LG1871	1	ONE'S-SELF I sing—a simple, separate Person;
LG1871	2	Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-masse.
LG1871	3	Of Physiology from top to toe I sing;
LG1871	4	Not physiognomy alone, nor brain alone, is worthy for the muse—I say the Form complete is worthier far;
LG1871	5	The Female equally with the male I sing.
LG1871	6	Of Life immense in passion, pulse, and power,
LG1871	7	Cheerful—for freest action form'd, under the laws di-vinedivine,
LG1871	8	The Modern Man I sing.
LG1871	9	AS I ponder'd in silence,
LG1871	10	Returning upon my poems, considering, lingering long,
LG1871	11	A Phantom arose before me, with distrustful aspect,
LG1871	12	Terrible in beauty, age, and power,
LG1871	13	The genius of poets of old lands,
LG1871	14	As to me directing like flame its eyes,
LG1871	15	With finger pointing to many immortal songs,
LG1871	16	And menacing voice, What singest thou? it said;
LG1871	17	Knowest thou not, there is but one theme for ever-enduring bards?
LG1871	18	And that is the theme of War, the fortune of battles,
LG1871	19	The making of perfect soldiers?
LG1871	20	Be it so, then I answer'd,
LG1871	21	I too, haughty Shade, also sing war—and a longer and greater one than any,
LG1871	22	Waged in my book with varying fortune—with fight, ad-vanceadvance, and retreat—Victory deferr'd and wavering,
LG1871	23	(Yet, methinks, certain, or as good as certain, at the last,) —The field the world;
LG1871	24	For life and death—for the Body, and for the eternal Soul,
LG1871	25	Lo! I too am come, chanting the chant of battles,
LG1871	26	I, above all, promote brave soldiers.
LG1871	27	IN cabin'd ships, at sea,
LG1871	28	The boundless blue on every side expanding,
LG1871	29	With whistling winds and music of the waves—the large imperious waves—In such,
LG1871	30	Or some lone bark, buoy'd on the dense marine,
LG1871	31	Where, joyous, full of faith, spreading white sails,
LG1871	32	She cleaves the ether, mid the sparkle and the foam of day, or under many a star at night,
LG1871	33	By sailors young and old, haply will I, a reminiscence of the land, be read,
LG1871	34	In full rapport at last.
LG1871	35	Here are our thoughts—voyagers' thoughts,
LG1871	36	Here not the land, firm land, alone appears, may then by them be said;
LG1871	37	The sky o'erarches here—we feel the undulating deck be-neathbeneath our feet,
LG1871	38	We feel the long pulsation—ebb and flow of endless mo-tion;motion
LG1871	39	The tones of unseen mystery—the vague and vast sugges-tionssuggestions of the briny world—the liquid-flowing sylla-blessyllables,
LG1871	40	The perfume, the faint creaking of the cordage, the melan-cholymelancholy rhythm,
LG1871	41	The boundless vista, and the horizon far and dim, are all here,
LG1871	42	And this is Ocean's poem.
LG1871	43	Then falter not, O book! fulfil your destiny!
LG1871	44	You, not a reminiscence of the land alone,
LG1871	45	You too, as a lone bark, cleaving the ether—purpos'd I know not whither—yet ever full of faith,
LG1871	46	Consort to every ship that sails—sail you!
LG1871	47	Bear forth to them, folded, my love —(Dear mariners! for you I fold it here, in every leaf;)
LG1871	48	Speed on, my Book! spread your white sails, my little bark, athwart the imperious waves!
LG1871	49	Chant on—sail on—bear o'er the boundless blue, from me, to every shore,
LG1871	50	This song for mariners and all their ships.
LG1871	51	I HEARD that you ask'd for something to prove this puzzle, the New World,
LG1871	52	And to define America, her athletic Democracy;
LG1871	53	Therefore I send you my poems, that you behold in them what you wanted.
LG1871	54	YOU who celebrate bygones!
LG1871	55	Who have explored the outward, the surfaces of the races—the life that has exhibited itself;
LG1871	56	Who have treated of man as the creature of politics, aggregates, rulers and priests;
LG1871	57	I, habitan of the Alleghanies, treating of him as he is in himself, in his own rights,
LG1871	58	Pressing the pulse of the life that has seldom exhibited itself, (the great pride of man in himself;)
LG1871	59	Chanter of Personality, outlining what is yet to be,
LG1871	60	I project the history of the future.
LG1871	61	FOR him I sing,
LG1871	62	I raise the Present on the Past,
LG1871	63	(As some perennial tree, out of its roots, the present on the past:)
LG1871	64	With time and space I him dilate—and fuse the im-mortalimmortal laws,
LG1871	65	To make himself, by them, the law unto himself.
LG1871	66	WHEN I read the book, the biography famous,
LG1871	67	And is this, then, (said I,) what the author calls a man's life?
LG1871	68	And so will some one, when I am dead and gone, write my life?
LG1871	69	(As if any man really knew aught of my life;
LG1871	70	Why, even I myself, I often think, know little or noth-ingnothing of my real life;
LG1871	71	Only a few hints—a few diffused, faint clues and indi-rectionsindirections,
LG1871	72	I seek, for my own use, to trace out here.)
LG1871	73	BEGINNING my studies, the first step pleas'd me so much,
LG1871	74	The mere fact, consciousness—these forms—the power of motion,
LG1871	75	The least insect or animal—the senses—eyesight— love;
LG1871	76	The first step, I say, aw'd me and pleas'd me so much,
LG1871	77	I have hardly gone, and hardly wish'd to go, any far-therfarther,
LG1871	78	But stop and loiter all the time, to sing it in extatic songs.
LG1871	79	To thee, old Cause!
LG1871	80	Thou peerless, passionate, good cause!
LG1871	81	Thou stern, remorseless, sweet Idea!
LG1871	82	Deathless throughout the ages, races, lands!
LG1871	83	After a strange, sad war—great war for thee,
LG1871	84	(I think all war through time was really fought, and ever will be really fought, for thee;)
LG1871	85	These chants for thee—the eternal march of thee.
LG1871	86	Thou orb of many orbs!
LG1871	87	Thou seething principle! Thou well-kept, latent germ!
LG1871	88	Thou centre!
LG1871	89	Around the idea of thee the strange sad war revolv-ingrevolving,
LG1871	90	With all its angry and vehement play of causes,
LG1871	91	(With yet unknown results to come, for thrice a thou-sandthousand years,)
LG1871	92	These recitatives for thee—my Book and the War are one,
LG1871	93	Merged in its spirit I and mine—as the contest hinged on thee,
LG1871	94	As a wheel on its axis turns, this Book, unwitting to itself,
LG1871	95	Around the Idea of thee.
LG1871	96	STARTING from fish-shape Paumanok, where I was born,
LG1871	97	Well-begotten, and rais'd by a perfect mother;
LG1871	98	After roaming many lands—lover of populous pave-mentspavements;
LG1871	99	Dweller in Mannahatta, my city—or on southern sa-vannassavannas;
LG1871	100	Or a soldier camp'd, or carrying my knapsack and gun— or a miner in California;
LG1871	101	Or rude in my home in Dakota's woods, my diet meat, my drink from the spring;
LG1871	102	Or withdrawn to muse and meditate in some deep re-cessrecess,
LG1871	103	Far from the clank of crowds, intervals passing, rapt and happy;
LG1871	104	Aware of the fresh free giver, the flowing Missouri— aware of mighty Niagara;
LG1871	105	Aware of the buffalo herds, grazing the plains—the hirsute and strong-breasted bull;
LG1871	106	Of earth, rocks, Fifth-month flowers, experienced— stars, rain, snow, my amaze;
LG1871	107	Having studied the mocking-bird's tones, and the mountain-hawk's,
LG1871	108	And heard at dusk the unrival'd one, the hermit thrush from the swamp-cedars,
LG1871	109	Solitary, singing in the West, I strike up for a New World.
LG1871	110	Victory, union, faith, identity, time,
LG1871	111	The indissoluble compacts, riches, mystery,
LG1871	112	Eternal progress, the kosmos, and the modern reports.
LG1871	113	This, then, is life;
LG1871	114	Here is what has come to the surface after so many throes and convulsions.
LG1871	115	How curious! how real!
LG1871	116	Underfoot the divine soil—overhead the sun.
LG1871	117	See, revolving, the globe;
LG1871	118	The ancestor-continents, away, group'd together;
LG1871	119	The present and future continents, north and south, with the isthmus between.
LG1871	120	See, vast, trackless spaces;
LG1871	121	As in a dream, they change, they swiftly fill;
LG1871	122	Countless masses debouch upon them;
LG1871	123	They are now cover'd with the foremost people, arts, institutions, known.
LG1871	124	See, projected, through time,
LG1871	125	For me, an audience interminable.
LG1871	126	With firm and regular step they wend—they never stop,
LG1871	127	Successions of men, Americanos, a hundred millions;
LG1871	128	One generation playing its part, and passing on;
LG1871	129	Another generation playing its part, and passing on in its turn,
LG1871	130	With faces turn'd sideways or backward towards me, to listen,
LG1871	131	With eyes retrospective towards me.
LG1871	132	Americanos! conquerors! marches humanitarian;
LG1871	133	Foremost! century marches! Libertad! masses!
LG1871	134	For you a programme of chants.
LG1871	135	Chants of the prairies;
LG1871	136	Chants of the long-running Mississippi, and down to the Mexican sea;
LG1871	137	Chants of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota;
LG1871	138	Chants going forth from the centre, from Kansas, and thence, equi-distant,
LG1871	139	Shooting in pulses of fire, ceaseless, to vivify all.
LG1871	140	In the Year 80 of The States,
LG1871	141	My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this soil, this air,
LG1871	142	Born here of parents born here, from parents the same, and their parents the same,
LG1871	143	I, now thirty-six years old, in perfect health, begin,
LG1871	144	Hoping to cease not till death.
LG1871	145	Creeds and schools in abeyance,
LG1871	146	(Retiring back a while, sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten,)
LG1871	147	I harbor, for good or bad—I permit to speak, at every hazard,
LG1871	148	Nature now without check, with original energy.
LG1871	149	Take my leaves, America! take them, South, and take them, North!
LG1871	150	Make welcome for them everywhere, for they are your own offspring;
LG1871	151	Surround them, East and West! for they would sur-roundsurround you;
LG1871	152	And you precedents! connect lovingly with them, for they connect lovingly with you.
LG1871	153	I conn'd old times:
LG1871	154	I sat studying at the feet of the great masters:
LG1871	155	Now, if eligible, O that the great masters might return and study me!
LG1871	156	In the name of These States, shall I scorn the an-tiqueantique?
LG1871	157	Why These are the children of the antique, to jus-tifyjustify it.
LG1871	158	Dead poets, philosophs, priests,
LG1871	159	Martyrs, artists, inventors, governments long since,
LG1871	160	Language-shapers, on other shores,
LG1871	161	Nations once powerful, now reduced, withdrawn, or desolate,
LG1871	162	I dare not proceed till I respectfully credit what you have left, wafted hither:
LG1871	163	I have perused it—own it is admirable, (moving awhile among it;)
LG1871	164	Think nothing can ever be greater—nothing can ever deserve more than it deserves;
LG1871	165	Regarding it all intently a long while—then dismiss-ingdismissing it,
LG1871	166	I stand in my place, with my own day, here.
LG1871	167	Here lands female and male;
LG1871	168	Here the heir-ship and heiress-ship of the world—here the flame of materials;
LG1871	169	Here Spirituality, the translatress, the openly-avow'd,
LG1871	170	The ever-tending, the finale of visible forms;
LG1871	171	The satisfier, after due long-waiting, now advancing,
LG1871	172	Yes, here comes my mistress, the Soul.
LG1871	173	The SOUL:
LG1871	174	Forever and forever—longer than soil is brown and solid—longer than water ebbs and flows.
LG1871	175	I will make the poems of materials, for I think they are to be the most spiritual poems;
LG1871	176	And I will make the poems of my body and of mor-talitymortality,
LG1871	177	For I think I shall then supply myself with the poems of my Soul, and of immortality.
LG1871	178	I will make a song for These States, that no one State may under any circumstances be subjected to another State;
LG1871	179	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;
LG1871	180	And I will make a song for the ears of the President, full of weapons with menacing points,
LG1871	181	And behind the weapons countless dissatisfied faces:
LG1871	182	—And a song make I, of the One form'd out of all;
LG1871	183	The fang'd and glittering One whose head is over all;
LG1871	184	Resolute, warlike One, including and over all;
LG1871	185	(However high the head of any else, that head is over all.)
LG1871	186	I will acknowledge contemporary lands;
LG1871	187	I will trail the whole geography of the globe, and sa-lutesalute courteously every city large and small;
LG1871	188	And employments! I will put in my poems, that with you is heroism, upon land and sea;
LG1871	189	And I will report all heroism from an American point of view.
LG1871	190	I will sing the song of companionship;
LG1871	191	I will show what alone must finally compact These;
LG1871	192	I believe These are to found their own ideal of manly love, indicating it in me;
LG1871	193	I will therefore let flame from me the burning fires that were threatening to consume me;
LG1871	194	I will lift what has too long kept down those smoulder-ingsmouldering fires;
LG1871	195	I will give them complete abandonment;
LG1871	196	I will write the evangel-poem of comrades, and of love;
LG1871	197	(For who but I should understand love, with all its sor-rowsorrow and joy?
LG1871	198	And who but I should be the poet of comrades?)
LG1871	199	I am the credulous man of qualities, ages, races;
LG1871	200	I advance from the people in their own spirit;
LG1871	201	Here is what sings unrestricted faith.
LG1871	202	Omnes! Omnes! let others ignore what they may;
LG1871	203	I make the poem of evil also—I commemorate that part also;
LG1871	204	I am myself just as much evil as good, and my nation is—And I say there is in fact no evil;
LG1871	205	(Or if there is, I say it is just as important to you, to the land, or to me, as anything else.)
LG1871	206	I too, following many, and follow'd by many, inau-gurateinaugurate a Religion—I descend into the arena;
LG1871	207	(It may be I am destin'd to utter the loudest cries there, the winner's pealing shouts;
LG1871	208	Who knows? they may rise from me yet, and soar above every thing.)
LG1871	209	Each is not for its own sake;
LG1871	210	I say the whole earth, and all the stars in the sky, are for Religion's sake.
LG1871	211	I say no man has ever yet been half devout enough;
LG1871	212	None has ever yet adored or worship'd half enough;
LG1871	213	None has begun to think how divine he himself is, and how certain the future is.
LG1871	214	I say that the real and permanent grandeur of These States must be their Religion;
LG1871	215	Otherwise there is no real and permanent grandeur:
LG1871	216	(Nor character, nor life worthy the name, without Reli-gionReligion;
LG1871	217	Nor land, nor man or woman, without Religion.)
LG1871	218	What are you doing, young man?
LG1871	219	Are you so earnest—so given up to literature, science, art, amours?
LG1871	220	These ostensible realities, politics, points?
LG1871	221	Your ambition or business, whatever it may be?
LG1871	222	It is well—Against such I say not a word—I am their poet also;
LG1871	223	But behold! such swiftly subside— burnt up for Reli-gion'sReligion's sake;
LG1871	224	For not all matter is fuel to heat, impalpable flame, the essential life of the earth,
LG1871	225	Any more than such are to Religion.
LG1871	226	What do you seek, so pensive and silent?
LG1871	227	What do you need, Camerado?
LG1871	228	Dear son! do you think it is love?
LG1871	229	Listen, dear son—listen, America, daughter or son!
LG1871	230	It is a painful thing to love a man or woman to excess —and yet it satisfies—it is great;
LG1871	231	But there is something else very great—it makes the whole coincide;
LG1871	232	It, magnificent, beyond materials, with continuous hands, sweeps and provides for all.
LG1871	233	Know you! solely to drop in the earth the germs of a greater Religion,
LG1871	234	The following chants, each for its kind, I sing.
LG1871	235	My comrade!
LG1871	236	For you, to share with me, two greatnesses—and a third one, rising inclusive and more resplendent,
LG1871	237	The greatness of Love and Democracy—and the great-nessgreatness of Religion.
LG1871	238	Melange mine own! the unseen and the seen;
LG1871	239	Mysterious ocean where the streams empty;
LG1871	240	Prophetic spirit of materials shifting and flickering around me;
LG1871	241	Living beings, identities, now doubtless near us, in the air, that we know not of;
LG1871	242	Contact daily and hourly that will not release me;
LG1871	243	These selecting—these, in hints, demanded of me.
LG1871	244	Not he, with a daily kiss, onward from childhood kissing me,
LG1871	245	Has winded and twisted around me that which holds me to him,
LG1871	246	Any more than I am held to the heavens, to the spir-itualspiritual world,
LG1871	247	And to the identities of the Gods, my lovers, faithful and true,
LG1871	248	After what they have done to me, suggesting themes.
LG1871	249	O such themes! Equalities!
LG1871	250	O amazement of things! O divine average!
LG1871	251	O warblings under the sun—usher'd, as now, at noon, or setting!
LG1871	252	O strain, musical, flowing through ages—now reaching hither!
LG1871	253	I take to your reckless and composite chords—I add to them, and cheerfully pass them forward.
LG1871	254	As I have walk'd in Alabama my morning walk
LG1871	255	I have seen where the she-bird, the mocking-bird, sat on her nest in the briers, hatching her brood.
LG1871	256	I have seen the he-bird also;
LG1871	257	I have paused to hear him, near at hand, inflating his throat, and joyfully singing.
LG1871	258	And while I paused, it came to me that what he really sang for was not there only,
LG1871	259	Nor for his mate, nor himself only, nor all sent back by the echoes;
LG1871	260	But subtle, clandestine, away beyond,
LG1871	261	A charge transmitted, and gift occult, for those being born.
LG1871	262	Democracy!
LG1871	263	Near at hand to you a throat is now inflating itself and joyfully singing.
LG1871	264	Ma femme!
LG1871	265	For the brood beyond us and of us,
LG1871	266	For those who belong here, and those to come,
LG1871	267	I, exultant, to be ready for them, will now shake out carols stronger and haughtier than have ever yet been heard upon earth.
LG1871	268	I will make the songs of passion, to give them their way,
LG1871	269	And your songs, outlaw'd offenders—for I scan you with kindred eyes, and carry you with me the same as any.
LG1871	270	I will make the true poem of riches,
LG1871	271	To earn for the body and the mind whatever adheres, and goes forward, and is not dropt by death.
LG1871	272	I will effuse egotism, and show it underlying all—and I will be the bard of personality;
LG1871	273	And I will show of male and female that either is but the equal of the other;
LG1871	274	And sexual organs and acts! do you concentrate in me —for I am determin'd to tell you with courageous clear voice, to prove you illustrious;
LG1871	275	And I will show that there is no imperfection in the present—and can be none in the future;
LG1871	276	And I will show that whatever happens to anybody, it may be turn'd to beautiful results—and I will show that nothing can happen more beautiful than death;
LG1871	277	And I will thread a thread through my poems that time and events are compact,
LG1871	278	And that all the things of the universe are perfect mira-clesmiracles, each as profound as any.
LG1871	279	I will not make poems with reference to parts;
LG1871	280	But I will make leaves, poems, poemets, songs, says, thoughts, with reference to ensemble:
LG1871	281	And I will not sing with reference to a day, but with reference to all days;
LG1871	282	And I will not make a poem, nor the least part of a poem, but has reference to the Soul;
LG1871	283	(Because, having look'd at the objects of the universe, I find there is no one, nor any particle of one, but has reference to the Soul.)
LG1871	284	Was somebody asking to see the Soul?
LG1871	285	See! your own shape and countenance—persons, sub-stancessubstances, beasts, the trees, the running rivers, the rocks and sands.
LG1871	286	All hold spiritual joys, and afterwards loosen them:
LG1871	287	How can the real body ever die, and be buried?
LG1871	288	Of your real body, and any man's or woman's real body,
LG1871	289	Item for item, it will elude the hands of the corpse-cleanerscorpse-cleaners, and pass to fitting spheres,
LG1871	290	Carrying what has accrued to it from the moment of birth to the moment of death.
LG1871	291	Not the types set up by the printer return their im-pressionimpression, the meaning, the main concern,
LG1871	292	Any more than a man's substance and life, or a wo-man'swoman's substance and life, return in the body and the Soul,
LG1871	293	Indifferently before death and after. death.
LG1871	294	Behold! the body includes and is the meaning, the main concern—and includes and is the Soul;
LG1871	295	Whoever you are! how superb and how divine is your body, or any part of it.
LG1871	296	Whoever you are! to you endless announcements.
LG1871	297	Daughter of the lands, did you wait for your poet?
LG1871	298	Did you wait for one with a flowing mouth and indica-tiveindicative hand?
LG1871	299	Toward the male of The States, and toward the fe-malefemale of The States,
LG1871	300	Live words—words to the lands.
LG1871	301	O the lands! interlink'd, food-yielding lands!
LG1871	302	Land of coal and iron! Land of gold! Lands of cot-toncotton, sugar, rice!
LG1871	303	Land of wheat, beef, pork! Land of wool and hemp! Land of the apple and grape!
LG1871	304	Land of the pastoral plains, the grass-fields of the world! Land of those sweet-air'd interminable plateaus!
LG1871	305	Land of the herd, the garden, the healthy house of adobie!
LG1871	306	Lands where the north-west Columbia winds, and where the south-west Colorado winds!
LG1871	307	Land of the eastern Chesapeake! Land of the Dela-wareDelaware!
LG1871	308	Land of Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan!
LG1871	309	Land of the Old Thirteen! Massachusetts land! Land of Vermont and Connecticut!
LG1871	310	Land of the ocean shores! Land of sierras and peaks!
LG1871	311	Land of boatmen and sailors! Fishermen's land!
LG1871	312	Inextricable lands! the clutch'd together! the passion-atepassionate ones!
LG1871	313	The side by side! the elder and younger brothers! the bony-limb'd!
LG1871	314	The great women's land! the feminine! the experienced sisters and the inexperienced sisters!
LG1871	315	Far breath'd land! Arctic braced! Mexican breez'd! the diverse! the compact!
LG1871	316	The Pennsylvanian! the Virginian! the double Caro-linianCarolinian!
LG1871	317	O all and each well-loved by me! my intrepid nations! O I at any rate include you all with perfect love!
LG1871	318	I cannot be discharged from you! not from one, any sooner than another!
LG1871	319	O Death! O for all that, I am yet of you, unseen, this hour, with irrepressible love,
LG1871	320	Walking New England, a friend, a traveler,
LG1871	321	Splashing my bare feet in the edge of the summer rip-plesripples, on Paumanok's sands,
LG1871	322	Crossing the praries—dwelling again in Chicago—dwel-lingdwelling in every town,
LG1871	323	Observing shows, births, improvements, structures, arts,
LG1871	324	Listening to the orators and the oratresses in public halls,
LG1871	325	Of and through The States, as during life—each man and woman my neighbor,
LG1871	326	The Louisianian, the Georgian, as near to me, and I as near to him and her,
LG1871	327	The Mississippian and Arkansian yet with me—and I yet with any of them;
LG1871	328	Yet upon the plains west of the spinal river—yet in my house of adobie,
LG1871	329	Yet returning eastward—yet in the Sea-Side State, or in Maryland,
LG1871	330	Yet Kanadian, cheerily braving the winter—the snow and ice welcome to me,
LG1871	331	Yet a true son either of Maine, or of the Granite State, or of the Narragansett Bay State, or of the Empire State;
LG1871	332	Yet sailing to other shores to annex the same—yet welcoming every new brother;
LG1871	333	Hereby applying these leaves to the new ones, from the hour they unite with the old ones;
LG1871	334	Coming among the new ones myself, to be their com-panioncompanion and equal—coming personally to you now;
LG1871	335	Enjoining you to acts, characters, spectacles, with me.
LG1871	336	With me, with firm holding—yet haste, haste on.
LG1871	337	For your life adhere to me!
LG1871	338	Of all the men of the earth, I only can unloose you and toughen you;
LG1871	339	I may have to be persuaded many times before I con-sentconsent to give myself really to you—but what of that?
LG1871	340	Must not Nature be persuaded many times?
LG1871	341	No dainty dolce affettuoso I;
LG1871	342	Bearded, sun-burnt, gray-neck'd, forbidding, I have arrived,
LG1871	343	To be wrestled with as I pass, for the solid prizes of the universe;
LG1871	344	For such I afford whoever can persevere to win them.
LG1871	345	On my way a moment I pause;
LG1871	346	Here for you! and here for America!
LG1871	347	Still the Present I raise aloft—Still the Future of The States I harbinge, glad and sublime;
LG1871	348	And for the Past, I pronounce what the air holds of the red aborigines.
LG1871	349	The red aborigines!
LG1871	350	Leaving natural breaths, sounds of rain and winds, calls as of birds and animals in the woods, syllabled to us for names;
LG1871	351	Okonee, Koosa, Ottawa, Monongahela, Sauk, Natchez, Chattahoochee, Kaqueta, Oronoco,
LG1871	352	Wabash, Miami, Saginaw, Chippewa, Oshkosh, Walla-WallaWalla-Walla;
LG1871	353	Leaving such to The States, they melt, they depart, charging the water and the land with names.
LG1871	354	O expanding and swift! O henceforth,
LG1871	355	Elements, breeds, adjustments, turbulent, quick, and audacious;
LG1871	356	A world primal again—Vistas of glory, incessant and branching;
LG1871	357	A new race, dominating previous ones, and grander far—with new contests,
LG1871	358	New politics, new literatures and religions, new in-ventionsinventions and arts.
LG1871	359	These! my voice announcing—I will sleep no more, but arise;
LG1871	360	You oceans that have been calm within me! how I feel you, fathomless, stirring, preparing unpre-cendentedunprecedented waves and storms.
LG1871	361	See! steamers steaming through my poems!
LG1871	362	See, in my poems immigrants continually coming and landing:
LG1871	363	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;
LG1871	364	See, on the one side the Western Sea, and on the other the Eastern Sea, how they advance and retreat upon my poems, as upon their own shores.
LG1871	365	See, pastures and forests in my poems—See, animals, wild and tame—See, beyond the Kansas, count-lesscountless herds of buffalo, feeding on short curly grass;
LG1871	366	See, in my poems, cities, solid, vast, inland, with paved streets, with iron and stone edifices, ceaseless vehicles, and commerce;
LG1871	367	See, the many-cylinder'd steam printing-press—See, the electric telegraph, stretching across the Continent, from the Western Sea to Manhat-tanManhattan;
LG1871	368	See, through Atlantica's depths, pulses American, Europe reaching—pulses of Europe, duly re-turn'dreturn'd;
LG1871	369	See, the strong and quick locomotive, as it departs, panting, blowing the steam whistle;
LG1871	370	See, ploughmen, ploughing farms—See, miners, dig-gingdigging mines—See, the numberless factories;
LG1871	371	See, mechanics, busy at their benches, with tools— See, from among them, superior judges, philo-sophsphilosophs, Presidents, emerge, drest in working dresses;
LG1871	372	See, lounging through the shops and fields of The States, me, well-belov'd, close-held by day and night;
LG1871	373	Hear the loud echoes of my songs there! Read the hints come at last.
LG1871	374	O Camerado close!
LG1871	375	O you and me at last—and us two only.
LG1871	376	O a word to clear one's path ahead endlessly!
LG1871	377	O something extatic and undemonstrable! O music wild!
LG1871	378	O now I triumph—and you shall also;
LG1871	379	O hand in hand—O wholesome pleasure—O one more desirer and lover!
LG1871	380	O to haste, firm holding—to haste, haste on, with me.
LG1871	381	Lo! THE unbounded sea!
LG1871	382	On its breast a Ship starting, spreading all her sails— an ample Ship, carrying even her moonsails;
LG1871	383	The pennant is flying aloft, as she speeds, she speeds so stately— below, emulous waves press forward,
LG1871	384	They surround the Ship, with shining curving motions, and foam.
LG1871	385	UNFOLDED out of the folds of the woman, man comes unfolded, and is always to come unfolded;
LG1871	386	Unfolded only out of the superbest woman of the earth, is to come the superbest man of the earth;
LG1871	387	Unfolded out of the friendliest woman, is to come the friendliest man;
LG1871	388	Unfolded only out of the perfect body of a woman, can a man be form'd of perfect body;
LG1871	389	Unfolded only out of the inimitable poem of the wo-manwoman can come the poems of man—(only thence have my poems come;)
LG1871	390	Unfolded out of the strong and arrogant woman I love, only thence can appear the strong and arrogant man I love;
LG1871	391	Unfolded by brawny embraces from the well-muscled woman I love, only thence come the brawny em-bracesembraces of the man;
LG1871	392	Unfolded out of the folds of the woman's brain, come all the folds of the man's brain, duly obedient;
LG1871	393	Unfolded out of the justice of the woman, all justice is unfolded;
LG1871	394	Unfolded out of the sympathy of the woman is all sym-pathysympathy:
LG1871	395	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,
LG1871	396	First the man is shaped in the woman, he can then be shaped in himself.
LG1871	397	STRANGER! if you, passing, meet me, and desire to speak to me, why should you not speak to me?
LG1871	398	And why should I not speak to you?
LG1871	399	I CELEBRATE myself;
LG1871	400	And what I assume you shall assume;
LG1871	401	For every atom belonging to me, as good belongs to you.
LG1871	402	I loafe and invite my Soul;
LG1871	403	I lean and loafe at my ease, observing a spear of sum-mersummer grass.
LG1871	404	Houses and rooms are full of perfumes—the shelves are crowded with perfumes;
LG1871	405	I breathe the fragrance myself, and know it and like it;
LG1871	406	The distillation would intoxicate me also, but I shall not let it.
LG1871	407	The atmosphere is not a perfume—it has no taste of
LG1871	408	the distillation—it is odorless;
LG1871	409	It is for my mouth forever—I am in love with it;
LG1871	410	I will go to the bank by the wood, and become undis-guisedundisguised and naked;
LG1871	411	I am mad for it to be in contact with me.
LG1871	412	The smoke of my own breath;
LG1871	413	Echoes, ripples, buzz'd whispers, love-root, silk-thread, crotch and vine;
LG1871	414	My respiration and inspiration, the beating of my heart, the passing of blood and air through my lungs;
LG1871	415	The sniff of green leaves and dry leaves, and of the shore, and dark-color'd sea-rocks, and of hay in the barn;
LG1871	416	The sound of the belch'd words of my voice, words loos'd to the eddies of the wind;
LG1871	417	A few light kisses, a few embraces, a reaching around of arms;
LG1871	418	The play of shine and shade on the trees as the supple boughs wag;
LG1871	419	The delight alone, or in the rush of the streets, or along the fields and hill-sides;
LG1871	420	The feeling of health, the full noon-trill, the song of me rising from bed and meeting the sun.
LG1871	421	Have you reckon'd a thousand acres much? have you reckon'd the earth much?
LG1871	422	Have you practis'd so long to learn to read?
LG1871	423	Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?
LG1871	424	Stop this day and night with me, and you shall pos-sesspossess the origin of all poems;
LG1871	425	You shall possess the good of the earth and sun—(there are millions of suns left;)
LG1871	426	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;
LG1871	427	You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me:
LG1871	428	You shall listen to all sides, and filter them from your-selfyourself.
LG1871	429	I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the beginning and the end;
LG1871	430	But I do not talk of the beginning or the end.
LG1871	431	There was never any more inception than there is now,
LG1871	432	Nor any more youth or age than there is now;
LG1871	433	And will never be any more perfection than there is now,
LG1871	434	Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.
LG1871	435	Urge, and urge, and urge;
LG1871	436	Always the procreant urge of the world.
LG1871	437	Out of the dimness opposite equals advance—always substance and increase, always sex;
LG1871	438	Always a knit of identity—always distinction—always a breed of life.
LG1871	439	To elaborate is no avail—learn'd and unlearn'd feel that it is so.
LG1871	440	Sure as the most certain sure, plumb in the uprights, well entretied, braced in the beams,
LG1871	441	Stout as a horse, affectionate, haughty, electrical,
LG1871	442	I and this mystery, here we stand.
LG1871	443	Clear and sweet is my Soul, and clear and sweet is all that is not my Soul.
LG1871	444	Lack one lacks both, and the unseen is proved by the seen,
LG1871	445	Till that becomes unseen, and receives proof in its turn.
LG1871	446	Showing the best, and dividing it from the worst age vexes age;
LG1871	447	Knowing the perfect fitness and equanimity of things, while they discuss I am silent, and go bathe and admire myself.
LG1871	448	Welcome is every organ and attribute of me, and of any man hearty and clean;
LG1871	449	Not an inch, nor a particle of an inch, is vile, and none shall be less familiar than the rest.
LG1871	450	I am satisfied—I see, dance, laugh, sing;
LG1871	451	As the hugging and loving Bed-fellow sleeps at my side through the night, and withdraws at the peep of the day, with stealthy tread,
LG1871	452	Leaving me baskets cover'd with white towels, swelling the house with their plenty,
LG1871	453	Shall I postpone my acceptation and realization, and scream at my eyes,
LG1871	454	That they turn from gazing after and down the road,
LG1871	455	And forthwith cipher and show me a cent,
LG1871	456	Exactly the contents of one, and exactly the contents of two, and which is ahead?
LG1871	457	Trippers and askers surround me;
LG1871	458	People I meet—the effect upon me of my early life, or the ward and city I live in, or the nation,
LG1871	459	The latest dates, discoveries, inventions, societies, authors old and new,
LG1871	460	My dinner, dress, associates, looks, compliments, dues,
LG1871	461	The real or fancied indifference of some man or woman I love,
LG1871	462	The sickness of one of my folks, or of myself, or ill-doingill-doing, or loss or lack of money, or depressions or exaltations;
LG1871	463	Battles, the horrors of fratricidal war, the fever of doubtful news, the fitful events;
LG1871	464	These come to me days and nights, and go from me again,
LG1871	465	But they are not the Me myself.
LG1871	466	Apart from the pulling and hauling stands what I am;
LG1871	467	Stands amused, complacent, compassionating, idle, uni-taryunitary;
LG1871	468	Looks down, is erect, or bends an arm on an impalpable certain rest,
LG1871	469	Looking with side-curved head, curious what will come next;
LG1871	470	Both in and out of the game, and watching and won-deringwondering at it.
LG1871	471	Backward I see in my own days where I sweated through fog with linguists and contenders;
LG1871	472	I have no mockings or arguments—I witness and wait.
LG1871	473	I believe in you, my Soul—the other I am must not abase itself to you;
LG1871	474	And you must not be abased to the other.
LG1871	475	Loafe with me on the grass—loose the stop from your throat;
LG1871	476	Not words, not music or rhyme I want—not custom or lecture, not even the best;
LG1871	477	Only the lull I like, the hum of your valved voice.
LG1871	478	I mind how once we lay, such a transparent summer morning;
LG1871	479	How you settled your head athwart my hips, and gently turn'd over upon me,
LG1871	480	And parted my shirt from my bosom-bone, and plunged your tongue to my bare-stript heart,
LG1871	481	And reach'd till you felt my beard, and reach'd till you held my feet.
LG1871	482	Swiftly arose and spread around me the peace and knowledge that pass all the argument of the earth;
LG1871	483	And I know that the hand of God is the promise of my own,
LG1871	484	And I know that the spirit of God is the brother of my own;
LG1871	485	And that all the men ever born are also my brothers, and the women my sisters and lovers;
LG1871	486	And that a kelson of the creation is love;
LG1871	487	And limitless are leaves, stiff or drooping in the fields;
LG1871	488	And brown ants in the little wells beneath them;
LG1871	489	And mossy scabs of the worm fence, and heap'd stones, elder, mullen, and poke-weed.
LG1871	490	A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands;
LG1871	491	How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is, any more than he.
LG1871	492	I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven.
LG1871	493	Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,
LG1871	494	A scented gift and remembrancer, designedly dropt,
LG1871	495	Bearing the owner's name someway in the corners, that we may see and remark, and say, Whose?
LG1871	496	Or I guess the grass is itself a child, the produced babe of the vegetation.
LG1871	497	Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic;
LG1871	498	And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and nar-rownarrow zones,
LG1871	499	Growing among black folks as among white;
LG1871	500	Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the same, I receive them the same.
LG1871	501	And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.
LG1871	502	Tenderly will I use you, curling grass;
LG1871	503	It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men;
LG1871	504	It may be if I had known them I would have loved them;
LG1871	505	It may be you are from old people and from women, and from offspring taken soon out of their mothers' laps;
LG1871	506	And here you are the mothers' laps;
LG1871	507	This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old mothers;
LG1871	508	Darker than the colourless beards of old men;
LG1871	509	Dark to come from under the faint red roofs of mouths.
LG1871	510	O I perceive after all so many uttering tongues!
LG1871	511	And I perceive they do not come from the roofs of mouths for nothing.
LG1871	512	I wish I could translate the hints about the dead young men and women,
LG1871	513	And the hints about old men and mothers, and the offspring taken soon out of their laps.
LG1871	514	What do you think has become of the young and old men?
LG1871	515	And what do you think has become of the women and children?
LG1871	516	They are alive and well somewhere;
LG1871	517	The smallest sprout shows there is really no death;
LG1871	518	And if ever there was, it led forward life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it,
LG1871	519	And ceas'd the moment life appear'd.
LG1871	520	All goes onward and outward—nothing collapses;
LG1871	521	And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.
LG1871	522	Has any one supposed it lucky to be born?
LG1871	523	I hasten to inform him or her, it is just as lucky to die, and I know it.
LG1871	524	I pass death with the dying, and birth with the new-wash'dnew-wash'd babe, and am not contain'd between my hat and boots;
LG1871	525	And peruse manifold objects, no two alike, and every one good;
LG1871	526	The earth good, and the stars good, and their adjuncts all good.
LG1871	527	I am not on earth, nor an adjunct of an earth;
LG1871	528	I am the mate and companion of people, all just as immortal and fathomless as myself;
LG1871	529	(They do not know how immortal, but I know.)
LG1871	530	Every kind for itself and its own—for me mine, male and female;
LG1871	531	For me those that have been boys, and that love women;
LG1871	532	For me the man that is proud, and feels how it stings to be slighted;
LG1871	533	For me the sweet-heart and the old maid—for me mothers, and the mothers of mothers;
LG1871	534	For me lips that have smiled, eyes that have shed tears;
LG1871	535	For me children, and the begetters of children.
LG1871	536	Undrape! you are not guilty to me, nor stale, nor discarded;
LG1871	537	I see through the broadcloth and gingham, whether or no;
LG1871	538	And am around, tenacious, acquisitive, tireless, and cannot be shaken away.
LG1871	539	The little one sleeps in its cradle;
LG1871	540	I lift the gauze, and look a long time, and silently brush away flies with my hand.
LG1871	541	The youngster and the red-faced girl turn aside up the bushy hill;
LG1871	542	I peeringly view them from the top.
LG1871	543	The suicide sprawls on the bloody floor of the bed-roombedroom;
LG1871	544	I witness the corpse with its dabbled hair—I note where the pistol has fallen.
LG1871	545	The blab of the pave, the tires of carts, sluff of boot-solesboot-soles, talk of the promenaders;
LG1871	546	The heavy omnibus, the driver with his interrogating thumb, the clank of the shod horses on the granite floor;
LG1871	547	The snow-sleighs, the clinking, shouted jokes, pelts of snow-balls;
LG1871	548	The hurrahs for popular favorites, the fury of rous'd mobs;
LG1871	549	The flap of the curtain'd litter, a sick man inside, borne to the hospital;
LG1871	550	The meeting of enemies, the sudden oath, the blows and fall;
LG1871	551	The excited crowd, the policeman with his star, quickly working his passage to the centre of the crowd;
LG1871	552	The impassive stones that receive and return so many echoes;
LG1871	553	What groans of over-fed or half-starv'd who fall sun-strucksunstruck, or in fits;
LG1871	554	What exclamations of women taken suddenly, who hurry home and give birth to babes;
LG1871	555	What living and buried speech is always vibrating here—what howls restrain'd by decorum;
LG1871	556	Arrests of criminals, slights, adulterous offers made, acceptances, rejections with convex lips;
LG1871	557	I mind them or the show or resonance of them—I come, and I depart.
LG1871	558	The big doors of the country barn stand open and ready;
LG1871	559	The dried grass of the harvest-time loads the slow-drawnslow-drawn wagon;
LG1871	560	The clear light plays on the brown gray and green intertinged;
LG1871	561	The armfuls are pack'd to the sagging mow.
LG1871	562	I am there—I help—I came stretch'd atop of the load;
LG1871	563	I felt its soft jolts—one leg reclined on the other;
LG1871	564	I jump from the cross-beams, and seize the clover and timothy,
LG1871	565	And roll head over heels, and tangle my hair full of wisps.
LG1871	566	Alone, far in the wilds and mountains, I hunt,
LG1871	567	Wandering, amazed at my own lightness and glee;
LG1871	568	In the late afternoon choosing a safe spot to pass the night,
LG1871	569	Kindling a fire and broiling the fresh-kill'd game;
LG1871	570	Falling asleep on the gather'd leaves, with my dog and gun by my side.
LG1871	571	The Yankee clipper is under her sky-sails—she cuts the sparkle and scud;
LG1871	572	My eyes settle the land—I bend at her prow, or shout joyously from the deck.
LG1871	573	The boatmen and clam-diggers arose early and stopt for me;
LG1871	574	I tuck'd my trowser-ends in my boots, and went and had a good time:
LG1871	575	(You should have been with us that day round the chowder-kettle.)
LG1871	576	I saw the marriage of the trapper in the open air in the far west—the bride was a red girl;
LG1871	577	Her father and his friends sat near, cross-legged and dumbly smoking—they had moccasins to their feet, and large thick blankets hanging from their shoulders;
LG1871	578	On a bank lounged the trapper—he was drest mostly in skins—his luxuriant beard and curls protected his neck—he held his bride by the hand;
LG1871	579	She had long eyelashes—her head was bare—her coarse straight locks descended upon her voluptuous limbs and reach'd to her feet.
LG1871	580	The runaway slave came to my house and stopt out-sideoutside;
LG1871	581	I heard his motions crackling the twigs of the wood-pilewoodpile;
LG1871	582	Through the swung half-door of the kitchen I saw him limpsy and weak,
LG1871	583	And went where he sat on a log, and led him in and assured him,
LG1871	584	And brought water, and fill'd a tub for his sweated body and bruis'd feet,
LG1871	585	And gave him a room that enter'd from my own, and gave him some coarse clean clothes,
LG1871	586	And remember perfectly well his revolving eyes and his awkwardness,
LG1871	587	And remember putting plasters on the galls of his neck and ankles;
LG1871	588	He staid with me a week before he was recuperated and pass'd north;
LG1871	589	(I had him sit next me at table—my fire-lock lean'd in the corner.)
LG1871	590	Twenty-eight young men bathe by the shore;
LG1871	591	Twenty-eight young men, and all so friendly:
LG1871	592	Twenty-eight years of womanly life, and all so lone-somelonesome.
LG1871	593	She owns the fine house by the rise of the bank;
LG1871	594	She hides, handsome and richly drest, aft the blinds of the window.
LG1871	595	Which of the young men does she like the best?
LG1871	596	Ah, the homeliest of them is beautiful to her.
LG1871	597	Where are you off to, lady? for I see you;
LG1871	598	You splash in the water there, yet stay stock still in your room.
LG1871	599	Dancing and laughing along the beach came the twenty-ninth bather;
LG1871	600	The rest did not see her, but she saw them and loved them.
LG1871	601	The beards of the young men glisten'd with wet, it ran from their long hair:
LG1871	602	Little streams pass'd all over their bodies.
LG1871	603	An unseen hand also pass'd over their bodies;
LG1871	604	It descended tremblingly from their temples and ribs.
LG1871	605	The young men float on their backs—their white bel-liesbellies bulge to the sun—they do not ask who seizes fast to them;
LG1871	606	They do not know who puffs and declines with pendant and bending arch;
LG1871	607	They do not think whom they souse with spray.
LG1871	608	The butcher-boy puts off his killing clothes, or sharpens his knife at the stall in the market;
LG1871	609	I loiter, enjoying his repartee, and his shuffle and break-down.
LG1871	610	Blacksmiths with grimed and hairy chests environ the anvil;
LG1871	611	Each has his main-sledge—they are all out—(there is a great heat in the fire.)
LG1871	612	From the cinder-strew'd threshold I follow their movements;
LG1871	613	The lithe sheer of their waists plays even with their massive arms;
LG1871	614	Over-hand the hammers swing—over-hand so slow— over-hand so sure:
LG1871	615	They do not hasten—each man hits in his place.
LG1871	616	The negro holds firmly the reins of his four horses —the block swags underneath on its tied-over chain;
LG1871	617	The negro that drives the dray of the stone-yard— steady and tall he stands, pois'd on one leg on the string-piece;
LG1871	618	His blue shirt exposes his ample neck and breast, and loosens over his hip-band;
LG1871	619	His glance is calm and commanding—he tosses the slouch of his hat away from his forehead;
LG1871	620	The sun falls on his crispy hair and moustache—falls on the black of his polish'd and perfect limbs.
LG1871	621	I behold the picturesque giant, and love him—and I do not stop there;
LG1871	622	I go with the team also.
LG1871	623	In me the caresser of life wherever moving—back-wardbackward as well as forward slueing;
LG1871	624	To niches aside and junior bending.
LG1871	625	Oxen that rattle the yoke and chain, or halt in the leafy shade! what is that you express in your eyes?
LG1871	626	It seems to me more than all the print I have read in my life.
LG1871	627	My tread scares the wood-drake and wood-duck, on my distant and day-long ramble;
LG1871	628	They rise together—they slowly circle around.
LG1871	629	I believe in those wing'd purposes,
LG1871	630	And acknowledge red, yellow, white, playing within me,
LG1871	631	And consider green and violet, and the tufted crown, intentional;
LG1871	632	And do not call the tortoise unworthy because she is not something else;
LG1871	633	And the jay in the woods never studied the gamut, yet trills pretty well to me;
LG1871	634	And the look of the bay mare shames silliness out of me.
LG1871	635	The wild gander leads his flock through the cool night;
LG1871	636	Ya-honk! he says, and sounds it down to me like an invitation;
LG1871	637	(The pert may suppose it meaningless, but I listen close;
LG1871	638	I find its purpose and place up there toward the wintry sky.)
LG1871	639	The sharp-hoof'd moose of the north, the cat on the house-sill, the chickadee, the prairie-dog,
LG1871	640	The litter of the grunting sow as they tug at her teats,
LG1871	641	The brood of the turkey-hen, and she with her half-spreadhalf-spread wings;
LG1871	642	I see in them and myself the same old law.
LG1871	643	The press of my foot to the earth springs a hundred affections;
LG1871	644	They scorn the best I can do to relate them.
LG1871	645	I am enamour'd of growing out-doors,
LG1871	646	Of men that live among cattle, or taste of the ocean or woods,
LG1871	647	Of the builders and steerers of ships, and the wielders of axes and mauls, and the drivers of horses;
LG1871	648	I can eat and sleep with them week in and week out.
LG1871	649	What is commonest, cheapest, nearest, easiest, is Me;
LG1871	650	Me going in for my chances, spending for vast returns;
LG1871	651	Adorning myself to bestow myself on the first that will take me;
LG1871	652	Not asking the sky to come down to my good will;
LG1871	653	Scattering it freely forever.
LG1871	654	The pure contralto sings in the organ loft;
LG1871	655	The carpenter dresses his plank—the tongue of his foreplane whistles its wild ascending lisp;
LG1871	656	The married and unmarried children ride home to their Thanksgiving dinner;
LG1871	657	The pilot seizes the king-pin—he heaves down with a strong arm;
LG1871	658	The mate stands braced in the whale-boat—lance and harpoon are ready;
LG1871	659	The duck-shooter walks by silent and cautious stretches;
LG1871	660	The deacons are ordain'd with cross'd hands at the altar;
LG1871	661	The spinning-girl retreats and advances to the hum of the big wheel;
LG1871	662	The farmer stops by the bars, as he walks on a First- day loafe, and looks at the oats and rye;
LG1871	663	The lunatic is carried at last to the asylum, a confirm'd case,
LG1871	664	(He will never sleep any more as he did in the cot in his mother's bedroom;)
LG1871	665	The jour printer with gray head and gaunt jaws works at his case,
LG1871	666	He turns his quid of tobacco, while his eyes blurr with the manuscript;
LG1871	667	The malform'd limbs are tied to the surgeon's table,
LG1871	668	What is removed drops horribly in a pail;
LG1871	669	The quadroon girl is sold at the auction-stand—the drunkard nods by the bar-room stove;
LG1871	670	The machinist rolls up his sleeves—the policeman trav-elstravels his beat—the gate-keeper marks who pass;
LG1871	671	The young fellow drives the express-wagon—(I love him, though I do not know him;)
LG1871	672	The half-breed straps on his light boots to compete in the race;
LG1871	673	The western turkey-shooting draws old and young— some lean on their rifles, some sit on logs,
LG1871	674	Out from the crowd steps the marksman, takes his position, levels his piece;
LG1871	675	The groups of newly-come immigrants cover the wharf or levee;
LG1871	676	As the woolly-pates hoe in the sugar-field, the overseer views them from his saddle;
LG1871	677	The bugle calls in the ball-room, the gentlemen run for their partners, the dancers bow to each other;
LG1871	678	The youth lies awake in the cedar-roof'd garret, and harks to the musical rain;
LG1871	679	The Wolverine sets traps on the creek that helps fill the Huron;
LG1871	680	The squaw, wrapt in her yellow-hemm'd cloth, is offer-ingoffering moccasins and bead-bags for sale;
LG1871	681	The connoisseur peers along the exhibition-gallery with half-shut eyes bent sideways;
LG1871	682	As the deck-hands make fast the steamboat, the plank is thrown for the shore-going passengers;
LG1871	683	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;
LG1871	684	The one-year wife is recovering and happy, having a week ago borne her first child;
LG1871	685	The clean-hair'd Yankee girl works with her sewing-machinesewing-machine, or in the factory or mill;
LG1871	686	The nine months' gone is in the parturition chamber, her faintness and pains are advancing;
LG1871	687	The paving-man leans on his two-handed rammer—the reporter's lead flies swiftly over the note-book— the sign-painter is lettering with red and gold;
LG1871	688	The canal-boy trots on the tow-path—the book-keeper counts at his desk—the shoemaker waxes his thread;
LG1871	689	The conductor beats time for the band, and all the per-formersperformers follow him;
LG1871	690	The child is baptized—the convert is making his first professions;
LG1871	691	The regatta is spread on the bay—the race is begun— how the white sails sparkle!
LG1871	692	The drover, watching his drove, sings out to them that would stray;
LG1871	693	The pedler sweats with his pack on his back, (the pur-chaserpurchaser higgling about the odd cent;)
LG1871	694	The camera and plate are prepared, the lady must sit for her daguerreotype;
LG1871	695	The bride unrumples her white dress, the minute-hand of the clock moves slowly;
LG1871	696	The opium-eater reclines with rigid head and just- open'd lips;
LG1871	697	The prostitute draggles her shawl, her bonnet bobs on her tipsy and pimpled neck;
LG1871	698	The crowd laugh at her blackguard oaths, the men jeer and wink to each other;
LG1871	699	(Miserable! I do not laugh at your oaths, nor jeer you;)
LG1871	700	The President, holding a cabinet council, is surrounded by the Great Secretaries;
LG1871	701	On the piazza walk three matrons stately and friendly with twined arms;
LG1871	702	The crew of the fish-smack pack repeated layers of hal-ibuthalibut in the hold;
LG1871	703	The Missourian crosses the plains, toting his wares and his cattle;
LG1871	704	As the fare-collector goes through the train, he gives notice by the jingling of loose change;
LG1871	705	The floor-men are laying the floor—the tinners are tinning the roof—the masons are calling for mortar;
LG1871	706	In single file, each shouldering his hod, pass onward the laborers;
LG1871	707	Seasons pursuing each other, the indescribable crowd is gather'd—it is the Fourth of Seventh-month— (What salutes of cannon and small arms!)
LG1871	708	Seasons pursuing each other, the plougher ploughs, the mower mows, and the winter-grain falls in the ground;
LG1871	709	Off on the lakes the pike-fisher watches and waits by the hole in the frozen surface;
LG1871	710	The stumps stand thick round the clearing, the squatter strikes deep with his axe;
LG1871	711	Flatboatmen make fast, towards dusk, near the cotton-woodcottonwood or pekan-trees;
LG1871	712	Coon-seekers go through the regions of the Red river, or through those drain'd by the Tennessee, or through those of the Arkansaw;
LG1871	713	Torches shine in the dark that hangs on the Chatta-hoocheChattahooche or Altamahaw;
LG1871	714	Patriarchs sit at supper with sons and grandsons and great-grandsons around them;
LG1871	715	In walls of adobie, in canvas tents, rest hunters and trappers after their day's sport;
LG1871	716	The city sleeps, and the country sleeps;
LG1871	717	The living sleep for their time, the dead sleep for their time;
LG1871	718	The old husband sleeps by his wife, and the young hus-bandhusband sleeps by his wife;
LG1871	719	And these one and all tend inward to me, and I tend outward to them;
LG1871	720	And such as it is to be of these, more or less, I am.
LG1871	721	I am of old and young, of the foolish as much as the wise;
LG1871	722	Regardless of others, ever regardful of others,
LG1871	723	Maternal as well as paternal, a child as well as a man,
LG1871	724	Stuff'd with the stuff that is coarse, and stuff'd with the stuff that is fine;
LG1871	725	One of the Great Nation, the nation of many nations, the smallest the same, and the largest the same;
LG1871	726	A southerner soon as a northerner—a planter non-chalantnonchalant and hospitable, down by the Oconee I live;
LG1871	727	A Yankee, bound my own way, ready for trade, my joints the limberest joints on earth, and the stern-eststernest joints on earth;
LG1871	728	A Kentuckian, walking the vale of the Elkhorn, in my deer-skin leggings—a Louisianian or Georgian;
LG1871	729	A boatman over lakes or bays, or along coasts—a Hoosier, Badger, Buckeye;
LG1871	730	At home on Kanadian snow-shoes, or up in the bush, or with fishermen off Newfoundland;
LG1871	731	At home in the fleet of ice-boats, sailing with the rest and tacking;
LG1871	732	At home on the hills of Vermont; or in the woods of Maine, or the Texan ranch;
LG1871	733	Comrade of Californians—comrade of free north-west-ernersnorth-westerners, (loving their big proportions;)
LG1871	734	Comrade of raftsmen and coalmen—comrade of all who shake hands and welcome to drink and meat;
LG1871	735	A learner with the simplest, a teacher of the thought-fullestthoughtfullest;
LG1871	736	A novice beginning, yet experient of myriads of sea-sonsseasons;
LG1871	737	Of every hue and caste am I, of every rank and reli-gionreligion;
LG1871	738	A farmer, mechanic, artist, gentleman, sailor, quaker;
LG1871	739	A prisoner, fancy-man, rowdy, lawyer, physician, priest.
LG1871	740	I resist anything better than my own diversity;
LG1871	741	I breathe the air, but leave plenty after me,
LG1871	742	And am not stuck up, and am in my place.
LG1871	743	(The moth and the fish-eggs are in their place;
LG1871	744	The suns I see, and the suns I cannot see, are in their place;
LG1871	745	The, palpable is in its place, and the impalpable is in its place.)
LG1871	746	These are the thoughts of all men in all ages and lands—they are not original with me;
LG1871	747	If they are not yours as much as mine, they are nothing, or next to nothing;
LG1871	748	If they are not the riddle, and the untying of the riddle, they are nothing;
LG1871	749	If they are not just as close as they are distant, they are nothing.
LG1871	750	This is the grass that grows wherever the land is, and the water is;
LG1871	751	This is the common air that bathes the globe.
LG1871	752	With music strong I come—with my cornets and my drums,
LG1871	753	I play not marches for accepted victors only—I play great marches for conquered and slain persons.
LG1871	754	Have you heard that it was good to gain the day?
LG1871	755	I also say it is good to fall—battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won.
LG1871	756	I beat and pound for the dead;
LG1871	757	I blow through my embouchures my loudest and gayest for them.
LG1871	758	Vivas to those who have fail'd!
LG1871	759	And to those whose war-vessels sank in the sea!
LG1871	760	And to those themselves who sank in the sea!
LG1871	761	And to all generals that lost engagements! and all over-comeovercome heroes!
LG1871	762	And the numberless unknown heroes, equal to the greatest heroes known.
LG1871	763	This is the meal equally set—this is the meat for natural hunger;
LG1871	764	It is for the wicked just the same as the righteous—I make appointments with all;
LG1871	765	I will not have a single person slighted or left away;
LG1871	766	The kept-woman, sponger, thief, are hereby invited;
LG1871	767	The heavy-lipp'd slave is invited—the venerealee is in-vitedinvited:
LG1871	768	There shall be no difference between them and the rest.
LG1871	769	This is the press of a bashful hand—this is the float and odor of hair;
LG1871	770	This is the touch of my lips to yours—this is the mur-murmurmur of yearning:
LG1871	771	This is the far-off depth and height reflecting my own face;
LG1871	772	This is the thoughtful merge of myself, and the outlet again.
LG1871	773	Do you guess I have some intricate purpose?
LG1871	774	Well, I have—for the Fourth-month showers have, and the mica on the side of a rock has.
LG1871	775	Do you take it I would astonish?
LG1871	776	Does the daylight astonish? Does the early redstart, twittering through the woods?
LG1871	777	Do I astonish more than they?
LG1871	778	This hour I tell things in confidence;
LG1871	779	I might not tell everybody, but I will tell you.
LG1871	780	Who goes there? hankering, gross, mystical, nude;
LG1871	781	How is it I extract strength from the beef I eat?
LG1871	782	What is a man, anyhow? What am I? What are you?
LG1871	783	All I mark as my own, you shall offset it with your own;
LG1871	784	Else it were time lost listening to me.
LG1871	785	I do not snivel that snivel the world over,
LG1871	786	That months are vacuums, and the ground but wallow and filth;
LG1871	787	That life is a suck and a sell, and nothing remains at the end but threadbare crape, and tears.
