184	Their colonel was wounded and their ammunition gone,
LG1860	1185	They treated for an honorable capitulation, received writing and seal, gave up their arms, and marched back prisoners of war.
LG1860	1186	They were the glory of the race of rangers,
LG1860	1187	Matchless with horse, rifle, song, supper, courtship,
LG1860	1188	Large, turbulent, generous, brave, handsome, proud,and affectionate,
LG1860	1189	Bearded, sunburnt, dressed in the free costume of hunters,
LG1860	1190	Not a single one over thirty years of age.
LG1860	1191	The second First Day morning they were brought out in squads and massacred—it was beautiful early summer,
LG1860	1192	The work commenced about five o'clock, and was over by eight.
LG1860	1193	None obeyed the command to kneel,
LG1860	1194	Some made a mad and helpless rush—some stood stark and straight,
LG1860	1195	A few fell at once, shot in the temple or heart—the living and dead lay together,
LG1860	1196	The maimed and mangled dug in the dirt—the new-comers saw them there,
LG1860	1197	Some, half-killed, attempted to crawl away,
LG1860	1198	These were despatched with bayonets, or battered with the blunts of muskets,
LG1860	1199	A youth not seventeen years old seized his assassin till two more came to release him,
LG1860	1200	The three were all torn, and covered with the boy's blood.
LG1860	1201	At eleven o'clock began the burning of the bodies:
LG1860	1202	That is the tale of the murder of the four hundred and twelve young men.
LG1860	1203	Did you read in the sea-books of the old-fashioned frigate-fight?
LG1860	1204	Did you learn who won by the light of the moon and stars?
LG1860	1205	Our foe was no skulk in his ship, I tell you,
LG1860	1206	His was the English pluck—and there is no tougher or truer, and never was, and never will be;
LG1860	1207	Along the lowered eve he came, horribly raking us.
LG1860	1208	We closed with him—the yards entangled—the cannon touched,
LG1860	1209	My captain lashed fast with his own hands.
LG1860	1210	We had received some eighteen-pound shots under the water,
LG1860	1211	On our lower-gun-deck two large pieces had burst at the first fire, killing all around, and blowing up overhead.
LG1860	1212	Ten o'clock at night, and the full moon shining, and the leaks on the gain, and five feet of water reported,
LG1860	1213	The master-at-arms loosing the prisoners confined in the after-hold, to give them a chance for them-selvesthemselves.
LG1860	1214	The transit to and from the magazine was now stopped by the sentinels,
LG1860	1215	They saw so many strange faces, they did not know whom to trust.
LG1860	1216	Our frigate was afire,
LG1860	1217	The other asked if we demanded quarter?
LG1860	1218	If our colors were struck, and the fighting done?
LG1860	1219	I laughed content when I heard the voice of my little captain,
LG1860	1220	We have not struck, he composedly cried, We have just begun our part of the fighting.
LG1860	1221	Only three guns were in use,
LG1860	1222	One was directed by the captain himself against the enemy's main-mast,
LG1860	1223	Two, well served with grape and canister, silenced his musketry and cleared his decks.
LG1860	1224	The tops alone seconded the fire of this little battery,especially the main-top,
LG1860	1225	They all held out bravely during the whole of the action.
LG1860	1226	Not a moment's cease,
LG1860	1227	The leaks gained fast on the pumps—the fire eat toward the powder-magazine,
LG1860	1228	One of the pumps was shot away—it was generally thought we were sinking.
LG1860	1229	Serene stood the little captain,
LG1860	1230	He was not hurried—his voice was neither high nor low,
LG1860	1231	His eyes gave more light to us than our battle-lanterns.
LG1860	1232	Toward twelve at night, there in the beams of the moon, they surrendered to us.
LG1860	1233	Stretched and still lay the midnight,
LG1860	1234	Two great hulls motionless on the breast of the darkness,
LG1860	1235	Our vessel riddled and slowly sinking—preparations to pass to the one we had conquered,
LG1860	1236	The captain on the quarter-deck coldly giving his orders through a countenance white as a sheet,
LG1860	1237	Near by, the corpse of the child that served in the cabin,
LG1860	1238	The dead face of an old salt with long white hair and carefully curled whiskers,
LG1860	1239	The flames, spite of all that could be done, flickering aloft and below,
LG1860	1240	The husky voices of the two or three officers yet fit for duty,
LG1860	1241	Formless stacks of bodies, and bodies by themselves —dabs of flesh upon the masts and spars,
LG1860	1242	Cut of cordage, dangle of rigging, slight shock of the soothe of waves,
LG1860	1243	Black and impassive guns, litter of powder-parcels,strong scent,
LG1860	1244	Delicate sniffs of sea-breeze, smells of sedgy grass and fields by the shore, death-messages given in charge to survivors,
LG1860	1245	The hiss of the surgeon's knife, the gnawing teeth of his saw,
LG1860	1246	Wheeze, cluck, swash of falling blood, short wild scream, and long dull tapering groan,
LG1860	1247	These so—these irretrievable.
LG1860	1248	O Christ! This is mastering me!
LG1860	1249	Through the conquered doors they crowd. I am possessed.
LG1860	1250	What the rebel said, gayly adjusting his throat to the rope-noose,
LG1860	1251	What the savage at the stump, his eye-sockets empty,his mouth spirting whoops and defiance,
LG1860	1252	What stills the traveller come to the vault at Mount Vernon,
LG1860	1253	What sobers the Brooklyn boy as he looks down the shores of the Wallabout and remembers the Prison Ships,
LG1860	1254	What burnt the gums of the red-coat at Saratoga when he surrendered his brigades,
LG1860	1255	These become mine and me every one—and they are but little,
LG1860	1256	I become as much more as I like.
LG1860	1257	I become any presence or truth of humanity here,
LG1860	1258	See myself in prison shaped like another man,
LG1860	1259	And feel the dull unintermitted pain.
LG1860	1260	For me the keepers of convicts shoulder their carbines and keep watch,
LG1860	1261	It is I let out in the morning and barred at night.
LG1860	1262	Not a mutineer walks hand-cuffed to the jail, but I am hand-cuffed to him and walk by his side,
LG1860	1263	I am less the jolly one there, and more the silent one,with sweat on my twitching lips.
LG1860	1264	Not a youngster is taken for larceny, but I go up too,and am tried and sentenced.
LG1860	1265	Not a cholera patient lies at the last gasp, but I also lie at the last gasp,
LG1860	1266	My face is ash-colored—my sinews gnarl—away from me people retreat.
LG1860	1267	Askers embody themselves in me, and I am embodied in them,
LG1860	1268	I project my hat, sit shame-faced, and beg.
LG1860	1269	Enough—I bring such to a close,
LG1860	1270	Rise extatic through all, sweep with the true gravita-tiongravitation,
LG1860	1271	The whirling and whirling elemental within me.
LG1860	1272	Somehow I have been stunned. Stand back!
LG1860	1273	Give me a little time beyond my cuffed head, slum-bersslumbers, dreams, gaping,
LG1860	1274	I discover myself on the verge of a usual mistake.
LG1860	1275	That I could forget the mockers and insults!
LG1860	1276	That I could forget the trickling tears, and the blows of the bludgeons and hammers!
LG1860	1277	That I could look with a separate look on my own crucifixion and bloody crowning.
LG1860	1278	I remember now,
LG1860	1279	I resume the overstaid fraction,
LG1860	1280	The grave of rock multiplies what has been confided to it, or to any graves,
LG1860	1281	Corpses rise, gashes heal, fastenings roll from me.
LG1860	1282	I troop forth replenished with supreme power, one of an average unending procession,
LG1860	1283	We walk the roads of the six North Eastern States,and of Virginia, Wisconsin, Manhattan Island,Philadelphia, New Orleans, Texas, Charleston,Havana, Mexico,
LG1860	1284	Inland and by the sea-coast and boundary lines, and we pass all boundary lines.
LG1860	1285	Our swift ordinances are on their way over the whole earth,
LG1860	1286	The blossoms we wear in our hats are the growth of two thousand years.
LG1860	1287	Élèves, I salute you!
LG1860	1288	I see the approach of your numberless gangs—I see you understand yourselves and me,
LG1860	1289	And know that they who have eyes and can walk are divine, and the blind and lame are equally divine,
LG1860	1290	And that my steps drag behind yours, yet go before them,
LG1860	1291	And are aware how I am with you no more than I am with everybody.
LG1860	1292	The friendly and flowing savage, Who is he?
LG1860	1293	Is he waiting for civilization, or past it and master-ingmastering it?
LG1860	1294	Is he some south-westerner, raised out-doors? Is he Kanadian?
LG1860	1295	Is he from the Mississippi country? Iowa, Oregon,California? the mountains? prairie-life, bush-life? or from the sea?
LG1860	1296	Wherever he goes men and women accept and desire him,
LG1860	1297	They desire he should like them, touch them, speak to them, stay with them.
LG1860	1298	Behavior lawless as snow-flakes, words simple as grass, uncombed head, laughter, and näveté,
LG1860	1299	Slow-stepping feet, common features, common modes and emanations,
LG1860	1300	They descend in new forms from the tips of his fingers,
LG1860	1301	They are wafted with the odor of his body or breath —they fly out of the glance of his eyes.
LG1860	1302	Flaunt of the sunshine, I need not your bask,—lie over!
LG1860	1303	You light surfaces only—I force surfaces and depths also.
LG1860	1304	Earth! you seem to look for something at my hands,
LG1860	1305	Say, old Top-knot! what do you want?
LG1860	1306	Man or woman! I might tell how I like you, but cannot,
LG1860	1307	And might tell what it is in me, and what it is in you, but cannot,
LG1860	1308	And might tell that pining I have—that pulse of my nights and days.
LG1860	1309	Behold! I do not give lectures or a little charity,
LG1860	1310	What I give, I give out of myself.
LG1860	1311	You there, impotent, loose in the knees,
LG1860	1312	Open your scarfed chops till I blow grit within you,
LG1860	1313	Spread your palms, and lift the flaps of your pockets;
LG1860	1314	I am not to be denied—I compel—I have stores plenty and to spare,
LG1860	1315	And anything I have I bestow.
LG1860	1316	I do not ask who you are—that is not important to me,
LG1860	1317	You can do nothing, and be nothing, but what I will infold you.
LG1860	1318	To a drudge of the cotton-fields or cleaner of privies I lean,
LG1860	1319	On his right cheek I put the family kiss,
LG1860	1320	And in my soul I swear, I never will deny him.
LG1860	1321	On women fit for conception I start bigger and nim-blernimbler babes,
LG1860	1322	This day I am jetting the stuff of far more arrogant republics.
LG1860	1323	To any one dying—thither I speed, and twist the knob of the door,
LG1860	1324	Turn the bed-clothes toward the foot of the bed,
LG1860	1325	Let the physician and the priest go home.
LG1860	1326	I seize the descending man, and raise him with resist-lessresistless will.
LG1860	1327	O despairer, here is my neck,
LG1860	1328	By God! you shall not go down! Hang your whole weight upon me.
LG1860	1329	I dilate you with tremendous breath—I buoy you up,
LG1860	1330	Every room of the house do I fill with an armed force,
LG1860	1331	Lovers of me, bafflers of graves.
LG1860	1332	Sleep! I and they keep guard all night,
LG1860	1333	Not doubt—not decease shall dare to lay finger upon you,
LG1860	1334	I have embraced you, and henceforth possess you to myself,
LG1860	1335	And when you rise in the morning you will find what I tell you is so.
LG1860	1336	I am he bringing help for the sick as they pant on their backs,
LG1860	1337	And for strong upright men I bring yet more needed help.
LG1860	1338	I heard what was said of the universe,
LG1860	1339	Heard it and heard it of several thousand years;
LG1860	1340	It is middling well as far as it goes,—But is that all?
LG1860	1341	Magnifying and applying come I,
LG1860	1342	Outbidding at the start the old cautious hucksters,
LG1860	1343	The most they offer for mankind and eternity less than a spirt of my own seminal wet,
LG1860	1344	Taking myself the exact dimensions of Jehovah,
LG1860	1345	Lithographing Kronos, Zeus his son, and Hercules his grandson,
LG1860	1346	Buying drafts of Osiris, Isis, Belus, Brahma, Buddha,
LG1860	1347	In my portfolio placing Manito loose, Allah on a leaf,the crucifix engraved,
LG1860	1348	With Odin, and the hideous-faced Mexitli, and every idol and image,
LG1860	1349	Taking them all for what they are worth, and not a cent more,
LG1860	1350	Admitting they were alive and did the work of their day,
LG1860	1351	Admitting they bore mites, as for unfledged birds,who have now to rise and fly and sing for them-selvesthemselves,
LG1860	1352	Accepting the rough deific sketches to fill out better in myself—bestowing them freely on each man and woman I see,
LG1860	1353	Discovering as much, or more, in a framer framing a house,
LG1860	1354	Putting higher claims for him there with his rolled-uprolledup sleeves, driving the mallet and chisel,
LG1860	1355	Not objecting to special revelations—considering a curl of smoke or a hair on the back of my hand just as curious as any revelation,
LG1860	1356	Those ahold of fire engines and hook-and-ladder ropes no less to me than the Gods of the antique wars,
LG1860	1357	Minding their voices peal through the crash of destruction,
LG1860	1358	Their brawny limbs passing safe over charred laths—their white foreheads whole and unhurt out of the flames;
LG1860	1359	By the mechanic's wife with her babe at her nipple interceding for every person born,
LG1860	1360	Three scythes at harvest whizzing in a row from three lusty angels with shirts bagged out at their waists,
LG1860	1361	The snag-toothed hostler with red hair redeeming sins past and to come,
LG1860	1362	Selling all he possesses, travelling on foot to fee lawyers for his brother, and sit by him while he is tried for forgery;
LG1860	1363	What was strewn in the amplest strewing the square rod about me, and not filling the square rod then,
LG1860	1364	The bull and the bug never worshipped half enough,
LG1860	1365	Dung and dirt more admirable than was dreamed,
LG1860	1366	The supernatural of no account—myself waiting my time to be one of the Supremes,
LG1860	1367	The day getting ready for me when I shall do as much good as the best, and be as prodigious,
LG1860	1368	Guessing when I am it will not tickle me much to receive puffs out of pulpit or print;
LG1860	1369	By my life-lumps! becoming already a creator,
LG1860	1370	Putting myself here and now to the ambushed womb of the shadows.
LG1860	1371	A call in the midst of the crowd,
LG1860	1372	My own voice, orotund, sweeping, final.
LG1860	1373	Come my children,
LG1860	1374	Come my boys and girls, my women, household,and intimates,
LG1860	1375	Now the performer launches his nerve—he has passed his prelude on the reeds within.
LG1860	1376	Easily written, loose-fingered chords! I feel the thrum of their climax and close.
LG1860	1377	My head slues round on my neck,
LG1860	1378	Music rolls, but not from the organ,
LG1860	1379	Folks are around me, but they are no household of mine.
LG1860	1380	Ever the hard unsunk ground,
LG1860	1381	Ever the eaters and drinkers—Ever the upward and downward sun—Ever the air and the cease-lessceaseless tides,
LG1860	1382	Ever myself and my neighbors, refreshing, wicked,real,
LG1860	1383	Ever the old inexplicable query—Ever that thorned thumb—that breath of itches and thirsts,
LG1860	1384	Ever the vexer's hoot! hoot! till we find where the sly one hides, and bring him forth;
LG1860	1385	Ever love—Ever the sobbing liquid of life,
LG1860	1386	Ever the bandage under the chin—Ever the tressels of death.
LG1860	1387	Here and there, with dimes on the eyes walking,
LG1860	1388	To feed the greed of the belly, the brains liberally spooning,
LG1860	1389	Tickets buying, taking, selling, but in to the feast never once going,
LG1860	1390	Many sweating, ploughing, thrashing, and then the chaff for payment receiving,
LG1860	1391	A few idly owning, and they the wheat continually claiming.
LG1860	1392	This is the city, and I am one of the citizens,
LG1860	1393	Whatever interests the rest interests me—politics,markets, newspapers, schools,
LG1860	1394	Benevolent societies, improvements, banks, tariffs,steamships, factories, stocks, stores, real estate,and personal estate.
LG1860	1395	They who piddle and patter here in collars and tailed coats—I am aware who they are—they are not worms or fleas.
LG1860	1396	I acknowledge the duplicates of myself—the weakest and shallowest is deathless with me,
LG1860	1397	What I do and say, the same waits for them,
LG1860	1398	Every thought that flounders in me, the same floun-dersflounders in them.
LG1860	1399	I know perfectly well my own egotism,
LG1860	1400	I know my omnivorous words, and cannot say any less,
LG1860	1401	And would fetch you, whoever you are, flush with myself.
LG1860	1402	My words are words of a questioning, and to indicate reality and motive power:
LG1860	1403	This printed and bound book—but the printer, and the printing-office boy?
LG1860	1404	The well-taken photographs—but your wife or friend close and solid in your arms?
LG1860	1405	The fleet of ships of the line, and all the modern improvements—but the craft and pluck of the admiral?
LG1860	1406	The dishes and fare and furniture—but the host and hostess, and the look out of their eyes?
LG1860	1407	The sky up there—yet here, or next door, or across the way?
LG1860	1408	The saints and sages in history—but you yourself?
LG1860	1409	Sermons, creeds, theology—but the human brain,and what is reason? and what is love? and what is life?
LG1860	1410	I do not despise you, priests,
LG1860	1411	My faith is the greatest of faiths, and the least of faiths,
LG1860	1412	Enclosing all worship ancient and modern, and all between ancient and modern,
LG1860	1413	Believing I shall come again upon the earth after five thousand years,
LG1860	1414	Waiting responses from oracles, honoring the Gods,saluting the sun,
LG1860	1415	Making a fetish of the first rock or stump, powwowing with sticks in the circle of obis,
LG1860	1416	Helping the lama or brahmin as he trims the lamps of the idols,
LG1860	1417	Dancing yet through the streets in a phallic pro-cessionprocession—rapt and austere in the woods, a gymnosophist,
LG1860	1418	Drinking mead from the skull-cup—to Shastas and Vedas admirant—minding the Koran,
LG1860	1419	Walking the teokallis, spotted with gore from the stone and knife, beating the serpent-skin drum,
LG1860	1420	Accepting the Gospels—accepting him that was crucified, knowing assuredly that he is divine,
LG1860	1421	To the mass kneeling, or the puritan's prayer rising,or sitting patiently in a pew,
LG1860	1422	Ranting and frothing in my insane crisis, or waiting dead-like till my spirit arouses me,
LG1860	1423	Looking forth on pavement and land, or outside of pavement and land,
LG1860	1424	Belonging to the winders of the circuit of circuits.
LG1860	1425	One of that centripetal and centrifugal gang, I turn and talk like a man leaving charges before a journey.
LG1860	1426	Down-hearted doubters, dull and excluded,
LG1860	1427	Frivolous, sullen, moping, angry, affected, disheart-eneddisheartened, atheistical,
LG1860	1428	I know every one of you—I know the unspoken interrogatories,
LG1860	1429	By experience I know them.
LG1860	1430	How the flukes splash!
LG1860	1431	How they contort, rapid as lightning, with spasms,and spouts of blood!
LG1860	1432	Be at peace, bloody flukes of doubters and sullen mopers,
LG1860	1433	I take my place among you as much as among any,
LG1860	1434	The past is the push of you, me, all, precisely the same,
LG1860	1435	Day and night are for you, me, all,
LG1860	1436	And what is yet untried and afterward is for you,me, all, precisely the same.
LG1860	1437	I do not know what is untried and afterward,
LG1860	1438	But I know it is sure, alive, sufficient.
LG1860	1439	Each who passes is considered—Each who stops is considered—Not a single one can it fail.
LG1860	1440	It cannot fail the young man who died and was buried,
LG1860	1441	Nor the young woman who died and was put by his side,
LG1860	1442	Nor the little child that peeped in at the door, and then drew back, and was never seen again,
LG1860	1443	Nor the old man who has lived without purpose, and feels it with bitterness worse than gall,
LG1860	1444	Nor him in the poor-house, tubercled by rum and the bad disorder,
LG1860	1445	Nor the numberless slaughtered and wrecked—nor the brutish koboo called the ordure of humanity,
LG1860	1446	Nor the sacs merely floating with open mouths for food to slip in,
LG1860	1447	Nor anything in the earth, or down in the oldest graves of the earth,
LG1860	1448	Nor anything in the myriads of spheres—nor one of the myriads of myriads that inhabit them,
LG1860	1449	Nor the present—nor the least wisp that is known.
LG1860	1450	It is time to explain myself—Let us stand up.
LG1860	1451	What is known I strip away,
LG1860	1452	I launch all men and women forward with me into THE UNKNOWN.
LG1860	1453	The clock indicates the moment—but what does eternity indicate?
LG1860	1454	We have thus far exhausted trillions of winters and summers,
LG1860	1455	There are trillions ahead, and trillions ahead of them.
LG1860	1456	Births have brought us richness and variety,
LG1860	1457	And other births will bring us richness and variety.
LG1860	1458	I do not call one greater and one smaller,
LG1860	1459	That which fills its period and place is equal to any.
LG1860	1460	Were mankind murderous or jealous upon you, my brother, my sister?
LG1860	1461	I am sorry for you—they are not murderous or jeal-ousjealous upon me,
LG1860	1462	All has been gentle with me—I keep no account with lamentation,
LG1860	1463	(What have I to do with lamentation?)
LG1860	1464	I am an acme of things accomplished, and I an encloser of things to be.
LG1860	1465	My feet strike an apex of the apices of the stairs,
LG1860	1466	On every step bunches of ages, and larger bunches between the steps,
LG1860	1467	All below duly travelled, and still I mount and mount.
LG1860	1468	Rise after rise bow the phantoms behind me,
LG1860	1469	Afar down I see the huge first Nothing—I know I was even there,
LG1860	1470	I waited unseen and always, and slept through the lethargic mist,
LG1860	1471	And took my time, and took no hurt from the fetid carbon.
LG1860	1472	Long I was hugged close—long and long.
LG1860	1473	Immense have been the preparations for me,
LG1860	1474	Faithful and friendly the arms that have helped me.
LG1860	1475	Cycles ferried my cradle, rowing and rowing like cheerful boatmen,
LG1860	1476	For room to me stars kept aside in their own rings,
LG1860	1477	They sent influences to look after what was to hold me.
LG1860	1478	Before I was born out of my mother, generations guided me,
LG1860	1479	My embryo has never been torpid—nothing could overlay it.
LG1860	1480	For it the nebula cohered to an orb,
LG1860	1481	The long slow strata piled to rest it on,
LG1860	1482	Vast vegetables gave it sustenance,
LG1860	1483	Monstrous sauroids transported it in their mouths,and deposited it with care.
LG1860	1484	All forces have been steadily employed to complete and delight me,
LG1860	1485	Now I stand on this spot with my Soul.
LG1860	1486	O span of youth! Ever-pushed elasticity!
LG1860	1487	O manhood, balanced, florid, and full.
LG1860	1488	My lovers suffocate me!
LG1860	1489	Crowding my lips, thick in the pores of my skin,
LG1860	1490	Jostling me through streets and public halls—coming naked to me at night,
LG1860	1491	Crying by day Ahoy! from the rocks of the river —swinging and chirping over my head,
LG1860	1492	Calling my name from flower-beds, vines, tangled under-brush,
LG1860	1493	Or while I swim in the bath, or drink from the pump at the corner—or the curtain is down at the opera, or I glimpse at a woman's face in the railroad car,
LG1860	1494	Lighting on every moment of my life,
LG1860	1495	Bussing my body with soft balsamic busses,
LG1860	1496	Noiselessly passing handfuls out of their hearts, and giving them to be mine.
LG1860	1497	Old age superbly rising! O welcome, ineffable grace of dying days!
LG1860	1498	Every condition promulges not only itself—it pro-mulgespromulges what grows after and out of itself,
LG1860	1499	And the dark hush promulges as much as any.
LG1860	1500	I open my scuttle at night and see the far-sprinkled systems,
LG1860	1501	And all I see, multiplied as high as I can cipher, edge but the rim of the farther systems.
LG1860	1502	Wider and wider they spread, expanding, always expanding,
LG1860	1503	Outward, outward, and forever outward.
LG1860	1504	My sun has his sun, and round him obediently wheels,
LG1860	1505	He joins with his partners a group of superior circuit,
LG1860	1506	And greater sets follow, making specks of the greatest inside them.
LG1860	1507	There is no stoppage, and never can be stoppage,
LG1860	1508	If I, you, the worlds, all beneath or upon their sur-facessurfaces, and all the palpable life, were this moment reduced back to a pallid float, it would not avail in the long run,
LG1860	1509	We should surely bring up again where we now stand,
LG1860	1510	And as surely go as much farther—and then farther and farther.
LG1860	1511	A few quadrillions of eras, a few octillions of cubic leagues, do not hazard the span, or make it impatient,
LG1860	1512	They are but parts—anything is but a part.
LG1860	1513	See ever so far, there is limitless space outside of that,
LG1860	1514	Count ever so much, there is limitless time around that.
LG1860	1515	My rendezvous is appointed,
LG1860	1516	The Lord will be there, and wait till I come on per-fectperfect terms.
LG1860	1517	I know I have the best of time and space, and was never measured, and never will be measured.
LG1860	1518	I tramp a perpetual journey,
LG1860	1519	My signs are a rain-proof coat, good shoes, and a staff cut from the woods,
LG1860	1520	No friend of mine takes his ease in my chair,
LG1860	1521	I have no chair, no church, no philosophy,
LG1860	1522	I lead no man to a dinner-table, library, or exchange,
LG1860	1523	But each man and each woman of you I lead upon a knoll,
LG1860	1524	My left hand hooking you round the waist,
LG1860	1525	My right hand pointing to landscapes of continents,and a plain public road.
LG1860	1526	Not I—not any one else, can travel that road for you,
LG1860	1527	You must travel it for yourself.
LG1860	1528	It is not far—it is within reach,
LG1860	1529	Perhaps you have been on it since you were born,and did not know,
LG1860	1530	Perhaps it is every where on water and on land.
LG1860	1531	Shoulder your duds, and I will mine, and let us hasten forth,
LG1860	1532	Wonderful cities and free nations we shall fetch as we go.
LG1860	1533	If you tire, give me both burdens, and rest the chuff of your hand on my hip,
LG1860	1534	And in due time you shall repay the same service to me,
LG1860	1535	For after we start we never lie by again.
LG1860	1536	This day before dawn I ascended a hill, and looked at the crowded heaven,
LG1860	1537	And I said to my Spirit, When we become the enfolders of those orbs, and the pleasure and knowledge of everything in them, shall we be filled and satisfied then?
LG1860	1538	And my Spirit said No, we level that lift, to pass and continue beyond.
LG1860	1539	You are also asking me questions, and I hear you,
LG1860	1540	I answer that I cannot answer—you must find out for yourself.
LG1860	1541	Sit a while, wayfarer,
LG1860	1542	Here are biscuits to eat, and here is milk to drink,
LG1860	1543	But as soon as you sleep, and renew yourself in sweet clothes, I will certainly kiss you with my good-bye kiss, and open the gate for your egress hence.
LG1860	1544	Long enough have you dreamed contemptible dreams,
LG1860	1545	Now I wash the gum from your eyes,
LG1860	1546	You must habit yourself to the dazzle of the light,and of every moment of your life.
LG1860	1547	Long have you timidly waded, holding a plank by the shore,
LG1860	1548	Now I will you to be a bold swimmer,
LG1860	1549	To jump off in the midst of the sea, rise again, nod to me, shout, and laughingly dash with your hair.
LG1860	1550	I am the teacher of athletes,
LG1860	1551	He that by me spreads a wider breast than my own,proves the width of my own,
LG1860	1552	He most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher.
LG1860	1553	The boy I love, the same becomes a man, not through derived power, but in his own right,
LG1860	1554	Wicked, rather than virtuous out of conformity or fear,
LG1860	1555	Fond of his sweetheart, relishing well his steak,
LG1860	1556	Unrequited love, or a slight, cutting him worse than a wound cuts,
LG1860	1557	First rate to ride, to fight, to hit the bull's-eye, to sail a skiff, to sing a song, or play on the banjo,
LG1860	1558	Preferring scars, and faces pitted with small-pox, over all latherers, and those that keep out of the sun.
LG1860	1559	I teach straying from me—yet who can stray from me?
LG1860	1560	I follow you, whoever you are, from the present hour,
LG1860	1561	My words itch at your ears till you understand them.
LG1860	1562	I do not say these things for a dollar, or to fill up the time while I wait for a boat,
LG1860	1563	It is you talking just as much as myself—I act as the tongue of you,
LG1860	1564	Tied in your mouth, in mine it begins to be loosened.
LG1860	1565	I swear I will never again mention love or death inside a house,
LG1860	1566	And I swear I will never translate myself at all, only to him or her who privately stays with me in the open air.
LG1860	1567	If you would understand me, go to the heights or water-shore,
LG1860	1568	The nearest gnat is an explanation, and a drop or motion of waves a key,
LG1860	1569	The maul, the oar, the hand-saw, second my words.
LG1860	1570	No shuttered room or school can commune with me,
LG1860	1571	But roughs and little children better than they.
LG1860	1572	The young mechanic is closest to me—he knows me pretty well,
LG1860	1573	The woodman, that takes his axe and jug with him,shall take me with him all day,
LG1860	1574	The farm-boy, ploughing in the field, feels good at the sound of my voice,
LG1860	1575	In vessels that sail, my words sail—I go with fisher-menfishermen and seamen, and love them.
LG1860	1576	My face rubs to the hunter's face, when he lies down alone in his blanket,
LG1860	1577	The driver, thinking of me, does not mind the jolt of his wagon,
LG1860	1578	The young mother and old mother comprehend me,
LG1860	1579	The girl and the wife rest the needle a moment, and forget where they are,
LG1860	1580	They and all would resume what I have told them.
LG1860	1581	I have said that the Soul is not more than the body,
LG1860	1582	And I have said that the body is not more than the Soul,
LG1860	1583	And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one's self is.
LG1860	1584	And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy,walks to his own funeral, dressed in his shroud,
LG1860	1585	And I or you, pocketless of a dime, may purchase the pick of the earth,
LG1860	1586	And to glance with an eye, or show a bean in its pod, confounds the learning of all times,
LG1860	1587	And there is no trade or employment but the young man following it may become a hero,
LG1860	1588	And there is no object so soft but it makes a hub for the wheeled universe,
LG1860	1589	And any man or woman shall stand cool and supercilious before a million universes.
LG1860	1590	And I call to mankind, Be not curious about God,
LG1860	1591	For I, who am curious about each, am not curious about God,
LG1860	1592	No array of terms can say how much I am at peace about God, and about death.
LG1860	1593	I hear and behold God in every object, yet under-standunderstand God not in the least,
LG1860	1594	Nor do I understand who there can be more won-derfulwonderful than myself.
LG1860	1595	Why should I wish to see God better than this day?
LG1860	1596	I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four,and each moment then,
LG1860	1597	In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass,
LG1860	1598	I find letters from God dropped in the street—and every one is signed by God's name,
LG1860	1599	And I leave them where they are, for I know that others will punctually come forever and ever.
LG1860	1600	And as to you Death, and you bitter hug of mortality,it is idle to try to alarm me.
LG1860	1601	To his work without flinching the accoucheur comes,
LG1860	1602	I see the elder-hand, pressing, receiving, supporting,
LG1860	1603	I recline by the sills of the exquisite flexible doors,and mark the outlet, and mark the relief and escape.
LG1860	1604	And as to you corpse, I think you are good manure,but that does not offend me,
LG1860	1605	I smell the white roses sweet-scented and growing,
LG1860	1606	I reach to the leafy lips—I reach to the polished breasts of melons.
LG1860	1607	And as to you life, I reckon you are the leavings of many deaths,
LG1860	1608	No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before.
LG1860	1609	I hear you whispering there, O stars of heaven,
LG1860	1610	O suns! O grass of graves! O perpetual transfers and promotions!
LG1860	1611	If you do not say anything, how can I say anything?
LG1860	1612	Of the turbid pool that lies in the autumn forest,
LG1860	1613	Of the moon that descends the steeps of the soughing twilight,
LG1860	1614	Toss, sparkles of day and dusk! toss on the black stems that decay in the muck!
LG1860	1615	Toss to the moaning gibberish of the dry limbs.
LG1860	1616	I ascend from the moon, I ascend from the night,
LG1860	1617	I perceive of the ghastly glimmer the sunbeams re-flectedreflected,
LG1860	1618	And debouch to the steady and central from the offspring great or small.
LG1860	1619	There is that in me—I do not know what it is—but I know it is in me.
LG1860	1620	Wrenched and sweaty—calm and cool then my body becomes,
LG1860	1621	I sleep—I sleep long.
LG1860	1622	I do not know it—it is without name—it is a word unsaid,
LG1860	1623	It is not in any dictionary, utterance, symbol.
LG1860	1624	Something it swings on more than the earth I swing on,
LG1860	1625	To it the creation is the friend whose embracing awakes me.
LG1860	1626	Perhaps I might tell more. Outlines! I plead for my brothers and sisters.
LG1860	1627	Do you see, O my brothers and sisters?
LG1860	1628	It is not chaos or death—it is form, union, plan—it is eternal life—it is HAPPINESS.
LG1860	1629	The past and present wilt—I have filled them, emp-tiedemptied them,
LG1860	1630	And proceed to fill my next fold of the future.
LG1860	1631	Listener up there! Here you! What have you to confide to me?
LG1860	1632	Look in my face, while I snuff the sidle of evening,
LG1860	1633	Talk honestly—no one else hears you, and I stay only a minute longer.
LG1860	1634	Do I contradict myself?
LG1860	1635	Very well, then, I contradict myself,
LG1860	1636	I am large—I contain multitudes.
LG1860	1637	I concentrate toward them that are nigh—I wait on the door-slab.
LG1860	1638	Who has done his day's work? Who will soonest be through with his supper?
LG1860	1639	Who wishes to walk with me?
LG1860	1640	Will you speak before I am gone? Will you prove already too late?
LG1860	1641	The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me—he complains of my gab and my loitering.
LG1860	1642	I too am not a bit tamed—I too am untranslatable,
LG1860	1643	I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.
LG1860	1644	The last scud of day holds back for me,
LG1860	1645	It flings my likeness, after the rest, and true as any,on the shadowed wilds,
LG1860	1646	It coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk.
LG1860	1647	I depart as air—I shake my white locks at the run-away sun,
LG1860	1648	I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.
LG1860	1649	I bequeathe myself to the dirt, to grow from the grass I love,
LG1860	1650	If you want me again, look for me under your boot-soles.
LG1860	1651	You will hardly know who I am, or what I mean,
LG1860	1652	But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
LG1860	1653	And filter and fibre your blood.
LG1860	1654	Failing to fetch me at first, keep encouraged,
LG1860	1655	Missing me one place, search another,
LG1860	1656	I stop somewhere waiting for you.
LG1860	1657	O mater! O fils!
LG1860	1658	O brood continental!
LG1860	1659	O flowers of the prairies!
LG1860	1660	O space boundless! O hum of mighty products!
LG1860	1661	O you teeming cities! O so invincible, turbulent,proud!
LG1860	1662	O race of the future! O women!
LG1860	1663	O fathers! O you men of passion and the storm!
LG1860	1664	O native power only! O beauty!
LG1860	1665	O yourself! O God! O divine average!
LG1860	1666	O you bearded roughs! O bards! O all those slum-berersslumberers!
LG1860	1667	O arouse! the dawn-bird's throat sounds shrill! Do you not hear the cock crowing?
LG1860	1668	O, as I walk'd the beach, I heard the mournful notes foreboding a tempest—the low, oft-repeated shriek of the diver, the long-lived loon;
LG1860	1669	O I heard, and yet hear, angry thunder;—O you sailors! O ships! make quick preparation!
LG1860	1670	O from his masterful sweep, the warning cry of the eagle!
LG1860	1671	(Give way there, all! It is useless! Give up your spoils;)
LG1860	1672	O sarcasms! Propositions! (O if the whole world should prove indeed a sham, a sell!)
LG1860	1673	O I believe there is nothing real but America and freedom!
LG1860	1674	O to sternly reject all except Democracy!
LG1860	1675	O imperator! O who dare confront you and me?
LG1860	1676	O to promulgate our own! O to build for that which builds for mankind!
LG1860	1677	O feuillage! O North! O the slope drained by the Mexican sea!
LG1860	1678	O all, all inseparable—ages, ages, ages!
LG1860	1679	O a curse on him that would dissever this Union for any reason whatever!
LG1860	1680	O climates, labors! O good and evil! O death!
LG1860	1681	O you strong with iron and wood! O Personality!
LG1860	1682	O the village or place which has the greatest man or woman! even if it be only a few ragged huts;
LG1860	1683	O the city where women walk in public processions in the streets, the same as the men;
LG1860	1684	O a wan and terrible emblem, by me adopted!
LG1860	1685	O shapes arising! shapes of the future centuries!
LG1860	1686	O muscle and pluck forever for me!
LG1860	1687	O workmen and workwomen forever for me!
LG1860	1688	O farmers and sailors! O drivers of horses forever for me!
LG1860	1689	O I will make the new bardic list of trades and tools!
LG1860	1690	O you coarse and wilful! I love you!
LG1860	1691	O South! O longings for my dear home! O soft and sunny airs!
LG1860	1692	O pensive! O I must return where the palm grows and the mocking-bird sings, or else I die!
LG1860	1693	O equality! O organic compacts! I am come to be your born poet!
LG1860	1694	O whirl, contest, sounding and resounding! I am your poet, because I am part of you;
LG1860	1695	O days by-gone! Enthusiasts! Antecedents!
LG1860	1696	O vast preparations for These States! O years!
LG1860	1697	O what is now being sent forward thousands of years to come!
LG1860	1698	O mediums! O to teach! to convey the invisible faith!
LG1860	1699	To promulge real things! to journey through all The States!
LG1860	1700	O creation! O to-day! O laws! O unmitigated adoration!
LG1860	1701	O for mightier broods of orators, artists, and singers!
LG1860	1702	O for native songs! carpenter's, boatman's, plough-manploughman's songs! shoemaker's songs!
LG1860	1703	O haughtiest growth of time! O free and extatic!
LG1860	1704	O what I, here, preparing, warble for!
LG1860	1705	O you hastening light! O the sun of the world will ascend, dazzling, and take his height—and you too will ascend;
LG1860	1706	O so amazing and so broad! up there resplendent,darting and burning;
LG1860	1707	O prophetic! O vision staggered with weight of light!with pouring glories!
LG1860	1708	O copious! O hitherto unequalled!
LG1860	1709	O Libertad! O compact! O union impossible to dissever!
LG1860	1710	O my Soul! O lips becoming tremulous, powerless!
LG1860	1711	O centuries, centuries yet ahead!
LG1860	1712	O voices of greater orators! I pause—I listen for you!
LG1860	1713	O you States! Cities! defiant of all outside authority!I spring at once into your arms! you I most love!
LG1860	1714	O you grand Presidentiads! I wait for you!
LG1860	1715	New history! New heroes! I project you!
LG1860	1716	Visions of poets! only you really last! O sweep on!sweep on!
LG1860	1717	O Death! O you striding there! O I cannot yet!
LG1860	1718	O heights! O infinitely too swift and dizzy yet!
LG1860	1719	O purged lumine! you threaten me more than I can stand!
LG1860	1720	O present! I return while yet I may to you!
LG1860	1721	O poets to come, I depend upon you!
LG1860	1722	A NATION announcing itself, (many in one,)
LG1860	1723	I myself make the only growth by which I can be appreciated,
LG1860	1724	I reject none, accept all, reproduce all in my own forms.
LG1860	1725	A breed whose testimony is behavior,
LG1860	1726	What we are WE ARE—nativity is answer enough to objections;
LG1860	1727	We wield ourselves as a weapon is wielded,
LG1860	1728	We are powerful and tremendous in ourselves,
LG1860	1729	We are executive in ourselves—We are sufficient in the variety of ourselves,
LG1860	1730	We are the most beautiful to ourselves, and in our-selvesourselves,
LG1860	1731	Nothing is sinful to us outside of ourselves,
LG1860	1732	Whatever appears, whatever does not appear, we are beautiful or sinful in ourselves only.
LG1860	1733	Have you thought there could be but a single Supreme?
LG1860	1734	There can be any number of Supremes—One does not countervail another, any more than one eye-sighteyesight countervails another, or one life counter-vailscountervails another.
LG1860	1735	All is eligible to all,
LG1860	1736	All is for individuals—All is for you,
LG1860	1737	No condition is prohibited, not God's or any,
LG1860	1738	If one is lost, you are inevitably lost.
LG1860	1739	All comes by the body—only health puts you rapport with the universe.
LG1860	1740	Produce great persons, the rest follows.
LG1860	1741	How dare a sick man, or an obedient man, write poems for These States?
LG1860	1742	Which is the theory or book that, for our purposes, is not diseased?
LG1860	1743	Piety and conformity to them that like!
LG1860	1744	Peace, obesity, allegiance, to them that like!
LG1860	1745	I am he who tauntingly compels men, women, nations, to leap from their seats and contend for their lives.
LG1860	1746	I am he who goes through the streets with a barbed tongue, questioning every one I meet—ques-tioningquestioning you up there now:
LG1860	1747	Who are you, that wanted only to be told what you knew before?
LG1860	1748	Who are you, that wanted only a book to join you in your nonsense?
LG1860	1749	Are you, or would you be, better than all that has ever been before?
LG1860	1750	If you would be better than all that has ever been before, come listen to me, and not otherwise.
LG1860	1751	Fear grace—Fear delicatesse,
LG1860	1752	Fear the mellow sweet, the sucking of honey-juice,
LG1860	1753	Beware the advancing mortal ripening of nature,
LG1860	1754	Beware what precedes the decay of the ruggedness of states and men.
LG1860	1755	Ages, precedents, poems, have long been accumu-latingaccumulating undirected materials,
LG1860	1756	America brings builders, and brings its own styles.
LG1860	1757	Mighty bards have done their work, and passed to other spheres,
LG1860	1758	One work forever remains, the work of surpassing all they have done.
LG1860	1759	America, curious toward foreign characters, stands by its own at all hazards,
LG1860	1760	Stands removed, spacious, composite, sound,
LG1860	1761	Sees itself promulger of men and women, initiates the true use of precedents,
LG1860	1762	Does not repel them or the past, or what they have produced under their forms, or amid other pol-iticspolitics, or amid the idea of castes, or the old religions,
LG1860	1763	Takes the lesson with calmness, perceives the corpse slowly borne from the eating and sleeping rooms of the house,
LG1860	1764	Perceives that it waits a little while in the door— that it was fittest for its days,
LG1860	1765	That its life has descended to the stalwart and well- shaped heir who approaches,
LG1860	1766	And that he shall be fittest for his days.
LG1860	1767	Any period, one nation must lead,
LG1860	1768	One land must be the promise and reliance of the future.
LG1860	1769	These States are the amplest poem,
LG1860	1770	Here is not merely a nation, but a teeming nation of nations,
LG1860	1771	Here the doings of men correspond with the broad-castbroadcast doings of the day and night,
LG1860	1772	Here is what moves in magnificent masses, carelessly faithful of particulars,
LG1860	1773	Here are the roughs, beards, friendliness, combative-nesscombativeness, the Soul loves,
LG1860	1774	Here the flowing trains—here the crowds, equality, diversity, the Soul loves.
LG1860	1775	Race of races, and bards to corroborate!
LG1860	1776	Of them, standing among them, one lifts to the light his west-bred face,
LG1860	1777	To him the hereditary countenance bequeathed, both mother's and father's,
LG1860	1778	His first parts substances, earth, water, animals, trees,
LG1860	1779	Built of the common stock, having room for far and near,
LG1860	1780	Used to dispense with other lands, incarnating this land,
LG1860	1781	Attracting it body and Soul to himself, hanging on its neck with incomparable love,
LG1860	1782	Plunging his semitic muscle into its merits and demerits,
LG1860	1783	Making its geography, cities, beginnings, events, glories, defections, diversities, vocal in him,
LG1860	1784	Making its rivers, lakes, bays, embouchure in him,
LG1860	1785	Mississippi with yearly freshets and changing chutes —Missouri, Columbia, Ohio, Niagara, Hudson, spending themselves lovingly in him,
LG1860	1786	If the Atlantic coast stretch, or the Pacific coast stretch, he stretching with them north or south,
LG1860	1787	Spanning between them east and west, and touching whatever is between them,
LG1860	1788	Growths growing from him to offset the growth of pine, cedar, hemlock, live-oak, locust, chest-nutchestnut, cypress, hickory, lime-tree, cotton-wood, tulip-tree, cactus, tamarind, orange, magnolia, persimmon,
LG1860	1789	Tangles as tangled in him as any cane-brake or swamp,
LG1860	1790	He likening sides and peaks of mountains, forests coated with transparent ice, and icicles hanging from the boughs,
LG1860	1791	Off him pasturage sweet and natural as savanna, upland, prairie,
LG1860	1792	Through him flights, songs, screams, answering those of the wild-pigeon, coot, fish-hawk, qua-bird, mocking-bird, condor, night-heron, eagle;
LG1860	1793	His spirit surrounding his country's spirit, unclosed to good and evil,
LG1860	1794	Surrounding the essences of real things, old times and present times,
LG1860	1795	Surrounding just found shores, islands, tribes of red aborigines,
LG1860	1796	Weather-beaten vessels, landings, settlements, the rapid stature and muscle,
LG1860	1797	The haughty defiance of the Year 1—war, peace, the formation of the Constitution,
LG1860	1798	The separate States, the simple, elastic scheme, the immigrants,
LG1860	1799	The Union, always swarming with blatherers, and always calm and impregnable,
LG1860	1800	The unsurveyed interior, log-houses, clearings, wild animals, hunters, trappers;
LG1860	1801	Surrounding the multiform agriculture, mines, tem-peraturetemperature, the gestation of new States,
LG1860	1802	Congress convening every Twelfth Month, the mem-bersmembers duly coming up from the uttermost parts;
LG1860	1803	Surrounding the noble character of mechanics and farmers, especially the young men,
LG1860	1804	Responding their manners, speech, dress, friendships —the gait they have of persons who never knew how it felt to stand in the presence of superiors,
LG1860	1805	The freshness and candor of their physiognomy, the copiousness and decision of their phrenology,
LG1860	1806	The picturesque looseness of their carriage, their deathless attachment to freedom, their fierceness when wronged,
LG1860	1807	The fluency of their speech, their delight in music, their curiosity, good temper, and open-handed-nessopen-handedness—the whole composite make,
LG1860	1808	The prevailing ardor and enterprise, the large am-ativenessamativeness,
LG1860	1809	The perfect equality of the female with the male, the fluid movement of the population,
LG1860	1810	The superior marine, free commerce, fisheries, whaling, gold-digging,
LG1860	1811	Wharf-hemmed cities, railroad and steamboat lines, intersecting all points,
LG1860	1812	Factories, mercantile life, labor-saving machinery, the north-east, north-west, south-west,
LG1860	1813	Manhattan firemen, the Yankee swap, southern plan-tationplantation life,
LG1860	1814	Slavery, the tremulous spreading of hands to shelter it—the stern opposition to it, which ceases only when it ceases.
LG1860	1815	For these and the like, their own voices! For these, space ahead!
LG1860	1816	Others take finish, but the Republic is ever con-structiveconstructive, and ever keeps vista;
LG1860	1817	Others adorn the past—but you, O, days of the present, I adorn you!
LG1860	1818	O days of the future, I believe in you!
LG1860	1819	O America, because you build for mankind, I build for you!
LG1860	1820	O well-beloved stone-cutters! I lead them who plan with decision and science,
LG1860	1821	I lead the present with friendly hand toward the future.
LG1860	1822	Bravas to States whose semitic impulses send whole-somewholesome children to the next age!
LG1860	1823	But damn that which spends itself on flaunters and dalliers, with no thought of the stain, pains, dismay, feebleness, it is bequeathing.
LG1860	1824	By great bards only can series of peoples and States be fused into the compact organism of one nation.
LG1860	1825	To hold men together by paper and seal, or by com-pulsioncompulsion, is no account,
LG1860	1826	That only holds men together which is living prin-ciplesprinciples, as the hold of the limbs of the body, or the fibres of plants.
LG1860	1827	Of all races and eras, These States, with veins full of poetical stuff, most need poets, and are to have the greatest, and use them the greatest,
LG1860	1828	Their Presidents shall not be their common referee so much as their poets shall.
LG1860	1829	Of mankind, the poet is the equable man,
LG1860	1830	Not in him, but off from him, things are grotesque, eccentric, fail of their full returns,
LG1860	1831	Nothing out of its place is good, nothing in its place is bad,
LG1860	1832	He bestows on every object or quality its fit propor-tionsproportions, neither more nor less,
LG1860	1833	He is the arbiter of the diverse, he is the key,
LG1860	1834	He is the equalizer of his age and land,
LG1860	1835	He supplies what wants supplying—he checks what wants checking,
LG1860	1836	In peace, out of him speaks the spirit of peace, large, rich, thrifty, building populous towns, encour-agingencouraging agriculture, arts, commerce, lighting the study of man, the Soul, health, immortality, government,
LG1860	1837	In war, he is the best backer of the war—he fetches artillery as good as the engineer's—he can make every word he speaks draw blood;
LG1860	1838	The years straying toward infidelity, he withholds by his steady faith,
LG1860	1839	He is no arguer, he is judgment,
LG1860	1840	He judges not as the judge judges, but as the sun falling round a helpless thing;
LG1860	1841	As he sees the farthest he has the most faith,
LG1860	1842	His thoughts are the hymns of the praise of things,
LG1860	1843	In the dispute on God and eternity he is silent,
LG1860	1844	He sees eternity less like a play with a prologue and denouement,
LG1860	1845	He sees eternity in men and women—he does not see men and women as dreams or dots.
LG1860	1846	Of the idea of perfect and free individuals, the idea of These States, the bard walks in advance, leader of leaders,
LG1860	1847	The attitude of him cheers up slaves, and horrifies foreign despots.
LG1860	1848	Without extinction is Liberty! Without retrograde is Equality!
LG1860	1849	They live in the feelings of young men, and the best women,
LG1860	1850	Not for nothing have the indomitable heads of the earth been always ready to fall for Liberty!
LG1860	1851	Are YOU indeed for Liberty?
LG1860	1852	Are you a man who would assume a place to teach here, or lead here, or be a poet here?
LG1860	1853	The place is august—the terms obdurate.
LG1860	1854	Who would assume to teach here, may well prepare himself, body and mind,
LG1860	1855	He may well survey, ponder, arm, fortify, harden, make lithe, himself,
LG1860	1856	He shall surely be questioned beforehand by me with many and stern questions.
LG1860	1857	Who are you, indeed, who would talk or sing in America?
LG1860	1858	Have you studied out MY LAND, its idioms and men?
LG1860	1859	Have you learned the physiology, phrenology, poli-ticspolitics, geography, pride, freedom, friendship, of my land? its substratums and objects?
LG1860	1860	Have you considered the organic compact of the first day of the first year of the independence of The States, signed by the Commissioners, ratified by The States, and read by Washington at the head of the army?
LG1860	1861	Have you possessed yourself of the Federal Constitu-tionConstitution?
LG1860	1862	Do you acknowledge Liberty with audible and abso-luteabsolute acknowledgment, and set slavery at nought for life and death?
LG1860	1863	Do you see who have left described processes and poems behind them, and assumed new ones?
LG1860	1864	Are you faithful to things? Do you teach whatever the land and sea, the bodies of men, womanhood, amativeness, angers, excesses, crimes, teach?
LG1860	1865	Have you sped through customs, laws, popularities?
LG1860	1866	Can you hold your hand against all seductions, follies, whirls, fierce contentions? Are you very strong? Are you of the whole people?
LG1860	1867	Are you not of some coterie? some school or religion?
LG1860	1868	Are you done with reviews and criticisms of life? ani-matinganimating to life itself?
LG1860	1869	Have you vivified yourself from the maternity of These States?
LG1860	1870	Have you sucked the nipples of the breasts of the mother of many children?
LG1860	1871	Have you too the old, ever-fresh, forbearance and impartiality?
LG1860	1872	Do you hold the like love for those hardening to maturity? for the last-born? little and big? and for the errant?
LG1860	1873	What is this you bring my America?
LG1860	1874	Is it uniform with my country?
LG1860	1875	Is it not something that has been better told or done before?
LG1860	1876	Have you not imported this, or the spirit of it, in some ship?
LG1860	1877	Is it a mere tale? a rhyme? a prettiness?
LG1860	1878	Has it never dangled at the heels of the poets, poli-ticianspoliticians, literats, of enemies' lands?
LG1860	1879	Does it not assume that what is notoriously gone is still here?
LG1860	1880	Does it answer universal needs? Will it improve manners?
LG1860	1881	Can your performance face the open fields and the sea-side?
LG1860	1882	Will it absorb into me as I absorb food, air, nobility, meanness—to appear again in my strength, gait, face?
LG1860	1883	Have real employments contributed to it? original makers—not amanuenses?
LG1860	1884	Does it meet modern discoveries, calibers, facts, face to face?
LG1860	1885	Does it respect me? Democracy? the Soul? to-day?
LG1860	1886	What does it mean to me? to American persons, progresses, cities? Chicago, Kanada, Arkansas? the planter, Yankee, Georgian, native, immi-grantimmigrant, sailors, squatters, old States, new States?
LG1860	1887	Does it encompass all The States, and the unexcep-tionalunexceptional rights of all the men and women of the earth, the genital impulse of These States?
LG1860	1888	Does it see behind the apparent custodians, the real custodians, standing, menacing, silent, the mechanics, Manhattanese, western men, south-ernerssoutherners, significant alike in their apathy and in the promptness of their love?
LG1860	1889	Does it see what befalls and has always befallen each temporizer, patcher, outsider, partialist, alarmist, infidel, who has ever asked anything of America?
LG1860	1890	What mocking and scornful negligence?
LG1860	1891	The track strewed with the dust of skeletons?
LG1860	1892	By the roadside others disdainfully tossed?
LG1860	1893	Rhymes and rhymers pass away—poems distilled from other poems pass away,
LG1860	1894	The swarms of reflectors and the polite pass, and leave ashes;
LG1860	1895	Admirers, importers, obedient persons, make the soil of literature;
LG1860	1896	America justifies itself, give it time—no disguise can deceive it, or conceal from it—it is impassive enough,
LG1860	1897	Only toward the likes of itself will it advance to meet them,
LG1860	1898	If its poets appear, it will advance to meet them— there is no fear of mistake,
LG1860	1899	The proof of a poet shall be sternly deferred, till his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it.
LG1860	1900	He masters whose spirit masters—he tastes sweetest who results sweetest in the long run,
LG1860	1901	The blood of the brawn beloved of time is uncon-straintunconstraint,
LG1860	1902	In the need of poems, philosophy, politics, manners, engineering, an appropriate native grand-opera, shipcraft, any craft, he or she is greatest who contributes the greatest original practical ex-ampleexample.
LG1860	1903	Already a nonchalant breed, silently emerging, fills the houses and streets,
LG1860	1904	People's lips salute only doers, lovers, satisfiers, positive knowers;
LG1860	1905	There will shortly be no more priests—I say their work is done,
LG1860	1906	Death is without emergencies here, but life is per-petualperpetual emergencies here,
LG1860	1907	Are your body, days, manners, superb? after death you shall be superb;
LG1860	1908	Friendship, self-esteem, justice, health, clear the way with irresistible power;
LG1860	1909	How dare you place anything before a man?
LG1860	1910	Fall behind me, States!
LG1860	1911	A man, before all—myself, typical, before all.
LG1860	1912	Give me the pay I have served for!