LG1871	788	Whimpering and truckling fold with powders for invalids—conformity goes to the fourth-remov'd;
LG1871	789	I wear my hat as I please, indoors or out.
LG1871	790	Why should I pray? Why should I venerate and be ceremonious?
LG1871	791	Having pried through the strata, analyzed to a hair, counsell'd with doctors, and calculated close,
LG1871	792	I find no sweeter fat than sticks to my own bones.
LG1871	793	In all people I see myself—none more, and not one a barley-corn less;
LG1871	794	And the good or bad I say of myself, I say of them.
LG1871	795	And I know I am solid and sound;
LG1871	796	To me the converging objects of the universe perpetu-allyperpetually flow;
LG1871	797	All are written to me, and I must get what the writing means.
LG1871	798	I know I am deathless;
LG1871	799	I know this orbit of mine cannot be swept by the car-penter'scarpenter's compass;
LG1871	800	I know I shall not pass like a child's carlacue cut with a burnt stick at night.
LG1871	801	I know I am august;
LG1871	802	I do not trouble my spirit to vindicate itself or be understood;
LG1871	803	I see that the elementary laws never apologize;
LG1871	804	(I reckon I behave no prouder than the level I plant my house by, after all.)
LG1871	805	I exist as I am—that is enough;
LG1871	806	If no other in the world be aware, I sit content;
LG1871	807	And if each and all be aware, I sit content;
LG1871	808	One world is aware, and by far the largest to me, and that is myself;
LG1871	809	And whether I come to my own to-day, or in ten thousand or ten million years,
LG1871	810	I can cheerfully take it now, or with equal cheerfulness I can wait.
LG1871	811	My foothold is tenon'd and mortis'd in granite;
LG1871	812	I laugh at what you call dissolution;
LG1871	813	And I know the amplitude of time.
LG1871	814	I am the poet of the Body;
LG1871	815	And I am the poet of the Soul.
LG1871	816	The pleasures of heaven are with me, and the pains of hell are with me;
LG1871	817	The first I graft and increase upon myself—the latter I translate into a new tongue.
LG1871	818	I am the poet of the woman the same as the man;
LG1871	819	And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man;
LG1871	820	And I say there is nothing greater than the mother of men.
LG1871	821	I chant the chant of dilation or pride;
LG1871	822	We have had ducking and deprecating about enough;
LG1871	823	I show that size is only development.
LG1871	824	Have you outstript the rest? Are you the Presi-dentPresident?
LG1871	825	It is a trifle—they will more than arrive there, every one, and still pass on.
LG1871	826	I am he that walks with the tender and growing night;
LG1871	827	I call to the earth and sea, half-held by the night.
LG1871	828	Press close, bare-bosom'd night! Press close, mag-neticmagnetic, nourishing night!
LG1871	829	Night of south winds! night of the large few stars!
LG1871	830	Still, nodding night! mad, naked, summer night.
LG1871	831	Smile, O voluptuous, cool-breath'd earth!
LG1871	832	Earth of the slumbering and liquid trees;
LG1871	833	Earth of departed sunset! earth of the mountains, misty-topt!
LG1871	834	Earth of the vitreous pour of the full moon, just tinged with blue!
LG1871	835	Earth of shine and dark, mottling the tide of the river!
LG1871	836	Earth of the limpid gray of clouds, brighter and clearer for my sake!
LG1871	837	Far-swooping elbow'd earth! rich, apple-blossom'd earth!
LG1871	838	Smile, for your lover comes!
LG1871	839	Prodigal, you have given me love! Therefore I to you give love!
LG1871	840	O unspeakable, passionate love!
LG1871	841	You sea! I resign myself to you also—I guess what you mean;
LG1871	842	I behold from the beach your crooked inviting fingers;
LG1871	843	I believe you refuse to go back without feeling of me;
LG1871	844	We must have a turn together—I undress—hurry me out of sight of the land;
LG1871	845	Cushion me soft, rock me in billowy drowse;
LG1871	846	Dash me with amorous wet—I can repay you.
LG1871	847	Sea of stretch'd ground-swells!
LG1871	848	Sea breathing broad and convulsive breaths!
LG1871	849	Sea of the brine of life! sea of unshovell'd yet always-readyalways-ready graves!
LG1871	850	Howler and scooper of storms! capricious and dainty sea!
LG1871	851	I am integral with you—I too am of one phase, and of all phases.
LG1871	852	Partaker of influx and efflux I—extoller of hate and conciliation;
LG1871	853	Extoller of amies, and those that sleep in each others' arms.
LG1871	854	I am he attesting sympathy;
LG1871	855	(Shall I make my list of things in the house, and skip the house that supports them?)
LG1871	856	I am not the poet of goodness only—I do not decline to be the poet of wickedness also.
LG1871	857	Washes and razors for foofoos—for me freckles and a bristling beard.
LG1871	858	What blurt is this about virtue and about vice?
LG1871	859	Evil propels me, and reform of evil propels me—I stand indifferent;
LG1871	860	My gait is no fault-finder's or rejecter's gait;
LG1871	861	I moisten the roots of all that has grown.
LG1871	862	Did you fear some scrofula out of the unflagging pregnancy?
LG1871	863	Did you guess the celestial laws are yet to be work'd over and rectified?
LG1871	864	I find one side a balance, and the antipodal side a balance;
LG1871	865	Soft doctrine as steady help as stable doctrine;
LG1871	866	Thoughts and deeds of the present, our rouse and early start.
LG1871	867	This minute that comes to me over the past decil-lionsdecillions,
LG1871	868	There is no better than it and now.
LG1871	869	What behaved well in the past, or behaves well to-dayto-day, is not such a wonder;
LG1871	870	The wonder is, always and always, how there can be a mean man or an infidel.
LG1871	871	Endless unfolding of words of ages!
LG1871	872	And mine a word of the modern—the word En-Masse.
LG1871	873	A word of the faith that never balks;
LG1871	874	Here or henceforward, it is all the same to me—I accept Time, absolutely.
LG1871	875	It alone is without flaw—it rounds and completes all;
LG1871	876	That mystic, baffling wonder I love, alone completes all.
LG1871	877	I accept reality, and dare not question it;
LG1871	878	Materialism first and last imbuing.
LG1871	879	Hurrah for positive science! long live exact demon-strationdemonstration!
LG1871	880	Fetch stonecrop, mixt with cedar and branches of lilac;
LG1871	881	This is the lexicographer—this the chemist—this made a grammar of the old cartouches;
LG1871	882	These mariners put the ship through dangerous un-knownunknown seas;
LG1871	883	This is the geologist—this works with the scalpel—and this is a mathematician.
LG1871	884	Gentlemen! to you the first honors always:
LG1871	885	Your facts are useful and real—and yet they are not my dwelling;
LG1871	886	(I but enter by them to an area of my dwelling.)
LG1871	887	Less the reminders of properties told, my words;
LG1871	888	And more the reminders, they, of life untold, and of freedom and extrication,
LG1871	889	And make short account of neuters and geldings, and favor men and women fully equipt,
LG1871	890	And beat the gong of revolt, and stop with fugitives, and them that plot and conspire.
LG1871	891	Walt Whitman am I, a Kosmos, of mighty Manhat-tanManhattan the son,
LG1871	892	Turbulent, fleshy and sensual, eating, drinking and breeding;
LG1871	893	No sentimentalist—no stander above men and women, or apart from them;
LG1871	894	No more modest than immodest.
LG1871	895	Unscrew the locks from the doors!
LG1871	896	Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs!
LG1871	897	Whoever degrades another degrades me;
LG1871	898	And whatever is done or said returns at last to me.
LG1871	899	Through me the afflatus surging and surging— through me the current and index.
LG1871	900	I speak the pass-word primeval—I give the sign of democracy;
LG1871	901	By God! I will accept nothing which all cannot have their counterpart of on the same terms.
LG1871	902	Through me many long dumb voices;
LG1871	903	Voices of the interminable generations of slaves;
LG1871	904	Voices of prostitutes, and of deform'd persons;
LG1871	905	Voices of the diseas'd and despairing, and of thieves and dwarfs;
LG1871	906	Voices of cycles of preparation and accretion,
LG1871	907	And of the threads that connect the stars—and of wombs and of the father-stuff,
LG1871	908	And of the rights of them the others are down upon;
LG1871	909	Of the trivial, flat, foolish, despised,
LG1871	910	Fog in the air, beetles rolling balls of dung.
LG1871	911	Through me forbidden voices;
LG1871	912	Voices of sexes and lusts—voices veil'd, and I remove the veil;
LG1871	913	Voices indecent, by me clarified and transfigur'd.
LG1871	914	I do not press my fingers across my mouth;
LG1871	915	I keep as delicate around the bowels as around the head and heart;
LG1871	916	Copulation is no more rank to me than death is.
LG1871	917	I believe in the flesh and the appetites;
LG1871	918	Seeing, hearing, feeling, are miracles, and each part and tag of me is a miracle.
LG1871	919	Divine am I inside and out, and I make holy what-everwhatever I touch or am touch'd from;
LG1871	920	The scent of these arm-pits, aroma finer than prayer;
LG1871	921	This head more than churches, bibles, and all the creeds.
LG1871	922	If I worship one thing more than another, it shall be the spread of my own body, or any part of it.
LG1871	923	Translucent mould of me, it shall be you!
LG1871	924	Shaded ledges and rests, it shall be you!
LG1871	925	Firm masculine colter, it shall be you.
LG1871	926	Whatever goes to the tilth of me, it shall be you!
LG1871	927	You my rich blood! Your milky stream, pale strippings of my life.
LG1871	928	Breast that presses against other breasts, it shall be you!
LG1871	929	My brain, it shall be your occult convolutions.
LG1871	930	Root of wash'd sweet flag! timorous pond-snipe! nest of guarded duplicate eggs! it shall be you!
LG1871	931	Mix'd tussled hay of head, beard, brawn, it shall be you!
LG1871	932	Trickling sap of maple! fibre of manly wheat! it shall be you!
LG1871	933	Sun so generous, it shall be you!
LG1871	934	Vapors lighting and shading my face, it shall be you!
LG1871	935	You sweaty brooks and dews, it shall be you!
LG1871	936	Winds whose soft-tickling genitals rub against me, it shall be you!
LG1871	937	Broad, muscular fields! branches of live oak! loving lounger in my winding paths! it shall be you!
LG1871	938	Hands I have taken—face I have kiss'd—mortal I have ever touch'd! it shall be you.
LG1871	939	I dote on myself—there is that lot of me, and all so luscious;
LG1871	940	Each moment, and whatever happens, thrills me with joy.
LG1871	941	O I am wonderful!
LG1871	942	I cannot tell how my ankles bend, nor whence the cause of my faintest wish;
LG1871	943	Nor the cause of the friendship I emit, nor the cause of the friendship I take again.
LG1871	944	That I walk up my stoop! I pause to consider if it really be;
LG1871	945	A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.
LG1871	946	To behold the day-break!
LG1871	947	The little light fades the immense and diaphanous shadows;
LG1871	948	The air tastes good to my palate.
LG1871	949	Hefts of the moving world, at innocent gambols, silently rising, freshly exuding,
LG1871	950	Scooting obliquely high and low.
LG1871	951	Something I cannot see puts upward libidinous prongs;
LG1871	952	Seas of bright juice suffuse heaven.
LG1871	953	The earth by the sky staid with—the daily close of their junction;
LG1871	954	The heav'd challenge from the east that moment over my head;
LG1871	955	The mocking taunt, See then whether you shall be master!
LG1871	956	Dazzling and tremendous, how quick the sun-rise would kill me,
LG1871	957	If I could not now and always send sun-rise out of me.
LG1871	958	We also ascend, dazzling and tremendous as the sun;
LG1871	959	We found our own, O my Soul, in the calm and cool of the daybreak.
LG1871	960	My voice goes after what my eyes cannot reach;
LG1871	961	With the twirl of my tongue I encompass worlds, and volumes of worlds.
LG1871	962	Speech is the twin of my vision—it is unequal to measure itself;
LG1871	963	It provokes me forever;
LG1871	964	It says sarcastically, Walt, you contain enough—why don't you let it out, then?
LG1871	965	Come now, I will not be tantalized—you conceive too much of articulation.
LG1871	966	Do you not know, O speech, how the buds beneath you are folded?
LG1871	967	Waiting in gloom, protected by frost;
LG1871	968	The dirt receding before my prophetical screams;
LG1871	969	I underlying causes, to balance them at last;
LG1871	970	My knowledge my live parts—it keeping tally with the meaning of things,
LG1871	971	HAPPINESS—which, whoever hears me, let him or her set out in search of this day.
LG1871	972	My final merit I refuse you—I refuse putting from me what I really am;
LG1871	973	Encompass worlds, but never try to encompass me;
LG1871	974	I crowd your sleekest and best by simply looking to-wardtoward you.
LG1871	975	Writing and talk do not prove me;
LG1871	976	I carry the plenum of proof, and everything else, in my face;
LG1871	977	With the hush of my lips I wholly confound the skep-ticskeptic.
LG1871	978	I think I will do nothing now but listen,
LG1871	979	To accrue what I hear into myself—to let sounds con-tributecontribute toward me.
LG1871	980	I hear bravuras of birds, bustle of growing wheat, gossip of flames, clack of sticks cooking my meals;
LG1871	981	I hear the sound I love, the sound of the human voice;
LG1871	982	I hear all sounds running together, combined, fused or following;
LG1871	983	Sounds of the city, and sounds out of the city—sounds of the day and night;
LG1871	984	Talkative young ones to those that like them—the loud laugh of work-people at their meals;
LG1871	985	The angry base of disjointed friendship—the faint tones of the sick;
LG1871	986	The judge with hands tight to the desk, his pallid lips pronouncing a death-sentence;
LG1871	987	The heave'e'yo of stevedores unlading ships by the wharves—the refrain of the anchor-lifters;
LG1871	988	The ring of alarm-bells—the cry of fire—the whirr of swift-streaking engines and hose-carts, with pre-monitorypremonitory tinkles, and color'd lights;
LG1871	989	The steam-whistle—the solid roll of the train of ap-proachingapproaching cars;
LG1871	990	The slow-march play'd at the head of the association, marching two and two;
LG1871	991	(They go to guard some corpse—the flag tops are draped with black muslin.)
LG1871	992	I hear the violoncello, ('tis the young man's heart's complaint;)
LG1871	993	I hear the key'd cornet—it glides quickly in through my ears;
LG1871	994	It shakes mad-sweet pangs through my belly and breast.
LG1871	995	I hear the chorus—it is a grand opera;
LG1871	996	Ah, this indeed is music! This suits me.
LG1871	997	A tenor large and fresh as the creation fills me;
LG1871	998	The orbic flex of his mouth is pouring and filling me full.
LG1871	999	I hear the train'd soprano—(what work, with hers, is this?)
LG1871	1000	The orchestra whirls me wider than Uranus flies;
LG1871	1001	It wrenches such ardors from me, I did not know I possess'd them;
LG1871	1002	It sails me—I dab with bare feet—they are lick'd by the indolent waves;
LG1871	1003	I am exposed, cut by bitter and angry hail—I lose my breath,
LG1871	1004	Steep'd amid honey'd morphine, my windpipe throt-tledthrottled in fakes of death;
LG1871	1005	At length let up again to feel the puzzle of puzzles,
LG1871	1006	And that we call BEING.
LG1871	1007	To be, in any form—what is that?
LG1871	1008	(Round and round we go, all of us, and ever come back thither;)
LG1871	1009	If nothing lay more develop'd, the quahaug in its cal-louscallous shell were enough.
LG1871	1010	Mine is no callous shell;
LG1871	1011	I have instant conductors all over me, whether I pass or stop;
LG1871	1012	They seize every object and lead it harmlessly through me.
LG1871	1013	I merely stir, press, feel with my fingers, and am happy;
LG1871	1014	To touch my person to some one else's is about as much as I can stand.
LG1871	1015	Is this then a touch? quivering me to a new iden-tityidentity,
LG1871	1016	Flames and ether making a rush for my veins,
LG1871	1017	Treacherous tip of me reaching and crowding to help them,
LG1871	1018	My flesh and blood playing out lightning to strike what is hardly different from myself;
LG1871	1019	On all sides prurient provokers stiffening my limbs,
LG1871	1020	Straining the udder of my heart for its withheld drip,
LG1871	1021	Behaving licentious toward me, taking no denial,
LG1871	1022	Depriving me of my best, as for a purpose,
LG1871	1023	Unbuttoning my clothes, holding me by the bare waist,
LG1871	1024	Deluding my confusion with the calm of the sunlight and pasture-fields,
LG1871	1025	Immodestly sliding the fellow-senses away,
LG1871	1026	They bribed to swap off with touch, and go and graze at the edges of me;
LG1871	1027	No consideration, no regard for my draining strength or my anger;
LG1871	1028	Fetching the rest of the herd around to enjoy them a while,
LG1871	1029	Then all uniting to stand on a headland and worry me.
LG1871	1030	The sentries desert every other part of me;
LG1871	1031	They have left me helpless to a red marauder;
LG1871	1032	They all come to the headland, to witness and assist against me.
LG1871	1033	I am given up by traitors;
LG1871	1034	I talk wildly—I have lost my wits—I and nobody else am the greatest traitor;
LG1871	1035	I went myself first to the headland—my own hands car-riedcarried me there.
LG1871	1036	You villain touch! what are you doing? My breath is tight in its throat;
LG1871	1037	Unclench your floodgates! you are too much for me.
LG1871	1038	Blind, loving, wrestling touch! sheath'd, hooded, sharp tooth'd touch!
LG1871	1039	Did it make you ache so, leaving me?
LG1871	1040	Parting, track'd by arriving—perpetual payment of perpetual loan;
LG1871	1041	Rich, showering rain, and recompense richer after-wardafterward.
LG1871	1042	Sprouts take and accumulate—stand by the curb prolific and vital:
LG1871	1043	Landscapes, projected, masculine, full-sized and golden.
LG1871	1044	All truths wait in all things;
LG1871	1045	They neither hasten their own delivery, nor resist it;
LG1871	1046	They do not need the obstetric forceps of the surgeon;
LG1871	1047	The insignificant is as big to me as any;
LG1871	1048	(What is less or more than a touch?)
LG1871	1049	Logic and sermons never convince;
LG1871	1050	The damp of the night drives deeper into my soul.
LG1871	1051	Only what proves itself to every man and woman is so;
LG1871	1052	Only what nobody denies is so.
LG1871	1053	A minute and a drop of me settle my brain;
LG1871	1054	I believe the soggy clods shall become lovers and lamps,
LG1871	1055	And a compend of compends is the meat of a man or woman,
LG1871	1056	And a summit and flower there is the feeling they have for each other,
LG1871	1057	And they are to branch boundlessly out of that lesson until it becomes omnific,
LG1871	1058	And until every one shall delight us, and we them.
LG1871	1059	I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-workjourney-work of the stars,
LG1871	1060	And the pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and the egg of the wren,
LG1871	1061	And the tree-toad is a chef-d'uvre for the highest,
LG1871	1062	And the running blackberry would adorn the parlors of heaven,
LG1871	1063	And the narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery,
LG1871	1064	And the cow crunching with depress'd head surpasses any statue,
LG1871	1065	And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels,
LG1871	1066	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.
LG1871	1067	I find I incorporate gneiss, coal, long-threaded moss, fruits, grains, esculent roots,
LG1871	1068	And am stucco'd with quadrupeds and birds all over,
LG1871	1069	And have distanced what is behind me for good rea-sonsreasons,
LG1871	1070	And call anything close again, when I desire it.
LG1871	1071	In vain the speeding or shyness;
LG1871	1072	In vain the plutonic rocks send their old heat against my approach;
LG1871	1073	In vain the mastodon retreats beneath its own powder'd bones;
LG1871	1074	In vain objects stand leagues off, and assume manifold shapes;
LG1871	1075	In vain the ocean settling in hollows, and the great monsters lying low;
LG1871	1076	In vain the buzzard houses herself with the sky;
LG1871	1077	In vain the snake slides through the creepers and logs;
LG1871	1078	In vain the elk takes to the inner passes of the woods;
LG1871	1079	In vain the razor-bill'd auk sails far north to Labrador;
LG1871	1080	I follow quickly, I ascend to the nest in the fissure of the cliff.
LG1871	1081	I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contain'd;
LG1871	1082	I stand and look at them long and long.
LG1871	1083	They do not sweat and whine about their condition;
LG1871	1084	They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins;
LG1871	1085	They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God;
LG1871	1086	Not one is dissatisfied—not one is demented with the mania of owning things;
LG1871	1087	Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago;
LG1871	1088	Not one is respectable or industrious over the whole earth.
LG1871	1089	So they show their relations to me, and I accept them;
LG1871	1090	They bring me tokens of myself—they evince them plainly in their possession.
LG1871	1091	I wonder where they get those tokens:
LG1871	1092	Did I pass that way huge times ago, and negligently drop them?
LG1871	1093	Myself moving forward then and now and forever,
LG1871	1094	Gathering and showing more always and with velocity,
LG1871	1095	Infinite and omnigenous, and the like of these among them;
LG1871	1096	Not too exclusive toward the reachers of my remem-brancersremembrancers;
LG1871	1097	Picking out here one that I love, and now go with him on brotherly terms.
LG1871	1098	A gigantic beauty of a stallion, fresh and responsive to my caresses,
LG1871	1099	Head high in the forehead, wide between the ears,
LG1871	1100	Limbs glossy and supple, tail dusting the ground,
LG1871	1101	Eyes full of sparkling wickedness—ears finely cut, flex-iblyflexibly moving.
LG1871	1102	His nostrils dilate, as my heels embrace him;
LG1871	1103	His well-built limbs tremble with pleasure, as we race around and return.
LG1871	1104	I but use you a moment, then I resign you, stallion;
LG1871	1105	Why do I need your paces, when I myself out-gallop them?
LG1871	1106	Even, as I stand or sit, passing faster than you.
LG1871	1107	O swift wind! O space and time! now I see it is true, what I guessed at;
LG1871	1108	What I guess'd when I loaf'd on the grass;
LG1871	1109	What I guess'd while I lay alone in my bed,
LG1871	1110	And again as I walk'd the beach under the paling stars of the morning.
LG1871	1111	My ties and ballasts leave me—I travel—I sail—my elbows rest in the sea-gaps;
LG1871	1112	I skirt the sierras—my palms cover continents;
LG1871	1113	I am afoot with my vision.
LG1871	1114	By the city's quadrangular houses—in log huts— camping with lumbermen;
LG1871	1115	Along the ruts of the turnpike—along the dry gulch and rivulet bed;
LG1871	1116	Weeding my onion-patch, or hoeing rows of carrots and parsnips—crossing savannas—trailing in forests;
LG1871	1117	Prospecting—gold-digging—girdling the trees of a new purchase;
LG1871	1118	Scorch'd ankle-deep by the hot sand—hauling my boat down the shallow river;
LG1871	1119	Where the panther walks to and fro on a limb overhead —where the buck turns furiously at the hunter;
LG1871	1120	Where the rattlesnake suns his flabby length on a rock —where the otter is feeding on fish;
LG1871	1121	Where the alligator in his tough pimples sleeps by the bayou;
LG1871	1122	Where the black bear is searching for roots or honey— where the beaver pats the mud with his paddle-shapedpaddle-shaped tail;
LG1871	1123	Over the growing sugar—over the yellow-flower'd cotton plant—over the rice in its low moist field;
LG1871	1124	Over the shar-peak'd farm house, with its scallop'd scum and slender shoots from the gutters;
LG1871	1125	Over the western persimmon—over the long-leav'd corn —over the delicate blue-flower flax;
LG1871	1126	Over the white and brown buckwheat, a hummer and buzzer there with the rest;
LG1871	1127	Over the dusky green of the rye as it ripples and shades in the breeze;
LG1871	1128	Scaling mountains, pulling myself cautiously up, hold-ingholding on by low scragged limbs;
LG1871	1129	Walking the path worn in the grass, and beat through the leaves of the brush;
LG1871	1130	Where the quail is whistling betwixt the woods and the wheat-lot;
LG1871	1131	Where the bat flies in the Seventh-month eve—where the great gold-bug drops through the dark;
LG1871	1132	Where flails keep time on the barn-floor;
LG1871	1133	Where the brook puts out of the roots of the old tree and flows to the meadow;
LG1871	1134	Where cattle stand and shake away flies with the tremu-loustremulous shuddering of their hides;
LG1871	1135	Where the cheese-cloth hangs in the kitchen—where andirons straddle the hearth-slab—where cob-webscobwebs fall in festoons from the rafters;
LG1871	1136	Where trip-hammers crash—where the press is whirling its cylinders;
LG1871	1137	Wherever the human heart beats with terrible throes under its ribs;
LG1871	1138	Where the pear-shaped balloon is floating aloft, (float-ingfloating in it myself, and looking composedly down;)
LG1871	1139	Where the life-car is drawn on the slip-noose—where the heat hatches pale-green eggs in the dented sand;
LG1871	1140	Where the she-whale swims with her calf, and never forsakes it;
LG1871	1141	Where the steam-ship trails hind-ways its long pennant of smoke;
LG1871	1142	Where the fin of the shark cuts like a black chip out of the water;
LG1871	1143	Where the half-burn'd brig is riding on unknown cur-rentscurrents,
LG1871	1144	Where shells grow to her slimy deck—where the dead are corrupting below;
LG1871	1145	Where the dense-starr'd flag is borne at the head of the regiments;
LG1871	1146	Approaching Manhattan, up by the long-stretching island;
LG1871	1147	Under Niagara, the cataract falling like a veil over my countenance;
LG1871	1148	Upon a door-step—upon the horse-block of hard wood outside;
LG1871	1149	Upon the race-course, or enjoying picnics or jigs, or a good game of base-ball;
LG1871	1150	At he-festivals, with blackguard jibes, ironical license, bull-dances, drinking, laughter;
LG1871	1151	At the cider-mill, tasting the sweets of the brown mash, sucking the juice through a straw;
LG1871	1152	At apple-peelings, wanting kisses for all the red fruit I find;
LG1871	1153	At musters, beach-parties, friendly bees, huskings, house-raisings:
LG1871	1154	Where the mocking-bird sounds his delicious gurgles, cackles, screams, weeps;
LG1871	1155	Where the hay-rick stands in the barn-yard—where the dry-stalks are scattered—where the brood-cow waits in the hovel;
LG1871	1156	Where the bull advances to do his masculine work— where the stud to the mare—where the cock is treading the hen;
LG1871	1157	Where the heifers browse—where geese nip their food with short jerks;
LG1871	1158	Where sun-down shadows lengthen over the limitless and lonesome prairie;
LG1871	1159	Where herds of buffalo make a crawling spread of the square miles far and near;
LG1871	1160	Where the humming-bird shimmers—where the neck of the long-lived swan is curving and winding;
LG1871	1161	Where the laughing-gull scoots by the shore, where she laughs her near-human laugh;
LG1871	1162	Where bee-hives range on a gray bench in the garden, half hid by the high weeds;
LG1871	1163	Where band-neck'd partridges roost in a ring on the ground with their heads out;
LG1871	1164	Where burial coaches enter the arch'd gates of a cemetery;
LG1871	1165	Where winter wolves bark amidst wastes of snow and icicled trees;
LG1871	1166	Where the yellow-crowned heron comes to the edge of the marsh at night and feeds upon small crabs;
LG1871	1167	Where the splash of swimmers and divers cools the warm noon;
LG1871	1168	Where the katy-did works her chromatic reed on the walnut-tree over the well:
LG1871	1169	Through patches of citrons and cucumbers with silver-wiredsilver-wired leaves;
LG1871	1170	Through the salt-lick or orange glade, or under conical firs;
LG1871	1171	Through the gymnasium—through the curtain'd saloon —through the office or public hall;
LG1871	1172	Pleas'd with the native, and pleas'd with the foreign— pleas'd with the new and old;
LG1871	1173	Pleas'd with women, the homely as well as the hand-somehandsome;
LG1871	1174	Pleas'd with the quakeress as she puts off her bonnet and talks melodiously;
LG1871	1175	Pleas'd with the tune of the choir of the white-wash'd church;
LG1871	1176	Pleas'd with the earnest words of the sweating Metho-distMethodist preacher, or any preacher—impress'd seri-ouslyseriously at the camp-meeting:
LG1871	1177	Looking in at the shop-windows of Broadway the whole forenoon—flatting the flesh of my nose on the thick plate-glass;
LG1871	1178	Wandering the same afternoon with my face turn'd up to the clouds,
LG1871	1179	My right and left arms round the sides of two friends, and I in the middle:
LG1871	1180	Coming home with the silent and dark-cheek'd bush-boybush-boy—(behind me he rides at the drape of the day:)
LG1871	1181	Far from the settlements, studying the print of animals' feet, or the moccasin print;
LG1871	1182	By the cot in the hospital, reaching lemonade to a feverish patient;
LG1871	1183	Nigh the coffin'd corpse when all is still, examining with a candle:
LG1871	1184	Voyaging to every port, to dicker and adventure;
LG1871	1185	Hurrying with the modern crowd, as eager and fickle as any;
LG1871	1186	Hot toward one I hate, ready in my madness to knife him;
LG1871	1187	Solitary at midnight in my back yard, my thoughts gone from me a long while;
LG1871	1188	Walking the old hills of Judea, with the beautiful gentle God by my side;
LG1871	1189	Speeding through space—speeding through heaven and the stars;
LG1871	1190	Speeding amid the seven satellites, and the broad ring, and the diameter of eighty thousand miles;
LG1871	1191	Speeding with tail'd meteors—throwing fire balls like the rest;
LG1871	1192	Carrying the crescent child that carries its own full mother in its belly;
LG1871	1193	Storming, enjoying, planning, loving, cautioning,
LG1871	1194	Backing and filling, appearing and disappearing;
LG1871	1195	I tread day and night such roads.
LG1871	1196	I visit the orchard of spheres, and look at the product;
LG1871	1197	And look at quintillions ripened, and look at quintillions green.
LG1871	1198	I fly the flight of the fluid and swallowing soul;
LG1871	1199	My course runs below the soundings of plummets.
LG1871	1200	I help myself to material and immaterial;
LG1871	1201	No guard can shut me off, nor law prevent me.
LG1871	1202	I anchor my ship for a little while only;
LG1871	1203	My messengers continually cruise away, or bring their returns to me.
LG1871	1204	I go hunting polar furs and the seal—leaping chasms with a pike-pointed staff—clinging to topples of brittle and blue.
LG1871	1205	I ascend to the foretruck;
LG1871	1206	I take my place late at night in the crow's-nest;
LG1871	1207	We sail the arctic sea—it is plenty light enough;
LG1871	1208	Through the clear atmosphere I stretch around on the wonderful beauty;
LG1871	1209	The enormous masses of ice pass me, and I pass them— the scenery is plain in all directions;
LG1871	1210	The white-topt mountains show in the distance—I fling out my fancies towards them;
LG1871	1211	(We are approaching some great battle-field in which we are soon to be engaged;
LG1871	1212	We pass the colossal outposts of the encampment—we pass with still feet and caution;
LG1871	1213	Or we are entering by the suburbs some vast and ruin'd city;
LG1871	1214	The blocks and fallen architecture more than all the living cities of the globe.)
LG1871	1215	I am a free companion—I bivouac by invading watchfires.
LG1871	1216	I turn the bridegroom out of bed, and stay with the bride myself;
LG1871	1217	I tighten her all night to my thighs and lips.
LG1871	1218	My voice is the wife's voice, the screech by the rail of the stairs;
LG1871	1219	They fetch my man's body up, dripping and drown'd.
LG1871	1220	I understand the large hearts of heroes,
LG1871	1221	The courage of present times and all times;
LG1871	1222	How the skipper saw the crowded and rudderless wreck of the steam-ship, and Death chasing it up and down the storm;
LG1871	1223	How he knuckled tight, and gave not back one inch, and was faithful of days and faithful of nights,
LG1871	1224	And chalk'd in large letters, on a board, Be of good cheer, we will not desert you:
LG1871	1225	How he follow'd with them, and tack'd with them—and would not give it up;
LG1871	1226	How he saved the drifting company at last:
LG1871	1227	How the lank loose-gown'd women look'd when boated from the side of their prepared graves;
LG1871	1228	How the silent old-faced infants, and the lifted sick, and the sharp-lipp'd unshaved men:
LG1871	1229	All this I swallow—it tastes good—I like it well—it becomes mine;
LG1871	1230	I am the man—I suffer'd—I was there.
LG1871	1231	The disdain and calmness of olden martyrs;
LG1871	1232	The mother, condemn'd for a witch, burnt with dry wood, her children gazing on;
LG1871	1233	The hounded slave that flags in the race, leans by the fence, blowing, cover'd with sweat;
LG1871	1234	The twinges that sting like needles his legs and neck— the murderous buckshot and the bullets;
LG1871	1235	All these I feel, or am.
LG1871	1236	I am the hounded slave, I wince at the bite of the dogs,
LG1871	1237	Hell and despair are upon me, crack and again crack the marksmen;
LG1871	1238	I clutch the rails of the fence, my gore dribs, thinn'd with the ooze of my skin;
LG1871	1239	I fall on the weeds and stones;
LG1871	1240	The riders spur their unwilling horses, haul close,
LG1871	1241	Taunt my dizzy ears, and beat me violently over the head with whip-stocks.
LG1871	1242	Agonies are one of my changes of garments;
LG1871	1243	I do not ask the wounded person how he feels—I my-selfmyself become the wounded person;
LG1871	1244	My hurts turn livid upon me as I lean on a cane and observe.
LG1871	1245	I am the mash'd fireman with breast-bone broken;
LG1871	1246	Tumbling walls buried me in their debris;
LG1871	1247	Heat and smoke I inspired—I heard the yelling shouts of my comrades;
LG1871	1248	I heard the distant click of their picks and shovels;
LG1871	1249	They have clear'd the beams away—they tenderly lift me forth.
LG1871	1250	I lie in the night air in my red shirt—the pervading hush is for my sake;
LG1871	1251	Painless after all I lie, exhausted but not so unhappy;
LG1871	1252	White and beautiful are the faces around me—the heads are bared of their fire-caps;
LG1871	1253	The kneeling crowd fades with the light of the torches.
LG1871	1254	Distant and dead resuscitate;
LG1871	1255	They show as the dial or move as the hands of me— I am the clock myself.
LG1871	1256	I am an old artillerist—I tell of my fort's bombard-mentbambardment;
LG1871	1257	I am there again.
LG1871	1258	Again the long roll of the drummers;
LG1871	1259	Again the attacking cannon, mortars;
LG1871	1260	Again, to my listening ears, the cannon responsive.
LG1871	1261	I take part—I see and hear the whole;
LG1871	1262	The cries, curses, roar—the plaudits for well-aimed shots;
LG1871	1263	The ambulanza slowly passing, trailing its red drip;
LG1871	1264	Workmen searching after damages, making indispen-sableindispensable repairs;
LG1871	1265	The fall of grenades through the rent roof—the fan-shapedfan-shaped explosion;
LG1871	1266	The whizz of limbs, heads, stone, wood, iron, high in the air.
LG1871	1267	Again gurgles the mouth of my dying general—he furiously waves with his hand;
LG1871	1268	He gasps through the clot, Mind not me—mind—the entrenchments.
LG1871	1269	Now I tell what I knew in Texas in my early youth;
LG1871	1270	(I tell not the fall of Alamo,
LG1871	1271	Not one escaped to tell the fall of Alamo,
LG1871	1272	The hundred and fifty are dumb yet at Alamo;)
LG1871	1273	'Tis the tale of the murder in cold blood of four hun-dredhundred and twelve young men.
LG1871	1274	Retreating, they had form'd in a hollow square, with their baggage for breastworks;
LG1871	1275	Nine hundred lives out of the surrounding enemy's, nine times their number, was the price they took in advance;
LG1871	1276	Their colonel was wounded and their ammunition gone;
LG1871	1277	They treated for an honorable capitulation, receiv'd writing and seal, gave up their arms, and march'd back prisoners of war.
LG1871	1278	They were the glory of the race of rangers;
LG1871	1279	Matchless with horse, rifle, song, supper, courtship,
LG1871	1280	Large, turbulent, generous, handsome, proud, and affec-tionateaffectionate,
LG1871	1281	Bearded, sunburnt, drest in the free costume of hun-tershunters,
LG1871	1282	Not a single one over thirty years of age.
LG1871	1283	The second First-day morning they were brought out in squads, and massacred—it was beautiful early summer;
LG1871	1284	The work commenced about five o'clock, and was over by eight.
LG1871	1285	None obey'd the command to kneel;
LG1871	1286	Some made a mad and helpless rush—some stood stark and straight;
LG1871	1287	A few fell at once, shot in the temple or heart—the liv-ingliving and dead lay together;
LG1871	1288	The maim'd and mangled dug in the dirt—the new-comersnew-comers saw them there;
LG1871	1289	Some, half-kill'd, attempted to crawl away;
LG1871	1290	These were despatch'd with bayonets, or batter'd with the blunts of muskets;
LG1871	1291	A youth not seventeen years old seiz'd his assassin till two more came to release him;
LG1871	1292	The three were all torn, and cover'd with the boy's blood.
LG1871	1293	At eleven o'clock began the burning of the bodies:
LG1871	1294	That is the tale of the murder of the four hundred and twelve young men.
LG1871	1295	Would you hear of an old-fashion'd sea-fight?
LG1871	1296	Would you learn who won by the light of the moon and stars?
LG1871	1297	List to the story as my grandmother's father, the sailor, told it to me.
LG1871	1298	Our foe was no skulk in his ship, I tell you, (said he;)
LG1871	1299	His was the surly English pluck—and there is no tougher or truer, and never was, and never will be;
LG1871	1300	Along the lower'd eve he came, horribly raking us.
LG1871	1301	We closed with him—the yards entangled—the can-noncannon touch'd;
LG1871	1302	My captain lash'd fast with his own hands.
LG1871	1303	We had receiv'd some eighteen pound shots under the water;
LG1871	1304	On our lower-gun-deck two large pieces had burst at the first fire, killing all around, and blowing up overhead.
LG1871	1305	Fighting at sun-down, fighting at dark;
LG1871	1306	Ten o'clock at night, the full moon well up, our leaks on the gain, and five feet of water reported;
LG1871	1307	The master-at-arms loosing the prisoners confined in the after-hold, to give them a chance for them-selvesthemselves.
LG1871	1308	The transit to and from the magazine is now stopt by the sentinels,
LG1871	1309	They see so many strange faces, they do not know whom to trust.
LG1871	1310	Our frigate takes fire;
LG1871	1311	The other asks if we demand quarter?
LG1871	1312	If our colors are struck, and the fighting is done?
LG1871	1313	Now I laugh content, for I hear the voice of my little captain,
LG1871	1314	We have not struck, he composedly cries, we have just begun our part of the fighting.
LG1871	1315	Only three guns are in use;
LG1871	1316	One is directed by the captain himself against the ene-my'senemy's main-mast;
LG1871	1317	Two, well served with grape and canister, silence his musketry and clear his decks.
LG1871	1318	The tops alone second the fire of this little battery, especially the main-top;
LG1871	1319	They hold out bravely during the whole of the action.
LG1871	1320	Not a moment's cease;
LG1871	1321	The leaks again fast on the pumps—the fire eats toward the powder-magazine.
LG1871	1322	One of the pumps has been shot away—it is gene-rallygenerally thought we are sinking.
LG1871	1323	Serene stands the little captain;
LG1871	1324	He is not hurried—his voice is neither high nor low;
LG1871	1325	His eyes give more light to us than our battle-lan-ternsbattle-lanterns.
LG1871	1326	Toward twelve at night, there in the beams of the moon, they surrender to us.
LG1871	1327	Stretch'd and still lies the midnight;
LG1871	1328	Two great hulls motionless on the breast of the dark-nessdarkness;
LG1871	1329	Our vessel riddled and slowly sinking—preparations to pass to the one we have conquer'd;
LG1871	1330	The captain on the quarter-deck coldly giving his orders through a countenance white as a sheet;
LG1871	1331	Near by, the corpse of the child that serv'd in the cabin;
LG1871	1332	The dead face of an old salt with long white hair and carefully curl'd whiskers;
LG1871	1333	The flames, spite of all that can be done, flickering aloft and below;
LG1871	1334	The husky voices of the two or three officers yet fit for duty;
LG1871	1335	Formless stacks of bodies, and bodies by themselves— dabs of flesh upon the masts and spars,
LG1871	1336	Cut of cordage, dangle of rigging, slight shock of the soothe of waves,
LG1871	1337	Black and impassive guns, litter of powder-parcels, strong scent,
LG1871	1338	Delicate sniffs of sea-breeze, smells of sedgy grass and fields by the shore, death-messages given in charge to survivors,
LG1871	1339	The hiss of the surgeon's knife, the gnawing teeth of his saw,
LG1871	1340	Wheeze, cluck, swash of falling blood, short wild scream, and long, dull, tapering groan;
LG1871	1341	These so—these irretrievable.
LG1871	1342	O Christ! This is mastering me!
LG1871	1343	In at the conquer'd doors they crowd. I am possess'd.
LG1871	1344	I embody all presences outlaw'd or suffering;
LG1871	1345	See myself in prison shaped like another man,
LG1871	1346	And feel the dull unintermitted pain.
LG1871	1347	For me the keepers of convicts shoulder their car-binescarbines and keep watch;
LG1871	1348	It is I let out in the morning, and barr'd at night.
LG1871	1349	Not a mutineer walks handcuff'd to jail, but I am handcuff'd to him and walk by his side;
LG1871	1350	(I am less the jolly one there, and more the silent one, with sweat on my twitching lips.)
LG1871	1351	Not a youngster is taken for larceny, but I go up too, and am tried and sentenced.
LG1871	1352	Not a cholera patient lies at the last gasp, but I also lie at the last gasp;
LG1871	1353	My face is ash-color'd—my sinews gnarl—away from me people retreat.
LG1871	1354	Askers embody themselves in me, and I am embo-diedembodied in them;
LG1871	1355	I project my hat, sit shame-faced, and beg.
LG1871	1356	Enough! enough! enough!
LG1871	1357	Somehow I have been stunn'd, Stand back!
LG1871	1358	Give me a little time beyond my cuff'd head, slumbers, dreams, gaping;
LG1871	1359	I discover myself on the verge of a usual mistake.
LG1871	1360	That I could forget the mockers and insults!
LG1871	1361	That I could forget the trickling tears, and the blows of the bludgeons and hammers!
LG1871	1362	That I could look with a separate look on my own cru-cifixioncrucifixion and bloody crowning.
LG1871	1363	I remember now;
LG1871	1364	I resume the overstaid fraction;
LG1871	1365	The grave of rock multiplies what has been confided to it, or to any graves;
LG1871	1366	Corpses rise, gashes heal, fastenings roll from me.
LG1871	1367	I troop forth replenish'd with supreme power, one of an average unending procession;
LG1871	1368	Inland and sea-coast we go, and we pass all boundary lines;
LG1871	1369	Our swift ordinances on their way over the whole earth;
LG1871	1370	The blossoms we wear in our hats the growth of thou-sandsthousand of years.
LG1871	1371	Eleves, I salute you! come forward!
LG1871	1372	Continue your annotations, continue your questionings.
LG1871	1373	The friendly and flowing savage, Who is he?
LG1871	1374	Is he waiting for civilization, or past it, and master-ingmastering it?
LG1871	1375	Is he some south-westerner, raised out-doors? Is he Kanadian?
LG1871	1376	Is he from the Mississippi country? Iowa, Oregon, California? the mountains? prairie-life, bush- life? or from the sea?
LG1871	1377	Wherever he goes, men and women accept and de-siredesire him;
LG1871	1378	They desire he should like them, touch them, speak to them, stay with them.
LG1871	1379	Behavior lawless as snow-flakes, words simple as grass, uncomb'd head, laughter, and naivete,
LG1871	1380	Slow-stepping feet, common features, common modes emanations;
LG1871	1381	They descend in new forms from the tips of his fingers;
LG1871	1382	They are wafted with the odor of his body or breath— they fly out of the glance of his eyes.
LG1871	1383	Flaunt of the sunshine, I need not your bask,—lie over!
LG1871	1384	You light surfaces only—I force surfaces and depths also.
LG1871	1385	Earth! you seem to look for something at my hands;
LG1871	1386	Say, old Top-knot! what do you want?
LG1871	1387	Man or woman! I might tell how I like you, but cannot;
LG1871	1388	And might tell what it is in me, and what it is in you, but cannot;
LG1871	1389	And might tell that pining I have—that pulse of my nights and days.
LG1871	1390	Behold! I do not give lectures, or a little charity;
LG1871	1391	When I give, I give myself.
LG1871	1392	You there, impotent, loose in the knees!
LG1871	1393	Open your scarf'd chops till I blow grit within you;
LG1871	1394	Spread your palms, and lift the flaps of your pockets;
LG1871	1395	I am not to be denied—I compel—I have stores? plenty and to spare;
LG1871	1396	And anything I have I bestow.
LG1871	1397	I do not ask who you are—that is not so important to me;
LG1871	1398	You can do nothing, and be nothing, but what I will infold you.
LG1871	1399	To cotton-field drudge or cleaner of privies I lean;
LG1871	1400	On his right cheek I put the family kiss,
LG1871	1401	And in my soul I swear, I never will deny him.
LG1871	1402	On women fit for conception I start bigger and nimbler babes;
LG1871	1403	(This day I am jetting the stuff of far more arrogant republics.)
LG1871	1404	To any one dying—thither I speed, and twist the knob of the door;
LG1871	1405	Turn the bed-clothes toward the foot of the bed;
LG1871	1406	Let the physician and the priest go home.
LG1871	1407	I seize the descending man, and raise him with re-sistlessresistless will.
LG1871	1408	O despairer, here is my neck;
LG1871	1409	By God! you shall not go down! Hang your whole weight upon me.
LG1871	1410	I dilate you with tremendous breath—I buoy you up;
LG1871	1411	Every room of the house do I fill with an arm'd force,
LG1871	1412	Lovers of me, bafflers of graves.
LG1871	1413	Sleep! I and they keep guard all night;
LG1871	1414	Not doubt—not decease shall dare to lay finger upon you;
LG1871	1415	I have embraced you, and henceforth possess you to myself;
LG1871	1416	And when you rise in the mornng you will find what I tell you is so.
LG1871	1417	I am he bringing help for the sick as they pant on their backs;
LG1871	1418	And for strong upright men I bring yet more needed help.
LG1871	1419	I heard what was said of the universe;
LG1871	1420	Heard it and heard it of several thousand years:
LG1871	1421	It is middling well as far as it goes,—But is that all?
LG1871	1422	Magnifying and applying come I,
LG1871	1423	Outbidding at the start the old cautious hucksters,
LG1871	1424	Taking myself the exact dimensions of Jehovah,
LG1871	1425	Lithographing Kronos, Zeus his son, and Hercules his grandson;
LG1871	1426	Buying drafts of Osiris, Isis, Belus, Brahma, Buddha,
LG1871	1427	In my portfolio placing Manito loose, Allah on a leaf, the crucifix engraved,
LG1871	1428	With Odin, and the hideous-faced Mexitli, and every idol and image;
LG1871	1429	Taking them all for what they are worth, and not a cent more;
LG1871	1430	Admitting they were alive and did the work of their days;
LG1871	1431	(They bore mites, as for unfledg'd birds, who have now to rise and fly and sing for themselves;)
LG1871	1432	Accepting the rough deific sketches to fill out better in myself—bestowing them freely on each man and woman I see;
LG1871	1433	Discovering as much, or more, in a framer framing a house;
LG1871	1434	Putting higher claims for him there with his roll'd-up sleeves, driving the mallet and chisel;
LG1871	1435	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;
LG1871	1436	Lads ahold of fire-engines and hook-and-ladder ropes no less to me than the Gods of the antique wars;
LG1871	1437	Minding their voices peal through the crash of destruc-tiondestruction,
LG1871	1438	Their brawny limbs passing safe over charr'd laths— their white foreheads whole and unhurt out of the flames:
LG1871	1439	By the mechanic's wife with her babe at her nipple in-tercedinginterceding for every person born;
LG1871	1440	Three scythes at harvest whizzing in a row from three lusty angels with shirts bagg'd out at their waists;
LG1871	1441	The snag-tooth'd hostler with red hair redeeming sins past and to come,
LG1871	1442	Selling all he possesses, traveling on foot to fee lawyers for his brother, and sit by him while he is tried for forgery;
LG1871	1443	What was strewn in the amplest strewing the square rod about me, and not filling the square rod then;
LG1871	1444	The bull and the bug never worship'd half enough;
LG1871	1445	Dung and dirt more admirable than was dream'd;
LG1871	1446	The supernatural of no account—myself waiting my time to be one of the Supremes;
LG1871	1447	The day getting ready for me when I shall do as much good as the best, and be as prodigious:
LG1871	1448	By my life-lumps! becoming already a creator;
LG1871	1449	Putting myself here and now to the ambush'd womb of the shadows.
LG1871	1450	A call in the midst of the crowd;
LG1871	1451	My own voice, orotund, sweeping, and final.
LG1871	1452	Come my children;
LG1871	1453	Come my boys and girls, my women, household, and intimates;
LG1871	1454	Now the performer launches his nerve—he has pass'd his prelude on the reeds within.
LG1871	1455	Easily written, loose-finger'd chords! I feel the thrum of your climax and close.
LG1871	1456	My head slues round on my neck;
LG1871	1457	Music rolls, but not from the organ;
LG1871	1458	Folks are around me, but they are no household of mine.
LG1871	1459	Ever the hard, unsunk ground;
LG1871	1460	Ever the eaters and drinkers—ever the upward and downward sun—ever the air and the ceaseless tides;
LG1871	1461	Ever myself and my neighbors, refreshing, wicked, real;
LG1871	1462	Ever the old inexplicable query—ever that thorn'd thumb—that breath of itches and thirsts;
LG1871	1463	Ever the vexer's hoot! hoot! till we find where the sly one hides, and bring him forth;
LG1871	1464	Ever love—ever the sobbing liquid of life;
LG1871	1465	Ever the bandage under the chin—ever the tressels of death.
LG1871	1466	Here and there, with dimes on the eyes, walking;
LG1871	1467	To feed the greed of the belly, the brains liberally spooning;
LG1871	1468	Tickets buying, taking, selling, but in to the feast never once going;
LG1871	1469	Many sweating, ploughing, thrashing, and then the chaff for payment receiving;
LG1871	1470	A few idly owning, and they the wheat continually claiming.
LG1871	1471	This is the city, and I am one of the citizens;
LG1871	1472	Whatever interests the rest interests me—politics, wars, markets, newspapers, schools,
LG1871	1473	Benevolent societies, improvements, banks, tariffs, steamships, factories, stocks, stores, real estate, and personal estate.
LG1871	1474	The little plentiful mannikins, skipping around in collars and tail'd coats,
LG1871	1475	I am aware who they are—(they are positively not worms or fleas.)
LG1871	1476	I acknowledge the duplicates of myself—the weakest and shallowest is deathless with me;
LG1871	1477	What I do and say, the same waits for them;
LG1871	1478	Every thought that flounders in me, the same flounders in them.
LG1871	1479	I know perfectly well my own egotism;
LG1871	1480	I know my omnivorous lines, and will not write any less;
LG1871	1481	And would fetch you, whoever you are, flush with myself;
LG1871	1482	No words of routine are mine,
LG1871	1483	But abruptly to question, to leap beyond, yet nearer bring:
LG1871	1484	This printed and bound book—but the printer, and the printing-office boy?
LG1871	1485	The well-taken photographs—but your wife or friend close and solid in your arms?
LG1871	1486	The black ship, mail'd with iron, her mighty guns in her turrets—but the pluck of the captain and engineers?
LG1871	1487	In the houses, the dishes and fare and furniture—but the host and hostess, and the look-out of their eyes?
LG1871	1488	The sky up there—yet here, or next door, or across the way?
LG1871	1489	The saints and sages in history—but you yourself?
LG1871	1490	Sermons, creeds, theology—but the fathomless human brain,
LG1871	1491	And what is reason? and what is love? and what is life?
LG1871	1492	I do not despise you, priests;
LG1871	1493	My faith is the greatest of faiths, and the least of faiths,
LG1871	1494	Enclosing worship ancient and modern, and all between ancient and modern,
LG1871	1495	Believing I shall come again upon the earth after five thousand years,
LG1871	1496	Waiting responses from oracles, honoring the Gods, saluting the sun,
LG1871	1497	Making a fetish of the first rock or stump, powwowing with sticks in the circle of obis,
LG1871	1498	Helping the lama or brahmin as he trims the lamps of the idols,
LG1871	1499	Dancing yet through the streets in a phallic proces-sionprocession—rapt and austere in the woods, a gymno-sophistgymnosophist,
LG1871	1500	Drinking mead from the skull-cup—to Shastas and Vedas admirant—minding the Koran,
LG1871	1501	Walking the teokallis, spotted with gore from the stone and knife, beating the serpent-skin drum,
LG1871	1502	Accepting the Gospels—accepting him that was cruci-fiedcrucified, knowing assuredly that he is divine,
LG1871	1503	To the mass kneeling, or the puritan's prayer rising, or sitting patiently in a pew,
LG1871	1504	Ranting and frothing in my insane crisis, or waiting dead-like till my spirit arouses me,
LG1871	1505	Looking forth on pavement and land, or outside of pavement and land,
LG1871	1506	Belonging to the winders of the circuit of circuits.
LG1871	1507	One of that centripetal and centrifugal gang, I turn and talk, like a man leaving charges before a journey.
LG1871	1508	Down-hearted doubters, dull and excluded,
LG1871	1509	Frivolous, sullen, moping, angry, affected, dishearten'd, atheistical;
LG1871	1510	I know every one of you—I know the sea of torment, doubt, despair and unbelief.
LG1871	1511	How the flukes splash!
LG1871	1512	How they contort, rapid as lightning, with spasms, and spouts of blood!
LG1871	1513	Be at peace, bloody flukes of doubters and sullen mopers;
LG1871	1514	I take my place among you as much as among any;
LG1871	1515	The past is the push of you, me, all, precisely the same,
LG1871	1516	And what is yet untried and afterward is for you, me, all, precisely the same.
LG1871	1517	I do not know what is untried and afterward;
LG1871	1518	But I know it will in its turn prove sufficient, and can-notcannot fail.
LG1871	1519	Each who passes is consider'd—each who stops is consider'd—not a single one can it fail.
LG1871	1520	It cannot fail the young man who died and was buried,
LG1871	1521	Nor the young woman who died and was put by his side,
LG1871	1522	Nor the little child that peep'd in at the door, and then drew back, and was never seen again,
LG1871	1523	Nor the old man who has lived without purpose, and feels it with bitterness worse than gall,
LG1871	1524	Nor him in the poor house, tubercled by rum and the bad disorder,
LG1871	1525	Nor the numberless slaughter'd and wreck'd—nor the brutish koboo call'd the ordure of humanity,
LG1871	1526	Nor the sacs merely floating with open mouths for food to slip in,
LG1871	1527	Nor anything in the earth, or down in the oldest graves of the earth,
LG1871	1528	Nor anything in the myriads of spheres—nor one of the myriads of myriads that inhabit them,
LG1871	1529	Nor the present—nor the least wisp that is known.
LG1871	1530	It is time to explain myself—Let us stand up.
LG1871	1531	What is known I strip away;
LG1871	1532	I launch all men and women forward with me into THE UNKNOWN.
LG1871	1533	The clock indicates the moment—but what does eter-nityeternity indicate?
LG1871	1534	We have thus far exhausted trillions of winters and summers;
LG1871	1535	There are trillions ahead, and trillions ahead of them.
LG1871	1536	Births have brought us richness and variety,
LG1871	1537	And other births will bring us richness and variety.
LG1871	1538	I do not call one greater and one smaller;
LG1871	1539	That which fills its period and place is equal to any.
LG1871	1540	Were mankind murderous or jealous upon you, my brother, my sister?
LG1871	1541	I am sorry for you—they are not murderous or jealous upon me;
LG1871	1542	All has been gentle with me—I keep no account with lamentation;
LG1871	1543	(What have I to do with lamentation?)
LG1871	1544	I am an acme of things accomplish'd, and I an en-closerencloser of things to be.
LG1871	1545	My feet strike an apex of the apices of the stairs;
LG1871	1546	On every step bunches of ages, and larger bunches be-tweenbetween the steps;
LG1871	1547	All below duly travel'd, and still I mount and mount.
LG1871	1548	Rise after rise bow the phantoms behind me;
LG1871	1549	Afar down I see the huge first Nothing—I know I was even there;
LG1871	1550	I waited unseen and always, and slept through the leth-argiclethargic mist,
LG1871	1551	And took my time, and took no hurt from the fetid carbon.
LG1871	1552	Long I was hugg'd close—long and long.
LG1871	1553	Immense have been the preparations for me,
LG1871	1554	Faithful and friendly the arms that have help'd me.
LG1871	1555	Cycles ferried my cradle, rowing and rowing like cheerful boatmen;
LG1871	1556	For room to me stars kept aside in their own rings;
LG1871	1557	They sent influences to look after what was to hold me.
LG1871	1558	Before I was born out of my mother, generations guided me;
LG1871	1559	My embryo has never been torpid—nothing could over-layoverlay it.
LG1871	1560	For it the nebula cohered to an orb,
LG1871	1561	The long slow strata piled to rest it on,
LG1871	1562	Vast vegetables gave it sustenance,
LG1871	1563	Monstrous sauroids transported it in their mouths, and deposited it with care.
LG1871	1564	All forces have been steadily employ'd to complete and delight me;
LG1871	1565	Now on this spot I stand with my robust Soul.
LG1871	1566	O span of youth! Ever-push'd elasticity!
LG1871	1567	O manhood, balanced, florid, and full.
LG1871	1568	My lovers suffocate me!
LG1871	1569	Crowding my lips, thick in the pores of my skin,
LG1871	1570	Jostling me through streets and public halls—coming naked to me at night,
LG1871	1571	Crying by day Ahoy! from the rocks of the river— swinging and chirping over my head,
LG1871	1572	Calling my name from flower-beds, vines, tangled under-brushunderbrush,
LG1871	1573	Lighting on every moment of my life,
LG1871	1574	Bussing my body with soft balsamic busses,
LG1871	1575	Noiselessly passing handfuls out of their hearts, and giving them to be mine.
LG1871	1576	Old age superbly rising! O welcome, ineffable grace of dying days!
LG1871	1577	Every condition promulges not only itself—it pro-mulgespromulges what grows after and out of itself,
LG1871	1578	And the dark hush promulges as much as any.
LG1871	1579	I open my scuttle at night and see the far-sprinkled systems,
LG1871	1580	And all I see, multiplied as high as I can cipher, edge but the rim of the farther systems.
LG1871	1581	Winder and wider they spread, expanding, always ex-pandingexpanding,
LG1871	1582	Outward and outward, and forever outward.
LG1871	1583	My sun has his sun, and round him obediently wheels,
LG1871	1584	He joins with his partners a group of superior circuit,
LG1871	1585	And greater sets follow, making specks of the greatest inside them.
LG1871	1586	There is no stoppage, and never can be stoppage;
LG1871	1587	If I, you, and the worlds, and all beneath or upon their surfaces, were this moment reduced back to a pallid float, it would not avail in the long run;
LG1871	1588	We should surely bring up again where we now stand,
LG1871	1589	And as surely go as much farther—and then farther and farther.
LG1871	1590	A few quadrillions of eras, a few octillions of cubic leagues, do not hazard the span, or make it im-patientimpatient;
LG1871	1591	They are but parts—anything is but a part.
LG1871	1592	See ever so far, there is limitless space outside of that;
LG1871	1593	Count ever so much, there is limitless time around that.
LG1871	1594	My rendezvous is appointed—it is certain;
LG1871	1595	The Lord will be there, and wait till I come, on perfect terms;
LG1871	1596	(The great Camerado, the lover true for whom I pine, will be there.)
LG1871	1597	I know I have, the best of time and space, and was
LG1871	1598	never measured, and never will be measured.
LG1871	1599	I tramp a perpetual journey—(come listen all!)
LG1871	1600	My signs are a rain-proof coat, good shoes, and a staff cut from the woods;
LG1871	1601	No friend of mine takes his ease in my chair;
LG1871	1602	I have no chair, no church, no philosophy;
LG1871	1603	I lead no man to a dinner-table, library, or exchange;
LG1871	1604	But each man and each woman of you I lead upon a knoll,
LG1871	1605	My left hand hooking you round the waist,
LG1871	1606	My right hand pointing to landscapes of continents, and a plain public road.
LG1871	1607	Not I—not any one else, can travel that road for you,
LG1871	1608	You must travel it for yourself.
LG1871	1609	It is not far—it is within reach;
LG1871	1610	Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know;
LG1871	1611	Perhaps it is every where on water and on land.
LG1871	1612	Shoulder your duds, dear son, and I will mine, and let us hasten forth,
LG1871	1613	Wonderful cities and free nations we shall fetch as we go.
LG1871	1614	If you tire, give me both burdens, and rest the chuff of your hand on my hip,
LG1871	1615	And in due time you shall repay the same service to me;
LG1871	1616	For after we start, we never lie by again.
LG1871	1617	This day before dawn I ascended a hill, and look'd at the crowded heaven,
LG1871	1618	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 fill'd and satisfied then?
LG1871	1619	And my Spirit said, No, we but level that lift, to pass and continue beyond.
LG1871	1620	You are also asking me questions, and I hear you;
LG1871	1621	I answer that I cannot answer—you must find out for yourself.
LG1871	1622	Sit a while, dear son;
LG1871	1623	Here are biscuits to eat, and here is milk to drink;
LG1871	1624	But as soon as you sleep, and renew yourself in sweet clothes, I kiss you with a good-bye kiss, and open the gate for your egress hence.
LG1871	1625	Long enough have you dream'd contemptible dreams;
LG1871	1626	Now I wash the gum from your eyes;
LG1871	1627	You must habit yourself to the dazzle of the light, and of every moment of your life.
LG1871	1628	Long have you timidly waded, holding a plank by the shore;
LG1871	1629	Now I will you to be a bold swimmer,
LG1871	1630	To jump off in the midst of the sea, rise again, nod to me, shout, and laughingly dash with your hair.
LG1871	1631	I am the teacher of athletes;
LG1871	1632	He that by me spreads a wider breast than my own, proves the width of my own;
LG1871	1633	He most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher.
LG1871	1634	The boy I love, the same becomes a man, not through derived power, but in his own right,
LG1871	1635	Wicked, rather than virtuous out of conformity or fear,
LG1871	1636	Fond of his sweetheart, relishing well his steak,
LG1871	1637	Unrequited love, or a slight, cutting him worse than sharp steel cuts,
LG1871	1638	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,
LG1871	1639	Preferring scars, and the beard, and faces pitted with small-pox, over all latherers,
LG1871	1640	And those well tann'd to those that keep out of the sun.
LG1871	1641	I teach straying from me—yet who can stray from me?
LG1871	1642	I follow you, whoever you are, from the present hour;
LG1871	1643	My words itch at your ears till you understand them.
LG1871	1644	I do not say these things for a dollar, or to fill up the time while I wait for a boat;
LG1871	1645	It is you talking just as much as myself—I act as the tongue of you;
LG1871	1646	Tied in your mouth, in mine it begins to be loosen'd.
LG1871	1647	I swear I will never again mention love or death in-sideinside a house,
LG1871	1648	And I swear I will never translate myself at all, only to him or her who privately stays with me in the open air.
LG1871	1649	If you would understand me, go to the heights or water-shore;
LG1871	1650	The nearest gnat is an explanation, and a drop or mo-tionmotion of waves a key;
LG1871	1651	The maul, the oar, the hand-saw, second my words.
LG1871	1652	No shutter'd room or school can commune with me,
LG1871	1653	But roughs and little children better than they.
LG1871	1654	The young mechanic is closest to me—he knows me well;
LG1871	1655	The woodman, that takes his axe and jug with him, shall take me with him all day;
LG1871	1656	The farm-boy, ploughing in the field, feels good at the sound of my voice;
LG1871	1657	In vessels that sail, my words sail—I go with fishermen and seamen, and love them.
LG1871	1658	The soldier camp'd, or upon the march, is mine;
LG1871	1659	On the night ere the pending battle, many seek me, and I do not fail them;
LG1871	1660	On the solemn night (it may be their last,) those that know me, seek me.
LG1871	1661	My face rubs to the hunter's face, when he lies down alone in his blanket;
LG1871	1662	The driver, thinking of me, does not mind the jolt of his wagon;
LG1871	1663	The young mother and old mother comprehend me;
LG1871	1664	The girl and the wife rest the needle a moment, and forget where they are;
LG1871	1665	They and all would resume what I have told them.
LG1871	1666	I have said that the soul is not more than the body,
LG1871	1667	And I have said that the body is not more than the soul;
LG1871	1668	And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one's-selfone's-self is,
LG1871	1669	And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy, walks to his own funeral, drest in his shroud,
LG1871	1670	And I or you, pocketless of a dime, may purchase the pick of the earth,
LG1871	1671	And to glance with an eye, or show a bean in its pod, confounds the learning of all times,
LG1871	1672	And there is no trade or employment but the young man following it may become a hero,
LG1871	1673	And there is no object so soft but it makes a hub for the wheel'd universe,
LG1871	1674	And I say to any man or woman, Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes.
LG1871	1675	And I say to mankind, Be not curious about God,
LG1871	1676	For I, who am curious about each, am not curious about God;
LG1871	1677	(No array of terms can say how much I am at peace about God, and about death.)
LG1871	1678	I hear and behold God in every object, yet under-standunderstand God not in the least,
LG1871	1679	Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself.
LG1871	1680	Why should I wish to see God better than this day?
LG1871	1681	I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, and each moment then;
LG1871	1682	In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass;
LG1871	1683	I find letters from God dropt in the street—and every one is sign'd by God's name,
LG1871	1684	And I leave them where they are, for I know that wheresoe'er I go,
LG1871	1685	Others will punctually come forever and ever.
LG1871	1686	And as to you Death, and you bitter hug of mortal-itymortality, it is idle to try to alarm me.
LG1871	1687	To his work without flinching the accoucheur comes;
LG1871	1688	I see the elder-hand, pressing, receiving, supporting;
LG1871	1689	I recline by the sills of the exquisite flexible doors,
LG1871	1690	And mark the outlet, and mark the relief and escape.
LG1871	1691	And as to you, Corpse, I think you are good manure —but that does not offend me;
LG1871	1692	I smell the white roses sweet-scented and growing,
LG1871	1693	I reach to the leafy lips—I reach to the polish'd breasts of melons.
LG1871	1694	And as to you Life, I reckon you are the leavings of many deaths;
LG1871	1695	(No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before.)
LG1871	1696	I hear you whispering there, O stars of heaven;
LG1871	1697	O suns! O grass of graves! O perpetual transfers and promotions!
LG1871	1698	If you do not say anything, how can I say anything?
LG1871	1699	Of the turbid pool that lies in the autumn forest,
LG1871	1700	Of the moon that descends the steeps of the soughing twilight,
LG1871	1701	Toss, sparkles of day and dusk! toss on the black stems that decay in the muck!
LG1871	1702	Toss to the moaning gibberish of the dry limbs.
LG1871	1703	I ascend from the moon, I ascend from the night;
LG1871	1704	I perceive that the ghastly glimmer is noonday sunbeams reflected;
LG1871	1705	And debouch to the steady and central from the offspring great or small,
LG1871	1706	There is that in me—I do not know what it is—but I know it is in me.
LG1871	1707	Wrench'd and sweaty—calm and cool then my body becomes;
LG1871	1708	I sleep—I sleep long.
LG1871	1709	I do not know it—it is without name—it is a word unsaid;
LG1871	1710	It is not in any dictionary, utterance, symbol.
LG1871	1711	Something it swings on more than the earth I swing on;
LG1871	1712	To it the creation is the friend whose embracing awakes me.
LG1871	1713	Perhaps I might tell more. Outlines! I plead for my brothers and sisters.
LG1871	1714	Do you see, O my brothers and sisters?
LG1871	1715	It is not chaos or death—it is form, union, plan—it is eternal life—it is HAPPINESS.
LG1871	1716	The past and present wilt—I have fill'd them, emp-tiedemptied them,
LG1871	1717	And proceed to fill my next fold of the future.
LG1871	1718	Listener up there! Here, you! What have you to confide to me?
LG1871	1719	Look in my face, while I snuff the sidle of evening;
LG1871	1720	Talk honestly—no one else hears you, and I stay only a minute longer.
LG1871	1721	Do I contradict myself?
LG1871	1722	Very well, then, I contradict myself;
LG1871	1723	(I am large—I contain multitudes.)
LG1871	1724	I concentrate toward them that are nigh—I wait on the door-slab.
LG1871	1725	Who has done his day's work? Who will soonest be through with his supper?
LG1871	1726	Who wishes to walk with me?
LG1871	1727	Will you speak before I am gone? Will you prove already too late?
LG1871	1728	The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me—he complains of my gab and my loitering.
LG1871	1729	I too am not a bit tamed—I too am untranslatable;
LG1871	1730	I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.
LG1871	1731	The last scud of day holds back for me;
LG1871	1732	It flings my likeness after the rest, and true as any, on the shadow'd wilds;
LG1871	1733	It coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk.
LG1871	1734	I depart as air—I shake my white locks at the run-awayrunaway sun;
LG1871	1735	I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.
LG1871	1736	I bequeath myself to the dirt, to grow from the grass I love;
LG1871	1737	If you want me again, look for me under your boot-solesboot-soles.
LG1871	1738	You will hardly know who I am, or what I mean;
LG1871	1739	But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
LG1871	1740	And filter and fibre your blood.
LG1871	1741	Failing to fetch me at first, keep encouraged;
LG1871	1742	Missing me one place, search another;
LG1871	1743	I stop somewhere waiting for you.
LG1871	1744	LAWS for Creations,
LG1871	1745	For strong artists and leaders—for fresh broods of teachers, and perfect literats for America,
LG1871	1746	For noble savans, and coming musicians.
LG1871	1747	All must have reference to the ensemble of the world, and the compact truth of the world;
LG1871	1748	There shall be no subject too pronounced—All works shall illustrate the divine law of indirections.
LG1871	1749	What do you suppose Creation is?
LG1871	1750	What do you suppose will satisfy the Soul, except to walk free, and own no superior?
LG1871	1751	What do you suppose I would intimate to you in a hun-dredhundred ways, but that man or woman is as good as God?
LG1871	1752	And that there is no God any more divine than Your-selfYourself?
LG1871	1753	And that that is what the oldest and newest myths finally mean?
LG1871	1754	Aud that you or any one must approach Creations through such laws?
LG1871	1755	A MASK—a perpetual natural disguiser of herself,
LG1871	1756	Concealing her face, concealing her form,
LG1871	1757	Changes and transformations every hour, every mo-mentmoment,
LG1871	1758	Falling upon her even when she sleeps.
LG1871	1759	TO THE garden, the world, anew ascending,
LG1871	1760	Potent mates, daughters, sons, preluding,
LG1871	1761	The love, the life of their bodies, meaning and being,
LG1871	1762	Curious, here behold my resurrection, after slumber;
LG1871	1763	The revolving cycles, in their wide sweep, having brought me again,
LG1871	1764	Amorous, mature—all beautiful to me—all wondrous;
LG1871	1765	My limbs, and the quivering fire that ever plays through them, for reasons, most wondrous;
LG1871	1766	Existing, I peer and penetrate still,
LG1871	1767	Content with the present—content with the past,
LG1871	1768	By my side, or back of me, Eve following,
LG1871	1769	Or in front, and I following her just the same.
LG1871	1770	FROM pent-up, aching rivers;
LG1871	1771	From that of myself, without which I were nothing;
LG1871	1772	From what I am determin'd to make illustrious, even if I stand sole among men;
LG1871	1773	From my own voice resonant—singing the phallus,
LG1871	1774	Singing the song of procreation,
LG1871	1775	Singing the need of superb children, and therein superb grown people,
LG1871	1776	Singing the muscular urge and the blending,
LG1871	1777	Singing the bedfellow's song, (O resistless yearning!
LG1871	1778	O for any and each, the body correlative attracting!
LG1871	1779	O for you, whoever you are, your correlative body! O it, more than all else, you delighting!)
LG1871	1780	—From the hungry gnaw that eats me night and day;
LG1871	1781	From native moments—from bashful pains—singing them;
LG1871	1782	Singing something yet unfound, though I have dili-gentlydiligently sought it, many a long year;
LG1871	1783	Singing the true song of the Soul, fitful, at random;
LG1871	1784	Singing what, to the Soul, entirely redeem'd her, the faithful one, even the prostitute, who detain'd me when I went to the city;
LG1871	1785	Singing the song of prostitutes;
LG1871	1786	Renascent with grossest Nature, or among animals;
LG1871	1787	Of that—of them, and what goes with them, my poems informing;
LG1871	1788	Of the smell of apples and lemons—of the pairing of birds,
LG1871	1789	Of the wet of woods—of the lapping of waves,
LG1871	1790	Of the mad pushes of waves upon the land—I them chanting;
LG1871	1791	The overture lightly sounding—the strain anticipat-inganticipation;
LG1871	1792	The welcome nearness—the sight of the perfect body;
LG1871	1793	The swimmer swimming naked in the bath, or motion-lessmotionless on his back lying and floating;
LG1871	1794	The female form approaching—I, pensive, love-flesh tremulous, aching;
LG1871	1795	The divine list, for myself or you, or for any one, mak-ingmaking;
LG1871	1796	The face—the limbs—the index from head to foot, and what it arouses;
LG1871	1797	The mystic deliria—the madness amorous—the utter abandonment;
LG1871	1798	(Hark close, and still, what I now whisper to you,
LG1871	1799	I love you—O you entirely possess me,
LG1871	1800	O I wish that you and I escape from the rest, and go utterly off—O free and lawless,
LG1871	1801	Two hawks in the air—two fishes swimming in the sea not more lawless than we;)
LG1871	1802	—The furious storm through me careering—I passion-atelypassionately trembling;
LG1871	1803	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;
LG1871	1804	(O I willingly stake all, for you!
LG1871	1805	O let me be lost, if it must be so!
LG1871	1806	O you and I—what is it to us what the rest do or think?
LG1871	1807	What is all else to us? only that we enjoy each other, and exhaust each other, if it must be so:)
LG1871	1808	—From the master—the pilot I yield the vessel to;
LG1871	1809	The general commanding me, commanding all—from him permission taking;
LG1871	1810	From time the programme hastening, (I have loiter'd too long, as it is;)
LG1871	1811	From sex—From the warp and from the woof;
LG1871	1812	(To talk to the perfect girl who understands me,
LG1871	1813	To waft to her these from my own lips—to effuse them from my own body;)
LG1871	1814	From privacy—from frequent repinings alone;
LG1871	1815	From plenty of persons near, and yet the right person not near;
LG1871	1816	From the soft sliding of hands over me, and thrusting of fingers through my hair and beard;
LG1871	1817	From the long sustain'd kiss upon the mouth or bosom;
LG1871	1818	From the close pressure that makes me or any man drunk, fainting with excess;
LG1871	1819	From what the divine husband knows—from the work of fatherhood;
LG1871	1820	From exultation, victory, and relief—from the bedfel-low'sbedfellow's embrace in the night;
LG1871	1821	From the act-poems of eyes, hands, hips, and bosoms,
LG1871	1822	From the cling of the trembling arm,
LG1871	1823	From the bending curve and the clinch,
LG1871	1824	From side by side, the pliant coverlid off-throwing,
LG1871	1825	From the one so unwilling to have me leave—and me just as unwilling to leave,
LG1871	1826	(Yet a moment, O tender waiter, and I return;)
LG1871	1827	—From the hour of shining stars and dropping dews,
LG1871	1828	From the night, a moment, I, emerging, flitting out,
LG1871	1829	Celebrate you, act divine—and you, children prepared for,
LG1871	1830	And you, stalwart loins.
LG1871	1831	I SING the Body electric;
LG1871	1832	The armies of those I love engirth me, and I engirth them;
LG1871	1833	They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them,
LG1871	1834	And discorrupt them, and charge them full with the charge of the Soul.
LG1871	1835	Was it doubted that those who corrupt their own bodies conceal themselves?
LG1871	1836	And if those who defile the living are as bad as they who defile the dead?
LG1871	1837	And if the body does not do as much as the Soul?
LG1871	1838	And if the body were not the Soul, what is the Soul?
LG1871	1839	The love of the Body of man or woman balks ac-countaccount—the body itself balks account;
LG1871	1840	That of the male is perfect, and that of the female is perfect.
LG1871	1841	The expression of the face balks account;
LG1871	1842	But the expression of a well-made man appears not only in his face;
LG1871	1843	It is in his limbs and joints also, it is curiously in the joints of his hips and wrists;
LG1871	1844	It is in his walk, the carriage of his neck, the flex of his waist and knees—dress does not hide him;
LG1871	1845	The strong, sweet, supple quality he has, strikes through the cotton and flannel;
LG1871	1846	To see him pass conveys as much as the best poem, perhaps more;
LG1871	1847	You linger to see his back, and the back of his neck and shoulder-side.
LG1871	1848	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,
LG1871	1849	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,
LG1871	1850	The bending forward and backward of rowers in row-boatsrow-boats—the horseman in his saddle,
LG1871	1851	Girls, mothers, house-keepers, in all their performances,
LG1871	1852	The group of laborers seated at noon-time with their open dinner-kettles, and their wives waiting,
LG1871	1853	The female soothing a child—the farmer's daughter in the garden or cow-yard,
LG1871	1854	The young fellow hoeing corn—the sleigh-driver guiding his six horses through the crowd,
LG1871	1855	The wrestle of wrestlers, two apprentice-boys, quite grown, lusty, good natured, native-born, out on the vacant lot at sun-down, after work,
LG1871	1856	The coats and caps thrown down, the embrace of love and resistance,
LG1871	1857	The upper-hold and under-hold, the hair rumpled over and blinding the eyes;
LG1871	1858	The march of firemen in their own costumes, the play of masculine muscle through clean-setting trow-serstrowsers and waist-straps,
LG1871	1859	The slow return from the fire, the pause when the bell strikes suddenly again, and the listening on the alert,
LG1871	1860	The natural, perfect, varied attitudes—the bent head, the curv'd neck, and the counting;
LG1871	1861	Such-like I love—I loosen myself, pass freely, am at the mother's breast with the little child,
LG1871	1862	Swim with the swimmers, wrestle with wrestlers, march in line with the firemen, and pause, listen, and count.
LG1871	1863	I knew a man, a common farmer—the father of five sons;
LG1871	1864	And in them were the fathers of sons—and in them were the fathers of sons.
LG1871	1865	This man was of wonderful vigor, calmness, beauty of person;
LG1871	1866	The shape of his head, the pale yellow and white of his hair and beard, and the immeasurable meaning of his black eyes—the richness and breadth of his manners,
LG1871	1867	These I used to go and visit him to see—he was wise also;
LG1871	1868	He was six feet tall, he was over eighty years old—his sons were massive, clean, bearded, tan-faced, handsome;
LG1871	1869	They and his daughters loved him—all who saw him loved him;
LG1871	1870	They did not love him by allowance—they loved him with personal love!
LG1871	1871	He drank water only—the blood show'd like scarlet through the clear-brown skin of his face;
LG1871	1872	He was a frequent gunner and fisher—he sail'd 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;
LG1871	1873	When he went with his five sons and many grand-sons to hunt or fish, you would pick him out as the most beautiful and vigorous of the gang,
LG1871	1874	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.
LG1871	1875	I have perceiv'd that to be with those I like is enough,
LG1871	1876	To stop in company with the rest at evening is enough,
LG1871	1877	To be surrounded by beautiful, curious, breathing, laughing flesh is enough,
LG1871	1878	To pass among them, or touch any one, or rest my arm ever so lightly round his or her neck for a mo-mentmoment—what is this, then?
LG1871	1879	I do not ask any more delight—I swim in it, as in a sea.
LG1871	1880	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;
LG1871	1881	All things please the soul—but these please the soul well.
LG1871	1882	This is the female form;
LG1871	1883	A divine nimbus exhales from it from head to foot;
LG1871	1884	It attracts with fierce undeniable attraction!
LG1871	1885	I am drawn by its breath as if I were no more than a helpless vapor—all falls aside but myself and it;
LG1871	1886	Books, art, religion, time, the visible and solid earth, the atmosphere and the clouds, and what was expected of heaven or fear'd of hell, are now consumed;
LG1871	1887	Mad filaments, ungovernable shoots play out of it—the response likewise ungovernable;
LG1871	1888	Hair, bosom, hips, bend of legs, negligent falling hands, all diffused—mine too diffused;
LG1871	1889	Ebb stung by the flow, and flow stung by the ebb— love-flesh swelling and deliciously aching;
LG1871	1890	Limitless limpid jets of love hot and enormous, quiver-ingquivering jelly of love, white-blow and delirious juice;
LG1871	1891	Bridegroom night of love, working surely and softly into the prostrate dawn;
LG1871	1892	Undulating into the willing and yielding day,
LG1871	1893	Lost in the cleave of the clasping and sweet-flesh'd day.
LG1871	1894	This is the nucleus—after the child is born of woman, the man is born of woman;
LG1871	1895	This is the bath of birth—this is the merge of small and large, and the outlet again.
LG1871	1896	Be not ashamed, women—your privilege encloses the rest, and is the exit of the rest;
LG1871	1897	You are the gates of the body, and you are the gates of the soul.
LG1871	1898	The female contains all qualities, and tempers them —she is in her place, and moves with perfect balance;
LG1871	1899	She is all things duly veil'd—she is both passive and active;
LG1871	1900	She is to conceive daughters as well as sons, and sons as well as daughters.
LG1871	1901	As I see my soul reflected in nature;
LG1871	1902	As I see through a mist, one with inexpressible com-pletenesscompleteness and beauty,
LG1871	1903	See the bent head, and arms folded over the breast— the female I see.
LG1871	1904	The male is not less the soul, nor more—he too is in his place;
LG1871	1905	He too is all qualities—he is action and power;
LG1871	1906	The flush of the known universe is in him;
LG1871	1907	Scorn becomes him well, and appetite and defiance be-comebecome him well:
LG1871	1908	The wildest largest passions, bliss that is utmost, sor-rowsorrow that is utmost, become him well—pride is for him;
LG1871	1909	The full-spread pride of man is calming and excellent to the soul;
LG1871	1910	Knowledge becomes him—he likes it always—he brings everything to the test of himself;
LG1871	1911	Whatever the survey, whatever the sea and the sail, he strikes soundings at last only here;
LG1871	1912	(Where else does he strike soundings, except here?)
LG1871	1913	The man's body is sacred, and the woman's body is sacred;
LG1871	1914	No matter who it is, it is sacred;
LG1871	1915	Is it a slave? Is it one of the dull-faced immigrants just landed on the wharf?
LG1871	1916	Each belongs here or anywhere, just as much as the well off—just as much as you;
LG1871	1917	Each has his or her place in the procession.
LG1871	1918	(All is a procession;
LG1871	1919	The universe is a procession, with measured and beau-tifulbeautiful motion.)
LG1871	1920	Do you know so much yourself, that you call the slave or the dull-face ignorant?
LG1871	1921	Do you suppose you have a right to a good sight, and he or she has no right to a sight?
LG1871	1922	Do you think matter has cohered together from its dif-fusediffuse float—and the soil is on the surface, and water runs, and vegetation sprouts,
LG1871	1923	For you only, and not for him and her?
LG1871	1924	A man's Body at auction;
LG1871	1925	I help the auctioneer—the sloven does not half know his business.
LG1871	1926	Gentlemen, look on this wonder!
LG1871	1927	Whatever the bids of the bidders, they cannot be high enough for it;
LG1871	1928	For it the globe lay preparing quintillions of years, without one animal or plant;
LG1871	1929	For it the revolving cycles truly and steadily roll'd.
LG1871	1930	In this head the all-baffling brain;
LG1871	1931	In it and below it, the makings of heroes.
LG1871	1932	Examine these limbs, red, black, or white—they are so cunning in tendon and nerve;
LG1871	1933	They shall be stript, that you may see them.
LG1871	1934	Exquisite senses, life-lit eyes, pluck, volition,
LG1871	1935	Flakes of breast-muscle, pliant back-bone and neck, flesh not flabby, good-sized arms and legs,
LG1871	1936	And wonders within there yet.
LG1871	1937	Within there runs blood,
LG1871	1938	The same old blood!
LG1871	1939	The same red-running blood!
LG1871	1940	There swells and jets a heart—there all passions, de-siresdesires, reachings, aspirations;
LG1871	1941	Do you think they are not there because they are not express'd in parlors and lecture-rooms?
LG1871	1942	This is not only one man—this is the father of those who shall be fathers in their turns;
LG1871	1943	In him the start of populous states and rich republics;
LG1871	1944	Of him countless immortal lives, with countless embod-imentsembodiments and enjoyments.
LG1871	1945	How do you know who shall come from the offspring of his offspring through the centuries?
LG1871	1946	Who might you find you have come from yourself, if you could trace back through the centuries?
LG1871	1947	A woman's Body at auction!
LG1871	1948	She too is not only herself—she is the teeming mother of mothers;
LG1871	1949	She is the bearer of them that shall grow and be mates to the mothers.
LG1871	1950	Have you ever loved the Body of a woman?
LG1871	1951	Have you ever loved the Body of a man?
LG1871	1952	Your father—where is your father?
LG1871	1953	Your mother—is she living? have you been much with her? and has she been much with you?
LG1871	1954	—Do you not see that these are exactly the same to all, in all nations and times, all over the earth?
LG1871	1955	If any thing is sacred, the human body is sacred,
LG1871	1956	And the glory and sweet of a man is the token of man-hoodmanhood untainted;
LG1871	1957	And in man or woman, a clean, strong, firm-fibred body, is beautiful as the most beautiful face.
LG1871	1958	Have you seen the fool that corrupted his own live body? or the fool that corrupted her own live body?
LG1871	1959	For they do not conceal themselves, and cannot conceal themselves.
LG1871	1960	O my Body! I dare not desert the likes of you in other men and women, nor the likes of the parts of you;
LG1871	1961	I believe the likes of you are to stand or fall with the likes of the Soul, (and that they are the Soul;)
LG1871	1962	I believe the likes of you shall stand or fall with my poems—and that they are poems,
LG1871	1963	Man's, woman's, child's, youth's, wife's, husband's, mother's, father's, young man's, young woman's poems;
LG1871	1964	Head, neck, hair, ears, drop and tympan of the ears,
LG1871	1965	Eyes, eye-fringes, iris of the eye, eye-brows, and the waking or sleeping of the lids,
LG1871	1966	Mouth, tongue, lips, teeth, roof of the mouth, jaws, and the jaw-hinges,
LG1871	1967	Nose, nostrils of the nose, and the partition,
LG1871	1968	Cheeks, temples, forehead, chin, throat, back of the neck, neck-slue,
LG1871	1969	Strong shoulders, manly beard, scapula, hind-shoulders, and the ample side-round of the chest.
LG1871	1970	Upper-arm, arm-pit, elbow-socket, lower-arm, arm-sinewsarm-sinews, arm-bones,
LG1871	1971	Wrist and wrist-joints, hand, palm, knuckles, thumb, fore-finger, finger-balls, finger-joints, finger-nails,
LG1871	1972	Broad breast-front, curling hair of the breast, breast-bonebreast-bone, breast-side,
LG1871	1973	Ribs, belly, back-bone, joints of the back-bone,
LG1871	1974	Hips, hip-sockets, hip-strength, inward and outward round, man-balls, man-root,
LG1871	1975	Strong set of thighs, well carrying the trunk above,
LG1871	1976	Leg-fibres, knee, knee-pan, upper-leg, under leg,
LG1871	1977	Ankles, instep, foot-ball, toes, toe-joints, the heel;
LG1871	1978	All attitudes, all the shapeliness, all the belongings of my or your body, or of any one's body, male or female,
LG1871	1979	The lung-sponges, the stomach-sac, the bowels sweet and clean,
LG1871	1980	The brain in its folds inside the skull-frame,
LG1871	1981	Sympathies, heart-valves, palate-valves, sexuality, ma-ternitymaternity,
LG1871	1982	Womanhood, and all that is a woman—and the man that comes from woman,
LG1871	1983	The womb, the teats, nipples, breast-milk, tears, laugh-terlaughter, weeping, love-looks, love-perturbations and risings,
LG1871	1984	The voice, articulation, language, whispering, shouting aloud,
LG1871	1985	Food, drink, pulse, digestion, sweat, sleep, walking, swimming,
LG1871	1986	Poise on the hips, leaping, reclining, embracing, arm-curvingarm-curving, and tightening,
LG1871	1987	The continual changes of the flex of the mouth, and around the eyes,
LG1871	1988	The skin, the sun burnt shade, freckles, hair,
LG1871	1989	The curious sympathy one feels, when feeling with the hand the naked meat of the body,
LG1871	1990	The circling rivers, the breath, and breathing it in and out,
LG1871	1991	The beauty of the waist, and thence of the hips, and thence downward toward the knees,
LG1871	1992	The thin red jellies within you, or within me—the bones, and the marrow in the bones,
LG1871	1993	The exquisite realization of health;
LG1871	1994	O I say, these are not the parts and poems of the Body only, but of the Soul,
LG1871	1995	O I say now these are the Soul!
LG1871	1996	A WOMAN waits for me—she contains all, nothing is lacking,
LG1871	1997	Yet all were lacking, if sex were lacking, or if the mois-turemoisture of the right man were lacking.
LG1871	1998	Sex contains all,
LG1871	1999	Bodies, Souls, meanings, proofs, purities, delicacies, re-sultsresults, promulgations,
LG1871	2000	Songs, commands, health, pride, the maternal mystery, the seminal milk;
LG1871	2001	All hopes, benefactions, bestowals,
LG1871	2002	All the passions, loves, beauties, delights of the earth,
LG1871	2003	All the governments, judges, gods, follow'd persons of the earth,
LG1871	2004	These are contain'd in sex, as parts of itself, and justi-ficationsjustifications of itself.
LG1871	2005	Without shame the man I like knows and avows the deliciousness of his sex,
LG1871	2006	Without shame the woman I like knows and avows hers.
LG1871	2007	Now I will dismiss myself from impassive women,
LG1871	2008	I will go stay with her who waits for me, and with those women that are warm-blooded and sufficient for me;
LG1871	2009	I see that they understand me, and do not deny me;
LG1871	2010	I see that they are worthy of me—I will be the robust husband of those women.
LG1871	2011	They are not one jot less than I am,
LG1871	2012	They are tann'd in the face by shining suns and blow-ingblowing winds,
LG1871	2013	Their flesh has the old divine suppleness and strength,
LG1871	2014	They know how to swim, row, ride, wrestle, shoot, run, strike, retreat, advance, resist, defend them-selvesthemselves,
LG1871	2015	They are ultimate in their own right—they are calm, clear, well-possess'd of themselves.
LG1871	2016	I draw you close to me, you women!
LG1871	2017	I cannot let you go, I would do you good,
LG1871	2018	I am for you, and you are for me, not only for our own sake, but for others' sakes;
LG1871	2019	Envelop'd in you sleep greater heroes and bards,
LG1871	2020	They refuse to awake at the touch of any man but me.
LG1871	2021	It is I, you women—I make my way,
LG1871	2022	I am stern, acrid, large, undissuadable—but I love you,
LG1871	2023	I do not hurt you any more than is necessary for you,
LG1871	2024	I pour the stuff to start sons and daughters fit for These States—I press with slow rude muscle,
LG1871	2025	I brace myself effectually—I listen to no entreaties,
LG1871	2026	I dare not withdraw till I deposit what has so long accumulated within me.
LG1871	2027	Through you I drain the pent-up rivers of myself,
LG1871	2028	In you I wrap a thousand onward years,
LG1871	2029	On you I graft the grafts of the best-beloved of me and America,
LG1871	2030	The drops I distil upon you shall grow fierce and ath-leticathletic girls, new artists, musicians, and singers,
LG1871	2031	The babes I beget upon you are to beget babes in their turn,
LG1871	2032	I shall demand perfect men and women out of my love-spendingslove-spendings,
LG1871	2033	I shall expect them to interpenetrate with others as I and you interpenetrate now,
LG1871	2034	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,
LG1871	2035	I shall look for loving crops from the birth, life, death, immortality, I plant so lovingly now.
LG1871	2036	SPONTANEOUS me, Nature,
LG1871	2037	The loving day, the mounting sun, the friend I am happy with,
LG1871	2038	The arm of my friend hanging idly over my shoulder,
LG1871	2039	The hill-side whiten'd with blossoms of the mountain ash,
LG1871	2040	The same, late in autumn—the hues of red, yellow, drab, purple, and light and dark green,
LG1871	2041	The rich coverlid of the grass—animals and birds— the private untrimm'd bank—the primitive ap-plesapples—the pebble-stones,
LG1871	2042	Beautiful dripping fragments—the negligent list of one after another, as I happen to call them to me, or think of them,
LG1871	2043	The real poems, (what we call poems being merely pic-turespictures,)
LG1871	2044	The poems of the privacy of the night, and of men like me,
LG1871	2045	This poem, drooping shy and unseen, that I always carry, and that all men carry,
LG1871	2046	(Know, once for all, avow'd on purpose, wherever are men like me, are our lusty, lurking, masculine poems;)
LG1871	2047	Love-thoughts, love-juice, love-odor, love-yielding, love-climberslove-climbers, and the climbing sap,
LG1871	2048	Arms and hands of love—lips of love—phallic thumb of love—breasts of love—bellies press'd and glued together with love,
LG1871	2049	Earth of chaste love—life that is only life after love,
LG1871	2050	The body of my love—the body of the woman I love— the body of the man—the body of the earth,
LG1871	2051	Soft forenoon airs that blow from the south-west,
LG1871	2052	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 till he is satisfied,
LG1871	2053	The wet of woods through the early hours,
LG1871	2054	Two sleepers at night lying close together as they sleep, one with an arm slanting down across and below the waist of the other,
LG1871	2055	The smell of apples, aromas from crush'd sage-plant, mint, birch-bark,
LG1871	2056	The boy's longings, the glow and pressure as he con-fidesconfides to me what he was dreaming,
LG1871	2057	The dead leaf whirling its spiral whirl, and falling still and content to the ground,
LG1871	2058	The no-form'd stings that sights, people, objects, sting me with,
LG1871	2059	The hubb'd sting of myself, stinging me as much as it ever can any one,
LG1871	2060	The sensitive, orbic, underlapp'd brothers, that only privileged feelers may be intimate where they are,
LG1871	2061	The curious roamer, the hand, roaming all over the body—the bashful withdrawing of flesh where the fingers soothingly pause and edge them-selvesthemselves,
LG1871	2062	The limpid liquid within the young man,
LG1871	2063	The vexed corrosion, so pensive and so painful,
LG1871	2064	The torment—the irritable tide that will not be at rest,
LG1871	2065	The like of the same I feel—the like of the same in others,
LG1871	2066	The young man that flushes and flushes, and the young woman that flushes and flushes,
LG1871	2067	The young man that wakes, deep at night, the hot hand seeking to repress what would master him;
LG1871	2068	The mystic amorous night—the strange half-welcome pangs, visions, sweats,
LG1871	2069	The pulse pounding through palms and trembling en-circlingencircling fingers—the young man all color'd, red, ashamed, angry;
LG1871	2070	The souse upon me of my lover the sea, as I lie willing and naked,
LG1871	2071	The merriment of the twin-babes that crawl over the grass in the sun, the mother never turning her vigilant eyes from them,
LG1871	2072	The walnut-trunk, the walnut-husks, and the ripening or ripen'd long-round walnuts;
LG1871	2073	The continence of vegetables, birds, animals,
LG1871	2074	The consequent meanness of me should I skulk or find myself indecent, while birds and animals never once skulk or find themselves indecent;
LG1871	2075	The great chastity of paternity, to match the great chastity of maternity,
LG1871	2076	The oath of procreation I have sworn—my Adamic and fresh daughters,
LG1871	2077	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,
LG1871	2078	The wholesome relief, repose, content;
LG1871	2079	And this bunch, pluck'd at random from myself;
LG1871	2080	It has done its work—I toss it carelessly to fall where it may.
LG1871	2081	ONE hour to madness and joy!
LG1871	2082	O furious! O confine me not!
LG1871	2083	(What is this that frees me so in storms?
LG1871	2084	What do my shouts amid lightnings and raging winds mean?)
LG1871	2085	O to drink the mystic deliria deeper than any other man;
LG1871	2086	O savage and tender achings!
LG1871	2087	(I bequeath them to you, my children,
LG1871	2088	I tell them to you, for reasons, O bridegroom and bride.)
LG1871	2089	O to be yielded to you, whoever you are, and you to be yielded to me, in defiance of the world!
LG1871	2090	O to return to Paradise! O bashful and feminine!
LG1871	2091	O to draw you to me—to plant on you for the first time the lips of a determin'd man!
LG1871	2092	O the puzzle—the thrice-tied knot—the deep and dark pool! O all untied and illumin'd!
LG1871	2093	O to speed where there is space enough and air enough at last!
LG1871	2094	O to be absolv'd from previous ties and conventions—I from mine, and you from yours!
LG1871	2095	O to find a new unthought-of nonchalance with the best of nature?
LG1871	2096	O to have the gag remov'd from one's mouth!
LG1871	2097	O to have the feeling, to-day or any day, I am sufficient as I am!
LG1871	2098	O something unprov'd! something in a trance!
LG1871	2099	O madness amorous! O trembling!
LG1871	2100	O to escape utterly from others' anchors and holds!
LG1871	2101	To drive free! to love free! to dash reckless and dan-gerousdangerous!
LG1871	2102	To court destruction with taunts—with invitations!
LG1871	2103	To ascend—to leap to the heavens of the love indicated to me!
LG1871	2104	To rise thither with my inebriate Soul!
LG1871	2105	To be lost, if it must be so!
LG1871	2106	To feed the remainder of life with one hour of fulness and freedom!
LG1871	2107	With one brief hour of madness and joy.
LG1871	2108	WE two—how long we were fool'd!
LG1871	2109	Now transmuted, we swiftly escape, as Nature escapes;
LG1871	2110	We are Nature—long have we been absent, but now we return;
LG1871	2111	We become plants, leaves, foliage, roots, bark;
LG1871	2112	We are bedded in the ground—we are rocks;
LG1871	2113	We are oaks—we grow in the openings side by side;
LG1871	2114	We browse—we are two among the wild herds, spon-taneousspontaneous as any;
LG1871	2115	We are two fishes swimming in the sea together;
LG1871	2116	We are what the locust blossoms are—we drop scent around the lanes, mornings and evenings;
LG1871	2117	We are also the coarse smut of beasts, vegetables, minerals;
LG1871	2118	We are two predatory hawks—we soar above, and look down;
LG1871	2119	We are two resplendent suns—we it is who balance ourselves, orbic and stellar—we are as two comets;
LG1871	2120	We prowl fang'd and four-footed in the woods—we spring on prey;
LG1871	2121	We are two clouds, forenoons and afternoons, driving overhead;
LG1871	2122	We are seas mingling—we are two of those cheerful waves, rolling over each other, and interwetting each other;
LG1871	2123	We are what the atmosphere is, transparent, receptive, pervious, impervious:
LG1871	2124	We are snow, rain, cold, darkness—we are each product and influence of the globe;
LG1871	2125	We have circled and circled till we have arrived home again—we two have;
LG1871	2126	We have voided all but freedom, and all but our own joy.
LG1871	2127	OUT of the rolling ocean, the crowd, came a drop gently to me,
LG1871	2128	Whispering, I love you, before long I die,
LG1871	2129	I have travelled a long way, merely to look on you, to touch you,
LG1871	2130	For I could not die till I once look'd on you,
LG1871	2131	For I fear'd I might afterwards lose you.
LG1871	2132	(Now we have met, we have look'd, we are safe;
LG1871	2133	Return in peace to the ocean, my love;
LG1871	2134	I too am part of that ocean, my love—we are not so much separated;
LG1871	2135	Behold the great rondure—the cohesion of all, how per-fectperfect!
LG1871	2136	But as for me, for you, the irresistible sea is to separate us,
LG1871	2137	As for an hour, carrying us diverse—yet cannot carry us diverse for ever;
LG1871	2138	Be not impatient—a little space—Know you, I salute the air, the ocean, and the land,
LG1871	2139	Every day, at sundown, for your dear sake, my love.)
LG1871	2140	NATIVE moments! when you come upon me—Ah you are here now!
LG1871	2141	Give me now libidinous joys only!
LG1871	2142	Give me the drench of my passions! Give me life coarse and rank!
LG1871	2143	To-day, I go consort with nature's darlings—to-night too;
LG1871	2144	I am for those who believe in loose delights—I share the midnight orgies of young men;
LG1871	2145	I dance with the dancers, and drink with the drinkers;
LG1871	2146	The echoes ring with our indecent calls;
LG1871	2147	I take for my love some prostitute—I pick out some low person for my dearest friend,
LG1871	2148	He shall be lawless, rude, illiterate—he shall be one condemn'd by others for deeds done;
LG1871	2149	I will play a part no longer—Why should I exile myself from my companions?
LG1871	2150	O you shunn'd persons! I at least do not shun you,
LG1871	2151	I come forthwith in your midst—I will be your poet,
LG1871	2152	I will be more to you than to any of the rest.
LG1871	2153	ONCE I pass'd through a populous city, imprinting my brain, for future use, with its shows, architec-turearchitecture, customs, and traditions;
LG1871	2154	Yet now, of all that city, I remember only a woman I casually met there, who detained me for love of me;
LG1871	2155	Day by day and night by night we were together,—All else has long been forgotten by me;
LG1871	2156	I remember, I say, only that woman who passionately clung to me;
LG1871	2157	Again we wander—we love—we separate again;
LG1871	2158	Again she holds me by the hand—I must not go!
LG1871	2159	I see her close beside me, with silent lips, sad and tremu-loustremulous.
LG1871	2160	FACING west, from California's shores,
LG1871	2161	Inquiring, tireless, seeking what is yet unfound,
LG1871	2162	I, a child, very old, over waves, towards the house of maternity, the land of migrations, look afar,
LG1871	2163	Look off the shores of my Western Sea—the circle almost circled;
LG1871	2164	For, starting westward from Hindustan, from the vales of Kashmere,
LG1871	2165	From. Asia—from the north—from the God, the sage, and the hero,
LG1871	2166	From the south—from the flowery peninsulas, and the spice islands;
LG1871	2167	Long having wander'd since—round the earth having wander'd,
LG1871	2168	Now I face home again—very pleas'd and joyous;
LG1871	2169	(But where is what I started for, so long ago?
LG1871	2170	And why is it yet unfound?)
LG1871	2171	AGES and ages, returning at intervals,
LG1871	2172	Undestroy'd, wandering immortal,
LG1871	2173	Lusty, phallic, with the potent original loins, perfectly sweet,
LG1871	2174	I, chanter of Adamic songs,
LG1871	2175	Through the new garden, the West, the great cities calling,
LG1871	2176	Deliriate, thus prelude what is generated, offering these, offering myself,
LG1871	2177	Bathing myself, bathing my songs in Sex,
LG1871	2178	Offspring of my loins.
LG1871	2179	O HYMEN! O hymenee!
LG1871	2180	Why do you tantalize me thus?
LG1871	2181	O why sting me for a swift moment only?
LG1871	2182	Why can you not continue? O why do you now cease?
LG1871	2183	Is it because, if you continued beyond the swift mo-mentmoment, you would soon certainly kill me?
LG1871	2184	AS Adam, early in the morning,
LG1871	2185	Walking forth from the bower, refresh'd with sleep?
LG1871	2186	Behold me where I pass—hear my voice—approach,
LG1871	2187	Touch me—touch the palm of your hand to my Body as I pass;
LG1871	2188	Be not afraid of my Body.
LG1871	2189	I HEARD you, solemn-sweet pipes of the organ, as last Sunday morn I pass'd the church;
LG1871	2190	Winds of autumn!—as I walk'd the woods at dusk, I heard your long-stretch'd sighs, up above, so mournful;
LG1871	2191	I heard the perfect Italian tenor, singing at the opera —I heard the soprano in the midst of the quartet singing;
LG1871	2192	…Heart of my love!—you too I heard, murmuring low, through one of the wrists around my head;
LG1871	2193	Heard the pulse of you, when all was still, ringing little bells last night under my ear.
LG1871	2194	I AM he that aches with amorous love;
LG1871	2195	Does the earth gravitate? Does not all matter, aching, attract all matter?
LG1871	2196	So the Body of me, to all I meet, or know.
LG1871	2197	MY spirit to yours, dear brother;
LG1871	2198	Do not mind because many, sounding your name, do not understand you;
LG1871	2199	I do not sound your name, but I understand you, (there are others also;)
LG1871	2200	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,
LG1871	2201	That we all labor together, transmitting the same charge and succession;
LG1871	2202	We few, equals, indifferent of lands, indifferent of times;
LG1871	2203	We, enclosers of all continents, all castes—allowers of all theologies,
LG1871	2204	Compassionaters, perceivers, rapport of men,
LG1871	2205	We walk silent among disputes and assertions, but reject not the disputers, nor any thing that is asserted;
LG1871	2206	We hear the bawling and din—we are reached at by divisions, jealousies, recriminations on every side,
LG1871	2207	They close peremptorily upon us, to surround us, my comrade,
LG1871	2208	Yet we walk unheld, free, the whole earth over, jour-neyingjourneying up and down, till we make our inefface-ableineffaceable mark upon time and the diverse eras,
LG1871	2209	Till we saturate time and eras, that the men and wo-menwomen of races, ages to come, may prove brethren and lovers, as we are.
LG1871	2210	ONLY themselves understand themselves, and the like of themselves,
LG1871	2211	As Souls only understand Souls,
LG1871	2212	IN paths untrodden,
LG1871	2213	In the growth by margins of pond-waters,
LG1871	2214	Escaped from the life that exhibits itself,
LG1871	2215	From all the standards hitherto publish'd—from the pleasures, profits, eruditions, conformities,
LG1871	2216	Which too long I was offering to feed my soul;
LG1871	2217	Clear to me, now, standards not yet publish'd—clear to me that my Soul,
LG1871	2218	That the Soul of the man I speak for, feeds, rejoices most in comrades;
LG1871	2219	Here, by myself, away from the clank of the world,
LG1871	2220	Tallying and talk'd to here by tongues aromatic,
LG1871	2221	No longer abash'd—for in this secluded spot I can re-spondrespond as I would not dare elsewhere,
LG1871	2222	Strong upon me the life that does not exhibit itself, yet contains all the rest,
LG1871	2223	Resolv'd to sing no songs to-day but those of manly attachment,
LG1871	2224	Projecting them along that substantial life,
LG1871	2225	Bequeathing, hence, types of athletic love,
LG1871	2226	Afternoon, this delicious Ninth-month, in my forty-first year,
LG1871	2227	I proceed, for all who are, or have been, young men,
LG1871	2228	To tell the secret of my nights and days,
LG1871	2229	To celebrate the need of comrades.
LG1871	2230	SCENTED herbage of my breast,
LG1871	2231	Leaves from you I yield, I write, to be perused best afterwards,
LG1871	2232	Tomb-leaves, body-leaves, growing up above me, above death,
LG1871	2233	Perennial roots, tall leaves—O the winter shall not freeze you, delicate leaves,
LG1871	2234	Every year shall you bloom again—Out from where you retired, you shall emerge again;
LG1871	2235	O I do not know whether many, passing by, will dis-coverdiscover you, or inhale your faint odor—but I be-lievebelieve a few will;
LG1871	2236	O slender leaves! O blossoms of my blood! I permit you to tell, in your own way, of the heart that is under you;
LG1871	2237	O burning and throbbing—surely all will one day be accomplish'd;
LG1871	2238	O I do not know what you mean, there underneath yourselves—you are not happiness,
LG1871	2239	You are often more bitter than I can bear—you burn and sting me,
LG1871	2240	Yet you are very beautiful to me, you faint-tinged roots—you make me think of Death,
LG1871	2241	Death is beautiful from you—(what indeed is finally beautiful, except Death and Love?)
LG1871	2242	—O I think it is not for life I am chanting here my chant of lovers—I think it must be for Death,
LG1871	2243	For how calm, how solemn it grows, to ascend to the atmosphere of lovers,
LG1871	2244	Death or life, I am then indifferent—my Soul declines to prefer,
LG1871	2245	I am not sure but the high Soul of lovers welcomes death most;
LG1871	2246	Indeed, O Death, I think now these leaves mean pre-ciselyprecisely the same as you mean;
LG1871	2247	Grow up taller, sweet leaves, that I may see! grow up out of my breast!
LG1871	2248	Spring away from the conceal'd heart there!
LG1871	2249	Do not fold yourself so in your pink-tinged roots, timid leaves!
LG1871	2250	Do not remain down there so ashamed, herbage of my breast!
LG1871	2251	Come, I am determin'd to unbare this broad breast of mine—I have long enough stifled and choked:
LG1871	2252	—Emblematic and capricious blades, I leave you—now you serve me not;
LG1871	2253	Away! I will say what I have to say, by itself,
LG1871	2254	I will escape from the sham that was proposed to me,
LG1871	2255	I will sound myself and comrades only—I will never again utter a call, only their call,
LG1871	2256	I will raise, with it, immortal reverberations through The States,
LG1871	2257	I will give an example to lovers, to take permanent shape and will through The States;
LG1871	2258	Through me shall the words be said to make death exhilarating;
LG1871	2259	Give me your tone therefore, O Death, that I may ac-cordaccord with it,
LG1871	2260	Give me yourself—for I see that you belong to me now above all, and are folded inseparably together— you Love and Death are;
LG1871	2261	Nor will I allow you to balk me any more with what I was calling life,
LG1871	2262	For now it is convey'd to me that you are the purports essential,
LG1871	2263	That you hide in these shifting forms of life, for reasons —and that they are mainly for you,
LG1871	2264	That you, beyond them, come forth, to remain, the real reality,
LG1871	2265	That behind the mask of materials you patiently wait, no matter how long,
LG1871	2266	That you will one day, perhaps, take control of all,
LG1871	2267	That you will perhaps dissipate this entire show of appearance,
LG1871	2268	That may-be you are what it is all for—but it does not last so very long;
LG1871	2269	But you will last very long.
LG1871	2270	WHOEVER you are, holding me now in hand,
LG1871	2271	Without one thing, all will be useless;
LG1871	2272	I give you fair warning, before you attempt me further,
LG1871	2273	I am not what you supposed, but far different.
LG1871	2274	Who is he that would become my follower?
LG1871	2275	Who would sign himself a candidate for my affections?
LG1871	2276	The way is suspicious—the result uncertain, perhaps destructive;
LG1871	2277	You would have to give up all else—I alone would ex-pectexpect to be your God, sole and exclusive,
LG1871	2278	Your novitiate would even then be long and exhausting,
LG1871	2279	The whole past theory of your life, and all conformity to the lives around you, would have to be aban-don'dabandon'd;
LG1871	2280	Therefore release me now, before troubling yourself any further—Let go your hand from my shoulders,
LG1871	2281	Put me down, and depart on your way.
LG1871	2282	Or else, by stealth, in some wood, for trial,
LG1871	2283	Or back of a rock, in the open air,
LG1871	2284	(For in any roof'd room of a house I emerge not—nor in company,
LG1871	2285	And in libraries I lie as one dumb, a gawk, or unborn, or dead,)
LG1871	2286	But just possibly with you on a high hill—first watch-ingwatching lest any person, for miles around, approach unawares,
LG1871	2287	Or possibly with you sailing at sea, or on the beach of the sea, or some quiet island,
LG1871	2288	Here to put your lips upon mine I permit you,
LG1871	2289	With the comrade's long-dwelling kiss, or the new hus-bandhusband's kiss,
LG1871	2290	For I am the new husband, and I am the comrade.
LG1871	2291	Or, if you will, thrusting me beneath your clothing,
LG1871	2292	Where I may feel the throbs of your heart, or rest upon your hip,
LG1871	2293	Carry me when you go forth over land or sea;
LG1871	2294	For thus, merely touching you, is enough—is best,
LG1871	2295	And thus, touching you, would I silently sleep and be carried eternally.
LG1871	2296	But these leaves conning, you con at peril,
LG1871	2297	For these leaves, and me, you will not understand,
LG1871	2298	They will elude you at first, and still more afterward—l will certainly elude you,
LG1871	2299	Even while you should think you had unquestionably caught me, behold!
LG1871	2300	Already you see I have escaped from you.
LG1871	2301	For it is not for what I have put into it that I have written this book,
LG1871	2302	Nor is it by reading it you will acquire it,
LG1871	2303	Nor do those know me best who admire me, and vaunt-inglyvauntingly praise me,
LG1871	2304	Nor will the candidates for my love, (unless at most a very few,) prove victorious,
LG1871	2305	Nor will my poems do good only—they will do just as much evil, perhaps more;
LG1871	2306	For all is useless without that which you may guess at many times and not hit—that which I hinted at;
LG1871	2307	Therefore release me, and depart on your way.
LG1871	2308	THESE, I, singing in spring, collect for lovers,
LG1871	2309	(For who but I should understand lovers, and all their sorrow and joy?
LG1871	2310	And who but I should be the poet of comrades?)
LG1871	2311	Collecting, I traverse the garden, the world—but soon I pass the gates,
LG1871	2312	Now along the pond-side—now wading in a little, fear-ingfearing not the wet,
LG1871	2313	Now by the post-and-rail fences, where the old stones thrown there, pick'd from the fields, have accu-mulatedaccumulated,
LG1871	2314	(Wild-flowers and vines and weeds come up through the stones, and partly cover them—Beyond these I pass,)
LG1871	2315	Far, far in the forest, before I think where I go,
LG1871	2316	Solitary, smelling the earthy smell, stopping now and then in the silence,
LG1871	2317	Alone I had thought—yet soon a troop gathers around me,
LG1871	2318	Some walk by my side, and some behind, and some em-braceembrace my arms or neck,
LG1871	2319	They, the spirits of dear friends, dead or alive—thicker they come, a great crowd, and I in the middle,
LG1871	2320	Collecting, dispensing, singing in spring, there I wander with them,
LG1871	2321	Plucking something for tokens—tossing toward whoever is near me;
LG1871	2322	Here! lilac, with a branch of pine,
LG1871	2323	Here, out of my pocket, some moss which I pull'd off a live-oak in Florida, as it hung trailing down,
LG1871	2324	Here, some pinks and laurel leaves, and a handful of sage,
LG1871	2325	And here what I now draw from the water, wading in the pond-side,
LG1871	2326	(O here I last saw him that tenderly loves me—and re-turnsreturns again, never to separate from me,
LG1871	2327	And this, O this shall henceforth be the token of com-radescomrades—this Calamus-root shall,
LG1871	2328	Interchange it, youths, with each other! Let none render it back!)
LG1871	2329	And twigs of maple, and a bunch of wild orange, and chestnut,
LG1871	2330	And stems of currants, and plum-blows, and the aro-maticaromatic cedar:
LG1871	2331	These, I, compass'd around by a thick cloud of spirits,
LG1871	2332	Wandering, point to, or touch as I pass, or throw them loosely from me,
LG1871	2333	Indicating to each one what he shall have—giving some-thingsomething to each;
LG1871	2334	But what I drew from the water by the pond-side, that I reserve,
LG1871	2335	I will give of it—but only to them that love, as I my-selfmyself am capable of loving.
LG1871	2336	COME, I will make the continent indissoluble;
LG1871	2337	I will make the most splendid race the sun ever yet shone upon;
LG1871	2338	I will make divine magnetic lands,
LG1871	2339	With the love of comrades,
LG1871	2340	With the life-long love of comrades.