LG1860	1913	Give me to speak beautiful words! take all the rest;
LG1860	1914	I have loved the earth, sun, animals—I have despised riches,
LG1860	1915	I have given alms to every one that asked, stood up for the stupid and crazy, devoted my income and labor to others,
LG1860	1916	I have hated tyrants, argued not concerning God, had patience and indulgence toward the people, taken off my hat to nothing known or unknown,
LG1860	1917	I have gone freely with powerful uneducated persons, and with the young, and with the mothers of families,
LG1860	1918	I have read these leaves to myself in the open air— I have tried them by trees, stars, rivers,
LG1860	1919	I have dismissed whatever insulted my own Soul or defiled my body,
LG1860	1920	I have claimed nothing to myself which I have not carefully claimed for others on the same terms.
LG1860	1921	I have studied my land, its idioms and men,
LG1860	1922	I am willing to wait to be understood by the growth of the taste of myself,
LG1860	1923	I reject none, I permit all,
LG1860	1924	Whom I have staid with once I have found longing for me ever afterward.
LG1860	1925	I swear I begin to see the meaning of these things!
LG1860	1926	It is not the earth, it is not America, who is so great,
LG1860	1927	It is I who am great, or to be great—it is you, or any one,
LG1860	1928	It is to walk rapidly through civilizations, govern-mentsgovernments, theories, nature, poems, shows, to indi-vidualsindividuals.
LG1860	1929	Underneath all are individuals,
LG1860	1930	I swear nothing is good to me now that ignores individuals!
LG1860	1931	The American compact is altogether with individuals,
LG1860	1932	The only government is that which makes minute of individuals,
LG1860	1933	The whole theory of the universe is directed to one single individual—namely, to You.
LG1860	1934	Underneath all is nativity,
LG1860	1935	I swear I will stand by my own nativity—pious or impious, so be it;
LG1860	1936	I swear I am charmed with nothing except nativity,
LG1860	1937	Men, women, cities, nations, are only beautiful from nativity.
LG1860	1938	Underneath all is the need of the expression of love for men and women,
LG1860	1939	I swear I have had enough of mean and impotent modes of expressing love for men and women,
LG1860	1940	After this day I take my own modes of expressing love for men and women.
LG1860	1941	I swear I will have each quality of my race in myself,
LG1860	1942	Talk as you like, he only suits These States whose manners favor the audacity and sublime turbu-lenceturbulence of The States.
LG1860	1943	Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, nature, governments, ownerships, I swear I perceive other lessons,
LG1860	1944	Underneath all to me is myself—to you, yourself, (the same monotonous old song,)
LG1860	1945	If all had not kernels for you and me, what were it to you and me?
LG1860	1946	O I see now, flashing, that this America is only you and me,
LG1860	1947	Its power, weapons, testimony, are you and me,
LG1860	1948	Its roughs, beards, haughtiness, ruggedness, are you and me,
LG1860	1949	Its ample geography, the sierras, the prairies, Mis-sissippiMississippi, Huron, Colorado, Boston, Toronto, Raleigh, Nashville, Havana, are you and me,
LG1860	1950	Its settlements, wars, the organic compact, peace, Washington, the Federal Constitution, are you and me,
LG1860	1951	Its young men's manners, speech, dress, friendships, are you and me,
LG1860	1952	Its crimes, lies, thefts, defections, slavery, are you and me,
LG1860	1953	Its Congress is you and me—the officers, capitols, armies, ships, are you and me,
LG1860	1954	Its endless gestations of new States are you and me,
LG1860	1955	Its inventions, science, schools, are you and me,
LG1860	1956	Its deserts, forests, clearings, log-houses, hunters, are you and me,
LG1860	1957	Natural and artificial are you and me,
LG1860	1958	Freedom, language, poems, employments, are you and me,
LG1860	1959	Failures, successes, births, deaths, are you and me,
LG1860	1960	Past, present, future, are only you and me.
LG1860	1961	I swear I dare not shirk any part of myself,
LG1860	1962	Not any part of America, good or bad,
LG1860	1963	Not my body—not friendship, hospitality, pro-creationprocreation,
LG1860	1964	Not my Soul, nor the last explanation of prudence,
LG1860	1965	Not the similitude that interlocks me with all iden-titiesidentities that exist, or ever have existed,
LG1860	1966	Not faith, sin, defiance, nor any disposition or duty of myself,
LG1860	1967	Not the promulgation of Liberty—not to cheer up slaves and horrify despots,
LG1860	1968	Not to build for that which builds for mankind,
LG1860	1969	Not to balance ranks, complexions, creeds, and the sexes,
LG1860	1970	Not to justify science, nor the march of equality,
LG1860	1971	Nor to feed the arrogant blood of the brawn beloved of time.
LG1860	1972	I swear I am for those that have never been mastered!
LG1860	1973	For men and women whose tempers have never been mastered,
LG1860	1974	For those whom laws, theories, conventions, can never master.
LG1860	1975	I swear I am for those who walk abreast with the whole earth!
LG1860	1976	Who inaugurate one to inaugurate all.
LG1860	1977	I swear I will not be outfaced by irrational things!
LG1860	1978	I will penetrate what it is in them that is sarcastic upon me!
LG1860	1979	I will make cities and civilizations defer to me!
LG1860	1980	(This is what I have learnt from America—it is the amount—and it I teach again.)
LG1860	1981	I will confront these shows of the day and night!
LG1860	1982	I will know if I am to be less than they!
LG1860	1983	I will see if I am not as majestic as they!
LG1860	1984	I will see if I am not as subtle and real as they!
LG1860	1985	I will see if I am to be less generous than they!
LG1860	1986	I will see if I have no meaning, while the houses and ships have meaning!
LG1860	1987	I will see if the fishes and birds are to be enough for themselves, and I am not to be enough for myself.
LG1860	1988	I match my spirit against yours, you orbs, growths, mountains, brutes,
LG1860	1989	Copious as you are, I absorb you all in myself, and become the master myself.
LG1860	1990	The Many In One—what is it finally except myself?
LG1860	1991	These States—what are they except myself?
LG1860	1992	I have learned why the earth is gross, tantalizing, wicked—it is for my sake,
LG1860	1993	I take you to be mine, you beautiful, terrible, rude forms.
LG1860	1994	BROAD-AXE, shapely, naked, wan!
LG1860	1995	Head from the mother's bowels drawn!
LG1860	1996	Wooded flesh and metal bone! limb only one and lip only one!
LG1860	1997	Gray-blue leaf by red-heat grown! helve produced from a little seed sown!
LG1860	1998	Resting the grass amid and upon,
LG1860	1999	To be leaned, and to lean on.
LG1860	2000	Strong shapes, and attributes of strong shapes— masculine trades, sights and sounds,
LG1860	2001	Long varied train of an emblem, dabs of music,
LG1860	2002	Fingers of the organist skipping staccato over the keys of the great organ.
LG1860	2003	Welcome are all earth's lands, each for its kind,
LG1860	2004	Welcome are lands of pine and oak,
LG1860	2005	Welcome are lands of the lemon and fig,
LG1860	2006	Welcome are lands of gold,
LG1860	2007	Welcome are lands of wheat and maize—welcome those of the grape,
LG1860	2008	Welcome are lands of sugar and rice,
LG1860	2009	Welcome the cotton-lands—welcome those of the white potato and sweet potato,
LG1860	2010	Welcome are mountains, flats, sands, forests, prairies,
LG1860	2011	Welcome the rich borders of rivers, table-lands, openings,
LG1860	2012	Welcome the measureless grazing lands—welcome the teeming soil of orchards, flax, honey, hemp,
LG1860	2013	Welcome just as much the other more hard-faced lands,
LG1860	2014	Lands rich as lands of gold, or wheat and fruit lands,
LG1860	2015	Lands of mines, lands of the manly and rugged ores,
LG1860	2016	Lands of coal, copper, lead, tin, zinc,
LG1860	2017	LANDS OF IRON! lands of the make of the axe!
LG1860	2018	The log at the wood-pile, the axe supported by it,
LG1860	2019	The sylvan hut, the vine over the doorway, the space cleared for a garden,
LG1860	2020	The irregular tapping of rain down on the leaves, after the storm is lulled,
LG1860	2021	The wailing and moaning at intervals, the thought of the sea,
LG1860	2022	The thought of ships struck in the storm, and put on their beam-ends, and the cutting away of masts;
LG1860	2023	The sentiment of the huge timbers of old-fashioned houses and barns;
LG1860	2024	The remembered print or narrative, the voyage at a venture of men, families, goods,
LG1860	2025	The disembarkation, the founding of a new city,
LG1860	2026	The voyage of those who sought a New England and found it—the outset anywhere,
LG1860	2027	The settlements of the Arkansas, Colorado, Ottawa, Willamette,
LG1860	2028	The slow progress, the scant fare, the axe, rifle, saddle-bags;
LG1860	2029	The beauty of all adventurous and daring persons,
LG1860	2030	The beauty of wood-boys and wood-men, with their clear untrimmed faces,
LG1860	2031	The beauty of independence, departure, actions that rely on themselves,
LG1860	2032	The American contempt for statutes and ceremonies, the boundless impatience of restraint,
LG1860	2033	The loose drift of character, the inkling through random types, the solidification;
LG1860	2034	The butcher in the slaughter-house, the hands aboard schooners and sloops, the raftsman, the pioneer,
LG1860	2035	Lumbermen in their winter camp, daybreak in the woods, stripes of snow on the limbs of trees, the occasional snapping,
LG1860	2036	The glad clear sound of one's own voice, the merry song, the natural life of the woods, the strong day's work,
LG1860	2037	The blazing fire at night, the sweet taste of supper, the talk, the bed of hemlock boughs, and the bear-skin;
LG1860	2038	The house-builder at work in cities or anywhere,
LG1860	2039	The preparatory jointing, squaring, sawing, mor-tisingmortising,
LG1860	2040	The hoist-up of beams, the push of them in their places, laying them regular,
LG1860	2041	Setting the studs by their tenons in the mortises, according as they were prepared,
LG1860	2042	The blows of mallets and hammers, the attitudes of the men, their curved limbs,
LG1860	2043	Bending, standing, astride the beams, driving in pins, holding on by posts and braces,
LG1860	2044	The hooked arm over the plate, the other arm wielding the axe,
LG1860	2045	The floor-men forcing the planks close, to be nailed,
LG1860	2046	Their postures bringing their weapons downward on the bearers,
LG1860	2047	The echoes resounding through the vacant building;
LG1860	2048	The huge store-house carried up in the city, well under way,
LG1860	2049	The six framing-men, two in the middle and two at each end, carefully bearing on their shoulders a heavy stick for a cross-beam,
LG1860	2050	The crowded line of masons with trowels in their right hands, rapidly laying the long side-wall, two hundred feet from front to rear,
LG1860	2051	The flexible rise and fall of backs, the continual click of the trowels striking the bricks,
LG1860	2052	The bricks, one after another, each laid so workman- like in its place, and set with a knock of the trowel-handle,
LG1860	2053	The piles of materials, the mortar on the mortar- boards, and the steady replenishing by the hod-menhodmen;
LG1860	2054	Spar-makers in the spar-yard, the swarming row of well-grown apprentices,
LG1860	2055	The swing of their axes on the square-hewed log, shaping it toward the shape of a mast,
LG1860	2056	The brisk short crackle of the steel driven slantingly into the pine,
LG1860	2057	The butter-colored chips flying off in great flakes and slivers,
LG1860	2058	The limber motion of brawny young arms and hips in easy costumes;
LG1860	2059	The constructor of wharves, bridges, piers, bulk-heads, floats, stays against the sea;
LG1860	2060	The city fireman—the fire that suddenly bursts forth in the close-packed square,
LG1860	2061	The arriving engines, the hoarse shouts, the nimble stepping and daring,
LG1860	2062	The strong command through the fire-trumpets, the falling in line, the rise and fall of the arms forcing the water,
LG1860	2063	The slender, spasmic blue-white jets—the bringing to bear of the hooks and ladders, and their execution,
LG1860	2064	The crash and cut away of connecting wood-work, or through floors, if the fire smoulders under them,
LG1860	2065	The crowd with their lit faces, watching—the glare and dense shadows;
LG1860	2066	The forger at his forge-furnace, and the user of iron after him,
LG1860	2067	The maker of the axe large and small, and the welder and temperer,
LG1860	2068	The chooser breathing his breath on the cold steel, and trying the edge with his thumb,
LG1860	2069	The one who clean-shapes the handle and sets it firmly in the socket,
LG1860	2070	The shadowy processions of the portraits of the past users also,
LG1860	2071	The primal patient mechanics, the architects and engineers,
LG1860	2072	The far-off Assyrian edifice and Mizra edifice,
LG1860	2073	The Roman lictors preceding the consuls,
LG1860	2074	The antique European warrior with his axe in combat,
LG1860	2075	The uplifted arm, the clatter, of blows on the helmeted head,
LG1860	2076	The death-howl, the limpsey tumbling body, the rush of friend and foe thither,
LG1860	2077	The siege of revolted lieges determined for liberty,
LG1860	2078	The summons to surrender, the battering at castle gates, the truce and parley,
LG1860	2079	The sack of an old city in its time,
LG1860	2080	The bursting in of mercenaries and bigots tumul-tuouslytumultuously and disorderly,
LG1860	2081	Roar, flames, blood, drunkenness, madness,
LG1860	2082	Goods freely rifled from houses and temples, screams of women in the gripe of brigands,
LG1860	2083	Craft and thievery of camp-followers, men running, old persons despairing,
LG1860	2084	The hell of war, the cruelties of creeds,
LG1860	2085	The list of all executive deeds and words, just or unjust,
LG1860	2086	The power of personality, just or unjust.
LG1860	2087	Muscle and pluck forever!
LG1860	2088	What invigorates life, invigorates death,
LG1860	2089	And the dead advance as much as the living advance,
LG1860	2090	And the future is no more uncertain than the present,
LG1860	2091	And the roughness of the earth and of man encloses as much as the delicatesse of the earth and of man,
LG1860	2092	And nothing endures but personal qualities.
LG1860	2093	What do you think endures?
LG1860	2094	Do you think the greatest city endures?
LG1860	2095	Or a teeming manufacturing state? or a prepared constitution? or the best built steamships?
LG1860	2096	Or hotels of granite and iron? or any chef-d'œuvres of engineering, forts, armaments?
LG1860	2097	Away! These are not to be cherished for themselves,
LG1860	2098	They fill their hour, the dancers dance, the musicians play for them,
LG1860	2099	The show passes, all does well enough of course,
LG1860	2100	All does very well till one flash of defiance.
LG1860	2101	The greatest city is that which has the greatest man or woman,
LG1860	2102	If it be a few ragged huts, it is still the greatest city in the whole world.
LG1860	2103	The place where the greatest city stands is not the place of stretched wharves, docks, manufactures, deposits of produce,
LG1860	2104	Nor the place of ceaseless salutes of new comers, or the anchor-lifters of the departing,
LG1860	2105	Nor the place of the tallest and costliest buildings, or shops selling goods from the rest of the earth,
LG1860	2106	Nor the place of the best libraries and schools—nor the place where money is plentiest,
LG1860	2107	Nor the place of the most numerous population.
LG1860	2108	Where the city stands with the brawniest breed of orators and bards,
LG1860	2109	Where the city stands that is beloved by these, and loves them in return, and understands them,
LG1860	2110	Where these may be seen going every day in the streets, with their arms familiar to the shoulders of their friends,
LG1860	2111	Where no monuments exist to heroes, but in the common words and deeds,
LG1860	2112	Where thrift is in its place, and prudence is in its place,
LG1860	2113	Where behavior is the finest of the fine arts,
LG1860	2114	Where the men and women think lightly of the laws,
LG1860	2115	Where the slave ceases, and the master of slaves ceases,
LG1860	2116	Where the populace rise at once against the never-endingneverending audacity of elected persons,
LG1860	2117	Where fierce men and women pour forth, as the sea to the whistle of death pours its sweeping and unript waves,
LG1860	2118	Where outside authority enters always after the precedence of inside authority,
LG1860	2119	Where the citizen is always the head and ideal—and President, Mayor, Governor, and what not, are agents for pay,
LG1860	2120	Where children are taught from the jump that they are to be laws to themselves, and to depend on themselves,
LG1860	2121	Where equanimity is illustrated in affairs,
LG1860	2122	Where speculations on the Soul are encouraged,
LG1860	2123	Where women walk in public processions in the streets, the same as the men,
LG1860	2124	Where they enter the public assembly and take places the same as the men, and are appealed to by the orators, the same as the men,
LG1860	2125	Where the city of the faithfulest friends stands,
LG1860	2126	Where the city of the cleanliness of the sexes stands,
LG1860	2127	Where the city of the healthiest fathers stands,
LG1860	2128	Where the city of the best-bodied mothers stands,
LG1860	2129	There the greatest city stands.
LG1860	2130	How beggarly appear poems, arguments, orations, before an electric deed!
LG1860	2131	How the floridness of the materials of cities shrivels before a man's or woman's look!
LG1860	2132	All waits, or goes by default, till a strong being appears;
LG1860	2133	A strong being is the proof of the race, and of the ability of the universe,
LG1860	2134	When he or she appears, materials are overawed,
LG1860	2135	The dispute on the Soul stops,
LG1860	2136	The old customs and phrases are confronted, turned back, or laid away.
LG1860	2137	What is your money-making now? What can it do now?
LG1860	2138	What is your respectability now?
LG1860	2139	What are your theology, tuition, society, traditions, statute-books now?
LG1860	2140	Where are your jibes of being now?
LG1860	2141	Where are your cavils about the Soul now?
LG1860	2142	Was that your best? Were those your vast and solid?
LG1860	2143	Riches, opinions, politics, institutions, to part obe-dientlyobediently from the path of one man or woman!
LG1860	2144	The centuries, and all authority, to be trod under the foot-soles of one man or woman!
LG1860	2145	—A sterile landscape covers the ore—there is as good as the best, for all the forbidding appear-anceappearance,
LG1860	2146	There is the mine, there are the miners,
LG1860	2147	The forge-furnace is there, the melt is accomplished, the hammers-men are at hand with their tongs and hammers,
LG1860	2148	What always served and always serves, is at hand.
LG1860	2149	Than this nothing has better served—it has served all,
LG1860	2150	Served the fluent-tongued and subtle-sensed Greek, and long ere the Greek,
LG1860	2151	Served in building the buildings that last longer than any,
LG1860	2152	Served the Hebrew, the Persian, the most ancient Hindostanee,
LG1860	2153	Served the mound-raiser on the Mississippi—served those whose relics remain in Central America,
LG1860	2154	Served Albic temples in woods or on plains, with unhewn pillars, and the druids, and the bloody body laid in the hollow of the great stone,
LG1860	2155	Served the artificial clefts, vast, high, silent, on the snow-covered hills of Scandinavia,
LG1860	2156	Served those who, time out of mind, made on the granite walls rough sketches of the sun, moon, stars, ships, ocean-waves,
LG1860	2157	Served the paths of the irruptions of the Goths— served the pastoral tribes and nomads,
LG1860	2158	Served the incalculably distant Kelt—served the hardy pirates of the Baltic,
LG1860	2159	Served before any of those, the venerable and harm-lessharmless men of Ethiopia,
LG1860	2160	Served the making of helms for the galleys of pleasure, and the making of those for war,
LG1860	2161	Served all great works on land, and all great works on the sea,
LG1860	2162	For the mediæval ages, and before the mediæval ages,
LG1860	2163	Served not the living only, then as now, but served the dead.
LG1860	2164	I see the European headsman,
LG1860	2165	He stands masked, clothed in red, with huge legs, and strong naked arms,
LG1860	2166	And leans on a ponderous axe.
LG1860	2167	Whom have you slaughtered lately, European heads-manheadsman?
LG1860	2168	Whose is that blood upon you, so wet and sticky?
LG1860	2169	I see the clear sunsets of the martyrs,
LG1860	2170	I see from the scaffolds the descending ghosts,
LG1860	2171	Ghosts of dead lords, uncrowned ladies, impeached ministers, rejected kings,
LG1860	2172	Rivals, traitors, poisoners, disgraced chieftains, and the rest.
LG1860	2173	I see those who in any land have died for the good cause,
LG1860	2174	The seed is spare, nevertheless the crop shall never run out,
LG1860	2175	(Mind you, O foreign kings, O priests, the crop shall never run out.)
LG1860	2176	I see the blood washed entirely away from the axe,
LG1860	2177	Both blade and helve are clean,
LG1860	2178	They spirt no more the blood of European nobles— they clasp no more the necks of queens.
LG1860	2179	I see the headsman withdraw and become useless,
LG1860	2180	I see the scaffold untrodden and mouldy—I see no longer any axe upon it,
LG1860	2181	I see the mighty and friendly emblem of the power of my own race, the newest largest race.
LG1860	2182	America! I do not vaunt my love for you,
LG1860	2183	I have what I have.
LG1860	2184	The axe leaps!
LG1860	2185	The solid forest gives fluid utterances,
LG1860	2186	They tumble forth, they rise and form,
LG1860	2187	Hut, tent, landing, survey,
LG1860	2188	Flail, plough, pick, crowbar, spade,
LG1860	2189	Shingle, rail, prop, wainscot, jamb, lath, panel, gable,
LG1860	2190	Citadel, ceiling, saloon, academy, organ, exhibition- house, library,
LG1860	2191	Cornice, trellis, pilaster, balcony, window, shutter, turret, porch,
LG1860	2192	Hoe, rake, pitch-fork, pencil, wagon, staff, saw, jack-planejackplane, mallet, wedge, rounce,
LG1860	2193	Chair, tub, hoop, table, wicket, vane, sash, floor,
LG1860	2194	Work-box, chest, stringed instrument, boat, frame, and what not,
LG1860	2195	Capitols of States, and capitol of the nation of States,
LG1860	2196	Long stately rows in avenues, hospitals for orphans or for the poor or sick,
LG1860	2197	Manhattan steamboats and clippers, taking the meas-uremeasure of all seas.
LG1860	2198	The shapes arise!
LG1860	2199	Shapes of the using of axes anyhow, and the users, and all that neighbors them,
LG1860	2200	Cutters down of wood, and haulers of it to the Pe-nobscotPenobscot, or Kennebec,
LG1860	2201	Dwellers in cabins among the Californian mountains, or by the little lakes, or on the Columbia,
LG1860	2202	Dwellers south on the banks of the Gila or Rio Grande—friendly gatherings, the characters and fun,
LG1860	2203	Dwellers up north in Minnesota and by the Yellow-stoneYellowstone river—dwellers on coasts and off coasts,
LG1860	2204	Seal-fishers, whalers, arctic seamen breaking passages through the ice.
LG1860	2205	The shapes arise!
LG1860	2206	Shapes of factories, arsenals, foundries, markets,
LG1860	2207	Shapes of the two-threaded tracks of railroads,
LG1860	2208	Shapes of the sleepers of bridges, vast frameworks, girders, arches,
LG1860	2209	Shapes of the fleets of barges, tows, lake craft, river craft.
LG1860	2210	The shapes arise!
LG1860	2211	Ship-yards and dry-docks along the Eastern and Western Seas, and in many a bay and by-place,
LG1860	2212	The live-oak kelsons, the pine planks, the spars, the hackmatack-roots for knees,
LG1860	2213	The ships themselves on their ways, the tiers of scaffolds, the workmen busy outside and inside,
LG1860	2214	The tools lying around, the great auger and little auger, the adze, bolt, line, square, gouge, and bead-plane.
LG1860	2215	The shapes arise!
LG1860	2216	The shape measured, sawed, jacked, joined, stained,
LG1860	2217	The coffin-shape for the dead to lie within in his shroud;
LG1860	2218	The shape got out in posts, in the bedstead posts, in the posts of the bride's bed,
LG1860	2219	The shape of the little trough, the shape of the rockers beneath, the shape of the babe's cradle,
LG1860	2220	The shape of the floor-planks, the floor-planks for dancers' feet,
LG1860	2221	The shape of the planks of the family home, the home of the friendly parents and children,
LG1860	2222	The shape of the roof of the home of the happy young man and woman, the roof over the well- married young man and woman,
LG1860	2223	The roof over the supper joyously cooked by the chaste wife, and joyously eaten by the chaste husband, content after his day's work.
LG1860	2224	The shapes arise!
LG1860	2225	The shape of the prisoner's place in the court-room, and of him or her seated in the place,
LG1860	2226	The shape of the pill-box, the disgraceful ointment- box, the nauseous application, and him or her applying it,
LG1860	2227	The shape of the liquor-bar leaned against by the young rum-drinker and the old rum-drinker,
LG1860	2228	The shape of the shamed and angry stairs, trod by sneaking footsteps,
LG1860	2229	The shape of the sly settee, and the adulterous unwholesome couple,
LG1860	2230	The shape of the gambling-board with its devilish winnings and losings,
LG1860	2231	The shape of the slats of the bed of a corrupted body, the bed of the corruption of gluttony or alcoholic drinks,
LG1860	2232	The shape of the step-ladder for the convicted and sentenced murderer, the murderer with haggard face and pinioned arms,
LG1860	2233	The sheriff at hand with his deputies, the silent and white-lipped crowd, the sickening dangling of the rope.
LG1860	2234	The shapes arise!
LG1860	2235	Shapes of doors giving so many exits and en-trancesentrances,
LG1860	2236	The door passing the dissevered friend, flushed, and in haste,
LG1860	2237	The door that admits good news and bad news,
LG1860	2238	The door whence the son left home, confident and puffed up,
LG1860	2239	The door he entered again from a long and scan-dalousscandalous absence, diseased, broken down, without innocence, without means.
LG1860	2240	Their shapes arise, above all the rest—the shapes of full-sized men,
LG1860	2241	Men taciturn yet loving, used to the open air, and the manners of the open air,
LG1860	2242	Saying their ardor in native forms, saying the old response,
LG1860	2243	Take what I have then, (saying fain,) take the pay you approached for,
LG1860	2244	Take the white tears of my blood, if that is what you are after.
LG1860	2245	Her shape arises,
LG1860	2246	She, less guarded than ever, yet more guarded than ever,
LG1860	2247	The gross and soiled she moves among do not make her gross and soiled,
LG1860	2248	She knows the thoughts as she passes—nothing is concealed from her,
LG1860	2249	She is none the less considerate or friendly therefore,
LG1860	2250	She is the best-beloved—it is without exception— she has no reason to fear, and she does not fear,
LG1860	2251	Oaths, quarrels, hiccupped songs, proposals, smutty expressions, are idle to her as she passes,
LG1860	2252	She is silent—she is possessed of herself—they do not offend her,
LG1860	2253	She receives them as the laws of nature receive them —she is strong,
LG1860	2254	She too is a law of nature—there is no law stronger than she is.
LG1860	2255	His shape arises,
LG1860	2256	Arrogant, masculine, näive, rowdyish,
LG1860	2257	Laugher, weeper, worker, idler, citizen, countryman,
LG1860	2258	Saunterer of woods, stander upon hills, summer swimmer in rivers or by the sea,
LG1860	2259	Of pure American breed, of reckless health, his body perfect, free from taint from top to toe, free forever from headache and dyspepsia, clean- breathed,
LG1860	2260	Ample-limbed, a good feeder, weight a hundred and eighty pounds, full-blooded, six feet high, forty inches round the breast and back,
LG1860	2261	Countenance sun-burnt, bearded, calm, unrefined,
LG1860	2262	Reminder of animals, meeter of savage and gentleman on equal terms,
LG1860	2263	Attitudes lithe and erect, costume free, neck gray and open, of slow movement on foot,
LG1860	2264	Passer of his right arm round the shoulders of his friends, companion of the street,
LG1860	2265	Persuader always of people to give him their sweetest touches, and never their meanest,
LG1860	2266	A Manhattanese bred, fond of Brooklyn, fond of Broadway, fond of the life of the wharves and the great ferries,
LG1860	2267	Enterer everywhere, welcomed everywhere, easily understood after all,
LG1860	2268	Never offering others, always offering himself, corrob-oratingcorroborating his phrenology,
LG1860	2269	Voluptuous, inhabitive, combative, conscientious, alimentive, intuitive, of copious friendship, sublimity, firmness, self-esteem, comparison, individuality, form, locality, eventuality,
LG1860	2270	Avowing by life, manners, works, to contribute illus-trationsillustrations of results of The States,
LG1860	2271	Teacher of the unquenchable creed, namely, egotism,
LG1860	2272	Inviter of others continually henceforth to try their strength against his.
LG1860	2273	The main shapes arise!
LG1860	2274	Shapes of Democracy, final—result of centuries,
LG1860	2275	Shapes of those that do not joke with life, but are in earnest with life,
LG1860	2276	Shapes, ever projecting other shapes,
LG1860	2277	Shapes of a hundred Free States, begetting another hundred north and south,
LG1860	2278	Shapes of turbulent manly cities,
LG1860	2279	Shapes of an untamed breed of young men, and natural persons,
LG1860	2280	Shapes of the women fit for These States,
LG1860	2281	Shapes of the composition of all the varieties of the earth,
LG1860	2282	Shapes of the friends and home-givers of the whole earth,
LG1860	2283	Shapes bracing the whole earth, and braced with the whole earth.
LG1860	2284	COME closer to me,
LG1860	2285	Push closer, my lovers, and take the best I possess,
LG1860	2286	Yield closer and closer, and give me the best you
LG1860	2287	possess.
LG1860	2288	This is unfinished business with me—How is it with you?
LG1860	2289	I was chilled with the cold types, cylinder, wet paper between us.
LG1860	2290	Male and Female!
LG1860	2291	I pass so poorly with paper and types, I must pass with the contact of bodies and souls.
LG1860	2292	American masses!
LG1860	2293	I do not thank you for liking me as I am, and liking the touch of me—I know that it is good for you to do so.
LG1860	2294	Workmen and Workwomen!
LG1860	2295	Were all educations, practical and ornamental, well displayed out of me, what would it amount to?
LG1860	2296	Were I as the head teacher, charitable proprietor, wise statesman, what would it amount to?
LG1860	2297	Were I to you as the boss employing and paying you, would that satisfy you?
LG1860	2298	The learned, virtuous, benevolent, and the usual terms,
LG1860	2299	A man like me, and never the usual terms.
LG1860	2300	Neither a servant nor a master am I,
LG1860	2301	I take no sooner a large price than a small price— I will have my own, whoever enjoys me,
LG1860	2302	I will be even with you, and you shall be even with me.
LG1860	2303	If you stand at work in a shop, I stand as nigh as the nighest in the same shop,
LG1860	2304	If you bestow gifts on your brother or dearest friend, I demand as good as your brother or dearest friend,
LG1860	2305	If your lover, husband, wife, is welcome by day or night, I must be personally as welcome,
LG1860	2306	If you become degraded, criminal, ill, then I become so for your sake,
LG1860	2307	If you remember your foolish and outlawed deeds, do you think I cannot remember my own foolish and outlawed deeds? plenty of them;
LG1860	2308	If you carouse at the table, I carouse at the opposite side of the table,
LG1860	2309	If you meet some stranger in the streets, and love him or her, do I not often meet strangers in the street, and love them?
LG1860	2310	If you see a good deal remarkable in me, I see just as much, perhaps more, in you.
LG1860	2311	Why, what have you thought of yourself?
LG1860	2312	Is it you then that thought yourself less?
LG1860	2313	Is it you that thought the President greater than you?
LG1860	2314	Or the rich better off than you? or the educated wiser than you?
LG1860	2315	Because you are greasy or pimpled, or that you was once drunk, or a thief, or diseased, or rheumatic, or a prostitute, or are so now, or from frivolity or impotence, or that you are no scholar, and never saw your name in print, do you give in that you are any less immortal?
LG1860	2316	Souls of men and women! it is not you I call unseen, unheard, untouchable and untouching,
LG1860	2317	It is not you I go argue pro and con about, and to settle whether you are alive or no,
LG1860	2318	I own publicly who you are, if nobody else owns— I see and hear you, and what you give and take,
LG1860	2319	What is there you cannot give and take?
LG1860	2320	I see not merely that you are polite or white-faced, married, single, citizens of old States, citizens of new States,
LG1860	2321	Eminent in some profession, a lady or gentleman in a parlor, or dressed in the jail uniform, or pulpit uniform;
LG1860	2322	Grown, half-grown, and babe, of this country and every country, indoors and outdoors, one just as much as the other, I see,
LG1860	2323	And all else is behind or through them.
LG1860	2324	The wife—and she is not one jot less than the husband,
LG1860	2325	The daughter—and she is just as good as the son,
LG1860	2326	The mother—and she is every bit as much as the father.
LG1860	2327	Offspring of those not rich, boys apprenticed to trades,
LG1860	2328	Young fellows working on farms, and old fellows working on farms,
LG1860	2329	The näive, the simple and hardy, he going to the polls to vote, he who has a good time, and he has who a bad time,
LG1860	2330	Mechanics, southerners, new arrivals, laborers, sailors, man-o'wars-men, merchantmen, coasters,
LG1860	2331	All these I see—but nigher and farther the same I see,
LG1860	2332	None shall escape me, and none shall wish to escape me.
LG1860	2333	I bring what you much need, yet always have,
LG1860	2334	Not money, amours, dress, eating, but as good;
LG1860	2335	I send no agent or medium, offer no representative of value, but offer the value itself.
LG1860	2336	There is something that comes home to one now and perpetually,
LG1860	2337	It is not what is printed, preached, discussed—it eludes discussion and print,
LG1860	2338	It is not to be put in a book—it is not in this book,
LG1860	2339	It is for you, whoever you are—it is no farther from you than your hearing and sight are from you,
LG1860	2340	It is hinted by nearest, commonest, readiest—it is not them, though it is endlessly provoked by them, (what is there ready and near you now?)
LG1860	2341	You may read in many languages, yet read nothing about it,
LG1860	2342	You may read the President's Message, and read nothing about it there,
LG1860	2343	Nothing in the reports from the State department or Treasury department, or in the daily papers or the weekly papers,
LG1860	2344	Or in the census returns, assessors' returns, prices current, or any accounts of stock.
LG1860	2345	The sun and stars that float in the open air—the apple-shaped earth, and we upon it—surely the drift of them is something grand!
LG1860	2346	I do not know what it is, except that it is grand, and that it is happiness,
LG1860	2347	And that the enclosing purport of us here is not a speculation, or bon-mot, or reconnoissance,
LG1860	2348	And that it is not something which by luck may turn out well for us, and without luck must be a failure for us,
LG1860	2349	And not something which may yet be retracted in a certain contingency.
LG1860	2350	The light and shade, the curious sense of body and identity, the greed that with perfect com-plaisancecomplaisance devours all things, the endless pride and out-stretching of man, unspeakable joys and sorrows,
LG1860	2351	The wonder every one sees in every one else he sees, and the wonders that fill each minute of time for-everforever, and each acre of surface and space forever,
LG1860	2352	Have you reckoned them for a trade, or farm-work? or for the profits of a store? or to achieve your-selfyourself a position? or to fill a gentleman's leisure, or a lady's leisure?
LG1860	2353	Have you reckoned the landscape took substance and form that it might be painted in a picture?
LG1860	2354	Or men and women that they might be written of, and songs sung?
LG1860	2355	Or the attraction of gravity, and the great laws and harmonious combinations, and the fluids of the air, as subjects for the savans?
LG1860	2356	Or the brown land and the blue sea for maps and charts?
LG1860	2357	Or the stars to be put in constellations and named fancy names?
LG1860	2358	Or that the growth of seeds is for agricultural tables, or agriculture itself?
LG1860	2359	Old institutions—these arts, libraries, legends, col-lectionscollections, and the practice handed along in manu-facturesmanufactures—will we rate them so high?
LG1860	2360	Will we rate our cash and business high? I have no objection,
LG1860	2361	I rate them high as the highest—then a child born of a woman and man I rate beyond all rate.
LG1860	2362	We thought our Union grand, and our Constitution grand,
LG1860	2363	I do not say they are not grand and good, for they are,
LG1860	2364	I am this day just as much in love with them as you,
LG1860	2365	Then I am in love with you, and with all my fellows upon the earth.
LG1860	2366	We consider bibles and religions divine—I do not say they are not divine,
LG1860	2367	I say they have all grown out of you, and may grow out of you still,
LG1860	2368	It is not they who give the life—it is you who give the life,
LG1860	2369	Leaves are not more shed from the trees, or trees from the earth, than they are shed out of you.
LG1860	2370	The sum of all known reverence I add up in you, whoever you are,
LG1860	2371	The President is there in the White House for you— it is not you who are here for him,
LG1860	2372	The Secretaries act in their bureaus for you—not you here for them,
LG1860	2373	The Congress convenes every Twelfth Month for you,
LG1860	2374	Laws, courts, the forming of States, the charters of cities, the going and coming of commerce and mails, are all for you.
LG1860	2375	All doctrines, all politics and civilization, exurge from you,
LG1860	2376	All sculpture and monuments, and anything inscribed anywhere, are tallied in you,
LG1860	2377	The gist of histories and statistics as far back as the records reach, is in you this hour, and myths and tales the same,
LG1860	2378	If you were not breathing and walking here, where would they all be?
LG1860	2379	The most renowned poems would be ashes, orations and plays would be vacuums.
LG1860	2380	All architecture is what you do to it when you look upon it,
LG1860	2381	Did you think it was in the white or gray stone? or the lines of the arches and cornices?
LG1860	2382	All music is what awakes from you, when you are reminded by the instruments,
LG1860	2383	It is not the violins and the cornets—it is not the oboe nor the beating drums, nor the score of the baritone singer singing his sweet romanza—nor that of the men's chorus, nor that of the women's chorus,
LG1860	2384	It is nearer and farther than they.
LG1860	2385	Will the whole come back then?
LG1860	2386	Can each see signs of the best by a look in the looking-glass? is there nothing greater or more?
LG1860	2387	Does all sit there with you, and here with me?
LG1860	2388	The old, forever-new things—you foolish child! the closest, simplest things, this moment with you,
LG1860	2389	Your person, and every particle that relates to your person,
LG1860	2390	The pulses of your brain, waiting their chance and encouragement at every deed or sight,
LG1860	2391	Anything you do in public by day, and anything you do in secret between-days,
LG1860	2392	What is called right and what is called wrong— what you behold or touch, or what causes your anger or wonder,
LG1860	2393	The ankle-chain of the slave, the bed of the bed- house, the cards of the gambler, the plates of the forger,
LG1860	2394	What is seen or learnt in the street, or intuitively learnt,
LG1860	2395	What is learnt in the public school, spelling, reading, writing, ciphering, the black-board, the teacher's diagrams,
LG1860	2396	The panes of the windows, all that appears through them, the going forth in the morning, the aimless spending of the day,
LG1860	2397	(What is it that you made money? What is it that you got what you wanted?)
LG1860	2398	The usual routine, the work-shop, factory, yard, office, store, desk,
LG1860	2399	The jaunt of hunting or fishing, and the life of hunt-inghunting or fishing,
LG1860	2400	Pasture-life, foddering, milking, herding, and all the personnel and usages,
LG1860	2401	The plum-orchard, apple-orchard, gardening, seed-lingsseedlings, cuttings, flowers, vines,
LG1860	2402	Grains, manures, marl, clay, loam, the subsoil plough, the shovel, pick, rake, hoe, irrigation, draining,
LG1860	2403	The curry-comb, the horse-cloth, the halter, bridle, bits, the very wisps of straw,
LG1860	2404	The barn and barn-yard, the bins, mangers, mows, racks,
LG1860	2405	Manufactures, commerce, engineering, the building of cities, every trade carried on there, and the implements of every trade,
LG1860	2406	The anvil, tongs, hammer, the axe and wedge, the square, mitre, jointer, smoothing-plane,
LG1860	2407	The plumbob, trowel, level, the wall-scaffold, the work of walls and ceilings, or any mason-work,
LG1860	2408	The steam-engine, lever, crank, axle, piston, shaft, air-pump, boiler, beam, pulley, hinge, flange, band, bolt, throttle, governors, up and down rods,
LG1860	2409	The ship's compass, the sailor's tarpaulin, the stays and lanyards, the ground tackle for anchoring or mooring, the life-boat for wrecks,
LG1860	2410	The sloop's tiller, the pilot's wheel and bell, the yacht or fish-smack—the great gay-pennanted three- hundred-foot steamboat, under full headway, with her proud fat breasts, and her delicate swift- flashing paddles,
LG1860	2411	The trail, line, hooks, sinkers, and the seine, and hauling the seine,
LG1860	2412	The arsenal, small-arms, rifles, gunpowder, shot, caps, wadding, ordnance for war, and carriages;
LG1860	2413	Every-day objects, house-chairs, carpet, bed, coun-terpanecounterpane of the bed, him or her sleeping at night, wind blowing, indefinite noises,
LG1860	2414	The snow-storm or rain-storm, the tow-trowsers, the lodge-hut in the woods, the still-hunt,
LG1860	2415	City and country, fire-place, candle, gas-light, heater, aqueduct,
LG1860	2416	The message of the Governor, Mayor, Chief of Police —the dishes of breakfast, dinner, supper,
LG1860	2417	The bunk-room, the fire-engine, the string-team, the car or truck behind,
LG1860	2418	The paper I write on or you write on, every word we write, every cross and twirl of the pen, and the curious way we write what we think, yet very faintly,
LG1860	2419	The directory, the detector, the ledger, the books in ranks on the book-shelves, the clock attached to the wall,
LG1860	2420	The ring on your finger, the lady's wristlet, the scent- powder, the druggist's vials and jars, the draught of lager-beer,
LG1860	2421	The etui of surgical instruments, the etui of oculist's or aurist's instruments, or dentist's instruments,
LG1860	2422	The permutating lock that can be turned and locked as many different ways as there are minutes in a year,
LG1860	2423	Glass-blowing, nail-making, salt-making, tin-roofing, shingle-dressing, candle-making, lock-making and hanging,
LG1860	2424	Ship-carpentering, dock-building, fish-curing, ferrying, stone-breaking, flagging of side-walks by flaggers,
LG1860	2425	The pump, the pile-driver, the great derrick, the coal- kiln and brick-kiln,
LG1860	2426	Coal-mines, all that is down there, the lamps in the darkness, echoes, songs, what meditations, what vast native thoughts looking through smutch'd faces,
LG1860	2427	Iron-works, forge-fires in the mountains, or by river-banksriverbanks, men around feeling the melt with huge crowbars—lumps of ore, the due combining of ore, limestone, coal—the blast-furnace and the puddling-furnace, the loup-lump at the bottom of the melt at last—the rolling-mill, the stumpy bars of pig-iron, the strong clean-shaped T rail for railroads,
LG1860	2428	Oil-works, silk-works, white-lead-works, the sugar-housesugarhouse, steam-saws, the great mills and factories,
LG1860	2429	Lead-mines, and all that is done in lead-mines, or with the lead afterward,
LG1860	2430	Copper-mines, the sheets of copper, and what is formed out of the sheets, and all the work in forming it,
LG1860	2431	Stone-cutting, shapely trimmings for façades, or win-dowwindow or door lintels—the mallet, the tooth-chisel, the jib to protect the thumb,
LG1860	2432	Oakum, the oakum-chisel, the caulking-iron—the kettle of boiling vault-cement, and the fire under the kettle,
LG1860	2433	The cotton-bale, the stevedore's hook, the saw and buck of the sawyer, the screen of the coal- screener, the mould of the moulder, the work-ingworking-knife of the butcher, the ice-saw, and all the work with ice,
LG1860	2434	The four-double cylinder press, the hand-press, the frisket and tympan, the compositor's stick and rule, type-setting, making up the forms, all the work of newspaper counters, folders, carriers, news-men,
LG1860	2435	The implements for daguerreotyping—the tools of the rigger, grappler, sail-maker, block-maker,
LG1860	2436	Goods of gutta-percha, papier-mache, colors, brushes, brush-making, glazier's implements,
LG1860	2437	The veneer and glue-pot, the confectioner's orna-mentsornaments, the decanter and glasses, the shears and flat-iron,
LG1860	2438	The awl and knee-strap, the pint measure and quart measure, the counter and stool, the writing-pen of quill or metal—the making of all sorts of edged tools,
LG1860	2439	The ladders and hanging-ropes of the gymnasium, manly exercises, the game of base-ball, running, leaping, pitching quoits,
LG1860	2440	The designs for wall-papers, oil-cloths, carpets, the fancies for goods for women, the book-binder's stamps,
LG1860	2441	The brewery, brewing, the malt, the vats, every thing that is done by brewers, also by wine-makerswinemakers, also vinegar-makers,
LG1860	2442	Leather-dressing, coach-making, boiler-making, rope- twisting, distilling, sign-painting, lime-burning, coopering, cotton-picking—electro-plating, elec-trotypingelectrotyping, stereotyping,
LG1860	2443	Stave-machines, planing-machines, reaping-machines, ploughing-machines, thrashing-machines, steam- wagons,
LG1860	2444	The cart of the carman, the omnibus, the ponderous dray,
LG1860	2445	The wires of the electric telegraph stretched on land, or laid at the bottom of the sea, and then the message in an instant from a thousand miles off,
LG1860	2446	The snow-plough, and two engines pushing it—the ride in the express-train of only one car, the swift go through a howling storm—the locomo-tivelocomotive, and all that is done about a locomotive,
LG1860	2447	The bear-hunt or coon-hunt—the bonfire of shavings in the open lot in the city, and the crowd of children watching,
LG1860	2448	The blows of the fighting-man, the upper-cut, and one-two-three,
LG1860	2449	Pyrotechny, letting off colored fire-works at night, fancy figures and jets,
LG1860	2450	Shop-windows, coffins in the sexton's ware-room, fruit on the fruit-stand—beef in the butcher's stall, the slaughter-house of the butcher, the butcher in his killing-clothes,
LG1860	2451	The area of pens of live pork, the killing-hammer, the hog-hook, the scalder's tub, gutting, the cutter's cleaver, the packer's maul, and the plenteous winter-work of pork-packing,
LG1860	2452	Flour-works, grinding of wheat, rye, maize, rice— the barrels and the half and quarter barrels, the loaded barges, the high piles on wharves and levees,
LG1860	2453	Bread and cakes in the bakery, the milliner's rib-bonsribbons, the dress-maker's patterns, the tea-table, the home-made sweetmeats;
LG1860	2454	Cheap literature, maps, charts, lithographs, daily and weekly newspapers,
LG1860	2455	The column of wants in the one-cent paper, the news by telegraph, amusements, operas, shows,
LG1860	2456	The business parts of a city, the trottoirs of a city when thousands of well-dressed people walk up and down,
LG1860	2457	The cotton, woollen, linen you wear, the money you make and spend,
LG1860	2458	Your room and bed-room, your piano-forte, the stove and cook-pans,
LG1860	2459	The house you live in, the rent, the other tenants, the deposit in the savings-bank, the trade at the grocery,
LG1860	2460	The pay on Seventh Day night, the going home, and the purchases;
LG1860	2461	In them the heft of the heaviest—in them far more than you estimated, and far less also,
LG1860	2462	In them realities for you and me—in them poems for you and me,
LG1860	2463	In them, not yourself—you and your Soul enclose all things, regardless of estimation,
LG1860	2464	In them themes, hints, provokers—if not, the whole earth has no themes, hints, provokers, and never had.
LG1860	2465	I do not affirm what you see beyond is futile—I do not advise you to stop,
LG1860	2466	I do not say leadings you thought great are not great,
LG1860	2467	But I say that none lead to greater, sadder, happier, than those lead to.
LG1860	2468	Will you seek afar off? You surely come back at last,
LG1860	2469	In things best known to you, finding the best, or as good as the best,
LG1860	2470	In folks nearest to you finding also the sweetest, strongest, lovingest,
LG1860	2471	Happiness, knowledge, not in another place, but this place—not for another hour, but this hour,
LG1860	2472	Man in the first you see or touch—always in your friend, brother, nighest neighbor—Woman in your mother, lover, wife,
LG1860	2473	The popular tastes and occupations taking precedence in poems or any where,
LG1860	2474	You workwomen and workmen of These States having your own divine and strong life,
LG1860	2475	Looking the President always sternly in the face, unbending, nonchalant,
LG1860	2476	Understanding that he is to be kept by you to short and sharp account of himself,
LG1860	2477	And all else thus far giving place to men and women like you.
LG1860	2478	O you robust, sacred!
LG1860	2479	I cannot tell you how I love you;
LG1860	2480	All I love America for, is contained in men and women like you.
LG1860	2481	When the psalm sings instead of the singer,
LG1860	2482	When the script preaches instead of the preacher,
LG1860	2483	When the pulpit descends and goes instead of the carver that carved the supporting-desk,
LG1860	2484	When I can touch the body of books, by night or by day, and when they touch my body back again,
LG1860	2485	When the holy vessels, or the bits of the eucharist, or the lath and plast, procreate as effectually as the young silver-smiths or bakers, or the masons in their over-alls,
LG1860	2486	When a university course convinces like a slumbering woman and child convince,
LG1860	2487	When the minted gold in the vault smiles like the night-watchman's daughter,
LG1860	2488	When warrantee deeds loafe in chairs opposite, and are my friendly companions,
LG1860	2489	I intend to reach them my hand, and make as much of them as I do of men and women like you.
LG1860	2490	AMERICA always!
LG1860	2491	Always me joined with you, whoever you are!
LG1860	2492	Always our own feuillage!
LG1860	2493	Always Florida's green peninsula! Always the price-lesspriceless delta of Louisiana! Always the cotton-fields of Alabama and Texas!
LG1860	2494	Always California's golden hills and hollows—and the silver mountains of New Mexico! Always soft-breath'd Cuba!
LG1860	2495	Always the vast slope drained by the Southern Sea —inseparable with the slopes drained by the Eastern and Western Seas,
LG1860	2496	The area the Eighty-third year of These States—the three and a half millions of square miles,
LG1860	2497	The eighteen thousand miles of sea-coast and bay-coast on the main—the thirty thousand miles of river navigation,
LG1860	2498	The seven millions of distinct families, and the same number of dwellings—Always these and more,branching forth into numberless branches;
LG1860	2499	Always the free range and diversity! Always the continent of Democracy!
LG1860	2500	Always the prairies, pastures, forests, vast cities,travellers, Kanada, the snows;
LG1860	2501	Always these compact lands—lands tied at the hips with the belt stringing the huge oval lakes;
LG1860	2502	Always the West, with strong native persons—the increasing density there—the habitans, friendly,threatening, ironical, scorning invaders;
LG1860	2503	All sights, South, North, East—all deeds, promis-cuouslypromiscuously done at all times,
LG1860	2504	All characters, movements, growths—a few noticed,myriads unnoticed,
LG1860	2505	Through Mannahatta's streets I walking, these things gathering;
LG1860	2506	On interior rivers, by night, in the glare of pine knots, steamboats wooding up;
LG1860	2507	Sunlight by day on the valley of the Susquehanna,and on the valleys of the Potomac and Rappa-hannockRappahannock, and the valleys of the Roanoke and Delaware;
LG1860	2508	In their northerly wilds beasts of prey haunting the Adirondacks, the hills—or lapping the Saginaw waters to drink;
LG1860	2509	In a lonesome inlet, a sheldrake, lost from the flock,sitting on the water, rocking silently;
LG1860	2510	In farmers' barns, oxen in the stable, their harvest labor done—they rest standing—they are too tired;
LG1860	2511	Afar on arctic ice, the she-walrus lying drowsily,while her cubs play around;
LG1860	2512	The hawk sailing where men have not yet sailed—the farthest polar sea, ripply, crystalline, open,beyond the floes;
LG1860	2513	White drift spooning ahead, where the ship in the tempest dashes;
LG1860	2514	On solid land, what is done in cities, as the bells all strike midnight together;
LG1860	2515	In primitive woods, the sounds there also sounding—the howl of the wolf, the scream of the panther,and the hoarse bellow of the elk;
LG1860	2516	In winter beneath the hard blue ice of Moosehead Lake—in summer visible through the clear waters, the great trout swimming;
LG1860	2517	In lower latitudes, in warmer air, in the Carolinas,the large black buzzard floating slowly high beyond the tree-tops,
LG1860	2518	Below, the red cedar, festooned with tylandria—the pines and cypresses, growing out of the white sand that spreads far and flat;
LG1860	2519	Rude boats descending the big Pedee—climbing plants, parasites, with colored flowers and berries,enveloping huge trees,
LG1860	2520	The waving drapery on the live oak, trailing long and low, noiselessly waved by the wind;
LG1860	2521	The camp of Georgia wagoners, just after dark—the supper-fires, and the cooking and eating by whites and negroes,
LG1860	2522	Thirty or forty great wagons—the mules, cattle,horses, feeding from troughs,
LG1860	2523	The shadows, gleams, up under the leaves of the old sycamore-trees—the flames—also the black smoke from the pitch-pine, curling and rising;
LG1860	2524	Southern fishermen fishing—the sounds and inlets of North Carolina's coast—the shad-fishery and the herring-fishery—the large sweep-seines —the windlasses on shore worked by horses—the clearing, curing, and packing houses;
LG1860	2525	Deep in the forest, in the piney woods, turpentine and tar dropping from the incisions in the trees —There is the turpentine distillery,
LG1860	2526	There are the negroes at work, in good health—the ground in all directions is covered with pine straw;
LG1860	2527	In Tennessee and Kentucky, slaves busy in the coal-ingscoalings, at the forge, by the furnace-blaze, or at the corn-shucking;
LG1860	2528	In Virginia, the planter's son returning after a long absence, joyfully welcomed and kissed by the aged mulatto nurse;
LG1860	2529	On rivers, boatmen safely moored at night-fall, in their boats, under the shelter of high banks,
LG1860	2530	Some of the younger men dance to the sound of the banjo or fiddle—others sit on the gunwale,smoking and talking;
LG1860	2531	Late in the afternoon, the mocking-bird, the American mimic, singing in the Great Dismal Swamp—there are the greenish waters, the resinous odor,the plenteous moss, the cypress tree, and the juniper tree;
LG1860	2532	Northward, young men of Mannahatta—the target company from an excursion returning home at evening—the musket-muzzles all bear bunches of flowers presented by women;
LG1860	2533	Children at play—or on his father's lap a young boy fallen asleep, (how his lips move! how he smiles in his sleep!)
LG1860	2534	The scout riding on horseback over the plains west of the Mississippi—he ascends a knoll and sweeps his eye around;
LG1860	2535	California life—the miner, bearded, dressed in his rude costume—the stanch California friendship —the sweet air—the graves one, in passing,meets, solitary, just aside the horse-path;
LG1860	2536	Down in Texas, the cotton-field, the negro-cabins—drivers driving mules or oxen before rude carts —cotton-bales piled on banks and wharves;
LG1860	2537	Encircling all, vast-darting, up and wide, the Amer-icanAmerican Soul, with equal hemispheres—one Love,one Dilation or Pride;
LG1860	2538	In arriere, the peace-talk with the Iroquois, the aborigines—the calumet, the pipe of good-will arbitration, and indorsement,
LG1860	2539	The sachem blowing the smoke first toward the sun and then toward the earth,
LG1860	2540	The drama of the scalp-dance enacted with painted faces and guttural exclamations,
LG1860	2541	The setting out of the war-party—the long and stealthy march,
LG1860	2542	The single file—the swinging hatchets—the surprise and slaughter of enemies;
LG1860	2543	All the acts, scenes, ways, persons, attitudes of These States—reminiscences, all institutions,
LG1860	2544	All These States, compact—Every square mile of These States, without excepting a particle—you also—me also,
LG1860	2545	Me pleased, rambling in lanes and country fields,Paumanok's fields,
LG1860	2546	Me, observing the spiral flight of two little yellow butterflies, shuffling between each other, ascend-ingascending high in the air;
LG1860	2547	The darting swallow, the destroyer of insects—the fall traveller southward, but returning northward early in the spring;
LG1860	2548	The country boy at the close of the day, driving the herd of cows, and shouting to them as they loiter to browse by the road-side;
LG1860	2549	The city wharf—Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore,Charleston, New Orleans, San Francisco,
LG1860	2550	The departing ships, when the sailors heave at the capstan;
LG1860	2551	Evening—me in my room—the setting sun,
LG1860	2552	The setting summer sun shining in my open window,showing me flies, suspended, balancing in the air in the centre of the room, darting athwart,up and down, casting swift shadows in specks on the opposite wall, where the shine is;
LG1860	2553	The athletic American matron speaking in public to crowds of listeners;
LG1860	2554	Males, females, immigrants, combinations—the co-piousnesscopiousness—the individuality and sovereignty of The States, each for itself—the money-makers;
LG1860	2555	Factories, machinery, the mechanical forces—the windlass, lever, pulley—All certainties,
LG1860	2556	The certainty of space, increase, freedom, futurity,
LG1860	2557	In space, the sporades, the scattered islands, the stars —on the firm earth, the lands, my lands,
LG1860	2558	O lands! all so dear to me—what you are, (what-everwhatever it is,) I become a part of that, whatever it is,
LG1860	2559	Southward there, I screaming, with wings slow flap-pingflapping, with the myriads of gulls wintering along the coasts of Florida—or in Louisiana, with pelicans breeding,
LG1860	2560	Otherways, there, atwixt the banks of the Arkansaw,the Rio Grande, the Nueces, the Brazos, the Tombigbee, the Red River, the Saskatchawan, or the Osage, I with the spring waters laughing and skipping and running;
LG1860	2561	Northward, on the sands, on some shallow bay of Paumanok, I, with parties of snowy herons wading in the wet to seek worms and aquatic plants;
LG1860	2562	Retreating, triumphantly twittering, the king-bird,from piercing the crow with its bill, for amuse-mentamusement—And I triumphantly twittering;
LG1860	2563	The migrating flock of wild geese alighting in autumn to refresh themselves—the body of the flock feed —the sentinels outside move around with erect heads watching, and are from time to time re-lievedrelieved by other sentinels—And I feeding and taking turns with the rest;
LG1860	2564	In Kanadian forests, the moose, large as an ox, cor-neredcornered by hunters, rising desperately on his hind-feethindfeet, and plunging with his fore-feet, the hoofs as sharp as knives—And I, plunging at the hunters, cornered and desperate;
LG1860	2565	In the Mannahatta, streets, piers, shipping, store-houses, and the countless workmen working in the shops,
LG1860	2566	And I too of the Mannahatta, singing thereof—and no less in myself than the whole of the Manna-hattaMannahatta in itself,
LG1860	2567	Singing the song of These, my ever united lands —my body no more inevitably united, part to part, and made one identity, any more than my lands are inevitably united, and made ONE IDENTITY,
LG1860	2568	Nativities, climates, the grass of the great Pastoral Plains,
LG1860	2569	Cities, labors, death, animals, products, good and evil —these me,
LG1860	2570	These affording, in all their particulars, endless feuillage to me and to America, how can I do less than pass the clew of the union of them, to afford the like to you?
LG1860	2571	Whoever you are! how can I but offer you divine leaves, that you also be eligible as I am?
LG1860	2572	How can I but, as here, chanting, invite you for yourself to collect bouquets of the incomparable feuillage of These States?
LG1860	2573	RESPONDEZ! Respondez!
LG1860	2574	Let every one answer! Let those who sleep be waked! Let none evade—not you, any more than others!
LG1860	2575	(If it really be as is pretended, how much longer must we go on with our affectations and sneaking?
LG1860	2576	Let me bring this to a close—I pronounce openly for a new distribution of roles,)
LG1860	2577	Let that which stood in front go behind! and let that which was behind advance to the front and speak!
LG1860	2578	Let murderers, thieves, bigots, fools, unclean persons,offer new propositions!
LG1860	2579	Let the old propositions be postponed!
LG1860	2580	Let faces and theories be turned inside out! Let meanings be freely criminal, as well as results!
LG1860	2581	Let there be no suggestion above the suggestion of drudgery!
LG1860	2582	Let none be pointed toward his destination! (Say!do you know your destination?)
LG1860	2583	Let trillions of men and women be mocked with bodies and mocked with Souls!
LG1860	2584	Let the love that waits in them, wait! Let it die,or pass still-born to other spheres!
LG1860	2585	Let the sympathy that waits in every man, wait!or let it also pass, a dwarf, to other spheres!
LG1860	2586	Let contradictions prevail! Let one thing contradict another! and let one line of my poems contradict another!
LG1860	2587	Let the people sprawl with yearning aimless hands!Let their tongues be broken! Let their eyes be discouraged! Let none descend into their hearts with the fresh lusciousness of love!
LG1860	2588	Let the theory of America be management, caste,comparison! (Say! what other theory would you?)
LG1860	2589	Let them that distrust birth and death lead the rest! (Say! why shall they not lead you?)
LG1860	2590	Let the crust of hell be neared and trod on! Let the days be darker than the nights! Let slumber bring less slumber than waking-time brings!
LG1860	2591	Let the world never appear to him or her for whom it was all made!
LG1860	2592	Let the heart of the young man exile itself from the heart of the old man! and let the heart of the old man be exiled from that of the young man!
LG1860	2593	Let the sun and moon go! Let scenery take the applause of the audience! Let there be apathy under the stars!
LG1860	2594	Let freedom prove no man's inalienable right! Every one who can tyrannize, let him tyrannize to his satisfaction!
LG1860	2595	Let none but infidels be countenanced!
LG1860	2596	Let the eminence of meanness, treachery, sarcasm,hate, greed, indecency, impotence, lust, be taken for granted above all! Let writers, judges, gov-ernmentsgovernments, households, religions, philosophies, take such for granted above all!
LG1860	2597	Let the worst men beget children out of the worst women!
LG1860	2598	Let priests still play at immortality!
LG1860	2599	Let Death be inaugurated!
LG1860	2600	Let nothing remain upon the earth except the ashes of teachers, artists, moralists, lawyers, and learned and polite persons!
LG1860	2601	Let him who is without my poems be assassinated!
LG1860	2602	Let the cow, the horse, the camel, the garden-bee—Let the mud-fish, the lobster, the mussel, eel, the sting-ray, and the grunting pig-fish—Let these,and the like of these, be put on a perfect equality with man and woman!
LG1860	2603	Let churches accommodate serpents, vermin, and the corpses of those who have died of the most filthy of diseases!
LG1860	2604	Let marriage slip down among fools, and be for none but fools!
LG1860	2605	Let men among themselves talk and think obscenely of women! and let women among themselves talk and think obscenely of men!
LG1860	2606	Let every man doubt every woman! and let every woman trick every man!
LG1860	2607	Let us all, without missing one, be exposed in public,naked, monthly, at the peril of our lives! Let our bodies be freely handled and examined by whoever chooses!
LG1860	2608	Let nothing but copies, pictures, statues, reminis-cencesreminiscences, elegant works, be permitted to exist upon the earth!
LG1860	2609	Let the earth desert God, nor let there ever hence-forthhenceforth be mentioned the name of God!
LG1860	2610	Let there be no God!
LG1860	2611	Let there be money, business, imports, exports, cus-tomcustom, authority, precedents, pallor, dyspepsia,smut, ignorance, unbelief!
LG1860	2612	Let judges and criminals be transposed! Let the prison-keepers be put in prison! Let those that were prisoners take the keys! (Say! why might they not just as well be transposed?)
LG1860	2613	Let the slaves be masters! Let the masters become slaves!
LG1860	2614	Let the reformers descend from the stands where they are forever bawling! Let an idiot or insane person appear on each of the stands!
LG1860	2615	Let the Asiatic, the African, the European, the American and the Australian, go armed against the murderous stealthiness of each other! Let them sleep armed! Let none believe in good-will!
LG1860	2616	Let there be no unfashionable wisdom! Let such be scorned and derided off from the earth!
LG1860	2617	Let a floating cloud in the sky—Let a wave of the sea—Let one glimpse of your eye-sight upon the landscape or grass—Let growing mint, spinach,onions, tomatoes—Let these be exhibited as shows at a great price for admission!
LG1860	2618	Let all the men of These States stand aside for a few smouchers! Let the few seize on what they choose! Let the rest gawk, giggle, starve, obey!
LG1860	2619	Let shadows be furnished with genitals! Let sub-stancessubstances be deprived of their genitals!
LG1860	2620	Let there be wealthy and immense cities—but through any of them, not a single poet, saviour,knower, lover!
LG1860	2621	Let the infidels of These States laugh all faith away!If one man be found who has faith, let the rest set upon him! Let them affright faith! Let them destroy the power of breeding faith!
LG1860	2622	Let the she-harlots and the he-harlots be prudent!Let them dance on, while seeming lasts! (O seeming! seeming! seeming!)
LG1860	2623	Let the preachers recite creeds! Let them teach only what they have been taught!
LG1860	2624	Let the preachers of creeds never dare to go meditate candidly upon the hills, alone, by day or by night! (If one ever once dare, he is lost!)
LG1860	2625	Let insanity have charge of sanity!
LG1860	2626	Let books take the place of trees, animals, rivers,clouds!
LG1860	2627	Let the daubed portraits of heroes supersede heroes!
LG1860	2628	Let the manhood of man never take steps after itself!Let it take steps after eunuchs, and after con-sumptiveconsumptive and genteel persons!
LG1860	2629	Let the white person tread the black person under his heel! (Say! which is trodden under heel, after all ?)
LG1860	2630	Let the reflections of the things of the world be studied in mirrors! Let the things themselves continue unstudied!
LG1860	2631	Let a man seek pleasure everywhere except in him-selfhimself! Let a woman seek happiness everywhere except in herself! (Say! what real happiness have you had one single time through your whole life ?)
LG1860	2632	Let the limited years of life do nothing for the limit-lesslimitless years of death! (Say! what do you suppose death will do, then ?)
LG1860	2633	YOU just maturing youth! You male or female!
LG1860	2634	Remember the organic compact of These States,
LG1860	2635	Remember the pledge of the Old Thirteen thence-forwardthenceforward to the rights, life, liberty, equality of man,
LG1860	2636	Remember what was promulged by the founders, rat-ifiedratified by The States, signed in black and white by the Commissioners, and read by Washington at the head of the army,
LG1860	2637	Remember the purpose of the founders,—Remember Washington;
LG1860	2638	Remember the copious humanity streaming from every direction toward America;
LG1860	2639	Remember the hospitality that belongs to nations and men; (Cursed be nation, woman, man, without hospitality!)
LG1860	2640	Remember, government is to subserve individuals,
LG1860	2641	Not any, not the President, is to have one jot more than you or me,
LG1860	2642	Not any habitan of America is to have one jot less than you or me.
LG1860	2643	Anticipate when the thirty or fifty millions, are to be-comebecome the hundred, or two hundred millions, of equal freemen and freewomen, amicably joined.
LG1860	2644	Recall ages—One age is but a part—ages are but a part;
LG1860	2645	Recall the angers, bickerings, delusions, superstitions, of the idea of caste,
LG1860	2646	Recall the bloody cruelties and crimes.
LG1860	2647	Anticipate the best women;
LG1860	2648	I say an unnumbered new race of hardy and well-definedwelldefined women are to spread through all These States,
LG1860	2649	I say a girl fit for These States must be free, capable, dauntless, just the same as a boy.
LG1860	2650	Anticipate your own life—retract with merciless power,
LG1860	2651	Shirk nothing—retract in time—Do you see those errors, diseases, weaknesses, lies, thefts?
LG1860	2652	Do you see that lost character?—Do you see de-caydecay, consumption, rum-drinking, dropsy, fever, mortal cancer or inflammation?
LG1860	2653	Do you see death, and the approach of death?
LG1860	2654	Think of the Soul;
LG1860	2655	I swear to you that body of yours gives proportions to your Soul somehow to live in other spheres,
LG1860	2656	I do not know how, but I know it is so.
LG1860	2657	Think of loving and being loved;
LG1860	2658	I swear to you, whoever you are, you can interfuse yourself with such things that everybody that sees you shall look longingly upon you.
LG1860	2659	Think of the past;
LG1860	2660	I warn you that in a little while, others will find their past in you and your times.
LG1860	2661	The race is never separated—nor man nor woman escapes,
LG1860	2662	All is inextricable—things, spirits, nature, nations, you too—from precedents you come.
LG1860	2663	Recall the ever-welcome defiers, (The mothers precede them;)
LG1860	2664	Recall the sages, poets, saviours, inventors, lawgivers, of the earth,
LG1860	2665	Recall Christ, brother of rejected persons—brother of slaves, felons, idiots, and of insane and diseased persons.
LG1860	2666	Think of the time when you was not yet born,
LG1860	2667	Think of times you stood at the side of the dying,
LG1860	2668	Think of the time when your own body will be dying.
LG1860	2669	Think of spiritual results,
LG1860	2670	Sure as the earth swims through the heavens, does every one of its objects pass into spiritual results.
LG1860	2671	Think of manhood, and you to be a man;
LG1860	2672	Do you count manhood, and the sweet of manhood, nothing?
LG1860	2673	Think of womanhood, and you to be a woman;
LG1860	2674	The creation is womanhood,
LG1860	2675	Have I not said that womanhood involves all?
LG1860	2676	Have I not told how the universe has nothing better than the best womanhood?
LG1860	2677	WITH antecedents,
LG1860	2678	With my fathers and mothers, and the accumulations of past ages,
LG1860	2679	With all which, had it not been, I would not now be here, as I am,
LG1860	2680	With Egypt, India, Phenicia, Greece, and Rome,
LG1860	2681	With the Celt, the Scandinavian, the Alb, and the Saxon,
LG1860	2682	With antique maritime ventures—with laws, arti-sanshipartisanship, wars, and journeys,
LG1860	2683	With the poet, the skald, the saga, the myth, and the oracle,
LG1860	2684	With the sale of slaves—with enthusiasts—with the troubadour, the crusader, and the monk,
LG1860	2685	With those old continents whence we have come to this new continent,
LG1860	2686	With the fading kingdoms and kings over there,
LG1860	2687	With the fading religions and priests,
LG1860	2688	With the small shores we look back to, from our own large and present shores,
LG1860	2689	With countless years drawing themselves onward, and arrived at these years,
LG1860	2690	You and Me arrived—America arrived, and making this year,
LG1860	2691	This year! sending itself ahead countless years to come.
LG1860	2692	O but it is not the years—it is I—it is You,
LG1860	2693	We touch all laws, and tally all antecedents,
LG1860	2694	We are the skald, the oracle, the monk, and the knight—we easily include them, and more,
LG1860	2695	We stand amid time, beginningless and endless—we stand amid evil and good,
LG1860	2696	All swings around us—there is as much darkness as light,
LG1860	2697	The very sun swings itself and its system of planets around us,
LG1860	2698	Its sun, and its again, all swing around us.
LG1860	2699	As for me,
LG1860	2700	I have the idea of all, and am all, and believe in all;
LG1860	2701	I believe materialism is true, and spiritualism is true— I reject no part.
LG1860	2702	Have I forgotten any part?
LG1860	2703	Come to me, whoever and whatever, till I give you recognition.
LG1860	2704	I respect Assyria, China, Teutonia, and the Hebrews,
LG1860	2705	I adopt each theory, myth, god, and demi-god,
LG1860	2706	I see that the old accounts, bibles, genealogies, are true, without exception,
LG1860	2707	I assert that all past days were what they should have been,
LG1860	2708	And that they could no-how have been better than they were,
LG1860	2709	And that to-day is what it should be—and that America is,
LG1860	2710	And that to-day and America could no-how be better than they are.
LG1860	2711	In the name of These States, and in your and my name, the Past,
LG1860	2712	And in the name of These States, and in your and my name, the Present time.
LG1860	2713	I know that the past was great, and the future will be great,
LG1860	2714	And I know that both curiously conjoint in the pres-entpresent time,
LG1860	2715	(For the sake of him I typify—for the common average man's sake—your sake, if you are he;)
LG1860	2716	And that where I am, or you are, this present day, there is the centre of all days, all races,
LG1860	2717	And there is the meaning, to us, of all that has ever come of races and days, or ever will come.
LG1860	2718	SPLENDOR of falling day, floating and filling me,
LG1860	2719	Hour prophetic—hour resuming the past,
LG1860	2720	Inflating my throat—you, divine average!
LG1860	2721	You, Earth and Life, till the last ray gleams, I sing.
LG1860	2722	Open mouth of my Soul, uttering gladness,
LG1860	2723	Eyes of my Soul, seeing perfection,
LG1860	2724	Natural life of me, faithfully praising things,
LG1860	2725	Corroborating forever the triumph of things.
LG1860	2726	Illustrious every one!
LG1860	2727	Illustrious what we name space—sphere of unnum-beredunnumbered spirits,
LG1860	2728	Illustrious the mystery of motion, in all beings, even the tiniest insect,
LG1860	2729	Illustrious the attribute of speech—the senses—the body,
LG1860	2730	Illustrious the passing light! Illustrious the pale reflection on the moon in the western sky!
LG1860	2731	Illustrious whatever I see, or hear, or touch, to the last.
LG1860	2732	Good in all,
LG1860	2733	In the satisfaction and aplomb of animals,
LG1860	2734	In the annual return of the seasons,
LG1860	2735	In the hilarity of youth,
LG1860	2736	In the strength and flush of manhood,
LG1860	2737	In the grandeur and exquisiteness of old age,
LG1860	2738	In the superb vistas of Death.
LG1860	2739	Wonderful to depart!
LG1860	2740	Wonderful to be here!
LG1860	2741	The heart, to jet the all-alike and innocent blood,
LG1860	2742	To breathe the air, how delicious!
LG1860	2743	To speak! to walk! to seize something by the hand!
LG1860	2744	To prepare for sleep, for bed—to look on my rose- colored flesh,
LG1860	2745	To be conscious of my body, so amorous, so large,
LG1860	2746	To be this incredible God I am,
LG1860	2747	To have gone forth among other Gods—those men and women I love.
LG1860	2748	Wonderful how I celebrate you and myself!
LG1860	2749	How my thoughts play subtly at the spectacles around!
LG1860	2750	How the clouds pass silently overhead!
LG1860	2751	How the earth darts on and on! and how the sun, moon, stars, dart on and on!
LG1860	2752	How the water sports and sings! (Surely it is alive!)
LG1860	2753	How the trees rise and stand up—with strong trunks —with branches and leaves!
LG1860	2754	(Surely there is something more in each of the trees— some living Soul.)
LG1860	2755	O amazement of things! even the least particle!
LG1860	2756	O spirituality of things!
LG1860	2757	O strain musical, flowing through ages and continents —now reaching me and America!
LG1860	2758	I take your strong chords—I intersperse them, and cheerfully pass them forward.
LG1860	2759	I too carol the sun, ushered, or at noon, or setting,
LG1860	2760	I too throb to the brain and beauty of the earth, and of all the growths of the earth,
LG1860	2761	I too have felt the resistless call of myself.
LG1860	2762	As I sailed down the Mississippi,
LG1860	2763	As I wandered over the prairies,
LG1860	2764	As I have lived—As I have looked through my windows, my eyes,
LG1860	2765	As I went forth in the morning—As I beheld the light breaking in the east,
LG1860	2766	As I bathed on the beach of the Eastern Sea, and again on the beach on the Western Sea,
LG1860	2767	As I roamed the streets of inland Chicago—whatever streets I have roamed,
LG1860	2768	Wherever I have been, I have charged myself with contentment and triumph.
LG1860	2769	I sing the Equalities,
LG1860	2770	I sing the endless finales of things,
LG1860	2771	I say Nature continues—Glory continues,
LG1860	2772	I praise with electric voice,
LG1860	2773	For I do not see one imperfection in the universe,
LG1860	2774	And I do not see one cause or result lamentable at last in the universe.
LG1860	2775	O setting sun! O when the time comes,
LG1860	2776	I still warble under you, if none else does, unmiti-gatedunmitigated adoration!
LG1860	2777	A THOUGHT of what I am here for,
LG1860	2778	Of these years I sing—how they pass through con-vulsedconvulsed pains, as through parturitions;
LG1860	2779	How America illustrates birth, gigantic youth, the promise, the sure fulfilment, despite of people —Illustrates evil as well as good;
LG1860	2780	Of how many hold despairingly yet to the models departed, caste, myths, obedience, compulsion,and to infidelity;
LG1860	2781	How few see the arrived models, the Athletes, The States—or see freedom or spirituality—or hold any faith in results,
LG1860	2782	(But I see the Athletes—and I see the results glorious and inevitable—and they again leading to other results;)
LG1860	2783	How the great cities appear—How the Democratic masses, turbulent, wilful, as I love them,
LG1860	2784	How the whirl, the contest, the wrestle of evil with good, the sounding and resounding, keep on and on;
LG1860	2785	How society waits unformed, and is between things ended and things begun;
LG1860	2786	How America is the continent of glories, and of the triumph of freedom, and of the Democracies, and of the fruits of society, and of all that is begun;
LG1860	2787	And how The States are complete in themselves—And how all triumphs and glories are complete in themselves, to lead onward,
LG1860	2788	And how these of mine, and of The States, will in their turn be convulsed, and serve other par-turitionsparturitions and transitions,
LG1860	2789	And how all people, sights, combinations, the Demo-craticDemocratic masses too, serve—and how every fact serves,
LG1860	2790	And how now, or at any time, each serves the exquisite transition of Death.
LG1860	2791	HISTORIAN! you who celebrate bygones!
LG1860	2792	You have explored the outward, the surface of the races—the life that has exhibited itself,
LG1860	2793	You have treated man as the creature of politics,aggregates, rulers, and priests;
LG1860	2794	But now I also, arriving, contribute something:
LG1860	2795	I, an habitué of the Alleghanies, treat man as he is in the influences of Nature, in himself, in his own inalienable rights,
LG1860	2796	Advancing, to give the spirit and the traits of new Democratic ages, myself, personally,
LG1860	2797	(Let the future behold them all in me—Me, so puzzling and contradictory—Me, a Manhattan-eseManhattanese, the most loving and arrogant of men;)
LG1860	2798	I do not tell the usual facts, proved by records and documents,
LG1860	2799	What I tell, (talking to every born American,)requires no further proof than he or she who will hear me, will furnish, by silently meditating alone;
LG1860	2800	I press the pulse of the life that has hitherto seldom exhibited itself, but has generally sought con-cealmentConcealment, (the great pride of man, in himself,)
LG1860	2801	I illuminate feelings, faults, yearnings, hopes—I have come at last, no more ashamed nor afraid;
LG1860	2802	Chanter of Personality, outlining a history yet to be,
LG1860	2803	I project the ideal man, the American of the future.
LG1860	2804	THE thought of fruitage,
LG1860	2805	Of Death, (the life greater)—of seeds dropping into the ground—of birth,
LG1860	2806	Of the steady concentration of America, inland,upward, to impregnable and swarming places,
LG1860	2807	Of what Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and the rest, are to be,
LG1860	2808	Of what a few years will show there in Missouri,Kansas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and the rest,
LG1860	2809	Of what the feuillage of America is the preparation for—and of what all the sights, North, South,East and West, are;
LG1860	2810	Of the temporary use of materials for identity's sake,
LG1860	2811	Of departing—of the growth of a mightier race than any yet,
LG1860	2812	Of myself, soon, perhaps, closing up my songs by these shores,
LG1860	2813	Of California—of Oregon—and of me journeying hence to live and sing there;
LG1860	2814	Of the Western Sea—of the spread inland between it and the spinal river,
LG1860	2815	Of the great pastoral area, athletic and feminine,
LG1860	2816	Of all sloping down there where the fresh free-giverfreegiver, the mother, the Mississippi flows—and Westward still;
LG1860	2817	Of future men and women there—of happiness in those high plateaus, ranging three thousand miles, warm and cold,
LG1860	2818	Of cities yet unsurveyed and unsuspected, (as I am also, and as it must be,)
LG1860	2819	Of the new and good names—of the strong develop-mentsdevelopments—of the inalienable homesteads,
LG1860	2820	Of a free original life there—of simple diet, and clean and sweet blood,
LG1860	2821	Of litheness, majestic faces, clear eyes, and perfect physique there,
LG1860	2822	Of immense spiritual results, future years, inland,spread there each side of the Anahuacs,
LG1860	2823	Of these Leaves well-understood there, (being made for that area,)
LG1860	2824	Of the native scorn of grossness and gain there,
LG1860	2825	(O it lurks in me night and day—What is gain,after all, to savageness and freedom?)
LG1860	2826	TO oratists—to male or female,
LG1860	2827	Vocalism, breath, measure, concentration, determina-tiondetermination, and the divine power to use words.
LG1860	2828	Are you eligible?
LG1860	2829	Are you full-lung'd and limber-lipp'd from long trial? from vigorous practice? from physique?
LG1860	2830	Do you move in these broad lands as broad as they?
LG1860	2831	Remembering inland America, the high plateaus, stretching long?
LG1860	2832	Remembering Kanada—Remembering what edges the vast round edge of the Mexican Sea?
LG1860	2833	Come duly to the divine power to use words?
LG1860	2834	For only at last, after many years—after chastity, friendship, procreation, prudence, and nakedness,
LG1860	2835	After treading ground and breasting river and lake,
LG1860	2836	After a loosened throat—after absorbing eras, tem-peramentstemperaments, races—after knowledge, freedom, crimes,
LG1860	2837	After complete faith—after clarifyings, elevations, and removing obstructions,
LG1860	2838	After these, and more, it is just possible there comes to a man, a woman, the divine power to use words.
LG1860	2839	Then toward that man or that woman swiftly hasten all—None refuse, all attend,
LG1860	2840	Armies, ships, antiquities, the dead, libraries, paint-ingspaintings, machines, cities, hate, despair, amity, pain, theft, murder, aspiration, form in close ranks,
LG1860	2841	They debouch as they are wanted to march obediently through the mouth of that man, or that woman.
LG1860	2842	O now I see arise orators fit for inland America,
LG1860	2843	And I see it is as slow to become an orator as to become a man,
LG1860	2844	And I see that power is folded in a great vocalism.
LG1860	2845	Of a great vocalism, when you hear it, the merciless light shall pour, and the storm rage around,
LG1860	2846	Every flash shall be a revelation, an insult,
LG1860	2847	The glaring flame turned on depths, on heights, on suns, on stars,
LG1860	2848	On the interior and exterior of man or woman,
LG1860	2849	On the laws of Nature—on passive materials,
LG1860	2850	On what you called death—and what to you there-foretherefore was death,
LG1860	2851	As far as there can be death.
LG1860	2852	LAWS for Creations,
LG1860	2853	For strong artists and leaders—for fresh broods of teachers, and perfect literats for America,
LG1860	2854	For diverse savans, and coming musicians.
LG1860	2855	There shall be no subject but it shall be treated with reference to the ensemble of the world, and the compact truth of the world—And no coward or copyist shall be allowed;
LG1860	2856	There shall be no subject too pronounced—All works shall illustrate the divine law of indirections;
LG1860	2857	There they stand—I see them already, each poised and in its place,
LG1860	2858	Statements, models, censuses, poems, dictionaries, biographies, essays, theories—How complete! How relative and interfused! No one super-sedessupersedes another;
LG1860	2859	They do not seem to me like the old specimens,
LG1860	2860	They seem to me like Nature at last, (America has given birth to them, and I have also;)
LG1860	2861	They seem to me at last as perfect as the animals, and as the rocks and weeds—fitted to them,
LG1860	2862	Fitted to the sky, to float with floating clouds—to rustle among the trees with rustling leaves,
LG1860	2863	To stretch with stretched and level waters, where ships silently sail in the distance.
LG1860	2864	What do you suppose Creation is?
LG1860	2865	What do you suppose will satisfy the Soul, except to walk free and own no superior?
LG1860	2866	What do you suppose I have intimated to you in a hundred ways, but that man or woman is as good as God?
LG1860	2867	And that there is no God any more divine than Yourself?
LG1860	2868	And that that is what the oldest and newest myths finally mean?
LG1860	2869	And that you or any one must approach Creations through such laws?
LG1860	2870	POETS to come!
LG1860	2871	Not to-day is to justify me, and Democracy, and what we are for,
LG1860	2872	But you, a new brood, native, athletic, continental, greater than before known,
LG1860	2873	You must justify me.
LG1860	2874	Indeed, if it were not for you, what would I be?
LG1860	2875	What is the little I have done, except to arouse you?
LG1860	2876	I depend on being realized, long hence, where the broad fat prairies spread, and thence to Oregon and California inclusive,
LG1860	2877	I expect that the Texan and the Arizonian, ages hence, will understand me,
LG1860	2878	I expect that the future Carolinian and Georgian will understand me and love me,
LG1860	2879	I expect that Kanadians, a hundred, and perhaps many hundred years from now, in winter, in the splendor of the snow and woods, or on the icy lakes, will take me with them, and permanently enjoy themselves with me.
LG1860	2880	Of to-day I know I am momentary, untouched—I am the bard of the future,
LG1860	2881	I but write one or two indicative words for the future,
LG1860	2882	I but advance a moment, only to wheel and hurry back in the darkness.
LG1860	2883	I am a man who, sauntering along, without fully stopping, turns a casual look upon you, and then averts his face,
LG1860	2884	Leaving it to you to prove and define it,
LG1860	2885	Expecting the main things from you.
LG1860	2886	WHO has gone farthest? For I swear I will go farther;
LG1860	2887	And who has been just? For I would be the most just person of the earth;
LG1860	2888	And who most cautious? For I would be more cautious;
LG1860	2889	And who has been happiest? O I think it is I! I think no one was ever happier than I;
LG1860	2890	And who has lavished all? For I lavish constantly the best I have;
LG1860	2891	And who has been firmest? For I would be firmer;
LG1860	2892	And who proudest? For I think I have reason to be the proudest son alive—for I am the son of the brawny and tall-topt city;
LG1860	2893	And who has been bold and true? For I would be the boldest and truest being of the universe;
LG1860	2894	And who benevolent? For I would show more be-nevolencebenevolence than all the rest;
LG1860	2895	And who has projected beautiful words through the longest time? By God! I will outvie him! I will say such words, they shall stretch through longer time!
LG1860	2896	And who has received the love of the most friends?For I know what it is to receive the passionate love of many friends;
LG1860	2897	And to whom has been given the sweetest from women, and paid them in kind? For I will take the like sweets and pay them in kind;
LG1860	2898	And who possesses a perfect and enamoured body?For I do not believe any one possesses a more perfect or enamoured body than mine;
LG1860	2899	And who thinks the amplest thoughts? For I will surround those thoughts;
LG1860	2900	And who has made hymns fit for the earth? For I am mad with devouring extacy to make joyous hymns for the whole earth!
LG1860	2901	THEY shall arise in the States—mediums shall,
LG1860	2902	They shall report Nature, laws, physiology, and happiness,
LG1860	2903	They shall illustrate Democracy and the kosmos,
LG1860	2904	They shall be alimentive, amative, perceptive,
LG1860	2905	They shall be complete women and men—their pose brawny and supple, their drink water, their blood clean and clear,
LG1860	2906	They shall enjoy materialism and the sight of prod-uctsproducts—they shall enjoy the sight of the beef,lumber, bread-stuffs, of Chicago, the great city,
LG1860	2907	They shall train themselves to go in public to become oratists, (orators and oratresses,)
LG1860	2908	Strong and sweet shall their tongues be—poems and materials of poems shall come from their lives—they shall be makers and finders,
LG1860	2909	Of them, and of their works, shall emerge divine conveyers, to convey gospels,
LG1860	2910	Characters, events, retrospections, shall be conveyed in gospels—Trees, animals, waters, shall be conveyed,
LG1860	2911	Death, the future, the invisible faith, shall all be conveyed.
LG1860	2912	NOW we start hence, I with the rest, on our jour-neysjourneys through The States,
LG1860	2913	We willing learners of all, teachers of all, and lovers of all.
LG1860	2914	I have watched the seasons dispensing themselves, and passing on,
LG1860	2915	And I have said, Why should not a man or woman do as much as the seasons, and effuse as much?
LG1860	2916	We dwell a while in every city and town,
LG1860	2917	We pass through Kanada, the north-east, the vast valley of the Mississippi, and the Southern States,
LG1860	2918	We confer on equal terms with each of The States,
LG1860	2919	We make trial of ourselves, and invite men and women to hear,
LG1860	2920	We say to ourselves, Remember, fear not, be candid, promulge the body and the Soul,
LG1860	2921	Promulge real things—Never forget the equality of humankind, and never forget immortality;
LG1860	2922	Dwell a while, and pass on—Be copious, temperate, chaste, magnetic,
LG1860	2923	And what you effuse may then return as the seasons return,
LG1860	2924	And may be just as much as the seasons.
LG1860	2925	ME imperturbe,
LG1860	2926	Me standing at ease in Nature,
LG1860	2927	Master of all, or mistress of all—aplomb in the midst of irrational things,
LG1860	2928	Imbued as they—passive, receptive, silent as they,
LG1860	2929	Finding my occupation, poverty, notoriety, foibles,crimes, less important than I thought;
LG1860	2930	Me private, or public, or menial, or solitary—all these subordinate, (I am eternally equal with the best—I am not subordinate;)
LG1860	2931	Me toward the Mexican Sea, or in the Mannahatta,or the Tennessee, or far north, or inland,
LG1860	2932	A river-man, or a man of the woods, or of any farm-life of These States, or of the coast, or the lakes,or Kanada,
LG1860	2933	Me, wherever my life is to be lived, O to be self-bal-ancedself-balanced for contingencies!
LG1860	2934	O to confront night, storms, hunger, ridicule, acci-dentsaccidents, rebuffs, as the trees and animals do.
LG1860	2935	I WAS looking a long while for the history of the past for myself, and for these Chants—and now I have found it,
LG1860	2936	It is not in those paged fables in the libraries, (them I neither accept nor reject,)
LG1860	2937	It is no more in the legends than in all else,
LG1860	2938	It is in the present—it is this earth to-day,
LG1860	2939	It is in Democracy—in this America—the old world also,
LG1860	2940	It is the life of one man or one woman to-day, the average man of to-day;
LG1860	2941	It is languages, social customs, literatures, arts,
LG1860	2942	It is the broad show of artificial things, ships, ma-chinerymachinery, politics, creeds, modern improvements,and the interchanges of nations,
LG1860	2943	All for the average man of to-day.
LG1860	2944	AMERICAN mouth-songs!
LG1860	2945	Those of mechanics—each one singing, his, as it should be, blithe and strong,
LG1860	2946	The carpenter singing his, as he measures his plank or beam,
LG1860	2947	The mason singing his, as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,
LG1860	2948	The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat —the deck-hand singing on the steamboat deck,
LG1860	2949	The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench—the hatter singing as he stands,
LG1860	2950	The wood-cutter's song—the ploughboy's, on his way in the morning, or at the noon intermission, or at sundown;
LG1860	2951	The delicious singing of the mother—or of the young wife at work—or of the girl sewing or washing—Each singing what belongs to her, and to none else,
LG1860	2952	The day what belongs to the day—At night, the party, of young fellows, robust, friendly, clean- blooded, singing with melodious voices, melo-diousmelodious thoughts.
LG1860	2953	Come! some of you! still be flooding The States with hundreds and thousands of mouth-songs, fit for The States only.
LG1860	2954	As I walk, solitary, unattended,
LG1860	2955	Around me I hear that eclat of the world—politics, produce,
LG1860	2956	The announcements of recognized things—science,
LG1860	2957	The approved growth of cities, and the spread of inventions.
LG1860	2958	I see the ships, (they will last a few years,)
LG1860	2959	The vast factories with their foremen and workmen,
LG1860	2960	And hear the indorsement of all, and do not object to it.
LG1860	2961	But we too announce solid things,
LG1860	2962	Science, ships, politics, cities, factories, are not noth-ingnothing—they serve,
LG1860	2963	They stand for realities—all is as it should be.
LG1860	2964	Then my realities,
LG1860	2965	What else is so real as mine?
LG1860	2966	Libertad, and the divine average—Freedom to every slave on the face of the earth,
LG1860	2967	The rapt promises and lumine of seers—the spir-itualspiritual world—these centuries-lasting songs,
LG1860	2968	And our visions, the visions of poets, the most solid announcements of any.
LG1860	2969	For we support all,
LG1860	2970	After the rest is done and gone, we remain,
LG1860	2971	There is no final reliance but upon us,
LG1860	2972	Democracy rests finally upon us, (I, my brethren, begin it,)
LG1860	2973	And our visions sweep through eternity.
LG1860	2974	ELEMENTAL drifts!
LG1860	2975	O I wish I could impress others as you and the waves have just been impressing me.
LG1860	2976	As I ebbed with an ebb of the ocean of life,
LG1860	2977	As I wended the shores I know,
LG1860	2978	As I walked where the sea-ripples wash you, Pau-manokPaumanok,
LG1860	2979	Where they rustle up, hoarse and sibilant,
LG1860	2980	Where the fierce old mother endlessly cries for her castaways,
LG1860	2981	I, musing, late in the autumn day, gazing off south-wardsouthward,
LG1860	2982	Alone, held by the eternal self of me that threatens to get the better of me, and stifle me,
LG1860	2983	Was seized by the spirit that trails in the lines underfoot,
LG1860	2984	In the rim, the sediment, that stands for all the water and all the land of the globe.
LG1860	2985	Fascinated, my eyes, reverting from the south, dropped, to follow those slender winrows,
LG1860	2986	Chaff, straw, splinters of wood, weeds, and the sea- gluten,
LG1860	2987	Scum, scales from shining rocks, leaves of salt- lettuce, left by the tide;
LG1860	2988	Miles walking, the sound of breaking waves the other side of me,
LG1860	2989	Paumanok, there and then, as I thought the old thought of likenesses,
LG1860	2990	These you presented to me, you fish-shaped island,
LG1860	2991	As I wended the shores I know,
LG1860	2992	As I walked with that eternal self of me, seeking types.
LG1860	2993	As I wend the shores I know not,
LG1860	2994	As I listen to the dirge, the voices of men and women wrecked,
LG1860	2995	As I inhale the impalpable breezes that set in upon me,
LG1860	2996	As the ocean so mysterious rolls toward me closer and closer,
LG1860	2997	At once I find, the least thing that belongs to me, or that I see or touch, I know not;
LG1860	2998	I, too, but signify, at the utmost, a little washed-up drift,
LG1860	2999	A few sands and dead leaves to gather,
LG1860	3000	Gather, and merge myself as part of the sands and drift.
LG1860	3001	O baffled, balked,
LG1860	3002	Bent to the very earth, here preceding what follows,
LG1860	3003	Oppressed with myself that I have dared to open my mouth,
LG1860	3004	Aware now, that, amid all the blab whose echoes recoil upon me, I have not once had the least idea who or what I am,
LG1860	3005	But that before all my insolent poems the real ME still stands untouched, untold, altogether un-reachedunreached,
LG1860	3006	Withdrawn far, mocking me with mock-congrat-ulatorymock-congratulatory signs and bows,
LG1860	3007	With peals of distant ironical laughter at every word I have written or shall write,
LG1860	3008	Striking me with insults till I fall helpless upon the sand.
LG1860	3009	O I perceive I have not understood anything—not a single object—and that no man ever can.
LG1860	3010	I perceive Nature here, in sight of the sea, is taking advantage of me, to dart upon me, and sting me,
LG1860	3011	Because I was assuming so much,
LG1860	3012	And because I have dared to open my mouth to sing at all.
LG1860	3013	You oceans both! You tangible land! Nature!
LG1860	3014	Be not too rough with me—I submit—I close with you,
LG1860	3015	These little shreds shall, indeed, stand for all.
LG1860	3016	You friable shore, with trails of debris!
LG1860	3017	You fish-shaped island! I take what is underfoot;
LG1860	3018	What is yours is mine, my father.
LG1860	3019	I too Paumanok,
LG1860	3020	I too have bubbled up, floated the measureless float, and been washed on your shores;
LG1860	3021	I too am but a trail of drift and debris,
LG1860	3022	I too leave little wrecks upon you, you fish-shaped island.
LG1860	3023	I throw myself upon your breast, my father,
LG1860	3024	I cling to you so that you cannot unloose me,
LG1860	3025	I hold you so firm, till you answer me something.
LG1860	3026	Kiss me, my father,
LG1860	3027	Touch me with your lips, as I touch those I love,
LG1860	3028	Breathe to me, while I hold you close, the secret of the wondrous murmuring I envy,
LG1860	3029	For I fear I shall become crazed, if I cannot emulate it, and utter myself as well as it.
LG1860	3030	Sea-raff! Crook-tongued waves!
LG1860	3031	O, I will yet sing, some day, what you have said to me.
LG1860	3032	Ebb, ocean of life, (the flow will return,)
LG1860	3033	Cease not your moaning, you fierce old mother,
LG1860	3034	Endlessly cry for your castaways—but fear not, deny not me,
LG1860	3035	Rustle not up so hoarse and angry against my feet, as I touch you, or gather from you.
LG1860	3036	I mean tenderly by you,
LG1860	3037	I gather for myself, and for this phantom, looking down where we lead, and following me and mine.
LG1860	3038	Me and mine!
LG1860	3039	We, loose winrows, little corpses,
LG1860	3040	Froth, snowy white, and bubbles,
LG1860	3041	(See! from my dead lips the ooze exuding at last!
LG1860	3042	See—the prismatic colors, glistening and rolling!)
LG1860	3043	Tufts of straw, sands, fragments,
LG1860	3044	Buoyed hither from many moods, one contradicting another,
LG1860	3045	From the storm, the long calm, the darkness, the swell,
LG1860	3046	Musing, pondering, a breath, a briny tear, a dab of liquid or soil,
LG1860	3047	Up just as much out of fathomless workings fer-mentedfermented and thrown,
LG1860	3048	A limp blossom or two, torn, just as much over waves floating, drifted at random,
LG1860	3049	Just as much for us that sobbing dirge of Nature,
LG1860	3050	Just as much, whence we come, that blare of the cloud-trumpets;
LG1860	3051	We, capricious, brought hither, we know not whence, spread out before You, up there, walking or sitting,
LG1860	3052	Whoever you are—we too lie in drifts at your feet.
LG1860	3053	GREAT are the myths—I too delight in them,
LG1860	3054	Great are Adam and Eve—I too look back and accept them,
LG1860	3055	Great the risen and fallen nations, and their poets, women, sages, inventors, rulers, warriors, and priests.
LG1860	3056	Great is Liberty! great is Equality! I am their fol-lowerfollower,
LG1860	3057	Helmsmen of nations, choose your craft! where you sail, I sail,
LG1860	3058	Yours is the muscle of life or death—yours is the perfect science—in you I have absolute faith.
LG1860	3059	Great is To-day, and beautiful,
LG1860	3060	It is good to live in this age—there never was any better.
LG1860	3061	Great are the plunges, throes, triumphs, downfalls of Democracy,
LG1860	3062	Great the reformers, with their lapses and screams,
LG1860	3063	Great the daring and venture of sailors, on new ex-plorationsexplorations.
LG1860	3064	Great are Yourself and Myself,
LG1860	3065	We are just as good and bad as the oldest and young-estyoungest or any,
LG1860	3066	What the best and worst did, we could do,
LG1860	3067	What they felt, do not we feel it in ourselves?
LG1860	3068	What they wished, do we not wish the same?
LG1860	3069	Great is Youth—equally great is Old Age—great are the Day and Night,
LG1860	3070	Great is Wealth—great is Poverty—great is Ex-pressionExpression—great is Silence.
LG1860	3071	Youth, large, lusty, loving—Youth, full of grace, force, fascination,
LG1860	3072	Do you know that Old Age may come after you, with equal grace, force, fascination?
LG1860	3073	Day, full-blown and splendid—Day of the immense sun, action, ambition, laughter,
LG1860	3074	The Night follows close, with millions of suns, and sleep, and restoring darkness.
LG1860	3075	Wealth with the flush hand, fine clothes, hospitality,
LG1860	3076	But then the Soul's wealth, which is candor, knowl-edgeknowledge, pride, enfolding love;
LG1860	3077	(Who goes for men and women showing Poverty richer than wealth?)
LG1860	3078	Expression of speech! in what is written or said, for-getforget not that Silence is also expressive,
LG1860	3079	That anguish as hot as the hottest, and contempt as cold as the coldest, may be without words,
LG1860	3080	That the true adoration is likewise without words, and without kneeling.
LG1860	3081	Great is the greatest Nation—the nation of clusters of equal nations.
LG1860	3082	Great is the Earth, and the way it became what it is;
LG1860	3083	Do you imagine it is stopped at this? the increase abandoned?
LG1860	3084	Understand then that it goes as far onward from this, as this is from the times when it lay in covering waters and gases, before man had ap-pearedappeared.
LG1860	3085	Great is the quality of Truth in man,
LG1860	3086	The quality of truth in man supports itself through all changes,
LG1860	3087	It is inevitably in the man—he and it are in love, and never leave each other.
LG1860	3088	The truth in man is no dictum, it is vital as eye-sighteyesight,
LG1860	3089	If there be any Soul, there is truth—if there be man or woman, there is truth—if there be physical or moral, there is truth,
LG1860	3090	If there be equilibrium or volition, there is truth— if there be things at all upon the earth, there is truth.
LG1860	3091	O truth of the earth! O truth of things! I am de-termineddetermined to press my way toward you,
LG1860	3092	Sound your voice! I scale mountains, or dive in the sea after you.
LG1860	3093	Great is Language—it is the mightiest of the sci-encessciences,
LG1860	3094	It is the fulness, color, form, diversity of the earth, and of men and women, and of all qualities and processes,
LG1860	3095	It is greater than wealth—it is greater than build-ingsbuildings, ships, religions, paintings, music.
LG1860	3096	Great is the English speech—what speech is so great as the English?
LG1860	3097	Great is the English brood—what brood has so vast a destiny as the English?
LG1860	3098	It is the mother of the brood that must rule the earth with the new rule,
LG1860	3099	The new rule shall rule as the Soul rules, and as the love, justice, equality in the Soul, rule.
LG1860	3100	Great is Law—great are the old few landmarks of the law,
LG1860	3101	They are the same in all times, and shall not be disturbed.
LG1860	3102	Great are commerce, newspapers, books, free-trade, railroads, steamers, international mails, tele-graphstelegraphs, exchanges.
LG1860	3103	Great is Justice!
LG1860	3104	Justice is not settled by legislators and laws—it is in the Soul,
LG1860	3105	It cannot be varied by statues, any more than love, pride, the attraction of gravity, can,
LG1860	3106	It is immutable—it does not depend on majorities— majorities or what not come at last before the same passionless and exact tribunal.
LG1860	3107	For justice are the grand natural lawyers and perfect judges—it is in their Souls,
LG1860	3108	It is well assorted—they have not studied for noth-ingnothing—the great includes the less,
LG1860	3109	They rule on the highest grounds—they oversee all eras, states, administrations.
LG1860	3110	The perfect judge fears nothing—he could go front to front before God,
LG1860	3111	Before the perfect judge all shall stand back—life and death shall stand back—heaven and hell shall stand back.
LG1860	3112	Great is Goodness!
LG1860	3113	I do not know what it is, any more than I know what health is—but I know it is great.
LG1860	3114	Great is Wickedness—I find I often admire it, just as much as I admire goodness,
LG1860	3115	Do you call that a paradox? It certainly is a paradox.
LG1860	3116	The eternal equilibrium of things is great, and the eternal overthrow of things is great,
LG1860	3117	And there is another paradox.
LG1860	3118	Great is Life, real and mystical, wherever and whoever,
LG1860	3119	Great is Death—sure as Life holds all parts together, Death holds all parts together,
LG1860	3120	Death has just as much purport as Life has,
LG1860	3121	Do you enjoy what Life confers? you shall enjoy what Death confers,
LG1860	3122	I do not understand the realities of Death, but I know they are great,
LG1860	3123	I do not understand the least reality of Life—how then can I understand the realities of Death?
LG1860	3124	A YOUNG man came to me with a message from his brother,
LG1860	3125	How should the young man know the whether and when of his brother?
LG1860	3126	Tell him to send me the signs.
LG1860	3127	And I stood before the young man face to face, and took his right hand in my left hand, and his left hand in my right hand,
LG1860	3128	And I answered for his brother, and for men, and I answered for THE POET, and sent these signs.
LG1860	3129	Him all wait for—him all yield up to—his word is decisive and final,
LG1860	3130	Him they accept, in him lave, in him perceive them-selvesthemselves, as amid light,
LG1860	3131	Him they immerse, and he immerses them.
LG1860	3132	Beautiful women, the haughtiest nations, laws, the landscape, people, animals,
LG1860	3133	The profound earth and its attributes, and the unquiet ocean,
LG1860	3134	All enjoyments and properties, and money, and what-everwhatever money will buy,
LG1860	3135	The best farms—others toiling and planting, and he unavoidably reaps,
LG1860	3136	The noblest and costliest cities—others grading and building, and he domiciles there,
LG1860	3137	Nothing for any one, but what is for him—near and far are for him,
LG1860	3138	The ships in the offing—the perpetual shows and marches on land, are for him, if they are for any body.
LG1860	3139	He puts things in their attitudes,
LG1860	3140	He puts to-day out of himself, with plasticity and love,
LG1860	3141	He places his own city, times, reminiscences, parents, brothers and sisters, associations, employment, politics, so that the rest never shame them after-wardafterward, nor assume to command them.
LG1860	3142	He is the answerer,
LG1860	3143	What can be answered he answers—and what cannot be answered, he shows how it cannot be answered.
LG1860	3144	A man is a summons and challenge;
LG1860	3145	(It is vain to skulk—Do you hear that mocking and laughter? Do you hear the ironical echoes?)
LG1860	3146	Books, friendships, philosophers, priests, action, pleas-urepleasure, pride, beat up and down, seeking to give satisfaction,
LG1860	3147	He indicates the satisfaction, and indicates them that beat up and down also.
LG1860	3148	Whichever the sex, whatever the season or place, he may go freshly and gently and safely, by day or by night,
LG1860	3149	He has the pass-key of hearts—to him the response of the prying of hands on the knobs.
LG1860	3150	His welcome is universal—the flow of beauty is not more welcome or universal than he is,
LG1860	3151	The person he favors by day or sleeps with at night is blessed.
LG1860	3152	Every existence has its idiom—everything has an idiom and tongue,
LG1860	3153	He resolves all tongues into his own, and bestows it upon men, and any man translates, and any man translates himself also,
LG1860	3154	One part does not counteract another part—he is the joiner—he sees how they join.
LG1860	3155	He says indifferently and alike, How are you, friend? to the President at his levee,
LG1860	3156	And he says, Good-day, my brother! to Cudge that hoes in the sugar-field,
LG1860	3157	And both understand him, and know that his speech is right.
LG1860	3158	He walks with perfect ease in the capitol,
LG1860	3159	He walks among the Congress, and one representative says to another, Here is our equal, appearing and new.
LG1860	3160	Then the mechanics take him for a mechanic,
LG1860	3161	And the soldiers suppose him to be a captain, and the sailors that he has followed the sea,
LG1860	3162	And the authors take him for an author, and the artists for an artist,
LG1860	3163	And the laborers perceive he could labor with them and love them,
LG1860	3164	No matter what the work is, that he is the one to fol-lowfollow it, or has followed it,
LG1860	3165	No matter what the nation, that he might find his brothers and sisters there.
LG1860	3166	The English believe he comes of their English stock,
LG1860	3167	A Jew to the Jew he seems—a Russ to the Russ— usual and near, removed from none.
LG1860	3168	Whoever he looks at in the traveller's coffee-house claims him,
LG1860	3169	The Italian or Frenchman is sure, and the German is sure, and the Spaniard is sure, and the island Cuban is sure;
LG1860	3170	The engineer, the deck-hand on the great lakes, or on the Mississippi, or St. Lawrence, or Sacramento, or Hudson, or Paumanok Sound, claims him.
LG1860	3171	The gentleman of perfect blood acknowledges his per-fectperfect blood,
LG1860	3172	The insulter, the prostitute, the angry person, the beggar, see themselves in the ways of him—he strangely transmutes them,
LG1860	3173	They are not vile any more—they hardly know them-selvesthemselves, they are so grown.
LG1860	3174	Do you think it would be good to be the writer of melodious verses?
LG1860	3175	Well, it would be good to be the writer of melodious verses;
LG1860	3176	But what are verses beyond the flowing character you could have? or beyond beautiful manners and behavior?
LG1860	3177	Or beyond one manly or affectionate deed of an ap-prentice-boyapprentice-boy? or old woman? or man that has been in prison, or is likely to be in prison?
LG1860	3178	SOMETHING startles me where I thought I was safest,
LG1860	3179	I withdraw from the still woods I loved,
LG1860	3180	I will not go now on the pastures to walk,
LG1860	3181	I will not strip the clothes from my body to meet my lover the sea,
LG1860	3182	I will not touch my flesh to the earth, as to other flesh, to renew me.
LG1860	3183	O Earth!
LG1860	3184	O how can the ground of you not sicken?
LG1860	3185	How can you be alive, you growths of spring?
LG1860	3186	How can you furnish health, you blood of herbs, roots, orchards, grain?
LG1860	3187	Are they not continually putting distempered corpses in you?
LG1860	3188	Is not every continent worked over and over with sour dead?
LG1860	3189	Where have you disposed of those carcasses of the drunkards and gluttons of so many generations?
LG1860	3190	Where have you drawn off all the foul liquid and meat?
LG1860	3191	I do not see any of it upon you to-day—or perhaps I am deceived,
LG1860	3192	I will run a furrow with my plough—I will press my spade through the sod, and turn it up un-derneathunderneath,
LG1860	3193	I am sure I shall expose some of the foul meat.
LG1860	3194	Behold!
LG1860	3195	This is the compost of billions of premature corpses,
LG1860	3196	Perhaps every mite has once formed part of a sick person—Yet behold!
LG1860	3197	The grass covers the prairies,
LG1860	3198	The bean bursts noiselessly through the mould in the garden,
LG1860	3199	The delicate spear of the onion pierces upward,
LG1860	3200	The apple-buds cluster together on the apple-branches,
LG1860	3201	The resurrection of the wheat appears with pale visage out of its graves,
LG1860	3202	The tinge awakes over the willow-tree and the mul-berry-treemulberry-tree,
LG1860	3203	The he-birds carol mornings and evenings, while the she-birds sit on their nests,
LG1860	3204	The young of poultry break through the hatched eggs,
LG1860	3205	The new-born of animals appear—the calf is dropt from the cow, the colt from the mare,
LG1860	3206	Out of its little hill faithfully rise the potato's dark green leaves,
LG1860	3207	Out of its hill rises the yellow maize-stalk;
LG1860	3208	The summer growth is innocent and disdainful above all those strata of sour dead.
LG1860	3209	What chemistry!
LG1860	3210	That the winds are really not infectious,
LG1860	3211	That this is no cheat, this transparent green-wash of the sea, which is so amorous after me,
LG1860	3212	That it is safe to allow it to lick my naked body all over with its tongues,
LG1860	3213	That it will not endanger me with the fevers that have deposited themselves in it,
LG1860	3214	That all is clean, forever and forever,
LG1860	3215	That the cool drink from the well tastes so good,
LG1860	3216	That blackberries are so flavorous and juicy,
LG1860	3217	That the fruits of the apple-orchard, and of the orange-orchard—that melons, grapes, peaches, plums, will none of them poison me,
LG1860	3218	That when I recline on the grass I do not catch any disease,
LG1860	3219	Though probably every spear of grass rises out of what was once a catching disease.
LG1860	3220	Now I am terrified at the Earth! it is that calm and patient,
LG1860	3221	It grows such sweet things out of such corruptions,
LG1860	3222	It turns harmless and stainless on its axis, with such endless successions of diseased corpses,
LG1860	3223	It distils such exquisite winds out of such infused fetor,
LG1860	3224	It renews, with such unwitting looks, its prodigal, annual, sumptuous crops,
LG1860	3225	It gives such divine materials to men, and accepts such leavings from them at last.