LG1871	2341	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;
LG1871	2342	I will make inseparable cities, with their arms about each other's necks;
LG1871	2343	By the love of comrades,
LG1871	2344	By the manly love of comrades.
LG1871	2345	For you these, from me, O Democracy, to serve you, ma femme!
LG1871	2346	For you! for you, I am trilling these songs,
LG1871	2347	In the love of comrades,
LG1871	2348	In the high-towering love of comrades.
LG1871	2349	NOT heaving from my ribb'd breast only;
LG1871	2350	Not in sighs at night, in rage, dissatisfied with myself;
LG1871	2351	Not in those long-drawn, ill-supprest sighs;
LG1871	2352	Not in many an oath and promise broken;
LG1871	2353	Not in my wilful and savage soul's volition;
LG1871	2354	Not in the subtle nourishment of the air;
LG1871	2355	Not in this beating and pounding at my temples and wrists;
LG1871	2356	Not in the curious systole and diastole within, which will one day cease;
LG1871	2357	Not in many a hungry wish, told to the skies only;
LG1871	2358	Not in cries, laughter, defiances, thrown from me when alone, far in the wilds;
LG1871	2359	Not in husky pantings through clench'd teeth;
LG1871	2360	Not in sounded and resounded words—chattering words, echoes, dead words;
LG1871	2361	Not in the murmurs of my dreams while I sleep,
LG1871	2362	Nor the other murmurs of these incredible dreams of every day;
LG1871	2363	Nor in the limbs and senses of my body, that take you and dismiss you continually—Not there;
LG1871	2364	Not in any or all of them, O adhesiveness! O pulse of my life!
LG1871	2365	Need I that you exist and show yourself, any more than in these songs.
LG1871	2366	OF the terrible doubt of appearances,
LG1871	2367	Of the uncertainty after all—that we may be deluded,
LG1871	2368	That may-be reliance and hope are but speculations after all,
LG1871	2369	That may-be identity beyond the grave is a beautiful fable only,
LG1871	2370	May-be the things I perceive—the animals, plants, men, hills, shining and flowing waters,
LG1871	2371	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;
LG1871	2372	(How often they dart out of themselves, as if to con-foundconfound me and mock me!
LG1871	2373	How often I think neither I know, nor any man knows, aught of them;)
LG1871	2374	May-be seeming 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;
LG1871	2375	—To me, these, and the like of these, are curiously an-swer'danswer'd by my lovers, my dear friends;
LG1871	2376	When he whom I love travels with me, or sits a long while holding me by the hand,
LG1871	2377	When the subtle air, the impalpable, the sense that words and reason hold not, surround us and pervade us,
LG1871	2378	Then I am charged with untold and untellable wisdom —I am silent—I require nothing further,
LG1871	2379	I cannot answer the question of appearances, or that of identity beyond the grave;
LG1871	2380	But I walk or sit indifferent—I am satisfied,
LG1871	2381	He ahold of my hand has completely satisfied me.
LG1871	2382	AND now, gentlemen,
LG1871	2383	A word I give to remain in your memories and minds,
LG1871	2384	As base, and finale too, for all metaphysics.
LG1871	2385	(So, to the students, the old professor,
LG1871	2386	At the close of his crowded course.)
LG1871	2387	Having studied the new and antique, the Greek and Germanic systems,
LG1871	2388	Kant having studied and stated—Fichte and Schelling and Hegel,
LG1871	2389	Stated the lore of Plato—and Socrates, greater than Plato,
LG1871	2390	And greater than Socrates sought and stated—Christ divine having studied long,
LG1871	2391	I see reminiscent to-day those Greek and Germanic systems,
LG1871	2392	See the philosophies all—Christian churches and tenets see,
LG1871	2393	Yet underneath Socrates clearly see—and underneath Christ the divine I see,
LG1871	2394	The dear love of man for his comrade—the attraction of friend to friend,
LG1871	2395	Of the well-married husband and wife—of children and parents,
LG1871	2396	Of city for city, and land for land.
LG1871	2397	RECORDERS ages hence!
LG1871	2398	Come, I will take you down underneath this impassive exterior—I will tell you what to say of me;
LG1871	2399	Publish my name and hang up my picture as that of the tenderest lover,
LG1871	2400	The friend, the lover's portrait, of whom his friend, his lover, was fondest,
LG1871	2401	Who was not proud of his songs, but of the measure-lessmeasureless ocean of love within him—and freely pour'd it forth,
LG1871	2402	Who often walk'd lonesome walks, thinking of his dear friends, his lovers,
LG1871	2403	Who pensive, away from one he lov'd, often lay sleep-lesssleepless and dissatisfied at night,
LG1871	2404	Who knew too well the sick, sick dread lest the one he lov'd might secretly be indifferent to him,
LG1871	2405	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,
LG1871	2406	Who oft as he saunter'd the streets, curv'd with his arm the shoulder of his friend—while the arm of his friend rested upon him also.
LG1871	2407	WHEN I heard at the close of the day how my name had been receiv'd with plaudits in the capitol, still it was not a happy night for me that fol-low'dfollow'd;
LG1871	2408	And else, when I carous'd, or when my plans were accomplish'd, still I was not happy;
LG1871	2409	But the day when I rose at dawn from the bed of per-fectperfect health, refresh'd, singing, inhaling the ripe breath of autumn,
LG1871	2410	When I saw the full moon in the west grow pale and disappear in the morning light,
LG1871	2411	When I wander'd alone over the beach, and undress-ingundressing, bathed, laughing with the cool waters, and saw the sun rise,
LG1871	2412	And when I thought how my dear friend, my lover, was on his way coming, O then I was happy;
LG1871	2413	O then each breath tasted sweeter—and all that day my food nourish'd me more—and the beautiful day pass'd well,
LG1871	2414	And the next came with equal joy—and with the next, at evening, came my friend;
LG1871	2415	And that night, while all was still, I heard the waters roll slowly continually up the shores,
LG1871	2416	I heard the hissing rustle of the liquid and sands, as directed to me, whispering, to congratulate me,
LG1871	2417	For the one I love most lay sleeping by me under the same cover in the cool night,
LG1871	2418	In the stillness, in the autumn moonbeams, his face was inclined toward me,
LG1871	2419	And his arm lay lightly around my breast—and that night I was happy.
LG1871	2420	ARE you the new person drawn toward me?
LG1871	2421	To begin with, take warning—I am surely far different from what you suppose;
LG1871	2422	Do you suppose you will find in me your ideal?
LG1871	2423	Do you think it so easy to have me become your lover?
LG1871	2424	Do you think the friendship of me would be unalloy'd satisfaction?
LG1871	2425	Do you think I am trusty and faithful?
LG1871	2426	Do you see no further than this facade—this smooth and tolerant manner of me?
LG1871	2427	Do you suppose yourself advancing on real ground to-wardtoward a real heroic man?
LG1871	2428	Have you no thought, O dreamer, that it may be all maya, illusion?
LG1871	2429	ROOTS and leaves themselves alone are these;
LG1871	2430	Scents brought to men and women from the wild woods, and from the pond-side,
LG1871	2431	Breast-sorrel and pinks of love—fingers that wind around tighter than vines,
LG1871	2432	Gushes from the throats of birds, hid in the foliage of trees, as the sum is risen;
LG1871	2433	Breezes of land and love—breezes set from living shores out to you on the living sea—to you, O sailors!
LG1871	2434	Frost-mellow'd berries, and Third-month twigs, offer'd fresh to young persons wandering out in the fields when the winter breaks up,
LG1871	2435	Love-buds, put before you and within you, whoever you are,
LG1871	2436	Buds to be unfolded on the old terms;
LG1871	2437	If you bring the warmth of the sun to them, they will open, and bring form, color, perfume, to you;
LG1871	2438	If you become the aliment and the wet, they will become flowers, fruits, tall branches, and trees.
LG1871	2439	NOT heat flames up and consumes,
LG1871	2440	Not sea-waves hurry in and out,
LG1871	2441	Not the air, delicious and dry, the air of the ripe sum-mersummer, bears lightly along white down-balls of myriads of seeds,
LG1871	2442	Wafted, sailing gracefully, to drop where they may;
LG1871	2443	Not these—O none of these, more than the flames of me, consuming, burning for his love whom I love!
LG1871	2444	O none, more than I, hurrying in and out;
LG1871	2445	—Does the tide hurry, seeking something, and never give up? O I the same;
LG1871	2446	O nor down-balls, nor perfumes, nor the high, rain-emittingrain-emitting clouds, are borne through the open air,
LG1871	2447	Any more than my Soul is borne through the open air,
LG1871	2448	Wafted in all directions, O love, for friendship, for you.
LG1871	2449	TRICKLE, drops! my blue veins leaving!
LG1871	2450	O drops of me! trickle, slow drops,
LG1871	2451	Candid, from me falling—drip, bleeding drops,
LG1871	2452	From wounds made to free you whence you were prison'd,
LG1871	2453	From my face—from my forehead and lips,
LG1871	2454	From my breast—from within where I was conceal'd— press forth, red drops—confession drops;
LG1871	2455	Stain every page—stain every song I sing, every word I say, bloody drops;
LG1871	2456	Let them know your scarlet heat—let them glisten;
LG1871	2457	Saturate them with yourself, all ashamed and wet;
LG1871	2458	Glow upon all I have written, or shall write, bleeding drops;
LG1871	2459	Let it all be seen in your light, blushing drops.
LG1871	2460	CITY of orgies, walks and joys!
LG1871	2461	City whom that I have lived and sung in your midst will one day make you illustrious,
LG1871	2462	Not the pageants of you—not your shifting tableaux, your spectacles, repay me;
LG1871	2463	Not the interminable rows of your houses—nor the ships at the wharves,
LG1871	2464	Nor the processions in the streets, nor the bright win-dowswindows, with goods in them;
LG1871	2465	Nor to converse with learn'd persons, or bear my share in the soiree or feast;
LG1871	2466	Not those—but, as I pass, O Manhattan! your frequent and swift flash of eyes offering me love,
LG1871	2467	Offering response to my own—these repay me;
LG1871	2468	Lovers, continual lovers, only repay me.
LG1871	2469	BEHOLD this swarthy face—these gray eyes,
LG1871	2470	This beard—the white wool, unclipt upon my neck,
LG1871	2471	My brown hands, and the silent manner of me, without charm;
LG1871	2472	Yet comes one, a Manhattanese, and ever at parting, kisses me lightly on the lips with robust love,
LG1871	2473	And I, on the crossing of the street, or on the ship's deck, give a kiss in return;
LG1871	2474	We observe that salute of American comrades, land and sea,
LG1871	2475	We are those two natural and nonchalant persons.
LG1871	2476	I SAW in Louisiana a live-oak growing,
LG1871	2477	All alone stood it, and the moss hung down from the branches;
LG1871	2478	Without any companion it grew there, uttering joyous leaves of dark green,
LG1871	2479	And its look, rude, unbending, lusty, made me think of myself;
LG1871	2480	But I wonder'd how it could utter joyous leaves, stand-ingstanding alone there, without its friend, its lover near —for I knew I could not;
LG1871	2481	And I broke off a twig with a certain number of leaves upon it, and twined around it a little moss,
LG1871	2482	And brought it away—and I have placed it in sight in my room;
LG1871	2483	It is not needed to remind me as of my own dear friends,
LG1871	2484	(For I believe lately I think of little else than of them;)
LG1871	2485	Yet it remains to me a curious token—it makes me think of manly love;
LG1871	2486	For all that, and though the live-oak glistens there in Louisiana, solitary, in a wide flat space,
LG1871	2487	Uttering, joyous leaves all its life, without a friend, a lover, near,
LG1871	2488	I know very well I could not.
LG1871	2489	PASSING stranger! you do not know how longingly I look upon you,
LG1871	2490	You must be he I was seeking, or she I was seeking, (it comes to me, as of a dream,)
LG1871	2491	I have somewhere surely lived a life of joy with you,
LG1871	2492	All is recall'd as we flit by each other, fluid, affectionate, chaste, matured,
LG1871	2493	You grew up with me, were a boy with me, or a girl with me,
LG1871	2494	I ate with you, and slept with you—your body has be-comebecome not yours only, nor left my body mine only,
LG1871	2495	You give me the pleasure of your eyes, face, flesh, as we pass—you take of my beard, breast, hands, in return,
LG1871	2496	I am not to speak to you—I am to think of you when I sit alone, or wake at night alone,
LG1871	2497	I am to wait—I do not doubt I am to meet you again,
LG1871	2498	I am to see to it that I do not lose you.
LG1871	2499	THIS moment yearning and thoughtful, sitting alone,
LG1871	2500	It seems to me there are other men in other lands, yearning and thoughtful;
LG1871	2501	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;
LG1871	2502	And it seems to me if I could know those men, I should become attached to them, as I do to men in my own lands;
LG1871	2503	O I know we should be brethren and lovers,
LG1871	2504	I know I should be happy with them.
LG1871	2505	I HEAR it was charged against me that I sought to de-stroydestroy institutions;
LG1871	2506	But really I am neither for nor against institutions;
LG1871	2507	(What indeed have I in common with them?—Or what with the destruction of them?)
LG1871	2508	Only I will establish in the Mannahatta, and in every city of These States, inland and seaboard,
LG1871	2509	And in the fields and woods, and above every keel, little or large, that dents the water,
LG1871	2510	Without edifices, or rules, or trustees, or any argu-mentargument,
LG1871	2511	The institution of the dear love of comrades.
LG1871	2512	THE prairie-grass dividing—its special odor breathing,
LG1871	2513	I demand of it the spiritual corresponding,
LG1871	2514	Demand the most copious and close companionship of men,
LG1871	2515	Demand the blades to rise of words, acts, beings,
LG1871	2516	Those of the open atmosphere, coarse, sunlit, fresh, nutritious,
LG1871	2517	Those that go their own gait, erect, stepping with free-domfreedom and command—leading, not following,
LG1871	2518	Those with a never-quell'd audacity—those with sweet and lusty flesh, clear of taint,
LG1871	2519	Those that look carelessly in the faces of Presidents and Governors, as to say, Who are you?
LG1871	2520	Those of earth-born passion, simple, never-constrain'd, never obedient,
LG1871	2521	Those of inland America.
LG1871	2522	WE two boys together clinging,
LG1871	2523	One the other never leaving,
LG1871	2524	Up and down the roads going—North and South excur-sionsexcursions making,
LG1871	2525	Power enjoying—elbows stretching—fingers clutching,
LG1871	2526	Arm'd and fearless—eating, drinking, sleeping, loving,
LG1871	2527	No law less than ourselves owning—sailing, soldiering, thieving, threatening,
LG1871	2528	Misers, menials, priests alarming—air breathing, water drinking, on the turf or the sea-beach dancing,
LG1871	2529	Cities wrenching, ease scorning, statutes mocking, fee-blenessfeebleness chasing,
LG1871	2530	Fulfilling our foray.
LG1871	2531	A PROMISE to California,
LG1871	2532	Also to the great Pastoral Plains, and for Oregon:
LG1871	2533	Sojourning east a while longer, soon I travel toward you, to remain, to teach robust American love;
LG1871	2534	For I know very well that I and robust love belong among you, inland, and along the Western Sea;
LG1871	2535	For These States tend inland, and toward the Western Sea—and I will also.
LG1871	2536	HERE the frailest leaves of me, and yet my strongest-lastingstrongest-lasting:
LG1871	2537	Here I shade and hide my thoughts—I myself do not expose them,
LG1871	2538	And yet they expose me more than all my other poems.
LG1871	2539	WHEN I peruse the conquer'd fame of heroes, and the victories of mighty generals, I do not envy the generals,
LG1871	2540	Nor the President in his Presidency, nor the rich in his great house;
LG1871	2541	But when I hear of the brotherhood of lovers, how it was with them,
LG1871	2542	How through life, through dangers, odium, unchanging, long and long,
LG1871	2543	Through youth, and through middle and old age, how unfaltering, how affectionate and faithful they were,
LG1871	2544	Then I am pensive—I hastily walk away, fill'd with the bitterest envy.
LG1871	2545	WHAT think you I take my pen in hand to record?
LG1871	2546	The battle-ship, perfect-model'd, majestic, that I saw pass the offing to-day under full sail?
LG1871	2547	The splendors of the past day? Or the splendor of the night that envelops me?
LG1871	2548	Or the vaunted glory and growth of the great city spread around me?—No;
LG1871	2549	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;
LG1871	2550	The one to remain hung on the other's neck, and pas-sionatelypassionately kiss'd him,
LG1871	2551	While the one to depart, tightly prest the one to remain in his arms.
LG1871	2552	A GLIMPSE, through an interstice caught,
LG1871	2553	Of a crowd of workmen and drivers in a bar-room, around the stove, late of a winter night—And I unremark'd, seated in a corner;
LG1871	2554	Of a youth who loves me, and whom I love, silently ap-proachingapproaching, and seating himself near, that he may hold me by the hand;
LG1871	2555	A long while, amid the noises of coming and going—of drinking and oath and smutty jest,
LG1871	2556	There we two, content, happy in being together, speak- ing little, perhaps not a word.
LG1871	2557	NO labor-saving machine,
LG1871	2558	Nor discovery have I made;
LG1871	2559	Nor will I be able to leave behind me any wealthy be-questbequest to found a hospital or library,
LG1871	2560	Nor reminiscence of any deed of courage, for America,
LG1871	2561	Nor literary success, nor intellect—nor book for the book-shelf;
LG1871	2562	Only a few carols, vibrating through the air, I leave,
LG1871	2563	For comrades and lovers.
LG1871	2564	A LEAF for hand in hand!
LG1871	2565	You natural persons old and young!
LG1871	2566	You on the Mississippi, and on all the branches and bayous of the Mississippi!
LG1871	2567	You friendly boatmen and mechanics! You roughs!
LG1871	2568	You twain! And all processions moving along the streets!
LG1871	2569	I wish to infuse myself among you till I see it com-moncommon for you to walk hand in hand!
LG1871	2570	TO the East and to the West;
LG1871	2571	To the man of the Seaside State, and of Pennsylvania,
LG1871	2572	To the Kanadian of the North—to the Southerner I love;
LG1871	2573	These, with perfect trust, to depict you as myself—the germs are in all men;
LG1871	2574	I believe the main purport of These States is to found a superb friendship, exalt, previously unknown,
LG1871	2575	Because I perceive it waits, and has been always wait-ingwaiting, latent in all men.
LG1871	2576	EARTH! my likeness!
LG1871	2577	Though you look so impassive, ample spheric there,
LG1871	2578	I now suspect that is not all;
LG1871	2579	I now suspect there is something fierce in you, eligible to burst forth;
LG1871	2580	For an athlete is enamour'd of me—and I of him;
LG1871	2581	But toward him there is something fierce and terrible in me, eligible to burst forth,
LG1871	2582	I dare not tell it in words—not even in these songs.
LG1871	2583	I DREAM'D in a dream, I saw a city invincible to the attacks of the whole of the rest of the earth;
LG1871	2584	I dream'd that was the new City of Friends;
LG1871	2585	Nothing was greater there than the quality of robust love—it led the rest;
LG1871	2586	It was seen every hour in the actions of the men of that city,
LG1871	2587	And in all their looks and words.
LG1871	2588	FAST-ANCHOR'D, eternal, O love! O woman I love!
LG1871	2589	O bride! O wife! more resistless than I can tell, the thought of you!
LG1871	2590	—Then separate, as disembodied, or another born,
LG1871	2591	Ethereal, the last athletic reality, my consolation;
LG1871	2592	I ascend—I float in the regions of your love, O man,
LG1871	2593	O sharer of my roving life.
LG1871	2594	SOMETIMES with one I love, I fill myself with rage, for fear I effuse unreturn'd love;
LG1871	2595	But now I think there is no unreturn'd love—the pay is certain, one way or another;
LG1871	2596	(I loved a certain person ardently, and my love was not return'd;
LG1871	2597	Yet out of that, I have written these songs.)
LG1871	2598	THAT shadow, my likeness, that goes to and fro, seek-ingseeking a livelihood, chattering, chaffering;
LG1871	2599	How often I find myself standing and looking at it where it flits;
LG1871	2600	How often I question and doubt whether that is really me;
LG1871	2601	—But in these, and among my lovers, and caroling my songs,
LG1871	2602	O I never doubt whether that is really me.
LG1871	2603	AMONG the men and women, the multitude,
LG1871	2604	I perceive one picking me out by secret and divine signs,
LG1871	2605	Acknowledging none else—not parent, wife, husband, brother, child, any nearer than I am;
LG1871	2606	Some are baffled—But that one is not—that one knows me.
LG1871	2607	Ah, lover and perfect equal!
LG1871	2608	I meant that you should discover me so, by my faint indirections;
LG1871	2609	And I, when I meet you, mean to discover you by the like in you.
LG1871	2610	O BOY of the West!
LG1871	2611	To you many things to absorb, I teach, to help you become eleve of mine:
LG1871	2612	Yet if blood like mine circle not in your veins;
LG1871	2613	If you be not silently selected by lovers, and do not silently select lovers,
LG1871	2614	Of what use is it that you seek to become eleve of mine?
LG1871	2615	O YOU whom I often and silently come where you are, that I may be with you;
LG1871	2616	As I walk by your side, or sit near, or remain in the same room with you,
LG1871	2617	Little you know the subtle electric fire that for your sake is playing within me.
LG1871	2618	FULL of life, now, compact, visible,
LG1871	2619	I, forty years old the Eighty-third Year of The States,
LG1871	2620	To one a century hence, or any number of centuries hence,
LG1871	2621	To you, yet unborn, these, seeking you.
LG1871	2622	When you read these, I, that was visible, am become invisible;
LG1871	2623	Now it is you, compact, visible, realizing my poems, seeking me;
LG1871	2624	Fancying how happy you were, if I could be with you, and become your comrade;
LG1871	2625	Be it as if I were with you. (Be not too certain but I am now with you.)
LG1871	2626	O TAKE my hand, Walt Whitman!
LG1871	2627	Such gliding wonders! such sights and sounds!
LG1871	2628	Such join'd unended links, each hook'd to the next!
LG1871	2629	Each answering all—each sharing the earth with all.
LG1871	2630	What widens within you, Walt Whitman?
LG1871	2631	What waves and soils exuding?
LG1871	2632	What climes? what persons and lands are here?
LG1871	2633	Who are the infants? some playing, some slumbering?
LG1871	2634	Who are the girls? who are the married women?
LG1871	2635	Who are the groups of old men going slowly with their arms about each other's necks?
LG1871	2636	What rivers are these? what forests and fruits are these?
LG1871	2637	What are the mountains call'd that rise so high in the mists?
LG1871	2638	What myriads of dwellings are they, fill'd with dwellers?
LG1871	2639	Within me latitude widens, longitude lengthens;
LG1871	2640	Asia, Africa, Europe, are to the east—America is pro-videdprovided for in the west;
LG1871	2641	Banding the bulge of the earth winds the hot equator,
LG1871	2642	Curiously north and south turn the axis-ends;
LG1871	2643	Within me is the longest day—the sun wheels in slant-ingslanting rings—it does not set for months;
LG1871	2644	Stretch'd in due time within me the midnight sun just rises above the horizon, and sinks again;
LG1871	2645	Within me zones, seas, cataracts, plants, volcanoes, groups,
LG1871	2646	Malaysia, Polynesia, and the great West Indian islands.
LG1871	2647	What do you hear, Walt Whitman?
LG1871	2648	I hear the workman singing, and the farmer's wife singing;
LG1871	2649	I hear in the distance the sounds of children, and of animals early in the day;
LG1871	2650	I hear quick rifle-cracks from the riflemen of East Ten-nesseeTennessee and Kentucky, hunting on hills;
LG1871	2651	I hear emulous shouts of Australians, pursuing the wild horse;
LG1871	2652	I hear the Spanish dance, with castanets, in the chestnut shade, to the rebeck and guitar;
LG1871	2653	I hear continual echoes from the Thames;
LG1871	2654	I hear fierce French liberty songs;
LG1871	2655	I hear of the Italian boat-sculler the musical recitative of old poems;
LG1871	2656	I hear the Virginia plantation-chorus of negroes, of a harvest night, in the glare of pine-knots;
LG1871	2657	I hear the strong baritone of the 'long-shore-men of Mannahatta;
LG1871	2658	I hear the stevedores unlading the cargoes, and singing;
LG1871	2659	I hear the screams of the water-fowl of solitary north-westnorth-west lakes;
LG1871	2660	I hear the rustling pattering of locusts, as they strike the grain and grass with the showers of their terrible clouds;
LG1871	2661	I hear the Coptic refrain, toward sundown, pensively falling on the breast of the black venerable vast mother, the Nile;
LG1871	2662	I hear the bugles of raft-tenders on the streams of Kanada;
LG1871	2663	I hear the chirp of the Mexican muleteer, and the bells of the mule;
LG1871	2664	I hear the Arab muezzin, calling from the top of the mosque;
LG1871	2665	I hear the Christian priests at the altars of their churches—I hear the responsive base and soprano;
LG1871	2666	I hear the wail of utter despair of the white-hair'd Irish grand-parents, when they learn the death of their grandson;
LG1871	2667	I hear the cry of the Cossack, and the sailor's voice, putting to sea at Okotsk;
LG1871	2668	I hear the wheeze of the slave-coffle, as the slaves march on—as the husky gangs pass on by twos and threes, fasten'd together with wrist-chains and ankle-chains;
LG1871	2669	I hear the entreaties of women tied up for punishment —I hear the sibilant whisk of thongs through the air;
LG1871	2670	I hear the Hebrew reading his records and psalms;
LG1871	2671	I hear the rhythmic myths of the Greeks, and the strong legends of the Romans;
LG1871	2672	I hear the tale of the divine life and bloody death of the beautiful God—the Christ;
LG1871	2673	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.
LG1871	2674	What do you see, Walt Whitman?
LG1871	2675	Who are they you salute, and that one after another salute you?
LG1871	2676	I see a great round wonder rolling through the air;
LG1871	2677	I see diminute farms, hamlets, ruins, grave-yards, jails, factories, palaces, hovels, huts of barbarians, tents of nomads, upon the surface;
LG1871	2678	I see the shaded part on one side, where the sleepers are sleeping—and the sun-lit part on the other side,
LG1871	2679	I see the curious silent change of the light and shade,
LG1871	2680	I see distant lands, as real and near to the inhabitants of them, as my land is to me.
LG1871	2681	I see plenteous waters;
LG1871	2682	I see mountain peaks—I see the sierras of Andes and Alleghanies, where they range;
LG1871	2683	I see plainly the Himalayas, Chian Shahs, Altays, Ghauts;
LG1871	2684	I see the giant pinnacles of Elbruz, Kazbek, Bazardjusi,
LG1871	2685	I see the Rocky Mountains, and the Peak of Winds;
LG1871	2686	I see the Styrian Alps, and the Karnac Alps;
LG1871	2687	I see the Pyrenees, Balks, Carpathians—and to the north the Dofrafields, and off at sea Mount Hecla;
LG1871	2688	I see Vesuvius and Etna—I see the Anahuacs;
LG1871	2689	I see the Mountains of the Moon, and the Snow Mountains, and the Red Mountains of Mada-gascarMadagascar;
LG1871	2690	I see the Vermont hills, and the long string of Cor-dillerasCordilleras;
LG1871	2691	I see the vast deserts of Western America;
LG1871	2692	I see the Lybian, Arabian, and Asiatic deserts;
LG1871	2693	I see huge dreadful Arctic and Antarctic icebergs;
LG1871	2694	I see the superior oceans and the inferior ones—the Atlantic and Pacific, the sea of Mexico, the Brazilian sea, and the sea of Peru,
LG1871	2695	The Japan waters, those of Hindostan, the China Sea, and the Gulf of Guinea,
LG1871	2696	The spread of the Baltic, Caspian, Bothnia, the British shores, and the Bay of Biscay,
LG1871	2697	The clear-sunn'd Mediterranean, and from one to an-otheranother of its islands,
LG1871	2698	The inland fresh-tasted seas of North America,
LG1871	2699	The White Sea, and the sea around Greenland.
LG1871	2700	I behold the mariners of the world;
LG1871	2701	Some are in storms—some in the night, with the watch on the look-out;
LG1871	2702	Some drifting helplessly—some with contagious dis-easesdiseases.
LG1871	2703	I behold the sail and steamships of the world, some in clusters in port, some on their voyages;
LG1871	2704	Some double the Cape of Storms—some Cape Verde, —others Cape Guardafui, Bon, or Bajadore;
LG1871	2705	Others Dondra Head—others pass the Straits of Sun-daSunda—others Cape Lopatka—others Behring's Straits;
LG1871	2706	Others Cape Horn—others sail the gulf of Mexico, or along Cuba or Hayti—others Hudson's Bay or Baffin's Bay;
LG1871	2707	Others pass the Straits of Dover—others enter the Wash—others the Firth of Solway—others round Cape Clear—others the Land's End;
LG1871	2708	Others traverse the Zuyder Zee, or the Scheld;
LG1871	2709	Others add to the exits and entrances at Sandy Hook;
LG1871	2710	Others to the comers and goers at Gibraltar, or the Dardanelles;
LG1871	2711	Others sternly push their way through the northern winter-packs;
LG1871	2712	Others descend or ascend the Obi or the Lena;
LG1871	2713	Others the Niger or the Congo—others the Indus, the Burampooter and Cambodia;
LG1871	2714	Others wait at the wharves of Manhattan, steam'd up, ready to start;
LG1871	2715	Wait, swift and swarthy, in the ports of Australia;
LG1871	2716	Wait at Liverpool, Glasgow, Dublin, Marseilles, Lis-bonLisbon, Naples, Hamburg, Bremen, Bordeaux, the Hague, Copenhagen;
LG1871	2717	Wait at Valparaiso, Rio Janeiro, Panama;
LG1871	2718	Wait at their moorings at Boston, Philadelphia, Balti-moreBalrimore, Charleston, New Orleans, Galveston, San Francisco.
LG1871	2719	I see the tracks of the rail-roads of the earth;
LG1871	2720	I see them welding State to State, city to city, through North America;
LG1871	2721	I see them in Great Britain, I see them in Europe;
LG1871	2722	I see them in Asia and in Africa.
LG1871	2723	I see the electric telegraphs of the earth;
LG1871	2724	I see the filaments of the news of the wars, deaths, losses, gains, passions, of my race.
LG1871	2725	I see the long river-stripes of the earth;
LG1871	2726	I see where the Mississippi flows—I see where the Co-lumbiaColumbia flows;
LG1871	2727	I see the Great River, and the Falls of Niagara;
LG1871	2728	I see the Amazon and the Paraguay;
LG1871	2729	I see the four great rivers of China, the Amour, the Yellow River, the Yiang-tse, and the Pearl;
LG1871	2730	I see where the Seine flows, and where the Danube, the Loire, the Rhone, and the Guadalquiver flow;
LG1871	2731	I see the windings of the Volga, the Dnieper, the Oder;
LG1871	2732	I see the Tuscan going down the Arno, and the Vene-tianVenetian along the Po;
LG1871	2733	I see the Greek seaman sailing out of Egina bay.
LG1871	2734	I see the site of the old empire of Assyria, and that of Persia, and that of India;
LG1871	2735	I see the falling of the Ganges over the high rim of Saukara.
LG1871	2736	I see the place of the idea of the Deity incarnated by avatars in human forms;
LG1871	2737	I see the spots of the successions of priests on the earth —oracles, sacrificers, brahmins, sabians, lamas, monks, muftis, exhorters;
LG1871	2738	I see where druids walked the groves of Mona—I see the mistletoe and vervain;
LG1871	2739	I see the temples of the deaths of the bodies of Gods— I see the old signifiers.
LG1871	2740	I see Christ once more eating the bread of his last supper, in the midst of youths and old persons;
LG1871	2741	I see where the strong divine young man, the Hercules, toil'd faithfully and long, and then died;
LG1871	2742	I see the place of the innocent rich life and hapless fate of the beautiful nocturnal son, the full-limb'd Bacchus;
LG1871	2743	I see Kneph, blooming, drest in blue, with the crown of feathers on his head;
LG1871	2744	I see Hermes, unsuspected, dying, well-beloved, saying to the people, Do not weep for me,
LG1871	2745	This is not my true country, I have lived banish'd from my true country—I now go back there,
LG1871	2746	I return to the celestial sphere, where every one goes in his turn.
LG1871	2747	I see the battle-fields of the earth—grass grows upon them, and blossoms and corn;
LG1871	2748	I see the tracks of ancient and modern expeditions.
LG1871	2749	I see the nameless masonries, venerable messages of the unknown events, heroes, records of the earth.
LG1871	2750	I see the places of the sagas;
LG1871	2751	I see pine-trees and fir-trees torn by northern blasts;
LG1871	2752	I see granite boulders and cliffs—I see green meadows and lakes;
LG1871	2753	I see the burial-cairns of Scandinavian warriors;
LG1871	2754	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 bil-lowsbillows, and be refresh'd by storms, immensity, lib-ertyliberty, action.
LG1871	2755	I see the steppes of Asia;
LG1871	2756	I see the tumuli of Mongolia—I see the tents of Kal-mucksKalmucks and Baskirs;
LG1871	2757	I see the nomadic tribes, with herds of oxen and cows;
LG1871	2758	I see the table-lands notch'd with ravines—I see the jungles and deserts;
LG1871	2759	I see the camel, the wild steed, the bustard, the fat-tail'dfat-tail'd sheep, the antelope, and the burrowing wolf.
LG1871	2760	I see the high-lands of Abyssinia;
LG1871	2761	I see flocks of goats feeding, and see the fig-tree, tama-rindtamarind, date,
LG1871	2762	And see fields of teff-wheat, and see the places of ver-dureverdure and gold.
LG1871	2763	I see the Brazilian vaquero;
LG1871	2764	I see the Bolivian ascending Mount Sorata;
LG1871	2765	I see the Wacho crossing the plains—I see the incom-parableincomparable rider of horses with his lasso on his arm;
LG1871	2766	I see over the pampas the pursuit of wild cattle for their hides.
LG1871	2767	I see little and large sea-dots, some inhabited, some uninhabited;
LG1871	2768	I see two boats with nets, lying off the shore of Pau-manokPaumanok, quite still;
LG1871	2769	I see ten fishermen waiting—they discover now a thick school of moss-bonkers—they drop the join'd seine-ends in the water,
LG1871	2770	The boats separate—they diverge and row off, each on its rounding course to the beach, enclosing the mossbonkers;
LG1871	2771	The net is drawn in by a windlass by those who stop ashore,
LG1871	2772	Some of the fishermen lounge in their boats—others stand negligently ankle-deep in the water, pois'd on strong legs;
LG1871	2773	The boats are partly drawn up—the water slaps against them;
LG1871	2774	On the sand, in heaps and winrows, well out from the water, lie the green-back'd spotted mossbonkers.
LG1871	2775	I see the despondent red man in the west, lingering about the banks of Moingo, and about Lake Pepin;
LG1871	2776	He has heard the quail and beheld the honey-bee, and sadly prepared to depart.
LG1871	2777	I see the regions of snow and ice;
LG1871	2778	I see the sharp-eyed Samoiede and the Finn;
LG1871	2779	I see the seal-seeker in his boat, poising his lance;
LG1871	2780	I see the Siberian on his slight-built sledge, drawn by dogs;
LG1871	2781	I see the porpoise-hunters—I see the whale-crews of the South Pacific and the North Atlantic;
LG1871	2782	I see the cliffs, glaciers, torrents, valleys, of Switzerland —I mark the long winters, and the isolation.
LG1871	2783	I see the cities of the earth, and make myself at ran-domrandom a part of them;
LG1871	2784	I am a real Parisian;
LG1871	2785	I am a habitan of Vienna, St. Petersburg, Berlin, Con-stantinopleConstantinople;
LG1871	2786	I am of Adelaide, Sidney, Melbourne;
LG1871	2787	I am of London, Manchester, Bristol, Edinburgh, Lim-erickLimerick;
LG1871	2788	I am of Madrid, Cadiz, Barcelona, Oporto, Lyons, Brus-selsBrussels, Berne, Frankfort, Stuttgart, Turin, Florence;
LG1871	2789	I belong in Moscow, Cracow, Warsaw—or northward in Christiania or Stockholm—or in Siberian Irkutsk—or in some street in Iceland;
LG1871	2790	I descend upon all those cities, and rise from them again.
LG1871	2791	I see vapors exhaling from unexplored countries;
LG1871	2792	I see the savage types, the bow and arrow, the poison'd splint, the fetish, and the obi.
LG1871	2793	I see African and Asiatic towns;
LG1871	2794	I see Algiers, Tripoli, Derne, Mogadore, Timbuctoo, Monrovia;
LG1871	2795	I see the swarms of Pekin, Canton, Benares, Delhi, Calcutta, Yedo;
LG1871	2796	I see the Kruman in his hut, and the Dahoman and Ashantee-man in their huts;
LG1871	2797	I see the Turk smoking opium in Aleppo;
LG1871	2798	I see the picturesque crowds at the fairs of Khiva, and those of Herat;
LG1871	2799	I see Teheran—I see Muscat and Medina, and the inter-veningintervening sands—I see the caravans toiling onward;
LG1871	2800	I see Egypt and the Egyptians—I see the pyramids and obelisks;
LG1871	2801	I look on chisel'd histories, songs, philosophies, cut in slabs of sand-stone, or on granite-blocks;
LG1871	2802	I see at Memphis mummy-pits, containing mummies, embalm'd, swathed in linen cloth, lying there many centuries;
LG1871	2803	I look on the fall'n Theban, the large-ball'd eyes, the side-drooping neck, the hands folded across the breast.
LG1871	2804	I see the menials of the earth, laboring;
LG1871	2805	I see the prisoners in the prisons;
LG1871	2806	I see the defective human bodies of the earth;
LG1871	2807	I see the blind, the deaf and dumb, idiots, hunchbacks, lunatics;
LG1871	2808	I see the pirates, thieves, betrayers, murderers, slave-makersslave-makers of the earth;
LG1871	2809	I see the helpless infants, and the helpless old men and women.
LG1871	2810	I see male and female everywhere;
LG1871	2811	I see the serene brotherhood of philosophs;
LG1871	2812	I see the constructiveness of my race;
LG1871	2813	I see the results of the perseverance and industry of my race;
LG1871	2814	I see ranks, colors, barbarisms, civilizations—I go among them—I mix indiscriminately,
LG1871	2815	And I salute all the inhabitants of the earth.
LG1871	2816	You, whoever you are!
LG1871	2817	You daughter or son of England!
LG1871	2818	You of the mighty Slavic tribes and empires! you Russ in Russia!
LG1871	2819	You dim-descended, black, divine-soul'd African, large, fine-headed, nobly-form'd, superbly destin'd, on equal terms with me!
LG1871	2820	You Norwegian! Swede! Dane! Icelander! you Prus-sianPrussian!
LG1871	2821	You Spaniard of Spain! you Portuguese!
LG1871	2822	You Frenchwoman and Frenchman of France!
LG1871	2823	You Belge! you liberty-lover of the Netherlands!
LG1871	2824	You sturdy Austrian! you Lombard! Hun! Bohemian! farmer of Styria!
LG1871	2825	You neighbor of the Danube!
LG1871	2826	You working-man of the Rhine, the Elbe, or the Weser! you working-woman too!
LG1871	2827	You Sardinian! you Bavarian! Swabian! Saxon! Wal-lachianWallachian! Bulgarian!
LG1871	2828	You citizen of Prague! Roman! Neapolitan! Greek!
LG1871	2829	You lithe matador in the arena at Seville!
LG1871	2830	You mountaineer living lawlessly on the Taurus or Caucasus!
LG1871	2831	You Bokh horse-herd, watching your mares and stal-lionsstallions feeding!
LG1871	2832	You beautiful-bodied Persian, at full speed in the sad-dlesaddle, shooting arrows to the mark!
LG1871	2833	You Chinaman and Chinawoman of China! you Tartar of Tartary!
LG1871	2834	You women of the earth subordinated at your tasks!
LG1871	2835	You Jew journeying in your old age through every risk, to stand once on Syrian ground!
LG1871	2836	You other Jews waiting in all lands for your Messiah!
LG1871	2837	You thoughtful Armenian, pondering by some stream of the Euphrates! you peering amid the ruins of Ninevah! you ascending Mount Ararat!
LG1871	2838	You foot-worn pilgrim welcoming the far-away sparkle of the minarets of Mecca!
LG1871	2839	You sheiks along the stretch from Suez to Bab-el-man-debBab-el-mandeb, ruling your families and tribes!
LG1871	2840	You olive-grower tending your fruit on fields of Naza-rethNazareth, Damascus, or Lake Tiberias!
LG1871	2841	You Thibet trader on the wide inland, or bargaining in the shops of Lassa!
LG1871	2842	You Japanese man or woman! you liver in Madagas-carMadagascar, Ceylon, Sumatra, Borneo!
LG1871	2843	All you continentals of Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, indifferent of place!
LG1871	2844	All you on the numberless islands of the archipelagoes of the sea!
LG1871	2845	And you of centuries hence, when you listen to me!
LG1871	2846	And you, each and everywhere, whom I specify not, but include just the same!
LG1871	2847	Health to you! Good will to you all—from me and America sent.
LG1871	2848	Each of us inevitable;
LG1871	2849	Each of us limitless—each of us with his or her right upon the earth;
LG1871	2850	Each of us allow'd the eternal purports of the earth;
LG1871	2851	Each of us here as divinely as any is here.
LG1871	2852	You Hottentot with clicking palate! You woolly-hair'dwooly-hair'd hordes!
LG1871	2853	You own'd persons, dropping sweat-drops or blood-dropsblood-drops!
LG1871	2854	You human forms with the fathomless ever-impressive countenances of brutes!
LG1871	2855	I dare not refuse you—the scope of the world, and of time and space, are upon me.
LG1871	2856	You poor koboo whom the meanest of the rest look down upon, for all your glimmering language language spirituality!
LG1871	2857	You low expiring aborigines of the hills of Utah, Ore-gonOregon, California!
LG1871	2858	You dwarf'd Kamtschatkan, Greenlander, Lapp!
LG1871	2859	You Austral negro, naked, red, sooty, with protrusive lip, grovelling, seeking your food!
LG1871	2860	You Caffre, Berber, Soudanese!
LG1871	2861	You haggard, uncouth, untutor'd, Bedowee!
LG1871	2862	You plague-swarms in Madras, Nankin, Kaubul, Cairo!
LG1871	2863	You bather bathing in the Ganges!
LG1871	2864	You benighted roamer of Amazonia! you Patagonian! you Fejee-man!
LG1871	2865	You peon of Mexico! you slave of Carolina, Texas, Tennessee!
LG1871	2866	I do not prefer others so very much before you either;
LG1871	2867	I do not say one word against you, away back there, where you stand;
LG1871	2868	(You will come forward in due time to my side.)
LG1871	2869	My spirit has pass'd in compassion and determina-tiondetermination around the whole earth;
LG1871	2870	I have look'd for equals and lovers, and found them ready for me in all lands;
LG1871	2871	I think some divine rapport has equalized me with them.
LG1871	2872	O vapors! I think I have risen with you, and moved away to distant continents, and fallen down there, for reasons;
LG1871	2873	I think I have blown with you, O winds;
LG1871	2874	O waters, I have finger'd every shore with you.
LG1871	2875	I have run through what any river or strait of the globe has run through;
LG1871	2876	I have taken my stand on the bases of peninsulas, and on the high embedded rocks, to cry thence.
LG1871	2877	Salut au monde!
LG1871	2878	What cities the light or warmth penetrates, I penetrate those cities myself;
LG1871	2879	All islands to which birds wing their way, I wing my way myself.
LG1871	2880	Toward all,
LG1871	2881	I raise high the perpendicular hand—I make the signal,
LG1871	2882	To remain after me in sight forever,
LG1871	2883	For all the haunts and homes of men.
LG1871	2884	SILENT and amazed, even when a little boy,
LG1871	2885	I remember I heard the preacher every Sunday put God in his statements,
LG1871	2886	As contending against some being or influence.
LG1871	2887	ON a flat road runs the well-train'd runner;
LG1871	2888	He is lean and sinewy, with muscular legs;
LG1871	2889	He is thinly clothed—he leans forward as he runs,
LG1871	2890	With lightly closed fists, and arms partially rais'd.
LG1871	2891	WOMEN sit, or move to and fro—some old, some young;
LG1871	2892	The young are beautiful—but the old are more beauti-fulbeautiful than the young.
LG1871	2893	I SEE the sleeping babe, nestling the breast of its mother;
LG1871	2894	The sleeping mother and babe—hush'd, I study them long and long.
LG1871	2895	OF obedience, faith, adhesiveness;
LG1871	2896	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.
LG1871	2897	AMERICA always!
LG1871	2898	Always our own feuillage!
LG1871	2899	Always Florida's green peninsula! Always the priceless delta of Louisiana! Always the cotton-fields of Alabama and Texas!
LG1871	2900	Always California's golden hills and hollows—and the silver mountains of New Mexico! Always soft-breath'dsoft-breath'd Cuba!
LG1871	2901	Always the vast slope drain'd by the Southern Sea— inseparable with the slopes drain'd by the East-ernEastern and Western Seas;
LG1871	2902	The area the eighty-third year of These States—the three and a half millions of square miles;
LG1871	2903	The eighteen thousand miles of sea-coast and bay-coast on the main—the thirty thousand miles of river navigation,
LG1871	2904	The seven millions of distinct families, and the same number of dwellings—Always these, and more, branching forth into numberless branches;
LG1871	2905	Always the free range and diversity! always the conti-nentcontinent of Democracy!
LG1871	2906	Always the prairies, pastures, forests, vast cities, trav-elerstravelers, Kanada, the snows;
LG1871	2907	Always these compact lands—lands tied at the hips with the belt stringing the huge oval lakes;
LG1871	2908	Always the West, with strong native persons—the in-creasingincreasing density there—the habitans, friendly, threatening, ironical, scorning invaders;
LG1871	2909	All sights, South, North, East—all deeds, promiscu-ouslypromiscuously done at all times,
LG1871	2910	All characters, movements, growths—a few noticed, myriads unnoticed,
LG1871	2911	Through Mannahatta's streets I walking, these things gathering;
LG1871	2912	On interior rivers, by night, in the glare of pine knots, steamboats wooding up;
LG1871	2913	Sunlight by day on the valley of the Susquehanna, and on the valleys of the Potomac and Rappahannock, and the valleys of the Roanoke and Delaware;
LG1871	2914	In their northerly wilds, beasts of prey haunting the Adirondacks, the hills—or lapping the Saginaw waters to drink;
LG1871	2915	In a lonesome inlet, a sheldrake, lost from the flock, sitting on the water, rocking silently;
LG1871	2916	In farmers' barns, oxen in the stable, their harvest labor done—they rest standing—they are too tired;
LG1871	2917	Afar on arctic ice, the she-walrus lying drowsily, while her cubs play around;
LG1871	2918	The hawk sailing where men have not yet sail'd—the farthest polar sea, ripply, crystalline, open, be-yondbeyond the floes;
LG1871	2919	White drift spooning ahead, where the ship in the tem-pesttempest dashes;
LG1871	2920	On solid land, what is done in cities, as the bells all strike midnight together;
LG1871	2921	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;
LG1871	2922	In winter beneath the hard blue ice of Moosehead Lake —in summer visible through the clear waters, the great trout swimming;
LG1871	2923	In lower latitudes, in warmer air, in the Carolinas, the large black buzzard floating slowly, high beyond the tree tops,
LG1871	2924	Below, the red cedar, festoon'd with tylandria—the pines and cypresses, growing out of the white sand that spreads far and flat;
LG1871	2925	Rude boats descending the big Pedee—climbing plants, parasites, with color'd flowers and berries, envel-opingenveloping huge trees,
LG1871	2926	The waving drapery on the live oak, trailing long and low, noiselessly waved by the wind;
LG1871	2927	The camp of Georgia wagoners, just after dark—the supper-fires, and the cooking and eating by whites and negroes,
LG1871	2928	Thirty or forty great wagons—the mules, cattle, horses, feeding from troughs,
LG1871	2929	The shadows, gleams, up under the leaves of the old sycamore-trees—the flames—with the black smoke from the pitch-pine, curling and rising;
LG1871	2930	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 work'd by horses—the clear-ingclearing, curing, and packing-houses;
LG1871	2931	Deep in the forest, in piney woods, turpentine dropping from the incisions in the trees—There are the turpentine works,
LG1871	2932	There are the negroes at work, in good health—the ground in all directions is cover'd with pine straw:
LG1871	2933	—In Tennessee and Kentucky, slaves busy in the coal-ingscoalings, at the forge, by the furnace-blaze, or at the corn-shucking;
LG1871	2934	In Virginia, the planter's son returning after a long absence, joyfully welcom'd and kiss'd by the aged mulatto nurse;
LG1871	2935	On rivers, boatmen safely moor'd at nightfall, in their boats, under shelter of high banks,
LG1871	2936	Some of the younger men dance to the sound of the banjo or fiddle—others sit on the gunwale, smok-ingsmoking and talking;
LG1871	2937	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;
LG1871	2938	—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;
LG1871	2939	Children at play—or on his father's lap a young boy fallen asleep, (how his lips move! how he smiles in his sleep!)
LG1871	2940	The scout riding on horseback over the plains west of the Mississippi—he ascends a knoll and sweeps his eye around;
LG1871	2941	California life—the miner, bearded, dress'd in his rude costume—the stanch California friendship—the sweet air—the graves one, in passing, meets, solitary, just aside the horse-path;
LG1871	2942	Down in Texas, the cotton-field, the negro-cabins— drivers driving mules or oxen before rude carts— cotton bales piled on banks and wharves;
LG1871	2943	Encircling all, vast-darting, up and wide, the American Soul, with equal hemispheres—one Love, one Dilation or Pride;
LG1871	2944	—In arriere, the peace-talk with the Iroquois, the abo-riginesaborigines—the calumet, the pipe of good-will, arbi-trationarbitration, and indorsement,
LG1871	2945	The sachem blowing the smoke first toward the sun and then toward the earth,
LG1871	2946	The drama of the scalp-dance enacted with painted faces and guttural exclamations,
LG1871	2947	The setting out of the war-party—the long and stealthy march,
LG1871	2948	The single-file—the swinging hatchets—the surprise and slaughter of enemies;
LG1871	2949	—All the acts, scenes, ways, persons, attitudes of These States—reminiscences, all institutions,
LG1871	2950	All These States, compact—Every square mile of These States, without excepting a particle—you also— me also,
LG1871	2951	Me pleas'd, rambling in lanes and country fields, Pau-manok'sPaumanok's fields,
LG1871	2952	Me, observing the spiral flight of two little yellow but-terfliesbutterflies, shuffling between each other, ascending high in the air;
LG1871	2953	The darting swallow, the destroyer of insects—the fall traveler southward, but returning northward early in the spring;
LG1871	2954	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;
LG1871	2955	The city wharf—Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, New Orleans, San Francisco,
LG1871	2956	The departing ships, when the sailors heave at the capstan;
LG1871	2957	—Evening—me in my room—the setting sun,
LG1871	2958	The setting summer sun shining in my open window, showing the swarm of 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;
LG1871	2959	The athletic American matron speaking in public to crowds of listeners;
LG1871	2960	Males, females, immigrants, combinations—the copious-nesscopiousness—the individuality of The States, each for itself—the money-makers;
LG1871	2961	Factories, machinery, the mechanical forces—the wind-lasswindlass, lever, pulley—All certainties,
LG1871	2962	The certainty of space, increase, freedom, futurity,
LG1871	2963	In space, the sporades, the scatter'd islands, the stars— on the firm earth, the lands, my lands;
LG1871	2964	O lands! all so dear to me—what you are, (whatever it is,) I become a part of that, whatever it is;
LG1871	2965	Southward there, I screaming, with wings slow flapping, with the myriads of gulls wintering along the coasts of Florida—or in Louisiana, with pelicans breeding;
LG1871	2966	Otherways, there, atwixt the banks of the Arkansaw, the Rio Grande, the Nueces, the Brazos, the Tombig-beeTombigbee, the Red River, the Saskatchawan, or the Osage, I with the spring waters laughing and skipping and running;
LG1871	2967	Northward, on the sands, on some shallow bay of Pau-manokPaumanok, I, with parties of snowy herons wading in the wet to seek worms and aquatic plants;
LG1871	2968	Retreating, triumphantly twittering, the king-bird, from piercing the crow with its bill, for amusement— And I triumphantly twittering;
LG1871	2969	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-liev'dreliev'd by other sentinels—And I feeding and taking turns with the rest;
LG1871	2970	In Kanadian forests, the moose, large as an ox, corner'd by hunters, rising desperately on his hind-feet, and plunging with his fore-feet, the hoofs as sharp as knives—And I, plunging at the hunters, corner'd and desperate;
LG1871	2971	In the Mannahatta, streets, piers, shipping, store-houses, and the countless workmen working in the shops,
LG1871	2972	And I too of the Mannahatta, singing thereof—and no less in myself than the whole of the Mannahatta in itself,
LG1871	2973	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;
LG1871	2974	Nativities, climates, the grass of the great Pastoral Plains;
LG1871	2975	Cities, labors, death, animals, products, war, good and evil—these me,
LG1871	2976	These affording, in all their particulars, endless feuil-lagefeuillage to me and to America, how can I do less than pass the clue of the union of them, to afford the like to you?
LG1871	2977	Whoever you are! how can I but offer you divine leaves, that you also be eligible as I am?
LG1871	2978	How can I but, as here, chanting, invite you for your-selfyourself to collect bouquets of the incomparable feuillage of These States?
LG1871	2979	WEAPON, shapely, naked, wan!
LG1871	2980	Head from the mother's bowels drawn!
LG1871	2981	Wooded flesh and metal bone! limb only one, and lip only one!
LG1871	2982	Gray-blue leaf by red-heat grown! helve produced from a little seed sown!
LG1871	2983	Resting the grass amid and upon,
LG1871	2984	To be lean'd, and to lean on.
LG1871	2985	Strong shapes, and attributes of strong shapes—mas-culinemasculine trades, sights and sounds;
LG1871	2986	Long varied train of an emblem, dabs of music;
LG1871	2987	Fingers of the organist skipping staccato over the keys of the great organ.
LG1871	2988	Welcome are all earth's lands, each for its kind;
LG1871	2989	Welcome are lands of pine and oak;
LG1871	2990	Welcome are lands of the lemon and fig;
LG1871	2991	Welcome are lands of gold;
LG1871	2992	Welcome are lands of wheat and maize—welcome those of the grape;
LG1871	2993	Welcome are lands of sugar and rice;
LG1871	2994	Welcome the cotton-lands—welcome those of the white potato and sweet potato;
LG1871	2995	Welcome are mountains, flats, sands, forests, prairies;
LG1871	2996	Welcome the rich borders of rivers, table-lands, open-ingsopenings;
LG1871	2997	Welcome the measureless grazing-lands—welcome the teeming soil of orchards, flax, honey, hemp;
LG1871	2998	Welcome just as much the other more hard-faced lands;
LG1871	2999	Lands rich as lands of gold, or wheat and fruit lands;
LG1871	3000	Lands of mines, lands of the manly and rugged ores;
LG1871	3001	Lands of coal, copper, lead, tin, zinc;
LG1871	3002	LANDS OF IRON! lands of the make of the axe!
LG1871	3003	The log at the wood-pile, the axe supported by it;
LG1871	3004	The sylvan hut, the vine over the doorway, the space clear'd for a garden,
LG1871	3005	The irregular tapping of rain down on the leaves, after the storm is lull'd,
LG1871	3006	The wailing and moaning at intervals, the thought of the sea,
LG1871	3007	The thought of ships struck in the storm, and put on their beam ends, and the cutting away of masts;
LG1871	3008	The sentiment of the huge timbers of old-fashion'd houses and barns;
LG1871	3009	The remember'd print or narrative, the voyage at a venture of men, families, goods,
LG1871	3010	The disembarkation, the founding of a new city,
LG1871	3011	The voyage of those who sought a New England and found it—the outset anywhere,
LG1871	3012	The settlements of the Arkansas, Colorado, Ottawa, Willamette,
LG1871	3013	The slow progress, the scant fare, the axe, rifle, saddle-bagssaddle-bags;
LG1871	3014	The beauty of all adventurous and daring persons,
LG1871	3015	The beauty of wood-boys and wood-men, with their clear untrimm'd faces,
LG1871	3016	The beauty of independence, departure, actions that rely on themselves,
LG1871	3017	The American contempt for statutes and ceremonies, the boundless impatience of restraint,
LG1871	3018	The loose drift of character, the inkling through ran-domrandom types, the solidification;
LG1871	3019	The butcher in the slaughter-house, the hands aboard schooners and sloops, the raftsman, the pioneer,
LG1871	3020	Lumbermen in their winter camp, day-break in the woods, stripes of snow on the limbs of trees, the occasional snapping,
LG1871	3021	The glad clear sound of one's own voice, the merry song, the natural life of the woods, the strong day's work,
LG1871	3022	The blazing fire at night, the sweet taste of supper, the talk, the bed of hemlock boughs, and the bear-skinbear-skin;
LG1871	3023	—The house-builder at work in cities or anywhere,
LG1871	3024	The preparatory jointing, squaring, sawing, mortising,
LG1871	3025	The hoist-up of beams, the push of them in their places, laying them regular,
LG1871	3026	Setting the studs by their tenons in the mortises, accord-ingaccording as they were prepared,
LG1871	3027	The blows of mallets and hammers, the attitudes of the men, their curv'd limbs,
LG1871	3028	Bending, standing, astride the beams, driving in pins, holding on by posts and braces,
LG1871	3029	The hook'd arm over the plate, the other arm wielding the axe,
LG1871	3030	The floor-men forcing the planks close, to be nail'd,
LG1871	3031	Their postures bringing their weapons downward on the bearers,
LG1871	3032	The echoes resounding through the vacant building;
LG1871	3033	The huge store-house carried up in the city, well under way,
LG1871	3034	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,
LG1871	3035	The crowded line of masons with trowels in their right hands, rapidly laying the long side-wall, two hundred feet from front to rear,
LG1871	3036	The flexible rise and fall of backs, the continual click of the trowels striking the bricks,
LG1871	3037	The bricks, one after another, each laid so workman-likeworkmanlike in its place, and set with a knock of the trowel-handle,
LG1871	3038	The piles of materials, the mortar on the mortar-boards, and the steady replenishing by the hod-men;
LG1871	3039	—Spar-makers in the spar-yard, the swarming row of well-grown apprentices,
LG1871	3040	The swing of their axes on the square-hew'd log, shaping it toward the shape of a mast,
LG1871	3041	The brisk short crackle of the steel driven slantingly into the pine,
LG1871	3042	The butter-color'd chips flying off in great flakes and slivers,
LG1871	3043	The limber motion of brawny young arms and hips in easy costumes;
LG1871	3044	The constructor of wharves, bridges, piers, bulk-heads, floats, stays against the sea;
LG1871	3045	—The city fireman—the fire that suddenly bursts forth in the close-pack'd square,
LG1871	3046	The arriving engines, the hoarse shouts, the nimble stepping and daring,
LG1871	3047	The strong command through the fire-trumpets, the falling in line, the rise and fall of the arms forcing the water,
LG1871	3048	The slender, spasmic, blue-white jets—the bringing to bear of the hooks and ladders, and their execution,
LG1871	3049	The crash and cut away of connecting wood-work, or through floors, if the fire smoulders under them,
LG1871	3050	The crowd with their lit faces, watching—the glare and dense shadows;
LG1871	3051	—The forger at his forge-furnace, and the user of iron after him,
LG1871	3052	The maker of the axe large and small, and the welder and temperer,
LG1871	3053	The chooser breathing his breath on the cold steel, and trying the edge with his thumb,
LG1871	3054	The one who clean-shapes the handle, and sets it firmly in the socket;
LG1871	3055	The shadowy processions of the portraits of the past users also,
LG1871	3056	The primal patient mechanics, the architects and en-gineersengineers,
LG1871	3057	The far-off Assyrian edifice and Mizra edifice,
LG1871	3058	The Roman lictors preceding the consuls,
LG1871	3059	The antique European warrior with his axe in combat,
LG1871	3060	The uplifted arm, the clatter of blows on the helmeted head,
LG1871	3061	The death-howl, the limpsey tumbling body, the rush of friend and foe thither,
LG1871	3062	The siege of revolted lieges determin'd for liberty,
LG1871	3063	The summons to surrender, the battering at castle gates, the truce and parley;
LG1871	3064	The sack of an old city in its time,
LG1871	3065	The bursting in of mercenaries and bigots tumultuously and disorderly.