LG1860	3226	ALL day I have walked the city, and talked with my friends, and thought of prudence,
LG1860	3227	Of time, space, reality—of such as these, and abreast with them, prudence.
LG1860	3228	After all, the last explanation remains to be made about prudence,
LG1860	3229	Little and large alike drop quietly aside from the prudence that suits immortality.
LG1860	3230	The Soul is of itself,
LG1860	3231	All verges to it—all has reference to what ensues,
LG1860	3232	All that a person does, says, thinks, is of conse-quenceconsequence,
LG1860	3233	Not a move can a man or woman make, that affects him or her in a day, month, any part of the direct life-time, or the hour of death, but the same affects him or her onward afterward through the indirect life-time.
LG1860	3234	The indirect is more than the direct,
LG1860	3235	The spirit receives from the body just as much as it gives to the body, if not more.
LG1860	3236	Not one word or deed—not venereal sore, discolor-ationdiscoloration, privacy of the onanist, putridity of gluttons or rum-drinkers, peculation, cunning, betrayal, murder, seduction, prostitution, but has results beyond death, as really as before death.
LG1860	3237	Charity and personal force are the only investments worth anything.
LG1860	3238	No specification is necessary—all that a male or female does, that is vigorous, benevolent, clean, is so much profit to him or her, in the unshakable order of the universe, and through the whole scope of it forever.
LG1860	3239	Who has been wise, receives interest,
LG1860	3240	Savage, felon, President, judge, farmer, sailor, me-chanicmechanic, young, old, it is the same,
LG1860	3241	The interest will come round—all will come round.
LG1860	3242	Singly, wholly, to affect now, affected their time, will forever affect, all of the past, and all of the present, and all of the future,
LG1860	3243	All the brave actions of war and peace,
LG1860	3244	All help given to relatives, strangers, the poor, old, sorrowful, young children, widows, the sick, and to shunned persons,
LG1860	3245	All furtherance of fugitives, and of the escape of slaves,
LG1860	3246	All self-denial that stood steady and aloof on wrecks, and saw others fill the seats of the boats,
LG1860	3247	All offering of substance or life for the good old cause, or for a friend's sake, or opinion's sake,
LG1860	3248	All pains of enthusiasts, scoffed at by their neighbors,
LG1860	3249	All the limitless sweet love and precious suffering of mothers,
LG1860	3250	All honest men baffled in strifes recorded or unre-cordedunrecorded,
LG1860	3251	All the grandeur and good of ancient nations whose fragments we inherit,
LG1860	3252	All the good of the hundreds of ancient nations un-knownunknown to us by name, date, location,
LG1860	3253	All that was ever manfully begun, whether it suc-ceededsucceeded or no,
LG1860	3254	All suggestions of the divine mind of man, or the divinity of his mouth, or the shaping of his great hands;
LG1860	3255	All that is well thought or said this day on any part of the globe—or on any of the wandering stars, or on any of the fixed stars, by those there as we are here,
LG1860	3256	All that is henceforth to be thought or done by you, whoever you are, or by any one,
LG1860	3257	These inure, have inured, shall inure, to the identities from which they sprang, or shall spring.
LG1860	3258	Did you guess anything lived only its moment?
LG1860	3259	The world does not so exist—no parts palpable or impalpable so exist,
LG1860	3260	No consummation exists without being from some long previous consummation—and that from some other,
LG1860	3261	Without the farthest conceivable one coming a bit nearer the beginning than any.
LG1860	3262	Whatever satisfies Souls is true,
LG1860	3263	Prudence entirely satisfies the craving and glut of Souls,
LG1860	3264	Itself finally satisfies the Soul,
LG1860	3265	The Soul has that measureless pride which revolts from every lesson but its own.
LG1860	3266	Now I give you an inkling,
LG1860	3267	Now I breathe the word of the prudence that walks abreast with time, space, reality,
LG1860	3268	That answers the pride which refuses every lesson but its own.
LG1860	3269	What is prudence, is indivisible,
LG1860	3270	Declines to separate one part of life from every part,
LG1860	3271	Divides not the righteous from the unrighteous, or the living from the dead,
LG1860	3272	Matches every thought or act by its correlative,
LG1860	3273	Knows no possible forgiveness or deputed atonement,
LG1860	3274	Knows that the young man who composedly perilled his life and lost it, has done exceeding well for himself, without doubt,
LG1860	3275	That he who never perilled his life, but retains it to old age in riches and ease, has probably achieved nothing for himself worth mentioning;
LG1860	3276	Knows that only the person has really learned, who has learned to prefer results,
LG1860	3277	Who favors body and Soul the same,
LG1860	3278	Who perceives the indirect assuredly following the direct,
LG1860	3279	Who in his spirit in any emergency whatever neither hurries or avoids death.
LG1860	3280	PERFECT sanity shows the master among philosophs,
LG1860	3281	Time, always without flaw, indicates itself in parts,
LG1860	3282	What always indicates the poet, is the crowd of the pleasant company of singers, and their words,
LG1860	3283	The words of the singers are the hours or minutes of the light or dark—but the words of the maker of poems are the general light and dark,
LG1860	3284	The maker of poems settles justice, reality, immor-talityimmortality,
LG1860	3285	His insight and power encircle things and the human race,
LG1860	3286	He is the glory and extract, thus far, of things, and of the human race.
LG1860	3287	The singers do not beget—only THE POET begets,
LG1860	3288	The singers are welcomed, understood, appear often enough—but rare has the day been, likewise the spot, of the birth of the maker of poems,
LG1860	3289	Not every century, or every five centuries, has con-tainedcontained such a day, for all its names.
LG1860	3290	The singers of successive hours of centuries may have ostensible names, but the name of each of them is one of the singers,
LG1860	3291	The name of each is, a heart-singer, eye-singer, hymn- singer, law-singer, ear-singer, head-singer, sweet- singer, wise-singer, droll-singer, thrift-singer, sea- singer, wit-singer, echo-singer, parlor-singer, love- singer, passion-singer, mystic-singer, fable-singer, item-singer, weeping-singer, or something else.
LG1860	3292	All this time, and at all times, wait the words of poems;
LG1860	3293	The greatness of sons is the exuding of the greatness of mothers and fathers,
LG1860	3294	The words of poems are the tuft and final applause of science.
LG1860	3295	Divine instinct, breadth of vision, the law of reason, health, rudeness of body, withdrawnness, gayety, sun-tan, air-sweetness—such are some of the words of poems.
LG1860	3296	The sailor and traveller underlie the maker of poems,
LG1860	3297	The builder, geometer, mathematician, astronomer, melodist, chemist, anatomist, spiritualist, lan-guage-searcherlanguage-searcher, geologist, phrenologist, artist— all these underlie the maker of poems.
LG1860	3298	The words of poems give you more than poems,
LG1860	3299	They give you to form for yourself poems, religions, politics, war, peace, behavior, histories, essays, romances, and everything else,
LG1860	3300	They balance ranks, colors, races, creeds, and the sexes,
LG1860	3301	They do not seek beauty—they are sought,
LG1860	3302	Forever touching them, or close upon them, follows beauty, longing, fain, love-sick.
LG1860	3303	They prepare for death—yet are they not the finish, but rather the outset,
LG1860	3304	They bring none to his or her terminus, or to be con-tentcontent and full;
LG1860	3305	Whom they take, they take into space, to behold the birth of stars, to learn one of the meanings,
LG1860	3306	To launch off with absolute faith—to sweep through the ceaseless rings, and never be quiet again.
LG1860	3307	I NEED no assurances—I am a man who is pre-occupiedpreoccupied, of his own Soul;
LG1860	3308	I do not doubt that whatever I know at a given time,there waits for me more, which I do not know;
LG1860	3309	I do not doubt that from under the feet, and beside the hands and face I am cognizant of, are now looking faces I am not cognizant of—calm and actual faces;
LG1860	3310	I do not doubt but the majesty and beauty of the world are latent in any iota of the world;
LG1860	3311	I do not doubt there are realizations I have no idea of,waiting for me through time, and through the universes—also upon this earth;
LG1860	3312	I do not doubt I am limitless, and that the universes are limitless—in vain I try to think how limitless;
LG1860	3313	I do not doubt that the orbs, and the systems of orbs,play their swift sports through the air on purpose —and that I shall one day be eligible to do as much as they, and more than they;
LG1860	3314	I do not doubt there is far more in trivialities, insects,vulgar persons, slaves, dwarfs, weeds, rejected refuse, than I have supposed;
LG1860	3315	I do not doubt there is more in myself than I have supposed—and more in all men and women—and more in my poems than I have supposed;
LG1860	3316	I do not doubt that temporary affairs keep on and on,millions of years;
LG1860	3317	I do not doubt interiors have their interiors, and exteriors have their exteriors—and that the eye-sight has another eye-sight, and the hearing another hearing, and the voice another voice;
LG1860	3318	I do not doubt that the passionately-wept deaths of young men are provided for—and that the deaths of young women, and the deaths of little children, are provided for;
LG1860	3319	I do not doubt that wrecks at sea, no matter what the horrors of them—no matter whose wife, child,husband, father, lover, has gone down—are pro-videdprovided for, to the minutest point;
LG1860	3320	I do not doubt that shallowness, meanness, malig-nancemalignance, are provided for;
LG1860	3321	I do not doubt that cities, you, America, the re-mainderremainder of the earth, politics, freedom, degra-dationsdegradations, are carefully provided for;
LG1860	3322	I do not doubt that whatever can possibly happen,any where, at any time, is provided for, in the inherences of things.
LG1860	3323	WHAT shall I give? and which are my miracles?
LG1860	3324	Realism is mine—my miracles—Take freely,
LG1860	3325	Take without end—I offer them to you wherever your feet can carry you, or your eyes reach.
LG1860	3326	Why! who makes much of a miracle?
LG1860	3327	As to me, I know of nothing else but miracles,
LG1860	3328	Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,
LG1860	3329	Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,
LG1860	3330	Or wade with naked feet along the beach, just in the edge of the water,
LG1860	3331	Or stand under trees in the woods,
LG1860	3332	Or talk by day with any one I love—or sleep in the bed at night with any one I love,
LG1860	3333	Or sit at the table at dinner with my mother,
LG1860	3334	Or look at strangers opposite me riding in the car,
LG1860	3335	Or watch honey-bees busy around the hive, of a sum-mersummer forenoon,
LG1860	3336	Or animals feeding in the fields,
LG1860	3337	Or birds—or the wonderfulness of insects in the air,
LG1860	3338	Or the wonderfulness of the sun-down—or of stars shining so quiet and bright,
LG1860	3339	Or the exquisite, delicate, thin curve of the new-moon in spring;
LG1860	3340	Or whether I go among those I like best, and that like me best—mechanics, boatmen, farmers,
LG1860	3341	Or among the savans—or to the soiree—or to the opera,
LG1860	3342	Or stand a long while looking at the movements of machinery,
LG1860	3343	Or behold children at their sports,
LG1860	3344	Or the admirable sight of the perfect old man, or the perfect old woman,
LG1860	3345	Or the sick in hospitals, or the dead carried to burial,
LG1860	3346	Or my own eyes and figure in the glass,
LG1860	3347	These, with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles,
LG1860	3348	The whole referring—yet each distinct and in its place.
LG1860	3349	To me, every hour of the light and dark is miracle,
LG1860	3350	Every inch of space is a miracle,
LG1860	3351	Every square yard of the surface of the earth is spread with the same,
LG1860	3352	Every cubic foot of the interior swarms with the same;
LG1860	3353	Every spear of grass—the frames, limbs, organs, of men and women, and all that concerns them,
LG1860	3354	All these to me are unspeakably perfect miracles.
LG1860	3355	To me the sea is a continual miracle,
LG1860	3356	The fishes that swim—the rocks—the motion of the waves—the ships, with men in them,
LG1860	3357	What stranger miracles are there?
LG1860	3358	THERE was a child went forth every day,
LG1860	3359	And the first object he looked upon and received with wonder, pity, love, or dread, that object he became,
LG1860	3360	And that object became part of him for the day, or a certain part of the day, or for many years, or stretching cycles of years.
LG1860	3361	The early lilacs became part of this child,
LG1860	3362	And grass, and white and red morning-glories, and white and red clover, and the song of the phœbe- bird,
LG1860	3363	And the Third Month lambs, and the sow's pink-faint litter, and the mare's foal, and the cow's calf,
LG1860	3364	And the noisy brood of the barn-yard, or by the mire of the pond-side,
LG1860	3365	And the fish suspending themselves so curiously below there—and the beautiful curious liquid,
LG1860	3366	And the water-plants with their graceful flat heads— all became part of him.
LG1860	3367	The field-sprouts of Fourth Month and Fifth Month became part of him,
LG1860	3368	Winter-grain sprouts, and those of the light-yellow corn, and the esculent roots of the garden,
LG1860	3369	And the apple-trees covered with blossoms, and the fruit afterward, and wood-berries, and the com-monestcommonest weeds by the road;
LG1860	3370	And the old drunkard staggering home from the out-houseouthouse of the tavern, whence he had lately risen,
LG1860	3371	And the school-mistress that passed on her way to the school,
LG1860	3372	And the friendly boys that passed—and the quarrel-somequarrelsome boys,
LG1860	3373	And the tidy and fresh-cheeked girls—and the bare-footbarefoot negro boy and girl,
LG1860	3374	And all the changes of city and country, wherever he went.
LG1860	3375	His own parents,
LG1860	3376	He that had fathered him, and she that conceived him in her womb, and birthed him,
LG1860	3377	They gave this child more of themselves than that,
LG1860	3378	They gave him afterward every day—they and of them became part of him.
LG1860	3379	The mother at home, quietly placing the dishes on the supper-table,
LG1860	3380	The mother with mild words—clean her cap and gown, a wholesome odor falling off her person and clothes as she walks by;
LG1860	3381	The father, strong, self-sufficient, manly, mean, an-geredangered, unjust,
LG1860	3382	The blow, the quick loud word, the tight bargain, the crafty lure,
LG1860	3383	The family usages, the language, the company, the furniture—the yearning and swelling heart,
LG1860	3384	Affection that will not be gainsayed—the sense of what is real—the thought if, after all, it should prove unreal,
LG1860	3385	The doubts of day-time and the doubts of night-time— the curious whether and how,
LG1860	3386	Whether that which appears so is so, or is it all flashes and specks?
LG1860	3387	Men and women crowding fast in the streets—if they are not flashes and specks, what are they?
LG1860	3388	The streets themselves, and the façades of houses, and goods in the windows,
LG1860	3389	Vehicles, teams, the heavy-planked wharves—the huge crossing at the ferries,
LG1860	3390	The village on the highland, seen from afar at sunset— the river between,
LG1860	3391	Shadows, aureola and mist, light falling on roofs and gables of white or brown, three miles off,
LG1860	3392	The schooner near by, sleepily dropping down the tide—the little boat slack-towed astern,
LG1860	3393	The hurrying tumbling waves, quick-broken crests, slapping,
LG1860	3394	The strata of colored clouds, the long bar of maroon- tint, away solitary by itself—the spread of purity it lies motionless in,
LG1860	3395	The horizon's edge, the flying sea-crow, the fragrance of salt-marsh and shore-mud;
LG1860	3396	These became part of that child who went forth every day, and who now goes, and will always go forth every day,
LG1860	3397	And these become part of him or her that peruses them here.
LG1860	3398	IT is ended—I dally no more,
LG1860	3399	After to-day I inure myself to run, leap, swim, wrestle, fight,
LG1860	3400	To stand the cold or heat—to take good aim with a gun—to sail a boat—to manage horses—to beget superb children,
LG1860	3401	To speak readily and clearly—to feel at home among common people,
LG1860	3402	And to hold my own in terrible positions, on land and sea.
LG1860	3403	Not for an embroiderer,
LG1860	3404	(There will always be plenty of embroiderers—I welcome them also;)
LG1860	3405	But for the fibre of things, and for inherent men and women.
LG1860	3406	Not to chisel ornaments,
LG1860	3407	But to chisel with free stroke the heads and limbs of plenteous Supreme Gods, that The States may realize them, walking and talking.
LG1860	3408	Let me have my own way,
LG1860	3409	Let others promulge the laws—I will make no ac-countaccount of the laws,
LG1860	3410	Let others praise eminent men and hold up peace— I hold up agitation and conflict,
LG1860	3411	I praise no eminent man—I rebuke to his face the one that was thought most worthy.
LG1860	3412	(Who are you? you mean devil! And what are you secretly guilty of, all your life?
LG1860	3413	Will you turn aside all your life? Will you grub and chatter all your life?)
LG1860	3414	(And who are you—blabbing by rote, years, pages, languages, reminiscences,
LG1860	3415	Unwitting to-day that you do not know how to speak a single word?)
LG1860	3416	Let others finish specimens—I never finish specimens,
LG1860	3417	I shower them by exhaustless laws, as nature does, fresh and modern continually.
LG1860	3418	I give nothing as duties,
LG1860	3419	What others give as duties, I give as living impulses;
LG1860	3420	(Shall I give the heart's action as a duty?)
LG1860	3421	Let others dispose of questions—I dispose of noth-ingnothing—I arouse unanswerable questions;
LG1860	3422	Who are they I see and touch, and what about them?
LG1860	3423	What about these likes of myself, that draw me so close by tender directions and indirections?
LG1860	3424	Let others deny the evil their enemies charge against them—but how can I the like?
LG1860	3425	Nothing ever has been, or ever can be, charged against me, half as bad as the evil I really am;
LG1860	3426	I call to the world to distrust the accounts of my friends, but listen to my enemies—as I my-selfmyself do;
LG1860	3427	I charge you, too, forever, reject those who would expound me—for I cannot expound myself,
LG1860	3428	I charge that there be no theory or school founded out of me,
LG1860	3429	I charge you to leave all free, as I have left all free.
LG1860	3430	After me, vista!
LG1860	3431	O, I see life is not short, but immeasurably long,
LG1860	3432	I henceforth tread the world, chaste, temperate, an early riser, a gymnast, a steady grower,
LG1860	3433	Every hour the semen of centuries—and still of cen-turiescenturies.
LG1860	3434	I will follow up these continual lessons of the air, water, earth,
LG1860	3435	I perceive I have no time to lose.
LG1860	3436	WHO learns my lesson complete?
LG1860	3437	Boss, journeyman, apprentice—churchman and athe-istatheist,
LG1860	3438	The stupid and the wise thinker—parents and off-springoffspring—merchant, clerk, porter, and customer,
LG1860	3439	Editor, author, artist, and schoolboy—Draw nigh and commence;
LG1860	3440	It is no lesson — it lets down the bars to a good lesson,
LG1860	3441	And that to another, and every one to another still.
LG1860	3442	The great laws take and effuse without argument,
LG1860	3443	I am of the same style, for I am their friend,
LG1860	3444	I love them quits and quits—I do not halt and make salaams.
LG1860	3445	I lie abstracted, and hear beautiful tales of things, and the reasons of things,
LG1860	3446	They are so beautiful, I nudge myself to listen.
LG1860	3447	I cannot say to any person what I hear—I cannot say it to myself—it is very wonderful.
LG1860	3448	It is no small matter, this round and delicious globe, moving so exactly in its orbit forever and ever, without one jolt, or the untruth of a single second,
LG1860	3449	I do not think it was made in six days, nor in ten thousand years, nor ten billions of years,
LG1860	3450	Nor planned and built one thing after another, as an architect plans and builds a house.
LG1860	3451	I do not think seventy years is the time of a man or woman,
LG1860	3452	Nor that seventy millions of years is the time of a man or woman,
LG1860	3453	Nor that years will ever stop the existence of me, or any one else.
LG1860	3454	Is it wonderful that I should be immortal? as every one is immortal,
LG1860	3455	I know it is wonderful—but my eye-sight is equally wonderful, and how I was conceived in my moth-er'smother's womb is equally wonderful;
LG1860	3456	And how I was not palpable once, but am now—and was born on the last day of Fifth Month, in the Year 43 of America,
LG1860	3457	And passed from a babe, in the creeping trance of three summers and three winters, to articulate and walk—All this is equally wonderful.
LG1860	3458	And that I grew six feet high, and that I have become a man thirty-six years old in the Year 79 of America—and that I am here anyhow—are all equally wonderful.
LG1860	3459	And that my Soul embraces you this hour, and we af-fectaffect each other without ever seeing each other, and never perhaps to see each other, is every bit as wonderful.
LG1860	3460	And that I can think such thoughts as these, is just as wonderful,
LG1860	3461	And that I can remind you, and you think them and know them to be true, is just as wonderful.
LG1860	3462	And that the moon spins round the earth, and on with the earth, is equally wonderful,
LG1860	3463	And that they balance themselves with the sun and stars, is equally wonderful.
LG1860	3464	Come! I should like to hear you tell me what there is in yourself that is not just as wonderful,
LG1860	3465	And I should like to hear the name of anything be-tweenbetween First Day morning and Seventh Day night that is not just as wonderful.
LG1860	3466	THIS night I am happy;
LG1860	3467	As I walk the beach where the old mother sways to and fro, singing her savage and husky song,
LG1860	3468	As I watch the stars shining—I think a thought of the clef of the universes, and of the future.
LG1860	3469	What can the future bring me more than I have?
LG1860	3470	Do you suppose I wish to enjoy life in other spheres?
LG1860	3471	I say distinctly I comprehend no better sphere than this earth,
LG1860	3472	I comprehend no better life than the life of my body.
LG1860	3473	I do not know what follows the death of my body,
LG1860	3474	But I know well that whatever it is, it is best for me,
LG1860	3475	And I know well that whatever is really Me shall live just as much as before.
LG1860	3476	I am not uneasy but I shall have good housing to myself,
LG1860	3477	But this is my first—how can I like the rest any better?
LG1860	3478	Here I grew up—the studs and rafters are grown parts of me.
LG1860	3479	I am not uneasy but I am to be beloved by young and old men, and to love them the same,
LG1860	3480	I suppose the pink nipples of the breasts of women with whom I shall sleep will touch the side of my face the same,
LG1860	3481	But this is the nipple of a breast of my mother, always near and always divine to me, her true child and son, whatever comes.
LG1860	3482	I suppose I am to be eligible to visit the stars, in my time,
LG1860	3483	I suppose I shall have myriads of new experiences— and that the experience of this earth will prove only one out of myriads;
LG1860	3484	But I believe my body and my Soul already indicate those experiences,
LG1860	3485	And I believe I shall find nothing in the stars more majestic and beautiful than I have already found on the earth,
LG1860	3486	And I believe I have this night a clew through the universes,
LG1860	3487	And I believe I have this night thought a thought of the clef of eternity.
LG1860	3488	A VAST SIMILITUDE interlocks all,
LG1860	3489	All spheres, grown, ungrown, small, large, suns, moons, planets, comets, asteroids,
LG1860	3490	All the substances of the same, and all that is spiritual, upon the same,
LG1860	3491	All distances of place, however wide,
LG1860	3492	All distances of time—all inanimate forms,
LG1860	3493	All Souls—all living bodies, though they be ever so different, or in different worlds,
LG1860	3494	All gaseous, watery, vegetable, mineral processes— the fishes, the brutes,
LG1860	3495	All men and women—me also,
LG1860	3496	All nations, colors, barbarisms, civilizations, languages,
LG1860	3497	All identities that have existed, or may exist, on this globe or any globe,
LG1860	3498	All lives and deaths—all of past, present, future,
LG1860	3499	This vast similitude spans them, and always has spanned, and shall forever span them, and compactly hold them.
LG1860	3500	O BITTER sprig! Confession sprig!
LG1860	3501	In the bouquet I give you place also—I bind you in,
LG1860	3502	Proceeding no further till, humbled publicly,
LG1860	3503	I give fair warning, once for all.
LG1860	3504	I own that I have been sly, thievish, mean, a prevari-catorprevaricator, greedy, derelict,
LG1860	3505	And I own that I remain so yet.
LG1860	3506	What foul thought but I think it—or have in me the stuff out of which it is thought?
LG1860	3507	What in darkness in bed at night, alone or with a companion?
LG1860	3508	You felons on trials in courts,
LG1860	3509	You convicts in prison cells—you sentenced assas-sinsassassins, chained and handcuffed with iron,
LG1860	3510	Who am I, that I am not on trial, or in prison?
LG1860	3511	Me, ruthless and devilish as any, that my wrists are not chained with iron, or my ankles with iron?
LG1860	3512	You prostitutes flaunting over the trottoirs, or obscene in your rooms,
LG1860	3513	Who am I, that I should call you more obscene than myself?
LG1860	3514	O culpable! O traitor!
LG1860	3515	O I acknowledge—I exposé!
LG1860	3516	(O admirers! praise not me! compliment not me! you make me wince,
LG1860	3517	I see what you do not—I know what you do not;)
LG1860	3518	Inside these breast-bones I lie smutch'd and choked,
LG1860	3519	Beneath this face that appears so impassive, hell's tides continually run,
LG1860	3520	Lusts and wickedness are acceptable to me,
LG1860	3521	I walk with delinquents with passionate love,
LG1860	3522	I feel I am of them—I belong to those convicts and prostitutes myself,
LG1860	3523	And henceforth I will not deny them—for how can I deny myself?
LG1860	3524	UNFOLDED out of the folds of the woman, man comes unfolded, as is always to come unfolded,
LG1860	3525	Unfolded only out of the superbest woman of the earth, is to come the superbest man of the earth,
LG1860	3526	Unfolded out of the friendliest woman, is to come the friendliest man,
LG1860	3527	Unfolded only out of the perfect body of a woman,can a man be formed of perfect body,
LG1860	3528	Unfolded only out of the inimitable poem of the woman, can come the poems of man—only thence have my poems come,
LG1860	3529	Unfolded out of the strong and arrogant woman I love, only thence can appear the strong and arrogant man I love,
LG1860	3530	Unfolded by brawny embraces from the well-muscled woman I love, only thence come the brawny embraces of the man,
LG1860	3531	Unfolded out of the folds of the woman's brain, come all the folds of the man's brain, duly obedient,
LG1860	3532	Unfolded out of the justice of the woman, all justice is unfolded,
LG1860	3533	Unfolded out of the sympathy of the woman is all sympathy;
LG1860	3534	A man is a great thing upon the earth, and through eternity—but every jot of the greatness of man is unfolded out of woman,
LG1860	3535	First the man is shaped in the woman, he can then be shaped in himself.
LG1860	3536	NIGHT on the Prairies;
LG1860	3537	I walk by myself—I stand and look at the stars, which I think now I never realized before.
LG1860	3538	Now I absorb immortality and peace,
LG1860	3539	I admire death and test propositions.
LG1860	3540	How plenteous! How spiritual! How resumé!
LG1860	3541	The same Old Man and Soul—the same old aspi-rationsaspirations, and the same content.
LG1860	3542	I was thinking the day most splendid, till I saw what the not-day exhibited,
LG1860	3543	I was thinking this globe enough, till there tumbled upon me myriads of other globes.
LG1860	3544	Now while the great thoughts of space and eternity fill me, I will measure myself by them,
LG1860	3545	And now, touched with the lives of other globes, arrived as far along as those of the earth,
LG1860	3546	Or waiting to arrive, or passed on farther than those of the earth,
LG1860	3547	I henceforth no more ignore them than I ignore my own life,
LG1860	3548	Or the lives on the earth arrived as far as mine, or waiting to arrive.
LG1860	3549	O how plainly I see now that life cannot exhibit all to me—as the day cannot,
LG1860	3550	O I see that I am to wait for what will be exhibited by death.
LG1860	3551	SEA-WATER, and all living below it,
LG1860	3552	Forests at the bottom of the sea—the branches and leaves,
LG1860	3553	Sea-lettuce, vast lichens, strange flowers and seeds—the thick tangle, the openings, and the pink turf,
LG1860	3554	Different colors, pale gray and green, purple, white,and gold—the play of light through the water,
LG1860	3555	Dumb swimmers there among the rocks—coral,gluten, grass, rushes—and the aliment of the swimmers,
LG1860	3556	Sluggish existences grazing there, suspended, or slowly crawling close to the bottom,
LG1860	3557	The sperm-whale at the surface, blowing air and spray, or disporting with his flukes,
LG1860	3558	The leaden-eyed shark, the walrus, the turtle, the hairy sea-leopard, and the sting-ray;
LG1860	3559	Passions there—wars, pursuits, tribes—sight in those ocean-depths—breathing that thick-breath-ingthick-breathing air, as so many do,
LG1860	3560	The change thence to the sight here, and to the subtle air breathed by beings like us, who walk this sphere;
LG1860	3561	The change onward from ours to that of beings who walk other spheres.
LG1860	3562	I SIT and look out upon all the sorrows of the world,and upon all oppression and shame,
LG1860	3563	I hear secret convulsive sobs from young men, at anguish with themselves, remorseful after deeds done;
LG1860	3564	I see, in low life, the mother misused by her children,dying, neglected, gaunt, desperate,
LG1860	3565	I see the wife misused by her husband—I see the treacherous seducer of the young woman,
LG1860	3566	I mark the ranklings of jealousy and unrequited love,attempted to be hid—I see these sights on the earth,
LG1860	3567	I see the workings of battle, pestilence, tyranny—I see martyrs and prisoners,
LG1860	3568	I observe a famine at sea—I observe the sailors casting lots who shall be killed, to preserve the lives of the rest,
LG1860	3569	I observe the slights and degradations cast by arro-gantarrogant persons upon laborers, the poor, and upon negroes, and the like;
LG1860	3570	All these—All the meanness and agony without end,I sitting, look out upon,
LG1860	3571	See, hear, and am silent.
LG1860	3572	O ME, man of slack faith so long!
LG1860	3573	Standing aloof—denying portions so long;
LG1860	3574	Me with mole's eyes, unrisen to buoyancy and vision —unfree,
LG1860	3575	Only aware to-day of compact, all-diffused truth,
LG1860	3576	Discovering to-day there is no lie, or form of lie, and can be none, but grows just as inevitably upon itself as the truth does upon itself,
LG1860	3577	Or as any law of the earth, or any natural production of the earth does.
LG1860	3578	(This is curious, and may not be realized immedi-atelyimmediately—But it must be realized;
LG1860	3579	I feel in myself that I represent falsehoods equally with the rest,
LG1860	3580	And that the universe does.)
LG1860	3581	Where has failed a perfect return, indifferent of lies or the truth?
LG1860	3582	Is it upon the ground, or in water or fire? or in the spirit of man? or in the meat and blood?
LG1860	3583	Meditating among liars, and retreating sternly into myself, I see that there are really no liars or lies after all,
LG1860	3584	And that nothing fails its perfect return—And that what are called lies are perfect returns,
LG1860	3585	And that each thing exactly represents itself, and what has preceded it,
LG1860	3586	And that the truth includes all, and is compact, just as much as space is compact,
LG1860	3587	And that there is no flaw or vacuum in the amount of the truth—but that all is truth without ex-ceptionexception,
LG1860	3588	And henceforth I will go celebrate anything I see or am,
LG1860	3589	And sing and laugh, and deny nothing.
LG1860	3590	FORMS, qualities, lives, humanity, language, thoughts,
LG1860	3591	The ones known, and the ones unknown—the ones on the stars,
LG1860	3592	The stars themselves, some shaped, others unshaped,
LG1860	3593	Wonders as of those countries—the soil, trees, cities,inhabitants, whatever they may be,
LG1860	3594	Splendid suns, the moons and rings, the countless combinations and effects,
LG1860	3595	Such-like, and as good as such-like, visible here or anywhere, stand provided for in a handful of space, which I extend my arm and half enclose with my hand,
LG1860	3596	That contains the start of each and all—the virtue,the germs of all;
LG1860	3597	That is the theory as of origins.
LG1860	3598	SO far, and so far, and on toward the end,
LG1860	3599	Singing what is sung in this book, from the irresisti-bleirresistible impulses of me;
LG1860	3600	But whether I continue beyond this book, to ma-turitymaturity,
LG1860	3601	Whether I shall dart forth the true rays, the ones that wait unfired,
LG1860	3602	(Did you think the sun was shining its brightest?
LG1860	3603	No—it has not yet fully risen ;)
LG1860	3604	Whether I shall complete what is here started,
LG1860	3605	Whether I shall attain my own height, to justify these,yet unfinished,
LG1860	3606	Whether I shall make THE POEM OF THE NEW WORLD,transcending all others—depends, rich persons,upon you,
LG1860	3607	Depends, whoever you are now filling the current
LG1860	3608	Presidentiad, upon you,
LG1860	3609	Upon you, Governor, Mayor, Congressman,
LG1860	3610	And you, contemporary America.
LG1860	3611	NOW I make a leaf of Voices—for I have found noth-ingnothing mightier than they are,
LG1860	3612	And I have found that no word spoken, but is beau-tifulbeautiful, in its place.
LG1860	3613	O what is it in me that makes me tremble so at voices?
LG1860	3614	Surely, whoever speaks to me in the right voice, him or her I shall follow, as the waters follow the moon, silently, with fluid steps, any where around the globe.
LG1860	3615	Now I believe that all waits for the right voices;
LG1860	3616	Where is the practised and perfect organ? Where is the developed Soul?
LG1860	3617	For I see every word uttered thence has deeper, sweeter, new sounds, impossible on less terms.
LG1860	3618	I see brains and lips closed—I see tympans and tem-plestemples unstruck,
LG1860	3619	Until that comes which has the quality to strike and to unclose,
LG1860	3620	Until that comes which has the quality to bring forth what lies slumbering, forever ready, in all words.
LG1860	3621	WHAT am I, after all, but a child, pleased with the sound of my own name? repeating it over and over,
LG1860	3622	I cannot tell why it affects me so much, when I hear it from women's voices, and from men's voices, or from my own voice,
LG1860	3623	I stand apart to hear—it never tires me.
LG1860	3624	To you, your name also,
LG1860	3625	Did you think there was nothing but two or three pronunciations in the sound of your name?
LG1860	3626	LOCATIONS and times—what is it in me that meets them all, whenever and wherever, and makes me at home?
LG1860	3627	Forms, colors, densities, odors—what is it in me that corresponds with them?
LG1860	3628	What is the relation between me and them?
LG1860	3629	LIFT me close to your face till I whisper,
LG1860	3630	What you are holding is in reality no book, nor part of a book,
LG1860	3631	It is a man, flushed and full-blooded—it is I—So long!
LG1860	3632	We must separate—Here! take from my lips this kiss,
LG1860	3633	Whoever you are, I give it especially to you;
LG1860	3634	So long—and I hope we shall meet again.
LG1860	3635	O TAKE my hand, Walt Whitman!
LG1860	3636	Such gliding wonders! Such sights and sounds!
LG1860	3637	Such joined unended links, each hooked to the next!
LG1860	3638	Each answering all—each sharing the earth with all.
LG1860	3639	What widens within you, Walt Whitman?
LG1860	3640	What waves and soils exuding?
LG1860	3641	What climes? What persons and lands are here?
LG1860	3642	Who are the infants? Some playing, some slum-beringslumbering?
LG1860	3643	Who are the girls? Who are the married women?
LG1860	3644	Who are the three old men going slowly with their arms about each others' necks?
LG1860	3645	What rivers are these? What forests and fruits are these?
LG1860	3646	What are the mountains called that rise so high in the mists?
LG1860	3647	What myriads of dwellings are they, filled with dwellers?
LG1860	3648	Within me latitude widens, longitude lengthens,
LG1860	3649	Asia, Africa, Europe, are to the east—America is provided for in the west,
LG1860	3650	Banding the bulge of the earth winds the hot equator,
LG1860	3651	Curiously north and south turn the axis-ends;
LG1860	3652	Within me is the longest day—the sun wheels in slanting rings—it does not set for months,
LG1860	3653	Stretched in due time within me the midnight sun just rises above the horizon, and sinks again,
LG1860	3654	Within me zones, seas, cataracts, plains, volcanoes,groups,
LG1860	3655	Oceanica, Australasia, Polynesia, and the great West Indian islands.
LG1860	3656	What do you hear, Walt Whitman?
LG1860	3657	I hear the workman singing, and the farmer's wife singing,
LG1860	3658	I hear in the distance the sounds of children, and of animals early in the day,
LG1860	3659	I hear quick rifle-cracks from the riflemen of East Tennessee and Kentucky, hunting on hills,
LG1860	3660	I hear emulous shouts of Australians, pursuing the wild horse,
LG1860	3661	I hear the Spanish dance, with castanets, in the chest-nutchestnut shade, to the rebeck and guitar,
LG1860	3662	I hear continual echoes from the Thames,
LG1860	3663	I hear fierce French liberty songs,
LG1860	3664	I hear of the Italian boat-sculler the musical recitative of old poems,
LG1860	3665	I hear the Virginia plantation chorus of negroes, of a harvest night, in the glare of pine knots,
LG1860	3666	I hear the strong baritone of the 'long-shore-men of Manhatta,
LG1860	3667	I hear the stevedores unlading the cargoes, and singing,
LG1860	3668	I hear the screams of the water-fowl of solitary north-west lakes,
LG1860	3669	I hear the rustling pattering of locusts, as they strike the grain and grass with the showers of their terrible clouds,
LG1860	3670	I hear the Coptic refrain, toward sundown, pensively falling on the breast of the black venerable vast mother, the Nile,
LG1860	3671	I hear the bugles of raft-tenders on the streams of Kanada,
LG1860	3672	I hear the chirp of the Mexican muleteer, and the bells of the mule,
LG1860	3673	I hear the Arab muezzin, calling from the top of the mosque,
LG1860	3674	I hear Christian priests at the altars of their churches —I hear the responsive base and soprano,
LG1860	3675	I hear the wail of utter despair of the white-haired Irish grand-parents, when they learn the death of their grand-son,
LG1860	3676	I hear the cry of the Cossack, and the sailor's voice,putting to sea at Okotsk,
LG1860	3677	I hear the wheeze of the slave-coffle, as the slaves march on—as the husky gangs pass on by twos and threes, fastened together with wrist-chains and ankle-chains,
LG1860	3678	I hear the entreaties of women tied up for punishment —I hear the sibilant whisk of thongs through the air;
LG1860	3679	I hear the Hebrew reading his records and psalms,
LG1860	3680	I hear the rhythmic myths of the Greeks, and the strong legends of the Romans,
LG1860	3681	I hear the tale of the divine life and bloody death of the beautiful God, the Christ,
LG1860	3682	I hear the Hindoo teaching his favorite pupil the loves, wars, adages, transmitted safely to this day from poets who wrote three thousand years ago.
LG1860	3683	What do you see, Walt Whitman?
LG1860	3684	Who are they who salute, and that one after another salute you?
LG1860	3685	I see a great round wonder rolling through the air,
LG1860	3686	I see diminute farms, hamlets, ruins, grave-yards, jails,factories, palaces, hovels, huts of barbarians, tents of nomads, upon the surface,
LG1860	3687	I see the shaded part on one side, where the sleepers are sleeping—and the sun-lit part on the other side,
LG1860	3688	I see the curious silent change of the light and shade,
LG1860	3689	I see distant lands, as real and near to the inhabitants of them, as my land is to me.
LG1860	3690	I see plenteous waters,
LG1860	3691	I see mountain peaks—I see the sierras of Andes and Alleghanies, where they range,
LG1860	3692	I see plainly the Himmalehs, Chian Shahs, Altays,Gauts,
LG1860	3693	I see the Rocky Mountains, and the Peak of Winds,
LG1860	3694	I see the Styrian Alps, and the Karnac Alps,
LG1860	3695	I see the Pyrenees, Balks, Carpathians—and to the north the Dofrafields, and off at sea Mount Hecla,
LG1860	3696	I see Vesuvius and Etna—I see the Anahuacs,
LG1860	3697	I see the Mountains of the Moon, and the Snow Moun-tainsMountains, and the Red Mountains of Madagascar,
LG1860	3698	I see the Vermont hills, and the long string of Cor-dillerasCordilleras;
LG1860	3699	I see the vast deserts of Western America,
LG1860	3700	I see the Libyan, Arabian, and Asiatic deserts;
LG1860	3701	I see huge dreadful Arctic and Antarctic icebergs,
LG1860	3702	I see the superior oceans and the inferior ones—the Atlantic and Pacific, the sea of Mexico, the Bra-zilianBrazilian sea, and the sea of Peru,
LG1860	3703	The Japan waters, those of Hindostan, the China Sea,and the Gulf of Guinea,
LG1860	3704	The spread of the Baltic, Caspian, Bothnia, the British shores, and the Bay of Biscay,
LG1860	3705	The clear-sunned Mediterranean, and from one to an-otheranother of its islands,
LG1860	3706	The inland fresh-tasted seas of North America,
LG1860	3707	The White Sea, and the sea around Greenland.
LG1860	3708	I behold the mariners of the world,
LG1860	3709	Some are in storms—some in the night, with the watch on the look-out,
LG1860	3710	Some drifting helplessly—some with contagious dis-eases.
LG1860	3711	I behold the steam-ships of the world,
LG1860	3712	Some double the Cape of Storms—some Cape Verde —others Cape Guardafui, Bon, or Bajadore,
LG1860	3713	Others Dondra Head—others pass the Straits of Sun-daSunda—others Cape Lopatka—others Behring's Straits,
LG1860	3714	Others Cape Horn—others the Gulf of Mexico, or along Cuba or Hayti—others Hudson's Bay or Baffin's Bay,
LG1860	3715	Others pass the Straits of Dover—others enter the Wash—others the Firth of Solway—others round Cape Clear—others the Land's End,
LG1860	3716	Others traverse the Zuyder Zee, or the Scheld,
LG1860	3717	Others add to the exits and entrances at Sandy Hook,
LG1860	3718	Others to the comers and goers at Gibraltar, or the Dardanelles,
LG1860	3719	Others sternly push their way through the northern winter-packs,
LG1860	3720	Others descend or ascend the Obi or the Lena,
LG1860	3721	Others the Niger or the Congo—others the Indus,the Burampooter and Cambodia,
LG1860	3722	Others wait at the wharves of Manahatta, steamed up,ready to start,
LG1860	3723	Wait, swift and swarthy, in the ports of Australia,
LG1860	3724	Wait at Liverpool, Glasgow, Dublin, Marseilles, Lis-bonLisbon, Naples, Hamburg, Bremen, Bourdeaux, the Hague, Copenhagen,
LG1860	3725	Wait at Valparaiso, Rio Janeiro, Panama,
LG1860	3726	Wait at their moorings at Boston, Philadelphia, Balti-moreBaltimore, Charleston, New Orleans, Galveston, San Francisco.
LG1860	3727	I see the tracks of the rail-roads of the earth,
LG1860	3728	I see them welding State to State, city to city, through North America;
LG1860	3729	I see them in Great Britain, I see them in Europe,
LG1860	3730	I see them in Asia and in Africa.
LG1860	3731	I see the electric telegraphs of the earth,
LG1860	3732	I see the filaments of the news of the wars, deaths,losses, gains, passions, of my race.
LG1860	3733	I see the long river-stripes of the earth,
LG1860	3734	I see where the Mississippi flows—I see where the.Columbia flows,
LG1860	3735	I see the Great River, and the Falls of Niagara,
LG1860	3736	I see the Amazon and the Paraguay,
LG1860	3737	I see the four great rivers of China, the Amour, the Yellow River, the Yiang-tse, and the Pearl;
LG1860	3738	I see where the Seine flows, and where the Loire, the Rhone, and the Guadalquiver flow,
LG1860	3739	I see the windings of the Volga, the Dnieper, the Oder,
LG1860	3740	I see the Tuscan going down the Arno, and the Vene-tianVenetian along the Po,
LG1860	3741	I see the Greek seaman sailing out of Egina bay.
LG1860	3742	I see the site of the old empire of Assyria, and that of Persia, and that of India,
LG1860	3743	I see the falling of the Ganges over the high rim of Saukara.
LG1860	3744	I see the place of the idea of the Deity incarnated by avatars in human forms,
LG1860	3745	I see the spots of the successions of priests on the earth —oracles, sacrificers, brahmins, sabians, lamas,monks, muftis, exhorters;
LG1860	3746	I see where druids walked the groves of Mona—I see the mistletoe and vervain,
LG1860	3747	I see the temples of the deaths of the bodies of Gods—I see the old signifiers.
LG1860	3748	I see Christ once more eating the bread of his last sup-persupper, in the midst of youths and old persons,
LG1860	3749	I see where the strong divine young man, the Hercules,toiled faithfully and long, and then died,
LG1860	3750	I see the place of the innocent rich life and hapless fate of the beautiful nocturnal son, the full-limbed Bacchus,
LG1860	3751	I see Kneph, blooming, dressed in blue, with the crown of feathers on his head,
LG1860	3752	I see Hermes, unsuspected, dying, well-beloved, saying to the people, Do not weep for me,
LG1860	3753	This is not my true country, I have lived banished from my true country—I now go back there,
LG1860	3754	I return to the celestial sphere, where every one goes in his turn.
LG1860	3755	I see the battle-fields of the earth—grass grows upon them, and blossoms and corn,
LG1860	3756	I see the tracks of ancient and modern expeditions.
LG1860	3757	I see the nameless masonries, venerable messages of the unknown events, heroes, records of the earth.
LG1860	3758	I see the places of the sagas,
LG1860	3759	I see pine-trees and fir-trees torn by northern blasts,
LG1860	3760	I see granite boulders and cliffs—I see green meadows and lakes,
LG1860	3761	I see the burial-cairns of Scandinavian warriors,
LG1860	3762	I see them raised high with stones, by the marge of restless oceans, that the dead men's spirits, when they wearied of their quiet graves, might rise up through the mounds, and gaze on the tossing billows, and be refreshed by storms, immensity,liberty, action.
LG1860	3763	I see the steppes of Asia,
LG1860	3764	I see the tumuli of Mongolia—I see the tents of Kal-mucksKalmucks and Baskirs,
LG1860	3765	I see the nomadic tribes, with herds of oxen and cows,
LG1860	3766	I see the table-lands notched with ravines—I see the jungles and deserts,
LG1860	3767	I see the camel, the wild steed, the bustard, the fat-tailed sheep, the antelope, and the burrowing wolf.
LG1860	3768	I see the high-lands of Abyssinia,
LG1860	3769	I see flocks of goats feeding, and see the fig-tree,tamarind, date,
LG1860	3770	And see fields of teff-wheat, and see the places of verdure and gold.
LG1860	3771	I see the Brazilian vaquero,
LG1860	3772	I see the Bolivian ascending Mount Sorata,
LG1860	3773	I see the Wacho crossing the plains—I see the incomparable rider of horses with his lasso on his arm,
LG1860	3774	I see over the pampas the pursuit of wild cattle for their hides.
LG1860	3775	I see little and large sea-dots, some inhabited, some uninhabited;
LG1860	3776	I see two boats with nets, lying off the shore of Pau-manokPaumanok, quite still,
LG1860	3777	I see ten fishermen waiting—they discover now a thick school of mossbonkers—they drop the joined seine-ends in the water,
LG1860	3778	The boats separate—they diverge and row off, each on its rounding course to the beach, enclosing the mossbonkers,
LG1860	3779	The net is drawn in by a windlass by those who stop ashore,
LG1860	3780	Some of the fishermen lounge in the boats—others stand negligently ankle-deep in the water, poised on strong legs,
LG1860	3781	The boats are partly drawn up—the water slaps against them,
LG1860	3782	On the sand, in heaps and winrows, well out from the water, lie the green-backed spotted mossbonkers.
LG1860	3783	I see the despondent red man in the west, lingering about the banks of Moingo, and about Lake Pepin,
LG1860	3784	He has heard the quail and beheld the honey-bee, and sadly prepared to depart.
LG1860	3785	I see the regions of snow and ice,
LG1860	3786	I see the sharp-eyed Samoiede and the Finn,
LG1860	3787	I see the seal-seeker in his boat, poising his lance,
LG1860	3788	I see the Siberian on his slight-built sledge, drawn by dogs,
LG1860	3789	I see the porpoise-hunters—I see the whale-crews of the South Pacific and the North Atlantic,
LG1860	3790	I see the cliffs, glaciers, torrents, valleys, of Switzer-landSwitzerland—I mark the long winters, and the isolation.
LG1860	3791	I see the cities of the earth, and make myself at ran-domrandom a part of them,
LG1860	3792	I am a real Parisian,
LG1860	3793	I am a habitan of Vienna, St. Petersburg, Berlin,Constantinople,
LG1860	3794	I am of Adelaide, Sidney, Melbourne,
LG1860	3795	I am of London, Manchester, Bristol, Edinburgh,Limerick,
LG1860	3796	I am of Madrid, Cadiz, Barcelona, Oporto, Lyons,Brussels, Berne, Frankfort, Stuttgart, Turin,Florence,
LG1860	3797	I belong in Moscow, Cracow, Warsaw—or northward in Christiania or Stockholm—or in Siberian Irkutsk—or in some street in Iceland;
LG1860	3798	I descend upon all those cities, and rise from them again.
LG1860	3799	I see vapors exhaling from unexplored countries,
LG1860	3800	I see the savage types, the bow and arrow, the poisoned splint, the fetish, and the obi.
LG1860	3801	I see African and Asiatic towns,
LG1860	3802	I see Algiers, Tripoli, Derne, Mogadore, Timbuctoo,Monrovia,
LG1860	3803	I see the swarms of Pekin, Canton, Benares, Delhi,Calcutta, Yedo,
LG1860	3804	I see the Kruman in his hut, and the Dahoman and Ashantee-man in their huts,
LG1860	3805	I see the Turk smoking opium in Aleppo,
LG1860	3806	I see the picturesque crowds at the fairs of Khiva, and those of Herat,
LG1860	3807	I see Teheran—I see Muscat and Medina, and the intervening sands—I see the caravans toiling onward;
LG1860	3808	I see Egypt and the Egyptians—I see the pyramids and obelisks,
LG1860	3809	I look on chiselled histories, songs, philosophies, cut in slabs of sand-stone, or on granite blocks,
LG1860	3810	I see at Memphis mummy-pits, containing mummies,embalmed, swathed in linen cloth, lying there many centuries,
LG1860	3811	I look on the fall'n Theban, the large-ball'd eyes, the side-drooping neck, the hands folded across the breast.
LG1860	3812	I see the menials of the earth, laboring,
LG1860	3813	I see the prisoners in the prisons,
LG1860	3814	I see the defective human bodies of the earth,
LG1860	3815	I see the blind, the deaf and dumb, idiots, hunch-backshunchbacks, lunatics,
LG1860	3816	I see the pirates, thieves, betrayers, murderers, slave-makers of the earth,
LG1860	3817	I see the helpless infants, and the helpless old men and women.
LG1860	3818	I see male and female everywhere,
LG1860	3819	I see the serene brotherhood of philosophs,
LG1860	3820	I see the constructiveness of my race,
LG1860	3821	I see the results of the perseverance and industry of my race,
LG1860	3822	I see ranks, colors, barbarisms, civilizations—I go among them—I mix indiscriminately,
LG1860	3823	And I salute all the inhabitants of the earth.
LG1860	3824	You, where you are!
LG1860	3825	You daughter or son of England!
LG1860	3826	You of the mighty Slavic tribes and empires! you Russ in Russia!
LG1860	3827	You dim-descended, black, divine-souled African,large, fine-headed, nobly-formed, superbly des-tineddestined, on equal terms with me!
LG1860	3828	You Norwegian! Swede! Dane! Icelander! you Prussian!
LG1860	3829	You Spaniard of Spain! you Portuguese!
LG1860	3830	You Frenchwoman and Frenchman of France!
LG1860	3831	You Belge! you liberty-lover of the Netherlands!
LG1860	3832	You sturdy Austrian! you Lombard! Hun! Bohe-mianBohemian! farmer of Styria!
LG1860	3833	You neighbor of the Danube!
LG1860	3834	You working-man of the Rhine, the Elbe, or the Weser! you working-woman too!
LG1860	3835	You Sardinian! you Bavarian! you Swabian! Saxon!Wallachian! Bulgarian!
LG1860	3836	You citizen of Prague! you Roman! Neapolitan!Greek!
LG1860	3837	You lithe matador in the arena at Seville!
LG1860	3838	You mountaineer living lawlessly on the Taurus or Caucasus!
LG1860	3839	You Bokh horse-herd, watching your mares and stal-lionsstallions feeding!
LG1860	3840	You beautiful-bodied Persian, at full speed in the saddle, shooting arrows to the mark!
LG1860	3841	You Chinaman and Chinawoman of China! you Tar-tarTartar of Tartary!
LG1860	3842	You women of the earth subordinated at your tasks!
LG1860	3843	You Jew journeying in your old age through every risk, to stand once on Syrian ground!
LG1860	3844	You other Jews waiting in all lands for your Messiah!
LG1860	3845	You thoughtful Armenian, pondering by some stream of the Euphrates! you peering amid the ruins of Nineveh! you ascending Mount Ararat!
LG1860	3846	You foot-worn pilgrim welcoming the far-away sparkle of the minarets of Mecca!
LG1860	3847	You sheiks along the stretch from Suez to Babel-mandel, ruling your families and tribes!
LG1860	3848	You olive-grower tending your fruit on fields of Naz-arethNazareth, Damascus, or Lake Tiberias!
LG1860	3849	You Thibet trader on the wide inland, or bargaining in the shops of Lassa!
LG1860	3850	You Japanese man or woman! you liver in Madagas-carMadagascar, Ceylon, Sumatra, Borneo!
LG1860	3851	All you continentals of Asia, Africa, Europe, Aus-traliaAustralia, indifferent of place!
LG1860	3852	All you on the numberless islands of the archipelagoes of the sea!
LG1860	3853	And you of centuries hence, when you listen to me!
LG1860	3854	And you, each and everywhere, whom I specify not,but include just the same!
LG1860	3855	Health to you! Good will to you all—from me and America sent,
LG1860	3856	For we acknowledge you all and each.
LG1860	3857	Each of us inevitable,
LG1860	3858	Each of us limitless—each of us with his or her right upon the earth,
LG1860	3859	Each of us allowed the eternal purport of the earth,
LG1860	3860	Each of us here as divinely as any is here.
LG1860	3861	You Hottentot with clicking palate!
LG1860	3862	You woolly-haired hordes! you white or black owners of slaves!
LG1860	3863	You owned persons, dropping sweat-drops or blood-drops!
LG1860	3864	You human forms with the fathomless ever-impressive countenances of brutes!
LG1860	3865	You poor koboo whom the meanest of the rest look down upon, for all your glimmering language and spirituality!
LG1860	3866	You low expiring aborigines of the hills of Utah,Oregon, California!
LG1860	3867	You dwarfed Kamtschatkan, Greenlander, Lapp!
LG1860	3868	You Austral negro, naked, red, sooty, with protrusive lip, grovelling, seeking your food!
LG1860	3869	You Caffre, Berber, Soudanese!
LG1860	3870	You haggard, uncouth, untutored Bedowee!
LG1860	3871	You plague-swarms in Madras, Nankin, Kaubul,Cairo!
LG1860	3872	You bather bathing in the Ganges!
LG1860	3873	You benighted roamer of Amazonia! you Patagonian!you Fegee-man!
LG1860	3874	You peon of Mexico! you Russian serf! you slave of Carolina, Texas, Tennessee!
LG1860	3875	I do not prefer others so very much before you either,
LG1860	3876	I do not say one word against you, away back there,where you stand,
LG1860	3877	(You will come forward in due time to my side.)
LG1860	3878	My spirit has passed in compassion and determination around the whole earth,
LG1860	3879	I have looked for equals and lovers, and found them ready for me in all lands;
LG1860	3880	I think some divine rapport has equalized me with them.
LG1860	3881	O vapors! I think I have risen with you, and moved away to distant continents, and fallen down there, for reasons,
LG1860	3882	I think I have blown with you, O winds,
LG1860	3883	O waters, I have fingered every shore with you.
LG1860	3884	I have run through what any river or strait of the globe has run through,
LG1860	3885	I have taken my stand on the bases of peninsulas, and on the highest embedded rocks, to cry thence.
LG1860	3886	Salut au Monde!
LG1860	3887	What cities the light or warmth penetrates, I pen-etratepenetrate those cities myself,
LG1860	3888	All islands to which birds wing their way, I wing my way myself.
LG1860	3889	Toward all,
LG1860	3890	I raise high the perpendicular hand—I make the signal,
LG1860	3891	To remain after me in sight forever,
LG1860	3892	For all the haunts and homes of men.
LG1860	3893	O TO make a most jubilant poem!
LG1860	3894	O full of music! Full of manhood, womanhood,infancy!
LG1860	3895	O full of common employments! Full of grain and trees.
LG1860	3896	O for the voices of animals! O for the swiftness and balance of fishes!
LG1860	3897	O for the dropping of rain-drops in a poem!
LG1860	3898	O for the sunshine and motion of waves in a poem.
LG1860	3899	O to be on the sea! the wind, the wide waters around;
LG1860	3900	O to sail in a ship under full sail at sea.
LG1860	3901	O the joy of my spirit! It is uncaged! It darts like lightning!
LG1860	3902	It is not enough to have this globe, or a certain time —I will have thousands of globes, and all time.
LG1860	3903	O the engineer's joys!
LG1860	3904	To go with a locomotive!
LG1860	3905	To hear the hiss of steam—the merry shriek—the steam-whistle—the laughing locomotive!
LG1860	3906	To push with resistless way, and speed off in the distance.
LG1860	3907	O the horseman's and horsewoman's joys!
LG1860	3908	The saddle—the gallop—the pressure upon the seat —the cool gurgling by the ears and hair.
LG1860	3909	O the fireman's joys!
LG1860	3910	I hear the alarm at dead of night,
LG1860	3911	I hear bells—shouts!—I pass the crowd—I run!
LG1860	3912	The sight of the flames maddens me with pleasure.
LG1860	3913	O the joy of the strong-brawned fighter, towering in the arena, in perfect condition, conscious of power, thirsting to meet his opponent.
LG1860	3914	O the joy of that vast elemental sympathy which only the human Soul is capable of generating and emitting in steady and limitless floods.
LG1860	3915	O the mother's joys!
LG1860	3916	The watching—the endurance—the precious love—the anguish—the patiently yielded life.
LG1860	3917	O the joy of increase, growth, recuperation,
LG1860	3918	The joy of soothing and pacifying—the joy of concord and harmony.
LG1860	3919	O to go back to the place where I was born!
LG1860	3920	O to hear the birds sing once more!
LG1860	3921	To ramble about the house and barn, and over the fields, once more,
LG1860	3922	And through the orchard and along the old lanes once more.
LG1860	3923	O male and female!
LG1860	3924	O the presence of women! (I swear, nothing is more exquisite to me than the presence of women;)
LG1860	3925	O for the girl, my mate! O for happiness with my mate!
LG1860	3926	O the young man as I pass! O I am sick after the friendship of him who, I fear, is indifferent to me.
LG1860	3927	O the streets of cities!
LG1860	3928	The flitting faces—the expressions, eyes, feet, cos-tumescostumes! O I cannot tell how welcome they are to me;
LG1860	3929	O of men—of women toward me as I pass—The memory of only one look—the boy lingering and waiting.
LG1860	3930	O to have been brought up on bays, lagoons, creeks,or along the coast!
LG1860	3931	O to continue and be employed there all my life!
LG1860	3932	O the briny and damp smell—the shore—the salt weeds exposed at low water,
LG1860	3933	The work of fishermen—the work of the eel-fisher and clam-fisher.
LG1860	3934	O it is I!
LG1860	3935	I come with my clam-rake and spade! I come with my eel-spear;
LG1860	3936	Is the tide out? I join the group of clam-diggers on the flats,
LG1860	3937	I laugh and work with them—I joke at my work,like a mettlesome young man.
LG1860	3938	In winter I take my eel-basket and eel-spear and travel out on foot on the ice—I have a small axe to cut holes in the ice;
LG1860	3939	Behold me, well-clothed, going gayly, or returning in the afternoon—my brood of tough boys accom-panyingaccompanying me,
LG1860	3940	My brood of grown and part-grown boys, who love to be with none else so well as they love to be with me,
LG1860	3941	By day to work with me, and by night to sleep with me.
LG1860	3942	Or, another time, in warm weather, out in a boat, to lift the lobster-pots, where they are sunk with heavy stones, (I know the buoys;)
LG1860	3943	O the sweetness of the Fifth Month morning upon the water, as I row, just before sunrise, toward the buoys;
LG1860	3944	I pull the wicker pots up slantingly—the dark green lobsters are desperate with their claws, as I take them out—I insert wooden pegs in the joints of their pincers,
LG1860	3945	I go to all the places, one after another, and then row back to the shore,
LG1860	3946	There, in a huge kettle of boiling water, the lobsters shall be boiled till their color becomes scarlet.
LG1860	3947	Or, another time, mackerel-taking,
LG1860	3948	Voracious, mad for the hook, near the surface, they seem to fill the water for miles;
LG1860	3949	Or, another time, fishing for rock-fish in Chesapeake Bay—I one of the brown-faced crew;
LG1860	3950	Or, another time, trailing for blue-fish off Paumanok,I stand with braced body,
LG1860	3951	My left foot is on the gunwale—my right arm throws the coils of slender rope,
LG1860	3952	In sight around me the quick veering and darting of fifty skiffs, my companions.
LG1860	3953	O boating on the rivers!
LG1860	3954	The voyage down the Niagara, (the St. Lawrence,)—the superb scenery—the steamers,
LG1860	3955	The ships sailing—the Thousand Islands—the occa-sionaloccasional timber-raft, and the raftsmen with long-reaching sweep-oars,
LG1860	3956	The little huts on the rafts, and the stream of smoke when they cook supper at evening.
LG1860	3957	O something pernicious and dread!
LG1860	3958	Something far away from a puny and pious life!
LG1860	3959	Something unproved! Something in a trance!
LG1860	3960	Something escaped from the anchorage, and driving free.
LG1860	3961	O to work in mines, or forging iron!
LG1860	3962	Foundry casting—the foundry itself—the rude high roof—the ample and shadowed space,
LG1860	3963	The furnace—the hot liquid poured out and running.
LG1860	3964	O the joys of the soldier!
LG1860	3965	To feel the presence of a brave general! to feel his sympathy!
LG1860	3966	To behold his calmness! to be warmed in the rays of his smile!
LG1860	3967	To go to battle! to hear the bugles play, and the drums beat!
LG1860	3968	To hear the artillery! to see the glittering of the bay-onetsbayonets and musket-barrels in the sun!
LG1860	3969	To see men fall and die and not complain!
LG1860	3970	To taste the savage taste of blood! to be so devilish!
LG1860	3971	To gloat so over the wounds and deaths of the enemy.
LG1860	3972	O the whaleman's joys! O I cruise my old cruise again!
LG1860	3973	I feel the ship's motion under me—I feel the Atlantic breezes fanning me,
LG1860	3974	I hear the cry again sent down from the mast-head, There she blows,
LG1860	3975	Again I spring up the rigging, to look with the rest—We see—we descend, wild with excitement,
LG1860	3976	I leap in the lowered boat—We row toward our prey,where he lies,
LG1860	3977	We approach, stealthy and silent—I see the moun-tainousmountainous mass, lethargic, basking,
LG1860	3978	I see the harpooner standing up—I see the weapon dart from his vigorous arm;
LG1860	3979	O swift, again, now, far out in the ocean, the wounded whale, settling, running to windward, tows me,
LG1860	3980	Again I see him rise to breathe—We row close again,
LG1860	3981	I see a lance driven through his side, pressed deep,turned in the wound,
LG1860	3982	Again we back off—I see him settle again—the life is leaving him fast,
LG1860	3983	As he rises, he spouts blood—I see him swim in cir-clescircles narrower and narrower, swiftly cutting the water—I see him die,
LG1860	3984	He gives one convulsive leap in the centre of the cir-clecircle, and then falls flat and still in the bloody foam.
LG1860	3985	O the old manhood of me, my joy!
LG1860	3986	My children and grand-children—my white hair and beard,
LG1860	3987	My largeness, calmness, majesty, out of the long stretch of my life.
LG1860	3988	O the ripened joy of womanhood!
LG1860	3989	O perfect happiness at last!
LG1860	3990	I am more than eighty years of age—my hair, too, is pure white—I am the most venerable mother;
LG1860	3991	How clear is my mind! how all people draw nigh to me!
LG1860	3992	What attractions are these, beyond any before? what bloom, more than the bloom of youth?
LG1860	3993	What beauty is this that descends upon me, and rises out of me?
LG1860	3994	O the joy of my Soul leaning poised on itself—receiv-ingreceiving identity through materials, and loving them —observing characters, and absorbing them;
LG1860	3995	O my Soul, vibrated back to me, from them—from facts, sight, hearing, touch, my phrenology,reason, articulation, comparison, memory, and the like;
LG1860	3996	O the real life of my senses and flesh, transcending my senses and flesh;
LG1860	3997	O my body, done with materials—my sight, done with my material eyes;
LG1860	3998	O what is proved to me this day, beyond cavil, that it is not my material eyes which finally see,
LG1860	3999	Nor my material body which finally loves, walks,laughs, shouts, embraces, procreates.
LG1860	4000	O the farmer's joys!
LG1860	4001	Ohioan's, Illinoisian's, Wisconsinese', Kanadian's, Io-wan'sIowan's, Kansian's, Missourian's, Oregonese' joys,
LG1860	4002	To rise at peep of day, and pass forth nimbly to work,
LG1860	4003	To plough land in the fall for winter-sown crops,
LG1860	4004	To plough land in the spring for maize,
LG1860	4005	To train orchards—to graft the trees—to gather apples in the fall.
LG1860	4006	O the pleasure with trees!
LG1860	4007	The orchard—the forest—the oak, cedar, pine,pekan-tree,
LG1860	4008	The honey-locust, black-walnut, cottonwood, and mag-noliamagnolia.
LG1860	4009	O Death!
LG1860	4010	O the beautiful touch of Death, soothing and benumb-ingbenumbing a few moments, for reasons;
LG1860	4011	O that of myself, discharging my excrementitious body, to be burned, or rendered to powder, or buried,
LG1860	4012	My real body doubtless left to me for other spheres,
LG1860	4013	My voided body, nothing more to me, returning to the purifications, further offices, eternal uses of the earth.
LG1860	4014	O to bathe in the swimming-bath, or in a good place along shore!
LG1860	4015	To splash the water! to walk ankle-deep; to race naked along the shore.
LG1860	4016	O to realize space!
LG1860	4017	The plenteousness of all—that there are no bounds;
LG1860	4018	To emerge, and be of the sky—of the sun and moon,and the flying clouds, as one with them.
LG1860	4019	O, while I live, to be the ruler of life—not a slave,
LG1860	4020	To meet life as a powerful conqueror,
LG1860	4021	No fumes—no ennui—no more complaints or scorn-fulscornful criticisms.
LG1860	4022	O me repellent and ugly!
LG1860	4023	O to these proud laws of the air, the water, and the ground, proving my interior Soul impreg-nableimpregnable,
LG1860	4024	And nothing exterior shall ever take command of me.
LG1860	4025	O to attract by more than attraction!
LG1860	4026	How it is I know not—yet behold! the something which obeys none of the rest,
LG1860	4027	It is offensive, never defensive—yet how magnetic it draws.
LG1860	4028	O the joy of suffering!
LG1860	4029	To struggle against great odds! to meet enemies un-dauntedundaunted!
LG1860	4030	To be entirely alone with them! to find how much I can stand!
LG1860	4031	To look strife, torture, prison, popular odium, death,face to face!
LG1860	4032	To mount the scaffold! to advance to the muzzles of guns with perfect nonchalance!
LG1860	4033	To be indeed a God!
LG1860	4034	O the gleesome saunter over fields and hill-sides!
LG1860	4035	The leaves and flowers of the commonest weeds—the moist fresh stillness of the woods,
LG1860	4036	The exquisite smell of the earth at day-break, and all through the forenoon.
LG1860	4037	O love-branches! love-root! love-apples!
LG1860	4038	O chaste and electric torrents! O mad-sweet drops.
LG1860	4039	O the orator's joys!
LG1860	4040	To inflate the chest—to roll the thunder of the voice out from the ribs and throat,
LG1860	4041	To make the people rage, weep, hate, desire, with yourself,
LG1860	4042	To lead America—to quell America with a great tongue.
LG1860	4043	O the joy of a manly self-hood!
LG1860	4044	Personality—to be servile to none—to defer to none —not to any tyrant, known or unknown,
LG1860	4045	To walk with erect carriage, a step springy and elastic,
LG1860	4046	To look with calm gaze, or with a flashing eye,
LG1860	4047	To speak with a full and sonorous voice, out of a broad chest,
LG1860	4048	To confront with your personality all the other per-sonalitiespersonalities of the earth.
LG1860	4049	O to have my life henceforth my poem of joys!
LG1860	4050	To dance, clap hands, exult, shout, skip, leap, roll on,float on,
LG1860	4051	An athlete—full of rich words—full of joys.
LG1860	4052	OUT of the rocked cradle,
LG1860	4053	Out of the mocking-bird's throat, the musical shuttle,
LG1860	4054	Out of the boy's mother's womb, and from the nipples of her breasts,
LG1860	4055	Out of the Ninth Month midnight,
LG1860	4056	Over the sterile sands, and the fields beyond, where the child, leaving his bed, wandered alone, bare-headedbareheaded, barefoot,
LG1860	4057	Down from the showered halo,
LG1860	4058	Up from the mystic play of shadows, twining and twisting as if they were alive,
LG1860	4059	Out from the patches of briers and blackberries,
LG1860	4060	From the memories of the bird that chanted to me,
LG1860	4061	From your memories, sad brother—from the fitful risings and fallings I heard,
LG1860	4062	From under that yellow half-moon, late-risen, and swollen as if with tears,
LG1860	4063	From those beginning notes of sickness and love,there in the transparent mist,
LG1860	4064	From the thousand responses of my heart, never to cease,
LG1860	4065	From the myriad thence-aroused words,
LG1860	4066	From the word stronger and more delicious than any,
LG1860	4067	From such, as now they start, the scene revisiting,
LG1860	4068	As a flock, twittering, rising, or overhead passing,
LG1860	4069	Borne hither—ere all eludes me, hurriedly,
LG1860	4070	A man—yet by these tears a little boy again,
LG1860	4071	Throwing myself on the sand, confronting the waves,
LG1860	4072	I, chanter of pains and joys, uniter of here and here-afterhereafter,
LG1860	4073	Taking all hints to use them—but swiftly leaping beyond them,
LG1860	4074	A reminiscence sing.
LG1860	4075	ONCE, Paumanok,
LG1860	4076	When the snows had melted, and the Fifth Month grass was growing,
LG1860	4077	Up this sea-shore, in some briers,
LG1860	4078	Two guests from Alabama—two together,
LG1860	4079	And their nest, and four light-green eggs, spotted with brown,
LG1860	4080	And every day the he-bird, to and fro, near at hand,
LG1860	4081	And every day the she-bird, crouched on her nest, silent, with bright eyes,
LG1860	4082	And every day I, a curious boy, never too close, never disturbing them,
LG1860	4083	Cautiously peering, absorbing, translating.
LG1860	4084	Shine! Shine!
LG1860	4085	Pour down your warmth, great Sun!
LG1860	4086	While we bask—we two together.
LG1860	4087	Two together!
LG1860	4088	Winds blow South, or winds blow North,
LG1860	4089	Day come white, or night come black,
LG1860	4090	Home, or rivers and mountains from home,
LG1860	4091	Singing all time, minding no time,
LG1860	4092	If we two but keep together.
LG1860	4093	Till of a sudden,
LG1860	4094	May-be killed, unknown to her mate,
LG1860	4095	One forenoon the she-bird crouched not on the nest,
LG1860	4096	Nor returned that afternoon, nor the next,
LG1860	4097	Nor ever appeared again.
LG1860	4098	And thenceforward, all summer, in the sound of the sea,
LG1860	4099	And at night, under the full of the moon, in calmer weather,
LG1860	4100	Over the hoarse surging of the sea,
LG1860	4101	Or flitting from brier to brier by day,
LG1860	4102	I saw, I heard at intervals, the remaining one, the he-bird,
LG1860	4103	The solitary guest from Alabama.
LG1860	4104	Blow! Blow!
LG1860	4105	Blow up sea-winds along Paumanok's shore;
LG1860	4106	I wait and I wait, till you blow my mate to me.
LG1860	4107	Yes, when the stars glistened,
LG1860	4108	All night long, on the prong of a moss-scallop'd stake,
LG1860	4109	Down, almost amid the slapping waves,
LG1860	4110	Sat the lone singer, wonderful, causing tears.
LG1860	4111	He called on his mate,
LG1860	4112	He poured forth the meanings which I, of all men, know.
LG1860	4113	Yes, my brother, I know,
LG1860	4114	The rest might not—but I have treasured every note,
LG1860	4115	For once, and more than once, dimly, down to the beach gliding,
LG1860	4116	Silent, avoiding the moonbeams, blending myself with the shadows,
LG1860	4117	Recalling now the obscure shapes, the echoes, the sounds and sights after their sorts,
LG1860	4118	The white arms out in the breakers tirelessly tossing,
LG1860	4119	I, with bare feet, a child, the wind wafting my hair,
LG1860	4120	Listened long and long.
LG1860	4121	Listened, to keep, to sing—now translating the notes,
LG1860	4122	Following you, my brother.
LG1860	4123	Soothe! Soothe!
LG1860	4124	Close on its wave soothes the wave behind,
LG1860	4125	And again another behind, embracing and lapping, every one close,
LG1860	4126	But my love soothes not me.
LG1860	4127	Low hangs the moon—it rose late,
LG1860	4128	O it is lagging—O I think it is heavy with love.
LG1860	4129	O madly the sea pushes upon the land,
LG1860	4130	With love—with love.
LG1860	4131	O night!
LG1860	4132	O do I not see my love fluttering out there among the breakers?
LG1860	4133	What is that little black thing I see there in the white?
LG1860	4134	Loud! Loud!
LG1860	4135	Loud I call to you my love!
LG1860	4136	High and clear I shoot my voice over the waves,
LG1860	4137	Surely you must know who is here,
LG1860	4138	You must know who I am, my love.
LG1860	4139	Low-hanging moon!
LG1860	4140	What is that dusky spot in your brown yellow?
LG1860	4141	O it is the shape of my mate!
LG1860	4142	O moon, do not keep her from me any longer.
LG1860	4143	Land! O land!
LG1860	4144	Whichever way I turn, O I think you could give me my mate back again, if you would,
LG1860	4145	For I am almost sure I see her dimly whichever way I look.
LG1860	4146	O rising stars!
LG1860	4147	Perhaps the one I want so much will rise with some of you.
LG1860	4148	O throat!
LG1860	4149	Sound clearer through the atmosphere!
LG1860	4150	Pierce the woods, the earth,
LG1860	4151	Somewhere listening to catch you must be the one I want.
LG1860	4152	Shake out, carols!
LG1860	4153	Solitary here—the night's carols!
LG1860	4154	Carols of lonesome love! Death's carols!
LG1860	4155	Carols under that lagging, yellow, waning moon!
LG1860	4156	O, under that moon, where she droops almost down into the sea!
LG1860	4157	O reckless, despairing carols.
LG1860	4158	But soft!
LG1860	4159	Sink low — soft!
LG1860	4160	Soft! Let me just murmur,
LG1860	4161	And do you wait a moment, you husky-noised sea,
LG1860	4162	For somewhere I believe I heard my mate responding to me,
LG1860	4163	So faint—I must be still to listen,
LG1860	4164	But not altogether still, for then she might not come immediately to me.
LG1860	4165	Hither, my love!
LG1860	4166	Here I am! Here!
LG1860	4167	With this just-sustained note I announce myself to you,
LG1860	4168	This gentle call is for you, my love.
LG1860	4169	Do not be decoyed elsewhere!
LG1860	4170	That is the whistle of the wind—it is not my voice,
LG1860	4171	That is the fluttering of the spray,
LG1860	4172	Those are the shadows of leaves.
LG1860	4173	O darkness! O in vain!
LG1860	4174	O I am very sick and sorrowful.
LG1860	4175	O brown halo in the sky, near the moon, drooping upon the sea!
LG1860	4176	O troubled reflection in the sea!
LG1860	4177	O throat! O throbbing heart!
LG1860	4178	O all—and I singing uselessly all the night.
LG1860	4179	Murmur! Murmur on!
LG1860	4180	O murmurs—you yourselves make me continue to sing, I know not why.
LG1860	4181	O past! O joy!
LG1860	4182	In the air—in the woods—over fields,
LG1860	4183	Loved! Loved! Loved! Loved! Loved!
LG1860	4184	Loved—but no more with me,
LG1860	4185	We two together no more.
LG1860	4186	The aria sinking,
LG1860	4187	All else continuing—the stars shining,
LG1860	4188	The winds blowing—the notes of the wondrous bird echoing,
LG1860	4189	With angry moans the fierce old mother yet, as ever, incessantly moaning,
LG1860	4190	On the sands of Paumanok's shore gray and rustling,
LG1860	4191	The yellow half-moon, enlarged, sagging down, droop-ingdrooping, the face of the sea almost touching,
LG1860	4192	The boy extatic—with his bare feet the waves, with his hair the atmosphere dallying,
LG1860	4193	The love in the heart pent, now loose, now at last tumultuously bursting,
LG1860	4194	The aria's meaning, the ears, the Soul, swiftly depos-itingdepositing,
LG1860	4195	The strange tears down the cheeks coursing,
LG1860	4196	The colloquy there—the trio—each uttering,
LG1860	4197	The undertone—the savage old mother, incessantly crying,
LG1860	4198	To the boy's Soul's questions sullenly timing—some drowned secret hissing,
LG1860	4199	To the outsetting bard of love.
LG1860	4200	Bird! (then said the boy's Soul,)
LG1860	4201	Is it indeed toward your mate you sing? or is it mostly to me?
LG1860	4202	For I that was a child, my tongue's use sleeping,
LG1860	4203	Now that I have heard you,
LG1860	4204	Now in a moment I know what I am for—I awake,
LG1860	4205	And already a thousand singers—a thousand songs, clearer, louder, more sorrowful than yours,
LG1860	4206	A thousand warbling echoes have started to life within me,
LG1860	4207	Never to die.
LG1860	4208	O throes!
LG1860	4209	O you demon, singing by yourself—projecting me,
LG1860	4210	O solitary me, listening—never more shall I cease imitating, perpetuating you,
LG1860	4211	Never more shall I escape,
LG1860	4212	Never more shall the reverberations,
LG1860	4213	Never more the cries of unsatisfied love be absent from me,
LG1860	4214	Never again leave me to be the peaceful child I was before what there, in the night,
LG1860	4215	By the sea, under the yellow and sagging moon,
LG1860	4216	The dusky demon aroused—the fire, the sweet hell within,
LG1860	4217	The unknown want, the destiny of me.
LG1860	4218	O give me some clew!
LG1860	4219	O if I am to have so much, let me have more!
LG1860	4220	O a word! O what is my destination?
LG1860	4221	O I fear it is henceforth chaos!
LG1860	4222	O how joys, dreads, convolutions, human shapes, and all shapes, spring as from graves around me!
LG1860	4223	O phantoms! you cover all the land, and all the sea!
LG1860	4224	O I cannot see in the dimness whether you smile or frown upon me;
LG1860	4225	O vapor, a look, a word! O well-beloved!
LG1860	4226	O you dear women's and men's phantoms!
LG1860	4227	A word then, (for I will conquer it,)
LG1860	4228	The word final, superior to all,
LG1860	4229	Subtle, sent up—what is it?—I listen;
LG1860	4230	Are you whispering it, and have been all the time, you sea-waves?
LG1860	4231	Is that it from your liquid rims and wet sands?
LG1860	4232	Answering, the sea,
LG1860	4233	Delaying not, hurrying not,
LG1860	4234	Whispered me through the night, and very plainly before daybreak,
LG1860	4235	Lisped to me constantly the low and delicious word DEATH,
LG1860	4236	And again Death—ever Death, Death, Death,
LG1860	4237	Hissing melodious, neither like the bird, nor like my aroused child's heart,
LG1860	4238	But edging near, as privately for me, rustling at my feet,
LG1860	4239	And creeping thence steadily up to my ears,
LG1860	4240	Death, Death, Death, Death, Death.
LG1860	4241	Which I do not forget,
LG1860	4242	But fuse the song of two together,
LG1860	4243	That was sung to me in the moonlight on Paumanok's gray beach,
LG1860	4244	With the thousand responsive songs, at random,
LG1860	4245	My own songs, awaked from that hour,
LG1860	4246	And with them the key, the word up from the waves,
LG1860	4247	The word of the sweetest song, and all songs,
LG1860	4248	That strong and delicious word which, creeping to my feet,
LG1860	4249	The sea whispered me.
LG1860	4250	SAUNTERING the pavement, or riding the country by-roadbyroad, here then are faces!
LG1860	4251	Faces of friendship, precision, caution, suavity, ide-alityideality,
LG1860	4252	The spiritual prescient face—the always welcome,common, benevolent face,
LG1860	4253	The face of the singing of music—the grand faces of natural lawyers and judges, broad at the back-top,
LG1860	4254	The faces of hunters and fishers, bulged at the brows —the shaved blanched faces of orthodox citizens,
LG1860	4255	The pure, extravagant, yearning, questioning artist's face,
LG1860	4256	The ugly face of some beautiful Soul, the handsome detested or despised face,
LG1860	4257	The sacred faces of infants, the illuminated face of the mother of many children,
LG1860	4258	The face of an amour, the face of veneration,
LG1860	4259	The face as of a dream, the face of an immobile rock,
LG1860	4260	The face withdrawn of its good and bad, a castrated face,
LG1860	4261	A wild hawk, his wings clipped by the clipper,
LG1860	4262	A stallion that yielded at last to the thongs and knife of the gelder.
LG1860	4263	Sauntering the pavement, or crossing the ceaseless ferry, here then are faces,
LG1860	4264	I see them and complain not, and am content with all.
LG1860	4265	Do you suppose I could be content with all; if I thought them their own finale?
LG1860	4266	This now is too lamentable a face for a man,
LG1860	4267	Some abject louse, asking leave to be—cringing for it,
LG1860	4268	Some milk-nosed maggot, blessing what lets it wrig to its hole.
LG1860	4269	This face is a dog's snout sniffling for garbage;
LG1860	4270	Snakes nest in that mouth—I hear the sibilant threat.
LG1860	4271	This face is a haze more chill than the arctic sea,
LG1860	4272	Its sleepy and wobbling icebergs crunch as they go.
LG1860	4273	This is a face of bitter herbs—this an emetic—they need no label,
LG1860	4274	And more of the drug-shelf, laudanum, caoutchouc,or hog's-lard.
LG1860	4275	This face is an epilepsy, its wordless tongue gives out the unearthly cry,
LG1860	4276	Its veins down the neck distend, its eyes roll till they show nothing but their whites,
LG1860	4277	Its teeth grit, the palms of the hands are cut by the turned-in nails,
LG1860	4278	The man falls struggling and foaming to the ground while he speculates well.
LG1860	4279	This face is bitten by vermin and worms,
LG1860	4280	And this is some murderer's knife with a half-pulled scabbard.
LG1860	4281	This face owes to the sexton his dismalest fee,
LG1860	4282	In unceasing death-bell tolls there.
LG1860	4283	Those then are really men—the bosses and tufts of the great round globe!
LG1860	4284	Features of my equals, would you trick me with your creased and cadaverous march?
LG1860	4285	Well, you cannot trick me.
LG1860	4286	I see your rounded never-erased flow,
LG1860	4287	I see neath the rims of your haggard and mean dis-guisesdisguises.
LG1860	4288	Splay and twist as you like—poke with the tangling fores of fishes or rats,
LG1860	4289	You'll be unmuzzled, you certainly will.
LG1860	4290	I saw the face of the most smeared and slobbering idiot they had at the asylum,
LG1860	4291	And I knew for my consolation what they knew not,
LG1860	4292	And I knew of the agents that emptied and broke my brother,
LG1860	4293	The same wait to clear the rubbish from the fallen tenement,
LG1860	4294	And I shall look again in a score or two of ages,
LG1860	4295	And I shall meet the real landlord, perfect and un-harmedunharmed, every inch as good as myself.
LG1860	4296	The Lord advances, and yet advances,
LG1860	4297	Always the shadow in front—always the reached hand bringing up the laggards.
LG1860	4298	Out of this face emerge banners and horses—O superb! I see what is coming,
LG1860	4299	I see the high pioneer-caps—I see the staves of runners clearing the way,
LG1860	4300	I hear victorious drums.
LG1860	4301	This face is a life-boat,
LG1860	4302	This is the face commanding and bearded, it asks no odds of the rest,
LG1860	4303	This face is flavored fruit, ready for eating,
LG1860	4304	This face of a healthy honest boy is the programme of all good.
LG1860	4305	These faces bear testimony slumbering or awake,
LG1860	4306	They show their descent from the Master himself.
LG1860	4307	Off the word I have spoken I except not one—red,white, black, are all deific,
LG1860	4308	In each house is the ovum—it comes forth after a thousand years.
LG1860	4309	Spots or cracks at the windows do not disturb me,
LG1860	4310	Tall and sufficient stand behind, and make signs to me,
LG1860	4311	I read the promise, and patiently wait.
LG1860	4312	This is a full-grown lily's face,
LG1860	4313	She speaks to the limber-hipp'd man near the garden pickets,
LG1860	4314	Come here, she blushingly cries—Come nigh to me, limber-hipp'd man, and give me your finger and thumb,
LG1860	4315	Stand at my side till I lean as high as I can upon you,
LG1860	4316	Fill me with albescent honey, bend down to me,
LG1860	4317	Rub to me with your chafing beard, rub to my breast and shoulders.
LG1860	4318	The old face of the mother of many children!
LG1860	4319	Whist! I am fully content.
LG1860	4320	Lulled and late is the smoke of the First Day morning,
LG1860	4321	It hangs low over the rows of trees by the fences,
LG1860	4322	It hangs thin by the sassafras, the wild-cherry, and the cat-brier under them.
LG1860	4323	I saw the rich ladies in full dress at the soiree,
LG1860	4324	I heard what the singers were singing so long,
LG1860	4325	Heard who sprang in crimson youth from the white froth and the water-blue.
LG1860	4326	Behold a woman!
LG1860	4327	She looks out from her quaker cap—her face is clearer and more beautiful than the sky.
LG1860	4328	She sits in an arm-chair, under the shaded porch of the farm-house,
LG1860	4329	The sun just shines on her old white head.
LG1860	4330	Her ample gown is of cream-hued linen,
LG1860	4331	Her grand-sons raised the flax, and her grand-daughtersgranddaughters spun it with the distaff and the wheel.
LG1860	4332	The melodious character of the earth,
LG1860	4333	The finish beyond which philosophy cannot go, and does not wish to go,
LG1860	4334	The justified mother of men.
LG1860	4335	SUDDENLY out of its stale and drowsy lair, the lair of slaves,
LG1860	4336	Like lightning it le'pt forth, half startled at itself,
LG1860	4337	Its feet upon the ashes and the rags—its hands tight to the throats of kings.
LG1860	4338	O hope and faith!
LG1860	4339	O aching close of exiled patriots' lives!
LG1860	4340	O many a sickened heart!
LG1860	4341	Turn back unto this day, and make yourselves afresh.
LG1860	4342	And you, paid to defile the People! you liars, mark!
LG1860	4343	Not for numberless agonies, murders, lusts,
LG1860	4344	For court thieving in its manifold mean forms, worm-ingworming from his simplicity the poor man's wages,
LG1860	4345	For many a promise sworn by royal lips, and broken,and laughed at in the breaking,
LG1860	4346	Then in their power, not for all these did the blows strike revenge, or the heads of the nobles fall;
LG1860	4347	The People scorned the ferocity of kings.
LG1860	4348	But the sweetness of mercy brewed bitter destruction,and the frightened rulers come back,
LG1860	4349	Each comes in state with his train—hangman, priest,tax-gatherer,
LG1860	4350	Soldier, lawyer, lords, jailers, and sycophants.
LG1860	4351	Yet behind all, hovering, stealing—lo, a Shape,
LG1860	4352	Vague as the night, draped interminably, head front and form, in scarlet folds,
LG1860	4353	Whose face and eyes none may see,
LG1860	4354	Out of its robes only this—the red robes, lifted by the arm,
LG1860	4355	One finger crook'd, pointed high over the top, like the head of a snake appears.
LG1860	4356	Meanwhile, corpses lie in new-made graves—bloody corpses of young men;
LG1860	4357	The rope of the gibbet hangs heavily, the bullets of princes are flying, the creatures of power laugh aloud,
LG1860	4358	And all these things bear fruits—and they are good.
LG1860	4359	Those corpses of young men,
LG1860	4360	Those martyrs that hang from the gibbets—those hearts pierced by the gray lead,
LG1860	4361	Cold and motionless as they seem, live elsewhere with unslaughter'd vitality.
LG1860	4362	They live in other young men, O kings!
LG1860	4363	They live in brothers, again ready to defy you!
LG1860	4364	They were purified by death—they were taught and exalted.
LG1860	4365	Not a grave of the murdered for freedom, but grows seed for freedom, in its turn to bear seed,
LG1860	4366	Which the winds carry afar and re-sow, and the rains and the snows nourish.
LG1860	4367	Not a disembodied spirit can the weapons of tyrants let loose,
LG1860	4368	But it stalks invisibly over the earth, whispering,counselling, cautioning.
LG1860	4369	Liberty! let others despair of you! I never despair of you.
LG1860	4370	Is the house shut? Is the master away?
LG1860	4371	Nevertheless be ready—be not weary of watching,
LG1860	4372	He will soon return—his messengers come anon.
LG1860	4373	OF Public Opinion,
LG1860	4374	Of a calm and cool fiat, sooner or later, (How im-passiveimpassive! How certain and final!)
LG1860	4375	Of the President with pale face asking secretly to himself, What will the people say at last?
LG1860	4376	Of the frivolous Judge—Of the corrupt Congressman, Governor, Mayor—Of such as these, standing helpless and exposed;
LG1860	4377	Of the mumbling and screaming priest—(soon, soon deserted;)
LG1860	4378	Of the lessening, year by year, of venerableness, and of the dicta of officers, statutes, pulpits, schools,
LG1860	4379	Of the rising forever taller and stronger and broader, of the intuitions of men and women, and of self-esteemselfesteem, and of personality;
LG1860	4380	Of the New World—Of the Democracies, resplendent, en-masse,
LG1860	4381	Of the conformity of politics, armies, navies, to them and to me,
LG1860	4382	Of the shining sun by them—Of the inherent light, greater than the rest,
LG1860	4383	Of the envelopment of all by them, and of the effusion of all from them.
LG1860	4384	TO the garden, the world, anew ascending,
LG1860	4385	Potent mates, daughters, sons, preluding,
LG1860	4386	The love, the life of their bodies, meaning and being,
LG1860	4387	Curious, here behold my resurrection, after slumber,
LG1860	4388	The revolving cycles, in their wide sweep, having brought me again,
LG1860	4389	Amorous, mature—all beautiful to me—all won-drouswondrous,
LG1860	4390	My limbs, and the quivering fire that ever plays
LG1860	4391	through them, for reasons, most wondrous;
LG1860	4392	Existing, I peer and penetrate still,
LG1860	4393	Content with the present—content with the past,
LG1860	4394	By my side, or back of me, Eve following,
LG1860	4395	Or in front, and I following her just the same.
LG1860	4396	FROM that of myself, without which I were nothing,
LG1860	4397	From what I am determined to make illustrious, even if I stand sole among men,
LG1860	4398	From my own voice resonant—singing the phallus,
LG1860	4399	Singing the song of procreation,
LG1860	4400	Singing the need of superb children, and therein superb grown people,
LG1860	4401	Singing the muscular urge and the blending,
LG1860	4402	Singing the bedfellow's song, (O resistless yearning!
LG1860	4403	O for any and each, the body correlative attracting!
LG1860	4404	O for you, whoever you are, your correlative body!O it, more than all else, you delighting!)
LG1860	4405	From the pent up rivers of myself,
LG1860	4406	From the hungry gnaw that eats me night and day,
LG1860	4407	From native moments—from bashful pains—sing-ingsinging them,
LG1860	4408	Singing something yet unfound, though I have dili-gentlydiligently sought it, ten thousand years,
LG1860	4409	Singing the true song of the Soul, fitful, at random,
LG1860	4410	Singing what, to the Soul, entirely redeemed her, the faithful one, the prostitute, who detained me when I went to the city,
LG1860	4411	Singing the song of prostitutes;
LG1860	4412	Renascent with grossest Nature, or among animals,
LG1860	4413	Of that—of them, and what goes with them, my poems informing,
LG1860	4414	Of the smell of apples and lemons—of the pairing of birds,
LG1860	4415	Of the wet of woods—of the lapping of waves,
LG1860	4416	Of the mad pushes of waves upon the land—I them chanting,
LG1860	4417	The overture lightly sounding—the strain antici-patinganticipating,
LG1860	4418	The welcome nearness—the sight of the perfect body,
LG1860	4419	The swimmer swimming naked in the bath, or mo-tionlessmotionless on his back lying and floating,
LG1860	4420	The female form approaching—I, pensive, love-flesh tremulous, aching;
LG1860	4421	The slave's body for sale—I, sternly, with harsh voice, auctioneering,
LG1860	4422	The divine list, for myself or you, or for any one,making,
LG1860	4423	The face—the limbs—the index from head to foot,and what it arouses,
LG1860	4424	The mystic deliria—the madness amorous—the utter abandonment,
LG1860	4425	(Hark, close and still, what I now whisper to you,
LG1860	4426	I love you—O you entirely possess me,
LG1860	4427	O I wish that you and I escape from the rest, and go utterly off—O free and lawless,
LG1860	4428	Two hawks in the air—two fishes swimming in the sea not more lawless than we;)
LG1860	4429	The furious storm through me careering—I passion-atelypassionately trembling,
LG1860	4430	The oath of the inseparableness of two together—of the woman that loves me, and whom I love more than my life—That oath swearing,
LG1860	4431	(O I willingly stake all, for you!
LG1860	4432	O let me be lost, if it must be so!
LG1860	4433	O you and I—what is it to us what the rest do or think?
LG1860	4434	What is all else to us? only that we enjoy each other,and exhaust each other, if it must be so;)
LG1860	4435	From the master—the pilot I yield the vessel to,
LG1860	4436	The general commanding me, commanding all—from him permission taking,
LG1860	4437	From time the programme hastening, (I have loitered too long, as it is;)
LG1860	4438	From sex—From the warp and from the woof,
LG1860	4439	(To talk to the perfect girl who understands me—the girl of The States,
LG1860	4440	To waft to her these from my own lips—to effuse them from my own body;)
LG1860	4441	From privacy—From frequent repinings alone,
LG1860	4442	From plenty of persons near, and yet the right person not near,
LG1860	4443	From the soft sliding of hands over me, and thrusting of fingers through my hair and beard,
LG1860	4444	From the long-sustained kiss upon the mouth or bosom,
LG1860	4445	From the close pressure that makes me or any man drunk, fainting with excess,
LG1860	4446	From what the divine husband knows—from the work of fatherhood,
LG1860	4447	From exultation, victory, and relief—from the bed-fellowbedfellow's embrace in the night,
LG1860	4448	From the act-poems of eyes, hands, hips, and bosoms,
LG1860	4449	From the cling of the trembling arm,
LG1860	4450	From the bending curve and the clinch,
LG1860	4451	From side by side, the pliant coverlid off throwing,
LG1860	4452	From the one so unwilling to have me leave—and me just as unwilling to leave,
LG1860	4453	(Yet a moment, O tender waiter, and I return,)
LG1860	4454	From the hour of shining stars and dropping dews,
LG1860	4455	From the night, a moment, I, emerging, flitting out,
LG1860	4456	Celebrate you, enfans prepared for,
LG1860	4457	And you, stalwart loins.
LG1860	4458	O MY children! O mates!
LG1860	4459	O the bodies of you, and of all men and women, engirth me, and I engirth them,
LG1860	4460	O they will not let me off, nor I them, till I go with them, respond to them,
LG1860	4461	And respond to the contact of them, and discorrupt them, and charge them with the charge of the Soul.
LG1860	4462	Was it doubted if those who corrupt their own bodies conceal themselves?
LG1860	4463	And if those who defile the living are as bad as they who defile the dead?
LG1860	4464	And if the body does not do as much as the Soul?
LG1860	4465	And if the body were not the Soul, what is the Soul?
LG1860	4466	The love of the body of man or woman balks account —the body itself balks account,
LG1860	4467	That of the male is perfect, and that of the female is perfect.
LG1860	4468	The expression of the face balks account,
LG1860	4469	But the expression of a well made man appears not only in his face,
LG1860	4470	It is in his limbs and joints also, it is curiously in the joints of his hips and wrists,
LG1860	4471	It is in his walk, the carriage of his neck, the flex of his waist and knees—dress does not hide him,
LG1860	4472	The strong, sweet, supple quality he has, strikes through the cotton and flannel,
LG1860	4473	To see him pass conveys as much as the best poem, perhaps more,
LG1860	4474	You linger to see his back, and the back of his neck and shoulder-side.
LG1860	4475	The sprawl and fulness of babes, the bosoms and heads of women, the folds of their dress, their style as we pass in the street, the contour of their shape downwards,
LG1860	4476	The swimmer naked in the swimming bath, seen as he swims through the transparent green-shine, or lies with his face up, and rolls silently to and fro in the heave of the water,
LG1860	4477	The bending forward and backward of rowers in row-boatsrowboats—the horseman in his saddle,
LG1860	4478	Girls, mothers, house-keepers, in all their perform-ancesperformances,
LG1860	4479	The group of laborers seated at noon-time with their open dinner-kettles, and their wives waiting,
LG1860	4480	The female soothing a child—the farmer's daughter in the garden or cow-yard,
LG1860	4481	The young fellow hoeing corn—the sleigh-driver guiding his six horses through the crowd,
LG1860	4482	The wrestle of wrestlers, two apprentice-boys, quite grown, lusty, good-natured, native-born, out on the vacant lot at sun-down, after work,
LG1860	4483	The coats and caps thrown down, the embrace of love and resistance,
LG1860	4484	The upper-hold and under-hold, the hair rumpled over and blinding the eyes;
LG1860	4485	The march of firemen in their own costumes, the play of masculine muscle through clean-setting trousers and waist-straps,
LG1860	4486	The slow return from the fire, the pause when the bell strikes suddenly again, and the listening on the alert,
LG1860	4487	The natural, perfect, varied attitudes—the bent head, the curved neck, and the counting,
LG1860	4488	Such-like I love—I loosen myself, pass freely, am at the mother's breast with the little child,
LG1860	4489	Swim with the swimmers, wrestle with wrestlers, march in line with the firemen, and pause, listen, and count.
LG1860	4490	I knew a man,
LG1860	4491	He was a common farmer—he was the father of five sons,
LG1860	4492	And in them were the fathers of sons—and in them were the fathers of sons.
LG1860	4493	This man was of wonderful vigor, calmness, beauty of person,
LG1860	4494	The shape of his head, the richness and breadth of his manners, the pale yellow and white of his hair and beard, and the immeasurable meaning of his black eyes,
LG1860	4495	These I used to go and visit him to see—he was wise also,
LG1860	4496	He was six feet tall, he was over eighty years old— his sons were massive, clean, bearded, tan-faced, handsome,
LG1860	4497	They and his daughters loved him—all who saw him loved him,
LG1860	4498	They did not love him by allowance—they loved him with personal love;
LG1860	4499	He drank water only—the blood showed like scarlet through the clear-brown skin of his face,
LG1860	4500	He was a frequent gunner and fisher—he sailed his boat himself—he had a fine one presented to him by a ship-joiner—he had fowling- pieces, presented to him by men that loved him;
LG1860	4501	When he went with his five sons and many grand-sonsgrandsons to hunt or fish, you would pick him out as the most beautiful and vigorous of the gang,
LG1860	4502	You would wish long and long to be with him—you would wish to sit by him in the boat, that you and he might touch each other.
LG1860	4503	I have perceived that to be with those I like is enough,
LG1860	4504	To stop in company with the rest at evening is enough,
LG1860	4505	To be surrounded by beautiful, curious, breathing, laughing flesh is enough,
LG1860	4506	To pass among them, or touch any one, or rest my arm ever so lightly round his or her neck for a moment—what is this, then?
LG1860	4507	I do not ask any more delight—I swim in it, as in a sea.
LG1860	4508	There is something in staying close to men and women, and looking on them, and in the contact and odor of them, that pleases the Soul well,
LG1860	4509	All things please the Soul—but these please the Soul well.
LG1860	4510	This is the female form,
LG1860	4511	A divine nimbus exhales from it from head to foot,
LG1860	4512	It attracts with fierce undeniable attraction,
LG1860	4513	I am drawn by its breath as if I were no more than a helpless vapor—all falls aside but myself and it,
LG1860	4514	Books, art, religion, time, the visible and solid earth, the atmosphere and the clouds, and what was expected of heaven or feared of hell, are now consumed,
LG1860	4515	Mad filaments, ungovernable shoots play out of it, the response likewise ungovernable,
LG1860	4516	Hair, bosom, hips, bend of legs, negligent falling hands, all diffused—mine too diffused,
LG1860	4517	Ebb stung by the flow, and flow stung by the ebb— love-flesh swelling and deliciously aching,
LG1860	4518	Limitless limpid jets of love hot and enormous, quivering jelly of love, white-blow and delirious juice,
LG1860	4519	Bridegroom-night of love, working surely and softly into the prostrate dawn,
LG1860	4520	Undulating into the willing and yielding day,
LG1860	4521	Lost in the cleave of the clasping and sweet-fleshed day.
LG1860	4522	This is the nucleus—after the child is born of woman, the man is born of woman,
LG1860	4523	This is the bath of birth—this is the merge of small and large, and the outlet again.
LG1860	4524	Be not ashamed, women—your privilege encloses the rest, and is the exit of the rest,
LG1860	4525	You are the gates of the body, and you are the gates of the Soul.
LG1860	4526	The female contains all qualities, and tempers them —she is in her place, and moves with perfect balance,
LG1860	4527	She is all things duly veiled—she is both passive and active,
LG1860	4528	She is to conceive daughters as well as sons, and sons as well as daughters.
LG1860	4529	As I see my Soul reflected in nature,
LG1860	4530	As I see through a mist, one with inexpressible com-pletenesscompleteness and beauty,
LG1860	4531	See the bent head and arms folded over the breast— the female I see.
LG1860	4532	The male is not less the Soul, nor more—he too is in his place,
LG1860	4533	He too is all qualities—he is action and power,
LG1860	4534	The flush of the known universe is in him,
LG1860	4535	Scorn becomes him well, and appetite and defiance become him well,
LG1860	4536	The wildest largest passions, bliss that is utmost, sorrow that is utmost, become him well—pride is for him,
LG1860	4537	The full-spread pride of man is calming and excellent to the Soul;
LG1860	4538	Knowledge becomes him—he likes it always—he brings everything to the test of himself,
LG1860	4539	Whatever the survey, whatever the sea and the sail, he strikes soundings at last only here,
LG1860	4540	Where else does he strike soundings, except here?
LG1860	4541	The man's body is sacred, and the woman's body is sacred,
LG1860	4542	No matter who it is, it is sacred;
LG1860	4543	Is it a slave? Is it one of the dull-faced immigrants just landed on the wharf?
LG1860	4544	Each belongs here or anywhere just as much as the well-off—just as much as you,
LG1860	4545	Each has his or her place in the procession.
LG1860	4546	All is a procession,
LG1860	4547	The universe is a procession, with measured and beautiful motion.
LG1860	4548	Do you know so much yourself, that you call the slave or the dull-face ignorant?
LG1860	4549	Do you suppose you have a right to a good sight, and he or she has no right to a sight?
LG1860	4550	Do you think matter has cohered together from its diffused float—and the soil is on the surface, and water runs, and vegetation sprouts,
LG1860	4551	For you only, and not for him and her?
LG1860	4552	A man's body at auction!
LG1860	4553	I help the auctioneer—the sloven does not half know his business.
LG1860	4554	Gentlemen, look on this wonder!
LG1860	4555	Whatever the bids of the bidders, they cannot be high enough for it,
LG1860	4556	For it the globe lay preparing quintillions of years, without one animal or plant,
LG1860	4557	For it the revolving cycles truly and steadily rolled.
LG1860	4558	In this head the all-baffling brain,
LG1860	4559	In it and below it, the making of the attributes of heroes.
LG1860	4560	Examine these limbs, red, black, or white—they are so cunning in tendon and nerve,
LG1860	4561	They shall be stript, that you may see them.
LG1860	4562	Exquisite senses, life-lit eyes, pluck, volition,
LG1860	4563	Flakes of breast-muscle, pliant back-bone and neck, flesh not flabby, good-sized arms and legs,
LG1860	4564	And wonders within there yet.
LG1860	4565	Within there runs blood,
LG1860	4566	The same old blood!
LG1860	4567	The same red-running blood!
LG1860	4568	There swells and jets a heart—there all passions, desires, reachings, aspirations,
LG1860	4569	Do you think they are not there because they are not expressed in parlors and lecture-rooms?
LG1860	4570	This is not only one man—this is the father of those who shall be fathers in their turns,
LG1860	4571	In him the start of populous states and rich republics,
LG1860	4572	Of him countless immortal lives, with countless em-bodimentsembodiments and enjoyments.
LG1860	4573	How do you know who shall come from the offspring of his offspring through the centuries?
LG1860	4574	Who might you find you have come from yourself, if you could trace back through the centuries?
LG1860	4575	A woman's body at auction!
LG1860	4576	She too is not only herself—she is the teeming mother of mothers,
LG1860	4577	She is the bearer of them that shall grow and be mates to the mothers.
LG1860	4578	Her daughters, or their daughters' daughters—who knows who shall mate with them?
LG1860	4579	Who knows through the centuries what heroes may come from them?
LG1860	4580	In them, and of them, natal love—in them that divine mystery, the same old beautiful mystery.
LG1860	4581	Have you ever loved the body of a woman?
LG1860	4582	Have you ever loved the body of a man?
LG1860	4583	Your father—where is your father?
LG1860	4584	Your mother—is she living? have you been much with her? and has she been much with you?
LG1860	4585	Do you not see that these are exactly the same to all, in all nations and times, all over the earth?
LG1860	4586	If any thing is sacred, the human body is sacred,
LG1860	4587	And the glory and sweet of a man, is the token of manhood untainted,
LG1860	4588	And in man or woman, a clean, strong, firm-fibred body, is beautiful as the most beautiful face.
LG1860	4589	Have you seen the fool that corrupted his own live body? or the fool that corrupted her own live body?
LG1860	4590	For they do not conceal themselves, and cannot con-cealconceal themselves.
LG1860	4591	O my body! I dare not desert the likes of you in other men and women, nor the likes of the parts of you;
LG1860	4592	I believe the likes of you are to stand or fall with the likes of the Soul, (and that they are the Soul,) I believe the likes of you shall stand or fall with my poems—and that they are poems,
LG1860	4593	Man's, woman's, child's, youth's, wife's, husband's, mother's, father's, young man's, young woman's poems,
LG1860	4594	Head, neck, hair, ears, drop and tympan of the ears,
LG1860	4595	Eyes, eye-fringes, iris of the eye, eye-brows, and the waking or sleeping of the lids,
LG1860	4596	Mouth, tongue, lips, teeth, roof of the mouth, jaws, and the jaw-hinges,
LG1860	4597	Nose, nostrils of the nose, and the partition,
LG1860	4598	Cheeks, temples, forehead, chin, throat, back of the neck, neck-slue,
LG1860	4599	Strong shoulders, manly beard, scapula, hind-shoul-dershind-shoulders, and the ample side-round of the chest,
LG1860	4600	Upper-arm, arm-pit, elbow-socket, lower-arm, arm- sinews, arm-bones,
LG1860	4601	Wrist and wrist-joints, hand, palm, knuckles, thumb, fore-finger, finger-balls, finger-joints, finger-nails,
LG1860	4602	Broad breast-front, curling hair of the breast, breast- bone, breast-side,
LG1860	4603	Ribs, belly, back-bone, joints of the back-bone,
LG1860	4604	Hips, hip-sockets, hip-strength, inward and outward round, man-balls, man-root,
LG1860	4605	Strong set of thighs, well carrying the trunk above,
LG1860	4606	Leg-fibres, knee, knee-pan, upper-leg, under-leg,
LG1860	4607	Ankles, instep, foot-ball, toes, toe-joints, the heel,
LG1860	4608	All attitudes, all the shapeliness, all the belongings of my or your body, or of any one's body, male or female,
LG1860	4609	The lung-sponges, the stomach-sac, the bowels sweet and clean,
LG1860	4610	The brain in its folds inside the skull-frame,
LG1860	4611	Sympathies, heart-valves, palate-valves, sexuality, ma-ternitymaternity,
LG1860	4612	Womanhood, and all that is a woman—and the man that comes from woman,
LG1860	4613	The womb, the teats, nipples, breast-milk, tears, laugh-terlaughter, weeping, love-looks, love-perturbations and risings,
LG1860	4614	The voice, articulation, language, whispering, shout-ingshouting aloud,
LG1860	4615	Food, drink, pulse, digestion, sweat, sleep, walking, swimming,
LG1860	4616	Poise on the hips, leaping, reclining, embracing, arm- curving, and tightening,
LG1860	4617	The continual changes of the flex of the mouth, and around the eyes,
LG1860	4618	The skin, the sun-burnt shade, freckles, hair,
LG1860	4619	The curious sympathy one feels, when feeling with the hand the naked meat of his own body, or another person's body,
LG1860	4620	The circling rivers, the breath, and breathing it in and out,
LG1860	4621	The beauty of the waist, and thence of the hips, and thence downward toward the knees,
LG1860	4622	The thin red jellies within you, or within me—the bones, and the marrow in the bones,
LG1860	4623	The exquisite realization of health,
LG1860	4624	O I say now these are not the parts and poems of the body only, but of the Soul,
LG1860	4625	O I say these are the Soul!
LG1860	4626	A WOMAN waits for me—she contains all, nothing is lacking,
LG1860	4627	Yet all were lacking, if sex were lacking, or if the moisture of the right man were lacking.
LG1860	4628	Sex contains all,
LG1860	4629	Bodies, Souls, meanings, proofs, purities, delicacies, results, promulgations,
LG1860	4630	Songs, commands, health, pride, the maternal mystery, the semitic milk,
LG1860	4631	All hopes, benefactions, bestowals,
LG1860	4632	All the passions, loves, beauties, delights of the earth,
LG1860	4633	All the governments, judges, gods, followed persons of the earth,
LG1860	4634	These are contained in sex, as parts of itself, and jus-tificationsjustifications of itself.
LG1860	4635	Without shame the man I like knows and avows the deliciousness of his sex,
LG1860	4636	Without shame the woman I like knows and avows hers.
LG1860	4637	O I will fetch bully breeds of children yet!
LG1860	4638	I will dismiss myself from impassive women,
LG1860	4639	I will go stay with her who waits for me, and with those women that are warm-blooded and suffi-cientsufficient for me;
LG1860	4640	I see that they understand me, and do not deny me,
LG1860	4641	I see that they are worthy of me—I will be the robust husband of those women.
LG1860	4642	They are not one jot less than I am,
LG1860	4643	They are tanned in the face by shining suns and blow-ingblowing winds,
LG1860	4644	Their flesh has the old divine suppleness and strength,
LG1860	4645	They know how to swim, row, ride, wrestle, shoot, run, strike, retreat, advance, resist, defend them-selvesthemselves,
LG1860	4646	They are ultimate in their own right—they are calm, clear, well-possessed of themselves.