LG1871	3066	Roar, flames, blood, drunkenness, madness,
LG1871	3067	Goods freely rifled from houses and temples, screams of women in the gripe of brigands,
LG1871	3068	Craft and thievery of camp-followers, men running, old persons despairing,
LG1871	3069	The hell of war, the cruelties of creeds,
LG1871	3070	The list of all executive deeds and words, just or unjust,
LG1871	3071	The power of personality, just or unjust.
LG1871	3072	Muscle and pluck forever!
LG1871	3073	What invigorates life, invigorates death,
LG1871	3074	And the dead advance as much as the living advance,
LG1871	3075	And the future is no more uncertain than the present,
LG1871	3076	And the roughness of the earth and of man encloses as much as the delicatesse of the earth and of man,
LG1871	3077	And nothing endures but personal qualities.
LG1871	3078	What do you think endures?
LG1871	3079	Do you think the great city endures?
LG1871	3080	Or a teeming manufacturing state? or a prepared con-stitutionconstitution? or the best built steamships?
LG1871	3081	Or hotels of granite and iron? or any chef-d'uvres of engineering, forts, armaments?
LG1871	3082	Away! These are not to be cherish'd for themselves;
LG1871	3083	They fill their hour, the dancers dance, the musicians play for them;
LG1871	3084	The show passes, all does well enough of course,
LG1871	3085	All does very well till one flash of defiance.
LG1871	3086	The great city is that which has the greatest man or woman;
LG1871	3087	If it be a few ragged huts, it is still the greatest city in the whole world.
LG1871	3088	The place where the great city stands is not the place of stretch'd wharves, docks, manufactures, deposits of produce,
LG1871	3089	Nor the place of ceaseless salutes of new comers, or the anchor-lifters of the departing,
LG1871	3090	Nor the place of the tallest and costliest buildings, or shops selling goods from the rest of the earth,
LG1871	3091	Nor the place of the best libraries and schools—nor the place where money is plentiest,
LG1871	3092	Nor the place of the most numerous population.
LG1871	3093	Where the city stands with the brawniest breed of orators and bards;
LG1871	3094	Where the city stands that is beloved by these, and loves them in return, and understands them;
LG1871	3095	Where no monuments exist to heroes, but in the com-moncommon words and deeds;
LG1871	3096	Where thrift is in its place, and prudence is in its place;
LG1871	3097	Where the men and women think lightly of the laws;
LG1871	3098	Where the slave ceases, and the master of slaves ceases;
LG1871	3099	Where the populace rise at once against the never-endingnever-ending audacity of elected persons;
LG1871	3100	Where fierce men and women pour forth, as the sea to the whistle of death pours its sweeping and un-riptunript waves;
LG1871	3101	Where outside authority enters always after the preced-enceprecedence of inside authority;
LG1871	3102	Where the citizen is always the head and ideal—and President, Mayor, Governor, and what not, are agents for pay;
LG1871	3103	Where children are taught to be laws to themselves, and to depend on themselves;
LG1871	3104	Where equanimity is illustrated in affairs;
LG1871	3105	Where speculations on the Soul are encouraged;
LG1871	3106	Where women walk in public processions in the streets, the same as the men,
LG1871	3107	Where they enter the public assembly and take places the same as the men;
LG1871	3108	Where the city of the faithfulest friends stands;
LG1871	3109	Where the city of the cleanliness of the sexes stands;
LG1871	3110	Where the city of the healthiest fathers stands;
LG1871	3111	Where the city of the best-bodied mothers stands,
LG1871	3112	There the great city stands.
LG1871	3113	How beggarly appear arguments before a defiant deed!
LG1871	3114	How the floridness of the materials of cities shrivels before a man's or woman's look!
LG1871	3115	All waits, or goes by default, till a strong being ap-pearsappears;
LG1871	3116	A strong being is the proof of the race, and of the ability of the universe;
LG1871	3117	When he or she appears, materials are overaw'd,
LG1871	3118	The dispute on the Soul stops,
LG1871	3119	The old customs and phrases are confronted, turn'd back, or laid away.
LG1871	3120	What is your money-making now? what can it do now?
LG1871	3121	What is your respectability now?
LG1871	3122	What are your theology, tuition, society, traditions, statute-books, now?
LG1871	3123	Where are your jibes of being now?
LG1871	3124	Where are your cavils about the Soul now?
LG1871	3125	A sterile landscape covers the ore—there is as good as the best, for all the forbidding appearance;
LG1871	3126	There is the mine, there are the miners;
LG1871	3127	The forge-furnace is there, the melt is accomplish'd; the hammers-men are at hand with their tongs and hammers;
LG1871	3128	What always served, and always serves, is at hand.
LG1871	3129	Than this, nothing has better served—it has served all:
LG1871	3130	Served the fluent-tongued and subtle-sensed Greek, and long ere the Greek:
LG1871	3131	Served in building the buildings that last longer than any;
LG1871	3132	Served the Hebrew, the Persian, the most ancient Hin-dostaneeHindostanee;
LG1871	3133	Served the mound-raiser on the Mississippi—served those whose relics remain in Central America;
LG1871	3134	Served Albic temples in woods or on plains, with un-hewnunhewn pillars, and the druids;
LG1871	3135	Served the artificial clefts, vast, high, silent, on the snow-cover'd hills of Scandinavia;
LG1871	3136	Served those who, time out of mind, made on the gran-itegranite walls rough sketches of the sun, moon, stars, ships, ocean-waves;
LG1871	3137	Served the paths of the irruptions of the Goths—served the pastoral tribes and nomads;
LG1871	3138	Served the long, long distant Kelt—served the hardy pirates of the Baltic;
LG1871	3139	Served before any of those, the venerable and harmless men of Ethiopia;
LG1871	3140	Served the making of helms for the galleys of pleasure, and the making of those for war;
LG1871	3141	Served all great works on land, and all great works on the sea;
LG1871	3142	For the medival ages, and before the medival ages;
LG1871	3143	Served not the living only, then as now, but served the dead.
LG1871	3144	I see the European headsman;
LG1871	3145	He stands mask'd, clothed in red, with huge legs, and strong naked arms,
LG1871	3146	And leans on a ponderous axe.
LG1871	3147	(Whom have you slaughter'd lately, European heads-manheadsman?
LG1871	3148	Whose is that blood upon you, so wet and sticky?)
LG1871	3149	I see the clear sunsets of the martyrs;
LG1871	3150	I see from the scaffolds the descending ghosts,
LG1871	3151	Ghosts of dead lords, uncrown'd ladies, impeach'd min-istersministers, rejected kings,
LG1871	3152	Rivals, traitors, poisoners, disgraced chieftains, and the rest.
LG1871	3153	I see those who in any land have died for the good cause;
LG1871	3154	The seed is spare, nevertheless the crop shall never run out;
LG1871	3155	(Mind you, O foreign kings, O priests, the crop shall never run out.)
LG1871	3156	I see the blood wash'd entirely away from the axe;
LG1871	3157	Both blade and helve are clean;
LG1871	3158	They spirt no more the blood of European nobles— they clasp no more the necks of queens.
LG1871	3159	I see the headsman withdraw and become useless;
LG1871	3160	I see the scaffold untrodden and mouldy—I see no longer any axe upon it;
LG1871	3161	I see the mighty and friendly emblem of the power of my own race—the newest, largest race.
LG1871	3162	(America! I do not vaunt my love for you;
LG1871	3163	I have what I have.)
LG1871	3164	The axe leaps!
LG1871	3165	The solid forest gives fluid utterances;
LG1871	3166	They tumble forth, they rise and form,
LG1871	3167	Hut, tent, landing, survey,
LG1871	3168	Flail, plough, pick, crowbar, spade,
LG1871	3169	Shingle, rail, prop, wainscot, jamb, lath, panel, gable,
LG1871	3170	Citadel, ceiling, saloon, academy, organ, exhibition-houseexhibition-house, library,
LG1871	3171	Cornice, trellis, pilaster, balcony, window, shutter, tur-retturret, porch,
LG1871	3172	Hoe, rake, pitch-fork, pencil, wagon, staff, saw, jack-planejack-plane, mallet, wedge, rounce,
LG1871	3173	Chair, tub, hoop, table, wicket, vane, sash, floor,
LG1871	3174	Work-box, chest, string'd instrument, boat, frame, and what not,
LG1871	3175	Capitols of States, and capitol of the nation of States,
LG1871	3176	Long stately rows in avenues, hospitals for orphans, or for the poor or sick,
LG1871	3177	Manhattan steamboats and clippers, taking the measure of all seas.
LG1871	3178	The shapes arise!
LG1871	3179	Shapes of the using of axes anyhow, and the users, and all that neighbors them,
LG1871	3180	Cutters down of wood, and haulers of it to the Penob-scotPenobscot or Kennebec,
LG1871	3181	Dwellers in cabins among the Californian mountains, or by the little lakes, or on the Columbia,
LG1871	3182	Dwellers south on the banks of the Gila or Rio Grande —friendly gatherings, the characters and fun,
LG1871	3183	Dwellers up north in Minnesota and by the Yellowstone river—dwellers on coasts and off coasts,
LG1871	3184	Seal-fishers, whalers, arctic seamen breaking passages through the ice.
LG1871	3185	The shapes arise!
LG1871	3186	Shapes of factories, arsenals, foundries, markets;
LG1871	3187	Shapes of the two-threaded tracks of railroads;
LG1871	3188	Shapes of the sleepers of bridges, vast frameworks, girders, arches;
LG1871	3189	Shapes of the fleets of barges, tows, lake and canal craft, river craft.
LG1871	3190	The shapes arise!
LG1871	3191	Ship-yards and dry-docks along the Eastern and West-ernWestern Seas, and in many a bay and by-place,
LG1871	3192	The live-oak kelsons, the pine planks, the spars, the hackmatack-roots for knees,
LG1871	3193	The ships themselves on their ways, the tiers of scaf-foldsscaffolds, the workmen busy outside and inside,
LG1871	3194	The tools lying around, the great auger and little auger, the adze, bolt, line, square, gouge, and bead-planebead-plane.
LG1871	3195	The shapes arise!
LG1871	3196	The shape measur'd, saw'd, jack'd, join'd, stain'd,
LG1871	3197	The coffin-shape for the dead to lie within in his shroud;
LG1871	3198	The shape got out in posts, in the bedstead posts, in the posts of the bride's bed;
LG1871	3199	The shape of the little trough, the shape of the rockers beneath, the shape of the babe's cradle;
LG1871	3200	The shape of the floor-planks, the floor-planks for dancers' feet;
LG1871	3201	The shape of the planks of the family home, the home of the friendly parents and children,
LG1871	3202	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,
LG1871	3203	The roof over the supper joyously cook'd by the chaste wife, and joyously eaten by the chaste husband, content after his day's work.
LG1871	3204	The shapes arise!
LG1871	3205	The shape of the prisoner's place in the court-room, and of him or her seated in the place;
LG1871	3206	The shape of the liquor-bar lean'd against by the young rum-drinker and the old rum-drinker;
LG1871	3207	The shape of the shamed and angry stairs, trod by sneaking footsteps;
LG1871	3208	The shape of the sly settee, and the adulterous un-wholesomeunwholesome couple;
LG1871	3209	The shape of the gambling-board with its devilish win-ningswinnings and losings;
LG1871	3210	The shape of the step-ladder for the convicted and sen-tencedsentenced murderer, the murderer with haggard face and pinion'd arms,
LG1871	3211	The sheriff at hand with his deputies, the silent and white-lipp'd crowd, the dangling of the rope.
LG1871	3212	The shapes arise!
LG1871	3213	Shapes of doors giving many exits and entrances;
LG1871	3214	The door passing the dissever'd friend, flush'd and in haste;
LG1871	3215	The door that admits good news and bad news;
LG1871	3216	The door whence the son left home, confident and puff'd up;
LG1871	3217	The door he enter'd again from a long and scandalous absence, diseas'd, broken down, without inno-cenceinnocence, without means.
LG1871	3218	Her shape arises,
LG1871	3219	She, less guarded than ever, yet more guarded than ever;
LG1871	3220	The gross and soil'd she moves among do not make her gross and soil'd;
LG1871	3221	She knows the thoughts as she passes—nothing is con-ceal'dconceal'd from her;
LG1871	3222	She is none the less considerate or friendly therefor;
LG1871	3223	She is the best belov'd—it is without exception—she has no reason to fear, and she does not fear;
LG1871	3224	Oaths, quarrels, hiccupp'd songs, smutty expressions, are idle to her as she passes;
LG1871	3225	She is silent—she is possess'd of herself—they do not offend her;
LG1871	3226	She receives them as the laws of nature receive them —she is strong,
LG1871	3227	She too is a law of nature—there is no law stronger than she is.
LG1871	3228	The main shapes arise!
LG1871	3229	Shapes of Democracy, total—result of centuries;
LG1871	3230	Shapes, ever projecting other shapes;
LG1871	3231	Shapes of turbulent manly cities;
LG1871	3232	Shapes of the friends and home-givers of the whole earth,
LG1871	3233	Shapes bracing the earth, and braced with the whole earth.
LG1871	3234	AFOOT and light-hearted, I take to the open road,
LG1871	3235	Healthy, free, the world before me,
LG1871	3236	The long brown path before me, leading wherever I choose.
LG1871	3237	Henceforth I ask not good-fortune—I myself am good-fortunegood-fortune;
LG1871	3238	Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
LG1871	3239	Strong and content, I travel the open road.
LG1871	3240	The earth—that is sufficient;
LG1871	3241	I do not want the constellations any nearer;
LG1871	3242	I know they are very well where they are;
LG1871	3243	I know they suffice for those who belong to them.
LG1871	3244	(Still here I carry my old delicious burdens;
LG1871	3245	I carry them, men and women—I carry them with me wherever I go;
LG1871	3246	I swear it is impossible for me to get rid of them;
LG1871	3247	I am fill'd with them, and I will fill them in return.)
LG1871	3248	You road I enter upon and look around! I believe you are not all that is here;
LG1871	3249	I believe that much unseen is also here.
LG1871	3250	Here the profound lesson of reception, neither prefer-encepreference or denial;
LG1871	3251	The black with his woolly head, the felon, the diseas'd, the illiterate person, are not denied;
LG1871	3252	The birth, the hasting after the physician, the beggar's tramp, the drunkard's stagger, the laughing party of mechanics,
LG1871	3253	The escaped youth, the rich person's carriage, the fop, the eloping couple,
LG1871	3254	The early market-man, the hearse, the moving of fur-niturefurniture into the town, the return back from the town,
LG1871	3255	They pass—I also pass—anything passes—none can be interdicted;
LG1871	3256	None but are accepted—none but are dear to me:
LG1871	3257	You air that serves me with breath to speak!
LG1871	3258	You objects that call from diffusion my meanings, and give them shape!
LG1871	3259	You light that wraps me and all things in delicate equable showers!
LG1871	3260	You paths worn in the irregular hollows by the road-sidesroadsides!
LG1871	3261	I think you are latent with unseen existences—you are so dear to me.
LG1871	3262	You flagg'd walks of the cities! you strong curbs at the edges!
LG1871	3263	You ferries! you planks and posts of wharves! you timber-lined sides! you distant ships!
LG1871	3264	You rows of houses! you window-pierc'd facades! you roofs!
LG1871	3265	You porches and entrances! you copings and iron guards!
LG1871	3266	You windows whose transparent shells might expose so much!
LG1871	3267	You doors and ascending steps! you arches!
LG1871	3268	You gray stones of interminable pavements! you trod-dentrodden crossings!
LG1871	3269	From all that has been near you, I believe you have im-partedimparted to yourselves, and now would impart the same secretly to me;
LG1871	3270	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.
LG1871	3271	The earth expanding right hand and left hand,
LG1871	3272	The picture alive, every part in its best light,
LG1871	3273	The music falling in where it is wanted, and stopping where it is not wanted,
LG1871	3274	The cheerful voice of the public road—the gay fresh sentiment of the road.
LG1871	3275	O highway I travel! O public road! do you say to me, Do not leave me?
LG1871	3276	Do you say, Venture not? If you leave me, you are lost?
LG1871	3277	Do you say, I am already prepared—I am well-beaten and undenied—adhere to me?
LG1871	3278	O public road! I say back, I am not afraid to leave you—yet I love you;
LG1871	3279	You express me better than I can express myself;
LG1871	3280	You shall be more to me than my poem.
LG1871	3281	I think heroic deeds were all conceiv'd in the open air, and all great poems also;
LG1871	3282	I think I could stop here myself, and do miracles;
LG1871	3283	(My judgments, thoughts, I henceforth try by the open air, the road:)
LG1871	3284	I think whatever I shall meet on the road I shall like, and whoever beholds me shall like me;
LG1871	3285	I think whoever I see must be happy.
LG1871	3286	From this hour, freedom!
LG1871	3287	From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of limits and imaginary lines,
LG1871	3288	Going where I list, my own master, total and absolute,
LG1871	3289	Listening to others, and considering well what they say,
LG1871	3290	Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating,
LG1871	3291	Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that would hold me.
LG1871	3292	I inhale great draughts of space;
LG1871	3293	The east and the west are mine, and the north and the south are mine.
LG1871	3294	I am larger, better than I thought,
LG1871	3295	I did not know I held so much goodness.
LG1871	3296	All seems beautiful to me;
LG1871	3297	I can repeat over to men and women, You have done such good to me, I would do the same to you.
LG1871	3298	I will recruit for myself and you as I go;
LG1871	3299	I will scatter myself among men and women as I go;
LG1871	3300	I will toss the new gladness and roughness among them;
LG1871	3301	Whoever denies me, it shall not trouble me;
LG1871	3302	Whoever accepts me, he or she shall be blessed, and shall bless me.
LG1871	3303	Now if a thousand perfect men were to appear, it would not amaze me;
LG1871	3304	Now if a thousand beautiful forms of women appear'd, it would not astonish me.
LG1871	3305	Now I see the secret of the making of the best per-sonspersons,
LG1871	3306	It is to grow in the open air, and to eat and sleep with the earth.
LG1871	3307	Here a great personal deed has room;
LG1871	3308	A great deed seizes upon the hearts of the whole race of men,
LG1871	3309	Its effusion of strength and will overwhelms law, and mocks all authority and all argument against it.
LG1871	3310	Here is the test of wisdom;
LG1871	3311	Wisdom is not finally tested in schools;
LG1871	3312	Wisdom cannot be pass'd from one having it, to an-otheranother not having it;
LG1871	3313	Wisdom is of the Soul, is not susceptible of proof, is its own proof,
LG1871	3314	Applies to all stages and objects and qualities, and is content,
LG1871	3315	Is the certainty of the reality and immortality of things, and the excellence of things;
LG1871	3316	Something there is in the float of the sight of things. that provokes it out of the Soul.
LG1871	3317	Now I rexamine philosophies and religions,
LG1871	3318	They may prove well in lecture-rooms, yet not prove at all under the spacious clouds, and along the landscape and flowing currents.
LG1871	3319	Here is realization;
LG1871	3320	Here is a man tallied—he realizes here what he has in him;
LG1871	3321	The past, the future, majesty, love—if they are vacant of you, you are vacant of them.
LG1871	3322	Only the kernel of every object nourishes;
LG1871	3323	Where is he who tears off the husks for you and me?
LG1871	3324	Where is he that undoes stratagems and envelopes for you and me?
LG1871	3325	Here is adhesiveness—it is not previously fashion'd— it is apropos;
LG1871	3326	Do you know what it is, as you pass, to be loved by strangers?
LG1871	3327	Do you know the talk of those turning eye-balls?
LG1871	3328	Here is the efflux of the Soul;
LG1871	3329	The efflux of the Soul comes from within, through em-bower'dembower'd gates, ever provoking questions:
LG1871	3330	These yearnings, why are they? These thoughts in the darkness, why are they?
LG1871	3331	Why are there men and women that while they are nigh me, the sun-light expands my blood!
LG1871	3332	Why, when they leave me, do my pennants of joy sink flat and lank?
LG1871	3333	Why are there trees I never walk under, but large and melodious thoughts descend upon me?
LG1871	3334	(I think they hang there winter and summer on those trees, and always drop fruit as I pass;)
LG1871	3335	What is it I interchange so suddenly with strangers?
LG1871	3336	What with some driver, as I ride on the seat by his side?
LG1871	3337	What with some fisherman, drawing his seine by the shore, as I walk by, and pause?
LG1871	3338	What gives me to be free to a woman's or man's good-willgood-will? What gives them to be free to mine?
LG1871	3339	The efflux of the Soul is happiness—here is happi-nesshappiness;
LG1871	3340	I think it pervades the open air, waiting at all times;
LG1871	3341	Now it flows unto us—we are rightly charged.
LG1871	3342	Here rises the fluid and attaching character;
LG1871	3343	The fluid and attaching character is the freshness and sweetness of man and woman;
LG1871	3344	(The herbs of the morning sprout no fresher and sweeter every day out of the roots of themselves, than it sprouts fresh and sweet continually out of itself.)
LG1871	3345	Toward the fluid and attaching character exudes the sweat of the love of young and old;
LG1871	3346	From it falls distill'd the charm that mocks beauty and attainments;
LG1871	3347	Toward it heaves the shuddering longing ache of contact.
LG1871	3348	Allons! whoever you are, come travel with me!
LG1871	3349	Traveling with me, you find what never tires.
LG1871	3350	The earth never tires;
LG1871	3351	The earth is rude, silent, incomprehensible at first— Nature is rude and incomprehensible at first;
LG1871	3352	Be not discouraged—keep on—there are divine things, well envelop'd;
LG1871	3353	I swear to you there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell.
LG1871	3354	Allons! we must not stop here!
LG1871	3355	However sweet these laid-up stores—however conve-nientconvenient this dwelling, we cannot remain here;
LG1871	3356	However shelter'd this port, and however calm these waters, we must not anchor here;
LG1871	3357	However welcome the hospitality that surrounds us, we are permitted to receive it but a little while.
LG1871	3358	Allons! the inducements shall be greater;
LG1871	3359	We will sail pathless and wild seas;
LG1871	3360	We will go where winds blow, waves dash, and the Yankee clipper speeds by under full sail.
LG1871	3361	Allons! with power, liberty, the earth, the elements!
LG1871	3362	Health, defiance, gayety, self-esteem, curiosity;
LG1871	3363	Allons! from all formules!
LG1871	3364	From your formules, O bat-eyed and materialistic priests!
LG1871	3365	The stale cadaver blocks up the passage—the burial waits no longer.
LG1871	3366	Allons! yet take warning!
LG1871	3367	He traveling with me needs the best blood, thews, en-duranceendurance;
LG1871	3368	None may come to the trial, till he or she bring courage and health.
LG1871	3369	Come not here if you have already spent the best of yourself;
LG1871	3370	Only those may come, who come in sweet and deter-min'ddetermin'd bodies;
LG1871	3371	No diseas'd person—no rum-drinker or venereal taint is permitted here.
LG1871	3372	I and mine do not convince by arguments, similes, rhymes;
LG1871	3373	We convince by our presence.
LG1871	3374	Listen! I will be honest with you;
LG1871	3375	I do not offer the old smooth prizes, but offer rough new prizes;
LG1871	3376	These are the days that must happen to you:
LG1871	3377	You shall not heap up what is call'd riches,
LG1871	3378	You shall scatter with lavish hand all that you earn or achieve,
LG1871	3379	You but arrive at the city to which you were destin'd— you hardly settle yourself to satisfaction, before you are call'd by an irresistible call to depart,
LG1871	3380	You shall be treated to the ironical smiles and mock-ingsmockings of those who remain behind you;
LG1871	3381	What beckonings of love you receive, you shall only answer with passionate kisses of parting,
LG1871	3382	You shall not allow the hold of those who spread their reach'd hands towards you.
LG1871	3383	Allons! after the GREAT COMPANIONS! and to belong to them!
LG1871	3384	They too are on the road! they are the swift and ma-jesticmajestic men! they are the greatest women.
LG1871	3385	Over that which hinder'd them—over that which re-tardedretarded—passing impediments large or small,
LG1871	3386	Committers of crimes, committers of many beautiful virtues,
LG1871	3387	Enjoyers of calms of seas, and storms of seas,
LG1871	3388	Sailors of many a ship, walkers of many a mile of land,
LG1871	3389	Habitus of many distant countries, habitus of far-distantfar-distant dwellings,
LG1871	3390	Trusters of men and women, observers of cities, solitary toilers,
LG1871	3391	Pausers and contemplators of tufts, blossoms, shells of the shore,
LG1871	3392	Dancers at wedding-dances, kissers of brides, tender helpers of children, bearers of children,
LG1871	3393	Soldiers of revolts, standers by gaping graves, lowerers down of coffins,
LG1871	3394	Journeyers over consecutive seasons, over the years— the curious years, each emerging from that which preceded it,
LG1871	3395	Journeyers as with companions, namely, their own diverse phases,
LG1871	3396	Forth-steppers from the latent unrealized baby-days,
LG1871	3397	Journeyers gayly with their own youth—Journeyers with their bearded and well-grain'd manhood,
LG1871	3398	Journeyers with their womanhood, ample, unsurpass'd, content,
LG1871	3399	Journeyers with their own sublime old age of manhood or womanhood,
LG1871	3400	Old age, calm, expanded, broad with the haughty breadth of the universe,
LG1871	3401	Old age, flowing free with the delicious near-by freedom of death.
LG1871	3402	Allons! to that which is endless, as it was begin-ninglessbeginningless,
LG1871	3403	To undergo much, tramps of days, rests of nights,
LG1871	3404	To merge all in the travel they tend to, and the days and nights they tend to,
LG1871	3405	Again to merge them in the start of superior journeys;
LG1871	3406	To see nothing anywhere but what you may reach it and pass it,
LG1871	3407	To conceive no time, however distant, but what you may reach it and pass it,
LG1871	3408	To look up or down no road but it stretches and waits for you—however long, but it stretches and waits for you;
LG1871	3409	To see no being, not God's or any, but you also go thither,
LG1871	3410	To see no possession but you may possess it—enjoying all without labor or purchase—abstracting the feast, yet not abstracting one particle of it;
LG1871	3411	To take the best of the farmer's farm and the rich man's elegant villa, and the chaste blessings of the well-marriedwell-married couple, and the fruits of orchards and flowers of gardens,
LG1871	3412	To take to your use out of the compact cities as you pass through,
LG1871	3413	To carry buildings and streets with you afterward wherever you go,
LG1871	3414	To gather the minds of men out of their brains as you encounter them—to gather the love out of their hearts,
LG1871	3415	To take your lovers on the road with you, for all that you leave them behind you,
LG1871	3416	To know the universe itself as a road—as many roads— as roads for traveling souls.
LG1871	3417	The Soul travels;
LG1871	3418	The body does not travel as much as the soul;
LG1871	3419	The body has just as great a work as the soul, and parts away at last for the journeys of the soul.
LG1871	3420	All parts away for the progress of souls;
LG1871	3421	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.
LG1871	3422	Of the progress of the souls of men and women along the grand roads of the universe, all other progress is the needed emblem and sustenance.
LG1871	3423	Forever alive, forever forward,
LG1871	3424	Stately, solemn, sad, withdrawn, baffled, mad, turbulent, feeble, dissatisfied,
LG1871	3425	Desperate, proud, fond, sick, accepted by men, rejected by men,
LG1871	3426	They go! they go! I know that they go, but I know not where they go;
LG1871	3427	But I know that they go toward the best—toward some-thingsomething great.
LG1871	3428	Allons! whoever you are! come forth!
LG1871	3429	You must not stay sleeping and dallying there in the house, though you built it, or though it has been built for you.
LG1871	3430	Allons! out of the dark confinement!
LG1871	3431	It is useless to protest—I know all, and expose it.
LG1871	3432	Behold, through you as bad as the rest,
LG1871	3433	Through the laughter, dancing, dining, supping, of people,
LG1871	3434	Inside of dresses and ornaments, inside of those wash'd and trimm'd faces,
LG1871	3435	Behold a secret silent loathing and despair.
LG1871	3436	No husband, no wife, no friend, trusted to hear the confession;
LG1871	3437	Another self, a duplicate of every one, skulking and hiding it goes,
LG1871	3438	Formless and wordless through the streets of the cities, polite and bland in the parlors,
LG1871	3439	In the cars of rail-roads, in steamboats, in the public assembly,
LG1871	3440	Home to the houses of men and women, at the table, in the bed-room, everywhere,
LG1871	3441	Smartly attired, countenance smiling, form upright, death under the breast-bones, hell under the skull-bones,
LG1871	3442	Under the broadcloth and gloves, under the ribbons and artificial flowers,
LG1871	3443	Keeping fair with the customs, speaking not a syllable of itself,
LG1871	3444	Speaking of anything else, but never of itself.
LG1871	3445	Allons! through struggles and wars!
LG1871	3446	The goal that was named cannot be countermanded.
LG1871	3447	Have the past struggles succeeded?
LG1871	3448	What has succeeded? yourself? your nation? nature?
LG1871	3449	Now understand me well—It is provided in the essence of things, that from any fruition of success, no matter what, shall come forth something to make a greater struggle necessary.
LG1871	3450	My call is the call of battle—I nourish active rebel-lionrebellion;
LG1871	3451	He going with me must go well arm'd;
LG1871	3452	He going with me goes often with spare diet, poverty, angry enemies, desertions.
LG1871	3453	Allons! the road is before us!
LG1871	3454	It is safe—I have tried it—my own feet have tried it well.
LG1871	3455	Allons! be not detain'd!
LG1871	3456	Let the paper remain on the desk unwritten, and the book on the shelf unopen'd!
LG1871	3457	Let the tools remain in the workshop! let the money remain unearn'd!
LG1871	3458	Let the school stand! mind not the cry of the teacher!
LG1871	3459	Let the preacher preach in his pulpit! let the lawyer plead in the court, and the judge expound the law.
LG1871	3460	Mon enfant! I give you my hand!
LG1871	3461	I give you my love, more precious than money,
LG1871	3462	I give you myself, before preaching or law;
LG1871	3463	Will you give me yourself? will you come travel with me?
LG1871	3464	Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?
LG1871	3465	I SIT and look out upon all the sorrows of the world, and upon all oppression and shame;
LG1871	3466	I hear secret convulsive sobs from young men, at an-guishanguish with themselves, remorseful after deeds done;
LG1871	3467	I see, in low life, the mother misused by her children, dying, neglected, gaunt, desperate;
LG1871	3468	I see the wife misused by her husband—I see the treacherous seducer of young women;
LG1871	3469	I mark the ranklings of jealousy and unrequited love, attempted to be hid—I see these sights on the earth;
LG1871	3470	I see the workings of battle, pestilence, tyranny—I see martyrs and prisoners;
LG1871	3471	I observe a famine at sea—I observe the sailors casting lots who shall be kill'd, to preserve the lives of the rest;
LG1871	3472	I observe the slights and degradations cast by arrogant persons upon laborers, the poor, and upon ne-groesnegroes, and the like;
LG1871	3473	All these—All the meanness and agony without end, I sitting, look out upon,
LG1871	3474	See, hear, and am silent.
LG1871	3475	ME imperturbe, standing at ease in Nature,
LG1871	3476	Master of all, or mistress of all—aplomb in the midst of irrational things,
LG1871	3477	Imbued as they—passive, receptive, silent as they,
LG1871	3478	Finding my occupation, poverty, notoriety, foibles, crimes, less important than I thought;
LG1871	3479	Me private, or public, or menial, or solitary—all these subordinate, (I am eternally equal with the best —I am not subordinate;)
LG1871	3480	Me toward the Mexican Sea, or in the Mannahatta, or the Tennessee, or far north, or inland,
LG1871	3481	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,
LG1871	3482	Me, wherever my life is lived, O to be self-balanced for contingencies!
LG1871	3483	O to confront night, storms, hunger, ridicule, accidents, rebuffs, as the trees and animals do.
LG1871	3484	As I lay with my head in your lap, Camerado,
LG1871	3485	The confession I made I resume—what I said to you and the open air I resume:
LG1871	3486	I know I am restless, and make others so;
LG1871	3487	I know my words are weapons, full of danger, full of death;
LG1871	3488	(Indeed I am myself the real soldier:
LG1871	3489	It is not he, there, with his bayonet, and not the red-stripedred-striped artilleryman;)
LG1871	3490	For I confront peace, security, and all the settled laws, to unsettle them;
LG1871	3491	I am more resolute because all have denied me, than I could ever have been had all accepted me;
LG1871	3492	I heed not, and have never heeded, either experience, cautions, majorities, nor ridicule;
LG1871	3493	And the threat of what is call'd hell is little or nothing to me;
LG1871	3494	And the lure of what is call'd heaven is little or nothing to me;
LG1871	3495	…Dear camerado! I confess I have urged you onward with me, and still urge you, without the least idea what is our destination,
LG1871	3496	Or whether we shall be victorious, or utterly quell'd and defeated.
LG1871	3497	FLOOD-TIDE below me! I watch you face to face;
LG1871	3498	Clouds of the west! sun there half an hour high! I see you also face to face.
LG1871	3499	Crowds of men and women attired in the usual cos-tumescostumes! how curious you are to me!
LG1871	3500	On the ferry-boats, the hundreds and hundreds that cross, returning home, are more curious to me than you suppose;
LG1871	3501	And you that shall cross from shore to shore years hence, are more to me, and more in my medita-tionsmeditations, than you might suppose.
LG1871	3502	The impalpable sustenance of me from all things, at all hours of the day;
LG1871	3503	The simple, compact, well-join'd scheme—myself disin-tegrateddisintegrated, every one disintegrated, yet part of the scheme;
LG1871	3504	The similitudes of the past, and those of the future;
LG1871	3505	The glories strung like beads on my smallest sights and hearings—on the walk in the street, and the pas-sagepassage over the river;
LG1871	3506	The current rushing so swiftly, and swimming with me far away;
LG1871	3507	The others that are to follow me, the ties between me and them;
LG1871	3508	The certainty of others—the life, love, sight, hearing of others.
LG1871	3509	Others will enter the gates of the ferry, and cross from shore to shore;
LG1871	3510	Others will watch the run of the flood-tide;
LG1871	3511	Others will see the shipping of Manhattan north and west, and the heights of Brooklyn to the south and east;
LG1871	3512	Others will see the islands large and small;
LG1871	3513	Fifty years hence, others will see them as they cross, the sun half an hour high;
LG1871	3514	A hundred years hence, or ever so many hundred years hence, others will see them,
LG1871	3515	Will enjoy the sunset, the pouring in of the flood-tide, the falling back to the sea of the ebb-tide.
LG1871	3516	It avails not, neither time or place—distance avails not;
LG1871	3517	I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so many generations hence;
LG1871	3518	I project myself—also I return—I am with you, and know how it is.
LG1871	3519	Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky, so I felt;
LG1871	3520	Just as any of you is one of a living crowd, I was one of a crowd;
LG1871	3521	Just as you are refresh'd by the gladness of the river and the bright flow, I was refresh'd;
LG1871	3522	Just as you stand and lean on the rail, yet hurry with the swift current, I stood, yet was hurried;
LG1871	3523	Just as you look on the numberless masts of ships, and the thick-stem'd pipes of steamboats, I look'd.
LG1871	3524	I too many and many a time cross'd the river, the sun half an hour high;
LG1871	3525	I watched the Twelfth-month sea-gulls—I saw them high in the air, floating with motionless wings, oscillating their bodies,
LG1871	3526	I saw how the glistening yellow lit up parts of their bodies, and left the rest in strong shadow,
LG1871	3527	I saw the slow-wheeling circles, and the gradual edging toward the south.
LG1871	3528	I too saw the reflection of the summer sky in the water,
LG1871	3529	Had my eyes dazzled by the shimmering track of beams,
LG1871	3530	Look'd at the fine centrifugal spokes of light round the shape of my head in the sun-lit water,
LG1871	3531	Look'd on the haze on the hills southward and south-westwardsouth-westward,
LG1871	3532	Look'd on the vapor as it flew in fleeces tinged with violet,
LG1871	3533	Look'd toward the lower bay to notice the arriving ships,
LG1871	3534	Saw their approach, saw aboard those that were near me,
LG1871	3535	Saw the white sails of schooners and sloops—saw the ships at anchor,
LG1871	3536	The sailors at work in the rigging, or out astride the spars,
LG1871	3537	The round masts, the swinging motion of the hulls, the slender serpentine pennants,
LG1871	3538	The large and small steamers in motion, the pilots in their pilot-houses,
LG1871	3539	The white wake left by the passage, the quick tremulous whirl of the wheels,
LG1871	3540	The flags of all nations, the falling of them at sun-set,
LG1871	3541	The scallop-edged waves in the twilight, the ladled cups, the frolicsome crests and glistening,
LG1871	3542	The stretch afar growing dimmer and dimmer, the gray walls of the granite store-houses by the docks,
LG1871	3543	On the river the shadowy group, the big steam-tug closely flank'd on each side by the barges—the hay-boat, the belated lighter,
LG1871	3544	On the neighboring shore, the fires from the foundry chimneys burning high and glaringly into the night,
LG1871	3545	9
LG1871	3546	Casting their flicker of black, contrasted with wild red and yellow light, over the tops of houses, and down into the clefts of streets.
LG1871	3547	These, and all else, were to me the same as they are to you;
LG1871	3548	I project myself a moment to tell you—also I return.
LG1871	3549	I loved well those cities;
LG1871	3550	I loved well the stately and rapid river;
LG1871	3551	The men and women I saw were all near to me;
LG1871	3552	Others the same—others who look back on me, because I look'd forward to them;
LG1871	3553	(The time will come, though I stop here to-day and to-nightto-night.)
LG1871	3554	What is it, then, between us?
LG1871	3555	What is the count of the scores of hundreds of years between us?
LG1871	3556	Whatever it is, it avails not—distance avails not, and place avails not.
LG1871	3557	I too lived—Brooklyn, of ample hills, was mine;
LG1871	3558	I too walk'd the streets of Manhattan Island, and bathed in the waters around it;
LG1871	3559	I too felt the curious abrupt questionings stir within me,
LG1871	3560	In the day, among crowds of people, sometimes they came upon me,
LG1871	3561	In my walks home late at night, or as I lay in my bed, they came upon me.
LG1871	3562	I too had been struck from the float forever held in solution;
LG1871	3563	I too had receiv'd identity by my Body;
LG1871	3564	That I was, I knew was of my body—and what I should be, I knew I should be of my body.
LG1871	3565	It is not upon you alone the dark patches fall,
LG1871	3566	The dark threw patches down upon me also;
LG1871	3567	The best I had done seem'd to me blank and suspicious;
LG1871	3568	My great thoughts, as I supposed them, were they not in reality meagre? would not people laugh at me?
LG1871	3569	It is not you alone who know what it is to be evil;
LG1871	3570	I am he who knew what it was to be evil;
LG1871	3571	I too knitted the old knot of contrariety,
LG1871	3572	Blabb'd, blush'd, resented, lied, stole, grudg'd,
LG1871	3573	Had guile, anger, lust, hot wishes I dared not speak,
LG1871	3574	Was wayward, vain, greedy, shallow, sly, cowardly, malignant;
LG1871	3575	The wolf, the snake, the hog, not wanting in me,
LG1871	3576	The cheating look, the frivolous word, the adulterous wish, not wanting,
LG1871	3577	Refusals, hates, postponements, meanness, laziness, none of these wanting.
LG1871	3578	But I was Manhattanese, friendly and proud!
LG1871	3579	I was call'd by my nighest name by clear loud voices of young men as they saw me approaching or passing,
LG1871	3580	Felt their arms on my neck as I stood, or the negligent leaning of their flesh against me as I sat,
LG1871	3581	Saw many I loved in the street, or ferry-boat, or public assembly, yet never told them a word,
LG1871	3582	Lived the same life with the rest, the same old laughing, gnawing, sleeping,
LG1871	3583	Play'd the part that still looks back on the actor or actress,
LG1871	3584	The same old role, the role that is what we make it, as great as we like,
LG1871	3585	Or as small as we like, or both great and small.
LG1871	3586	Closer yet I approach you;
LG1871	3587	What thought you have of me, I had as much of you —I laid in my stores in advance;
LG1871	3588	I consider'd long and seriously of you before you were born.
LG1871	3589	Who was to know what should come home to me?
LG1871	3590	Who knows but I am enjoying this?
LG1871	3591	Who knows but I am as good as looking at you now, for all you cannot see me?
LG1871	3592	It is not you alone, nor I alone;
LG1871	3593	Not a few races, nor a few generations, nor a few cen-turiescenturies;
LG1871	3594	It is that each came, or comes, or shall come, from its due emission,
LG1871	3595	From the general centre of all, and forming a part of all:
LG1871	3596	Everything indicates—the smallest does, and the largest does;
LG1871	3597	A necessary film envelopes all, and envelops the Soul for a proper time.
LG1871	3598	Now I am curious what sight can ever be more stately and admirable to me than my mast-hemm'dmast-hemm'd Manhattan,
LG1871	3599	My river and sun-set, and my scallop-edg'd waves of flood-tide,
LG1871	3600	The sea-gulls oscillating their bodies, the hay-boat in the twilight, and the belated lighter;
LG1871	3601	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;
LG1871	3602	Curious what is more subtle than this which ties me to the woman or man that looks in my face,
LG1871	3603	Which fuses me into you now, and pours my meaning into you.
LG1871	3604	We understand, then, do we not?
LG1871	3605	What I promis'd without mentioning it, have you not accepted?
LG1871	3606	What the study could not teach—what the preaching could not accomplish, is accomplish'd, is it not?
LG1871	3607	What the push of reading could not start, is started by me personally, is it not?
LG1871	3608	Flow on, river! flow with the flood-tide, and ebb with the ebb-tide!
LG1871	3609	Frolic on, crested and scallop-edg'd waves!
LG1871	3610	Gorgeous clouds of the sun-set! drench with your splendor me, or the men and women generations after me;
LG1871	3611	Cross from shore to shore, countless crowds of passen-gerspassengers!
LG1871	3612	Stand up, tall masts of Mannahatta!—stand up, beau-tifulbeautiful hills of Brooklyn!
LG1871	3613	Throb, baffled and curious brain! throw out questions and answers!
LG1871	3614	Suspend here and everywhere, eternal float of solution!
LG1871	3615	Gaze, loving and thirsting eyes, in the house, or street, or public assembly!
LG1871	3616	Sound out, voices of young men! loudly and musically call me by my nighest name!
LG1871	3617	Live, old life! play the part that looks back on the actor or actress!
LG1871	3618	Play the old role, the role that is great or small, ac-cordingaccording as one makes it!
LG1871	3619	Consider, you who peruse me, whether I may not in unknown ways be looking upon you;
LG1871	3620	Be firm, rail over the river, to support those who lean idly, yet haste with the hasting current;
LG1871	3621	Fly on, sea-birds! fly sideways, or wheel in large cir-clescircles high in the air;
LG1871	3622	Receive the summer sky, you water! and faithfully hold it, till all downcast eyes have time to take it from you;
LG1871	3623	Diverge, fine spokes of light, from the shape of my head, or any one's head, in the sun-lit water;
LG1871	3624	Come on, ships from the lower bay! pass up or down, white-sail'd schooners, sloops, lighters!
LG1871	3625	Flaunt away, flags of all nations! be duly lower'd at sunset;
LG1871	3626	Burn high your fires, foundry chimneys! cast black shadows at nightfall! cast red and yellow light over the tops of the houses;
LG1871	3627	Appearances, now or henceforth, indicate what you are;
LG1871	3628	You necessary film, continue to envelop the soul;
LG1871	3629	About my body for me, and your body for you, be hung our divinest aromas;
LG1871	3630	Thrive, cities! bring your freight, bring your shows, ample and sufficient rivers;
LG1871	3631	Expand, being than which none else is perhaps more spiritual;
LG1871	3632	Keep your places, objects than which none else is more lasting.
LG1871	3633	We descend upon you and all things—we arrest you all;
LG1871	3634	We realize the soul only by you, you faithful solids and fluids;
LG1871	3635	Through you color, form, location, sublimity, ideality;
LG1871	3636	Through you every proof, comparison, and all the sug-gestionssuggestions and determinations of ourselves.
LG1871	3637	You have waited, you always wait, you dumb, beau-tifulbeautiful ministers! you novices!
LG1871	3638	We receive you with free sense at last, and are insatiate henceforward;
LG1871	3639	Not you any more shall be able to foil us, or withhold yourselves from us;
LG1871	3640	We use you, and do not cast you aside—we plant you permanently within us;
LG1871	3641	We fathom you not—we love you—there is perfection in you also;
LG1871	3642	You furnish your parts toward eternity;
LG1871	3643	Great or small, you furnish your parts toward the soul.
LG1871	3644	WITH antecedents;
LG1871	3645	With my fathers and mothers, and the accumulations of past ages;
LG1871	3646	With all which, had it not been, I would not now be here, as I am:
LG1871	3647	With Egypt, India, Phenicia, Greece and Rome;
LG1871	3648	With the Kelt, the Scandinavian, the Alb, and the Saxon;
LG1871	3649	With antique maritime ventures,—with laws, artizan-shipartizanship, wars and journeys;
LG1871	3650	With the poet, the skald, the saga, the myth, and the oracle;
LG1871	3651	With the sale of slaves—with enthusiasts—with the troubadour, the crusader, and the monk;
LG1871	3652	With those old continents whence we have come to this new continent;
LG1871	3653	With the fading kingdoms and kings over there;
LG1871	3654	With the fading religions and priests;
LG1871	3655	With the small shores we look back to from our own large and present shores;
LG1871	3656	With countless years drawing themselves onward, and arrived at these years;
LG1871	3657	You and Me arrived—America arrived, and making this year;
LG1871	3658	This year! sending itself ahead countless years to come.
LG1871	3659	O but it is not the years—it is I—it is You;
LG1871	3660	We touch all laws, and tally all antecedents;
LG1871	3661	We are the skald, the oracle, the monk, and the knight —we easily include them, and more;
LG1871	3662	We stand amid time, beginningless and endless—we stand amid evil and good;
LG1871	3663	All swings around us—there is as much darkness as light;
LG1871	3664	The very sun swings itself and its system of planets around us;
LG1871	3665	Its sun, and its again, all swing around us.
LG1871	3666	As for me, (torn, stormy, even as I, amid these vehe-mentvehement days,)
LG1871	3667	I have the idea of all, and am all, and believe in all;
LG1871	3668	I believe materialism is true, and spiritualism is true— I reject no part.
LG1871	3669	Have I forgotten any part?
LG1871	3670	Come to me, whoever and whatever, till I give you recognition.
LG1871	3671	I respect Assyria, China, Teutonia, and the Hebrews;
LG1871	3672	I adopt each theory, myth, god, and demi-god;
LG1871	3673	I see that the old accounts, bibles, genealogies, are true, without exception;
LG1871	3674	I assert that all past days were what they should have been;
LG1871	3675	And that they could no-how have been better than they were,
LG1871	3676	And that to-day is what it should be—and that Amer-icaAmerica is,
LG1871	3677	And that to-day and America could no-how be better than they are.
LG1871	3678	In the name of These States, and in your and my name, the Past,
LG1871	3679	And in the name of These States, and in your and my name, the Present time.
LG1871	3680	I know that the past was great, and the future will be great,
LG1871	3681	And I know that both curiously conjoint in the present time,
LG1871	3682	(For the sake of him I typify—for the common average man's sake—your sake, if you are he;)
LG1871	3683	And that where I am, or you are, this present day, there is the centre of all days, all races,
LG1871	3684	And there is the meaning, to us, of all that has ever come of races and days, or ever will come.
LG1871	3685	Now list to my morning's romanza—I tell the signs of the Answerer;
LG1871	3686	To the cities and farms I sing, as they spread in the sunshine before me.
LG1871	3687	A young man comes to me bearing a message from his brother;
LG1871	3688	How shall the young man know the whether and when of his brother?
LG1871	3689	Tell him to send me the signs.
LG1871	3690	And I stand before the young man face to face, and take his right hand in my left hand, and his left hand in my right hand,
LG1871	3691	And I answer for his brother, and for men, and I an-sweranswer for him that answers for all, and send these signs.
LG1871	3692	Him all wait for—him all yield up to—his word is decisive and final,
LG1871	3693	Him they accept, in him lave, in him perceive them-selvesthemselves, as amid light,
LG1871	3694	Him they immerse, and he immerses them.
LG1871	3695	Beautiful women, the haughtiest nations, laws, the landscape, people, animals,
LG1871	3696	The profound earth and its attributes, and the unquiet ocean, (so tell I my morning's romanza;)
LG1871	3697	All enjoyments and properties, and money, and what-everwhatever money will buy,
LG1871	3698	The best farms—others toiling and planting, and he unavoidably reaps,
LG1871	3699	The noblest and costliest cities—others grading and building, and he domiciles there;
LG1871	3700	Nothing for any one, but what is for him—near and far are for him, the ships in the offing,
LG1871	3701	The perpetual shows and marches on land, are for him, if they are for any body.
LG1871	3702	He puts things in their attitudes;
LG1871	3703	He puts to-day out of himself, with plasticity and love;
LG1871	3704	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.
LG1871	3705	He is the answerer;
LG1871	3706	What can be answer'd he answers—and what cannot be answer'd, he shows how it cannot be answer'd.
LG1871	3707	A man is a summons and challenge;
LG1871	3708	(It is vain to skulk—Do you hear that mocking and laughter? Do you hear the ironical echoes?)
LG1871	3709	Books, friendships, philosophers, priests, action, plea-surepleasure, pride, beat up and down, seeking to give satisfaction;
LG1871	3710	He indicates the satisfaction, and indicates them that beat up and down also.
LG1871	3711	Whichever the sex, whatever the season or place, he may go freshly and gently and safely, by day or by night;
LG1871	3712	He has the pass-key of hearts—to Him the response of the prying of hands on the knobs.
LG1871	3713	His welcome is universal—the flow of beauty is not more welcome or universal than he is;
LG1871	3714	The person he favors by day, or sleeps with at night, is blessed.
LG1871	3715	Every existence has its idiom—everything has an idiom and tongue;
LG1871	3716	He resolves all tongues into his own, and bestows it upon men, and any man translates, and any man translates himself also;
LG1871	3717	One part does not counteract another part—he is the joiner—he sees how they join.
LG1871	3718	He says indifferently and alike, How are you, friend? to the President at his levee,
LG1871	3719	And he says, Good-day, my brother! to Cudge that hoes in the sugar-field,
LG1871	3720	And both understand him, and know that his speech is right.
LG1871	3721	He walks with perfect ease in the Capitol,
LG1871	3722	He walks among the Congress, and one Representative says to another, Here is our equal, appearing and new.
LG1871	3723	Then the mechanics take him for a mechanic,
LG1871	3724	And the soldiers suppose him to be a soldier, and the sailors that he has follow'd the sea,
LG1871	3725	And the authors take him for an author, and the artists for an artist,
LG1871	3726	And the laborers perceive he could labor with them and love them;
LG1871	3727	No matter what the work is, that he is the one to fol-lowfollow it, or has follow'd it,
LG1871	3728	No matter what the nation, that he might find his brothers and sisters there,
LG1871	3729	The English believe he comes of their English stock,
LG1871	3730	A Jew to the Jew he seems—a Russ to the Russ—usual and near, removed from none.
LG1871	3731	Whoever he looks at in the traveler's coffee-house claims him,
LG1871	3732	The Italian or Frenchman is sure, and the German is sure, and the Spaniard is sure, and the island Cuban is sure;
LG1871	3733	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.
LG1871	3734	The gentleman of perfect blood acknowledges his perfect blood;
LG1871	3735	The insulter, the prostitute, the angry person, the beggar, see themselves in the ways of him—he strangely transmutes them,
LG1871	3736	They are not vile any more—they hardly know them-selvesthemselves, they are so grown.
LG1871	3737	THE indications, and tally of time;
LG1871	3738	Perfect sanity shows the master among philosophs;
LG1871	3739	Time, always without flaw, indicates itself in parts;
LG1871	3740	What always indicates the poet, is the crowd of the pleasant company of singers, and their words;
LG1871	3741	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;
LG1871	3742	The maker of poems settles justice, reality, immor-talityimmortality,
LG1871	3743	His insight and power encircle things and the human race,
LG1871	3744	He is the glory and extract thus far, of things, and of the human race.
LG1871	3745	The singers do not beget—only the POET begets;
LG1871	3746	The singers are welcom'd, understood, appear often enough—but rare has the day been, likewise the spot, of the birth of the maker of poems, the Answerer,
LG1871	3747	(Not every century, or every five centuries, has con-tain'dcontain'd such a day, for all its names.)
LG1871	3748	The singers of successive hours of centuries may have ostensible names, but the name of each of them is one of the singers,
LG1871	3749	The name of each is, eye-singer, ear-singer, head-singerhead-singer, sweet-singer, echo-singer, parlor-singer, love-singer, or something else.
LG1871	3750	All this time, and at all times, wait the words of true poems;
LG1871	3751	The words of true poems do not merely please,
LG1871	3752	The true poets are not followers of beauty, but the august masters of beauty;
LG1871	3753	The greatness of sons is the exuding of the greatness of mothers and fathers,
LG1871	3754	The words of poems are the tuft and final applause of science.
LG1871	3755	Divine instinct, breadth of vision, the law of reason, health, rudeness of body, withdrawnness,
LG1871	3756	Gayety, sun-tan, air-sweetness—such are some of the words of poems.
LG1871	3757	The sailor and traveler underlie the maker of poems, the answerer;
LG1871	3758	The builder, geometer, chemist, anatomist, phrenolo-gistphrenologist, artist—all these underlie the maker of poems, the answerer.
LG1871	3759	The words of the true poems give you more than poems,
LG1871	3760	They give you to form for yourself, poems, religions, politics, war, peace, behavior, histories, essays, romances, and everything else,
LG1871	3761	They balance ranks, colors, races, creeds, and the sexes,
LG1871	3762	They do not seek beauty—they are sought,
LG1871	3763	Forever touching them, or close upon them, follows beauty, longing, fain, love-sick.
LG1871	3764	They prepare for death—yet are they not the finish, but rather the outset,
LG1871	3765	They bring none to his or her terminus, or to be con-tentcontent and full;
LG1871	3766	Whom they take, they take into space, to behold the birth of stars, to learn one of the meanings,
LG1871	3767	To launch off with absolute faith—to sweep through the ceaseless rings, and never be quiet again.
LG1871	3768	POETS to come! orators, singers, musicians to come!
LG1871	3769	Not to-day is to justify me, and answer what I am for;
LG1871	3770	But you, a new brood, native, athletic, continental, greater than before known,
LG1871	3771	Arouse! Arouse—for you must justify me—you must answer.
LG1871	3772	I myself but write one or two indicative words for the future,
LG1871	3773	I but advance a moment, only to wheel and hurry back in the darkness.
LG1871	3774	I am a man who, sauntering along, without fully stop-pingstopping, turns a casual look upon you, and then averts his face,
LG1871	3775	Leaving it to you to prove and define it,
LG1871	3776	Expecting the main things from you.
LG1871	3777	I HEAR America singing, the varied carols I hear;
LG1871	3778	Those of mechanics—each one singing his, as it should be, blithe and strong;
LG1871	3779	The carpenter singing his, as he measures his plank or beam,
LG1871	3780	The mason singing his, as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work;
LG1871	3781	The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat— the deck-hand singing on the steamboat deck;
LG1871	3782	The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench—the hatter singing as he stands;
LG1871	3783	The wood-cutter's song—the ploughboy's, on his way in the morning, or at the noon intermission, or at sundown;
LG1871	3784	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;
LG1871	3785	The day what belongs to the day—At night, the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,
LG1871	3786	Singing, with open mouths, their strong melodious songs.