LG1860	4647	I draw you close to me, you women!
LG1860	4648	I cannot let you go, I would do you good,
LG1860	4649	I am for you, and you are for me, not only for our own sake, but for others' sakes;
LG1860	4650	Enveloped in you sleep greater heroes and bards,
LG1860	4651	They refuse to awake at the touch of any man but me.
LG1860	4652	It is I, you women—I make my way,
LG1860	4653	I am stern, acrid, large, undissuadable—but I love you,
LG1860	4654	I do not hurt you any more than is necessary for you,
LG1860	4655	I pour the stuff to start sons and daughters fit for These States—I press with slow rude muscle,
LG1860	4656	I brace myself effectually—I listen to no entreaties,
LG1860	4657	I dare not withdraw till I deposit what has so long accumulated within me.
LG1860	4658	Through you I drain the pent-up rivers of myself,
LG1860	4659	In you I wrap a thousand onward years,
LG1860	4660	On you I graft the grafts of the best-beloved of me and of America,
LG1860	4661	The drops I distil upon you shall grow fierce and athletic girls, new artists, musicians, and singers,
LG1860	4662	The babes I beget upon you are to beget babes in their turn,
LG1860	4663	I shall demand perfect men and women out of my love-spendings,
LG1860	4664	I shall expect them to interpenetrate with others, as I and you interpenetrate now,
LG1860	4665	I shall count on the fruits of the gushing showers of them, as I count on the fruits of the gushing showers I give now,
LG1860	4666	I shall look for loving crops from the birth, life, death, immortality, I plant so lovingly now.
LG1860	4667	SPONTANEOUS me, Nature,
LG1860	4668	The loving day, the friend I am happy with,
LG1860	4669	The arm of my friend hanging idly over my shoulder,
LG1860	4670	The hill-side whitened with blossoms of the mountain ash,
LG1860	4671	The same, late in autumn—the gorgeous hues of red,yellow, drab, purple, and light and dark green,
LG1860	4672	The rich coverlid of the grass—animals and birds—the private untrimmed bank—the primitive apples —the pebble-stones,
LG1860	4673	Beautiful dripping fragments—the negligent list of one after another, as I happen to call them to me,or think of them,
LG1860	4674	The real poems, (what we call poems being merely pictures,)
LG1860	4675	The poems of the privacy of the night, and of men like me,
LG1860	4676	This poem, drooping shy and unseen, that I always carry, and that all men carry,
LG1860	4677	(Know, once for all, avowed on purpose, wherever are men like me, are our lusty, lurking, masculine,poems,)
LG1860	4678	Love-thoughts, love-juice, love-odor, love-yielding, love-climbers, and the climbing sap,
LG1860	4679	Arms and hands of love—lips of love—phallic thumb of love—breasts of love—bellies pressed and glued together with love,
LG1860	4680	Earth of chaste love—life that is only life after love,
LG1860	4681	The body of my love—the body of the woman I love—the body of the man—the body of the earth,
LG1860	4682	Soft forenoon airs that blow from the south-west,
LG1860	4683	The hairy wild-bee that murmurs and hankers up and down—that gripes the full-grown lady-flower,curves upon her with amorous firm legs, takes his will of her, and holds himself tremulous and tight upon her till he is satisfied,
LG1860	4684	The wet of woods through the early hours,
LG1860	4685	Two sleepers at night lying close together as they sleep,one with an arm slanting down across and below the waist of the other,
LG1860	4686	The smell of apples, aromas from crushed sage-plant,mint, birch-bark,
LG1860	4687	The boy's longings, the glow and pressure as he con-fidesconfides to me what he was dreaming,
LG1860	4688	The dead leaf whirling its spiral whirl, and falling still and content to the ground,
LG1860	4689	The no-formed stings that sights, people, objects, sting me with,
LG1860	4690	The hubbed sting of myself, stinging me as much as it ever can any one,
LG1860	4691	The sensitive, orbic, underlapped brothers, that only privileged feelers may be intimate where they are,
LG1860	4692	The curious roamer, the hand, roaming all over the body—the bashful withdrawing of flesh where the fingers soothingly pause and edge themselves,
LG1860	4693	The limpid liquid within the young man,
LG1860	4694	The vexed corrosion, so pensive and so painful,
LG1860	4695	The torment—the irritable tide that will not be at rest,
LG1860	4696	The like of the same I feel—the like of the same in others,
LG1860	4697	The young woman that flushes and flushes, and the young man that flushes and flushes,
LG1860	4698	The young man that wakes, deep at night, the hot hand seeking to repress what would master him —the strange half-welcome pangs, visions, sweats,
LG1860	4699	The pulse pounding through palms and trembling encircling fingers—the young man all colored,red, ashamed, angry;
LG1860	4700	The souse upon me of my lover the sea, as I lie willing and naked,
LG1860	4701	The merriment of the twin-babes that crawl over the grass in the sun, the mother never turning her vigilant eyes from them,
LG1860	4702	The walnut-trunk, the walnut-husks, and the ripening or ripened long-round walnuts,
LG1860	4703	The continence of vegetables, birds, animals,
LG1860	4704	The consequent meanness of me should I skulk or find myself indecent, while birds and animals never once skulk or find themselves indecent,
LG1860	4705	The great chastity of paternity, to match the great chastity of maternity,
LG1860	4706	The oath of procreation I have sworn—my Adamic and fresh daughters,
LG1860	4707	The greed that eats me day and night with hungry gnaw, till I saturate what shall produce boys to fill my place when I am through,
LG1860	4708	The wholesome relief, repose, content,
LG1860	4709	And this bunch plucked at random from myself,
LG1860	4710	It has done its work—I toss it carelessly to fall where it may.
LG1860	4711	O FURIOUS! O confine me not!
LG1860	4712	(What is this that frees me so in storms?
LG1860	4713	What do my shouts amid lightnings and raging winds mean?)
LG1860	4714	O to drink the mystic deliria deeper than any other man!
LG1860	4715	O savage and tender achings!
LG1860	4716	(I bequeath them to you, my children,
LG1860	4717	I tell them to you, for reasons, O bridegroom and bride.)
LG1860	4718	O to be yielded to you, whoever you are, and you to be yielded me, in defiance of the world!
LG1860	4719	(Know, I am a man, attracting, at any time, her I but look upon, or touch with the tips of my fingers,
LG1860	4720	Or that touches my face, or leans against me.)
LG1860	4721	O to return to Paradise!
LG1860	4722	O to draw you to me—to plant on you, for the first time, the lips of a determined man!
LG1860	4723	O rich and feminine! O to show you to realize the blood of life for yourself, whoever you are—and no matter when and where you live.
LG1860	4724	O the puzzle—the thrice-tied knot—the deep and dark pool! O all untied and illumined!
LG1860	4725	O to speed where there is space enough and air enough at last!
LG1860	4726	O to be absolved from previous follies and degrada-tionsdegradations—I from mine, and you from yours!
LG1860	4727	O to find a new unthought-of nonchalance with the best of nature!
LG1860	4728	O to have the gag removed from one's mouth!
LG1860	4729	O to have the feeling, to-day or any day, I am suffi-cientsufficient as I am!
LG1860	4730	O something unproved! something in a trance!
LG1860	4731	O madness amorous! O trembling!
LG1860	4732	O to escape utterly from others' anchors and holds!
LG1860	4733	To drive free! to love free! to dash reckless and dangerous!
LG1860	4734	To court destruction with taunts—with invitations!
LG1860	4735	To ascend—to leap to the heavens of the love indicated to me!
LG1860	4736	To rise thither with my inebriate Soul!
LG1860	4737	To be lost, if it must be so!
LG1860	4738	To feed the remainder of life with one hour of ful-nessfulness and freedom!
LG1860	4739	With one brief hour of madness and joy.
LG1860	4740	YOU and I—what the earth is, we are,
LG1860	4741	We two—how long we were fooled!
LG1860	4742	Now delicious, transmuted, swiftly we escape, as Nature escapes,
LG1860	4743	We are Nature—long have we been absent, but now we return,
LG1860	4744	We become plants, leaves, foliage, roots, bark,
LG1860	4745	We are bedded in the ground—we are rocks,
LG1860	4746	We are oaks—we grow in the openings side by side,
LG1860	4747	We browse—we are two among the wild herds,spontaneous as any,
LG1860	4748	We are two fishes swimming in the sea together,
LG1860	4749	We are what the locust blossoms are—we drop scent
LG1860	4750	around the lanes, mornings and evenings,
LG1860	4751	We are also the coarse smut of beasts, vegetables,minerals,
LG1860	4752	We are what the flowing wet of the Tennessee is—we are two peaks of the Blue Mountains, rising up in Virginia,
LG1860	4753	We are two predatory hawks—we soar above and look down,
LG1860	4754	We are two resplendent suns—we it is who balance ourselves orbic and stellar—we are as two comets;
LG1860	4755	We prowl fanged and four-footed in the woods—we spring on prey;
LG1860	4756	We are two clouds, forenoons and afternoons, driving overhead,
LG1860	4757	We are seas mingling—we are two of those cheerful waves, rolling over each other, and interwetting each other,
LG1860	4758	We are what the atmosphere is, transparent, receptive,pervious, impervious,
LG1860	4759	We are snow, rain, cold, darkness—we are each product and influence of the globe,
LG1860	4760	We have circled and circled till we have arrived home again—we two have,
LG1860	4761	We have voided all but freedom, and all but our own joy.
LG1860	4762	NATIVE moments! when you come upon me—Ah you are here now!
LG1860	4763	Give me now libidinous joys only!
LG1860	4764	Give me the drench of my passions! Give me life coarse and rank!
LG1860	4765	To-day, I go consort with nature's darlings—to-night too,
LG1860	4766	I am for those who believe in loose delights—I share the midnight orgies of young men,
LG1860	4767	I dance with the dancers, and drink with the drink-ersdrinkers,
LG1860	4768	The echoes ring with our indecent calls,
LG1860	4769	I take for my love some prostitute—I pick out some low person for my dearest friend,
LG1860	4770	He shall be lawless, rude, illiterate—he shall be one condemned by others for deeds done;
LG1860	4771	I will play a part no longer—Why should I exile myself from my companions?
LG1860	4772	O you shunned persons! I at least do not shun you,
LG1860	4773	I come forthwith in your midst—I will be your poet,
LG1860	4774	I will be more to you than to any of the rest.
LG1860	4775	ONCE I passed through a populous city, imprinting my brain, for future use, with its shows, architec-turearchitecture, customs, and traditions;
LG1860	4776	Yet now, of all that city, I remember only a woman I casually met there, who detained me for love of me,
LG1860	4777	Day by day and night by night we were together,—All else has long been forgotten by me,
LG1860	4778	I remember I say only that woman who passionately clung to me,
LG1860	4779	Again we wander—we love—we separate again,
LG1860	4780	Again she holds me by the hand—I must not go!
LG1860	4781	I see her close beside me, with silent lips, sad and tremulous.
LG1860	4782	INQUIRING, tireless, seeking that yet unfound,
LG1860	4783	I, a child, very old, over waves, toward the house of maternity, the land of migrations, look afar,
LG1860	4784	Look off the shores of my Western Sea—having arrived at last where I am—the circle almost circled;
LG1860	4785	For coming westward from Hindustan, from the vales of Kashmere,
LG1860	4786	From Asia—from the north—from the God, the sage, and the hero,
LG1860	4787	From the south—from the flowery peninsulas, and the spice islands,
LG1860	4788	Now I face the old home again—looking over to it,joyous, as after long travel, growth, and sleep;
LG1860	4789	But where is what I started for, so long ago?
LG1860	4790	And why is it yet unfound?
LG1860	4791	IN the new garden, in all the parts,
LG1860	4792	In cities now, modern, I wander,
LG1860	4793	Though the second or third result, or still further,primitive yet,
LG1860	4794	Days, places, indifferent—though various, the same,
LG1860	4795	Time, Paradise, the Mannahatta, the prairies, finding me unchanged,
LG1860	4796	Death indifferent—Is it that I lived long since?Was I buried very long ago?
LG1860	4797	For all that, I may now be watching you here, this moment;
LG1860	4798	For the future, with determined will, I seek—the woman of the future,
LG1860	4799	You, born years, centuries after me, I seek.
LG1860	4800	AGES and ages, returning at intervals,
LG1860	4801	Undestroyed, wandering immortal,
LG1860	4802	Lusty, phallic, with the potent original loins, perfectly sweet,
LG1860	4803	I, chanter of Adamic songs,
LG1860	4804	Through the new garden, the West, the great cities,calling,
LG1860	4805	Deliriate, thus prelude what is generated, offering these, offering myself,
LG1860	4806	Bathing myself, bathing my songs in sex,
LG1860	4807	Offspring of my loins.
LG1860	4808	O HYMEN! O hymenee!
LG1860	4809	Why do you tantalize me thus?
LG1860	4810	O why sting me for a swift moment only?
LG1860	4811	Why can you not continue? O why do you now cease?
LG1860	4812	Is it because, if you continued beyond the swift moment, you would soon certainly kill me?
LG1860	4813	I AM he that aches with love;
LG1860	4814	Does the earth gravitate? Does not all matter, ach-ingaching, attract all matter?
LG1860	4815	So the body of me to all I meet, or that I know.
LG1860	4816	EARLY in the morning,
LG1860	4817	Walking forth from the bower, refreshed with sleep,
LG1860	4818	Behold me where I pass—hear my voice—approach,
LG1860	4819	Touch me—touch the palm of your hand to my body as I pass,
LG1860	4820	Be not afraid of my body.
LG1860	4821	AFOOT and light-hearted I take to the open road,
LG1860	4822	Healthy, free, the world before me,
LG1860	4823	The long brown path before me, leading wherever I choose.
LG1860	4824	Henceforth I ask not good-fortune—I am good-fortune,
LG1860	4825	Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more,need nothing,
LG1860	4826	Strong and content, I travel the open road.
LG1860	4827	The earth—that is sufficient,
LG1860	4828	I do not want the constellations any nearer,
LG1860	4829	I know they are very well where they are,
LG1860	4830	I know they suffice for those who belong to them.
LG1860	4831	Still here I carry my old delicious burdens,
LG1860	4832	I carry them, men and women—I carry them with me wherever I go,
LG1860	4833	I swear it is impossible for me to get rid of them,
LG1860	4834	I am filled with them, and I will fill them in return.
LG1860	4835	You road I travel and look around! I believe you are not all that is here,
LG1860	4836	I believe that much unseen is also here.
LG1860	4837	Here is the profound lesson of reception, neither preference or denial,
LG1860	4838	The black with his woolly head, the felon, the dis-easeddiseased, the illiterate person, are not denied;
LG1860	4839	The birth, the hasting after the physician, the beg-gar'sbeggar's tramp, the drunkard's stagger, the laughing party of mechanics,
LG1860	4840	The escaped youth, the rich person's carriage, the fop,the eloping couple,
LG1860	4841	The early market-man, the hearse, the moving of furniture into the town, the return back from the town,
LG1860	4842	They pass, I also pass, any thing passes—none can be interdicted,
LG1860	4843	None but are accepted, none but are dear to me.
LG1860	4844	You air that serves me with breath to speak!
LG1860	4845	You objects that call from diffusion my meanings and give them shape!
LG1860	4846	You light that wraps me and all things in delicate equable showers!
LG1860	4847	You animals moving serenely over the earth!
LG1860	4848	You birds that wing yourselves through the air! you insects!
LG1860	4849	You sprouting growths from the farmers' fields! you stalks and weeds by the fences!
LG1860	4850	You paths worn in the irregular hollows by the road-sidesroadsides!
LG1860	4851	I think you are latent with curious existences—you are so dear to me.
LG1860	4852	You flagged walks of the cities! you strong curbs at the edges!
LG1860	4853	You ferries! you planks and posts of wharves! you timber-lined sides! you distant ships!
LG1860	4854	You rows of houses! you window-pierced façades!you roofs!
LG1860	4855	You porches and entrances! you copings and iron guards!
LG1860	4856	You windows whose transparent shells might expose so much!
LG1860	4857	You doors and ascending steps! you arches!
LG1860	4858	You gray stones of interminable pavements! you trod-dentrodden crossings!
LG1860	4859	From all that has been near you I believe you have imparted to yourselves, and now would impart the same secretly to me,
LG1860	4860	From the living and the dead I think you have peopled your impassive surfaces, and the spirits thereof would be evident and amicable with me.
LG1860	4861	The earth expanding right hand and left hand,
LG1860	4862	The picture alive, every part in its best light,
LG1860	4863	The music falling in where it is wanted, and stopping where it was not wanted,
LG1860	4864	The cheerful voice of the public road—the gay fresh sentiment of the road.
LG1860	4865	O highway I travel! O public road! do you say to me, Do not leave me?
LG1860	4866	Do you say, Venture not? If you leave me, you are lost?
LG1860	4867	Do you say, I am already prepared—I am well-beaten and undenied—adhere to me?
LG1860	4868	O public road! I say back, I am not afraid to leave you—yet I love you,
LG1860	4869	You express me better than I can express myself,
LG1860	4870	You shall be more to me than my poem.
LG1860	4871	I think heroic deeds were all conceived in the open air,
LG1860	4872	I think I could stop here myself, and do miracles,
LG1860	4873	I think whatever I meet on the road I shall like, and whoever beholds me shall like me,
LG1860	4874	I think whoever I see must be happy.
LG1860	4875	From this hour, freedom!
LG1860	4876	From this hour I ordain myself loosed of limits and imaginary lines,
LG1860	4877	Going where I list—my own master, total and abso-luteabsolute,
LG1860	4878	Listening to others, and considering well what they say,
LG1860	4879	Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating,
LG1860	4880	Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that would hold me.
LG1860	4881	I inhale great draughts of air,
LG1860	4882	The east and the west are mine, and the north and the south are mine.
LG1860	4883	I am larger than I thought,
LG1860	4884	I did not know I held so much goodness.
LG1860	4885	All seems beautiful to me,
LG1860	4886	I can repeat over to men and women, You have done such good to me, I would do the same to you.
LG1860	4887	I will recruit for myself and you as I go,
LG1860	4888	I will scatter myself among men and women as I go,
LG1860	4889	I will toss the new gladness and roughness among them;
LG1860	4890	Whoever denies me, it shall not trouble me,
LG1860	4891	Whoever accepts me, he or she shall be blessed, and shall bless me.
LG1860	4892	Now if a thousand perfect men were to appear, it would not amaze me,
LG1860	4893	Now if a thousand beautiful forms of women appeared,it would not astonish me.
LG1860	4894	Now I see the secret of the making of the best persons,
LG1860	4895	It is to grow in the open air, and to eat and sleep with the earth.
LG1860	4896	Here is space—here a great personal deed has room,
LG1860	4897	A great deed seizes upon the hearts of the whole race of men,
LG1860	4898	Its effusion of strength and will overwhelms law, and mocks all authority and all argument against it.
LG1860	4899	Here is the test of wisdom,
LG1860	4900	Wisdom is not finally tested in schools,
LG1860	4901	Wisdom cannot be passed from one having it, to an-otheranother not having it,
LG1860	4902	Wisdom is of the Soul, is not susceptible of proof, is its own proof,
LG1860	4903	Applies to all stages and objects and qualities, and is content,
LG1860	4904	Is the certainty of the reality and immortality of things, and the excellence of things;
LG1860	4905	Something there is in the float of the sight of things that provokes it out of the Soul.
LG1860	4906	Now I reëxamine philosophies and religions,
LG1860	4907	They may prove well in lecture-rooms, yet not prove at all under the spacious clouds, and along the landscape and flowing currents.
LG1860	4908	Here is realization,
LG1860	4909	Here is a man tallied—he realizes here what he has in him,
LG1860	4910	The animals, the past, the future, light, space,majesty, love, if they are vacant of you, you are vacant of them.
LG1860	4911	Only the kernel of every object nourishes;
LG1860	4912	Where is he who tears off the husks for you and me?
LG1860	4913	Where is he that undoes stratagems and envelopes for you and me?
LG1860	4914	Here is adhesiveness—it is not previously fashioned —it is apropos;
LG1860	4915	Do you know what it is, as you pass, to be loved by strangers?
LG1860	4916	Do you know the talk of those turning eye-balls?
LG1860	4917	Here is the efflux of the Soul,
LG1860	4918	The efflux of the Soul comes through beautiful gates of laws, provoking questions;
LG1860	4919	These yearnings, why are they? These thoughts in the darkness, why are they?
LG1860	4920	Why are there men and women that while they are nigh me, the sun-light expands my blood?
LG1860	4921	Why, when they leave me, do my pennants of joy sink flat and lank?
LG1860	4922	Why are there trees I never walk under, but large and melodious thoughts descend upon me?
LG1860	4923	(I think they hang there winter and summer on those trees, and always drop fruit as I pass;)
LG1860	4924	What is it I interchange so suddenly with strangers?
LG1860	4925	What with some driver, as I ride on the seat by his side?
LG1860	4926	What with some fisherman, drawing his seine by the shore, as I walk by and pause?
LG1860	4927	What gives me to be free to a woman's or man's good-willgoodwill? What gives them to be free to mine?
LG1860	4928	The efflux of the Soul is happiness—here is happiness,
LG1860	4929	I think it pervades the air, waiting at all times,
LG1860	4930	Now it flows into us—we are rightly charged.
LG1860	4931	Here rises the fluid and attaching character;
LG1860	4932	The fluid and attaching character is the freshness and sweetness of man and woman,
LG1860	4933	The herbs of the morning sprout no fresher and sweeter every day out of the roots of them-selvesthemselves, than it sprouts fresh and sweet contin-uallycontinually out of itself.
LG1860	4934	Toward the fluid and attaching character exudes the sweat of the love of young and old,
LG1860	4935	From it falls distilled the charm that mocks beauty and attainments,
LG1860	4936	Toward it heaves the shuddering longing ache of contact.
LG1860	4937	Allons! Whoever you are, come travel with me!
LG1860	4938	Travelling with me, you find what never tires.
LG1860	4939	The earth never tires,
LG1860	4940	The earth is rude, silent, incomprehensible at first—Nature is rude and incomprehensible at first;
LG1860	4941	Be not discouraged—keep on—there are divine things, well enveloped,
LG1860	4942	I swear to you there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell.
LG1860	4943	Allons! We must not stop here!
LG1860	4944	However sweet these laid-up stores—however con-venientconvenient this dwelling, we cannot remain here,
LG1860	4945	However sheltered this port, and however calm these waters, we must not anchor here,
LG1860	4946	However welcome the hospitality that surrounds us,we are permitted to receive it but a little while.
LG1860	4947	Allons! The inducements shall be great to you;
LG1860	4948	We will sail pathless and wild seas;
LG1860	4949	We will go where winds blow, waves dash, and the Yankee clipper speeds by under full sail.
LG1860	4950	Allons! With power, liberty, the earth, the elements!
LG1860	4951	Health, defiance, gayety, self-esteem, curiosity;
LG1860	4952	Allons! from all formules!
LG1860	4953	From your formules, O bat-eyed and materialistic priests!
LG1860	4954	The stale cadaver blocks up the passage—the burial waits no longer.
LG1860	4955	Allons! Yet take warning!
LG1860	4956	He travelling with me needs the best blood, thews,endurance,
LG1860	4957	None may come to the trial, till he or she bring courage and health.
LG1860	4958	Come not here if you have already spent the best of yourself;
LG1860	4959	Only those may come, who come in sweet and deter-mineddetermined bodies,
LG1860	4960	No diseased person—no rum-drinker or venereal taint is permitted here.
LG1860	4961	I and mine do not convince by arguments, similes,rhymes,
LG1860	4962	We convince by our presence.
LG1860	4963	Listen! I will be honest with you,
LG1860	4964	I do not offer the old smooth prizes, but offer rough new prizes,
LG1860	4965	These are the days that must happen to you:
LG1860	4966	You shall not heap up what is called riches,
LG1860	4967	You shall scatter with lavish hand all that you earn or achieve,
LG1860	4968	You but arrive at the city to which you were des-tineddestined—you hardly settle yourself to satisfaction,before you are called by an irresistible call to depart,
LG1860	4969	You shall be treated to the ironical smiles and mock-ingsmockings of those who remain behind you,
LG1860	4970	What beckonings of love you receive, you shall only answer with passionate kisses of parting,
LG1860	4971	You shall not allow the hold of those who spread their reached hands toward you.
LG1860	4972	Allons! After the GREAT COMPANIONS! and to belong to them!
LG1860	4973	They too are on the road! they are the swift and majestic men! they are the greatest women.
LG1860	4974	Over that which hindered them—over that which retarded—passing impediments large or small,
LG1860	4975	Committers of crimes, committers of many beautiful virtues,
LG1860	4976	Enjoyers of calms of seas, and storms of seas,
LG1860	4977	Sailors of many a ship, walkers of many a mile of land,
LG1860	4978	Habitues of many different countries, habitues of far-distant dwellings,
LG1860	4979	Trusters of men and women, observers of cities, soli-tarysolitary toilers,
LG1860	4980	Pausers and contemplaters of tufts, blossoms, shells of the shore,
LG1860	4981	Dancers at wedding-dances, kissers of brides, tender helpers of children, bearers of children,
LG1860	4982	Soldiers of revolts, standers by gaping graves, lower-erslowerers down of coffins,
LG1860	4983	Journeyers over consecutive seasons, over the years—the curious years, each emerging from that which preceded it,
LG1860	4984	Journeyers as with companions, namely, their own diverse phases,
LG1860	4985	Forth-steppers from the latent unrealized baby-days,
LG1860	4986	Journeyers gayly with their own youth—journeyers with their bearded and well-grained manhood,
LG1860	4987	Journeyers with their womanhood, ample, unsur-passedunsurpassed, content,
LG1860	4988	Journeyers with their sublime old age of manhood or womanhood,
LG1860	4989	Old age, calm, expanded, broad with the haughty breadth of the universe,
LG1860	4990	Old age, flowing free with the delicious near-by free-domfreedom of death.
LG1860	4991	Allons! To that which is endless, as it was beginning-lessbeginningless,
LG1860	4992	To undergo much, tramps of days, rests of nights,
LG1860	4993	To merge all in the travel they tend to, and the days and nights they tend to,
LG1860	4994	Again to merge them in the start of superior jour-neysjourneys;
LG1860	4995	To see nothing anywhere but what you may reach it and pass it,
LG1860	4996	To conceive no time, however distant, but what you may reach it and pass it,
LG1860	4997	To look up or down no road but it stretches and waits for you—however long, but it stretches and waits for you;
LG1860	4998	To see no being, not God's or any, but you also go thither,
LG1860	4999	To see no possession but you may possess it—enjoy-ingenjoying all without labor or purchase—abstracting the feast, yet not abstracting one particle of it;
LG1860	5000	To take the best of the farmer's farm and the rich man's elegant villa, and the chaste blessings of the well-married couple, and the fruits of or-chardsorchards and flowers of gardens,
LG1860	5001	To take to your use out of the compact cities as you pass through,
LG1860	5002	To carry buildings and streets with you afterward wherever you go,
LG1860	5003	To gather the minds of men out of their brains as you encounter them—to gather the love out of their hearts,
LG1860	5004	To take your own lovers on the road with you, for all that you leave them behind you,
LG1860	5005	To know the universe itself as a road—as many roads—as roads for travelling Souls.
LG1860	5006	The Soul travels,
LG1860	5007	The body does not travel as much as the Soul,
LG1860	5008	The body has just as great a work as the Soul, and parts away at last for the journeys of the Soul.
LG1860	5009	All parts away for the progress of Souls,
LG1860	5010	All religion, all solid things, arts, governments—all that was or is apparent upon this globe or any globe, falls into niches and corners before the procession of Souls along the grand roads of the universe.
LG1860	5011	Of the progress of the Souls of men and women along the grand roads of the universe, all other prog-ressprogress is the needed emblem and sustenance.
LG1860	5012	Forever alive, forever forward,
LG1860	5013	Stately, solemn, sad, withdrawn, baffled, mad, turbu-lentturbulent, feeble, dissatisfied,
LG1860	5014	Desperate, proud, fond, sick, accepted by men, re-jectedrejected by men,
LG1860	5015	They go! they go! I know that they go, but I know not where they go,
LG1860	5016	But I know that they go toward the best—toward something great.
LG1860	5017	Allons! Whoever you are! come forth!
LG1860	5018	You must not stay sleeping and dallying there in the house, though you built it, or though it has been built for you.
LG1860	5019	Allons! out of the dark confinement!
LG1860	5020	It is useless to protest—I know all, and expose it.
LG1860	5021	Behold, through you as bad as the rest,
LG1860	5022	Through the laughter, dancing, dining, supping, of people,
LG1860	5023	Inside of dresses and ornaments, inside of those washed and trimmed faces,
LG1860	5024	Behold a secret silent loathing and despair.
LG1860	5025	No husband, no wife, no friend, no lover, so trusted as to hear the confession,
LG1860	5026	Another self, a duplicate of every one, skulking and hiding it goes, open and above board it goes,
LG1860	5027	Formless and wordless through the streets of the cities, polite and bland in the parlors,
LG1860	5028	In the cars of rail-roads, in steam-boats, in the public assembly,
LG1860	5029	Home to the houses of men and women, among their families, at the table, in the bed-room, every-whereeverywhere,
LG1860	5030	Smartly attired, countenance smiling, form upright,death under the breast-bones, hell under the skull-bones,
LG1860	5031	Under the broadcloth and gloves, under the ribbons and artificial flowers,
LG1860	5032	Keeping fair with the customs, speaking not a syllable of itself,
LG1860	5033	Speaking of anything else, but never of itself.
LG1860	5034	Allons! Through struggles and wars!
LG1860	5035	The goal that was named cannot be countermanded.
LG1860	5036	Have the past struggles succeeded?
LG1860	5037	What has succeeded? Yourself? Your nation?Nature?
LG1860	5038	Now understand me well—It is provided in the essence of things, that from any fruition of suc-cesssuccess, no matter what, shall come forth something to make a greater struggle necessary.
LG1860	5039	My call is the call of battle—I nourish active re-bellionrebellion,
LG1860	5040	He going with me must go well armed,
LG1860	5041	He going with me goes often with spare diet, poverty,angry enemies, desertions.
LG1860	5042	Allons! The road is before us!
LG1860	5043	It is safe—I have tried it—my own feet have tried it well.
LG1860	5044	Allons! Be not detained!
LG1860	5045	Let the paper remain on the desk unwritten, and the book on the shelf unopened!
LG1860	5046	Let the tools remain in the workshop! let the money remain unearned!
LG1860	5047	Let the school stand! mind not the cry of the teacher!
LG1860	5048	Let the preacher preach in his pulpit! let the lawyer plead in the court, and the judge expound the law.
LG1860	5049	Mon enfant! I give you my hand!
LG1860	5050	I give you my love, more precious than money,
LG1860	5051	I give you myself, before preaching or law;
LG1860	5052	Will you give me yourself? Will you come travel with me?
LG1860	5053	Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?
LG1860	5054	EARTH, round, rolling, compact —suns, moons, ani-malsanimals—all these are words to be said,
LG1860	5055	Watery, vegetable, sauroid advances—beings, pre-monitionspremonitions, lispings of the future,
LG1860	5056	Behold! these are vast words to be said.
LG1860	5057	Were you thinking that those were the words—those upright lines? those curves, angles, dots?
LG1860	5058	No, those are not the words—the substantial words are in the ground and sea,
LG1860	5059	They are in the air—they are in you.
LG1860	5060	Were you thinking that those were the words—those delicious sounds out of your friends'mouths?
LG1860	5061	No, the real words are more delicious than they.
LG1860	5062	Human bodies are words, myriads of words,
LG1860	5063	In the best poems re-appears the body, man's or woman's, well-shaped, natural, gay,
LG1860	5064	Every part able, active, receptive, without shame or the need of shame.
LG1860	5065	Air, soil, water, fire, these are words,
LG1860	5066	I myself am a word with them—my qualities inter-penetrateinterpenetrate with theirs—my name is nothing to them,
LG1860	5067	Though it were told in the three thousand languages,what would air, soil, water, fire, know of my name?
LG1860	5068	A healthy presence, a friendly or commanding ges-turegesture, are words, sayings, meanings,
LG1860	5069	The charms that go with the mere looks of some men and women, are sayings and meanings also.
LG1860	5070	The workmanship of Souls is by the inaudible words of the earth,
LG1860	5071	The great masters, the sayers, know the earth's words,and use them more than the audible words.
LG1860	5072	Amelioration is one of the earth's words,
LG1860	5073	The earth neither lags nor hastens,
LG1860	5074	It has all attributes, growths, effects, latent in itself from the jump,
LG1860	5075	It is not half beautiful only—defects and excres-cencesexcrescences show just as much as perfections show.
LG1860	5076	The earth does not withhold, it is generous enough,
LG1860	5077	The truths of the earth continually wait, they are not so concealed either,
LG1860	5078	They are calm, subtle, untransmissible by print,
LG1860	5079	They are imbued through all things, conveying them-selvesthemselves willingly,
LG1860	5080	Conveying a sentiment and invitation of the earth—I utter and utter,
LG1860	5081	I speak not, yet if you hear me not, of what avail am I to you?
LG1860	5082	To bear—to better—lacking these, of what avail am I?
LG1860	5083	Accouche! Accouchez!
LG1860	5084	Will you rot your own fruit in yourself there?
LG1860	5085	Will you squat and stifle there?
LG1860	5086	The earth does not argue,
LG1860	5087	Is not pathetic, has no arrangements,
LG1860	5088	Does not scream, haste, persuade, threaten, promise,
LG1860	5089	Makes no discriminations, has no conceivable fail-uresfailures,
LG1860	5090	Closes nothing, refuses nothing, shuts none out,
LG1860	5091	Of all the powers, objects, states, it notifies, shuts none out.
LG1860	5092	The earth does not exhibit itself, nor refuse to exhibit itself—possesses still underneath,
LG1860	5093	Underneath the ostensible sounds, the august chorus of heroes, the wail of slaves,
LG1860	5094	Persuasions of lovers, curses, gasps of the dying,laughter of young people, accents of bargainers,
LG1860	5095	Underneath these, possessing the words that never fail.
LG1860	5096	To her children, the words of the eloquent dumb great mother never fail,
LG1860	5097	The true words do not fail, for motion does not fail,and reflection does not fail,
LG1860	5098	Also the day and night do not fail, and the voyage we pursue does not fail.
LG1860	5099	Of the interminable sisters,
LG1860	5100	Of the ceaseless cotillions of sisters,
LG1860	5101	Of the centripetal and centrifugal sisters, the elder and younger sisters,
LG1860	5102	The beautiful sister we know dances on with the rest.
LG1860	5103	With her ample back toward every beholder,
LG1860	5104	With the fascinations of youth, and the equal fascina-tionsfascinations of age,
LG1860	5105	Sits she whom I too love like the rest—sits undis-turbedundisturbed,
LG1860	5106	Holding up in her hand what has the character of a mirror, while her eyes glance back from it,
LG1860	5107	Glance as she sits, inviting none, denying none,
LG1860	5108	Holding a mirror day and night tirelessly before her own face.
LG1860	5109	Seen at hand, or seen at a distance,
LG1860	5110	Duly the twenty-four appear in public every day,
LG1860	5111	Duly approach and pass with their companions, or a companion,
LG1860	5112	Looking from no countenances of their own, but from the countenances of those who are with them,
LG1860	5113	From the countenances of children or women, or the manly countenance,
LG1860	5114	From the open countenances of animals, or from inanimate things,
LG1860	5115	From the landscape or waters, or from the exquisite apparition of the sky,
LG1860	5116	From our countenances, mine and yours, faithfully returning them,
LG1860	5117	Every day in public appearing without fail, but never twice with the same companions.
LG1860	5118	Embracing man, embracing all, proceed the three hundred and sixty-five resistlessly round the sun,
LG1860	5119	Embracing all, soothing, supporting, follow close three hundred and sixty-five offsets of the first, sure and necessary as they.
LG1860	5120	Tumbling on steadily, nothing dreading,
LG1860	5121	Sunshine, storm, cold, heat, forever withstanding,passing, carrying,
LG1860	5122	The Soul's realization and determination still inherit-inginheriting,
LG1860	5123	The fluid vacuum around and ahead still entering and dividing,
LG1860	5124	No balk retarding, no anchor anchoring, on no rock striking,
LG1860	5125	Swift, glad, content, unbereaved, nothing losing,
LG1860	5126	Of all able and ready at any time to give strict account,
LG1860	5127	The divine ship sails the divine sea.
LG1860	5128	Whoever you are! motion and reflection are espe-ciallyespecially for you,
LG1860	5129	The divine ship sails the divine sea for you.
LG1860	5130	Whoever you are! you are he or she for whom the earth is solid and liquid,
LG1860	5131	You are he or she for whom the sun and moon hang in the sky,
LG1860	5132	For none more than you are the present and the past,
LG1860	5133	For none more than you is immortality.
LG1860	5134	Each man to himself, and each woman to herself, is the word of the past and present, and the word of immortality,
LG1860	5135	No one can acquire for another—not one!
LG1860	5136	Not one can grow for another—not one!
LG1860	5137	The song is to the singer, and comes back most to him,
LG1860	5138	The teaching is to the teacher, and comes back most to him,
LG1860	5139	The murder is to the murderer, and comes back most to him,
LG1860	5140	The theft is to the thief, and comes back most to him,
LG1860	5141	The love is to the lover, and comes back most to him,
LG1860	5142	The gift is to the giver, and comes back most to him —it cannot fail,
LG1860	5143	The oration is to the orator, and the acting is to the actor and actress, not to the audience,
LG1860	5144	And no man understands any greatness or goodness but his own, or the indication of his own.
LG1860	5145	I swear the earth shall surely be complete to him or her who shall be complete!
LG1860	5146	I swear the earth remains broken and jagged only to him or her who remains broken and jagged!
LG1860	5147	I swear there is no greatness or power that does not emulate those of the earth!
LG1860	5148	I swear there can be no theory of any account, unless it corroborate the theory of the earth!
LG1860	5149	No politics, art, religion, behavior, or what not, is of account, unless it compare with the amplitude of the earth,
LG1860	5150	Unless it face the exactness, vitality, impartiality,rectitude of the earth.
LG1860	5151	I swear I begin to see love with sweeter spasms than that which responds love!
LG1860	5152	It is that which contains itself, which never invites and never refuses.
LG1860	5153	I swear I begin to see little or nothing in audible words!
LG1860	5154	I swear I think all merges toward the presentation of the unspoken meanings of the earth!
LG1860	5155	Toward him who sings the songs of the body, and of the truths of the earth,
LG1860	5156	Toward him who makes the dictionaries of the words that print cannot touch.
LG1860	5157	I swear I see what is better than to tell the best,
LG1860	5158	It is always to leave the best untold.
LG1860	5159	When I undertake to tell the best, I find I cannot,
LG1860	5160	My tongue is ineffectual on its pivots,
LG1860	5161	My breath will not be obedient to its organs,
LG1860	5162	I become a dumb man.
LG1860	5163	The best of the earth cannot be told anyhow—all or any is best,
LG1860	5164	It is not what you anticipated—it is cheaper, easier,nearer,
LG1860	5165	Things are not dismissed from the places they held before,
LG1860	5166	The earth is just as positive and direct as it was before,
LG1860	5167	Facts, religions, improvements, politics, trades, are as real as before,
LG1860	5168	But the Soul is also real,—it too is positive and direct,
LG1860	5169	No reasoning, no proof has established it,
LG1860	5170	Undeniable growth has established it.
LG1860	5171	This is a poem for the sayers of words—these are hints of meanings,
LG1860	5172	These are they that echo the tones of Souls, and the phrases of Souls;
LG1860	5173	If they did not echo the phrases of Souls, what were they then?
LG1860	5174	If they had not reference to you in especial, what were they then?
LG1860	5175	I swear I will never henceforth have to do with the faith that tells the best!
LG1860	5176	I will have to do with that faith only that leaves the best untold.
LG1860	5177	Say on, sayers!
LG1860	5178	Delve! mould! pile the words of the earth!
LG1860	5179	Work on—it is materials you bring, not breaths;
LG1860	5180	Work on, age after age! nothing is to be lost,
LG1860	5181	It may have to wait long, but it will certainly come in use,
LG1860	5182	When the materials are all prepared, the architects shall appear.
LG1860	5183	I swear to you the architects shall appear without fail!I announce them and lead them,
LG1860	5184	I swear to you they will understand you and justify you,
LG1860	5185	I swear to you the greatest among them shall be he who best knows you, and encloses all, and is faithful to all,
LG1860	5186	I swear to you, he and the rest shall not forget you —they shall perceive that you are not an iota less than they,
LG1860	5187	I swear to you, you shall be glorified in them.
LG1860	5188	CLEAR the way there, Jonathan!
LG1860	5189	Way for the President's marshal! Way for the gov-ernmentgovernment cannon!
LG1860	5190	Way for the federal foot and dragoons—and the appa-ritionsapparitions copiously tumbling.
LG1860	5191	I rose this morning early, to get betimes in Boston town,
LG1860	5192	Here's a good place at the corner, I must stand and see the show.
LG1860	5193	I love to look on the stars and stripes, I hope the fifes will play Yankee Doodle.
LG1860	5194	How bright shine the cutlasses of the foremost troops!
LG1860	5195	Every man holds his revolver, marching stiff through Boston town.
LG1860	5196	A fog follows—antiques of the same come limping,
LG1860	5197	Some appear wooden-legged, and some appear ban-dagedbandaged and bloodless.
LG1860	5198	Why this is a show! It has called the dead out of the earth!
LG1860	5199	The old grave-yards of the hills have hurried to see!
LG1860	5200	Uncountable phantoms gather by flank and rear of it!
LG1860	5201	Cocked hats of mothy mould! crutches made of mist!
LG1860	5202	Arms in slings! old men leaning on young men's shoulders!
LG1860	5203	What troubles you, Yankee phantoms? What is all this chattering of bare gums?
LG1860	5204	Does the ague convulse your limbs? Do you mis-takemistake your crutches for fire-locks, and level them?
LG1860	5205	If you blind your eyes with tears, you will not see the President's marshal,
LG1860	5206	If you groan such groans you might balk the govern-mentgovernment cannon.
LG1860	5207	For shame, old maniacs! Bring down those tossed arms, and let your white hair be,
LG1860	5208	Here gape your smart grand-sons—their wives gaze at them from the windows,
LG1860	5209	See how well-dressed—see how orderly they conduct themselves.
LG1860	5210	Worse and worse! Can't you stand it! Are you retreating!
LG1860	5211	Is this hour with the living too dead for you?
LG1860	5212	Retreat then! Pell-mell!
LG1860	5213	Back to your graves! Back to the hills, old limpers!
LG1860	5214	I do not think you belong here, anyhow.
LG1860	5215	But there is one thing that belongs here—shall I tell you what it is, gentlemen of Boston?
LG1860	5216	I will whisper it to the Mayor—he shall send a com-mitteecommittee to England,
LG1860	5217	They shall get a grant from the Parliament, go with a cart to the royal vault—haste!
LG1860	5218	Dig out King George's coffin, unwrap him quick from the grave-clothes, box up his bones for a journey,
LG1860	5219	Find a swift Yankee clipper—here is freight for you,black-bellied clipper,
LG1860	5220	Up with your anchor! shake out your sails! steer straight toward Boston bay.
LG1860	5221	Now call for the President's marshal again, bring out the government cannon,
LG1860	5222	Fetch home the roarers from Congress, make an-otheranother procession, guard it with foot and dra-goonsdragoons.
LG1860	5223	This centre-piece for them:
LG1860	5224	Look! all orderly citizens—look from the windows,women!
LG1860	5225	The committee open the box, set up the regal ribs,glue those that will not stay,
LG1860	5226	Clap the skull on top of the ribs, and clap a crown on top of the skull.
LG1860	5227	You have got your revenge, old buster! The crown is come to its own, and more than its own.
LG1860	5228	Stick your hands in your pockets, Jonathan—you are a made man from this day,
LG1860	5229	You are mighty cute—and here is one of your bargains.
LG1860	5230	IN paths untrodden,
LG1860	5231	In the growth by margins of pond-waters,
LG1860	5232	Escaped from the life that exhibits itself,
LG1860	5233	From all the standards hitherto published—from the pleasures, profits, conformities,
LG1860	5234	Which too long I was offering to feed to my Soul
LG1860	5235	Clear to me now, standards not yet published—clear to me that my Soul,
LG1860	5236	That the Soul of the man I speak for, feeds, rejoices only in comrades;
LG1860	5237	Here, by myself, away from the clank of the world,
LG1860	5238	Tallying and talked to here by tongues aromatic,
LG1860	5239	No longer abashed—for in this secluded spot I can respond as I would not dare elsewhere,
LG1860	5240	Strong upon me the life that does not exhibit itself,yet contains all the rest,
LG1860	5241	Resolved to sing no songs to-day but those of manly attachment,
LG1860	5242	Projecting them along that substantial life,
LG1860	5243	Bequeathing, hence, types of athletic love,
LG1860	5244	Afternoon, this delicious Ninth Month, in my forty-first year,
LG1860	5245	I proceed, for all who are, or have been, young men,
LG1860	5246	To tell the secret of my nights and days,
LG1860	5247	To celebrate the need of comrades.
LG1860	5248	SCENTED herbage of my breast,
LG1860	5249	Leaves from you I yield, I write, to be perused best afterwards,
LG1860	5250	Tomb-leaves, body-leaves, growing up above me, above death,
LG1860	5251	Perennial roots, tall leaves—O the winter shall not freeze you, delicate leaves,
LG1860	5252	Every year shall you bloom again—Out from where you retired, you shall emerge again;
LG1860	5253	O I do not know whether many, passing by, will dis-coverdiscover you, or inhale your faint odor—but I believe a few will;
LG1860	5254	O slender leaves! O blossoms of my blood! I permit you to tell, in your own way, of the heart that is under you,
LG1860	5255	O burning and throbbing—surely all will one day be accomplished;
LG1860	5256	O I do not know what you mean, there underneath yourselves—you are not happiness,
LG1860	5257	You are often more bitter than I can bear—you burn and sting me,
LG1860	5258	Yet you are very beautiful to me, you faint-tinged roots—you make me think of Death,
LG1860	5259	Death is beautiful from you—(what indeed is beau-tifulbeautiful, except Death and Love?)
LG1860	5260	O I think it is not for life I am chanting here my chant of lovers—I think it must be for Death,
LG1860	5261	For how calm, how solemn it grows, to ascend to the atmosphere of lovers,
LG1860	5262	Death or life I am then indifferent—my Soul de-clinesdeclines to prefer,
LG1860	5263	I am not sure but the high Soul of lovers welcomes death most;
LG1860	5264	Indeed, O Death, I think now these leaves mean pre-ciselyprecisely the same as you mean;
LG1860	5265	Grow up taller, sweet leaves, that I may see! Grow up out of my breast!
LG1860	5266	Spring away from the concealed heart there!
LG1860	5267	Do not fold yourselves so in your pink-tinged roots,timid leaves!
LG1860	5268	Do not remain down there so ashamed, herbage of my breast!
LG1860	5269	Come, I am determined to unbare this broad breast of mine—I have long enough stifled and choked;
LG1860	5270	Emblematic and capricious blades, I leave you—now you serve me not,
LG1860	5271	Away! I will say what I have to say, by itself,
LG1860	5272	I will escape from the sham that was proposed to me,
LG1860	5273	I will sound myself and comrades only—I will never again utter a call, only their call,
LG1860	5274	I will raise, with it, immortal reverberations through The States,
LG1860	5275	I will give an example to lovers, to take permanent shape and will through The States;
LG1860	5276	Through me shall the words be said to make death exhilarating,
LG1860	5277	Give me your tone therefore, O Death, that I may accord with it,
LG1860	5278	Give me yourself—for I see that you belong to me now above all, and are folded together above all —you Love and Death are,
LG1860	5279	Nor will I allow you to balk me any more with what I was calling life,
LG1860	5280	For now it is conveyed to me that you are the pur-portspurports essential,
LG1860	5281	That you hide in these shifting forms of life, for reasons—and that they are mainly for you,
LG1860	5282	That you, beyond them, come forth, to remain, the real reality,
LG1860	5283	That behind the mask of materials you patiently wait, no matter how long,
LG1860	5284	That you will one day, perhaps, take control of all,
LG1860	5285	That you will perhaps dissipate this entire show of appearance,
LG1860	5286	That may be you are what it is all for—but it does not last so very long,
LG1860	5287	But you will last very long.
LG1860	5288	WHOEVER you are holding me now in hand,
LG1860	5289	Without one thing all will be useless,
LG1860	5290	I give you fair warning, before you attempt me further,
LG1860	5291	I am not what you supposed, but far different.
LG1860	5292	Who is he that would become my follower?
LG1860	5293	Who would sign himself a candidate for my affec-tionsaffections? Are you he?
LG1860	5294	The way is suspicious—the result slow, uncertain, may-be destructive;
LG1860	5295	You would have to give up all else—I alone would expect to be your God, sole and exclusive,
LG1860	5296	Your novitiate would even then be long and ex-haustingexhausting,
LG1860	5297	The whole past theory of your life, and all conformity to the lives around you, would have to be aban-donedabandoned;
LG1860	5298	Therefore release me now, before troubling yourself any further—Let go your hand from my shoulders,
LG1860	5299	Put me down, and depart on your way.
LG1860	5300	Or else, only by stealth, in some wood, for trial,
LG1860	5301	Or back of a rock, in the open air,
LG1860	5302	(For in any roofed room of a house I emerge not— nor in company,
LG1860	5303	And in libraries I lie as one dumb, a gawk, or unborn, or dead,)
LG1860	5304	But just possibly with you on a high hill—first watching lest any person, for miles around, approach unawares,
LG1860	5305	Or possibly with you sailing at sea, or on the beach of the sea, or some quiet island,
LG1860	5306	Here to put your lips upon mine I permit you,
LG1860	5307	With the comrade's long-dwelling kiss, or the new husband's kiss,
LG1860	5308	For I am the new husband, and I am the comrade.
LG1860	5309	Or, if you will, thrusting me beneath your clothing,
LG1860	5310	Where I may feel the throbs of your heart, or rest upon your hip,
LG1860	5311	Carry me when you go forth over land or sea;
LG1860	5312	For thus, merely touching you, is enough—is best,
LG1860	5313	And thus, touching you, would I silently sleep and be carried eternally.
LG1860	5314	But these leaves conning, you con at peril,
LG1860	5315	For these leaves, and me, you will not understand,
LG1860	5316	They will elude you at first, and still more after-wardafterward—I will certainly elude you,
LG1860	5317	Even while you should think you had unquestionably caught me, behold!
LG1860	5318	Already you see I have escaped from you.
LG1860	5319	For it is not for what I have put into it that I have written this book,
LG1860	5320	Nor is it by reading it you will acquire it,
LG1860	5321	Nor do those know me best who admire me, and vauntingly praise me,
LG1860	5322	Nor will the candidates for my love, (unless at most a very few,) prove victorious,
LG1860	5323	Nor will my poems do good only—they will do just as much evil, perhaps more,
LG1860	5324	For all is useless without that which you may guess at many times and not hit—that which I hinted at,
LG1860	5325	Therefore release me, and depart on your way.
LG1860	5326	THESE I, singing in spring, collect for lovers,
LG1860	5327	(For who but I should understand lovers, and all their sorrow and joy?
LG1860	5328	And who but I should be the poet of comrades?)
LG1860	5329	Collecting, I traverse the garden, the world—but soon I pass the gates,
LG1860	5330	Now along the pond-side—now wading in a little,fearing not the wet,
LG1860	5331	Now by the post-and-rail fences, where the old stones thrown there, picked from the fields, have accu-mulatedaccumulated,
LG1860	5332	Wild-flowers and vines and weeds come up through the stones, and partly cover them—Beyond these I pass,
LG1860	5333	Far, far in the forest, before I think where I get,
LG1860	5334	Solitary, smelling the earthy smell, stopping now and then in the silence,
LG1860	5335	Alone I had thought—yet soon a silent troop gathers around me,
LG1860	5336	Some walk by my side, and some behind, and some embrace my arms or neck,
LG1860	5337	They, the spirits of friends, dead or alive—thicker they come, a great crowd, and I in the middle,
LG1860	5338	Collecting, dispensing, singing in spring, there I wan-derwander with them,
LG1860	5339	Plucking something for tokens—something for these,till I hit upon a name—tossing toward whoever is near me,
LG1860	5340	Here! lilac, with a branch of pine,
LG1860	5341	Here, out of my pocket, some moss which I pulled off a live-oak in Florida, as it hung trailing down,
LG1860	5342	Here, some pinks and laurel leaves, and a handful of sage,
LG1860	5343	And here what I now draw from the water, wading in the pond-side,
LG1860	5344	(O here I last saw him that tenderly loves me—and returns again, never to separate from me,
LG1860	5345	And this, O this shall henceforth be the token of comrades—this calamus-root shall,
LG1860	5346	Interchange it, youths, with each other! Let none render it back!)
LG1860	5347	And twigs of maple, and a bunch of wild orange, and chestnut,
LG1860	5348	And stems of currants, and plum-blows, and the aromatic cedar;
LG1860	5349	These I, compassed around by a thick cloud of spirits,
LG1860	5350	Wandering, point to, or touch as I pass, or throw them loosely from me,
LG1860	5351	Indicating to each one what he shall have—giving something to each,
LG1860	5352	But what I drew from the water by the pond-side, that I reserve,
LG1860	5353	I will give of it—but only to them that love, as I myself am capable of loving.
LG1860	5354	STATES!
LG1860	5355	Were you looking to be held together by the lawyers?
LG1860	5356	By an agreement on a paper? Or by arms?
LG1860	5357	Away!
LG1860	5358	I arrive, bringing these, beyond all the forces of courts and arms,
LG1860	5359	These! to hold you together as firmly as the earth itself is held together.
LG1860	5360	The old breath of life, ever new,
LG1860	5361	Here! I pass it by contact to you, America.
LG1860	5362	O mother! have you done much for me?
LG1860	5363	Behold, there shall from me be much done for you.
LG1860	5364	There shall from me be a new friendship—It shall be called after my name,
LG1860	5365	It shall circulate through The States, indifferent of place,
LG1860	5366	It shall twist and intertwist them through and around each other—Compact shall they be, showing new signs,
LG1860	5367	Affection shall solve every one of the problems of freedom,
LG1860	5368	Those who love each other shall be invincible,
LG1860	5369	They shall finally make America completely victo-riousvictorious, in my name.
LG1860	5370	One from Massachusetts shall be comrade to a Mis-sourianMissourian,
LG1860	5371	One from Maine or Vermont, and a Carolinian and an Oregonese, shall be friends triune, more pre-ciousprecious to each other than all the riches of the earth.
LG1860	5372	To Michigan shall be wafted perfume from Florida,
LG1860	5373	To the Mannahatta from Cuba or Mexico,
LG1860	5374	Not the perfume of flowers, but sweeter, and wafted beyond death.
LG1860	5375	No danger shall balk Columbia's lovers,
LG1860	5376	If need be, a thousand shall sternly immolate them-selvesthemselves for one,
LG1860	5377	The Kanuck shall be willing to lay down his life for the Kansian, and the Kansian for the Kanuck, on due need.
LG1860	5378	It shall be customary in all directions, in the houses and streets, to see manly affection,
LG1860	5379	The departing brother or friend shall salute the re-mainingremaining brother or friend with a kiss.
LG1860	5380	There shall be innovations,
LG1860	5381	There shall be countless linked hands—namely, the Northeasterner's, and the Northwesterner's, and the Southwesterner's, and those of the interior, and all their brood,
LG1860	5382	These shall be masters of the world under a new power,
LG1860	5383	They shall laugh to scorn the attacks of all the re-mainderremainder of the world.
LG1860	5384	The most dauntless and rude shall touch face to face lightly,
LG1860	5385	The dependence of Liberty shall be lovers,
LG1860	5386	The continuance of Equality shall be comrades.
LG1860	5387	These shall tie and band stronger than hoops of iron,
LG1860	5388	I, extatic, O partners! O lands! henceforth with the love of lovers tie you.
LG1860	5389	I will make the continent indissoluble,
LG1860	5390	I will make the most splendid race the sun ever yet shone upon,
LG1860	5391	I will make divine magnetic lands.
LG1860	5392	I will plant companionship thick as trees along all the rivers of America, and along the shores of the great lakes, and all over the prairies,
LG1860	5393	I will make inseparable cities, with their arms about each other's necks.
LG1860	5394	For you these, from me, O Democracy, to serve you, ma femme!
LG1860	5395	For you! for you, I am trilling these songs.
LG1860	5396	NOT heaving from my ribbed breast only,
LG1860	5397	Not in sighs at night, in rage, dissatisfied with myself,
LG1860	5398	Not in those long-drawn, ill-suppressed sighs,
LG1860	5399	Not in many an oath and promise broken,
LG1860	5400	Not in my wilful and savage soul's volition,
LG1860	5401	Not in the subtle nourishment of the air,
LG1860	5402	Not in this beating and pounding at my temples and wrists,
LG1860	5403	Not in the curious systole and diastole within, which will one day cease,
LG1860	5404	Not in many a hungry wish, told to the skies only,
LG1860	5405	Not in cries, laughter, defiances, thrown from me when alone, far in the wilds,
LG1860	5406	Not in husky pantings through clenched teeth,
LG1860	5407	Not in sounded and resounded words—chattering words, echoes, dead words,
LG1860	5408	Not in the murmurs of my dreams while I sleep,
LG1860	5409	Nor the other murmurs of these incredible dreams of every day,
LG1860	5410	Nor in the limbs and senses of my body, that take you and dismiss you continually—Not there,
LG1860	5411	Not in any or all of them, O adhesiveness! O pulse of my life!
LG1860	5412	Need I that you exist and show yourself, any more than in these songs.
LG1860	5413	OF the terrible question of appearances,
LG1860	5414	Of the doubts, the uncertainties after all,
LG1860	5415	That may-be reliance and hope are but speculations after all,
LG1860	5416	That may-be identity beyond the grave is a beautiful fable only,
LG1860	5417	May-be the things I perceive—the animals, plants,men, hills, shining and flowing waters,
LG1860	5418	The skies of day and night—colors, densities, forms —May-be these are, (as doubtless they are,) only apparitions, and the real something has yet to be known,
LG1860	5419	(How often they dart out of themselves, as if to con-foundconfound me and mock me!
LG1860	5420	How often I think neither I know, nor any man knows, aught of them;)
LG1860	5421	May-be they only seem to me what they are, (as doubtless they indeed but seem,) as from my present point of view—And might prove, (as of course they would,) naught of what they appear,or naught any how, from entirely changed points of view;
LG1860	5422	To me, these, and the like of these, are curiously answered by my lovers, my dear friends;
LG1860	5423	When he whom I love travels with me, or sits a long while holding me by the hand,
LG1860	5424	When the subtle air, the impalpable, the sense that words and reason hold not, surround us and pervade us,
LG1860	5425	Then I am charged with untold and untellable wis-domwisdom—I am silent—I require nothing further,
LG1860	5426	I cannot answer the question of appearances, or that of identity beyond the grave,
LG1860	5427	But I walk or sit indifferent—I am satisfied,
LG1860	5428	He ahold of my hand has completely satisfied me.
LG1860	5429	LONG I thought that knowledge alone would suffice me—O if I could but obtain knowledge!
LG1860	5430	Then my lands engrossed me—Lands of the prairies,Ohio's land, the southern savannas, engrossed me—For them I would live—I would be their orator;
LG1860	5431	Then I met the examples of old and new heroes—I heard of warriors, sailors, and all dauntless per-sonspersons—And it seemed to me that I too had it in me to be as dauntless as any—and would be so;
LG1860	5432	And then, to enclose all, it came to me to strike up the songs of the New World—And then I be-lievedbelieved my life must be spent in singing;
LG1860	5433	But now take notice, land of the prairies, land of the south savannas, Ohio's land,
LG1860	5434	Take notice, you Kanuck woods—and you Lake Huron—and all that with you roll toward Niagara—and you Niagara also,
LG1860	5435	And you, Californian mountains—That you each and all find somebody else to be your singer of songs,
LG1860	5436	For I can be your singer of songs no longer—One who loves me is jealous of me, and withdraws me from all but love,
LG1860	5437	With the rest I dispense—I sever from what I thought would suffice me, for it does not—it is now empty and tasteless to me,
LG1860	5438	I heed knowledge, and the grandeur of The States,and the example of heroes, no more,
LG1860	5439	I am indifferent to my own songs—I will go with him I love,
LG1860	5440	It is to be enough for us that we are together—We never separate again.
LG1860	5441	HOURS continuing long, sore and heavy-hearted,
LG1860	5442	Hours of the dusk, when I withdraw to a lonesome and unfrequented spot, seating myself, leaning my face in my hands;
LG1860	5443	Hours sleepless, deep in the night, when I go forth,speeding swiftly the country roads, or through the city streets, or pacing miles and miles, sti-flingstifling plaintive cries;
LG1860	5444	Hours discouraged, distracted—for the one I cannot content myself without, soon I saw him content himself without me;
LG1860	5445	Hours when I am forgotten, (O weeks and months are passing, but I believe I am never to forget!)
LG1860	5446	Sullen and suffering hours! (I am ashamed—but it is useless—I am what I am;)
LG1860	5447	Hours of my torment—I wonder if other men ever have the like, out of the like feelings?
LG1860	5448	Is there even one other like me—distracted—his friend, his lover, lost to him?
LG1860	5449	Is he too as I am now? Does he still rise in the morn-ingmorning, dejected, thinking who is lost to him? and at night, awaking, think who is lost?
LG1860	5450	Does he too harbor his friendship silent and endless?harbor his anguish and passion?
LG1860	5451	Does some stray reminder, or the casual mention of a name, bring the fit back upon him, taciturn and deprest?
LG1860	5452	Does he see himself reflected in me? In these hours,does he see the face of his hours reflected?
LG1860	5453	YOU bards of ages hence! when you refer to me, mind not so much my poems,
LG1860	5454	Nor speak of me that I prophesied of The States, and led them the way of their glories;
LG1860	5455	But come, I will take you down underneath this impassive exterior—I will tell you what to say of me:
LG1860	5456	Publish my name and hang up my picture as that of the tenderest lover,
LG1860	5457	The friend, the lover's portrait, of whom his friend, his lover, was fondest,
LG1860	5458	Who was not proud of his songs, but of the measure-lessmeasureless ocean of love within him—and freely poured it forth,
LG1860	5459	Who often walked lonesome walks, thinking of his dear friends, his lovers,
LG1860	5460	Who pensive, away from one he loved, often lay sleep-lesssleepless and dissatisfied at night,
LG1860	5461	Who knew too well the sick, sick dread lest the one he loved might secretly be indifferent to him,
LG1860	5462	Whose happiest days were far away, through fields, in woods, on hills, he and another, wandering hand in hand, they twain, apart from other men,
LG1860	5463	Who oft as he sauntered the streets, curved with his arm the shoulder of his friend—while the arm of his friend rested upon him also.
LG1860	5464	WHEN I heard at the close of the day how my name had been received with plaudits in the capitol,still it was not a happy night for me that fol-lowedfollowed;
LG1860	5465	And else, when I caroused, or when my plans were accomplished, still I was not happy;
LG1860	5466	But the day when I rose at dawn from the bed of perfect health, refreshed, singing, inhaling the ripe breath of autumn,
LG1860	5467	When I saw the full moon in the west grow pale and disappear in the morning light,
LG1860	5468	When I wandered alone over the beach, and, undress-ingundressing, bathed, laughing with the cool waters, and saw the sun rise,
LG1860	5469	And when I thought how my dear friend, my lover,was on his way coming, O then I was happy;
LG1860	5470	O then each breath tasted sweeter—and all that day my food nourished me more—And the beautiful day passed well,
LG1860	5471	And the next came with equal joy—And with the next, at evening, came my friend;
LG1860	5472	And that night, while all was still, I heard the waters roll slowly continually up the shores,
LG1860	5473	I heard the hissing rustle of the liquid and sands,as directed to me, whispering, to congratulate me,
LG1860	5474	For the one I love most lay sleeping by me under the same cover in the cool night,
LG1860	5475	In the stillness, in the autumn moonbeams, his face was inclined toward me,
LG1860	5476	And his arm lay lightly around my breast—And that night I was happy.
LG1860	5477	ARE you the new person drawn toward me, and asking something significant from me?
LG1860	5478	To begin with, take warning—I am probably far different from what you suppose;
LG1860	5479	Do you suppose you will find in me your ideal?
LG1860	5480	Do you think it so easy to have me become your lover?
LG1860	5481	Do you think the friendship of me would be unalloyed satisfaction?
LG1860	5482	Do you suppose I am trusty and faithful?
LG1860	5483	Do you see no further than this façade—this smooth and tolerant manner of me?
LG1860	5484	Do you suppose yourself advancing on real ground toward a real heroic man?
LG1860	5485	Have you no thought, O dreamer, that it may be all maya, illusion? O the next step may precipitate you!
LG1860	5486	O let some past deceived one hiss in your ears, how many have prest on the same as you are pressing now,
LG1860	5487	How many have fondly supposed what you are sup-posingsupposing now—only to be disappointed.
LG1860	5488	CALAMUS taste,
LG1860	5489	(For I must change the strain—these are not to be pensive leaves, but leaves of joy,)
LG1860	5490	Roots and leaves unlike any but themselves,
LG1860	5491	Scents brought to men and women from the wild woods, and from the pond-side,
LG1860	5492	Breast-sorrel and pinks of love—fingers that wind around tighter than vines,
LG1860	5493	Gushes from the throats of birds, hid in the foliage of trees, as the sun is risen,
LG1860	5494	Breezes of land and love—Breezes set from living shores out to you on the living sea—to you,O sailors!
LG1860	5495	Frost-mellowed berries, and Third Month twigs, of-feredoffered fresh to young persons wandering out in the fields when the winter breaks up,
LG1860	5496	Love-buds, put before you and within you, whoever you are,
LG1860	5497	Buds to be unfolded on the old terms,
LG1860	5498	If you bring the warmth of the sun to them, they will open, and bring form, color, perfume, to you,
LG1860	5499	If you become the aliment and the wet, they will become flowers, fruits, tall branches and trees,
LG1860	5500	They are comprised in you just as much as in them-selvesthemselves—perhaps more than in themselves,
LG1860	5501	They are not comprised in one season or succession,but many successions,
LG1860	5502	They have come slowly up out of the earth and me,and are to come slowly up out of you.
LG1860	5503	NOT heat flames up and consumes,
LG1860	5504	Not sea-waves hurry in and out,
LG1860	5505	Not the air, delicious and dry, the air of the ripe summer, bears lightly along white down-balls of myriads of seeds, wafted, sailing gracefully, to drop where they may,
LG1860	5506	Not these—O none of these, more than the flames of me, consuming, burning for his love whom I love!
LG1860	5507	O none, more than I, hurrying in and out;
LG1860	5508	Does the tide hurry, seeking something, and never give up? O I the same;
LG1860	5509	O nor down-balls, nor perfumes, nor the high rain-emitting clouds, are borne through the open air,
LG1860	5510	Any more than my Soul is borne through the open air,
LG1860	5511	Wafted in all directions, O love, for friendship, for you.
LG1860	5512	O DROPS of me! trickle, slow drops,
LG1860	5513	Candid, from me falling—drip, bleeding drops,
LG1860	5514	From wounds made to free you whence you were prisoned,
LG1860	5515	From my face—from my forehead and lips,
LG1860	5516	From my breast—from within where I was con-cealedconcealed—Press forth, red drops—confession drops,
LG1860	5517	Stain every page—stain every song I sing, every word I say, bloody drops,
LG1860	5518	Let them know your scarlet heat—let them glisten,
LG1860	5519	Saturate them with yourself, all ashamed and wet,
LG1860	5520	Glow upon all I have written or shall write, bleed-ingbleeding drops,
LG1860	5521	Let it all be seen in your light, blushing drops.
LG1860	5522	WHO is now reading this?
LG1860	5523	May-be one is now reading this who knows some wrong-doing of my past life,
LG1860	5524	Or may-be a stranger is reading this who has secretly loved me,
LG1860	5525	Or may-be one who meets all my grand assumptions and egotisms with derision,
LG1860	5526	Or may-be one who is puzzled at me.
LG1860	5527	As if I were not puzzled at myself!
LG1860	5528	Or as if I never deride myself! (O conscience-struck! O self-convicted!)
LG1860	5529	Or as if I do not secretly love strangers! (O tenderly, a long time, and never avow it;)
LG1860	5530	Or as if I did not see, perfectly well, interior in myself, the stuff of wrong-doing,
LG1860	5531	Or as if it could cease transpiring from me until it must cease.
LG1860	5532	OF him I love day and night, I dreamed I heard he was dead,
LG1860	5533	And I dreamed I went where they had buried him I love—but he was not in that place,
LG1860	5534	And I dreamed I wandered, searching among burial-places, to find him,
LG1860	5535	And I found that every place was a burial-place,
LG1860	5536	The houses full of life were equally full of death,(This house is now,)
LG1860	5537	The streets, the shipping, the places of amusement,the Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, the Manna-hattaMannahatta, were as full of the dead as of the living,
LG1860	5538	And fuller, O vastly fuller, of the dead than of the living;
LG1860	5539	—And what I dreamed I will henceforth tell to every person and age,
LG1860	5540	And I stand henceforth bound to what I dreamed;
LG1860	5541	And now I am willing to disregard burial-places, and dispense with them,
LG1860	5542	And if the memorials of the dead were put up indif-ferentlyindifferently everywhere, even in the room where I eat or sleep, I should be satisfied,
LG1860	5543	And if the corpse of any one I love, or if my own corpse, be duly rendered to powder, and poured in the sea, I shall be satisfied,
LG1860	5544	Or if it be distributed to the winds, I shall be sat-isfiedsatisfied.
LG1860	5545	CITY of my walks and joys!
LG1860	5546	City whom that I have lived and sung there will one day make you illustrious,
LG1860	5547	Not the pageants of you—not your shifting tab-leauxtableaux, your spectacles, repay me,
LG1860	5548	Not the interminable rows of your houses—nor the ships at the wharves,
LG1860	5549	Nor the processions in the streets, nor the bright win-dowswindows, with goods in them,
LG1860	5550	Nor to converse with learned persons, or bear my share in the soiree or feast;
LG1860	5551	Not those—but, as I pass, O Manhattan! your fre-quentfrequent and swift flash of eyes offering me love,
LG1860	5552	Offering me the response of my own—these repay me,
LG1860	5553	Lovers, continual lovers, only repay me.
LG1860	5554	MIND you the timid models of the rest, the majority?
LG1860	5555	Long I minded them, but hence I will not—for I have adopted models for myself, and now offer them to The Lands.
LG1860	5556	Behold this swarthy and unrefined face—these gray eyes,
LG1860	5557	This beard—the white wool, unclipt upon my neck,
LG1860	5558	My brown hands, and the silent manner of me, with-outwithout charm;
LG1860	5559	Yet comes one, a Manhattanese, and ever at parting, kisses me lightly on the lips with robust love,
LG1860	5560	And I, in the public room, or on the crossing of the street, or on the ship's deck, kiss him in return;
LG1860	5561	We observe that salute of American comrades, land and sea,
LG1860	5562	We are those two natural and nonchalant persons.
LG1860	5563	I SAW in Louisiana a live-oak growing,
LG1860	5564	All alone stood it, and the moss hung down from the branches,
LG1860	5565	Without any companion it grew there, uttering joyous leaves of dark green,
LG1860	5566	And its look, rude, unbending, lusty, made me think of myself,
LG1860	5567	But I wondered how it could utter joyous leaves,standing alone there, without its friend, its lover near—for I knew I could not,
LG1860	5568	And I broke off a twig with a certain number of leaves upon it, and twined around it a little moss,
LG1860	5569	And brought it away—and I have placed it in sight in my room,
LG1860	5570	It is not needed to remind me as of my own dear friends,
LG1860	5571	(For I believe lately I think of little else than of them,)
LG1860	5572	Yet it remains to me a curious token—it makes me think of manly love;
LG1860	5573	For all that, and though the live-oak glistens there in Louisiana, solitary, in a wide flat space,
LG1860	5574	Uttering joyous leaves all its life, without a friend, a lover, near,
LG1860	5575	I know very well I could not.
LG1860	5576	MUSIC always round me, unceasing, unbeginning—yet long untaught I did not hear,
LG1860	5577	But now the chorus I hear, and am elated,
LG1860	5578	A tenor, strong, ascending, with power and health,with glad notes of day-break I hear,
LG1860	5579	A soprano, at intervals, sailing buoyantly over the tops of immense waves,
LG1860	5580	A transparent base, shuddering lusciously under and through the universe,
LG1860	5581	The triumphant tutti—the funeral wailings, with sweet flutes and violins—All these I fill myself with;
LG1860	5582	I hear not the volumes of sound merely—I am moved by the exquisite meanings,
LG1860	5583	I listen to the different voices winding in and out,striving, contending with fiery vehemence to excel each other in emotion,
LG1860	5584	I do not think the performers know themselves—But now I think I begin to know them.
LG1860	5585	PASSING stranger! you do not know how longingly I look upon you,
LG1860	5586	You must be he I was seeking, or she I was seeking,(It comes to me, as of a dream,)
LG1860	5587	I have somewhere surely lived a life of joy with you,
LG1860	5588	All is recalled as we flit by each other, fluid, affec-tionateaffectionate, chaste, matured,
LG1860	5589	You grew up with me, were a boy with me, or a girl with me,
LG1860	5590	I ate with you, and slept with you—your body has become not yours only, nor left my body mine only,
LG1860	5591	You give me the pleasure of your eyes, face, flesh, as we pass—you take of my beard, breast, hands,in return,
LG1860	5592	I am not to speak to you—I am to think of you when I sit alone, or wake at night alone,
LG1860	5593	I am to wait—I do not doubt I am to meet you again,
LG1860	5594	I am to see to it that I do not lose you.
LG1860	5595	THIS moment as I sit alone, yearning and thoughtful,it seems to me there are other men in other lands, yearning and thoughtful;
LG1860	5596	It seems to me I can look over and behold them,in Germany, Italy, France, Spain—Or far, far away, in China, or in Russia or India—talking other dialects;
LG1860	5597	And it seems to me if I could know those men better,I should become attached to them, as I do to men in my own lands,
LG1860	5598	It seems to me they are as wise, beautiful, benevolent,as any in my own lands;
LG1860	5599	O I know we should be brethren and lovers,
LG1860	5600	I know I should be happy with them.
LG1860	5601	I HEAR it is charged against me that I seek to destroy institutions;
LG1860	5602	But really I am neither for nor against institutions,
LG1860	5603	(What indeed have I in common with them?—Or what with the destruction of them?)
LG1860	5604	Only I will establish in the Mannahatta, and in every city of These States, inland and seaboard,
LG1860	5605	And in the fields and woods, and above every keel little or large, that dents the water,
LG1860	5606	Without edifices, or rules, or trustees, or any ar-gumentargument,
LG1860	5607	The institution of the dear love of comrades.
LG1860	5608	THE prairie-grass dividing—its own odor breathing,
LG1860	5609	I demand of it the spiritual corresponding,
LG1860	5610	Demand the most copious and close companionship of men,
LG1860	5611	Demand the blades to rise of words, acts, beings,
LG1860	5612	Those of the open atmosphere, coarse, sunlit, fresh,nutritious,
LG1860	5613	Those that go their own gait, erect, stepping with freedom and command—leading, not following,
LG1860	5614	Those with a never-quell'd audacity—those with sweet and lusty flesh, clear of taint, choice and chary of its love-power,
LG1860	5615	Those that look carelessly in the faces of Presidents and Governors, as to say, Who are you?
LG1860	5616	Those of earth-born passion, simple, never constrained,never obedient,
LG1860	5617	Those of inland America.
LG1860	5618	WE two boys together clinging,
LG1860	5619	One the other never leaving,
LG1860	5620	Up and down the roads going—North and South excursions making,
LG1860	5621	Power enjoying—elbows stretching—fingers clutch-ingclutching,
LG1860	5622	Armed and fearless—eating, drinking, sleeping, lov-ingloving,
LG1860	5623	No law less than ourselves owning—sailing, soldier-ingsoldiering, thieving, threatening,
LG1860	5624	Misers, menials, priests alarming—air breathing,water drinking, on the turf or the sea-beach dancing,
LG1860	5625	With birds singing—With fishes swimming—With trees branching and leafing,
LG1860	5626	Cities wrenching, ease scorning, statutes mocking,feebleness chasing,
LG1860	5627	Fulfilling our foray.
LG1860	5628	O LOVE!
LG1860	5629	O dying—always dying!
LG1860	5630	O the burials of me, past and present!
LG1860	5631	O me, while I stride ahead, material, visible, imperi-ousimperious as ever!
LG1860	5632	O me, what I was for years, now dead, (I lament not —I am content;),
LG1860	5633	O to disengage myself from those corpses of me,which I turn and look at, where I cast them!
LG1860	5634	To pass on, (O living! always living!) and leave the corpses behind!
LG1860	5635	WHEN I peruse the conquered fame of heroes, and the victories of mighty generals, I do not envy the generals,
LG1860	5636	Nor the President in his Presidency, nor the rich in his great house;
LG1860	5637	But when I read of the brotherhood of lovers, how it was with them,
LG1860	5638	How through life, through dangers, odium, un-changingunchanging, long and long,
LG1860	5639	Through youth, and through middle and old age, how unfaltering, how affectionate and faithful they were,
LG1860	5640	Then I am pensive—I hastily put down the book,and walk away, filled with the bitterest envy.
LG1860	5641	ONE flitting glimpse, caught through an interstice,
LG1860	5642	Of a crowd of workmen and drivers in a bar-room,around the stove, late of a winter night—And I unremarked, seated in a corner;
LG1860	5643	Of a youth who loves me, and whom I love, silently approaching, and seating himself near, that he may hold me by the hand;
LG1860	5644	A long while, amid the noises of coming and going —of drinking and oath and smutty jest,
LG1860	5645	There we two, content, happy in being together,speaking little, perhaps not a word.
LG1860	5646	A PROMISE and gift to California,
LG1860	5647	Also to the great Pastoral Plains, and for Oregon:
LG1860	5648	Sojourning east a while longer, soon I travel to you,to remain, to teach robust American love;
LG1860	5649	For I know very well that I and robust love belong among you, inland, and along the Western Sea,
LG1860	5650	For These States tend inland, and toward the Western Sea—and I will also.
LG1860	5651	WHAT ship, puzzled at sea, cons for the true reck-oningreckoning?
LG1860	5652	Or, coming in, to avoid the bars, and follow the chan-nelchannel, a perfect pilot needs?
LG1860	5653	Here, sailor! Here, ship! take aboard the most per-fectperfect pilot,
LG1860	5654	Whom, in a little boat, putting off, and rowing, I, hailing you, offer.
LG1860	5655	What place is besieged, and vainly tries to raise the siege?
LG1860	5656	Lo! I send to that place a commander, swift, brave, immortal,
LG1860	5657	And with him horse and foot—and parks of artillery,
LG1860	5658	And artillerymen, the deadliest that ever fired gun.
LG1860	5659	WHAT think you I take my pen in hand to record?
LG1860	5660	The battle-ship, perfect-model'd, majestic, that I saw pass the offing to-day under full sail?
LG1860	5661	The splendors of the past day? Or the splendor of the night that envelops me?
LG1860	5662	Or the vaunted glory and growth of the great city spread around me?—No;
LG1860	5663	But I record of two simple men I saw to-day, on the pier, in the midst of the crowd, parting the part-ingparting of dear friends,
LG1860	5664	The one to remain hung on the other's neck, and pas-sionatelypassionately kissed him,
LG1860	5665	While the one to depart, tightly prest the one to remain in his arms.
LG1860	5666	NO labor-saving machine,
LG1860	5667	Nor discovery have I made,
LG1860	5668	Nor will I be able to leave behind me any wealthy bequest to found a hospital or library,
LG1860	5669	Nor reminiscence of any deed of courage, for America,
LG1860	5670	Nor literary success, nor intellect—nor book for the book-shelf;
LG1860	5671	Only these carols, vibrating through the air, I leave,
LG1860	5672	For comrades and lovers.
LG1860	5673	I DREAMED in a dream, I saw a city invincible to the attacks of the whole of the rest of the earth,
LG1860	5674	I dreamed that was the new City of Friends,
LG1860	5675	Nothing was greater there than the quality of robust love—it led the rest,
LG1860	5676	It was seen every hour in the actions of the men of that city,
LG1860	5677	And in all their looks and words.
LG1860	5678	TO you of New England,
LG1860	5679	To the man of the Seaside State, and of Pennsylvania,
LG1860	5680	To the Kanadian of the north—to the Southerner I love,
LG1860	5681	These, with perfect trust, to depict you as myself—the germs are in all men;
LG1860	5682	I believe the main purport of These States is to found a superb friendship, exalté, previously unknown,
LG1860	5683	Because I perceive it waits, and has been always wait-ingwaiting, latent in all men.
LG1860	5684	EARTH! my likeness!
LG1860	5685	Though you look so impassive, ample and spheric there,
LG1860	5686	I now suspect that is not all;
LG1860	5687	I now suspect there is something fierce in you, eligible to burst forth;
LG1860	5688	For an athlete is enamoured of me—and I of him,
LG1860	5689	But toward him there is something fierce and terrible in me, eligible to burst forth,
LG1860	5690	I dare not tell it in words—not even in these songs.
LG1860	5691	A LEAF for hand in hand!
LG1860	5692	You natural persons old and young! You on the Eastern Sea, and you on the Western!
LG1860	5693	You on the Mississippi, and on all the branches and bayous of the Mississippi!
LG1860	5694	You friendly boatmen and mechanics! You roughs!
LG1860	5695	You twain! And all processions moving along the streets!
LG1860	5696	I wish to infuse myself among you till I see it com-moncommon for you to walk hand in hand.
LG1860	5697	PRIMEVAL my love for the woman I love,
LG1860	5698	O bride ! O wife ! more resistless, more enduring than I can tell, the thought of you !
LG1860	5699	Then separate, as disembodied, the purest born,
LG1860	5700	The ethereal, the last athletic reality, my consolation,
LG1860	5701	I ascend—I float in the regions of your love, O man,
LG1860	5702	O sharer of my roving life.
LG1860	5703	SOMETIMES with one I love, I fill myself with rage, for fear I effuse unreturned love;
LG1860	5704	But now I think there is no unreturned love—the pay is certain, one way or another,
LG1860	5705	Doubtless I could not have perceived the universe,or written one of my poems, if I had not freely given myself to comrades, to love.
LG1860	5706	THAT shadow, my likeness, that goes to and fro, seek-ingseeking a livelihood, chattering, chaffering,
LG1860	5707	How often I find myself standing and looking at it where it flits,
LG1860	5708	How often I question and doubt whether that is really me;
LG1860	5709	But in these, and among my lovers, and carolling my songs,
LG1860	5710	O I never doubt whether that is really me.
LG1860	5711	AMONG the men and women, the multitude, I per-ceiveperceive one picking me out by secret and divine signs,
LG1860	5712	Acknowledging none else—not parent, wife, hus-bandhusband, brother, child, any nearer than I am;
LG1860	5713	Some are baffled—But that one is not—that one knows me.
LG1860	5714	Lover and perfect equal!
LG1860	5715	I meant that you should discover me so, by my faint indirections,
LG1860	5716	And I, when I meet you, mean to discover you by the like in you.
LG1860	5717	TO the young man, many things to absorb, to engraft,to develop, I teach, to help him become élève of mine,
LG1860	5718	But if blood like mine circle not in his veins,
LG1860	5719	If he be not silently selected by lovers, and do not silently select lovers,
LG1860	5720	Of what use is it that he seek to become élève of mine?
LG1860	5721	O YOU whom I often and silently come where you are, that I may be with you,
LG1860	5722	As I walk by your side, or sit near, or remain in the same room with you,
LG1860	5723	Little you know the subtle electric fire that for your sake is playing within me.
LG1860	5724	HERE my last words, and the most baffling,
LG1860	5725	Here the frailest leaves of me, and yet my strongest-lasting,
LG1860	5726	Here I shade down and hide my thoughts—I do not expose them,
LG1860	5727	And yet they expose me more than all my other poems.
LG1860	5728	FULL of life, sweet-blooded, compact, visible,
LG1860	5729	I, forty years old the Eighty-third Year of The States,
LG1860	5730	To one a century hence, or any number of centuries hence,
LG1860	5731	To you, yet unborn, these, seeking you.
LG1860	5732	When you read these, I, that was visible, am become invisible;
LG1860	5733	Now it is you, compact, visible, realizing my poems, seeking me,
LG1860	5734	Fancying how happy you were, if I could be with you, and become your lover;
LG1860	5735	Be it as if I were with you. Be not too certain but I am now with you.
LG1860	5736	FLOOD-TIDE below me! I watch you, face to face;
LG1860	5737	Clouds of the west! sun there half an hour high! I see you also face to face.
LG1860	5738	Crowds of men and women attired in the usual cos-tumescostumes! how curious you are to me!
LG1860	5739	On the ferry-boats, the hundreds and hundreds that cross, returning home, are more curious to me than you suppose,
LG1860	5740	And you that shall cross from shore to shore years hence, are more to me, and more in my med-itationsmeditations, than you might suppose.
LG1860	5741	The impalpable sustenance of me from all things, at all hours of the day,
LG1860	5742	The simple, compact, well-joined scheme—myself disintegrated, every one disintegrated, yet part of the scheme,
LG1860	5743	The similitudes of the past, and those of the future,
LG1860	5744	The glories strung like beads on my smallest sights and hearings—on the walk in the street, and the passage over the river,
LG1860	5745	The current rushing so swiftly, and swimming with me far away,
LG1860	5746	The others that are to follow me, the ties between me and them,
LG1860	5747	The certainty of others—the life, love, sight, hear-inghearing of others.
LG1860	5748	Others will enter the gates of the ferry, and cross from shore to shore,
LG1860	5749	Others will watch the run of the flood-tide,
LG1860	5750	Others will see the shipping of Manhattan north and west, and the heights of Brooklyn to the south and east,
LG1860	5751	Others will see the islands large and small,
LG1860	5752	Fifty years hence, others will see them as they cross,the sun half an hour high,
LG1860	5753	A hundred years hence, or ever so many hundred years hence, others will see them,
LG1860	5754	Will enjoy the sunset, the pouring in of the flood-tide, the falling back to the sea of the ebb-tide.
LG1860	5755	It avails not, neither time or place—distance avails not,
LG1860	5756	I am with you, you men and women of a generation,or ever so many generations hence,
LG1860	5757	I project myself—also I return—I am with you, and know how it is.
LG1860	5758	Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky,so I felt,
LG1860	5759	Just as any of you is one of a living crowd, I was one of a crowd,
LG1860	5760	Just as you are refreshed by the gladness of the river,and the bright flow, I was refreshed,
LG1860	5761	Just as you stand and lean on the rail, yet hurry with the swift current, I stood, yet was hurried,
LG1860	5762	Just as you look on the numberless masts of ships,and the thick-stemmed pipes of steamboats, I looked.
LG1860	5763	I too many and many a time crossed the river, the sun half an hour high,
LG1860	5764	I watched the Twelfth Month sea-gulls—I saw them high in the air, floating with motionless wings,oscillating their bodies,
LG1860	5765	I saw how the glistening yellow lit up parts of their bodies, and left the rest in strong shadow,
LG1860	5766	I saw the slow-wheeling circles, and the gradual edging toward the south.
LG1860	5767	I too saw the reflection of the summer sky in the water,
LG1860	5768	Had my eyes dazzled by the shimmering track of beams,
LG1860	5769	Looked at the fine centrifugal spokes of light round the shape of my head in the sun-lit water,
LG1860	5770	Looked on the haze on the hills southward and south-westward,
LG1860	5771	Looked on the vapor as it flew in fleeces tinged with violet,
LG1860	5772	Looked toward the lower bay to notice the arriving ships,
LG1860	5773	Saw their approach, saw aboard those that were near me,
LG1860	5774	Saw the white sails of schooners and sloops, saw the ships at anchor,
LG1860	5775	The sailors at work in the rigging, or out astride the spars,
LG1860	5776	The round masts, the swinging motion of the hulls,the slender serpentine pennants,
LG1860	5777	The large and small steamers in motion, the pilots in their pilot-houses,
LG1860	5778	The white wake left by the passage, the quick trem-uloustremulous whirl of the wheels,
LG1860	5779	The flags of all nations, the falling of them at sun-set,
LG1860	5780	The scallop-edged waves in the twilight, the ladled cups, the frolicsome crests and glistening,
LG1860	5781	The stretch afar growing dimmer and dimmer, the gray walls of the granite store-houses by the docks,
LG1860	5782	On the river the shadowy group, the big steam-tug closely flanked on each side by the barges—the hay-boat, the belated lighter,
LG1860	5783	On the neighboring shore, the fires from the foundry chimneys burning high and glaringly into the night,
LG1860	5784	Casting, their flicker of black, contrasted with wild red and yellow light, over the tops of houses,and down into the clefts of streets.
LG1860	5785	These, and all else, were to me the same as they are to you,
LG1860	5786	I project myself a moment to tell you—also I return.
LG1860	5787	I loved well those cities,
LG1860	5788	I loved well the stately and rapid river,
LG1860	5789	The men and women I saw were all near to me,
LG1860	5790	Others the same—others who look back on me,because I looked forward to them,
LG1860	5791	(The time will come, though I stop here to-day and to-night.)
LG1860	5792	What is it, then, between us?
LG1860	5793	What is the count of the scores or hundreds of years between us?
LG1860	5794	Whatever it is, it avails not—distance avails not, and place avails not.
LG1860	5795	I too lived, (I was of old Brooklyn,)
LG1860	5796	I too walked the streets of Manhattan Island, and bathed in the waters around it,
LG1860	5797	I too felt the curious abrupt questionings stir within me,
LG1860	5798	In the day, among crowds of people, sometimes they came upon me,
LG1860	5799	In my walks home late at night, or as I lay in my bed, they came upon me.
LG1860	5800	I too had been struck from the float forever held in solution,
LG1860	5801	I too had received identity by my body,
LG1860	5802	That I was, I knew was of my body—and what I should be, I knew I should be of my body.
LG1860	5803	It is not upon you alone the dark patches fall,
LG1860	5804	The dark threw patches down upon me also,
LG1860	5805	The best I had done seemed to me blank and sus-picioussuspicious,
LG1860	5806	My great thoughts, as I supposed them, were they not in reality meagre? would not people laugh at me?
LG1860	5807	It is not you alone who know what it is to be evil,
LG1860	5808	I am he who knew what it was to be evil,
LG1860	5809	I too knitted the old knot of contrariety,
LG1860	5810	Blabbed, blushed, resented, lied, stole, grudged,
LG1860	5811	Had guile, anger, lust, hot wishes I dared not speak,
LG1860	5812	Was wayward, vain, greedy, shallow, sly, cowardly,malignant,
LG1860	5813	The wolf, the snake, the hog, not wanting in me,
LG1860	5814	The cheating look, the frivolous word, the adulterous wish, not wanting,
LG1860	5815	Refusals, hates, postponements, meanness, laziness,none of these wanting.
LG1860	5816	But I was a Manhattanese, free, friendly, and proud
LG1860	5817	I was called by my nighest name by clear loud voices of young men as they saw me approaching or passing,
LG1860	5818	Felt their arms on my neck as I stood, or the neg-ligentnegligent leaning of their flesh against me as I sat,
LG1860	5819	Saw many I loved in the street, or ferry-boat, or pub-licpublic assembly, yet never told them a word,
LG1860	5820	Lived the same life with the rest, the same old laugh-inglaughing, gnawing, sleeping,
LG1860	5821	Played the part that still looks back on the actor or actress,
LG1860	5822	The same old rôle, the rôle that is what we make it,as great as we like,
LG1860	5823	Or as small as we like, or both great and small.
LG1860	5824	Closer yet I approach you,
LG1860	5825	What thought you have of me, I had as much of you —I laid in my stores in advance,
LG1860	5826	I considered long and seriously of you before you were born.
LG1860	5827	Who was to know what should come home to me?
LG1860	5828	Who knows but I am enjoying this?
LG1860	5829	Who knows but I am as good as looking at you now,for all you cannot see me?
LG1860	5830	It is not you alone, nor I alone,
LG1860	5831	Not a few races, nor a few generations, nor a few centuries,
LG1860	5832	It is that each came, or comes, or shall come, from its due emission, without fail, either now, or then, or henceforth.
LG1860	5833	Every thing indicates—the smallest does, and the largest does,
LG1860	5834	A necessary film envelops all, and envelops the Soul for a proper time.
LG1860	5835	Now I am curious what sight can ever be more stately and admirable to me than my mast-hemm'd Man-hattaManhatta,
LG1860	5836	My river and sun-set, and my scallop-edged waves of flood-tide,
LG1860	5837	The sea-gulls oscillating their bodies, the hay-boat in the twilight, and the belated lighter;
LG1860	5838	Curious what Gods can exceed these that clasp me by the hand, and with voices I love call me promptly and loudly by my nighest name as I approach,
LG1860	5839	Curious what is more subtle than this which ties me to the woman or man that looks in my face,
LG1860	5840	Which fuses me into you now, and pours my meaning into you.
LG1860	5841	We understand, then, do we not?
LG1860	5842	What I promised without mentioning it, have you not accepted?
LG1860	5843	What the study could not teach—what the preaching could not accomplish is accomplished, is it not?
LG1860	5844	What the push of reading could not start is started by me personally, is it not?
LG1860	5845	Flow on, river! flow with the flood-tide, and ebb with the ebb-tide!
LG1860	5846	Frolic on, crested and scallop-edged waves!
LG1860	5847	Gorgeous clouds of the sunset! drench with your splendor me, or the men and women generations after me;
LG1860	5848	Cross from shore to shore, countless crowds of pas-sengerspassengers!
LG1860	5849	Stand up, tall masts of Mannahatta!—stand up,beautiful hills of Brooklyn!
LG1860	5850	Bully for you! you proud, friendly, free Manhat-taneseManhattanese!
LG1860	5851	Throb, baffled and curious brain! throw out questions and answers!
LG1860	5852	Suspend here and everywhere, eternal float of solu-tionsolution!
LG1860	5853	Blab, blush, lie, steal, you or I or any one after us!
LG1860	5854	Gaze, loving and thirsting eyes, in the house, or street,or public assembly!
LG1860	5855	Sound out, voices of young men! loudly and musically call me by my nighest name!
LG1860	5856	Live, old life! play the part that looks back on the actor or actress!
LG1860	5857	Play the old rôle, the rôle that is great or small,according as one makes it!
LG1860	5858	Consider, you who peruse me, whether I may not in unknown ways be looking upon you;
LG1860	5859	Be firm, rail over the river, to support those who lean idly, yet haste with the hasting current;
LG1860	5860	Fly on, sea-birds! fly sideways, or wheel in large circles high in the air;
LG1860	5861	Receive the summer-sky, you water! and faithfully hold it, till all downcast eyes have time to take it from you;
LG1860	5862	Diverge, fine spokes of light, from the shape of my head, or any one's head, in the sun-lit water;
LG1860	5863	Come on, ships from the lower bay! pass up or down,white-sailed schooners, sloops, lighters!
LG1860	5864	Flaunt away, flags of all nations! be duly lowered at sunset;
LG1860	5865	Burn high your fires, foundry chimneys! cast black shadows at nightfall! cast red and yellow light over the tops of the houses;
LG1860	5866	Appearances, now or henceforth, indicate what you are;
LG1860	5867	You necessary film, continue to envelop the Soul;
LG1860	5868	About my body for me, and your body for you, be hung our divinest aromas;
LG1860	5869	Thrive, cities! bring your freight, bring your shows,ample and sufficient rivers;
LG1860	5870	Expand, being than which none else is perhaps more spiritual;
LG1860	5871	Keep your places, objects than which none else is more lasting.
LG1860	5872	We descend upon you and all things—we arrest you all,
LG1860	5873	We realize the Soul only by you, you faithful solids and fluids,
LG1860	5874	Through you color, form, location, sublimity, ideality,
LG1860	5875	Through you every proof, comparison, and all the suggestions and determinations of ourselves.
LG1860	5876	You have waited, you always wait, you dumb, beauti-fulbeautiful ministers! you novices!
LG1860	5877	We receive you with free sense at last, and are insatiate henceforward,
LG1860	5878	Not you any more shall be able to foil us, or with-holdwithhold yourselves from us,
LG1860	5879	We use you, and do not cast you aside—we plant you permanently within us,
LG1860	5880	We fathom you not—we love you—there is per-fectionperfection in you also,
LG1860	5881	You furnish your parts toward eternity,
LG1860	5882	Great or small, you furnish your parts toward the Soul.
LG1860	5883	O MAGNET-SOUTH! O glistening, perfumed South! My South!
LG1860	5884	O quick mettle, rich blood, impulse, and love! Good and evil! O all dear to me!
LG1860	5885	O dear to me my birth-things—All moving things, and the trees where I was born—the grains, plants, rivers;
LG1860	5886	Dear to me my own slow sluggish rivers where they flow, distant, over flats of silvery sands, or through swamps,
LG1860	5887	Dear to me the Roanoke, the Savannah, the Altama-hawAltamahaw, the Pedee, the Tombigbee, the Santee, the Coosa, and the Sabine;
LG1860	5888	O pensive, far away wandering, I return with my Soul to haunt their banks again,
LG1860	5889	Again in Florida I float on transparent lakes—I float on the Okeechobee—I cross the hummock land, or through pleasant openings, or dense forests,
LG1860	5890	I see the parrots in the woods—I see the papaw tree and the blossoming titi;
LG1860	5891	Again, sailing in my coaster, on deck, I coast off Georgia—I coast up the Carolinas,
LG1860	5892	I see where the live-oak is growing—I see where the yellow-pine, the scented bay-tree, the lemon and orange, the cypress, the graceful palmetto;
LG1860	5893	I pass rude sea-headlands and enter Pamlico Sound through an inlet, and dart my vision inland,
LG1860	5894	O the cotton plant! the growing fields of rice, sugar, hemp!
LG1860	5895	The cactus, guarded with thorns—the laurel-tree, with large white flowers,
LG1860	5896	The range afar—the richness and barrenness—the old woods charged with mistletoe and trailing moss,
LG1860	5897	The piney odor and the gloom—the awful natural stillness, (Here in these dense swamps the free- booter carries his gun, and the fugitive slave has his concealed hut;)
LG1860	5898	O the strange fascination of these half-known, half- impassable swamps, infested by reptiles, resound-ingresounding with the bellow of the alligator, the sad noises of the night-owl and the wild-cat, and the whirr of the rattlesnake;
LG1860	5899	The mocking-bird, the American mimic, singing all the forenoon—singing through the moon-lit night,
LG1860	5900	The humming-bird, the wild-turkey, the raccoon, the opossum;
LG1860	5901	A Tennessee corn-field—the tall, graceful, long-leaved corn—slender, flapping, bright green, with tas-selstassels—with beautiful ears, each well-sheathed in its husk,
LG1860	5902	An Arkansas prairie—a sleeping lake, or still bayou;
LG1860	5903	O my heart! O tender and fierce pangs—I can stand them not—I will depart;
LG1860	5904	O to be a Virginian, where I grew up! O to be a Carolinian!
LG1860	5905	O longings irrepressible! O I will go back to old Ten-nesseeTennessee, and never wander more!
LG1860	5906	WHOEVER you are, I fear you are walking the walks of dreams,
LG1860	5907	I fear those realities are to melt from under your feet and hands;
LG1860	5908	Even now, your features, joys, speech, house, trade, manners, troubles, follies, costume, crimes, dis-sipatedissipate away from you,
LG1860	5909	Your true Soul and body appear before me,
LG1860	5910	They stand forth out of affairs—out of commerce, shops, law, science, work, farms, clothes, the house, medicine, print, buying, selling, eating, drinking, suffering, dying.
LG1860	5911	Whoever you are, now I place my hand upon you, that you be my poem,
LG1860	5912	I whisper with my lips close to your ear,
LG1860	5913	I have loved many women and men, but I love none better than you.
LG1860	5914	O I have been dilatory and dumb,
LG1860	5915	I should have made my way straight to you long ago,
LG1860	5916	I should have blabbed nothing but you, I should have chanted nothing but you.
LG1860	5917	I will leave all, and come and make the hymns of you;
LG1860	5918	None have understood you, but I understand you,
LG1860	5919	None have done justice to you—you have not done justice to yourself,
LG1860	5920	None but have found you imperfect—I only find no imperfection in you,
LG1860	5921	None but would subordinate you—I only am he who will never consent to subordinate you,
LG1860	5922	I only am he who places over you no master, owner, better, God, beyond what waits intrinsically in yourself.
LG1860	5923	Painters have painted their swarming groups, and the centre figure of all,
LG1860	5924	From the head of the centre figure spreading a nim-busnimbus of gold-colored light,
LG1860	5925	But I paint myriads of heads, but paint no head with-outwithout its nimbus of gold-colored light,
LG1860	5926	From my hand, from the brain of every man and woman it streams, effulgently flowing forever.
LG1860	5927	O I could sing such grandeurs and glories about you!
LG1860	5928	You have not known what you are—you have slum-beredslumbered upon yourself all your life,
LG1860	5929	Your eyelids have been the same as closed most of the time,
LG1860	5930	What you have done returns already in mockeries,
LG1860	5931	Your thrift, knowledge, prayers, if they do not return in mockeries, what is their return?
LG1860	5932	The mockeries are not you,
LG1860	5933	Underneath them, and within them, I see you lurk,
LG1860	5934	I pursue you where none else has pursued you,
LG1860	5935	Silence, the desk, the flippant expression, the night, the accustomed routine, if these conceal you from others, or from yourself, they do not conceal you from me,
LG1860	5936	The shaved face, the unsteady eye, the impure com-plexioncomplexion, if these balk others, they do not balk me,
LG1860	5937	The pert apparel, the deformed attitude, drunken-nessdrunkenness, greed, premature death, all these I part aside,
LG1860	5938	I track through your windings and turnings—I come upon you where you thought eye should never come upon you.
LG1860	5939	There is no endowment in man or woman that is not tallied in you,
LG1860	5940	There is no virtue, no beauty, in man or woman, but as good is in you,
LG1860	5941	No pluck, no endurance in others, but as good is in you,
LG1860	5942	No pleasure waiting for others, but an equal pleasure waits for you.
LG1860	5943	As for me, I give nothing to any one, except I give the like carefully to you,
LG1860	5944	I sing the songs of the glory of none, not God, sooner than I sing the songs of the glory of you.
LG1860	5945	Whoever you are! claim your own at any hazard!
LG1860	5946	These shows of the east and west are tame compared to you,
LG1860	5947	These immense meadows—these interminable rivers —you are immense and interminable as they,
LG1860	5948	These furies, elements, storms, motions of Nature, throes of apparent dissolution—you are he or she who is master or mistress over them,
LG1860	5949	Master or mistress in your own right over Nature, elements, pain, passion, dissolution.
LG1860	5950	The hopples fall from your ankles—you find an un-failingunfailing sufficiency,
LG1860	5951	Old or young, male or female, rude, low, rejected by the rest, whatever you are promulges itself,
LG1860	5952	Through birth, life, death, burial, the means are pro-videdprovided, nothing is scanted,
LG1860	5953	Through angers, losses, ambition, ignorance, ennui, what you are picks its way.
LG1860	5954	COURAGE! my brother or my sister!
LG1860	5955	Keep on! Liberty is to be subserved, whatever occurs;
LG1860	5956	That is nothing, that is quelled by one or two failures, or any number of failures,
LG1860	5957	Or by the indifference or ingratitude of the people, or by any unfaithfulness,
LG1860	5958	Or the show of the tushes of power—soldiers, cannon, penal statutes.
LG1860	5959	What we believe in waits latent forever through Asia, Africa, Europe, North and South America, Australia, Cuba, and all the islands and archi-pelagoesarchipelagoes of the sea.
LG1860	5960	What we believe in invites no one, promises nothing, sits in calmness and light, is positive and com-posedcomposed, knows no discouragement,
LG1860	5961	Waits patiently its time—a year—a century—a hundred centuries.
LG1860	5962	The battle rages with many a loud alarm and fre-quentfrequent advance and retreat,
LG1860	5963	The infidel triumphs—or supposes he triumphs,
LG1860	5964	The prison, scaffold, garrote, hand-cuffs, iron necklace and anklet, lead-balls, do their work,
LG1860	5965	The named and unnamed heroes pass to other spheres,
LG1860	5966	The great speakers and writers are exiled—they lie sick in distant lands,
LG1860	5967	The cause is asleep—the strongest throats are still, choked with their own blood,
LG1860	5968	The young men drop their eyelashes toward the ground when they meet,
LG1860	5969	But for all this, liberty has not gone out of the place, nor the infidel entered into possession.
LG1860	5970	When liberty goes out of a place, it is not the first to go, nor the second or third to go,
LG1860	5971	It waits for all the rest to go—it is the last.
LG1860	5972	When there are no more memories of the superb lovers of the nations of the world,
LG1860	5973	The superb lovers' names scouted in the public gatherings by the lips of the orators,
LG1860	5974	Boys not christened after them, but christened after traitors and murderers instead,
LG1860	5975	Tyrants' and priests' successes really acknowledged anywhere, for all the ostensible appearance,
LG1860	5976	You or I walking abroad upon the earth, elated at the sight of slaves, no matter who they are,
LG1860	5977	And when all life, and all the Souls of men and women are discharged from any part of the earth,
LG1860	5978	Then shall the instinct of liberty be discharged from that part of the earth,
LG1860	5979	Then shall the infidel and the tyrant come into possession.
LG1860	5980	Then courage!
LG1860	5981	For till all ceases, neither must you cease.
LG1860	5982	I do not know what you are for, (I do not what I am for myself, nor what any thing is for,)
LG1860	5983	But I will search carefully for it in being foiled,
LG1860	5984	In defeat, poverty, imprisonment—for they too are great.
LG1860	5985	Did we think victory great?
LG1860	5986	So it is—But now it seems to me, when it cannot be helped, that defeat is great,
LG1860	5987	And that death and dismay are great.
LG1860	5988	MY spirit to yours, dear brother,
LG1860	5989	Do not mind because many, sounding your name, do not understand you,
LG1860	5990	I do not sound your name, but I understand you,(there are others also;)
LG1860	5991	I specify you with joy, O my comrade, to salute you,and to salute those who are with you, before and since—and those to come also,
LG1860	5992	That we all labor together, transmitting the same charge and succession;
LG1860	5993	We few, equals, indifferent of lands, indifferent of times,
LG1860	5994	We, enclosers of all continents, all castes—allowers of all theologies,
LG1860	5995	Compassionaters, perceivers, rapport of men,
LG1860	5996	We walk silent among disputes and assertions, but reject not the disputers, nor any thing that is asserted,
LG1860	5997	We hear the bawling and din—we are reached at by divisions, jealousies, recriminations on every side,
LG1860	5998	They close peremptorily upon us, to surround us,my comrade,
LG1860	5999	Yet we walk unheld, free, the whole earth over,journeying up and down, till we make our in-effaceableineffaceable mark upon time and the diverse eras,
LG1860	6000	Till we saturate time and eras, that the men and women of races, ages to come, may prove breth-renbrethren and lovers, as we are.
LG1860	6001	FROM all the rest I single out you, having a message for you:
LG1860	6002	You are to die—Let others tell you what they please, I cannot prevaricate,
LG1860	6003	I am exact and merciless, but I love you—There is no escape for you.
LG1860	6004	Softly I lay my right hand upon you—you just feel it,
LG1860	6005	I do not argue—I bend my head close, and half- envelop it,
LG1860	6006	I sit quietly by—I remain faithful,
LG1860	6007	I am more than nurse, more than parent or neighbor,
LG1860	6008	I absolve you from all except yourself, spiritual, bodily—that is eternal,
LG1860	6009	(The corpse you will leave will be but excremen-titiousecrementitious.)
LG1860	6010	The sun bursts through in unlooked-for directions!
LG1860	6011	Strong thoughts fill you, and confidence—you smile!
LG1860	6012	You forget you are sick, as I forget you are sick,
LG1860	6013	You do not see the medicines—you do not mind the weeping friends—I am with you,
LG1860	6014	I exclude others from you—there is nothing to be commiserated,
LG1860	6015	I do not commiserate—I congratulate you.
LG1860	6016	BE composed—be at ease with me—I am Walt Whitman, liberal and lusty as Nature,
LG1860	6017	Not till the sun excludes you, do I exclude you,
LG1860	6018	Not till the waters refuse to glisten for you, and the leaves to rustle for you, do my words refuse to glisten and rustle for you.
LG1860	6019	My girl, I appoint with you an appointment—and I charge you that you make preparation to be worthy to meet me,
LG1860	6020	And I charge you that you be patient and perfect till I come.
LG1860	6021	Till then, I salute you with a significant look, that you do not forget me.
LG1860	6022	WHAT you give me, I cheerfully accept,
LG1860	6023	A little sustenance, a hut and garden, a little money —these as I rendezvous with my poems,
LG1860	6024	A traveller's lodging and breakfast as I journey through The States—Why should I be ashamed to own such gifts? Why to advertise for them?
LG1860	6025	For I myself am not one who bestows nothing upon man and woman,
LG1860	6026	For I know that what I bestow upon any man or woman is no less than the entrance to all the gifts of the universe.
LG1860	6027	IS reform needed? Is it through you?
LG1860	6028	The greater the reform needed, the greater the PER-SONALITYPERSONALITY you need to accomplish it.
LG1860	6029	You! do you not see how it would serve to have eyes, blood, complexion, clean and sweet?
LG1860	6030	Do you not see how it would serve to have such a body and Soul, that when you enter the crowd, an atmosphere of desire and command enters with you, and every one is impressed with your personality?
LG1860	6031	O the magnet! the flesh over and over!
LG1860	6032	Go, mon cher! if need be, give up all else, and com-mencecommence to-day to inure yourself to pluck, reality, self-esteem, definiteness, elevatedness,
LG1860	6033	Rest not, till you rivet and publish yourself of your own personality.
LG1860	6034	WHY reclining, interrogating? Why myself and all drowsing?
LG1860	6035	What deepening twilight! Scum floating atop of the waters!
LG1860	6036	Who are they, as bats and night-dogs, askant in the Capitol?
LG1860	6037	What a filthy Presidentiad! (O south, your torrid suns! O north, your arctic freezings!)
LG1860	6038	Are those really Congressmen? Are those the great Judges? Is that the President?
LG1860	6039	Then I will sleep a while yet—for I see that These States sleep, for reasons;
LG1860	6040	(With gathering murk—with muttering thunder and lambent shoots, we all duly awake,
LG1860	6041	South, north, east, west, inland and seaboard, we will surely awake.)
LG1860	6042	HERE, take this gift!
LG1860	6043	I was reserving it for some hero, orator, or general,
LG1860	6044	One who should serve the good old cause, the prog-ressprogress and freedom of the race, the cause of my Soul;
LG1860	6045	But I see that what I was reserving belongs to you just as much as to any.
LG1860	6046	TO The States, or any one of them, or any city of The States, Resist much, obey little,
LG1860	6047	Once unquestioning obedience, once fully enslaved,
LG1860	6048	Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city, of this earth, ever afterward resumes its liberty.