LG1871	3787	BY the City Dead-House, by the gate,
LG1871	3788	As idly sauntering, wending my way from the clangor,
LG1871	3789	I curious pause—for lo! an outcast form, a poor dead prostitute brought;
LG1871	3790	Her corpse they deposit unclaim'd—it lies on the damp brick pavement;
LG1871	3791	The divine woman, her body—I see the Body—I look on it alone,
LG1871	3792	That house once full of passion and beauty—all else I notice not;
LG1871	3793	Nor stillness so cold, nor running water from faucet, nor odors morbific impress me;
LG1871	3794	But the house alone—that wondrous house—that deli-catedelicate fair house—that ruin!
LG1871	3795	That immortal house, more than all the rows of dwell-ingsdwellings ever built!
LG1871	3796	Or white-domed Capitol itself, with majestic figure sur-mountedsurmounted—or all the old high-spired cathedrals;
LG1871	3797	That little house alone, more than them all—poor, des-peratedesperate house!
LG1871	3798	Fair, fearful wreck! tenement of a Soul! itself a Soul!
LG1871	3799	Unclaim'd, avoided house! take one breath from my tremulous lips;
LG1871	3800	Take one tear, dropt aside as I go, for thought of you,
LG1871	3801	Dead house of love; house of madness and sin, crum-bledcrumbled! crush'd!
LG1871	3802	House of life—erewhile talking and laughing—but ah, poor house! dead, even then;
LG1871	3803	Months, years, an echoing, garnish'd house—but dead, dead, dead.
LG1871	3804	T HROUGH the ample open door of the peaceful country barn,
LG1871	3805	A sun-lit pasture field, with cattle and horses feeding;
LG1871	3806	And haze, and vista, and the far horizon, fading away.
LG1871	3807	COME closer to me;
LG1871	3808	Push close, my lovers, and take the best I possess!
LG1871	3809	Yield closer and closer, and give me the best you pos-sesspossess.
LG1871	3810	This is unfinished business with me—How is it with you?
LG1871	3811	(I was chill'd with the cold types, cylinder, wet paper between us.)
LG1871	3812	Male and Female!
LG1871	3813	I pass so poorly with paper and types, I must pass with the contact of bodies and souls.
LG1871	3814	American masses!
LG1871	3815	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.
LG1871	3816	This is the carol of occupations;
LG1871	3817	In the labor of engines and trades, and the labor of fields, I find the developments,
LG1871	3818	And find the eternal meanings.
LG1871	3819	Workmen and Workwomen!
LG1871	3820	Were all educations, practical and ornamental, well dis-play'ddisplay'd out of me, what would it amount to?
LG1871	3821	Were I as the head teacher, charitable proprietor, wise statesman, what would it amount to?
LG1871	3822	Were I to you as the boss employing and paying you, would that satisfy you?
LG1871	3823	The learn'd, virtuous, benevolent, and the usual terms;
LG1871	3824	A man like me, and never the usual terms.
LG1871	3825	Neither a servant nor a master am I;
LG1871	3826	I take no sooner a large price than a small price—I will have my own, whoever enjoys me;
LG1871	3827	I will be even with you, and you shall be even with me.
LG1871	3828	If you stand at work in a shop, I stand as nigh as the nighest in the same shop;
LG1871	3829	If you bestow gifts on your brother or dearest friend, I demand as good as your brother or dearest friend;
LG1871	3830	If your lover, husband, wife, is welcome by day or night, I must be personally as welcome;
LG1871	3831	If you become degraded, criminal, ill, then I become so for your sake;
LG1871	3832	If you remember your foolish and outlaw'd deeds, do you think I cannot remember my own foolish and outlaw'd deeds?
LG1871	3833	If you carouse at the table, I carouse at the opposite side of the table;
LG1871	3834	If you meet some stranger in the streets, and love him or her—why I often meet strangers in the street, and love them.
LG1871	3835	Why, what have you thought of yourself?
LG1871	3836	Is it you then that thought yourself less?
LG1871	3837	Is it you that thought the President greater than you?
LG1871	3838	Or the rich better off than you? or the educated wiser than you?
LG1871	3839	Because you are greasy or pimpled, or that you were once drunk, or a thief,
LG1871	3840	Or diseas'd, or rheumatic, or a prostitute—or are so now;
LG1871	3841	Or from frivolity or impotence, or that you are no scholar, and never saw your name in print,
LG1871	3842	Do you give in that you are any less immortal?
LG1871	3843	Souls of men and women! it is not you I call unseen, unheard, untouchable and untouching;
LG1871	3844	It is not you I go argue pro and con about, and to settle whether you are alive or no;
LG1871	3845	I own publicly who you are, if nobody else owns.
LG1871	3846	Grown, half-grown, and babe, of this country and every country, in-doors and out-doors, one just as much as the other, I see,
LG1871	3847	And all else behind or through them.
LG1871	3848	The wife—and she is not one jot less than the husband;
LG1871	3849	The daughter—and she is just as good as the son;
LG1871	3850	The mother—and she is every bit as much as the father.
LG1871	3851	Offspring of ignorant and poor, boys apprenticed to trades,
LG1871	3852	Young fellows working on farms, and old fellows work-ingworking on farms,
LG1871	3853	Sailor-men, merchant-men, coasters, immigrants,
LG1871	3854	All these I see—but nigher and farther the same I see;
LG1871	3855	None shall escape me, and none shall wish to escape me.
LG1871	3856	I bring what you much need, yet always have,
LG1871	3857	Not money, amours, dress, eating, but as good;
LG1871	3858	I send no agent or medium, offer no representative of value, but offer the value itself.
LG1871	3859	There is something that comes home to one now and perpetually;
LG1871	3860	It is not what is printed, preach'd, discussed—it eludes discussion and print;
LG1871	3861	It is not to be put in a book—it is not in this book;
LG1871	3862	It is for you, whoever you are—it is no farther from you than your hearing and sight are from you;
LG1871	3863	It is hinted by nearest, commonest, readiest—it is ever provoked by them.
LG1871	3864	You may read in many languages, yet read nothing about it;
LG1871	3865	You may read the President's Message, and read noth-ingnothing about it there;
LG1871	3866	Nothing in the reports from the State department or Treasury department, or in the daily papers or the weekly papers,
LG1871	3867	Or in the census or revenue returns, prices current, or any accounts of stock.
LG1871	3868	The sun and stars that float in the open air;
LG1871	3869	The apple-shaped earth, and we upon it—surely the drift of them is something grand!
LG1871	3870	I do not know what it is, except that it is grand, and that it is happiness,
LG1871	3871	And that the enclosing purport of us here is not a speculation, or bon-mot, or reconnoissance,
LG1871	3872	And that it is not something which by luck may turn out well for us, and without luck must be a failure for us,
LG1871	3873	And not something which may yet be retracted in a certain contingency.
LG1871	3874	The light and shade, the curious sense of body and identity, the greed that with perfect complais-ancecomplaisance devours all things, the endless pride and out-stretching of man, unspeakable joys and sorrows,
LG1871	3875	The wonder every one sees in every one else he sees, and the wonders that fill each minute of time forever,
LG1871	3876	What have you reckon'd them for, camerado?
LG1871	3877	Have you reckon'd them for a trade, or farm-work? or for the profits of a store?
LG1871	3878	Or to achieve yourself a position? or to fill a gentle-man'sgentleman's leisure, or a lady's leisure?
LG1871	3879	Have you reckon'd the landscape took substance and form that it might be painted in a picture?
LG1871	3880	Or men and women that they might be written of, and songs sung?
LG1871	3881	Or the attraction of gravity, and the great laws and harmonious combinations, and the fluids of the air, as subjects for the savans?
LG1871	3882	Or the brown land and the blue sea for maps and charts?
LG1871	3883	Or the stars to be put in constellations and named fancy names?
LG1871	3884	Or that the growth of seeds is for agricultural tables, or agriculture itself?
LG1871	3885	Old institutions—these arts, libraries, legends, col-lectionscollections, and the practice handed along in man-ufacturesmanufactures—will we rate them so high?
LG1871	3886	Will we rate our cash and business high?—I have no objection;
LG1871	3887	I rate them as high as the highest—then a child born of a woman and man I rate beyond all rate.
LG1871	3888	We thought our Union grand, and our Constitution grand;
LG1871	3889	I do not say they are not grand and good, for they are;
LG1871	3890	I am this day just as much in love with them as you;
LG1871	3891	Then I am in love with you, and with all my fellows upon the earth.
LG1871	3892	We consider bibles and religions divine—I do not say they are not divine;
LG1871	3893	I say they have all grown out of you, and may grow out of you still;
LG1871	3894	It is not they who give the life—it is you who give the life;
LG1871	3895	Leaves are not more shed from the trees, or trees from the earth, than they are shed out of you.
LG1871	3896	When the psalm sings instead of the singer;
LG1871	3897	When the script preaches, instead of the preacher;
LG1871	3898	When the pulpit descends and goes, instead of the carver that carved the supporting desk;
LG1871	3899	When I can touch the body of books, by night or by day, and when they touch my body back again;
LG1871	3900	When a university course convinces, like a slumbering woman and child convince;
LG1871	3901	When the minted gold in the vault smiles like the night watchman's daughter;
LG1871	3902	When warrantee deeds loafe in chairs opposite, and are my friendly companions;
LG1871	3903	I intend to reach them my hand, and make as much of them as I do of men and women like you.
LG1871	3904	The sum of all known reverence I add up in you, whoever you are;
LG1871	3905	The President is there in the White House for you—it is not you who are here for him;
LG1871	3906	The Secretaries act in their bureaus for you—not you here for them;
LG1871	3907	The Congress convenes every Twelfth-month for you;
LG1871	3908	Laws, courts, the forming of States, the charters of cities, the going and coming of commerce and mails, are all for you.
LG1871	3909	List close, my scholars dear!
LG1871	3910	All doctrines, all politics and civilization, exurge from you;
LG1871	3911	All sculpture and monuments, and anything inscribed anywhere, are tallied in you;
LG1871	3912	The gist of histories and statistics as far back as the records reach, is in you this hour, and myths and tales the same;
LG1871	3913	If you were not breathing and walking here, where would they all be?
LG1871	3914	The most renown'd poems would be ashes, orations and plays would be vacuums.
LG1871	3915	All architecture is what you do to it when you look upon it;
LG1871	3916	(Did you think it was in the white or gray stone? or the lines of the arches and cornices?)
LG1871	3917	All music is what awakes from you, when you are reminded by the instruments;
LG1871	3918	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,
LG1871	3919	It is nearer and farther than they.
LG1871	3920	Will the whole come back then?
LG1871	3921	Can each see signs of the best by a look in the looking-glasslooking-glass? is there nothing greater or more?
LG1871	3922	Does all sit there with you, with the mystic, unseen Soul?
LG1871	3923	Strange and hard that paradox true I give;
LG1871	3924	Objects gross and the unseen Soul are one.
LG1871	3925	House-building, measuring, sawing the boards;
LG1871	3926	Blacksmithing, glass-blowing, nail-making, coopering, tin-roofing, shingle-dressing,
LG1871	3927	Ship-joining, dock-building, fish-curing, ferrying, flag-gingflagging of side-walks by flaggers,
LG1871	3928	The pump, the pile-driver, the great derrick, the coal-kilncoal-kiln and brick-kiln,
LG1871	3929	Coal-mines, and all that is down there,—the lamps in the darkness, echoes, songs, what meditations, what vast native thoughts looking through smutch'd faces,
LG1871	3930	Iron works, forge-fires in the mountains, or by the river-banks—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;
LG1871	3931	Oil-works, silk-works, white-lead-works, the sugar-house, steam-saws, the great mills and factories;
LG1871	3932	Stone-cutting, shapely trimmings for façades, or window or door-lintels—the mallet, the tooth-chisel, the jib to protect the thumb,
LG1871	3933	Oakum, the oakum-chisel, the caulking-iron,—the kettle of boiling vault-cement, and the fire under the kettle,
LG1871	3934	The cotton-bale, the stevedore's hook, the saw and buck of the sawyer, the mould of the moulder, the working-knife of the butcher, the ice-saw, and all the work with ice,
LG1871	3935	The implements for daguerreotyping—the tools of the rigger, grappler, sail-maker, block-maker,
LG1871	3936	Goods of gutta-percha, papier-mach, colors, brushes, brush-making, glazier's implements,
LG1871	3937	The veneer and glue-pot, the confectioner's ornaments, the decanter and glasses, the shears and flat-iron,
LG1871	3938	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,
LG1871	3939	The brewery, brewing, the malt, the vats, every thing that is done by brewers, also by wine-makers, also vinegar-makers,
LG1871	3940	Leather-dressing, coach-making, boiler-making, rope-twistingrope-twisting, distilling, sign-painting, lime-burning, cotton-picking—electro-plating, electrotyping, stereotyping,
LG1871	3941	Stave-machines, planing-machines, reaping-machines, ploughing-machines, thrashing-machines, steam wagons,
LG1871	3942	The cart of the carman, the omnibus, the ponderous dray;
LG1871	3943	Pyrotechny, letting off color'd fire-works at night, fancy figures and jets;
LG1871	3944	Beef on the butcher's stall, the slaughter-house of the butcher, the butcher in his killing-clothes,
LG1871	3945	The pens of live pork, the killing-hammer, the hog-hookhog-hook, the scalder's tub, gutting, the cutter's cleaver, the packer's maul, and the plenteous winter-work of pork-packing;
LG1871	3946	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;
LG1871	3947	The men, and the work of the men, on railroads, coasters, fish-boats, canals;
LG1871	3948	The daily routine of your own or any man's life—the shop, yard, store, or factory;
LG1871	3949	These shows all near you by day and night—workman! whoever you are, your daily life!
LG1871	3950	In that and them the heft of the heaviest—in them far more than you estimated, and far less also;
LG1871	3951	In them realities for you and me—in them poems for you and me;
LG1871	3952	In them, not yourself—you and your Soul enclose all things, regardless of estimation;
LG1871	3953	In them the development good—in them, all themes and hints.
LG1871	3954	I do not affirm what you see beyond is futile—I do not advise you to stop;
LG1871	3955	I do not say leadings you thought great are not great;
LG1871	3956	But I say that none lead to greater, than those lead to.
LG1871	3957	Will you seek afar off? you surely come back at last,
LG1871	3958	In things best known to you, finding the best, or as good as the best,
LG1871	3959	In folks nearest to you finding the sweetest, strongest, lovingest;
LG1871	3960	Happiness, knowledge, not in another place, but this place—not for another hour, but this hour;
LG1871	3961	Man in the first you see or touch—always in friend, brother, nighest neighbor—Woman in mother, lover, wife;
LG1871	3962	The popular tastes and employments taking precedence in poems or any where,
LG1871	3963	You workwomen and workmen of These States having your own divine and strong life,
LG1871	3964	And all else giving place to men and women like you.
LG1871	3965	OF ownership—As if one fit to own things could not at pleasure enter upon all, and incorporate them into himself or herself.
LG1871	3966	Of waters, forests, hills;
LG1871	3967	Of the earth at large, whispering through medium of me;
LG1871	3968	Of vista—Suppose some sight in arriere, through the formative chaos, presuming the growth, fulness, life, now attain'd on the journey;
LG1871	3969	(But I see the road continued, and the journey ever continued;)
LG1871	3970	—Of what was once lacking on earth, and in due time has become supplied—And of what will yet be supplied,
LG1871	3971	Because all I see and know, I believe to have purport in what will yet be supplied.
LG1871	3972	I WANDER all night in my vision,
LG1871	3973	Stepping with light feet, swiftly and noiselessly step-pingstepping and stopping,
LG1871	3974	Bending with open eyes over the shut eyes of sleepers,
LG1871	3975	Wandering and confused, lost to myself, ill-assorted, contradictory,
LG1871	3976	Pausing, gazing, bending, and stopping.
LG1871	3977	How solemn they look there, stretch'd and still!
LG1871	3978	How quiet they breathe, the little children in their cradles!
LG1871	3979	The wretched features of ennuyés, the white features of corpses, the livid faces of drunkards, the sick-graysick-gray faces of onanists,
LG1871	3980	The gash'd bodies on battle-fields, the insane in their strong-door'd rooms, the sacred idiots, the new-bornnew-born emerging from gates, and the dying emerg-ingemerging from gates,
LG1871	3981	The night pervades them and infolds them.
LG1871	3982	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,
LG1871	3983	The sisters sleep lovingly side by side in their bed,
LG1871	3984	The men sleep lovingly side by side in theirs,
LG1871	3985	And the mother sleeps, with her little child carefully wrapt.
LG1871	3986	The blind sleep, and the deaf and dumb sleep,
LG1871	3987	The prisoner sleeps well in the prison—the run-away son sleeps;
LG1871	3988	The murderer that is to be hung next day—how does he sleep?
LG1871	3989	And the murder'd person—how does he sleep?
LG1871	3990	The female that loves unrequited sleeps,
LG1871	3991	And the male that loves unrequited sleeps,
LG1871	3992	The head of the money-maker that plotted all day sleeps,
LG1871	3993	And the enraged and treacherous dispositions—all, all sleep.
LG1871	3994	I stand in the dark with drooping eyes by the worst-sufferingworst-suffering and the most restless,
LG1871	3995	I pass my hands soothingly to and fro a few inches from them,
LG1871	3996	The restless sink in their beds—they fitfully sleep.
LG1871	3997	Now I pierce the darkness—new beings appear,
LG1871	3998	The earth recedes from me into the night,
LG1871	3999	I saw that it was beautiful, and I see that what is not the earth is beautiful.
LG1871	4000	I go from bedside to bedside—I sleep close with the other sleepers, each in turn,
LG1871	4001	I dream in my dream all the dreams of the other dream-ersdreamers,
LG1871	4002	And I become the other dreamers.
LG1871	4003	I am a dance—Play up, there! the fit is whirling me fast!
LG1871	4004	I am the ever-laughing—it is new moon and twi-lighttwilight,
LG1871	4005	I see the hiding of douceurs—I see nimble ghosts whichever way I look,
LG1871	4006	Cache, and cache again, deep in the ground and sea, and where it is neither ground or sea.
LG1871	4007	Well do they do their jobs, those journeymen divine,
LG1871	4008	Only from me can they hide nothing, and would not if they could,
LG1871	4009	I reckon I am their boss, and they make me a pet besides,
LG1871	4010	And surround me and lead me, and run ahead when I walk,
LG1871	4011	To lift their cunning covers, to signify me with stretch'd arms, and resume the way;
LG1871	4012	Onward we move! a gay gang of blackguards! with mirth-shouting music, and wild-flapping pennants of joy!
LG1871	4013	I am the actor, the actress, the voter, the politician;
LG1871	4014	The emigrant and the exile, the criminal that stood in the box,
LG1871	4015	He who has been famous, and he who shall be famous after to-day,
LG1871	4016	The stammerer, the well-form'd person, the wasted or feeble person.
LG1871	4017	I am she who adorn'd herself and folded her hair pectantly,
LG1871	4018	My truant lover has come, and it is dark.
LG1871	4019	Double yourself and receive me, darkness!
LG1871	4020	Receive me and my lover too—he will not let me go without him.
LG1871	4021	I roll myself upon you, as upon a bed—I resign my-selfmyself to the dusk.
LG1871	4022	He whom I call answers me, and takes the place of my lover,
LG1871	4023	He rises with me silently from the bed.
LG1871	4024	Darkness! you are gentler than my lover—his flesh was sweaty and panting,
LG1871	4025	I feel the hot moisture yet that he left me.
LG1871	4026	My hands are spread forth, I pass them in all direc-tionsdirections,
LG1871	4027	I would sound up the shadowy shore to which you are journeying.
LG1871	4028	Be careful, darkness! already, what was it touch'd me?
LG1871	4029	I thought my lover had gone, else darkness and he are one,
LG1871	4030	I hear the heart-beat—I follow, I fade away.
LG1871	4031	O hot-cheek'd and blushing! O foolish hectic!
LG1871	4032	O for pity's sake, no one must see me now! my clothes were stolen while I was abed,
LG1871	4033	Now I am thrust forth, where shall I run?
LG1871	4034	Pier that I saw dimly last night, when I look'd from the windows!
LG1871	4035	Pier out from the main, let me catch myself with you, and stay—I will not chafe you,
LG1871	4036	I feel ashamed to go naked about the world.
LG1871	4037	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.
LG1871	4038	The cloth laps a first sweet eating and drinking,
LG1871	4039	Laps life-swelling yolks—laps ear of rose-corn, milky and just ripen'd;
LG1871	4040	The white teeth stay, and the boss-tooth advances in darkness,
LG1871	4041	And liquor is spill'd on lips and bosoms by touching glasses, and the best liquor afterward.
LG1871	4042	I descend my western course, my sinews are flaccid,
LG1871	4043	Perfume and youth course through me, and I am their wake.
LG1871	4044	It is my face yellow and wrinkled, instead of the old woman's,
LG1871	4045	I sit low in a straw-bottom chair, and carefully darn my grandson's stockings.
LG1871	4046	It is I too, the sleepless widow, looking out on the winter midnight,
LG1871	4047	I see the sparkles of starshine on the icy and pallid earth.
LG1871	4048	A shroud I see, and I am the shroud—I wrap a body, and lie in the coffin,
LG1871	4049	It is dark here under ground—it is not evil or pain here —it is blank here, for reasons.
LG1871	4050	It seems to me that everything in the light and air ought to be happy,
LG1871	4051	Whoever is not in his coffin and the dark grave, let him know he has enough.
LG1871	4052	I see a beautiful gigantic swimmer, swimming naked through the eddies of the sea,
LG1871	4053	His brown hair lies close and even to his head—he strikes out with courageous arms—he urges him-selfhimself with his legs,
LG1871	4054	I see his white body—I see his undaunted eyes,
LG1871	4055	I hate the swift-running eddies that would dash him head-foremost on the rocks.
LG1871	4056	What are you doing, you ruffianly red-trickled waves?
LG1871	4057	Will you kill the courageous giant ? Will you kill him in the prime of his middle age ?
LG1871	4058	Steady and long he struggles,
LG1871	4059	He is baffled, bang'd, bruis'd—he holds out while his strength holds out,
LG1871	4060	The slapping eddies are spotted with his blood—they bear him away—they roll him, swing him, turn him,
LG1871	4061	His beautiful body is borne in the circling eddies, it is continually bruis'd on rocks. Swiftly and out of sight is borne the brave corpse.
LG1871	4062	I turn, but do not extricate myself,
LG1871	4063	Confused, a past-reading, another, but with darkness yet.
LG1871	4064	The beach is cut by the razory ice-wind—the wreck-gunswreck-guns sound,
LG1871	4065	The tempest lulls—the moon comes floundering through the drifts.
LG1871	4066	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.
LG1871	4067	I cannot aid with my wringing fingers,
LG1871	4068	I can but rush to the surf, and let it drench me and freeze upon me.
LG1871	4069	I search with the crowd—not one of the company is wash'd to us alive;
LG1871	4070	In the morning I help pick up the dead and lay them in rows in a barn.
LG1871	4071	Now of the older war-days, the defeat at Brooklyn,
LG1871	4072	Washington stands inside the lines—he stands on the intrench'd hills, amid a crowd of officers,
LG1871	4073	His face is cold and damp—he cannot repress the weep-ingweeping drops,
LG1871	4074	He lifts the glass perpetually to his eyes—the color is blanch'd from his cheeks,
LG1871	4075	He sees the slaughter of the southern braves confided to him by their parents.
LG1871	4076	The same, at last and at last, when peace is declared,
LG1871	4077	He stands, in the room of the old tavern—the well-belov'dwell-belov'd soldiers all pass through,
LG1871	4078	The officers speechless and slow draw near in their turns,
LG1871	4079	The chief encircles their necks with his arm, and kisses them on the cheek,
LG1871	4080	He kisses lightly the wet cheeks one after another—he shakes hands, and bids good-by to the army.
LG1871	4081	Now I tell what my mother told me to-day as we sat at dinner together,
LG1871	4082	Of when she was a nearly grown girl, living home with her parents on the old homestead.
LG1871	4083	A red squaw came one breakfast time to the old homestead,
LG1871	4084	On her back she carried a bundle of rushes for rush-bottomingrush-bottoming chairs,
LG1871	4085	Her hair, straight, shiny, coarse, black, profuse, half-envelop'dhalf-envelop'd her face,
LG1871	4086	Her step was free and elastic, and her voice sounded exquisitely as she spoke.
LG1871	4087	My mother look'd in delight and amazement at the stranger,
LG1871	4088	She look'd at the freshness of her tall-borne face, and full and pliant limbs,
LG1871	4089	The more she look'd upon her, she loved her,
LG1871	4090	Never before had she seen such wonderful beauty and purity,
LG1871	4091	She made her sit on a bench by the jamb or the fire-placefireplace—she cook'd food for her,
LG1871	4092	She had no work to give her, but she gave her remem-branceremembrance and fondness.
LG1871	4093	The red squaw staid all the forenoon, and toward the middle of the afternoon she went away,
LG1871	4094	O my mother was loth to have her go away!
LG1871	4095	All the week she thought of her—she watch'd for her many a month,
LG1871	4096	She remember'd her many a winter and many a summer,
LG1871	4097	But the red squaw never came, nor was heard of there again.
LG1871	4098	Now Lucifer was not dead—or if he was, I am his sorrowful terrible heir;
LG1871	4099	I have been wrong'd—I am oppress'd—I hate him that oppresses me,
LG1871	4100	I will either destroy him, or he shall release me.
LG1871	4101	Damn him! how he does defile me!
LG1871	4102	How he informs against my brother and sister, and takes pay for their blood!
LG1871	4103	How he laughs when I look down the bend, after the steamboat that carries away my woman!
LG1871	4104	Now the vast dusk bulk that is the whale's bulk, it seems mine;
LG1871	4105	Warily, sportsman! though I lie so sleepy and slug-gishsluggish, the tap of my flukes is death.
LG1871	4106	A show of the summer softness! a contact of some-thingsomething unseen! an amour of the light and air!
LG1871	4107	I am jealous, and overwhelm'd with friendliness,
LG1871	4108	And will go gallivant with the light and air myself,
LG1871	4109	And have an unseen something to be in contact with them also.
LG1871	4110	O love and summer! you are in the dreams, and in me!
LG1871	4111	Autumn and winter are in the dreams—the farmer goes with his thrift,
LG1871	4112	The droves and crops increase, and the barns are well-fill'dwell-fill'd.
LG1871	4113	Elements merge in the night—ships make tacks in the dreams,
LG1871	4114	The sailor sails—the exile returns home,
LG1871	4115	The fugitive returns unharm'd—the immigrant is back beyond months and years,
LG1871	4116	The poor Irishman lives in the simple house of his childhood, with the well-known neighbors and faces,
LG1871	4117	They warmly welcome him—he is barefoot again, he forgets he is well off;
LG1871	4118	The Dutchman voyages home, and the Scotchman and Welshman voyage home, and the native of the Mediterranean voyages home,
LG1871	4119	To every port of England, France, Spain, enter well-fill'dwell-fill'd ships,
LG1871	4120	The Swiss foots it toward his hills—the Prussian goes his way, the Hungarian his way, and the Pole his way,
LG1871	4121	The Swede returns, and the Dane and Norwegian re-turnreturn.
LG1871	4122	The homeward bound, and the outward bound,
LG1871	4123	The beautiful lost swimmer, the ennuyé, the onanist, the female that loves unrequited, the money-makermoney-maker,
LG1871	4124	The actor and actress, those through with their parts, and those waiting to commence,
LG1871	4125	The affectionate boy, the husband and wife, the voter, the nominee that is chosen, and the nominee that has fail'd,
LG1871	4126	The great already known, and the great any time after to-day,
LG1871	4127	The stammerer, the sick, the perfect-form'd, the homely,
LG1871	4128	The criminal that stood in the box, the judge that sat and sentenced him, the fluent lawyers, the jury, the audience,
LG1871	4129	The laugher and weeper, the dancer, the midnight widow, the red squaw,
LG1871	4130	The consumptive, the erysipelite, the idiot, he that is wrong'd,
LG1871	4131	The antipodes, and every one between this and them in the dark,
LG1871	4132	I swear they are averaged now—one is no better than the other,
LG1871	4133	The night and sleep have likened them and restored them.
LG1871	4134	I swear they are all beautiful;
LG1871	4135	Every one that sleeps is beautiful—everything in the dim light is beautiful,
LG1871	4136	The wildest and bloodiest is over, and all is peace.
LG1871	4137	Peace is always beautiful,
LG1871	4138	The myth of heaven indicates peace and night.
LG1871	4139	The myth of heaven indicates the Soul;
LG1871	4140	The Soul is always beautiful—it appears more or it appears less—it comes, or it lags behind,
LG1871	4141	It comes from its embower'd garden, and looks pleasantly on itself, and encloses the world,
LG1871	4142	Perfect and clean the genitals previously jetting, and perfect and clean the womb cohering,
LG1871	4143	The head well-grown, proportion'd and plumb, and the bowels and joints proportion'd and plumb.
LG1871	4144	The Soul is always beautiful,
LG1871	4145	The universe is duly in order, everything is in its place,
LG1871	4146	What has arrived is in its place, and what waits is in its place;
LG1871	4147	The twisted skull waits, the watery or rotten blood waits,
LG1871	4148	The child of the glutton or venerealee waits long, and the child of the drunkard waits long, and the drunkard himself waits long,
LG1871	4149	The sleepers that liv'd and died wait—the far advanced are to go on in their turns, and the far behind are to come on in their turns,
LG1871	4150	The diverse shall be no less diverse, but they shall flow and unite—they unite now.
LG1871	4151	The sleepers are very beautiful as they lie unclothed,
LG1871	4152	They flow hand in hand over the whole earth, from east to west, as they lie unclothed,
LG1871	4153	The Asiatic and African are hand in hand—the Euro-peanEuropean and American are hand in hand,
LG1871	4154	Learn'd and unlearn'd are hand in hand, and male and female are hand in hand,
LG1871	4155	The bare arm of the girl crosses the bare breast of her lover—they press close without lust—his lips press her neck,
LG1871	4156	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,
LG1871	4157	The white hair of the mother shines on the white wrist of the daughter,
LG1871	4158	The breath of the boy goes with the breath of the man, friend is inarm'd by friend,
LG1871	4159	The scholar kisses the teacher, and the teacher kisses the scholar—the wrong'd is made right,
LG1871	4160	The call of the slave is one with the master's call, and the master salutes the slave,
LG1871	4161	The felon steps forth from the prison—the insane be-comesbecomes sane—the suffering of sick persons is reliev'd,
LG1871	4162	The sweatings and fevers stop—the throat that was un-soundunsound is sound—the lungs of the consumptive are resumed—the poor distress'd head is free,
LG1871	4163	The joints of the rheumatic move as smoothly as ever, and smoother than ever,
LG1871	4164	Stiflings and passages open—the paralyzed become supple,
LG1871	4165	The swell'd and convuls'd and congested awake to selves in condition,
LG1871	4166	They pass the invigoration of the night, and the chem-istrychemistry of the night, and awake.
LG1871	4167	I too pass from the night,
LG1871	4168	I stay a while away, O night, but I return to you again, and love you.
LG1871	4169	Why should I be afraid to trust myself to you?
LG1871	4170	I am not afraid—I have been well brought forward by you;
LG1871	4171	I love the rich running day, but I do not desert her in whom I lay so long,
LG1871	4172	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.
LG1871	4173	I will stop only a time with the night, and rise be-timesbetimes;
LG1871	4174	I will duly pass the day, O my mother, and duly return to you.
LG1871	4175	EARTH, round, rolling, compact—suns, moons, ani-malsanimals—all these are words to be said;
LG1871	4176	Watery, vegetable, sauroid advances—beings, premoni-tionspremonitions, lispings of the future,
LG1871	4177	Behold! these are vast words to be said.
LG1871	4178	Were you thinking that those were the words—those upright lines? those curves, angles, dots?
LG1871	4179	No, those are not the words—the substantial words are in the ground and sea,
LG1871	4180	They are in the air—they are in you.
LG1871	4181	Were you thinking that those were the words—those delicious sounds out of your friends' mouths?
LG1871	4182	No, the real words are more delicious than they.
LG1871	4183	Human bodies are words, myriads of words;
LG1871	4184	In the best poems re-appears the body, man's or wo-man'swoman's, well-shaped, natural, gay,
LG1871	4185	Every part able, active, receptive, without shame or the need of shame.
LG1871	4186	Air, soil, water, fire—these are words;
LG1871	4187	I myself am a word with them—my qualities interpene-trateinterpenetrate with theirs—my name is nothing to them;
LG1871	4188	Though it were told in the three thousand languages, what would air, soil, water, fire, know of my name?
LG1871	4189	A healthy presence, a friendly or commanding ges-turegesture, are words, sayings, meanings;
LG1871	4190	The charms that go with the mere looks of some men and women, are sayings and meanings also.
LG1871	4191	The workmanship of souls is by the inaudible words of the earth;
LG1871	4192	The great masters know the earth's words, and use them more than the audible words.
LG1871	4193	Amelioration is one of the earth's words;
LG1871	4194	The earth neither lags nor hastens;
LG1871	4195	It has all attributes, growths, effects, latent in itself from the jump;
LG1871	4196	It is not half beautiful only—defects and excrescences show just as much as perfections show.
LG1871	4197	The earth does not withhold, it is generous enough;
LG1871	4198	The truths of the earth continually wait, they are not so conceal'd either;
LG1871	4199	They are calm, subtle, untransmissible by print;
LG1871	4200	They are imbued through all things, conveying them-selvesthemselves willingly,
LG1871	4201	Conveying a sentiment and invitation of the earth—I utter and utter,
LG1871	4202	I speak not, yet if you hear me not, of what avail am I to you?
LG1871	4203	To bear—to better—lacking these, of what avail am I?
LG1871	4204	Accouche! Accouchez!
LG1871	4205	Will you rot your own fruit in yourself there?
LG1871	4206	Will you squat and stifle there?
LG1871	4207	The earth does not argue,
LG1871	4208	Is not pathetic, has no arrangements,
LG1871	4209	Does not scream, haste, persuade, threaten, promise,
LG1871	4210	Makes no discriminations, has no conceivable failures,
LG1871	4211	Closes nothing, refuses nothing, shuts none out,
LG1871	4212	Of all the powers, objects, states, it notifies, shuts none out.
LG1871	4213	The earth does not exhibit itself, nor refuse to ex-hibitexhibit itself—possesses still underneath;
LG1871	4214	Underneath the ostensible sounds, the august chorus of heroes, the wail of slaves,
LG1871	4215	Persuasions of lovers, curses, gasps of the dying, laughter of young people, accents of bargain-ersbargainers,
LG1871	4216	Underneath these, possessing the words that never fail.
LG1871	4217	To her children, the words of the eloquent dumb great mother never fail;
LG1871	4218	The true words do not fail, for motion does not fail, and reflection does not fail;
LG1871	4219	Also the day and night do not fail, and the voyage we pursue does not fail.
LG1871	4220	Of the interminable sisters,
LG1871	4221	Of the ceaseless cotillions of sisters,
LG1871	4222	Of the centripetal and centrifugal sisters, the elder and younger sisters,
LG1871	4223	The beautiful sister we know dances on with the rest.
LG1871	4224	With her ample back towards every beholder,
LG1871	4225	With the fascinations of youth, and the equal fascina-tionsfascinations of age,
LG1871	4226	Sits she whom I too love like the rest—sits undis-turb'dundisturb'd,
LG1871	4227	Holding up in her hand what has the character of a mirror, while her eyes glance back from it,
LG1871	4228	Glance as she sits, inviting none, denying none,
LG1871	4229	Holding a mirror day and night tirelessly before her own face.
LG1871	4230	Seen at hand, or seen at a distance,
LG1871	4231	Duly the twenty-four appear in public every day,
LG1871	4232	Duly approach and pass with their companions, or a companion,
LG1871	4233	Looking from no countenances of their own, but from the countenances of those who are with them,
LG1871	4234	From the countenances of children or women, or the manly countenance,
LG1871	4235	From the open countenances of animals, or from inani-mateinanimate things,
LG1871	4236	From the landscape or waters, or from the exquisite apparition of the sky,
LG1871	4237	From our countenances, mine and yours, faithfully re-turningreturning them,
LG1871	4238	Every day in public appearing without fail, but never twice with the same companions.
LG1871	4239	Embracing man, embracing all, proceed the three hundred and sixty-five resistlessly round the sun;
LG1871	4240	Embracing all, soothing, supporting, follow close three hundred and sixty-five offsets of the first, sure and necessary as they.
LG1871	4241	Tumbling on steadily, nothing dreading,
LG1871	4242	Sunshine, storm, cold, heat, forever, withstanding, pass-ingpassing, carrying,
LG1871	4243	The Soul's realization and determination still inherit-inginheriting,
LG1871	4244	The fluid vacuum around and ahead still entering and dividing,
LG1871	4245	No balk retarding, no anchor anchoring, on no rock striking,
LG1871	4246	Swift, glad, content, unbereav'd, nothing losing,
LG1871	4247	Of all able and ready at any time to give strict ac-countaccount,
LG1871	4248	The divine ship sails the divine sea.
LG1871	4249	Whoever you are! motion and reflection are especi-allyespecially for you;
LG1871	4250	The divine ship sails the divine sea for you.
LG1871	4251	Whoever you are! you are he or she for whom the earth is solid and liquid,
LG1871	4252	You are he or she for whom the sun and moon hang in the sky,
LG1871	4253	For none more than you are the present and the past,
LG1871	4254	For none more than you is immortality.
LG1871	4255	Each man to himself, and each woman to herself, such is the word of the past and present, and the word of immortality;
LG1871	4256	No one can acquire for another—not one!
LG1871	4257	Not one can grow for another—not one!
LG1871	4258	The song is to the singer, and comes back most to him;
LG1871	4259	The teaching is to the teacher, and comes back most to him;
LG1871	4260	The murder is to the murderer, and comes back most to him;
LG1871	4261	The theft is to the thief, and comes back most to him;
LG1871	4262	The love is to the lover, and comes back most to him;
LG1871	4263	The gift is to the giver, and comes back most to him— it cannot fail;
LG1871	4264	The oration is to the orator, the acting is to the actor and actress, not to the audience;
LG1871	4265	And no man understands any greatness or goodness but his own, or the indication of his own.
LG1871	4266	I swear the earth shall surely be complete to him or her who shall be complete!
LG1871	4267	I swear the earth remains jagged and broken only to him or her who remains jagged and broken!
LG1871	4268	I swear there is no greatness or power that does not emulate those of the earth!
LG1871	4269	I swear there can be no theory of any account, unless it corroborate the theory of the earth!
LG1871	4270	No politics, art, religion, behavior, or what not, is of account, unless it compare with the amplitude of the earth,
LG1871	4271	Unless it face the exactness, vitality, impartiality, recti-tuderectitude of the earth.
LG1871	4272	I swear I begin to see love with sweeter spasms than that which responds love!
LG1871	4273	It is that which contains itself—which never invites, and never refuses.
LG1871	4274	I swear I begin to see little or nothing in audible words!
LG1871	4275	I swear I think all merges toward the presentation of the unspoken meanings of the earth!
LG1871	4276	Toward him who sings the songs of the Body, and of the truths of the earth;
LG1871	4277	Toward him who makes the dictionaries of words that print cannot touch.
LG1871	4278	I swear I see what is better than to tell the best;
LG1871	4279	It is always to leave the best untold.
LG1871	4280	When I undertake to tell the best, I find I cannot,
LG1871	4281	My tongue is ineffectual on its pivots,
LG1871	4282	My breath will not be obedient to its organs,
LG1871	4283	I become a dumb man.
LG1871	4284	The best of the earth cannot be told anyhow—all or any is best;
LG1871	4285	It is not what you anticipated—it is cheaper, easier, nearer;
LG1871	4286	Things are not dismiss'd from the places they held before;
LG1871	4287	The earth is just as positive and direct as it was before;
LG1871	4288	Facts, religions, improvements, politics, trades, are as real as before;
LG1871	4289	But the Soul is also real,—it too is positive and direct;
LG1871	4290	No reasoning, no proof has establish'd it,
LG1871	4291	Undeniable growth has establish'd it.
LG1871	4292	This is a poem—a carol of words—these are hints of meanings,
LG1871	4293	These are to echo the tones of Souls, and the phrases of Souls;
LG1871	4294	If they did not echo the phrases of Souls, what were they then?
LG1871	4295	If they had not reference to you in especial, what were they then?
LG1871	4296	I swear I will never henceforth have to do with the faith that tells the best!
LG1871	4297	I will have to do only with that faith that leaves the best untold.
LG1871	4298	Say on, sayers!
LG1871	4299	Delve! mould! pile the words of the earth!
LG1871	4300	Work on—(it is materials you must bring, not breaths;)
LG1871	4301	Work on, age after age! nothing is to be lost;
LG1871	4302	It may have to wait long, but it will certainly come in use;
LG1871	4303	When the materials are all prepared, the architects shall appear.
LG1871	4304	I swear to you the architects shall appear without fail! I announce them and lead them;
LG1871	4305	I swear to you they will understand you, and justify you;
LG1871	4306	I swear to you the greatest among them shall be he who best knows you, and encloses all, and is faithful to all;
LG1871	4307	I swear to you, he and the rest shall not forget you— they shall perceive that you are not an iota less than they;
LG1871	4308	I swear to you, you shall be glorified in them.
LG1871	4309	AH poverties, wincings, and sulky retreats!
LG1871	4310	Ah you foes that in conflict have overcome me!
LG1871	4311	(For what is my life, or any man's life, but a conflict with foes—the old, the incessant war?)
LG1871	4312	You degradations—you tussle with passions and appe-titesappetites;
LG1871	4313	You smarts from dissatisfied friendships, (ah wounds, the sharpest of all;)
LG1871	4314	You toil of painful and choked articulations—you mean-nessesmeannesses;
LG1871	4315	You shallow tongue-talks at tables, (my tongue the shallowest of any;)
LG1871	4316	You broken resolutions, you racking angers, you smoth-er'dsmother'd ennuis;
LG1871	4317	Ah, think not you finally triumph—My real self has yet to come forth;
LG1871	4318	It shall yet march forth o'ermastering, till all lies be-neathbeneath me;
LG1871	4319	It shall yet stand up the soldier of unquestion'd victory.
LG1871	4320	To get betimes in Boston town, I rose this morning early;
LG1871	4321	Here's a good place at the corner—I must stand and see the show.
LG1871	4322	Clear the way there, Jonathan!
LG1871	4323	Way for the President's marshal! Way for the govern-mentgovernment cannon!
LG1871	4324	Way for the Federal foot and dragoons—and the appa-ritionsapparitions copiously tumbling.
LG1871	4325	I love to look on the stars and stripes—I hope the fifes will play Yankee Doodle.
LG1871	4326	How bright shine the cutlasses of the foremost troops!
LG1871	4327	Every man holds his revolver, marching stiff through Boston town.
LG1871	4328	A fog follows—antiques of the same come limping,
LG1871	4329	Some appear wooden-legged, and some appear ban-dagedbandaged and bloodless.
LG1871	4330	Why this is indeed a show! It has called the dead out of the earth!
LG1871	4331	The old grave-yards of the hills have hurried to see!
LG1871	4332	Phantoms! phantoms countless by flank and rear!
LG1871	4333	Cock'd hats of mothy mould! crutches made of mist!
LG1871	4334	Arms in slings! old men leaning on young men's shoul-dersshoulders!
LG1871	4335	What troubles you, Yankee phantoms? What is all this clattering of bare gums?
LG1871	4336	Does the ague convulse your limbs? Do you mistake your crutches for firelocks, and level them?
LG1871	4337	If you blind your eyes with tears, you will not see the President's marshal;
LG1871	4338	If you groan such groans, you might balk the govern-mentgovernment cannon.
LG1871	4339	For shame old maniacs! Bring down those toss'd arms, and let your white hair be;
LG1871	4340	Here gape your great grand-sons—their wives gaze at them from the windows,
LG1871	4341	See how well dress'd—see how orderly they conduct themselves.
LG1871	4342	Worse and worse! Can't you stand it? Are you retreating?
LG1871	4343	Is this hour with the living too dead for you?
LG1871	4344	Retreat then! Pell-mell!
LG1871	4345	To your graves! Back! back to the hills, old limpers!
LG1871	4346	I do not think you belong here, anyhow.
LG1871	4347	But there is one thing that belongs here—shall I tell you what it is, gentlemen of Boston?
LG1871	4348	I will whisper it to the Mayor—he shall send a com-mitteecommittee to England;
LG1871	4349	They shall get a grant from the Parliament, go with a cart to the royal vault—haste!
LG1871	4350	Dig out King George's coffin, unwrap him quick from the grave-clothes, box up his bones for a journey;
LG1871	4351	Find a swift Yankee clipper—here is freight for you, black-bellied clipper,
LG1871	4352	Up with your anchor! shake out your sails! steer straight toward Boston bay.
LG1871	4353	Now call for the President's marshal again, bring out the government cannon,
LG1871	4354	Fetch home the roarers from Congress, make another procession, guard it with foot and dragoons.
LG1871	4355	This centre-piece for them:
LG1871	4356	Look! all orderly citizens—look from the windows, women!
LG1871	4357	The committee open the box, set up the regal ribs, glue those that will not stay,
LG1871	4358	Clap the skull on top of the ribs, and clap a crown on top of the skull.
LG1871	4359	You have got your revenge, old buster! The crown has come to its own, and more than its own.
LG1871	4360	Stick your hands in your pockets, Jonathan—you are a made man from this day;
LG1871	4361	You are mighty cute—and here is one of your bargains.
LG1871	4362	YEAR of meteors! brooding year!
LG1871	4363	I would bind in words retrospective some of your deeds and signs;
LG1871	4364	I would sing your contest for the 19th Presidentiad;.
LG1871	4365	I would sing how an old man, tall, with white hair, mounted the scaffold in Virginia;
LG1871	4366	(I was at hand—silent I stood, with teeth shut close—I watch'd;
LG1871	4367	I stood very near you, old man, when cool and indiffer-entindifferent, but trembling with age and your unheal'd wounds, you mounted the scaffold;)
LG1871	4368	—I would sing in my copious song your census returns of The States,
LG1871	4369	The tables of population and products—I would sing of your ships and their cargoes,
LG1871	4370	11
LG1871	4371	The proud black ships of Manhattan, arriving, some fill'd with immigrants, some from the isthmus with cargoes of gold;
LG1871	4372	Songs thereof would I sing—to all that hitherward comes would I welcome give;
LG1871	4373	And you would I sing, fair stripling! welcome to you from me, sweet boy of England!
LG1871	4374	Remember you surging Manhattan's crowds, as you pass'd with your cortege of nobles?
LG1871	4375	There in the crowds stood I, and singled you out with attachment;
LG1871	4376	I know not why, but I loved you…(and so go forth little song,
LG1871	4377	Far over sea speed like an arrow, carrying my love all folded,
LG1871	4378	And find in his palace the youth I love, and drop these lines at his feet;)
LG1871	4379	—Nor forget I to sing of the wonder, the ship as she swam up my bay,
LG1871	4380	Well-shaped and stately the Great Eastern swam up my bay, she was 600 feet long,
LG1871	4381	Her, moving swiftly, surrounded by myriads of small craft, I forget not to sing;
LG1871	4382	—Nor the comet that came unannounced, out of the north, flaring in heaven;
LG1871	4383	Nor the strange huge meteor procession, dazzling and clear, shooting over our heads,
LG1871	4384	(A moment, a moment long, it sail'd its balls of un-earthlyunearthly light over our heads,
LG1871	4385	Then departed, dropt in the night, and was gone;)
LG1871	4386	—Of such, and fitful as they, I sing—with gleams from them would I gleam and patch these chants;
LG1871	4387	Your chants, O year, all mottled with evil and good! year of forebodings! year of the youth I love!
LG1871	4388	Year of comets and meteors transient and strange!—lo! even here, one equally transient and strange!
LG1871	4389	As I flit through you hastily, soon to fall and be gone, what is this book,
LG1871	4390	What am I myself but one of your meteors?
LG1871	4391	OVER the western sea, hither from Niphon come,
LG1871	4392	Courteous the swart-cheek'd, two-sworded envoys,
LG1871	4393	Leaning back in their open barouches, bare-headed, impassive,
LG1871	4394	Ride to-day through Manhattan.
LG1871	4395	Libertad!
LG1871	4396	I do not know whether others behold what I behold,
LG1871	4397	In the procession, along with the nobles of Asia, the errand-bearers,
LG1871	4398	Bringing up the rear, hovering-above, around, or in the ranks marching;
LG1871	4399	But I will sing you a song of what I behold, Libertad.
LG1871	4400	When million-footed Manhattan, unpent, descends to her pavements;
LG1871	4401	When the thunder-cracking guns arouse me with the proud roar I love;
LG1871	4402	When the round-mouth'd guns, out of the smoke and smell I love, spit their salutes;
LG1871	4403	When the fire-flashing guns have fully alerted me— when heaven-clouds canopy my city with a delicate thin haze;
LG1871	4404	When, gorgeous, the countless straight stems, the for-estsforests at the wharves, thicken with colors;
LG1871	4405	When every ship, richly drest, carries her flag at the peak;
LG1871	4406	When pennants trail, and street-festoons hang from the windows;
LG1871	4407	When Broadway is entirely given up to foot-passengers and foot-standers—when the mass is densest;
LG1871	4408	When the façades of the houses are alive with people— when eyes gaze, riveted, tens of thousands at a time;
LG1871	4409	When the guests from the islands advance—when the pageant moves forward, visible;
LG1871	4410	When the summons is made—when the answer that waited thousands of years, answers;
LG1871	4411	I too, arising, answering, descend to the payements, merge with the crowd, and gaze with them.
LG1871	4412	Superb-faced Manhattan!
LG1871	4413	Comrade Americanos!—to us, then, at last, the Orient comes.
LG1871	4414	To us, my city,
LG1871	4415	Where our tall-topt marble and iron beauties range on opposite sides—to walk in the space between,
LG1871	4416	To-day our Antipodes comes.
LG1871	4417	The Originatress comes,
LG1871	4418	The nest of languages, the bequeather of poems, the race of eld,
LG1871	4419	Florid with blood, pensive, rapt with musings, hot with passion,
LG1871	4420	Sultry with perfume, with ample and flowing garments,
LG1871	4421	With sunburnt visage, with intense soul and glittering eyes,
LG1871	4422	The race of Brahma comes!
LG1871	4423	See, my cantabile! these, and more, are flashing to us from the procession;
LG1871	4424	As it moves, changing, a kaleidoscope, divine it moves, changing, before us.
LG1871	4425	For not the envoys, nor the tann'd Japanee, from his island only;
LG1871	4426	Lithe and silent, the Hindoo appears—the Asiatic con-tinentcontinent itself appears—the Past, the dead,
LG1871	4427	The murky night-morning of wonder and fable, inscru-tableinscrutable,
LG1871	4428	The enveloped mysteries, the old and unknown hive-beeshive-bees,
LG1871	4429	The North—the sweltering South—eastern Assyria— the Hebrews—the Ancient of Ancients,
LG1871	4430	Vast desolated cities—the gliding Present—all of these, and more, are in the pageant-procession.
LG1871	4431	Geography, the world, is in it;
LG1871	4432	The great Sea, the brood of islands, Polynesia, the coast beyond;
LG1871	4433	The coast you, henceforth, are facing—you Libertad! from your Western golden shores
LG1871	4434	The countries there, with their populations—the mil-lionsmillions en-masse, are curiously here;
LG1871	4435	The swarming market places—the temples, with idols ranged along the sides, or at the end—bonze, brahmin, and lama;
LG1871	4436	The mandarin, farmer, merchant, mechanic, and fisher-manfisherman;
LG1871	4437	The singing-girl and the dancing-girl—the ecstatic person—the secluded Emperors,
LG1871	4438	Confucius himself—the great poets and heroes—the warriors, the castes, all,
LG1871	4439	Trooping up, crowding from all directions—from the Altay mountains,
LG1871	4440	From Thibet—from the four winding and far-flowing rivers of China,
LG1871	4441	From the Southern peninsulas, and the demi-conti-nentaldemi-continental islands—from Malaysia;
LG1871	4442	These, and whatever belongs to them, palpable, show forth to me, and are seiz'd by me,
LG1871	4443	And I am seiz'd by them, and friendlily held by them,
LG1871	4444	Till, as here, them all I chant, Libertad! for themselves and for you.
LG1871	4445	For I too, raising my voice, join the ranks of this pageant;
LG1871	4446	I am the chanter—I chant aloud over the pageant;
LG1871	4447	I chant the world on my Western Sea;
LG1871	4448	I chant, copious, the islands beyond, thick as stars in the sky;
LG1871	4449	I chant the new empire, grander than any before—As in a vision it comes to me;
LG1871	4450	I chant America, the Mistress—I chant a greater su-premacysupremacy;
LG1871	4451	I chant, projected, a thousand blooming cities yet, in time, on those groups of sea-islands;
LG1871	4452	I chant my sail-ships and steam-ships threading the archipelagoes;
LG1871	4453	I chant my stars and stripes fluttering in the wind;
LG1871	4454	I chant commerce opening, the sleep of ages having done its work—races, reborn, refresh'd;
LG1871	4455	Lives, works, resumed—The object I know not—but the old, the Asiatic, renew'd, as it must be,
LG1871	4456	Commencing from this day, surrounded by the world.
LG1871	4457	And you, Libertad of the world!
LG1871	4458	You shall sit in the middle, well-pois'd, thousands of years;
LG1871	4459	As to-day, from one side, the nobles of Asia come to you;
LG1871	4460	As to-morrow, from the other side, the Queen of Eng-landEngland sends her eldest son to you.
LG1871	4461	The sign is reversing, the orb is enclosed,
LG1871	4462	The ring is circled, the journey is done;
LG1871	4463	The box-lid is but perceptibly open'd—nevertheless the perfume pours copiously out of the whole box.
LG1871	4464	Young Libertad!
LG1871	4465	With the venerable Asia, the all-mother,
LG1871	4466	Be considerate with her, now and ever, hot Libertad— for you are all;
LG1871	4467	Bend your proud neck to the long-off mother, now sending messages over the archipelagoes to you;
LG1871	4468	Bend your proud neck low for once, young Libertad.
LG1871	4469	Were the children straying westward so long? so wide the tramping?
LG1871	4470	Were the precedent dim ages debouching westward
LG1871	4471	from Paradise so long?
LG1871	4472	Were the centuries steadily footing it that way, all the while unknown, for you, for reasons?
LG1871	4473	They are justified—they are accomplish'd—they shall now be turn'd the other way also, to travel to-wardtoward you thence;
LG1871	4474	They shall now also march obediently eastward, for your sake, Libertad.
LG1871	4475	THAT whatever tastes sweet to the most perfect person —That is finally right.
LG1871	4476	That the human shape or face is so great, it must never be made ridiculous;
LG1871	4477	That for ornaments nothing outr can be allowed,
LG1871	4478	That anything is most beautiful without ornament;
LG1871	4479	That exaggerations will be sternly revenged in your own physiology, and in other persons' physiol-ogyphysiology also;
LG1871	4480	That clean-shaped children can be jetted and conceiv'd only where natural forms prevail in public, and the human face and form are never caricatured;
LG1871	4481	And that genius need never more be turn'd to ro-mancesromances.
LG1871	4482	(For facts properly told, how mean appear all ro-mancesromances.)
LG1871	4483	I have said many times that materials and the Soul are great, and that all depends on physique;
LG1871	4484	Now I reverse what I said, and suggest that all depends on the sthetic, or intellectual,
LG1871	4485	And that criticism is great—and that refinement is greatest of all;
LG1871	4486	And that the mind governs—and that all depends on the mind.
LG1871	4487	With one man or woman—(no matter which one—I even pick out the lowest,)
LG1871	4488	With him or her I now suggest the whole law;
LG1871	4489	And that every right, in politics or what-not, shall be eligible to that one man or woman, on the same terms as any.
LG1871	4490	GREAT are the myths—I too delight in them;
LG1871	4491	Great are Adam and Eve—I too look back and accept them;
LG1871	4492	Great the risen and fallen nations and their poets, women, sages, inventors, rulers, warriors, and priests.
LG1871	4493	Great is Liberty! great is Equality! I am their fol-lowerfollower;
LG1871	4494	Helmsmen of nations, choose your craft! where you sail, I sail,
LG1871	4495	I weather it out with you, or sink with you.
LG1871	4496	Great is Youth—equally great is Old Age—great are the Day and Night;
LG1871	4497	Great is Wealth—great is Poverty—great is Expression —great is Silence.
LG1871	4498	Youth, large, lusty, loving—Youth, full of grace, force, fascination!
LG1871	4499	Do you know that Old Age may come after you, with equal grace, force, fascination?
LG1871	4500	Day, full-blown and splendid—Day of the immense sun, action, ambition, laughter,
LG1871	4501	The Night follows close, with millions of suns, and sleep, and restoring darkness.
LG1871	4502	Wealth, with the flush hand, fine clothes, hospi-talityhospitality;
LG1871	4503	But then the Soul's wealth, which is candor, knowl-edgeknowledge, pride, enfolding love;
LG1871	4504	(Who goes for men and women showing Poverty richer than wealth?)
LG1871	4505	Expression of speech! in what is written or said, for -get not that Silence is also expressive,
LG1871	4506	That anguish as hot as the hottest, and contempt as cold as the coldest, may be without words.
LG1871	4507	Great is the Earth, and the way it became what it is;
LG1871	4508	Do you imagine it has stopt at this? the increase aban-don'dabandon'd?
LG1871	4509	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 appear'd.
LG1871	4510	Great is the quality of Truth in man;
LG1871	4511	The quality of truth in man supports itself through all changes,
LG1871	4512	It is inevitably in the man—he and it are in love, and never leave each other.