LG1860	6049	ALL you are doing and saying is to America dangled mirages,
LG1860	6050	You have not learned of Nature—of the politics of Nature, you have not learned the great ampli-tudeamplitude, rectitude, impartiality,
LG1860	6051	You have not seen that only such as they are for These States,
LG1860	6052	And that what is less than they, must sooner or later lift off from These States.
LG1860	6053	I HEAR you have been asking for something to repre-sentrepresent the new race, our self-poised Democracy,
LG1860	6054	Therefore I send you my poems, that you behold in them what you wanted.
LG1860	6055	I SEE in you the estuary that enlarges and spreads itself grandly as it pours in the great sea.
LG1860	6056	LET us twain walk aside from the rest;
LG1860	6057	Now we are together privately, do you discard cer-emonyceremony,
LG1860	6058	Come! vouchsafe to me what has yet been vouchsafed to none—Tell me the whole story,
LG1860	6059	Tell me what you would not tell your brother, wife,husband, or physician.
LG1860	6060	STRANGER! if you, passing, meet me, and desire to speak to me, why should you not speak to me?
LG1860	6061	And why should I not speak to you?
LG1860	6062	I WAS asking for something specific and perfect for my city, and behold! here is the aboriginal name!
LG1860	6063	Now I see what there is in a name, a word, liquid, sane, unruly, musical, self-sufficient,
LG1860	6064	I see that the word of my city, is that word up there,
LG1860	6065	Because I see that word nested in nests of water-bays, superb, with tall and wonderful spires,
LG1860	6066	Rich, hemmed thick all around with sailships and steamships—an island sixteen miles long, solid- founded,
LG1860	6067	Numberless crowded streets—high growths of iron, slender, strong, light, splendidly uprising toward clear skies;
LG1860	6068	Tides swift and ample, well-loved by me, toward sun-downsundown,
LG1860	6069	The flowing sea-currents, the little islands, the larger adjoining islands, the heights, the villas,
LG1860	6070	The countless masts, the white shore-steamers, the lighters, the ferry-boats, the black sea-steamers, well-model'd;
LG1860	6071	The down-town streets, the jobbers' houses of business —the houses of business of the ship-merchants, and money-brokers—the river-streets,
LG1860	6072	Immigrants arriving, fifteen or twenty thousand in a week,
LG1860	6073	The carts hauling goods—the manly race of drivers of horses—the brown-faced sailors,
LG1860	6074	The summer-air, the bright sun shining, and the sail-ingsailing clouds aloft,
LG1860	6075	The winter snows, the sleigh-bells—the broken ice in the river, passing along, up or down, with the flood-tide or ebb-tide;
LG1860	6076	The mechanics of the city, the masters, well-formed, beautiful-faced, looking you straight in the eyes;
LG1860	6077	Trottoirs thronged—vehicles—Broadway—the wo-menwomen—the shops and shows,
LG1860	6078	The parades, processions, bugles playing, flags flying, drums beating;
LG1860	6079	A million people—manners free and superb—open voices—hospitality—the most courageous and friendly young men;
LG1860	6080	The free city! no slaves! no owners of slaves!
LG1860	6081	The beautiful city! the city of hurried and sparkling waters! the city of spires and masts!
LG1860	6082	The city nested in bays! my city!
LG1860	6083	The city of such women, I am mad to be with them! I will return after death to be with them!
LG1860	6084	The city of such young men, I swear I cannot live happy, without I often go talk, walk, eat, drink, sleep, with them!
LG1860	6085	A GREAT year and place,
LG1860	6086	A harsh, discordant, natal scream rising, to touch the mother's heart closer than any yet.
LG1860	6087	I walked the shores of my Eastern Sea,
LG1860	6088	Heard over the waves the little voice,
LG1860	6089	Saw the divine infant, where she woke, mournfully wailing, amid the roar of cannon, curses, shouts,crash of falling buildings,
LG1860	6090	Was not so sick from the blood in the gutters running —nor from the single corpses, nor those in heaps,nor those borne away in the tumbrils,
LG1860	6091	Was not so desperate at the battues of death—was not so shocked at the repeated fusillades of the guns.
LG1860	6092	Pale, silent, stern, what could I say to that long-accrued retribution?
LG1860	6093	Could I wish humanity different?
LG1860	6094	Could I wish the people made of wood and stone?
LG1860	6095	Or that there be no justice in destiny or time?
LG1860	6096	O Liberty! O mate for me!
LG1860	6097	Here too keeps the blaze, the bullet and the axe, in reserve, to fetch them out in case of need,
LG1860	6098	Here too, though long deprest, still is not destroyed,
LG1860	6099	Here too could rise at last, murdering and extatic,
LG1860	6100	Here too would demand full arrears of vengeance.
LG1860	6101	Hence I sign this salute over the sea,
LG1860	6102	And I do not deny that terrible red birth and baptism,
LG1860	6103	But remember the little voice that I heard wailing—and wait with perfect trust, no matter how long,
LG1860	6104	And from to-day, sad and cogent, I maintain the bequeath'd cause, as for all lands,
LG1860	6105	And I send these words to Paris, with my love,
LG1860	6106	And I guess some chansonniers there will understand them,
LG1860	6107	For I guess there is latent music yet in France—floods of it,
LG1860	6108	O I hear already the bustle of instruments—they will soon be drowning all that would interrupt them,
LG1860	6109	O I think the east wind brings a triumphal and free march,
LG1860	6110	It reaches hither—it swells me to joyful madness,
LG1860	6111	I will run transpose it in words, to justify it,
LG1860	6112	I will yet sing a song for you, ma femme.
LG1860	6113	OF the visages of things—And of piercing through to the accepted hells beneath;
LG1860	6114	Of ugliness—To me there is just as much in it as there is in beauty—And now the ugliness of human beings is acceptable to me;
LG1860	6115	Of detected persons—To me, detected persons are not, in any respect, worse than undetected per-sonspersons—and are not in any respect worse than I am myself;
LG1860	6116	Of criminals—To me, any judge, or any juror, is equally criminal—and any reputable person is also—and the President is also.
LG1860	6117	OF waters, forests, hills,
LG1860	6118	Of the earth at large, whispering through medium of me;
LG1860	6119	Of vista—Suppose some sight in arriere, through the formative chaos, presuming the growth, fulness,life, now attained on the journey;
LG1860	6120	(But I see the road continued, and the journey ever continued;)
LG1860	6121	Of what was once lacking on the earth, and in due time has become supplied—And of what will yet be supplied,
LG1860	6122	Because all I see and know, I believe to have purport in what will yet be supplied.
LG1860	6123	OF persons arrived at high positions, ceremonies,wealth, scholarships, and the like,
LG1860	6124	To me, all that those persons have arrived at, sinks away from them, except as it results to their bodies and Souls,
LG1860	6125	So that often to me they appear gaunt and naked,
LG1860	6126	And often, to me, each one mocks the others, and mocks himself or herself,
LG1860	6127	And of each one, the core of life, namely happiness,is full of the rotten excrement of maggots,
LG1860	6128	And often, to me, those men and women pass un-wittinglyunwittingly the true realities of life, and go toward false realities,
LG1860	6129	And often, to me, they are alive after what custom has served them, but nothing more,
LG1860	6130	And often, to me, they are sad, hasty, unwaked son-nambulessonnambules, walking the dusk.
LG1860	6131	OF ownership—As if one fit to own things could not at pleasure enter upon all, and incorporate them into himself or herself;
LG1860	6132	Of Equality—As if it harmed me, giving others the same chances and rights as myself—As if it were not indispensable to my own rights that others possess the same;
LG1860	6133	Of Justice—As if Justice could be any thing but the same ample law, expounded by natural judges and saviours,
LG1860	6134	As if it might be this thing or that thing, according to decisions.
LG1860	6135	AS I sit with others, at a great feast, suddenly, while the music is playing,
LG1860	6136	To my mind, (whence it comes I know not,) spectral,in mist, of a wreck at sea,
LG1860	6137	Of the flower of the marine science of fifty genera-tionsgenerations, foundered off the Northeast coast, and going down—Of the steamship Arctic going down,
LG1860	6138	Of the veiled tableau—Women gathered together on deck, pale, heroic, waiting the moment that draws so close—O the moment!
LG1860	6139	O the huge sob—A few bubbles—the white foam spirting up—And then the women gone,
LG1860	6140	Sinking there, while the passionless wet flows on—And I now pondering, Are those women indeed gone?
LG1860	6141	Are Souls drowned and destroyed so?
LG1860	6142	Is only matter triumphant?
LG1860	6143	OF what I write from myself—As if that were not the resumé;
LG1860	6144	Of Histories—As if such, however complete, were not less complete than my poems;
LG1860	6145	As if the shreds, the records of nations, could possibly be as lasting as my poems;
LG1860	6146	As if here were not the amount of all nations, and of all the lives of heroes.
LG1860	6147	OF obedience, faith, adhesiveness;
LG1860	6148	As I stand aloof and look, there is to me something profoundly affecting in large masses of men, fol-lowingfollowing the lead of those who do not believe in men.
LG1860	6149	NATIONS ten thousand years before These States, and many times ten thousand years before These States,
LG1860	6150	Garnered clusters of ages, that men and women like us grew up and travelled their course, and passed on;
LG1860	6151	What vast-built cities—What orderly republics—What pastoral tribes and nomads,
LG1860	6152	What histories, rulers, heroes, perhaps transcending all others,
LG1860	6153	What laws, customs, wealth, arts, traditions,
LG1860	6154	What sort of marriage—What costumes—What physiology and phrenology,
LG1860	6155	What of liberty and slavery among them—What they thought of death and the Soul,
LG1860	6156	Who were witty and wise—Who beautiful and poetic —Who brutish and undeveloped,
LG1860	6157	Not a mark, not a record remains—And yet all remains.
LG1860	6158	O I know that those men and women were not for nothing, any more than we are for nothing,
LG1860	6159	I know that they belong to the scheme of the world every bit as much as we now belong to it, and as all will henceforth belong to it.
LG1860	6160	Afar they stand—yet near to me they stand,
LG1860	6161	Some with oval countenances, learned and calm,
LG1860	6162	Some naked and savage—Some like huge collections of insects,
LG1860	6163	Some in tents—herdsmen, patriarchs, tribes, horse-menhorsemen,
LG1860	6164	Some prowling through woods—Some living peacea-blypeaceably on farms, laboring, reaping, filling barns,
LG1860	6165	Some traversing paved avenues, amid temples, palaces,factories, libraries, shows, courts, theatres, won-derfulwonderful monuments.
LG1860	6166	Are those billions of men really gone?
LG1860	6167	Are those women of the old experience of the earth gone?
LG1860	6168	Do their lives, cities, arts, rest only with us?
LG1860	6169	Did they achieve nothing for good, for themselves?
LG1860	6170	I believe of all those billions of men and women that filled the unnamed lands, every one exists this hour, here or elsewhere, invisible to us, in exact proportion to what he or she grew from in life,and out of what he or she did, felt, became, loved,sinned, in life.
LG1860	6171	I believe that was not the end of those nations, or any person of them, any more than this shall be the end of my nation, or of me;
LG1860	6172	Of their languages, phrenology, government, coins, med-alsmedals, marriage, literature, products, games, juris-prudencejurisprudence, wars, manners, amativeness, crimes,prisons, slaves, heroes, poets, I suspect their re-sultsresults curiously await in the yet unseen world —counterparts of what accrued to them in the seen world,
LG1860	6173	I suspect I shall meet them there,
LG1860	6174	I suspect I shall there find each old particular of those unnamed lands.
LG1860	6175	WHO includes diversity, and is Nature,
LG1860	6176	Who is the amplitude of the earth, and the coarseness and sexuality of the earth, and the great charity of the earth, and the equilibrium also,
LG1860	6177	Who has not looked forth from the windows, the eyes, for nothing, or whose brain held audience with messengers for nothing;
LG1860	6178	Who contains believers and disbelievers—Who is the most majestic lover;
LG1860	6179	Who holds duly his or her triune proportion of realism, spiritualism, and of the æsthetic, or intellectual,
LG1860	6180	Who, having considered the body, finds all its organs and parts good;
LG1860	6181	Who, out of the theory of the earth, and of his or her body, understands by subtle analogies, the theory of a city, a poem, and of the large politics of These States;
LG1860	6182	Who believes not only in our globe, with its sun and moon, but in other globes, with their suns and moons;
LG1860	6183	Who, constructing the house of himself or herself, not for a day, but for all time, sees races, eras, dates, generations,
LG1860	6184	The past, the future, dwelling there, like space, insep-arableinseparable together.
LG1860	6185	HOLD it up sternly! See this it sends back! (Who is it? Is it you?)
LG1860	6186	Outside fair costume—within, ashes and filth,
LG1860	6187	No more a flashing eye—no more a sonorous voice or springy step,
LG1860	6188	Now some slave's eye, voice, hands, step,
LG1860	6189	A drunkard's breath, unwholesome eater's face, ve-nerealee'svenerealee's flesh,
LG1860	6190	Lungs rotting away piecemeal, stomach sour and cankerous,
LG1860	6191	Joints rheumatic, bowels clogged with abomination,
LG1860	6192	Blood circulating dark and poisonous streams,
LG1860	6193	Words babble, hearing and touch callous,
LG1860	6194	No brain, no heart left—no magnetism of sex;
LG1860	6195	Such, from one look in this looking-glass ere you go hence,
LG1860	6196	Such a result so soon—and from such a beginning!
LG1860	6197	HOW they are provided for upon the earth, (appear-ingappearing at intervals,)
LG1860	6198	How dear and dreadful they are to the earth,
LG1860	6199	How they inure to themselves as much as to any— What a paradox appears, their age,
LG1860	6200	How people respond to them, yet know them not,
LG1860	6201	How there is something relentless in their fate, all times,
LG1860	6202	How all times mischoose the objects of their adulation and reward,
LG1860	6203	And how the same inexorable price must still be paid for the same great purchase.
LG1860	6204	ALL submit to them, where they sit, inner, secure, unapproachable to analysis, in the Soul;
LG1860	6205	Not traditions—not the outer authorities are the judges—they are the judges of outer authori-tiesauthorities, and of all traditions,
LG1860	6206	They corroborate as they go, only whatever corrobo-ratescorroborates themselves, and touches themselves,
LG1860	6207	For all that, they have it forever in themselves to cor-roboratecorroborate far and near, without one exception.
LG1860	6208	THITHER, as I look, I see each result and glory re-tracingretracing itself and nestling close, always obli-gatedobligated;
LG1860	6209	Thither hours, months, years—thither trades, com-pactscompacts, establishments, even the most minute,
LG1860	6210	Thither every-day life, speech, utensils, politics, per-sonspersons, estates,
LG1860	6211	Thither we also, I with my leaves and songs, trustful, admirant,
LG1860	6212	As a father, to his father going, takes his children along with him.
LG1860	6213	ONLY themselves understand themselves, and the like of themselves,
LG1860	6214	As Souls only understand Souls.
LG1860	6215	I SAY whatever tastes sweet to the most perfect per-sonperson, that is finally right.
LG1860	6216	I SAY nourish a great intellect, a great brain;
LG1860	6217	If I have said anything to the contrary, I hereby retract it.
LG1860	6218	I SAY man shall not hold property in man;
LG1860	6219	I say the least developed person on earth is just as important and sacred to himself or herself, as the most developed person is to himself or her-selfherself.
LG1860	6220	I SAY where liberty draws not the blood out of slavery, there slavery draws the blood out of liberty,
LG1860	6221	I say the word of the good old cause in These States,and resound it hence over the world.
LG1860	6222	I SAY the human shape or face is so great, it must never be made ridiculous;
LG1860	6223	I say for ornaments nothing outre can be allowed,
LG1860	6224	And that anything is most beautiful without orna-mentornament,
LG1860	6225	And that exaggerations will be sternly revenged in your own physiology, and in other persons' phys-iologyphysiology also;
LG1860	6226	And I say that clean-shaped children can be jetted and conceived only where natural forms prevail in public, and the human face and form are never caricatured;
LG1860	6227	And I say that genius need never more be turned to romances,
LG1860	6228	(For facts properly told, how mean appear all romances.)
LG1860	6229	I SAY the word of lands fearing nothing—I will have no other land;
LG1860	6230	I say discuss all and expose all—I am for every topic openly;
LG1860	6231	I say there can be no salvation for These States with-outwithout innovators—without free tongues, and ears willing to hear the tongues;
LG1860	6232	And I announce as a glory of These States, that they respectfully listen to propositions, reforms,fresh views and doctrines, from successions of men and women,
LG1860	6233	Each age with its own growth.
LG1860	6234	I HAVE said many times that materials and the Soul are great, and that all depends on physique;
LG1860	6235	Now I reverse what I said, and affirm that all depends on the æsthetic or intellectual,
LG1860	6236	And that criticism is great—and that refinement is greatest of all;
LG1860	6237	And I affirm now that the mind governs—and that all depends on the mind.
LG1860	6238	WITH one man or woman—(no matter which one—I even pick out the lowest,)
LG1860	6239	With him or her I now illustrate the whole law;
LG1860	6240	I say that every right, in politics or what-not, shall be eligible to that one man or woman, on the same terms as any.
LG1860	6241	HE is wisest who has the most caution,
LG1860	6242	He only wins who goes far enough.
LG1860	6243	ANY thing is as good as established, when that is established that will produce it and continue it.
LG1860	6244	WHAT General has a good army in himself, has a good army;
LG1860	6245	He happy in himself, or she happy in herself, is happy,
LG1860	6246	But I tell you you cannot be happy by others, any more than you can beget or conceive a child by others.
LG1860	6247	HAVE you learned lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you?
LG1860	6248	Have you not learned the great lessons of those who rejected you, and braced themselves against you?or who treated you with contempt, or disputed the passage with you?
LG1860	6249	Have you had no practice to receive opponents when they come?
LG1860	6250	DESPAIRING cries float ceaselessly toward me, day and night,
LG1860	6251	The sad voice of Death—the call of my nearest lover, putting forth, alarmed, uncertain,
LG1860	6252	This sea I am quickly to sail, come tell me,
LG1860	6253	Come tell me where I am speeding—tell me my destination.
LG1860	6254	I UNDERSTAND your anguish, but I cannot help you,
LG1860	6255	I approach, hear, behold—the sad mouth, the look out of the eyes, your mute inquiry,
LG1860	6256	Whither I go from the bed I now recline on, come tell me;
LG1860	6257	Old age, alarmed, uncertain—A young woman's voice appealing to me, for comfort,
LG1860	6258	A young man's voice, Shall I not escape?
LG1860	6259	A THOUSAND perfect men and women appear,
LG1860	6260	Around each gathers a cluster of friends, and gay children and youths, with offerings.
LG1860	6261	A MASK—a perpetual natural disguiser of herself,
LG1860	6262	Concealing her face, concealing her form,
LG1860	6263	Changes and transformations every hour, every mo-mentmoment,
LG1860	6264	Falling upon her even when she sleeps.
LG1860	6265	ONE sweeps by, attended by an immense train,
LG1860	6266	All emblematic of peace—not a soldier or menial among them.
LG1860	6267	ONE sweeps by, old, with black eyes, and profuse white hair,
LG1860	6268	He has the simple magnificence of health and strength,
LG1860	6269	His face strikes as with flashes of lightning whoever it turns toward.
LG1860	6270	THREE old men slowly pass, followed by three others,and they by three others,
LG1860	6271	They are beautiful—the one in the middle of each group holds his companions by the hand,
LG1860	6272	As they walk, they give out perfume wherever they walk.
LG1860	6273	WOMEN sit, or move to and fro—some old, some young,
LG1860	6274	The young are beautiful—but the old are more beautiful than the young.
LG1860	6275	WHAT weeping face is that looking from the window?
LG1860	6276	Why does it stream those sorrowful tears?
LG1860	6277	Is it for some burial place, vast and dry?
LG1860	6278	Is it to wet the soil of graves?
LG1860	6279	I WILL take an egg out of the robin's nest in the orchard,
LG1860	6280	I will take a branch of gooseberries from the old bush in the garden, and go and preach to the world;
LG1860	6281	You shall see I will not meet a single heretic or scorner,
LG1860	6282	You shall see how I stump clergymen, and confound them,
LG1860	6283	You shall see me showing a scarlet tomato, and a white pebble from the beach.
LG1860	6284	BEHAVIOR—fresh, native, copious, each one for him-selfhimself or herself,
LG1860	6285	Nature and the Soul expressed—America and free-domfreedom expressed—In it the finest art,
LG1860	6286	In it pride, cleanliness, sympathy, to have their chance,
LG1860	6287	In it physique, intellect, faith—in it just as much as to manage an army or a city, or to write a book —perhaps more,
LG1860	6288	The youth, the laboring person, the poor person,rivalling all the rest—perhaps outdoing the rest,
LG1860	6289	The effects of the universe no greater than its;
LG1860	6290	For there is nothing in the whole universe that can be more effective than a man's or woman's daily behavior can be,
LG1860	6291	In any position, in any one of These States.
LG1860	6292	NOT the pilot has charged himself to bring his ship into port, though beaten back, and many times baffled,
LG1860	6293	Not the path-finder, penetrating inland, weary and long,
LG1860	6294	By deserts parched, snows chilled, rivers wet, per-severesperseveres till he reaches his destination,
LG1860	6295	More than I have charged myself, heeded or un-heededunheeded, to compose a free march for These States,
LG1860	6296	To be exhilarating music to them, years, centuries hence.
LG1860	6297	I THOUGHT I was not alone, walking here by the shore,
LG1860	6298	But the one I thought was with me, as now I walk by the shore,
LG1860	6299	As I lean and look through the glimmering light—that one has utterly disappeared,
LG1860	6300	And those appear that perplex me.
LG1860	6301	I WANDER all night in my vision,
LG1860	6302	Stepping with light feet, swiftly and noiselessly step-pingstepping and stopping,
LG1860	6303	Bending with open eyes over the shut eyes of sleepers,
LG1860	6304	Wandering and confused, lost to myself, ill-assorted,contradictory,
LG1860	6305	Pausing, gazing, bending, and stopping.
LG1860	6306	How solemn they look there, stretched and still!
LG1860	6307	How quiet they breathe, the little children in their cradles!
LG1860	6308	The wretched features of ennuyés, the white features of corpses, the livid faces of drunkards, the sick-gray faces of onanists,
LG1860	6309	The gashed bodies on battle-fields, the insane in their strong-doored rooms, the sacred idiots, the new-bornnewborn emerging from gates, and the dying emer-gingemerging from gates,
LG1860	6310	The night pervades them and infolds them.
LG1860	6311	The married couple sleep calmly in their bed—he with his palm on the hip of the wife, and she with her palm on the hip of the husband,
LG1860	6312	The sisters sleep lovingly side by side in their bed,
LG1860	6313	The men sleep lovingly side by side in theirs,
LG1860	6314	And the mother sleeps, with her little child carefully wrapped.
LG1860	6315	The blind sleep, and the deaf and dumb sleep,
LG1860	6316	The prisoner sleeps well in the prison—the run-awayrunaway son sleeps,
LG1860	6317	The murderer that is to be hung next day—how does he sleep?
LG1860	6318	And the murdered person—how does he sleep?
LG1860	6319	The female that loves unrequited sleeps,
LG1860	6320	And the male that loves unrequited sleeps,
LG1860	6321	The head of the money-maker that plotted all day sleeps,
LG1860	6322	And the enraged and treacherous dispositions—all, all sleep.
LG1860	6323	I stand in the dark with drooping eyes by the worst-suffering and the most restless,
LG1860	6324	I pass my hands soothingly to and fro a few inches from them,
LG1860	6325	The restless sink in their beds—they fitfully sleep.
LG1860	6326	Now I pierce the darkness—new beings appear,
LG1860	6327	The earth recedes from me into the night,
LG1860	6328	I saw that it was beautiful, and I see that what is not the earth is beautiful.
LG1860	6329	I go from bedside to bedside—I sleep close with the other sleepers, each in turn,
LG1860	6330	I dream in my dream all the dreams of the other dreamers,
LG1860	6331	And I become the other dreamers.
LG1860	6332	I am a dance—Play up, there! the fit is whirling me fast!
LG1860	6333	I am the ever-laughing—it is new moon and twilight,
LG1860	6334	I see the hiding of douceurs—I see nimble ghosts whichever way I look,
LG1860	6335	Cache, and cache again, deep in the ground and sea,and where it is neither ground or sea.
LG1860	6336	Well do they do their jobs, those journeymen divine,
LG1860	6337	Only from me can they hide nothing, and would not if they could,
LG1860	6338	I reckon I am their boss, and they make me a pet besides,
LG1860	6339	And surround me and lead me, and run ahead when I walk,
LG1860	6340	To lift their cunning covers, to signify me with stretched arms, and resume the way;
LG1860	6341	Onward we move! a gay gang of blackguards! with mirth-shouting music and wild-flapping pennants of joy!
LG1860	6342	I am the actor, the actress, the voter, the politician,
LG1860	6343	The emigrant and the exile, the criminal that stood in the box,
LG1860	6344	He who has been famous, and he who shall be famous after to-day,
LG1860	6345	The stammerer, the well-formed person, the wasted or feeble person.
LG1860	6346	I am she who adorned herself and folded her hair expectantly,
LG1860	6347	My truant lover has come, and it is dark.
LG1860	6348	Double yourself and receive me, darkness!
LG1860	6349	Receive me and my lover too—he will not let me go without him.
LG1860	6350	I roll myself upon you, as upon a bed—I resign myself to the dusk.
LG1860	6351	He whom I call answers me and takes the place of my lover,
LG1860	6352	He rises with me silently from the bed.
LG1860	6353	Darkness! you are gentler than my lover—his flesh was sweaty and panting,
LG1860	6354	I feel the hot moisture yet that he left me.
LG1860	6355	My hands are spread forth, I pass them in all directions,
LG1860	6356	I would sound up the shadowy shore to which you are journeying.
LG1860	6357	Be careful, darkness! already, what was it touched me?
LG1860	6358	I thought my lover had gone, else darkness and he are one,
LG1860	6359	I hear the heart-beat—I follow, I fade away.
LG1860	6360	O hot-cheeked and blushing! O foolish hectic!
LG1860	6361	O for pity's sake, no one must see me now! my clothes were stolen while I was abed,
LG1860	6362	Now I am thrust forth, where shall I run?
LG1860	6363	Pier that I saw dimly last night, when I looked from the windows!
LG1860	6364	Pier out from the main, let me catch myself with you and stay—I will not chafe you,
LG1860	6365	I feel ashamed to go naked about the world.
LG1860	6366	I am curious to know where my feet stand—and what this is flooding me, childhood or manhood —and the hunger that crosses the bridge between.
LG1860	6367	The cloth laps a first sweet eating and drinking,
LG1860	6368	Laps life-swelling yolks—laps ear of rose-corn, milky and just ripened;
LG1860	6369	The white teeth stay, and the boss-tooth advances in darkness,
LG1860	6370	And liquor is spilled on lips and bosoms by touching glasses, and the best liquor afterward.
LG1860	6371	I descend my western course, my sinews are flaccid,
LG1860	6372	Perfume and youth course through me, and I am their wake.
LG1860	6373	It is my face yellow and wrinkled, instead of the old woman's,
LG1860	6374	I sit low in a straw-bottom chair, and carefully darn my grandson's stockings.
LG1860	6375	It is I too, the sleepless widow looking out on the winter midnight,
LG1860	6376	I see the sparkles of starshine on the icy and pallid earth.
LG1860	6377	A shroud I see, and I am the shroud—I wrap a body and lie in the coffin,
LG1860	6378	It is dark here under ground—it is not evil or pain here—it is blank here, for reasons.
LG1860	6379	It seems to me that everything in the light and air ought to be happy,
LG1860	6380	Whoever is not in his coffin and the dark grave, let him know he has enough.
LG1860	6381	I see a beautiful gigantic swimmer swimming naked through the eddies of the sea,
LG1860	6382	His brown hair lies close and even to his head—he strikes out with courageous arms—he urges himself with his legs,
LG1860	6383	I see his white body—I see his undaunted eyes,
LG1860	6384	I hate the swift-running eddies that would dash him head-foremost on the rocks.
LG1860	6385	What are you doing, you ruffianly red-trickled waves?
LG1860	6386	Will you kill the courageous giant? Will you kill him in the prime of his middle age?
LG1860	6387	Steady and long he struggles,
LG1860	6388	He is baffled, banged, bruised—he holds out while his strength holds out,
LG1860	6389	The slapping eddies are spotted with his blood—they bear him away—they roll him, swing him,turn him,
LG1860	6390	His beautiful body is borne in the circling eddies,it is continually bruised on rocks,
LG1860	6391	Swiftly and out of sight is borne the brave corpse.
LG1860	6392	I turn, but do not extricate myself,
LG1860	6393	Confused, a past-reading, another, but with darkness yet.
LG1860	6394	The beach is cut by the razory ice-wind—the wreck-guns sound,
LG1860	6395	The tempest lulls—the moon comes floundering through the drifts.
LG1860	6396	I look where the ship helplessly heads end on—I hear the burst as she strikes—I hear the howls of dismay—they grow fainter and fainter.
LG1860	6397	I cannot aid with my wringing fingers,
LG1860	6398	I can but rush to the surf, and let it drench me and freeze upon me.
LG1860	6399	I search with the crowd—not one of the company is washed to us alive;
LG1860	6400	In the morning I help pick up the dead and lay them in rows in a barn.
LG1860	6401	Now of the old war-days, the defeat at Brooklyn,
LG1860	6402	Washington stands inside the lines—he stands on the intrenched hills, amid a crowd of officers,
LG1860	6403	His face is cold and damp—he cannot repress the weeping drops,
LG1860	6404	He lifts the glass perpetually to his eyes—the color is blanched from his cheeks,
LG1860	6405	He sees the slaughter of the southern braves confided to him by their parents.
LG1860	6406	The same, at last and at last, when peace is declared,
LG1860	6407	He stands in the room of the old tavern—the well-beloved soldiers all pass through,
LG1860	6408	The officers speechless and slow draw near in their turns,
LG1860	6409	The chief encircles their necks with his arm, and kisses them on the cheek,
LG1860	6410	He kisses lightly the wet cheeks one after another—he shakes hands, and bids good-by to the army.
LG1860	6411	Now I tell what my mother told me to-day as we sat at dinner together,
LG1860	6412	Of when she was a nearly grown girl, living home with her parents on the old homestead.
LG1860	6413	A red squaw came one breakfast-time to the old homestead,
LG1860	6414	On her back she carried a bundle of rushes for rush-bottoming chairs,
LG1860	6415	Her hair, straight, shiny, coarse, black, profuse, half-enveloped her face,
LG1860	6416	Her step was free and elastic, and her voice sounded exquisitely as she spoke.
LG1860	6417	My mother looked in delight and amazement at the stranger,
LG1860	6418	She looked at the freshness of her tall-borne face, and full and pliant limbs,
LG1860	6419	The more she looked upon her she loved her,
LG1860	6420	Never before had she seen such wonderful beauty and purity,
LG1860	6421	She made her sit on a bench by the jamb of the fire-placefireplace—she cooked food for her,
LG1860	6422	She had no work to give her, but she gave her remembrance and fondness.
LG1860	6423	The red squaw staid all the forenoon, and toward the middle of the afternoon she went away,
LG1860	6424	O my mother was loth to have her go away!
LG1860	6425	All the week she thought of her—she watched for her many a month,
LG1860	6426	She remembered her many a winter and many a summer,
LG1860	6427	But the red squaw never came, nor was heard of there again.
LG1860	6428	Now Lucifer was not dead—or if he was, I am his sorrowful terrible heir,
LG1860	6429	I have been wronged—I am oppressed—I hate him that oppresses me,
LG1860	6430	I will either destroy him, or he shall release me.
LG1860	6431	Damn him! how he does defile me!
LG1860	6432	How he informs against my brother and sister, and takes pay for their blood!
LG1860	6433	How he laughs when I look down the bend, after the steamboat that carries away my woman!
LG1860	6434	Now the vast dusk bulk that is the whale's bulk, it seems mine,
LG1860	6435	Warily, sportsman! though I lie so sleepy and slug-gishsluggish, my tap is death.
LG1860	6436	A show of the summer softness! a contact of some-thingsomething unseen! an amour of the light and air!
LG1860	6437	I am jealous, and overwhelmed with friendliness,
LG1860	6438	And will go gallivant with the light and air myself,
LG1860	6439	And have an unseen something to be in contact with them also.
LG1860	6440	O love and summer! you are in the dreams, and in me!
LG1860	6441	Autumn and winter are in the dreams—the farmer goes with his thrift,
LG1860	6442	The droves and crops increase, and the barns are well-filled.
LG1860	6443	Elements merge in the night—ships make tacks in the dreams,
LG1860	6444	The sailor sails—the exile returns home,
LG1860	6445	The fugitive returns unharmed—the immigrant is back beyond months and years,
LG1860	6446	The poor Irishman lives in the simple house of his childhood, with the well-known neighbors and faces,
LG1860	6447	They warmly welcome him—he is barefoot again, he forgets he is well off;
LG1860	6448	The Dutchman voyages home, and the Scotchman and Welshman voyage home, and the native of the Mediterranean voyages home,
LG1860	6449	To every port of England, France, Spain, enter well-filled ships,
LG1860	6450	The Swiss foots it toward his hills—the Prussian goes his way, the Hungarian his way, and the Pole his way,
LG1860	6451	The Swede returns, and the Dane and Norwegian return.
LG1860	6452	The homeward bound, and the outward bound,
LG1860	6453	The beautiful lost swimmer, the ennuyé, the onanist,the female that loves unrequited, the money-makermoneymaker,
LG1860	6454	The actor and actress, those through with their parts,and those waiting to commence,
LG1860	6455	The affectionate boy, the husband and wife, the voter,the nominee that is chosen, and the nominee that has failed,
LG1860	6456	The great already known, and the great any time after to-day,
LG1860	6457	The stammerer, the sick, the perfect-formed, the homely,
LG1860	6458	The criminal that stood in the box, the judge that sat and sentenced him, the fluent lawyers, the jury, the audience,
LG1860	6459	The laugher and weeper, the dancer, the midnight widow, the red squaw,
LG1860	6460	The consumptive, the erysipelite, the idiot, he that is wronged,
LG1860	6461	The antipodes, and every one between this and them in the dark,
LG1860	6462	I swear they are averaged now—one is no better than the other,
LG1860	6463	The night and sleep have likened them and restored them.
LG1860	6464	I swear they are all beautiful!
LG1860	6465	Every one that sleeps is beautiful—everything in the dim light is beautiful,
LG1860	6466	The wildest and bloodiest is over, and all is peace.
LG1860	6467	Peace is always beautiful,
LG1860	6468	The myth of heaven indicates peace and night.
LG1860	6469	The myth of heaven indicates the Soul;
LG1860	6470	The Soul is always beautiful—it appears more or it appears less—it comes, or it lags behind,
LG1860	6471	It comes from its embowered garden, and looks pleasantly on itself, and encloses the world,
LG1860	6472	Perfect and clean the genitals previously jetting, and perfect and clean the womb cohering,
LG1860	6473	The head well-grown, proportioned and plumb, and the bowels and joints proportioned and plumb.
LG1860	6474	The Soul is always beautiful,
LG1860	6475	The universe is duly in order, everything is in its place,
LG1860	6476	What is arrived is in its place, and what waits is in its place;
LG1860	6477	The twisted skull waits, the watery or rotten blood waits,
LG1860	6478	The child of the glutton or venerealee waits long, and the child of the drunkard waits long, and the drunkard himself waits long,
LG1860	6479	The sleepers that lived and died wait—the far advanced are to go on in their turns, and the far behind are to go on in their turns,
LG1860	6480	The diverse shall be no less diverse, but they shall flow and unite—they unite now.
LG1860	6481	The sleepers are very beautiful as they lie unclothed,
LG1860	6482	They flow hand in hand over the whole earth, from east to west, as they lie unclothed,
LG1860	6483	The Asiatic and African are hand in hand—the European and American are hand in hand,
LG1860	6484	Learned and unlearned are hand in hand, and male and female are hand in hand,
LG1860	6485	The bare arm of the girl crosses the bare breast of her lover—they press close without lust—his lips press her neck,
LG1860	6486	The father holds his grown or ungrown son in his arms with measureless love, and the son holds the father in his arms with measureless love,
LG1860	6487	The white hair of the mother shines on the white wrist of the daughter,
LG1860	6488	The breath of the boy goes with the breath of the man, friend is inarmed by friend,
LG1860	6489	The scholar kisses the teacher, and the teacher kisses the scholar—the wronged is made right,
LG1860	6490	The call of the slave is one with the master's call, and the master salutes the slave,
LG1860	6491	The felon steps forth from the prison—the insane becomes sane—the suffering of sick persons is relieved,
LG1860	6492	The sweatings and fevers stop—the throat that was unsound is sound—the lungs of the consumptive are resumed—the poor distressed head is free,
LG1860	6493	The joints of the rheumatic move as smoothly as ever,and smoother than ever,
LG1860	6494	Stiflings and passages open—the paralyzed become supple,
LG1860	6495	The swelled and convulsed and congested awake to themselves in condition,
LG1860	6496	They pass the invigoration of the night, and the chemistry of the night, and awake.
LG1860	6497	I too pass from the night,
LG1860	6498	I stay a while away O night, but I return to you again, and love you.
LG1860	6499	Why should I be afraid to trust myself to you?
LG1860	6500	I am not afraid—I have been well brought forward by you,
LG1860	6501	I love the rich running day, but I do not desert her in whom I lay so long,
LG1860	6502	I know not how I came of you, and I know not where I go with you—but I know I came well, and shall go well.
LG1860	6503	I will stop only a time with the night, and rise betimes,
LG1860	6504	I will duly pass the day, O my mother, and duly return to you.
LG1860	6505	TO think of it!
LG1860	6506	To think of time—of all that retrospection!
LG1860	6507	To think of to-day, and the ages continued hence-forwardhenceforward!
LG1860	6508	Have you guessed you yourself would not continue?
LG1860	6509	Have you dreaded those earth-beetles?
LG1860	6510	Have you feared the future would be nothing to you?
LG1860	6511	Is to-day nothing? Is the beginningless past nothing?
LG1860	6512	If the future is nothing, they are just as surely nothing.
LG1860	6513	To think that the sun rose in the east! that men and women were flexible, real, alive! that every-thingeverything was alive!
LG1860	6514	To think that you and I did not see, feel, think, nor bear our part!
LG1860	6515	To think that we are now here, and bear our part!
LG1860	6516	Not a day passes—not a minute or second, without an accouchment!
LG1860	6517	Not a day passes—not a minute or second, without a corpse!
LG1860	6518	The dull nights go over, and the dull days also,
LG1860	6519	The soreness of lying so much in bed goes over,
LG1860	6520	The physician, after long putting off, gives the silent and terrible look for an answer,
LG1860	6521	The children come hurried and weeping, and the brothers and sisters are sent for,
LG1860	6522	Medicines stand unused on the shelf—(the camphor-smell has long pervaded the rooms,)
LG1860	6523	The faithful hand of the living does not desert the hand of the dying,
LG1860	6524	The twitching lips press lightly on the forehead of the dying,
LG1860	6525	The breath ceases, and the pulse of the heart ceases,
LG1860	6526	The corpse stretches on the bed, and the living look upon it,
LG1860	6527	It is palpable as the living are palpable.
LG1860	6528	The living look upon the corpse with their eye-sight,
LG1860	6529	But without eye-sight lingers a different living, and looks curiously on the corpse.
LG1860	6530	To think that the rivers will flow, and the snow fall,and fruits ripen, and act upon others as upon us now—yet not act upon us!
LG1860	6531	To think of all these wonders of city and country,and others taking great interest in them—and we taking no interest in them!
LG1860	6532	To think how eager we are in building our houses!
LG1860	6533	To think others shall be just as eager, and we quite indifferent!
LG1860	6534	I see one building the house that serves him a few years, or seventy or eighty years at most,
LG1860	6535	I see one building the house that serves him longer than that.
LG1860	6536	Slow-moving and black lines creep over the whole earth—they never cease—they are the burial lines,
LG1860	6537	He that was President was buried, and he that is now President shall surely be buried.
LG1860	6538	Cold dash of waves at the ferry-wharf—posh and ice in the river, half-frozen mud in the streets,a gray discouraged sky overhead, the short last daylight of Twelfth Month,
LG1860	6539	A hearse and stages—other vehicles give place—the funeral of an old Broadway stage-driver, the cortege mostly drivers.
LG1860	6540	Steady the trot to the cemetery, duly rattles the death-bell, the gate is passed, the new-dug grave is halted at, the living alight, the hearse un-closesuncloses,
LG1860	6541	The coffin is passed out, lowered and settled, the whip is laid on the coffin, the earth is swiftly shovelled in,
LG1860	6542	The mound above is flatted with the spades—silence,
LG1860	6543	A minute, no one moves or speaks—it is done,
LG1860	6544	He is decently put away—is there anything more?
LG1860	6545	He was a good fellow, free-mouthed, quick-tempered,not bad-looking, able to take his own part, witty,sensitive to a slight, ready with life or death for a friend, fond of women, gambled, ate hearty,drank hearty, had known what it was to be flush, grew low-spirited toward the last, sickened,was helped by a contribution, died, aged forty-one years—and that was his funeral.
LG1860	6546	Thumb extended, finger uplifted, apron, cape, gloves,strap, wet-weather clothes, whip carefully chosen,boss, spotter, starter, hostler, somebody loafing on you, you loafing on somebody, head-way, man before and man behind, good day's work, bad day's work, pet stock, mean stock, first out, last out, turning in at night,
LG1860	6547	To think that these are so much and so nigh to other drivers—and he there takes no interest in them!
LG1860	6548	The markets, the government, the working-man's wages—to think what account they are through our nights and days!
LG1860	6549	To think that other working-men will make just as great account of them—yet we make little or no account!
LG1860	6550	The vulgar and the refined—what you call sin and what you call goodness—to think how wide a difference!
LG1860	6551	To think the difference will still continue to others,yet we lie beyond the difference.
LG1860	6552	To think how much pleasure there is!
LG1860	6553	Have you pleasure from looking at the sky? have you pleasure from poems?
LG1860	6554	Do you enjoy yourself in the city? or engaged in business? or planning a nomination and elec-tionelection? or with your wife and family?
LG1860	6555	Or with your mother and sisters? or in womanly house-work? or the beautiful maternal cares?
LG1860	6556	These also flow onward to others—you and I flow onward,
LG1860	6557	But in due time you and I shall take less interest in them.
LG1860	6558	Your farm, profits, crops,—to think how engrossed you are!
LG1860	6559	To think there will still be farms, profits, crops—yet for you, of what avail?
LG1860	6560	What will be, will be well—for what is, is well,
LG1860	6561	To take interest is well, and not to take interest shall be well.
LG1860	6562	The sky continues beautiful,
LG1860	6563	The pleasure of men with women shall never be sated,nor the pleasure of women with men, nor the pleasure from poems,
LG1860	6564	The domestic joys, the daily house-work or business,the building of houses—these are not phan-tasmsphantasms—they have weight, form, location;
LG1860	6565	Farms, profits, crops, markets, wages, government,are none of them phantasms,
LG1860	6566	The difference between sin and goodness is no delusion,
LG1860	6567	The earth is not an echo—man and his life, and all the things of his life, are well-considered.
LG1860	6568	You are not thrown to the winds—you gather cer-tainlycertainly and safely around yourself,
LG1860	6569	Yourself! Yourself! Yourself, forever and ever!
LG1860	6570	It is not to diffuse you that you were born of your mother and father—it is to identify you,It is not that you should be undecided, but that you should be decided;
LG1860	6571	Something long preparing and formless is arrived and formed in you,
LG1860	6572	You are thenceforth secure, whatever comes or goes.
LG1860	6573	The threads that were spun are gathered, the weft crosses the warp, the pattern is systematic.
LG1860	6574	The preparations have every one been justified,
LG1860	6575	The orchestra have sufficiently tuned their instru-mentsinstruments, the baton has given the signal.
LG1860	6576	The guest that was coming—he waited long, for reasons—he is now housed,
LG1860	6577	He is one of those who are beautiful and happy—he is one of those that to look upon and be with is enough.
LG1860	6578	The law of the past cannot be eluded,
LG1860	6579	The law of the present and future cannot be eluded,
LG1860	6580	The law of the living cannot be eluded—it is eter-naleternal,
LG1860	6581	The law of promotion and transformation cannot be eluded,
LG1860	6582	The law of heroes and good-doers cannot be eluded,
LG1860	6583	The law of drunkards, informers, mean persons—not one iota of it can be eluded.
LG1860	6584	Slow-moving and black lines go ceaselessly over the earth,
LG1860	6585	Northerner goes carried, and southerner goes carried,and they on the Atlantic side, and they on the Pacific, and they between, and all through the Mississippi country, and all over the earth.
LG1860	6586	The great masters and kosmos are well as they go—the heroes and good-doers are well,
LG1860	6587	The known leaders and inventors, and the rich owners and pious and distinguished, may be well,
LG1860	6588	But there is more account than that—there is strict account of all.
LG1860	6589	The interminable hordes of the ignorant and wicked are not nothing,
LG1860	6590	The barbarians of Africa and Asia are not nothing,
LG1860	6591	The common people of Europe are not nothing—the American aborigines are not nothing,
LG1860	6592	The infected in the immigrant hospital are not nothing—the murderer or mean person is not nothing,
LG1860	6593	The perpetual successions of shallow people are not nothing as they go,
LG1860	6594	The lowest prostitute is not nothing—the mocker of religion is not nothing as he goes.
LG1860	6595	I shall go with the rest—we have satisfaction,
LG1860	6596	I have dreamed that we are not to be changed so much, nor the law of us changed,
LG1860	6597	I have dreamed that heroes and good-doers shall be under the present and past law,
LG1860	6598	And that murderers, drunkards, liars, shall be under the present and past law,
LG1860	6599	For I have dreamed that the law they are under now is enough.
LG1860	6600	And I have dreamed that the satisfaction is not so much changed, and that there is no life with-outwithout satisfaction;
LG1860	6601	What is the earth? what are body and Soul, without satisfaction?
LG1860	6602	I shall go with the rest,
LG1860	6603	We cannot be stopped at a given point—that is no satisfaction,
LG1860	6604	To show us a good thing, or a few good things, for a space of time—that is no satisfaction,
LG1860	6605	We must have the indestructible breed of the best,regardless of time.
LG1860	6606	If otherwise, all these things came but to ashes of dung,
LG1860	6607	If maggots and rats ended us, then alarm! for we are betrayed!
LG1860	6608	Then indeed suspicion of death.
LG1860	6609	Do you suspect death? If I were to suspect death, I should die now,
LG1860	6610	Do you think I could walk pleasantly and well-suited toward annihilation?
LG1860	6611	Pleasantly and well-suited I walk,
LG1860	6612	Whither I walk I cannot define, but I know it is good,
LG1860	6613	The whole universe indicates that it is good,
LG1860	6614	The past and the present indicate that it is good.
LG1860	6615	How beautiful and perfect are the animals! How perfect is my Soul!
LG1860	6616	How perfect the earth, and the minutest thing upon it!
LG1860	6617	What is called good is perfect, and what is called bad is just as perfect,
LG1860	6618	The vegetables and minerals are all perfect, and the imponderable fluids are perfect;
LG1860	6619	Slowly and surely they have passed on to this, and slowly and surely they yet pass on.
LG1860	6620	My Soul! if I realize you, I have satisfaction,
LG1860	6621	Animals and vegetables! if I realize you, I have sat-isfactionsatisfaction,
LG1860	6622	Laws of the earth and air! if I realize you, I have satisfaction.
LG1860	6623	I cannot define my satisfaction, yet it is so,
LG1860	6624	I cannot define my life, yet it is so.
LG1860	6625	O it comes to me now!
LG1860	6626	I swear I think now that everything without excep-tionesception has an eternal Soul!
LG1860	6627	The trees have, rooted in the ground! the weeds of the sea have! the animals!
LG1860	6628	I swear I think there is nothing but immortality!
LG1860	6629	That the exquisite scheme is for it, and the nebulous float is for it, and the cohering is for it!
LG1860	6630	And all preparation is for it! and identity is for it!and life and death are altogether for it!
LG1860	6631	AS nearing departure,
LG1860	6632	As the time draws nigh, glooming from you,
LG1860	6633	A cloud—a dread beyond, of I know not what, dark-ensdarkens me.
LG1860	6634	I shall go forth,
LG1860	6635	I shall traverse The States—but I cannot tell whither or how long;
LG1860	6636	Perhaps soon, some day or night while I am singing,my voice will suddenly cease.
LG1860	6637	O Soul!
LG1860	6638	Then all may arrive to but this;
LG1860	6639	The glances of my eyes, that swept the daylight,
LG1860	6640	The unspeakable love I interchanged with women,
LG1860	6641	My joys in the open air—my walks through the Man-nahattaManahatta,
LG1860	6642	The continual good will I have met—the curious attachment of young men to me,
LG1860	6643	My reflections alone—the absorption into me from the landscape, stars, animals, thunder, rain,and snow, in my wanderings alone,
LG1860	6644	The words of my mouth, rude, ignorant, arrogant—my many faults and derelictions,
LG1860	6645	The light touches, on my lips, of the lips of my com-radescomrades, at parting,
LG1860	6646	The tracks which I leave, upon the side-walks and fields,
LG1860	6647	May but arrive at this beginning of me,
LG1860	6648	This beginning of me—and yet it is enough, O Soul,
LG1860	6649	O Soul, we have positively appeared—that is enough.
LG1860	6650	TO conclude—I announce what comes after me,
LG1860	6651	The thought must be promulged, that all I know at any time suffices for that time only—not subse-quentsubsequent time;
LG1860	6652	I announce greater offspring, orators, days, and then depart.
LG1860	6653	I remember I said to myself at the winter-close, before my leaves sprang at all, that I would become a candid and unloosed summer-poet,
LG1860	6654	I said I would raise my voice jocund and strong, with reference to consummations.
LG1860	6655	When America does what was promised,
LG1860	6656	When each part is peopled with free people,
LG1860	6657	When there is no city on earth to lead my city, the city of young men, the Mannahatta city—But when the Mannahatta leads all the cities of the earth,
LG1860	6658	When there are plentiful athletic bards, inland and seaboard,
LG1860	6659	When through These States walk a hundred millions of superb persons,
LG1860	6660	When the rest part away for superb persons, and con-tributecontribute to them,
LG1860	6661	When fathers, firm, unconstrained, open-eyed—When breeds of the most perfect mothers denote America,
LG1860	6662	Then to me ripeness and conclusion.
LG1860	6663	Yet not me, after all—let none be content with me,
LG1860	6664	I myself seek a man better than I am, or a woman better than I am,
LG1860	6665	I invite defiance, and to make myself superseded,
LG1860	6666	All I have done, I would cheerfully give to be trod under foot, if it might only be the soil of supe-riorsuperior poems.
LG1860	6667	I have established nothing for good,
LG1860	6668	I have but established these things, till things farther onward shall be prepared to be established,
LG1860	6669	And I am myself the preparer of things farther onward.
LG1860	6670	I have pressed through in my own right,
LG1860	6671	I have offered my style to every one—I have jour-neyedjourneyed with confident step,
LG1860	6672	While my pleasure is yet at the full, I whisper So long,
LG1860	6673	And take the young woman's hand, and the young man's hand, for the last time.
LG1860	6674	Once more I enforce you to give play to yourself—and not depend on me, or on any one but yourself,
LG1860	6675	Once more I proclaim the whole of America for each individual, without exception.
LG1860	6676	As I have announced the true theory of the youth,manhood, womanhood, of The States, I adhere to it;
LG1860	6677	As I have announced myself on immortality, the body,procreation, hauteur, prudence,
LG1860	6678	As I joined the stern crowd that still confronts the President with menacing weapons—I adhere to all,
LG1860	6679	As I have announced each age for itself, this moment I set the example.
LG1860	6680	I demand the choicest edifices to destroy them;
LG1860	6681	Room! room! for new far-planning draughtsmen and engineers!
LG1860	6682	Clear that rubbish from the building-spots and the paths!
LG1860	6683	So long!
LG1860	6684	I announce natural persons to arise,
LG1860	6685	I announce justice triumphant,
LG1860	6686	I announce uncompromising liberty and equality,
LG1860	6687	I announce the justification of candor, and the justi-ficationjustification of pride.
LG1860	6688	I announce that the identity of These States is a single identity only,
LG1860	6689	I announce the Union more and more compact,
LG1860	6690	I announce splendors and majesties to make all the previous politics of the earth insignificant.
LG1860	6691	I announce adhesiveness—I say it shall be limitless,unloosened,
LG1860	6692	I say you shall yet find the friend you was look-inglooking for.
LG1860	6693	So long!
LG1860	6694	I announce a man or woman coming—perhaps you are the one,
LG1860	6695	I announce a great individual, fluid as Nature, chaste,affectionate, compassionate, fully armed.
LG1860	6696	So long!
LG1860	6697	I announce a life that shall be copious, vehement,spiritual, bold,
LG1860	6698	And I announce an old age that shall lightly and joyfully meet its translation.
LG1860	6699	O thicker and faster!
LG1860	6700	O crowding too close upon me!
LG1860	6701	I foresee too much—it means more than I thought,
LG1860	6702	It appears to me I am dying.
LG1860	6703	Now throat, sound your last!
LG1860	6704	Salute me—salute the future once more. Peal the old cry once more.
LG1860	6705	Screaming electric, the atmosphere using,
LG1860	6706	At random glancing, each as I notice absorbing,
LG1860	6707	Swiftly on, but a little while alighting,
LG1860	6708	Curious enveloped messages delivering,
LG1860	6709	Sparkles hot, seed ethereal, down in the dirt dropping,
LG1860	6710	Myself unknowing, my commission obeying, to ques-tionquestion it never daring,
LG1860	6711	To ages, and ages yet, the growth of the seed leaving,
LG1860	6712	To troops out of me rising—they the tasks I have set promulging,
LG1860	6713	To women certain whispers of myself bequeathing—their affection me more clearly explaining,
LG1860	6714	To young men my problems offering—no dallier I—I the muscle of their brains trying,
LG1860	6715	So I pass—a little time vocal, visible, contrary,
LG1860	6716	Afterward, a melodious echo, passionately bent for—death making me undying,
LG1860	6717	The best of me then when no longer visible—for toward that I have been incessantly preparing.
LG1860	6718	What is there more, that I lag and pause, and crouch extended with unshut mouth?
LG1860	6719	Is there a single final farewell?
LG1860	6720	My songs cease—I abandon them,
LG1860	6721	From behind the screen where I hid, I advance per-sonallypersonally.
LG1860	6722	This is no book,
LG1860	6723	Who touches this, touches a man,
LG1860	6724	(Is it night? Are we here alone?)
LG1860	6725	It is I you hold, and who holds you,
LG1860	6726	I spring from the pages into your arms—decease calls me forth.
LG1860	6727	O how your fingers drowse me!
LG1860	6728	Your breath falls around me like dew—your pulse lulls the tympans of my ears,
LG1860	6729	I feel immerged from head to foot,
LG1860	6730	Delicious—enough.
LG1860	6731	Enough, O deed impromptu and secret!
LG1860	6732	Enough, O gliding present! Enough, O summed-up past!
LG1860	6733	Dear friend, whoever you are, here, take this kiss,
LG1860	6734	I give it especially to you—Do not forget me,
LG1860	6735	I feel like one who has done his work—I progress on,
LG1860	6736	The unknown sphere, more real than I dreamed,more direct, darts awakening rays about me— So long!
LG1860	6737	Remember my words—I love you—I depart from materials,
LG1860	6738	I am as one disembodied, triumphant, dead.