LG1871	4513	The truth in man is no dictum, it is vital as eye-sighteyesight;
LG1871	4514	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;
LG1871	4515	If there be equilibrium or volition, there is truth—if there be things at all upon the earth, there is truth.
LG1871	4516	O truth of the earth! I am determin'd to press my way toward you;
LG1871	4517	Sound your voice! I scale mountains, or dive in the sea after you.
LG1871	4518	Great is Language—it is the mightiest of the sci-encessciences,
LG1871	4519	It is the fulness, color, form, diversity of the earth, and of men and women, and of all qualities and pro-cessesprocesses;
LG1871	4520	It is greater than wealth—it is greater than buildings, ships, religions, paintings, music.
LG1871	4521	Great is the English speech—what speech is so great as the English?
LG1871	4522	Great is the English brood—what brood has so vast a destiny as the English?
LG1871	4523	It is the mother of the brood that must rule the earth with the new rule;
LG1871	4524	The new rule shall rule as the Soul rules, and as the love, justice, equality in the Soul rule.
LG1871	4525	Great is Law—great are the few old land-marks of the law,
LG1871	4526	They are the same in all times, and shall not be dis-turb'ddisturb'd.
LG1871	4527	Great is Justice!
LG1871	4528	Justice is not settled by legislators and laws—it is in the Soul;
LG1871	4529	It cannot be varied by statutes, any more than love, pride, the attraction of gravity, can;
LG1871	4530	It is immutable—it does not depend on majorities— majorities or what not, come at last before the same passionless and exact tribunal.
LG1871	4531	For justice are the grand natural lawyers, and per-fectperfect judges—is it in their Souls;
LG1871	4532	It is well assorted—they have not studied for nothing —the great includes the less;
LG1871	4533	They rule on the highest grounds—they oversee all eras, states, administrations.
LG1871	4534	The perfect judge fears nothing—he could go front to front before God;
LG1871	4535	Before the perfect judge all shall stand back—life and death shall stand back—heaven and hell shall stand back.
LG1871	4536	Great is Life, real and mystical, wherever and who-everwhoever;
LG1871	4537	Great is Death—sure as life holds all parts together, Death holds all parts together.
LG1871	4538	Has Life much purport?—Ah, Death has the great-estgreatest purport.
LG1871	4539	OF persons arrived at high positions, ceremonies, wealth, scholarships, and the like;
LG1871	4540	To me, all that those persons have arrived at, sinks away from them, except as it results to their Bodies and Souls,
LG1871	4541	So that often to me they appear gaunt and naked;
LG1871	4542	And often, to me, each one mocks the others, and mocks himself or herself,
LG1871	4543	And of each one, the core of life, namely happiness, is full of the rotten excrement of maggots,
LG1871	4544	And often, to me, those men and women pass unwit-tinglyunwittingly the true realities of life, and go toward false realities,
LG1871	4545	And often, to me, they are alive after what custom has served them, but nothing more,
LG1871	4546	And often, to me, they are sad, hasty, unwaked sonnam-bulessonnambules, walking the dusk.
LG1871	4547	THERE was a child went forth every day;
LG1871	4548	And the first object he look'd upon, that object he became;
LG1871	4549	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.
LG1871	4550	The early lilacs became part of this child,
LG1871	4551	And grass, and white and red morning-glories, and white and red clover, and the song of the phoebe-birdphoebe-bird,
LG1871	4552	And the Third-month lambs, and the sow's pink-faint litter, and the mare's foal, and the cow's calf,
LG1871	4553	And the noisy brood of the barn-yard, or by the mire of the pond-side,
LG1871	4554	And the fish suspending themselves so curiously below there—and the beautiful curious liquid,
LG1871	4555	And the water-plants with their graceful flat heads—all became part of him.
LG1871	4556	The field-sprouts of Fourth-month and Fifth-month became part of him;
LG1871	4557	Winter-grain sprouts, and those of the light-yellow corn, and the esculent roots of the garden,
LG1871	4558	And the apple-trees cover'd with blossoms, and the fruit afterward, and wood-berries, and the commonest weeds by the road;
LG1871	4559	And the old drunkard staggering home from the out-houseout-house of the tavern, whence he had lately risen,
LG1871	4560	And the school-mistress that pass'd on her way to the school,
LG1871	4561	And the friendly boys that pass'd—and the quarrelsome boys,
LG1871	4562	And the tidy and fresh-cheek'd girls—and the barefoot negro boy and girl,
LG1871	4563	And all the changes of city and country, wherever he went.
LG1871	4564	His own parents,
LG1871	4565	He that had father'd him, and she had conceiv'd him in her womb, and birth'd him,
LG1871	4566	They gave this child more of themselves than that;
LG1871	4567	They gave him afterward every day—they became part of him.
LG1871	4568	The mother at home, quietly placing the dishes on the supper-table;
LG1871	4569	The mother with mild words—clean her cap and gown, a wholesome odor falling off her person and clothes as she walks by;
LG1871	4570	The father, strong, self-sufficient, manly, mean, anger'd, unjust;
LG1871	4571	The blow, the quick loud word, the tight bargain, the crafty lure,
LG1871	4572	The family usages, the language, the company, the fur-niturefurniture—the yearning and swelling heart,
LG1871	4573	Affection that will not be gainsay'd—the sense of what is real—the thought if, after all, it should prove unreal,
LG1871	4574	The doubts of day-time and the doubts of night-time— the curious whether and how,
LG1871	4575	Whether that which appears so is so, or is it all flashes and specks?
LG1871	4576	Men and women crowding fast in the streets—if they are not flashes and specks, what are they?
LG1871	4577	The streets themselves, and the façades of houses, and goods in the windows,
LG1871	4578	Vehicles, teams, the heavy-plank'd wharves—the huge crossing at the ferries,
LG1871	4579	The village on the highland, seen from afar at sunset— the river between,
LG1871	4580	Shadows, aureola and mist, the light falling on roofs and gables of white or brown, three miles off,
LG1871	4581	The schooner near by, sleepily dropping down the tide —the little boat slack-tow'd astern,
LG1871	4582	The hurrying tumbling waves, quick-broken crests, slapping,
LG1871	4583	The strata of color'd clouds, the long bar of maroon-tintmaroon-tint, away solitary by itself—the spread of purity it lies motionless in,
LG1871	4584	The horizon's edge, the flying sea-crow, the fragrance of salt marsh and shore mud;
LG1871	4585	These became part of that child who went forth every day, and who now goes, and will always go forth every day.
LG1871	4586	O MAGNET-SOUTH! O glistening, perfumed South! My South!
LG1871	4587	O quick mettle, rich blood, impulse, and love! Good and evil! O all dear to me!
LG1871	4588	O dear to me my birth-things—All moving things, and the trees where I was born—the grains, plants, rivers;
LG1871	4589	Dear to me my own slow sluggish rivers where they flow, distant, over flats of silvery sands, or through swamps;
LG1871	4590	Dear to me the Roanoke, the Savannah, the Altamahaw, the Pedee, the Tombigbee, the Santee, the Coosa, and the Sabine;
LG1871	4591	O pensive, far away wandering, I return with my Soul to haunt their banks again;
LG1871	4592	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;
LG1871	4593	I see the parrots in the woods—I see the papaw tree and the blossoming titi;
LG1871	4594	Again, sailing in my coaster, on deck, I coast off Georgia—I coast up the Carolinas,
LG1871	4595	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;
LG1871	4596	I pass rude sea-headlands and enter Pamlico Sound through an inlet, and dart my vision inland;
LG1871	4597	O the cotton plant! the growing fields of rice, sugar, hemp!
LG1871	4598	The cactus, guarded with thorns—the laurel-tree, with large white flowers;
LG1871	4599	The range afar—the richness and barrenness—the old woods charged with mistletoe and training moss,
LG1871	4600	The piney odor and the gloom—the awful natural still-nessstillness, (Here in these dense swamps the freebooter carries his gun, and the fugitive slave has his conceal'd hut;)
LG1871	4601	O the strange fascination of these half-known, half-impassablehalf-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;
LG1871	4602	The mocking-bird, the American mimic, singing all the forenoon—singing through the moon-lit night,
LG1871	4603	The humming-bird, the wild turkey, the raccoon, the opossum;
LG1871	4604	A Tennessee corn-field—the tall, graceful, long-leav'd corn—slender, flapping, bright green, with tas-selstassels—with beautiful ears, each well-sheath'd in its husk;
LG1871	4605	An Arkansas prairie—a sleeping lake, or still bayou;
LG1871	4606	O my heart! O tender and fierce pangs—I can stand them not—I will depart;
LG1871	4607	O to be a Virginian, where I grew up! O to be a Caro-linianCarolinian!
LG1871	4608	O longings irrepressible! O I will go back to old Ten-nesseeTennessee, and never wander more!
LG1871	4609	THINK of the Soul;
LG1871	4610	I swear to you that body of yours gives proportions to your Soul somehow to live in other spheres;
LG1871	4611	I do not know how, but I know it is so.
LG1871	4612	Think of loving and being loved;
LG1871	4613	I swear to you, whoever you are, you can interfuse your-selfyourself with such things that everybody that sees you shall look longingly upon you.
LG1871	4614	Think of the past;
LG1871	4615	I warn you that in a little while others will find their past in you and your times.
LG1871	4616	The race is never separated—nor man nor woman escapes;
LG1871	4617	All is inextricable—things, spirits, Nature, nations, you too—from precedents you come.
LG1871	4618	Recall the ever-welcome defiers, (The mothers pre-cedeprecede them;)
LG1871	4619	Recall the sages, poets, saviors, inventors, lawgivers, of the earth;
LG1871	4620	Recall Christ, brother of rejected persons—brother of slaves, felons, idiots, and of insane and diseas'd persons.
LG1871	4621	Think of the time when you were not yet born;
LG1871	4622	Think of times you stood at the side of the dying;
LG1871	4623	Think of the time when your own body will be dying.
LG1871	4624	Think of spiritual results,
LG1871	4625	Sure as the earth swims through the heavens, does every one of its objects pass into spiritual results.
LG1871	4626	Think of manhood, and you to be a man;
LG1871	4627	Do you count manhood, and the sweet of manhood, nothing?
LG1871	4628	Think of womanhood, and you to be a woman;
LG1871	4629	The creation is womanhood;
LG1871	4630	Have I not said that womanhood involves all?
LG1871	4631	Have I not told how the universe has nothing better than the best womanhood?
LG1871	4632	YOU felons on trial in courts;
LG1871	4633	You convicts in prison-cells—you sentenced assassins, chain'd and hand-cuff'd with iron;
LG1871	4634	Who am I, too, that I am not on trial, or in prison?
LG1871	4635	Me, ruthless and devilish as any, that my wrists are not chain'd with iron, or my ankles with iron?
LG1871	4636	You prostitutes flaunting over the trottoirs, or ob-sceneobscene in your rooms,
LG1871	4637	Who am I, that I should call you more obscene than myself?
LG1871	4638	O culpable!
LG1871	4639	I acknowledge—I exposé!
LG1871	4640	(O admirers! praise not me! compliment not me! you make me wince,
LG1871	4641	I see what you do not—I know what you do not.)
LG1871	4642	Inside these breast-bones I lie smutch'd and choked;
LG1871	4643	Beneath this face that appears so impassive, hell's tides continually run;
LG1871	4644	Lusts and wickedness are acceptable to me;
LG1871	4645	I walk with delinquents with passionate love;
LG1871	4646	I feel I am of them—I belong to those convicts and prostitutes myself,
LG1871	4647	And henceforth I will not deny them—for how can I deny myself?
LG1871	4648	BE composed—be at ease with me—I am Walt Whit-manWhitman, liberal and lusty as Nature;
LG1871	4649	Not till the sun excludes you, do I exclude you;
LG1871	4650	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.
LG1871	4651	My girl, I appoint with you an appointment—and I charge you that you make preparation to be worthy to meet me,
LG1871	4652	And I charge you that you be patient and perfect till I come.
LG1871	4653	Till then, I salute you with a significant look, that you do not forget me.
LG1871	4654	I WAS looking a long while for a clue to the history of the past for myself, and for these chants—and now I have found it;
LG1871	4655	It is not in those paged fables in the libraries, (them I neither accept nor reject;)
LG1871	4656	It is no more in the legends than in all else;
LG1871	4657	It is in the present—it is this earth to-day;
LG1871	4658	It is in Democracy—(the purport and aim of all the past;)
LG1871	4659	It is the life of one man or one woman to-day—the av-erageaverage man of to-day;
LG1871	4660	It is in languages, social customs, literatures, arts;
LG1871	4661	It is in the broad show of artificial things, ships, ma-chinerymachinery, politics, creeds, modern improvements, and the interchange of nations,
LG1871	4662	All for the average man of to-day.
LG1871	4663	ALL you are doing and saying is to America dangled mirages;
LG1871	4664	You have not learn'd of Nature—of the politics of Na-tureNature, you have not learn'd the great amplitude, rectitude, impartiality;
LG1871	4665	You have not seen that only such as they are for These States,
LG1871	4666	And that what is less than they, must sooner or later lift off from These States.
LG1871	4667	WHY reclining, interrogating? Why myself and all drowsing?
LG1871	4668	What deepening twilight! scum floating atop of the waters!
LG1871	4669	Who are they, as bats and night-dogs, askant in the Capitol?
LG1871	4670	What a filthy Presidentiad! (O south, your torrid suns! O north, your arctic freezings!)
LG1871	4671	Are those really Congressmen? are those the great Judges? is that the President?
LG1871	4672	Then I will sleep awhile yet—for I see that These States sleep, for reasons;
LG1871	4673	(With gathering murk—with muttering thunder and lambent shoots, we all duly awake,
LG1871	4674	South, north, east, west, inland and seaboard, we will surely awake.)
LG1871	4675	Aroused and angry,
LG1871	4676	I thought to beat the alarum, and urge relentless war;
LG1871	4677	But soon my fingers fail'd me, my face droop'd, and I resign'd myself,
LG1871	4678	To sit by the wounded and soothe them, or silently watch the dead.
LG1871	4679	FIRST, O songs, for a prelude,
LG1871	4680	Lightly strike on the stretch'd tympanum, pride and joy in my city.
LG1871	4681	How she led the rest to arms—how she gave the cue,
LG1871	4682	How at once with lithe limbs, unwaiting a moment, she sprang,
LG1871	4683	(O superb! O Manhattan, my own, my peerless!
LG1871	4684	O strongest you in the hour of danger, in crisis! O truer than steel!)
LG1871	4685	How you sprang! how you threw off the costumes of peace with indifferent hand;
LG1871	4686	How your soft opera-music changed, and the drum and fife were heard in their stead;
LG1871	4687	How you led to the war, (that shall serve for our pre-ludeprelude, songs of soldiers,)
LG1871	4688	How Manhattan drum-taps led.
LG1871	4689	Forty years had I in my city seen soldiers parading;
LG1871	4690	Forty years as a pageant—till unawares, the Lady of this teeming and turbulent city,
LG1871	4691	Sleepless, amid her ships, her houses, her incalculable wealth,
LG1871	4692	With her million children around her—suddenly,
LG1871	4693	At dead of night, at news from the south,
LG1871	4694	Incens'd, struck with clench'd hand the pavement.
LG1871	4695	A shock electric—the night sustain'd it;
LG1871	4696	Till with ominous hum, our hive at day-break pour'd out its myriads.
LG1871	4697	From the houses then, and the workshops, and through all the doorways,
LG1871	4698	Leapt they tumultuous—and lo! Manhattan arming.
LG1871	4699	To the drum-taps prompt,
LG1871	4700	The young men falling in and arming;
LG1871	4701	The mechanics arming, (the trowel, the jack-plane, the blacksmith's hammer, tost aside with precipita-tionprecipitation;)
LG1871	4702	The lawyer leaving his office, and arming—the judge leaving the court;
LG1871	4703	The driver deserting his wagon in the street, jumping down, throwing the reins abruptly down on the horses' backs;
LG1871	4704	The salesman leaving the store—the boss, book-keeper, porter, all leaving;
LG1871	4705	Squads gather everywhere by common consent, and arm;
LG1871	4706	The new recruits, even boys—the old men show them how to wear their accoutrements—they buckle the straps carefully;
LG1871	4707	Outdoors arming—indoors arming—the flash of the musket-barrels;
LG1871	4708	The white tents cluster in camps—the arm'd sentries around—the sunrise cannon, and again at sunset;
LG1871	4709	Arm'd regiments arrive every day, pass through the city, and embark from the wharves;
LG1871	4710	(How good they look, as they tramp down to the river, sweaty, with their guns on their shoulders!
LG1871	4711	How I love them! how I could hug them, with their brown faces, and their clothes and knapsacks cover'd with dust!)
LG1871	4712	The blood of the city up—arm'd! arm'd! the cry everywhere;
LG1871	4713	The flags flung out from the steeples of churches, and from all the public buildings and stores;
LG1871	4714	The tearful parting—the mother kisses her son—the son kisses his mother;
LG1871	4715	(Loth is the mother to part—yet not a word does she speak to detain him;)
LG1871	4716	The tumultuous escort—the ranks of policemen preced-ingpreceding, clearing the way;
LG1871	4717	The unpent enthusiasm—the wild cheers of the crowd for their favorites;
LG1871	4718	The artillery—the silent cannons, bright as gold, drawn along, rumble lightly over the stones;
LG1871	4719	(Silent cannons—soon to cease your silence!
LG1871	4720	Soon, unlimber'd, to begin the red business;)
LG1871	4721	All the mutter of preparation—all the determin'd arming;
LG1871	4722	The hospital service—the lint, bandages, and medi-cinesmedicines;
LG1871	4723	The women volunteering for nurses—the work begun for, in earnest—no mere parade now;
LG1871	4724	War! an arm'd race is advancing!—the welcome for battle—no turning away;
LG1871	4725	War! be it weeks, months, or years—an arm'd race is advancing to welcome it.
LG1871	4726	Mannahatta a-march!—and it's O to sing it well!
LG1871	4727	It's O for a manly life in the camp!
LG1871	4728	And the sturdy artillery!
LG1871	4729	The guns, bright as gold—the work for giants—to serve well the guns:
LG1871	4730	Unlimber them! no more, as the past forty years, for salutes for courtesies merely;
LG1871	4731	Put in something else now besides powder and wadding.
LG1871	4732	And you, Lady of Ships! you Mannahatta;
LG1871	4733	Old matron of this proud, friendly, turbulent city!
LG1871	4734	Often in peace and wealth you were pensive, or covertly frown'd amid all your children;
LG1871	4735	But now you smile with joy, exulting old Mannahatta!
LG1871	4736	ARM'D year! year of the struggle!
LG1871	4737	No dainty rhymes or sentimental love verses for you, terrible year!
LG1871	4738	Not you as some pale poetling, seated at a desk, lisping cadenzas piano;
LG1871	4739	But as a strong man, erect, clothed in blue clothes, ad-vancingadvancing, carrying a rifle on your shoulder,
LG1871	4740	With well-gristled body and sunburnt face and hands —with a knife in a belt at your side,
LG1871	4741	As I heard you shouting loud—your sonorous voice ringing across the continent;
LG1871	4742	Your masculine voice, O year, as rising amid the great cities,
LG1871	4743	Amid the men of Manhattan I saw you, as one of the workmen, the dwellers in Manhattan;
LG1871	4744	Or with large steps crossing the prairies out of Illinois and Indiana,
LG1871	4745	Rapidly crossing the West with springy gait, and de-scendingdescending the Alleghanies;
LG1871	4746	Or down from the great lakes, or in Pennsylvania, or on deck along the Ohio river;
LG1871	4747	Or southward along the Tennessee or Cumberland rivers, or at Chattanooga on the mountain top,
LG1871	4748	Saw I your gait and saw I your sinewy limbs, clothed in blue, bearing weapons, robust year;
LG1871	4749	Heard your determin'd voice, launch'd forth again and again;
LG1871	4750	Year that suddenly sang by the mouths of the round-lipp'dround-lipp'd cannon,
LG1871	4751	I repeat you, hurrying, crashing, sad, distracted year.
LG1871	4752	BEAT! beat! drums!—Blow! bugles! blow!
LG1871	4753	Through the windows—through doors—burst like a ruthless force,
LG1871	4754	Into the solemn church, and scatter the congregation;
LG1871	4755	Into the school where the scholar is studying;
LG1871	4756	Leave not the bridegroom quiet—no happiness must he have now with his bride;
LG1871	4757	Nor the peaceful farmer any peace, plowing his field or gathering his grain;
LG1871	4758	So fierce you whirr and pound, you drums—so shrill you bugles blow.
LG1871	4759	Beat! beat! drums!—Blow! bugles! blow!
LG1871	4760	Over the traffic of cities—over the rumble of wheels in the streets:
LG1871	4761	Are beds prepared for sleepers at night in the houses? No sleepers must sleep in those beds;
LG1871	4762	No bargainers' bargains by day—no brokers or specu-latorsspeculators—Would they continue?
LG1871	4763	Would the talkers be talking? would the singer attempt to sing?
LG1871	4764	Would the lawyer rise in the court to state his case be-forebefore the judge?
LG1871	4765	Then rattle quicker, heavier drums—you bugles wilder blow.
LG1871	4766	12
LG1871	4767	Beat! beat! drums!—Blow! bugles! blow!
LG1871	4768	Make no parley—stop for no expostulation;
LG1871	4769	Mind not the timid—mind not the weeper or prayer;
LG1871	4770	Mind not the old man beseeching the young man;
LG1871	4771	Let not the child's voice be heard, nor the mother's en-treatiesentreaties;
LG1871	4772	Make even the trestles to shake the dead, where they lie awaiting the hearses,
LG1871	4773	So strong you thump, O terrible drums—so loud you bugles blow.
LG1871	4774	FROM Paumanok starting, I fly like a bird,
LG1871	4775	Around and around to soar, to sing the idea of all;
LG1871	4776	To the north betaking myself, to sing there arctic songs.
LG1871	4777	To Kanada, 'till I absorb Kanada in myself—to Michi-ganMichigan then,
LG1871	4778	To Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, to sing their songs, (they are inimitable;)
LG1871	4779	Then to Ohio and Indiana to sing theirs—to Missouri and Kansas and Arkansas, to sing theirs,
LG1871	4780	To Tennessee and Kentucky—to the Carolinas and Georgia, to sing theirs,
LG1871	4781	To Texas, and so along up toward California, to roam accepted everywhere;
LG1871	4782	To sing first, (to the tap of the war-drum, if need be,)
LG1871	4783	The idea of all—of the western world, one and insepa-rableinseparable,
LG1871	4784	And then the song of each member of These States.
LG1871	4785	RISE, O days, from your fathomless deeps, till you loftier, fiercer sweep!
LG1871	4786	Long for my soul, hungering gymnastic, I devour'd what the earth gave me;
LG1871	4787	Long I roam'd the woods of the north—long I watch'd Niagara pouring;
LG1871	4788	I travel'd the prairies over, and slept on their breast— I cross'd the Nevadas, I cross'd the plateaus;
LG1871	4789	I ascended the towering rocks along the Pacific, I sail'd out to sea;
LG1871	4790	I sail'd through the storm, I was refresh'd by the storm;
LG1871	4791	I watch'd with joy the threatening maws of the waves;
LG1871	4792	I mark'd the white combs where they career'd so high, curling over;
LG1871	4793	I heard the wind piping, I saw the black clouds;
LG1871	4794	Saw from below what arose and mounted, (O superb! O wild as my heart, and powerful!)
LG1871	4795	Heard the continuous thunder, as it bellow'd after the lightning;
LG1871	4796	Noted the slender and jagged threads of lightning, as sudden and fast amid the din they chased each other across the sky;
LG1871	4797	—These, and such as these, I, elate, saw—saw with wonder, yet pensive and masterful;
LG1871	4798	All the menacing might of the globe uprisen around me;
LG1871	4799	Yet there with my soul I fed—I fed content, super-cilioussupercilious.
LG1871	4800	'Twas well, O soul! 'twas a good preparation you gave me!
LG1871	4801	Now we advance our latent and ampler hunger to fill;
LG1871	4802	Now we go forth to receive what the earth and the sea never gave us;
LG1871	4803	Not through the mighty woods we go, but through the mightier cities;
LG1871	4804	Something for us is pouring now, more than Niagara pouring;
LG1871	4805	Torrents of men, (sources and rills of the Northwest, are you indeed inexhaustible?)
LG1871	4806	What, to pavements and homesteads here—what were those storms of the mountains and sea?
LG1871	4807	What, to passions I witness around me to-day? Was the sea risen?
LG1871	4808	Was the wind piping the pipe of death under the black clouds?
LG1871	4809	Lo! from deeps more unfathomable, something more deadly and savage;
LG1871	4810	Manhattan, rising, advancing with menacing front— Cincinnati, Chicago, unchain'd;
LG1871	4811	—What was that swell I saw on the ocean? behold what comes here!
LG1871	4812	How it climbs with daring feet and hands! how it dashes!
LG1871	4813	How the true thunder bellows after the lightning! how bright the flashes of lightning!
LG1871	4814	How DEMOCRACY, with desperate vengeful port strides on, shown through the dark by those flashes of lightning!
LG1871	4815	(Yet a mournful wail and low sob I fancied I heard through the dark,
LG1871	4816	In a lull of the deafening confusion.)
LG1871	4817	Thunder on! stride on, Democracy! strike with venge-fulvengeful stroke!
LG1871	4818	And do you rise higher than ever yet, O days, O cities!
LG1871	4819	Crash heavier, heavier yet, O storms! you have done me good;
LG1871	4820	My soul, prepared in the mountains, absorbs your im-mortalimmortal strong nutriment;
LG1871	4821	—Long had I walk'd my cities, my country roads, through farms, only half satisfied;
LG1871	4822	One doubt, nauseous, undulating like a snake, crawl'd on the ground before me,
LG1871	4823	Continually preceding my steps, turning upon me oft, ironically hissing low;
LG1871	4824	—The cities I loved so well, I abandon'd and left—I sped to the certainties suitable to me;
LG1871	4825	Hungering, hungering, hungering, for primal energies, and Nature's dauntlessness,
LG1871	4826	I refresh'd myself with it only, I could relish it only;
LG1871	4827	I waited the bursting forth of the pent fire—on the water and air I waited long;
LG1871	4828	—But now I no longer wait—I am fully satisfied—I am glutted;
LG1871	4829	I have witness'd the true lightning—I have witness'd my cities electric;
LG1871	4830	I have lived to behold man burst forth, and warlike America rise;
LG1871	4831	Hence I will seek no more the food of the northern sol-itarysolitary wilds,
LG1871	4832	No more on the mountains roam, or sail the stormy sea.
LG1871	4833	CITY of ships!
LG1871	4834	(O the black ships! O the fierce ships!
LG1871	4835	O the beautiful, sharp bow'd steam-ships and sail-ships!)
LG1871	4836	City of the world! (for all races are here;
LG1871	4837	All the lands of the earth make contributions here;)
LG1871	4838	City of the sea! city of hurried and glittering tides!
LG1871	4839	City whose gleeful tides continually rush or recede, whirling in and out, with eddies and foam!
LG1871	4840	City of wharves and stores! city of tall façades of mar-blemarble and iron!
LG1871	4841	Proud and passionate city! mettlesome, mad, extrava-gantextravagant city!
LG1871	4842	Spring up, O city! not for peace alone, but be indeed yourself, warlike!
LG1871	4843	Fear not! submit to no models but your own, O city!
LG1871	4844	Behold me! incarnate me, as I have incarnated you!
LG1871	4845	I have rejected nothing you offer'd me—whom you adopted, I have adopted;
LG1871	4846	Good or bad, I never question you—I love all—I do not condemn anything;
LG1871	4847	I chant and celebrate all that is yours—yet peace no more;
LG1871	4848	In peace I chanted peace, but now the drum of war is mine;
LG1871	4849	War, red war, is my song through your streets, O city!
LG1871	4850	GIVE me your hand, old Revolutionary;
LG1871	4851	The hill-top is nigh—but a few steps, (make room, gen-tlemengentlemen;)
LG1871	4852	Up the path you have follow'd me well, spite of your hundred and extra years;
LG1871	4853	You can walk, old man, though your eyes are almost done;
LG1871	4854	Your faculties serve you, and presently I must have them serve me.
LG1871	4855	Rest, while I tell what the crowd around us means;
LG1871	4856	On the plain below, recruits are drilling and exercising;
LG1871	4857	There is the camp—one regiment departs to-morrow;
LG1871	4858	Do you hear the officers giving the orders?
LG1871	4859	Do you hear the clank of the muskets?
LG1871	4860	Why, what comes over you now, old man?
LG1871	4861	Why do you tremble, and clutch my hand so convul-sivelyconvulsively?
LG1871	4862	The troops are but drilling—they are yet surrounded with smiles;
LG1871	4863	Around them, at hand, the well-drest friends, and the women;
LG1871	4864	While splendid and warm the afternoon sun shines down;
LG1871	4865	Green the midsummer verdure, and fresh blows the dallying breeze,
LG1871	4866	O'er proud and peaceful cities, and arm of the sea be-tweenbetween.
LG1871	4867	But drill and parade are over—they march back to quarters;
LG1871	4868	Only hear that approval of hands! hear what a clap-pingclapping!
LG1871	4869	As wending, the crowds now part and disperse—but we, old man,
LG1871	4870	Not for nothing have I brought you hither—we must remain;
LG1871	4871	You to speak in your turn, and I to listen and tell.
LG1871	4872	When I clutch'd your hand, it was not with terror;
LG1871	4873	But suddenly, pouring about me here, on every side,
LG1871	4874	And below there where the boys were drilling, and up the slopes they ran,
LG1871	4875	And where tents are pitch'd, and wherever you see, south and south-east and south-west,
LG1871	4876	Over hills, across lowlands, and in the skirts of woods,
LG1871	4877	And along the shores, in mire (now fill'd over), came again, and suddenly raged,
LG1871	4878	As eighty-five years a-gone, no mere parade receiv'd with applause of friends,
LG1871	4879	But a battle, which I took part in myself—aye, long ago as it is, I took part in it,
LG1871	4880	Walking then this hill-top, this same ground.
LG1871	4881	Aye, this is the ground;
LG1871	4882	My blind eyes, even as I speak, behold it re-peopled from graves;
LG1871	4883	The years recede, pavements and stately houses disap-peardisappear;
LG1871	4884	Rude forts appear again, the old hoop'd guns are mounted;
LG1871	4885	I see the lines of rais'd earth stretching from river to bay;
LG1871	4886	I mark the vista of waters, I mark the uplands and slopes;
LG1871	4887	Here we lay encamp'd—it was this time in summer also.
LG1871	4888	As I talk, I remember all—I remember the Declara-tionDeclaration;
LG1871	4889	It was read here—the whole army paraded—it was read to us here;
LG1871	4890	By his staff surrounded, the General stood in the mid-dlemiddle—he held up his unsheath'd sword,
LG1871	4891	It glitter'd in the sun in full sight of the army.
LG1871	4892	'Twas a bold act then;
LG1871	4893	The English war-ships had just arrived—the king had sent them from over the sea;
LG1871	4894	We could watch down the lower bay where they lay at anchor,
LG1871	4895	And the transports, swarming with soldiers.
LG1871	4896	A few days more, and they landed—and then the battle.
LG1871	4897	Twenty thousand were brought against us,
LG1871	4898	A veteran force, furnish'd with good artillery.
LG1871	4899	I tell not now the whole of the battle;
LG1871	4900	But one brigade, early in the forenoon, order'd forward to engage the red-coats;
LG1871	4901	Of that brigade I tell, and how steadily it march'd,
LG1871	4902	And how long and how well it stood, confronting death.
LG1871	4903	Who do you think that was, marching steadily, stern-lysternly confronting death?
LG1871	4904	It was the brigade of the youngest men, two thousand strong,
LG1871	4905	Rais'd in Virginia and Maryland, and many of them known personally to the General.
LG1871	4906	Jauntily forward they went with quick step toward Gowanus' waters;
LG1871	4907	Till of a sudden, unlook'd for, by defiles through the woods, gain'd at night,
LG1871	4908	The British advancing, wedging in from the east, fiercely playing their guns,
LG1871	4909	That brigade of the youngest was cut off, and at the enemy's mercy.
LG1871	4910	The General watch'd them from this hill;
LG1871	4911	They made repeated desperate attempts to burst their environment;
LG1871	4912	Then drew close together, very compact, their flag flying in the middle;
LG1871	4913	But O from the hills how the cannon were thinning and thinning them!
LG1871	4914	It sickens me yet, that slaughter!
LG1871	4915	I saw the moisture gather in drops on the face of the General;
LG1871	4916	I saw how he wrung his hands in anguish.
LG1871	4917	Meanwhile the British maneuver'd to draw us out for a pitch'd battle;
LG1871	4918	But we dared not trust the chances of a pitch'd battle.
LG1871	4919	We fought the fight in detachments;
LG1871	4920	Sallying forth, we fought at several points—but in each the luck was against us;
LG1871	4921	Our foe advancing, steadily getting the best of it, push'd us back to the works on this hill;
LG1871	4922	Till we turn'd, menacing, here, and then he left us.
LG1871	4923	That was the going out of the brigade of the young-estyoungest men, two thousand strong;
LG1871	4924	Few return'd—nearly all remain in Brooklyn.
LG1871	4925	That, and here, my General's first battle;
LG1871	4926	No women looking on, nor sunshine to bask in—it did not conclude with applause;
LG1871	4927	Nobody clapp'd hands here then.
LG1871	4928	But, in darkness, in mist, on the ground, under a chill rain,
LG1871	4929	Wearied that night we lay, foil'd and sullen;
LG1871	4930	While scornfully laugh'd many an arrogant lord, off against us encamp'd,
LG1871	4931	Quite within hearing, feasting, klinking wine-glasses together over their victory.
LG1871	4932	So, dull and damp, and another day;
LG1871	4933	But the night of that, mist lifting, rain ceasing,
LG1871	4934	Silent as a ghost, while they thought they were sure of him, my General retreated.
LG1871	4935	I saw him at the river-side,
LG1871	4936	Down by the ferry, lit by torches, hastening the embar-cationembarcation;
LG1871	4937	My General waited till the soldiers and wounded were all passed over;
LG1871	4938	And then, (it was just ere sunrise,) these eyes rested on him for the last time.
LG1871	4939	Every one else seem'd fill'd with gloom;
LG1871	4940	Many no doubt thought of capitulation.
LG1871	4941	But when my General pass'd me,
LG1871	4942	As he stood in his boat, and look'd toward the coming sun,
LG1871	4943	I saw something different from capitulation.
LG1871	4944	Enough—the Centenarian's story ends;
LG1871	4945	The two, the past and present, have interchanged;
LG1871	4946	I myself, as connecter, as chansonnier of a great future, am now speaking.
LG1871	4947	And is this the ground Washington trod?
LG1871	4948	And these waters I listlessly daily cross, are these the waters he cross'd,
LG1871	4949	As resolute in defeat, as other generals in their proudest triumphs?
LG1871	4950	It is well—a lesson like that, always comes good;
LG1871	4951	I must copy the story, and send it eastward and west-wardwestward;
LG1871	4952	I must preserve that look, as it beam'd on you, rivers of Brooklyn.
LG1871	4953	See! as the annual round returns, the phantoms return;
LG1871	4954	It is the 27th of August, and the British have landed;
LG1871	4955	The battle begins, and goes against us—behold! through the smoke, Washington's face;
LG1871	4956	The brigade of Virginia and Maryland have march'd forth to intercept the enemy;
LG1871	4957	They are cut off—murderous artillery from the hills plays upon them;
LG1871	4958	Rank after rank falls, while over them silently droops the flag,
LG1871	4959	Baptized that day in many a young man's bloody wounds,
LG1871	4960	In death, defeat, and sisters', mothers' tears.
LG1871	4961	Ah, hills and slopes of Brooklyn! I perceive you are more valuable than your owners supposed;
LG1871	4962	Ah, river! henceforth you will be illumin'd to me at sunrise with something besides the sun.
LG1871	4963	Encampments new! in the midst of you stands an encampment very old;
LG1871	4964	Stands forever the camp of the dead brigade.
LG1871	4965	WITH its cloud of skirmishers in advance,
LG1871	4966	With now the sound of a single shot, snapping like a whip, and now an irregular volley,
LG1871	4967	The swarming ranks press on and on, the dense brigades press on;
LG1871	4968	Glittering dimly, toiling under the sun—the dust-cover'd men,
LG1871	4969	In columns rise and fall to the undulations of the ground,
LG1871	4970	With artillery interspers'd—the wheels rumble, the horses sweat,
LG1871	4971	As the army corps advances.
LG1871	4972	A LINE in long array, where they wind betwixt green islands;
LG1871	4973	They take a serpentine course—their arms flash in the sun—Hark to the musical clank;
LG1871	4974	Behold the silvery river—in it the splashing horses, loitering, stop to drink;
LG1871	4975	Behold the brown-faced men—each group, each person, a picture—the negligent rest on the saddles;
LG1871	4976	Some emerge on the opposite bank—others are just entering the ford—while,
LG1871	4977	Scarlet, and blue, and snowy white,
LG1871	4978	The guidon flags flutter gaily in the wind.
LG1871	4979	I SEE before me now, a traveling army halting;
LG1871	4980	Below, a fertile valley spread, with barns, and the orchards of summer;
LG1871	4981	Behind, the terraced sides of a mountain, abrupt in places, rising high!
LG1871	4982	Broken, with rocks, with clinging cedars, with tall shapes, dingily seen;
LG1871	4983	The numerous camp-fires scatter'd near and far, some away up on the mountain;
LG1871	4984	The shadowy forms of men and horses, looming, large-sizedlarge-sized, flickering;
LG1871	4985	And over all, the sky—the sky! far, far out of reach, studded, breaking out, the eternal stars.
LG1871	4986	BY the bivouac's fitful flame,
LG1871	4987	A procession winding around me, solemn and sweet and slow;—but first I note,
LG1871	4988	The tents of the sleeping army, the fields' and woods' dim outline,
LG1871	4989	The darkness, lit by spots of kindled fire—the silence;
LG1871	4990	Like a phantom far or near an occasional figure moving;
LG1871	4991	The shrubs and trees, (as I left my eyes they seem to be stealthily watching me;)
LG1871	4992	While wind in procession thoughts, O tender and wondrous thoughts,
LG1871	4993	Of life and death—of home and the past and loved, and of those that are far away;
LG1871	4994	A solemn and slow procession there as I sit on the ground,
LG1871	4995	By the bivouac's fitful flame.
LG1871	4996	COME up from the fields, father, here's a letter from our Pete;
LG1871	4997	And come to the front door, mother—here's a letter from thy dear son.
LG1871	4998	Lo, 'tis autumn;
LG1871	4999	Lo, where the trees, deeper green, yellower and redder;
LG1871	5000	Cool and sweeten Ohio's villages, with leaves fluttering in the moderate wind;
LG1871	5001	Where apples ripe in the orchards hang, and grapes on the trellis'd vines;
LG1871	5002	(Smell you the smell of the grapes on the vines?
LG1871	5003	Smell you the buckwheat, where the bees were lately buzzing?)
LG1871	5004	Above all, lo, the sky, so calm, so transparent after the rain, and with wondrous clouds;
LG1871	5005	Below, too, all calm, all vital and beautiful—and the farm prospers well.
LG1871	5006	Down in the fields all prospers well;
LG1871	5007	But now from the fields come, father—come at the daughter's call;
LG1871	5008	And come to the entry, mother—to the front door come, right away.
LG1871	5009	Fast as she can she hurries—something ominous— her steps trembling;
LG1871	5010	She does not tarry to smooth her hair, nor adjust her cap;
LG1871	5011	Open the envelope quickly;
LG1871	5012	O this is not our son's writing, yet his name is sign'd;
LG1871	5013	O a strange hand writes for our dear son—O stricken mother's soul!
LG1871	5014	All swims before her eyes—flashes with black—she catches the main words only;
LG1871	5015	Sentences broken—gun-shot wound in the breast, cavalry skirmish, taken to hospital,
LG1871	5016	At present low, but will soon be better.
LG1871	5017	Ah, now the single figure to me,
LG1871	5018	Amid all teeming and wealthy Ohio, with all its cities and farms,
LG1871	5019	Sickly white in the face, and dull in the head, very faint,
LG1871	5020	By the jamb of a door leans.
LG1871	5021	Grieve not so, dear mother, (the just-grown daughter speaks through her sobs;
LG1871	5022	The little sisters huddle around, speechless and dis-may'ddismay'd;)
LG1871	5023	See, dearest mother, the letter says Pete will soon be better.
LG1871	5024	Alas, poor boy, he will never be better, (nor may-be needs to be better, that brave and simple soul;)
LG1871	5025	While they stand at home at the door, he is dead already;
LG1871	5026	The only son is dead.
LG1871	5027	But the mother needs to be better;
LG1871	5028	She, with thin form, presently drest in black;
LG1871	5029	By day her meals untouch'd—then at night fitfully sleeping, often waking,
LG1871	5030	In the midnight waking, weeping, longing with one deep longing,
LG1871	5031	O that she might withdraw unnoticed—silent from life, escape and withdraw,
LG1871	5032	To follow, to seek, to be with her dear dead son.
LG1871	5033	VIGIL strange I kept on the field one night:
LG1871	5034	When you, my son and my comrade, dropt at my side that day,
LG1871	5035	One look I but gave, which your dear eyes return'd, with a look I shall never forget;
LG1871	5036	One touch of your hand to mine, O boy, reach'd up as you lay on the ground;
LG1871	5037	Then onward I sped in the battle, the even-contested battle;
LG1871	5038	Till late in the night reliev'd, to the place at last again I made my way;
LG1871	5039	Found you in death so cold, dear comrade—found your body, son of responding kisses, (never again on earth responding;)
LG1871	5040	Bared your face in the starlight—curious the scene— cool blew the moderate night-wind;
LG1871	5041	Long there and then in vigil I stood, dimly around me the battle-field spreading;
LG1871	5042	Vigil wondrous and vigil sweet, there in the fragrant silent night;
LG1871	5043	But not a tear fell, not even a long-drawn sigh—Long, long I gazed;
LG1871	5044	Then on the earth partially reclining, sat by your side, leaning my chin in my hands;
LG1871	5045	Passing sweet hours, immortal and mystic hours with you, dearest comrade—Not a tear, not a word;
LG1871	5046	Vigil of silence, love and death—vigil for you, my son and my soldier,
LG1871	5047	As onward silently stars aloft, eastward new ones up-wardupward stole;
LG1871	5048	Vigil final for you, brave boy, (I could not save you, swift was your death,
LG1871	5049	I faithfully loved you and cared for you living—I think we shall surely meet again;)
LG1871	5050	Till at latest lingering of the night, indeed just as the dawn appear'd,
LG1871	5051	My comrade I wrapt in his blanket, envelop'd well his form,
LG1871	5052	Folded the blanket well, tucking it carefully over head, and carefully under feet;
LG1871	5053	And there and then, and bathed by the rising sun, my son in his grave, in his rude-dug grave I de-positeddeposited;
LG1871	5054	Ending my vigil strange with that—vigil of night and battle-field dim;
LG1871	5055	Vigil for boy of responding kisses, (never again on earth responding;)
LG1871	5056	Vigil for comrade swiftly slain—vigil I never forget, how as day brighten'd,
LG1871	5057	I rose from the chill ground, and folded my soldier well in his blanket,
LG1871	5058	And buried him where he fell.
LG1871	5059	A MARCH in the ranks hard-prest, and the road unknown;
LG1871	5060	A route through a heavy wood, with muffled steps in the darkness;
LG1871	5061	Our army foil'd with loss severe, and the sullen remnant retreating;
LG1871	5062	Till after midnight glimmer upon us, the lights of a dim-lighted building;
LG1871	5063	We come to an open space in the woods, and halt by the dim-lighted building;
LG1871	5064	'Tis a large old church at the crossing roads—'tis now an impromptu hospital;
LG1871	5065	—Entering but for a minute, I see a sight beyond all the pictures and poems ever made;
LG1871	5066	Shadows of deepest, deepest black, just lit by moving candles and lamps,
LG1871	5067	And by one great pitchy torch, stationary, with wild red flame, and clouds of smoke;
LG1871	5068	By these, crowds, groups of forms, vaguely I see, on the floor, some in the pews laid down;
LG1871	5069	At my feet more distinctly, a soldier, a mere lad, in danger of bleeding to death, (he is shot in the abdomen;)
LG1871	5070	I staunch the blood temporarily, (the youngster's face is white as a lily;)
LG1871	5071	Then before I depart I sweep my eyes o'er the scene, fain to absorb it all;
LG1871	5072	Faces, varieties, postures beyond description, most in obscurity, some of them dead;
LG1871	5073	Surgeons operating, attendants holding lights, the smell of ether, the odor of blood;
LG1871	5074	The crowd, O the crowd of the bloody forms of soldiers —the yard outside also fill'd;
LG1871	5075	Some on the bare ground, some on planks or stretchers, some in the death-spasm sweating;
LG1871	5076	An occasional scream or cry, the doctor's shouted orders or calls;
LG1871	5077	The glisten of the little steel instruments catching the glint of the torches;
LG1871	5078	These I resume as I chant—I see again the forms, I smell the odor;
LG1871	5079	Then hear outside the orders given, Fall in, my men, Fall in;
LG1871	5080	But first I bend to the dying lad—his eyes open—a half-smile gives he me;
LG1871	5081	Then the eyes close, calmly close, and I speed forth to the darkness,
LG1871	5082	Resuming, marching, ever in darkness marching, on in the ranks,
LG1871	5083	The unknown road still marching.
LG1871	5084	A SIGHT in camp in the day-break grey and dim,
LG1871	5085	As from my tent I emerge so early, sleepless,
LG1871	5086	As slow I walk in the cool fresh air, the path near by the hospital tent,
LG1871	5087	Three forms I see on stretchers lying, brought out there, untended lying,
LG1871	5088	Over each the blanket spread, ample brownish woollen blanket,
LG1871	5089	Grey and heavy blanket, folding, covering all.
LG1871	5090	Curious, I halt, and silent stand.
LG1871	5091	Then with light fingers I from the face of the nearest, the first, just lift the blanket:
LG1871	5092	Who are you, elderly man so gaunt and grim, with well-grey'dwell-grey'd hair, and flesh all sunken about the eyes?
LG1871	5093	Who are you, my dear comrade?
LG1871	5094	Then to the second I step—And who are you, my child and darling?
LG1871	5095	Who are you, sweet boy, with cheeks yet blooming?
LG1871	5096	Then to the third—a face nor child, nor old, very calm, as of beautiful yellow-white ivory;
LG1871	5097	Young man, I think I know you—I think this face of yours is the face of the Christ himself;
LG1871	5098	Dead and divine, and brother of all, and here again he lies.
LG1871	5099	NOT the pilot has charged himself to bring his ship into port, though beaten back, and many times baffled;
LG1871	5100	Not the path-finder, penetrating inland, weary and long,
LG1871	5101	By deserts parch'd, snows-chill'd, rivers wet, perseveres till he reaches his destination,
LG1871	5102	More than I have charged myself, heeded or unheeded, to compose a free march for These States,
LG1871	5103	To be exhilarating music to them—a battle-call, rousing to arms, if need be—years, centuries hence.
LG1871	5104	AS TOILSOME I wander'd Virginia's woods,
LG1871	5105	To the music of rustling leaves, kick'd by my feet, (for 'twas autumn,)
LG1871	5106	I mark'd at the foot of a tree the grave of a soldier,
LG1871	5107	Mortally wounded he, and buried on the retreat, (easily all could I understand;
LG1871	5108	The halt of a mid-day hour, when up! no time to lose —yet this sign left,
LG1871	5109	On a tablet scrawl'd and nail'd on the tree by the grave,
LG1871	5110	Bold, cautious, true, and my loving comrade.
LG1871	5111	Long, long I muse, then on my way go wandering;
LG1871	5112	Many a changeful season to follow, and many a scene of life;
LG1871	5113	Yet at times through changeful season and scene, ab-ruptabrupt, alone, or in the crowded street,
LG1871	5114	Comes before me the unknown soldier's grave—comes the inscription rude in Virginia's woods,
LG1871	5115	Bold, cautious, true, and my loving comrade.
LG1871	5116	YEAR that trembled and reel'd beneath me!
LG1871	5117	Your summer wind was warm enough—yet the air I breathed froze me;
LG1871	5118	A thick gloom fell through the sunshine and darken'd me;
LG1871	5119	Must I change my triumphant songs? said I to my-selfmyself;
LG1871	5120	Must I indeed learn to chant the cold dirges of the baf-fledbaffled?
LG1871	5121	And sullen hymns of defeat?
LG1871	5122	AN old man bending, I come, among new faces,
LG1871	5123	Years looking backward, resuming, in answer to chil-drenchildren,
LG1871	5124	Come tell us, old man, as from young men and maidens that love me;
LG1871	5125	Years hence of these scenes, of these furious passions, these chances,
LG1871	5126	Of unsurpass'd heroes, (was one side so brave? the other was equally brave;)
LG1871	5127	Now be witness again—paint the mightiest armies of earth;
LG1871	5128	Of those armies so rapid, so wondrous, what saw you to tell us?
LG1871	5129	What stays with you latest and deepest? of curious panics,
LG1871	5130	Of hard-fought engagements, or sieges tremendous, what deepest remains?
LG1871	5131	O maidens and young men I love, and that love me,
LG1871	5132	What you ask of my days, those the strangest and sudden your talking recalls;
LG1871	5133	Soldier alert I arrive, after a long march, cover'd with sweat and dust;
LG1871	5134	In the nick of time I come, plunge in the fight, loudly shout in the rush of successful charge;
LG1871	5135	Enter the captur'd works….yet lo! like a swift running river, they fade;
LG1871	5136	Pass and are gone, they fade—I dwell not on soldiers' perils or soldiers' joys;
LG1871	5137	(Both I remember well—many the hardships, few the joys, yet I was content.)
LG1871	5138	But in silence, in dreams' projections,
LG1871	5139	While the world of gain and appearance and mirth goes on,
LG1871	5140	So soon what is over forgotten, and waves wash the imprints off the sand,
LG1871	5141	In nature's reverie sad, with hinged knees returning, I enter the doors—(while for you up there,
LG1871	5142	Whoever you are, follow me without noise, and be of strong heart.)
LG1871	5143	Bearing the bandages, water and sponge,
LG1871	5144	Straight and swift to my wounded I go,
LG1871	5145	Where they lie on the ground, after the battle brought in;
LG1871	5146	Where their priceless blood reddens the grass, the ground;
LG1871	5147	Or to the rows of the hospital tent, or under the roof'd hospital;
LG1871	5148	To the long rows of cots, up and down, each side, I return;
LG1871	5149	To each and all, one after another, I draw near—not one do I miss;
LG1871	5150	An attendant follows, holding a tray—he carries a refuse pail,
LG1871	5151	Soon to be fill'd with clotted rags and blood, emptied, and fill'd again.
LG1871	5152	I onward go, I stop,
LG1871	5153	With hinged knees and steady hand, to dress wounds;
LG1871	5154	I am firm with each—the pangs are sharp, yet unavoid-ableunavoidable;
LG1871	5155	One turns to me his appealing eyes—(poor boy! I never knew you,
LG1871	5156	Yet I think I could not refuse this moment to die for you, if that would save you.)
LG1871	5157	On, on I go—(open, doors of time! open, hospital doors!)
LG1871	5158	The crush'd head I dress, (poor crazed hand, tear not the bandage away;)
LG1871	5159	The neck of the cavalry-man, with the bullet through and through, I examine;
LG1871	5160	Hard the breathing rattles, quite glazed already the eye, yet life struggles hard;
LG1871	5161	(Come, sweet death! be persuaded, O beautiful death!
LG1871	5162	In mercy come quickly.)
LG1871	5163	From the stump of the arm, the amputated hand,
LG1871	5164	I undo the clotted lint, remove the slough, wash off the matter and blood;
LG1871	5165	Back on his pillow the soldier bends, with curv'd neck, and side-falling head;
LG1871	5166	His eyes are closed, his face is pale, (he dares not look on the bloody stump,
LG1871	5167	And has not yet look'd on it.)
LG1871	5168	I dress a wound in the side, deep, deep;
LG1871	5169	But a day or two more—for see, the frame all wasted already, and sinking,
LG1871	5170	And the yellow-blue countenance see.
LG1871	5171	I dress the perforated shoulder, the foot with the bul-letbullet wound,
LG1871	5172	Cleanse the one with a gnawing and putrid gangrene, so sickening, so offensive,
LG1871	5173	While the attendant stands behind aside me, holding the tray and pail.
LG1871	5174	I am faithful, I do not give out;
LG1871	5175	The fractur'd thigh, the knee, the wound in the abdo-menabdomen;
LG1871	5176	These and more I dress with impassive hand—(yet deep in my breast a fire, a burning flame.)
LG1871	5177	Thus in silence, in dreams' projections,
LG1871	5178	Returning, resuming, I thread my way through the hospitals;
LG1871	5179	The hurt and wounded I pacify with soothing hand,
LG1871	5180	I sit by the restless all the dark night—some are so young;
LG1871	5181	Some suffer so much—I recall the experience sweet and sad;
LG1871	5182	(Many a soldier's loving arms about this neck have cross'd and rested,
LG1871	5183	Many a soldier's kiss dwells on these bearded lips.)
LG1871	5184	LONG, too long, O land,
LG1871	5185	Traveling roads all even and peaceful, you learn'd from joys and prosperity only;
LG1871	5186	But now, ah now, to learn from crises of anguish—ad-vancingadvancing, grappling with direst fate, and recoiling not;
LG1871	5187	And now to conceive, and show to the world, what your children en-masse really are;
LG1871	5188	(For who except myself has yet conceiv'd what your children en-masse really are?)
LG1871	5189	GIVE me the splendid silent sun, with all his beams full-dazzlingfull-dazzling;
LG1871	5190	Give me juicy autumnal fruit, ripe and red from the orchard;
LG1871	5191	Give me a field where the unmow'd grass grows;
LG1871	5192	Give me an arbor, give me the trellis'd grape;
LG1871	5193	Give me fresh corn and wheat—give me serene-moving animals, teaching content;
LG1871	5194	Give me nights perfectly quiet, as on high plateaus west of the Mississippi, and I looking up at the stars;
LG1871	5195	Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flow-ersflowers, where I can walk undisturb'd;
LG1871	5196	Give me for marriage a sweet-breath'd woman, of whom I should never tire;
LG1871	5197	Give me a perfect child—give me, away, aside from the noise of the world, a rural domestic life;
LG1871	5198	Give me to warble spontaneous songs, reliev'd, recluse by myself, for my own ears only;
LG1871	5199	Give me solitude—give me Nature—give me again, O Nature, your primal sanities!
LG1871	5200	—These, demanding to have them, (tired with cease-lessceaseless excitement, and rack'd by the war-strife;)
LG1871	5201	These to procure, incessantly asking, rising in cries from my heart,
LG1871	5202	While yet incessantly asking, still I adhere to my city;
LG1871	5203	Day upon day, and year upon year, O city, walking your streets,
LG1871	5204	Where you hold me enchain'd a certain time, refusing to give me up;
LG1871	5205	Yet giving to make me glutted, enrich'd of soul—you give me forever faces;
LG1871	5206	(O I see what I sought to escape, confronting, reversing my cries;
LG1871	5207	I see my own soul trampling down what it ask'd for.)
LG1871	5208	Keep your splendid, silent sun;
LG1871	5209	Keep your woods, O Nature, and the quiet places by the woods;
LG1871	5210	Keep your fields of clover and timothy, and your corn-fieldscorn-fields and orchards;
LG1871	5211	Keep the blossoming buckwheat fields, where the Ninth-monthNinth-month bees hum;
LG1871	5212	Give me faces and streets! give me these phantoms in-cessantincessant and endless along the trottoirs!
LG1871	5213	Give me interminable eyes! give me women! give me comrades and lovers by the thousand!
LG1871	5214	Let me see new ones every day! let me hold new ones by the hand every day!
LG1871	5215	Give me such shows! give me the streets of Manhat-tanManhattan!
LG1871	5216	Give me Broadway, with the soldiers marching—give me the sound of the trumpets and drums!
LG1871	5217	(The soldiers in companies or regiments—some, start-ingstarting away, flush'd and reckless;
LG1871	5218	Some, their time up, returning, with thinn'd ranks— young, yet very old, worn, marching, noticing nothing;)
LG1871	5219	—Give me the shores and the wharves heavy-fringed with the black ships!
LG1871	5220	O such for me! O an intense life! O full to repletion, and varied!
LG1871	5221	The life of the theatre, bar-room, huge hotel, for me!
LG1871	5222	The saloon of the steamer! the crowded excursion for me! the torch-light procession!
LG1871	5223	The dense brigade, bound for the war, with high piled military wagons following;
LG1871	5224	People, endless, streaming, with strong voices, passions, pageants;
LG1871	5225	Manhattan streets, with their powerful throbs, with the beating drums, as now;
LG1871	5226	The endless and noisy chorus, the rustle and clank of muskets, (even the sight of the wounded;)
LG1871	5227	Manhattan crowds, with their turbulent musical chorus —with varied chorus, and light of the sparkling eyes;
LG1871	5228	Manhattan faces and eyes forever for me.
LG1871	5229	THE last sunbeam
LG1871	5230	Lightly falls from the finish'd Sabbath,
LG1871	5231	On the pavement here—and there beyond, it is looking, Down a new-made double grave.
LG1871	5232	Lo! the moon ascending!
LG1871	5233	Up from the east, the silvery round moon;
LG1871	5234	Beautiful over the house-tops, ghastly, phantom moon; Immense and silent moon.
LG1871	5235	I see a sad procession,
LG1871	5236	And I hear the sound of coming full-key'd bugles;
LG1871	5237	All the channels of the city streets they're flooding, As with voices and with tears.
LG1871	5238	I hear the great drums pounding,
LG1871	5239	And the small drums steady whirring;
LG1871	5240	And every blow of the great convulsive drums, Strikes me through and through.
LG1871	5241	For the son is brought with the father;
LG1871	5242	In the foremost ranks of the fierce assault they fell;
LG1871	5243	Two veterans, son and father, dropt together, And the double grave awaits them.
LG1871	5244	Now nearer blow the bugles,
LG1871	5245	And the drums strike more convulsive;
LG1871	5246	And the day-light o'er the pavement quite has faded, And the strong dead-march enwraps me.
LG1871	5247	In the eastern sky up-buoying,
LG1871	5248	The sorrowful vast phantom moves illumin'd;
LG1871	5249	('Tis some mother's large, transparent face, In heaven brighter growing.)
LG1871	5250	O strong dead-march, you please me!
LG1871	5251	O moon immense, with your silvery face you soothe me!
LG1871	5252	O my soldiers twain! O my veterans, passing to burial! What I have I also give you.
LG1871	5253	The moon gives you light,
LG1871	5254	And the bugles and the drums give you music;
LG1871	5255	And my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans, My heart gives you love.
LG1871	5256	OVER the carnage rose prophetic a voice,
LG1871	5257	Be not dishearten'd—Affection shall solve the problems of Freedom yet;
LG1871	5258	Those who love each other shall become invincible— they shall yet make Columbia victorious.
LG1871	5259	Sons of the Mother of All! you shall yet be victo-riousvictorious!
LG1871	5260	You shall yet laugh to scorn the attacks of all the re-mainderremainder of the earth.
LG1871	5261	No danger shall balk Columbia's lovers;
LG1871	5262	If need be, a thousand shall sternly immolate them-selvesthemselves for one.
LG1871	5263	One from Massachusetts shall be a Missourian's com-radecomrade;
LG1871	5264	From Maine and from hot Carolina, and another, an Oregonese, shall be friends triune,
LG1871	5265	More precious to each other than all the riches of the earth.
LG1871	5266	To Michigan, Florida, perfumes shall tenderly come;
LG1871	5267	Not the perfumes of flowers, but sweeter, and wafted beyond death.
LG1871	5268	It shall be customary in the houses and streets to see manly affection;
LG1871	5269	The most dauntless and rude shall touch face to face lightly;
LG1871	5270	The dependence of Liberty shall be lovers,
LG1871	5271	The continuance of Equality shall be comrades.
LG1871	5272	These shall tie you and band you stronger than hoops of iron;
LG1871	5273	I, extatic, O partners! O lands! with the love of lovers tie you.
LG1871	5274	(Were you looking to be held together by the lawyers?
LG1871	5275	Or by an agreement on a paper? or by arms?
LG1871	5276	—Nay—nor the world, nor any living thing, will so cohere.)
LG1871	5277	WHILE my wife at my side lies slumbering, and the wars are over long,
LG1871	5278	And my head on the pillow rests at home, and the va-cantvacant midnight passes,
LG1871	5279	And through the stillness, through the dark, I hear, just hear, the breath of my infant,
LG1871	5280	There in the room, as I wake from sleep, this vision presses upon me:
LG1871	5281	The engagement opens there and then, in fantasy unreal;
LG1871	5282	The skirmishers begin—they crawl cautiously ahead— I hear the irregular snap! snap!
LG1871	5283	I hear the sounds of the different missiles—the short t-h-t! t-h-t! of the rifle balls;
LG1871	5284	I see the shells exploding, leaving small white clouds— I hear the great shells shieking as they pass;
LG1871	5285	The grape, like the hum and whirr of wind through the trees, (quick, tumultuous, now the contest rages!)
LG1871	5286	All the scenes at the batteries themselves rise in detail before me again;
LG1871	5287	The crashing and smoking—the pride of the men in their pieces;
LG1871	5288	The chief gunner ranges and sights his piece, and se-lectsselects a fuse of the right time;
LG1871	5289	After firing, I see him lean aside, and look eagerly off to note the effect;
LG1871	5290	—Elsewhere I hear the cry of a regiment charging— (the young colonel leads himself this time, with brandish'd sword;)
LG1871	5291	I see the gaps cut by the enemy's volleys, (quickly fill'd up, no delay;)
LG1871	5292	I breathe the suffocating smoke—then the flat clouds hover low, concealing all;
LG1871	5293	Now a strange lull comes for a few seconds, not a shot fired on either side;
LG1871	5294	Then resumed, the chaos louder than ever, with eager calls, and orders of officers;
LG1871	5295	While from some distant part of the field the wind wafts to my ears a shout of applause, (some special success;)
LG1871	5296	And ever the sound of the cannon, far or near, (rousing, even in dreams, a devilish exultation, and all the old mad joy, in the depths of my soul;)
LG1871	5297	And ever the hastening of infantry shifting positions— batteries, cavalry, moving hither and thither;
LG1871	5298	(The falling, dying, I heed not—the wounded, dripping and red, I heed not—some to the rear are hob-blinghobbling;)
LG1871	5299	Grime, heat, rush—aid-de-camps galloping by, or on a full run;
LG1871	5300	With the patter of small arms, the warning s-s-t of the rifles, (these in my vision I hear or see,)
LG1871	5301	And bombs bursting in air, and at night the vari-color'dvari-color'd rockets.
LG1871	5302	I SAW old General at bay;
LG1871	5303	(Old as he was, his grey eyes yet shone out in battle like stars;)
LG1871	5304	His small force was now completely hemm'd in, in his works;
LG1871	5305	He call'd for volunteers to run the enemy's lines—a desperate emergency;
LG1871	5306	I saw a hundred and more step forth from the ranks— but two or three were selected;
LG1871	5307	I saw them receive their orders aside—they listen'd with care—the adjutant was very grave;
LG1871	5308	I saw them depart with cheerfulness, freely risking their lives.
LG1871	5309	O TAN-FACED prairie-boy!
LG1871	5310	Before you came to camp, came many a welcome gift;
LG1871	5311	Praises and presents came, and nourishing food—till at last, among the recruits,
LG1871	5312	You came, taciturn, with nothing to give—we but look'd on each other,
LG1871	5313	When lo! more than all the gifts of the world, you gave me.
LG1871	5314	LOOK down, fair moon, and bathe this scene;
LG1871	5315	Pour softly down night's nimbus floods, on faces ghast-lyghastly, swollen, purple;
LG1871	5316	On the dead, on their backs, with their arms toss'd wide,
LG1871	5317	Pour down your unstinted nimbus, sacred moon.
LG1871	5318	WORD over all, beautiful as the sky!
LG1871	5319	Beautiful that war, and all its deeds of carnage, must in time be utterly lost;
LG1871	5320	That the hands of the sisters Death and Night, inces-santlyincessantly softly wash again, and ever again, this soil'd world:
LG1871	5321	…For my enemy is dead—a man divine as myself is dead;
LG1871	5322	I look where he lies, white-faced and still, in the coffin —I draw near;
LG1871	5323	I bend down, and touch lightly with my lips the white face in the coffin.
LG1871	5324	SPIRIT whose work is done! spirit of dreadful hours!
LG1871	5325	Ere, departing, fade from my eyes your forests of bayo-netsbayonets;
LG1871	5326	Spirit of gloomiest fears and doubts, (yet onward ever unfaltering pressing;)
LG1871	5327	Spirit of many a solemn day, and many a savage scene! Electric spirit!
LG1871	5328	That with muttering voice, through the war now closed, like a tireless phantom flitted,
LG1871	5329	Rousing the land with breath of flame, while you beat and beat the drum;
LG1871	5330	—Now, as the sound of the drum, hollow and harsh to the last, reverberates round me;
LG1871	5331	As your ranks, your immortal ranks, return, return from the battles;
LG1871	5332	While the muskets of the young men yet lean over their shoulders;
LG1871	5333	While I look on the bayonets bristling over their shoul-dersshoulders;
LG1871	5334	While those slanted bayonets, whole forests of them, appearing in the distance, approach and pass on, returning homeward,
LG1871	5335	Moving with steady motion, swaying to and fro, to the right and left,
LG1871	5336	Evenly, lightly rising and falling, as the steps keep time:
LG1871	5337	—Spirit of hours I knew, all hectic red one day, but pale as death next day;
LG1871	5338	Touch my mouth, ere you depart—press my lips close!
LG1871	5339	Leave me your pulses of rage! bequeath them to me! fill me with currents convulsive!
LG1871	5340	Let them scorch and blister out of my chants, when you are gone;
LG1871	5341	Let them identify you to the future, in these songs.
LG1871	5342	HOW solemn, as one by one,
LG1871	5343	As the ranks returning, all worn and sweaty—as the men file by where I stand;
LG1871	5344	As the faces, the masks appear—as I glance at the faces, studying the masks;
LG1871	5345	(As I glance upward out of this page, studying you, dear friend, whoever you are;)
LG1871	5346	How solemn the thought of my whispering soul, to each in the ranks, and to you;
LG1871	5347	I see behind each mask, that wonder, a kindred soul;
LG1871	5348	O the bullet could never kill what you really are, dear friend,
LG1871	5349	Nor the bayonet stab what you really are:
LG1871	5350	…The soul! yourself I see, great as any, good as the best,
LG1871	5351	Waiting, secure and content, which the bullet could never kill,
LG1871	5352	Nor the bayonet stab, O friend!
LG1871	5353	NOT youth pertains to me,
LG1871	5354	Nor delicatesse—I cannot beguile the time with talk;
LG1871	5355	Awkward in the parlor, neither a dancer nor elegant;
LG1871	5356	In the learn'd coterie sitting constrain'd and still—for learning inures not to me;
LG1871	5357	Beauty, knowledge, inure not to me—yet there are two or three things inure to me;
LG1871	5358	I have nourish'd the wounded, and sooth'd many a dying soldier.
LG1871	5359	And at intervals, waiting, or in the midst of camp,
LG1871	5360	Composed these songs.
LG1871	5361	TO the leaven'd soil they trod, calling, I sing, for the last;
LG1871	5362	(Not cities, nor man alone, nor war, nor the dead,
LG1871	5363	But forth from my tent emerging for good—loosing, untying the tent-ropes;)
LG1871	5364	In the freshness, the forenoon air, in the far-stretching circuits and vistas, again to peace restored,
LG1871	5365	To the fiery fields emanative, and the endless vistas beyond—to the south and the north;
LG1871	5366	To the leaven'd soil of the general western world, to attest my songs,
LG1871	5367	(To the average earth, the wordless earth, witness of war and peace,)
LG1871	5368	To the Alleghanian hills, and the tireless Mississippi,
LG1871	5369	To the rocks I, calling, sing, and all the trees in the woods,
LG1871	5370	To the plain of the poems of heroes, to the prairie spreading wide,
LG1871	5371	To the far-off sea, and the unseen winds, and the sane impalpable air;
LG1871	5372	…And responding, they answer all, (but not in words,)
LG1871	5373	The average earth, the witness of war and peace, acknowledges mutely;
LG1871	5374	The prairie draws me close, as the father, to bosom broad, the son;
LG1871	5375	The Northern ice and rain, that began me, nourish me to the end;
LG1871	5376	But the hot sun of the South is to ripen my songs.
LG1871	5377	SAUNTERING the pavement, or riding the country by-roadby-road—lo! such faces!
LG1871	5378	Faces of friendship, precision, caution, suavity, ideal-ityideality;
LG1871	5379	The spiritual, prescient face—the always welcome, com-moncommon, benevolent face,
LG1871	5380	The face of the singing of music—the grand faces of natural lawyers and judges, broad at the back-topback-top;
LG1871	5381	The faces of hunters and fishers, bulged at the brows —the shaved blanch'd faces of orthodox citi-zenscitizens;
LG1871	5382	The pure, extravagant, yearning, questioning artist's face;
LG1871	5383	The ugly face of some beautiful Soul, the handsome de-testeddetested or despised face;
LG1871	5384	The sacred faces of infants, the illuminated face of the mother of many children;
LG1871	5385	The face of an amour, the face of veneration;
LG1871	5386	The face as of a dream, the face of an immobile rock;
LG1871	5387	The face withdrawn of its good and bad, a castrated face;
LG1871	5388	A wild hawk, his wings clipp'd by the clipper;
LG1871	5389	A stallion that yielded at last to the thongs and knife of the gelder.
LG1871	5390	Sauntering the pavement, thus, or crossing the cease-lessceaseless ferry, faces, and faces, and faces:
LG1871	5391	I see them, and complain not, and am content with all.
LG1871	5392	Do you suppose I could be content with all, if I thought them their own finale?
LG1871	5393	This now is too lamentable a face for a man;
LG1871	5394	Some abject louse, asking leave to be—cringing for it;
LG1871	5395	Some milk-nosed maggot, blessing what lets it wrig to its hole.
LG1871	5396	This face is a dog's snout, sniffing for garbage;
LG1871	5397	Snakes nest in that mouth—I hear the sibilant threat.
LG1871	5398	This face is a haze more chill than the arctic sea;
LG1871	5399	Its sleepy and wobbling icebergs crunch as they go.
LG1871	5400	This is a face of bitter herbs—this an emetic—they need no label;
LG1871	5401	And more of the drug-shelf, laudanum, caoutchouc, or hog's-lard.
LG1871	5402	This face is an epilepsy, its wordless tongue gives out the unearthly cry,
LG1871	5403	Its veins down the neck distend, its eyes roll till they show nothing but their whites,
LG1871	5404	Its teeth grit, the palms of the hands are cut by the turn'd-in nails,
LG1871	5405	The man falls struggling and foaming to the ground while he speculates well.
LG1871	5406	This face is bitten by vermin and worms,
LG1871	5407	And this is some murderer's knife, with a half-pull'd scabbard.
LG1871	5408	This face owes to the sexton his dismalest fee;
LG1871	5409	An unceasing death-bell tolls there.
LG1871	5410	Those then are really men—the bosses and tufts of the great round globe!
LG1871	5411	Features of my equals, would you trick me with your creas'd and cadaverous march?
LG1871	5412	Well, you cannot trick me.
LG1871	5413	I see your rounded, never-erased flow;
LG1871	5414	I see neath the rims of your haggard and mean dis-guisesdisguises.
LG1871	5415	Splay and twist as you like—poke with the tangling fores of fishes or rats;
LG1871	5416	You'll be unmuzzled, you certainly will.
LG1871	5417	I saw the face of the most smear'd and slobbering idiot they had at the asylum;
LG1871	5418	And I knew for my consolation what they knew not;
LG1871	5419	I knew of the agents that emptied and broke my brother,
LG1871	5420	The same wait to clear the rubbish from the fallen ten-ementtenement;
LG1871	5421	And I shall look again in a score or two of ages,
LG1871	5422	And I shall meet the real landlord, perfect and un-harm'dunharm'd, every inch as good as myself.
LG1871	5423	The Lord advances, and yet advances;
LG1871	5424	Always the shadow in front—always the reach'd hand, bringing up the laggards.
LG1871	5425	Out of this face emerge banners and horses—O su-perbsuperb! I see what is coming;
LG1871	5426	I see the high pioneer-caps—I see the staves of runners clearing the way,
LG1871	5427	I hear victorious drums.
LG1871	5428	This face is a life-boat;
LG1871	5429	This is the face commanding and bearded, it asks no odds of the rest;
LG1871	5430	This face is flavor'd fruit, ready for eating;
LG1871	5431	This face of a healthy honest boy is the programme of all good.
LG1871	5432	These faces bear testimony, slumbering or awake;
LG1871	5433	They show their descent from the Master himself.
LG1871	5434	Off the word I have spoken I except not one—red, white, black, are all deific;
LG1871	5435	In each house is the ovum—it comes forth after a thou-sandthousand years.
LG1871	5436	Spots or cracks at the windows do not disturb me;
LG1871	5437	Tall and sufficient stand behind, and make signs to me;
LG1871	5438	I read the promise, and patiently wait.
LG1871	5439	This is a full-grown lily's face,
LG1871	5440	She speaks to the limber-hipp'd man near the garden pickets,
LG1871	5441	Come here, she blushingly cries—Come nigh to me, lim-ber-hipp'dlimber-hipp'd man,
LG1871	5442	Stand at my side till I lean as high as I can upon you,
LG1871	5443	Fill me with albescent honey, bend down to me,
LG1871	5444	Rub to me with your chafing beard, rub to my breast and shoulders.
LG1871	5445	The old face of the mother of many children!
LG1871	5446	Whist! I am fully content.
LG1871	5447	Lull'd and late is the smoke of the First-day morning,
LG1871	5448	It hangs low over the rows of trees by the fences,
LG1871	5449	It hangs thin by the sassafras, the wild-cherry, and the cat-brier under them.
LG1871	5450	I saw the rich ladies in full dress at the soiree,
LG1871	5451	I heard what the singers were singing so long.
LG1871	5452	Heard who sprang in crimson youth from the white froth and the water-blue.
LG1871	5453	Behold a woman!
LG1871	5454	She looks out from her quaker cap—her face is clearer and more beautiful than the sky.
LG1871	5455	She sits in an arm-chair, under the shaded porch of the farm-house,
LG1871	5456	The sun just shines on her old white head.
LG1871	5457	Her ample gown is of cream-hued linen,
LG1871	5458	Her grandsons raised the flax, and her granddaugh-tersgranddaughters spun it with the distaff and the wheel.
LG1871	5459	The melodious character of the earth,
LG1871	5460	The finish beyond which philosophy cannot go, and does not wish to go,
LG1871	5461	The justified mother of men.
LG1871	5462	MANHATTAN'S streets I saunter'd, pondering,
LG1871	5463	On time, space, reality—on such as these, and abreast with them, prudence.
LG1871	5464	After all, the last explanation remains to be made about prudence;
LG1871	5465	Little and large alike drop quietly aside from the pru-denceprudence that suits immortality.
LG1871	5466	The Soul is of itself;
LG1871	5467	All verges to it—all has reference to what ensues;
LG1871	5468	All that a person does, says, thinks, is of consequence;
LG1871	5469	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.
LG1871	5470	The indirect is just as much as the direct,
LG1871	5471	The spirit receives from the body just as much as it gives to the body, if not more.
LG1871	5472	Not one word or deed—not venereal sore, discolor-ationdiscoloration, privacy of the onanist, putridity of glut-tonsgluttons or rum-drinkers, peculation, cunning, betrayal, murder, seduction, prostitution, but has results beyond death, as really as before death.
LG1871	5473	Charity and personal force are the only investments worth anything.
LG1871	5474	No specification is necessary—all that a male or fe-malefemale does, that is vigorous, benevolent, clean, is so much profit to him or her, in the unshake-ableunshakable order of the universe, and through the whole scope of it, forever.
LG1871	5475	Who has been wise, receives interest,
LG1871	5476	Savage, felon, President, judge, farmer, sailor, me-chanicmechanic, literat, young, old, it is the same,
LG1871	5477	The interest will come round—all will come round.
LG1871	5478	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,
LG1871	5479	All the brave actions of war and peace,
LG1871	5480	All help given to relatives, strangers, the poor, old, sorrowful, young children, widows, the sick, and to shunn'd persons,
LG1871	5481	All furtherance of fugitives, and of the escape of slaves,
LG1871	5482	All self-denial that stood steady and aloof on wrecks, and saw others fill the seats of the boats,
LG1871	5483	All offering of substance or life for the good old cause, or for a friend's sake, or opinion's sake,
LG1871	5484	All pains of enthusiasts, scoff'd at by their neighbors,
LG1871	5485	All the limitless sweet love and precious suffering of mothers,
LG1871	5486	All honest men baffled in strifes recorded or unre-cordedunrecorded,
LG1871	5487	All the grandeur and good of ancient nations whose fragments we inherit,
LG1871	5488	All the good of the dozens of ancient nations un-knownunknown to us by name, date, location,
LG1871	5489	All that was ever manfully begun, whether it suc-ceededsucceeded or no,
LG1871	5490	All suggestions of the divine mind of man, or the divinity of his mouth, or the shaping of his great hands;
LG1871	5491	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 fix'd stars, by those there as we are here;
LG1871	5492	All that is henceforth to be thought or done by you, whoever you are, or by any one;
LG1871	5493	These inure, have inured, shall inure, to the identities from which they sprang, or shall spring.
LG1871	5494	Did you guess anything lived only its moment?
LG1871	5495	The world does not so exist—no parts palpable or im-palpableimpalpable so exist;
LG1871	5496	No consummation exists without being from some long previous consummation—and that from some other,
LG1871	5497	Without the farthest conceivable one coming a bit nearer the beginning than any.
LG1871	5498	Whatever satisfies Souls is true;
LG1871	5499	Prudence entirely satisfies the craving and glut of Souls;
LG1871	5500	Itself only finally satisfies the Soul;
LG1871	5501	The Soul has that measureless pride which revolts from every lesson but its own.
LG1871	5502	Now I give you an inkling;
LG1871	5503	Now I breathe the word of the prudence that walks abreast with time, space, reality,
LG1871	5504	That answers the pride which refuses every lesson but its own.
LG1871	5505	What is prudence, is indivisible,
LG1871	5506	Declines to separate one part of life from every part,
LG1871	5507	Divides not the righteous from the unrighteous, or the living from the dead,
LG1871	5508	Matches every thought or act by its correlative,
LG1871	5509	Knows no possible forgiveness, or deputed atonement,
LG1871	5510	Knows that the young man who composedly peril'd his life and lost it, has done exceedingly well for himself, without doubt,
LG1871	5511	That he who never peril'd his life, but retains it to old age in riches and ease, has probably achiev'd nothing for himself worth mentioning;
LG1871	5512	Knows that only that person has really learn'd, who has learn'd to prefer results,
LG1871	5513	Who favors Body and Soul the same,
LG1871	5514	Who perceives the indirect assuredly following the direct,
LG1871	5515	Who in his spirit in any emergency whatever neither hurries or avoids death.
LG1871	5516	O ME, man of slack faith so long!
LG1871	5517	Standing aloof—denying portions so long;
LG1871	5518	Only aware to-day of compact, all-diffused truth;
LG1871	5519	Discovering to-day there is no lie, or form of lie, and can be none, but grows as inevitably upon itself as the truth does upon itself,
LG1871	5520	Or as any law of the earth, or any natural production of the earth does.
LG1871	5521	(This is curious, and may not be realized immediately —But it must be realized;
LG1871	5522	I feel in myself that I represent falsehoods equally with the rest,
LG1871	5523	And that the universe does.)
LG1871	5524	Where has fail'd a perfect return, indifferent of lies or the truth?
LG1871	5525	Is it upon the ground, or in water or fire? or in the spirit of man? or in the meat and blood?
LG1871	5526	Meditating among liars, and retreating sternly into myself, I see that there are really no liars or lies after all,
LG1871	5527	And that nothing fails its perfect return—And that what are called lies are perfect returns,
LG1871	5528	And that each thing exactly represents itself, and what has preceded it,
LG1871	5529	And that the truth includes all, and is compact, just as much as space is compact,
LG1871	5530	And that there is no flaw or vacuum in the amount of the truth—but that all is truth without excep-tionexception;
LG1871	5531	And henceforth I will go celebrate anything I see or am,
LG1871	5532	And sing and laugh, and deny nothing.
LG1871	5533	NOW I make a leaf of Voices—for I have found nothing mightier than they are,
LG1871	5534	And I have found that no word spoken, but is beautiful, in its place.
LG1871	5535	O what is it in me that makes me tremble so at voices?
LG1871	5536	Surely, whoever speaks to me in the right voice, him or her I shall follow,
LG1871	5537	As the water follows the moon, silently, with fluid steps, anywhere around the globe.
LG1871	5538	All waits for the right voices;
LG1871	5539	Where is the practis'd and perfect organ? Where is the develop'd Soul?
LG1871	5540	For I see every word utter'd thence, has deeper, sweeter, new sounds, impossible on less terms.
LG1871	5541	I see brains and lips closed—tympans and temples unstruck,
LG1871	5542	Until that comes which has the quality to strike and to unclose,
LG1871	5543	Until that comes which has the quality to bring forth what lies slumbering, forever ready, in all words.
LG1871	5544	As I sat alone, by blue Ontario's shore,
LG1871	5545	As I mused of these mighty days, and of peace return'd, and the dead that return no more,
LG1871	5546	A Phantom, gigantic, superb, with stern visage, accosted me;
LG1871	5547	Chant me the poem, it said, that comes from the soul of America—chant me the carol of victory;
LG1871	5548	And strike up the marches of Libertad—marches more powerful yet;
LG1871	5549	And sing me before you go, the song of the throes of Democracy.
LG1871	5550	(Democracy—the destin'd conqueror—yet treacherous lip-smiles everywhere,
LG1871	5551	And Death and infidelity at every step.)
LG1871	5552	A Nation announcing itself,
LG1871	5553	I myself make the only growth by which I can be ap-preciatedappreciated,
LG1871	5554	I reject none, accept all, then reproduce all in my own forms.
LG1871	5555	A breed whose proof is in time and deeds;
LG1871	5556	What we are, we are—nativity is answer enough to objections;
LG1871	5557	We wield ourselves as a weapon is wielded,
LG1871	5558	We are powerful and tremendous in ourselves,
LG1871	5559	We are executive in ourselves—We are sufficient in the variety of ourselves,
LG1871	5560	We are the most beautiful to ourselves, and in ourselves;
LG1871	5561	We stand self-pois'd in the middle, branching thence over the world;
LG1871	5562	From Missouri, Nebraska, or Kansas, laughing attacks to scorn.
LG1871	5563	Nothing is sinful to us outside of ourselves,
LG1871	5564	Whatever appears, whatever does not appear, we are beautiful or sinful in ourselves only.
LG1871	5565	(O mother! O sisters dear!
LG1871	5566	If we are lost, no victor else has destroy'd us;
LG1871	5567	It is by ourselves we go down to eternal night.)
LG1871	5568	Have you thought there could be but a single Supreme?
LG1871	5569	There can be any number of Supremes—One does not countervail another, any more than one eyesight countervails another, or one life countervails another.
LG1871	5570	All is eligible to all,
LG1871	5571	All is for individuals—All is for you,
LG1871	5572	No condition is prohibited—not God's, or any.
LG1871	5573	All comes by the body—only health puts you rapport with the universe.
LG1871	5574	Produce great persons, the rest follows.
LG1871	5575	America isolated I sing;
LG1871	5576	I say that works made here in the spirit of other lands, are so much poison in The States.
LG1871	5577	(How dare such insects as we see assume to write poems for America?
LG1871	5578	For our victorious armies, and the offspring following the armies?)
LG1871	5579	Piety and conformity to them that like!
LG1871	5580	Peace, obesity, allegiance, to them that like!
LG1871	5581	I am he who tauntingly compels men, women, nations,
LG1871	5582	Crying, Leap from your seats, and contend for your lives!
LG1871	5583	I am he who walks the States with a barb'd tongue, questioning every one I meet;
LG1871	5584	Who are you, that wanted only to be told what you knew before?
LG1871	5585	Who are you, that wanted only a book to join you in your nonsense?
LG1871	5586	(With pangs and cries, as thine own, O bearer of many children!
LG1871	5587	These clamors wild, to a race of pride I give.)
LG1871	5588	O lands! would you be freer than all that has ever been before!
LG1871	5589	If you would be freer than all that has been before, come listen to me.
LG1871	5590	Fear grace—Fear elegance, civilization, delicatesse,
LG1871	5591	Fear the mellow sweet, the sucking of honey-juice;
LG1871	5592	Beware the advancing mortal ripening of nature,
LG1871	5593	Beware what precedes the decay of the ruggedness of states and men.
LG1871	5594	Ages, precedents, have long been accumulating undi-rectedundirected materials,
LG1871	5595	America brings builders, and brings its own styles.
LG1871	5596	The immortal poets of Asia and Europe have done their work, and pass'd to other spheres,
LG1871	5597	A work remains, the work of surpassing all they have done.
LG1871	5598	America, curious toward foreign characters, stands by its own at all hazards,
LG1871	5599	Stands removed, spacious, composite, sound—initiates the true use of precedents,
LG1871	5600	Does not repel them, or the past, or what they have produced under their forms,
LG1871	5601	Takes the lesson with calmness, perceives the corpse slowly borne from the house,
LG1871	5602	Perceives that it waits a little while in the door—that it was fittest for its days,
LG1871	5603	That its life has descended to the stalwart and well-shapedwell-shaped heir who approaches,
LG1871	5604	And that he shall be fittest for his days.
LG1871	5605	Any period, one nation must lead,
LG1871	5606	One land must be the promise and reliance of the future.
LG1871	5607	These States are the amplest poem,
LG1871	5608	Here is not merely a nation, but a teeming nation of nations,
LG1871	5609	Here the doings of men correspond with the broadcast doings of the day and night,
LG1871	5610	Here is what moves in magnificent masses, careless of particulars,
LG1871	5611	Here are the roughs, beards, friendliness, combative-nesscombativeness, the Soul loves,
LG1871	5612	Here the flowing trains—here the crowds, equality, diversity, the Soul loves.
LG1871	5613	Land of lands, and bards to corroborate!
LG1871	5614	Of them, standing among them, one lifts to the light his west-bred face,
LG1871	5615	To him the hereditary countenance bequeath'd, both mother's and father's,
LG1871	5616	His first parts substances, earth, water, animals, trees,
LG1871	5617	Built of the common stock, having room for far and near,
LG1871	5618	Used to dispense with other lands, incarnating this land,
LG1871	5619	Attracting it Body and Soul to himself, hanging on its neck with incomparable love,
LG1871	5620	Plunging his seminal muscle into its merits and de-meritsdemerits,
LG1871	5621	Making its cities, beginnings, events, diversities, wars, vocal in him,
LG1871	5622	Making its rivers, lakes, bays, embouchure in him,
LG1871	5623	Mississippi with yearly freshets and changing chutes— Columbia, Niagara, Hudson, spending them-selvesthemselves lovingly in him,
LG1871	5624	If the Atlantic coast stretch, or the Pacific coast stretch, he stretching with them north or south,
LG1871	5625	Spanning between them, east and west, and touching whatever is between them,
LG1871	5626	Growths growing from him to offset the growth of pine, cedar, hemlock, live-oak, locust, chestnut, hickory, cotton-wood, orange, magnolia,
LG1871	5627	Tangles as tangled in him as any cane-brake or swamp,
LG1871	5628	He likening sides and peaks of mountains, forests coated with northern transparent ice,
LG1871	5629	Off him pasturage sweet and natural as savanna, up-landupland, prairie,
LG1871	5630	Through him flights, whirls, screams, answering those of the fish-hawk, mocking-bird, night-heron, and eagle;
LG1871	5631	His spirit surrounding his country's spirit, unclosed to good and evil,
LG1871	5632	Surrounding the essences of real things, old times and present times,
LG1871	5633	Surrounding just found shores, islands, tribes of red aborigines,
LG1871	5634	Weather-beaten vessels, landings, settlements, embryo stature and muscle,
LG1871	5635	The haughty defiance of the Year 1—war, peace, the formation of the Constitution,
LG1871	5636	The separate States, the simple, elastic scheme, the im-migrantsimmigrants,
LG1871	5637	The Union, always swarming with blatherers, and always sure and impregnable,
LG1871	5638	The unsurvey'd interior, log-houses, clearings, wild animals, hunters, trappers;
LG1871	5639	Surrounding the multiform agriculture, mines, tem-peraturetemperature, the gestation of new States,
LG1871	5640	Congress convening every Twelfth-month, the mem-bersmembers duly coming up from the uttermost parts;
LG1871	5641	Surrounding the noble character of mechanics and farmers, especially the young men,
LG1871	5642	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,
LG1871	5643	The freshness and candor of their physiognomy, the copiousness and decision of their phrenology,
LG1871	5644	The picturesque looseness of their carriage, their fierce-nessfierceness when wrong'd,
LG1871	5645	The fluency of their speech, their delight in music, their curiosity, good temper, and open-handedness— the whole composite make,
LG1871	5646	The prevailing ardor and enterprise, the large amative-nessamativeness,
LG1871	5647	The perfect equality of the female with the male, the fluid movement of the population,
LG1871	5648	The superior marine, free commerce, fisheries, whaling, gold-digging,
LG1871	5649	Wharf-hemm'd cities, railroad and steamboat lines, in-tersectingintersecting all points,
LG1871	5650	Factories, mercantile life, labor-saving machinery, the north-east, north-west, south-west,
LG1871	5651	Manhattan firemen, the Yankee swap, southern planta-tionplantation life,
LG1871	5652	Slavery—the murderous, treacherous conspiracy to raise it upon the ruins of all the rest;
LG1871	5653	On and on to the grapple with it—Assassin! then your life or ours be the stake—and respite no more.
LG1871	5654	(Lo! high toward heaven, this day,
LG1871	5655	Libertad! from the conqueress' field return'd,
LG1871	5656	I mark the new aureola around your head;
LG1871	5657	No more of soft astral, but dazzling and fierce,
LG1871	5658	With war's flames, and the lambent lightnings playing,
LG1871	5659	And your port immovable where you stand;
LG1871	5660	With still the inextinguishable glance, and the clench'd and lifted fist,
LG1871	5661	And your foot on the neck of the menacing one, the scorner, utterly crush'd beneath you;
LG1871	5662	The menacing, arrogant one, that strode and advanced with his senseless scorn, bearing the murderous knife;
LG1871	5663	—Lo! the wide swelling one, the braggart, that would yesterday do so much!
LG1871	5664	To-day a carrion dead and damn'd, the despised of all the earth!
LG1871	5665	An offal rank, to the dunghill maggots spurn'd.)
LG1871	5666	Others take finish, but the Republic is ever construc-tiveconstructive, and ever keeps vista;
LG1871	5667	Others adorn the past—but you, O days of the present, I adorn you!
LG1871	5668	O days of the future, I believe in you! I isolate myself for your sake;
LG1871	5669	O America, because you build for mankind, I build for you!
LG1871	5670	O well-beloved stone-cutters! I lead them who plan with decision and science,
LG1871	5671	I lead the present with friendly hand toward the fu-turefuture.
LG1871	5672	Bravas to all impulses sending sane children to the next age!
LG1871	5673	But damn that which spends itself, with no thought of the stain, pains, dismay, feebleness, it is be-queathingbequeathing.
LG1871	5674	I listened to the Phantom on Ontario's shore,
LG1871	5675	I heard the voice arising, demanding bards;
LG1871	5676	By them all native and grand—by them alone can The States be fused into the compact organism of a Nation.
LG1871	5677	To hold men together by paper and seal, or by com-pulsioncompulsion, is no account;
LG1871	5678	That only holds men together which aggregates all in a living principle, as the hold of the limbs of the body, or the fibres of plants.
LG1871	5679	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;
LG1871	5680	Their Presidents shall not be their common referee so much as their poets shall.
LG1871	5681	(Soul of love, and tongue of fire!
LG1871	5682	Eye to pierce the deepest deeps, and sweep the world!
LG1871	5683	—Ah, mother! prolific and full in all besides—yet how long barren, barren?)
LG1871	5684	Of These States, the poet is the equable man,
LG1871	5685	Not in him, but off from him, things are grotesque, eccentric, fail of their full returns,
LG1871	5686	Nothing out of its place is good, nothing in its place is bad,
LG1871	5687	He bestows on every object or quality its fit proportion, neither more nor less,
LG1871	5688	He is the arbiter of the diverse, he is the key,
LG1871	5689	He is the equalizer of his age and land,
LG1871	5690	He supplies what wants supplying—he checks what wants checking,
LG1871	5691	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, gov-ernmentgovernment;
LG1871	5692	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;
LG1871	5693	The years straying toward infidelity, he withholds by his steady faith,
LG1871	5694	He is no arguer, he is judgment—(Nature accepts him absolutely;)
LG1871	5695	He judges not as the judge judges, but as the sun fall-ingfalling round a helpless thing;
LG1871	5696	As he sees the farthest, he has the most faith,
LG1871	5697	His thoughts are the hymns of the praise of things,
LG1871	5698	In the dispute on God and eternity he is silent,
LG1871	5699	He sees eternity less like a play with a prologue and denouement,
LG1871	5700	He sees eternity in men and women—he does not see men and women as dreams or dots.
LG1871	5701	For the great Idea, the idea of perfect and free indi-vidualsindividuals,
LG1871	5702	For that idea the bard walks in advance, leader of leaders,
LG1871	5703	The attitude of him cheers up slaves, and horrifies foreign despots.
LG1871	5704	Without extinction is Liberty! without retrograde is Equality!
LG1871	5705	They live in the feelings of young men, and the best women;
LG1871	5706	Not for nothing have the indomitable heads of the earth been always ready to fall for Liberty.
LG1871	5707	For the great Idea!
LG1871	5708	That, O my brethren—that is the mission of Poets.
LG1871	5709	Songs of stern defiance, ever ready,
LG1871	5710	Songs of the rapid arming, and the march,
LG1871	5711	The flag of peace quick-folded, and instead, the flag we know,
LG1871	5712	Warlike flag of the great Idea.
LG1871	5713	(Angry cloth I saw there leaping!
LG1871	5714	I stand again in leaden rain, your flapping folds saluting;
LG1871	5715	I sing you over all, flying, beckoning through the fight —O the hard-contested fight!
LG1871	5716	O the cannons ope their rosy-flashing muzzles! the hurtled balls scream!
LG1871	5717	The battle-front forms amid the smoke—the volleys pour incessant from the line;
LG1871	5718	Hark! the ringing word, Charge!—now the tussle, and the furious maddening yells;
LG1871	5719	Now the corpses tumble curl'd upon the ground,
LG1871	5720	Cold, cold in death, for precious life of you,
LG1871	5721	Angry cloth I saw there leaping.)
LG1871	5722	Are you he who would assume a place to teach, or be a poet here in The States?
LG1871	5723	The place is August—the terms obdurate.
LG1871	5724	Who would assume to teach here, may well prepare himself, body and mind,
LG1871	5725	He may well survey, ponder, arm, fortify, harden, make lithe, himself,
LG1871	5726	He shall surely be question'd beforehand by me with many and stern questions.
LG1871	5727	Who are you, indeed, who would talk or sing to America?
LG1871	5728	Have you studied out the land, its idioms and men?
LG1871	5729	Have you learn'd the physiology, phrenology, politics, geography, pride, freedom, friendship, of the land? its substratums and objects?
LG1871	5730	Have you consider'd the organic compact of the first day of the first year of Independence, sign'd by the Commissioners, ratified by The States, and read by Washington at the head of the army?
LG1871	5731	Have you possess'd yourself of the Federal Constitution?
LG1871	5732	Do you see who have left all feudal processes and poems behind them, and assumed the poems and pro-cessesprocesses of Democracy?
LG1871	5733	Are you faithful to things? do you teach as the land and sea, the bodies of men, womanhood, ama-tivenessamativeness, angers, teach?
LG1871	5734	Have you sped through fleeting customs, popularities?
LG1871	5735	Can you hold your hand against all seductions, follies, whirls, fierce contentions? are you very strong? are you really of the whole people?
LG1871	5736	Are you not of some coterie? some school or mere religion?
LG1871	5737	Are you done with reviews and criticisms of life? ani-matinganimating now to life itself?
LG1871	5738	Have you vivified yourself from the maternity of These States?
LG1871	5739	Have you too the old, ever-fresh forbearance and im-partialityimpartiality?
LG1871	5740	Do you hold the like love for those hardening to ma-turitymaturity; for the last-born? little and big? and for the errant?
LG1871	5741	What is this you bring my America?
LG1871	5742	Is it uniform with my country?
LG1871	5743	Is it not something that has been better told or done before?
LG1871	5744	Have you not imported this, or the spirit of it, in some ship?
LG1871	5745	Is it not a mere tale? a rhyme? a prettiness? is the good old cause in it?
LG1871	5746	Has it not dangled long at the heels of the poets, politicianspoliticians, literats, of enemies' lands?
LG1871	5747	Does it not assume that what is notoriously gone is still here?
LG1871	5748	Does it answer universal needs? will it improve man-nersmanners?
LG1871	5749	Does it sound, with trumpet-voice, the proud victory of the Union, in that secession war?
LG1871	5750	Can your performance face the open fields and the sea-sidesea-side?
LG1871	5751	Will it absorb into me as I absorb food, air—to appear again in my strength, gait, face?
LG1871	5752	Have real employments contributed to it? original makers—not mere amanuenses?
LG1871	5753	Does it meet modern discoveries, calibers, faces, face to face?
LG1871	5754	What does it mean to me? to American persons, pro-gressesprogresses, cities? Chicago, Kanada, Arkansas? the planter, Yankee, Georgian, native, immigrant, sailors, squatters, old States, new States?
LG1871	5755	Does it encompass all The States, and the unexcep-tionalunexceptional rights of all the men and woman of the earth? (the genital impulse of These States;)
LG1871	5756	Does it see behind the apparent custodians, the real custodians, standing, menacing, silent—the me-chanicsmechanics, Manhattanese, western men, southerners, significant alike in their apathy, and in the promptness of their love?
LG1871	5757	Does it see what finally befalls, and has always finally befallen, each temporizer, patcher, outsider, par-tialistpartialist, alarmist, infidel, who has ever ask'd any-thinganything of America?
LG1871	5758	What mocking and scornful negligence?
LG1871	5759	The track strew'd with the dust of skeletons;
LG1871	5760	By the roadside others disdainfully toss'd.
LG1871	5761	Rhymes and rhymers pass away—poems distill'd from foreign poems pass away,
LG1871	5762	The swarms of reflectors and the polite pass, and leave ashes;
LG1871	5763	Admirers, importers, obedient persons, make but the soil of literature;
LG1871	5764	America justifies itself, give it time—no disguise can deceive it, or conceal from it—it is impassive enough,
LG1871	5765	Only towards the likes of itself will it advance to meet them,
LG1871	5766	If its poets appear, it will in due time advance to meet them—there is no fear of mistake,
LG1871	5767	(The proof of a poet shall be sternly deferr'd, till his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorb'd it.)
LG1871	5768	He masters whose spirit masters—he tastes sweetest who results sweetest in the long run;
LG1871	5769	The blood of the brawn beloved of time is unconstraint;
LG1871	5770	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.
LG1871	5771	Already a nonchalant breed, silently emerging, ap-pearsappears on the streets,
LG1871	5772	People's lips salute only doers, lovers, satisfiers, positive knowers;
LG1871	5773	There will shortly be no more priests—I say their work is done.
LG1871	5774	Death is without emergencies here, but life is perpet-ualperpetual emergencies here,
LG1871	5775	Are your body, days, manners, superb? after death you shall be superb;
LG1871	5776	Justice, health, self-esteem, clear the way with irresist-ibleirresistible power;
LG1871	5777	How dare you place anything before a man?
LG1871	5778	Fall behind me, States!
LG1871	5779	A man before all—myself, typical, before all.
LG1871	5780	Give me the pay I have served for!
LG1871	5781	Give me to sing the song of the great Idea! take all the rest;
LG1871	5782	I have loved the earth, sun, animals—I have despised riches,
LG1871	5783	I have given alms to every one that ask'd, stood up for the stupid and crazy, devoted my income and labor to others,
LG1871	5784	I have hated tyrants, argued not concerning God, had patience and indulgence toward the people, taken off my hat to nothing known or unknown,
LG1871	5785	I have gone freely with powerful uneducated persons, and with the young, and with the mothers of families,
LG1871	5786	I have read these leaves to myself in the open air—I have tried them by trees, stars, rivers,
LG1871	5787	I have dismiss'd whatever insulted my own Soul or defiled my Body,
LG1871	5788	I have claim'd nothing to myself which I have not carefully claim'd for others on the same terms,
LG1871	5789	I have sped to the camps, and comrades found and accepted from every State;
LG1871	5790	(In war of you, as well as peace, my suit is good, Amer-icaAmerica—sadly I boast;
LG1871	5791	Upon this breast has many a dying soldier lean'd, to breathe his last;
LG1871	5792	This arm, this hand, this voice, have nourish'd, rais'd, restored,
LG1871	5793	To life recalling many a prostrate form:)
LG1871	5794	—I am willing to wait to be understood by the growth of the taste of myself,
LG1871	5795	I reject none, I permit all.
LG1871	5796	(Say, O mother! have I not to your thought been faithful?
LG1871	5797	Have I not, through life, kept you and yours before me?)
LG1871	5798	I swear I begin to see the meaning of these things!
LG1871	5799	It is not the earth, it is not America, who is so great,
LG1871	5800	It is I who am great, or to be great—it is you up there, or any one;
LG1871	5801	It is to walk rapidly through civilizations, governments, theories,
LG1871	5802	Through poems, pageants, shows, to form great indi-vidualsindividuals.
LG1871	5803	Underneath all, individuals!
LG1871	5804	I swear nothing is good to me now that ignores indi-vidualsindividuals,
LG1871	5805	The American compact is altogether with individuals,
LG1871	5806	The only government is that which makes minute of individuals,
LG1871	5807	The whole theory of the universe is directed to one single individual—namely, to You.
LG1871	5808	(Mother! with subtle sense severe—with the naked sword in your hand,
LG1871	5809	I saw you at last refuse to treat but directly with indi-vidualsindividuals.)
LG1871	5810	Underneath all, nativity,
LG1871	5811	I swear I will stand by my own nativity—pious or im-piousimpious, so be it;
LG1871	5812	I swear I am charm'd with nothing except nativity,
LG1871	5813	Men, women, cities, nations, are only beautiful from nativity.
LG1871	5814	Underneath all is the need of the expression of love for men and women,
LG1871	5815	I swear I have seen enough of mean and impotent modes of expressing love for men and women,
LG1871	5816	After this day I take my own modes of expressing love for men and women.
LG1871	5817	I swear I will have each quality of my race in my-selfmyself,
LG1871	5818	(Talk as you like, he only suits These States whose manners favor the audacity and sublime turbu-lenceturbulence of The States.)
LG1871	5819	Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownerships, I swear I perceive other lessons,
LG1871	5820	Underneath all, to me is myself—to you, yourself—(the same monotonous old song.)
LG1871	5821	O I see now, flashing, that this America is only you and me,
LG1871	5822	Its power, weapons, testimony, are you and me
LG1871	5823	Its crimes, lies, thefts, defections, slavery, are you and me,
LG1871	5824	Its Congress is you and me—the officers, capitols, ar-miesarmies, ships, are you and me,
LG1871	5825	Its endless gestations of new States are you and me,
LG1871	5826	The war—that war so bloody and grim—the war I will henceforth forget—was you and me,
LG1871	5827	Natural and artificial are you and me,
LG1871	5828	Freedom, language, poems, employments, are you and me,
LG1871	5829	Past, present, future, are you and me.
LG1871	5830	I swear I dare not shirk any part of myself,
LG1871	5831	Not any part of America, good or bad,
LG1871	5832	Not the promulgation of Liberty—not to cheer up slaves and horrify foreign despots,
LG1871	5833	Not to build for that which builds for mankind,
LG1871	5834	Not to balance ranks, complexions, creeds, and the sexes,
LG1871	5835	Not to justify science, nor the march of equality,
LG1871	5836	Nor to feed the arrogant blood of the brawn beloved of time.
LG1871	5837	I swear I am for those that have never been mas-ter'dmaster'd!
LG1871	5838	For men and women whose tempers have never been master'd,
LG1871	5839	For those whom laws, theories, conventions, can never master.
LG1871	5840	I swear I am for those who walk abreast with the whole earth!
LG1871	5841	Who inaugurate one, to inaugurate all.
LG1871	5842	I swear I will not be outfaced by irrational things!
LG1871	5843	I will penetrate what it is in them that is sarcastic upon me!
LG1871	5844	I will make cities and civilizations defer to me!
LG1871	5845	This is what I have learnt from America—it is the amount—and it I teach again.
LG1871	5846	(Democracy! while weapons were everywhere aim'd at your breast,
LG1871	5847	I saw you serenely give birth to immortal children— saw in dreams your dilating form;
LG1871	5848	Saw you with spreading mantle covering the world.)
LG1871	5849	I will confront these shows of the day and night!
LG1871	5850	I will know if I am to be less than they!
LG1871	5851	I will see if I am not as majestic as they!
LG1871	5852	I will see if I am not as subtle and real as they!
LG1871	5853	I will see if I am to be less generous than they!
LG1871	5854	I will see if I have no meaning, while the houses and ships have meaning!
LG1871	5855	I will see if the fishes and birds are to be enough for themselves, and I am not to be enough for my-selfmyself.
LG1871	5856	I match my spirit against yours, you orbs, growths, mountains, brutes,
LG1871	5857	Copious as you are, I absorb you all in myself, and be-comebecome the master myself.
LG1871	5858	America isolated, yet embodying all, what is it finally except myself?
LG1871	5859	These States—what are they except myself?
LG1871	5860	I know now why the earth is gross, tantalizing, wicked—it is for my sake,
LG1871	5861	I take you to be mine, you beautiful, terrible, rude forms.
LG1871	5862	(Mother! bend down, bend close to me your face!
LG1871	5863	I know not what these plots and wars, and deferments are for;
LG1871	5864	I know not fruition's success—but I know that through war and peace your work goes on, and must yet go on.)
LG1871	5865	………Thus, by blue Ontario's shore,
LG1871	5866	While the winds fann'd me, and the waves came troop-ingtrooping toward me,
LG1871	5867	I thrill'd with the Power's pulsations—and the charm of my theme was upon me,
LG1871	5868	Till the tissues that held me, parted their ties upon me.
LG1871	5869	And I saw the free Souls of poets;
LG1871	5870	The loftiest bards of past ages strode before me,
LG1871	5871	Strange, large men, long unwaked, undisclosed, were disclosed to me.
LG1871	5872	O my rapt verse, my call—mock me not!
LG1871	5873	Not for the bards of the past—not to invoke them have I launch'd you forth,
LG1871	5874	Not to call even those lofty bards here by Ontario's shores,
LG1871	5875	Have I sung, so capricious and loud, my savage song.
LG1871	5876	Bards for my own land, only, I invoke;
LG1871	5877	(For the war, the war is over—the field is clear'd,)
LG1871	5878	Till they strike up marches henceforth triumphant and onward,
LG1871	5879	To cheer, O mother, your boundless, expectant soul.
LG1871	5880	Bards grand as these days so grand!
LG1871	5881	Bards of the great Idea! Bards of the peaceful inven-tionsinventions! (for the war, the war is over!)
LG1871	5882	Yet Bards of the latent armies—a million soldiers wait-ingwaiting ever-ready,
LG1871	5883	Bards towering like hills—(no more these dots, these pigmies, these little piping straws, these gnats, that fill the hour, to pass for poets;)
LG1871	5884	Bards with songs as from burning coals, or the light-ning'slightning's fork'd stripes!
LG1871	5885	Ample Ohio's bards—bards for California! inland bards—bards of the war;)
LG1871	5886	(As a wheel turns on its axle, so I find my chants turn-ingturning finally on the war;)
LG1871	5887	Bards of pride! Bards tallying the ocean's roar, and the swooping eagle's scream!
LG1871	5888	You, by my charm, I invoke!
LG1871	5889	COME, my tan-faced children,
LG1871	5890	Follow well in order, get your weapons ready;
LG1871	5891	Have you your pistols? have you your sharp edged axes?
LG1871	5892	Pioneers! O pioneers!
LG1871	5893	For we cannot tarry here,
LG1871	5894	We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger,
LG1871	5895	We, the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend, Pioneers! O pioneers!
LG1871	5896	O you youths, western youths,
LG1871	5897	So impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and friendship,
LG1871	5898	Plain I see you, western youths, see you tramping with the foremost,
LG1871	5899	Pioneers! O pioneers!
LG1871	5900	Have the elder races halted?
LG1871	5901	Do they droop and end their lesson, wearied, over there beyond the seas?
LG1871	5902	We take up the task eternal, and the burden, and the lesson,
LG1871	5903	Pioneers! O pioneers!
LG1871	5904	All the past we leave behind;
LG1871	5905	We debouch upon a newer, mightier world, varied world;
LG1871	5906	Fresh and strong the world we seize, world of labor and the march,
LG1871	5907	Pioneers! O pioneers!
LG1871	5908	We detachments steady throwing,
LG1871	5909	Down the edges, through the passes, up the mountains steep,
LG1871	5910	Conquering, holding, daring, venturing, as we go, the unknown ways,
LG1871	5911	Pioneers! O pioneers!
LG1871	5912	We primeval forests felling,
LG1871	5913	We the rivers stemming, vexing we, and piercing deep the mines within;
LG1871	5914	We the surface broad surveying, we the virgin soil up-heavingupheaving,
LG1871	5915	Pioneers! O pioneers!
LG1871	5916	Colorado men are we,
LG1871	5917	From the peaks gigantic, from the great sierras and the high plateaus,
LG1871	5918	From the mine and from the gully, from the hunting trail we come,
LG1871	5919	Pioneers! O pioneers!
LG1871	5920	From Nebraska, from Arkansas,
LG1871	5921	Central inland race are we, from Missouri, with the continental blood intervein'd;
LG1871	5922	All the hands of comrades clasping, all the Southern, all the Northern,
LG1871	5923	Pioneers! O pioneers!
LG1871	5924	O resistless, restless race!
LG1871	5925	O beloved race in all! O my breast aches with tender love for all!
LG1871	5926	O I mourn and yet exult—I am rapt with love for all,
LG1871	5927	Pioneers! O pioneers!
LG1871	5928	Raise the mighty mother mistress,
LG1871	5929	Waving high the delicate mistress, over all the starry mistress, (bend your heads all,)
LG1871	5930	Raise the fang'd and warlike mistress, stern, impassive, weapon'd mistress,
LG1871	5931	Pioneers! O pioneers!
LG1871	5932	See, my children, resolute children,
LG1871	5933	By those swarms upon our rear, we must never yield or falter,
LG1871	5934	Ages back in ghostly millions, frowning there behind us urging,
LG1871	5935	Pioneers! O pioneers!
LG1871	5936	On and on, the compact ranks,
LG1871	5937	With accessions ever waiting, with the places of the dead quickly fill'd,
LG1871	5938	Through the battle, through defeat, moving yet and never stopping,
LG1871	5939	Pioneers! O pioneers!
LG1871	5940	O to die advancing on!
LG1871	5941	Are there some of us to droop and die? has the hour come?
LG1871	5942	Then upon the march we fittest die, soon and sure the gap is fill'd,
LG1871	5943	Pioneers! O pioneers!
LG1871	5944	All the pulses of the world,
LG1871	5945	Falling in, they beat for us, with the western move-mentmovement beat;
LG1871	5946	Holding single or together, steady moving, to the front, all for us,
LG1871	5947	Pioneers! O pioneers!
LG1871	5948	Life's involv'd and varied pageants,
LG1871	5949	All the forms and shows, all the workmen at their work,
LG1871	5950	All the seamen and the landsmen, all the masters with their slaves,
LG1871	5951	Pioneers! O pioneers!
LG1871	5952	All the hapless silent lovers,
LG1871	5953	All the prisoners in the prisons, all the righteous and the wicked,
LG1871	5954	All the joyous, all the sorrowing, all the living, all the dying,
LG1871	5955	Pioneers! O pioneers!
LG1871	5956	I too with my soul and body,
LG1871	5957	We, a curious trio, picking, wandering on our way,
LG1871	5958	Through these shores, amid the shadows, with the ap-paritionsapparitions pressing,
LG1871	5959	Pioneers! O pioneers!
LG1871	5960	Lo! the darting bowling orb!
LG1871	5961	Lo! the brother orbs around! all the clustering suns and planets;
LG1871	5962	All the dazzling days, all the mystic nights with dreams,
LG1871	5963	Pioneers! O pioneers!
LG1871	5964	These are of us, they are with us,
LG1871	5965	All for primal needed work, while the followers there in embryo wait behind,
LG1871	5966	We to-day's procession heading, we the route for travel clearing,
LG1871	5967	Pioneers! O pioneers!
LG1871	5968	O you daughters of the west!
LG1871	5969	O you young and elder daughters! O you mothers and you wives!
LG1871	5970	Never must you be divided, in our ranks you move united,
LG1871	5971	Pioneers! O pioneers!
LG1871	5972	Minstrels latent on the prairies!
LG1871	5973	(Shrouded bards of other lands! you may sleep—you have done your work;)
LG1871	5974	Soon I hear you coming warbling, soon you rise and tramp amid us,
LG1871	5975	Pioneers! O pioneers!
LG1871	5976	Not for delectations sweet;
LG1871	5977	Not the cushion and the slipper, not the peaceful and the studious;
LG1871	5978	Not the riches safe and palling, not for us the tame en-joymentenjoyment,
LG1871	5979	Pioneers! O pioneers!
LG1871	5980	Do the feasters gluttonous feast?
LG1871	5981	Do the corpulent sleepers sleep? have they lock'd and bolted doors?
LG1871	5982	Still be ours the diet hard, and the blanket on the ground,
LG1871	5983	Pioneers! O pioneers?
LG1871	5984	Has the night descended?
LG1871	5985	Was the road of late so toilsome? did we stop discour-ageddiscouraged, nodding on our way?
LG1871	5986	Yet a passing hour I yield you, in your tracks to pause oblivious,
LG1871	5987	Pioneers! O pioneers!
LG1871	5988	Till with sound of trumpet,
LG1871	5989	Far, far off the day-break call—hark! how loud and clear I hear it wind;
LG1871	5990	Swift! to the head of the army!—swift! spring to your places,
LG1871	5991	Pioneers! O pioneers!
LG1871	5992	RESPONDEZ! Respondez!
LG1871	5993	(The war is completed—the price is paid—the title is settled beyond recall;)
LG1871	5994	Let every one answer! let those who sleep be waked! let none evade!
LG1871	5995	Must we still go on with our affectations and sneaking?
LG1871	5996	Let me bring this to a close—I pronounce openly for a new distribution of roles;
LG1871	5997	Let that which stood in front go behind! and let that which was behind advance to the front and speak;
LG1871	5998	Let murderers, bigots, fools, unclean persons, offer new propositions!
LG1871	5999	Let the old propositions be postponed!
LG1871	6000	Let faces and theories be turn'd inside out! let mean-ingsmeanings be freely criminal, as well as results!
LG1871	6001	Let there be no suggestion above the suggestion of drudgery!
LG1871	6002	Let none be pointed toward his destination! (Say! do you know your destination?)
LG1871	6003	Let men and women be mock'd with bodies and mock'd with Souls!
LG1871	6004	Let the love that waits in them, wait! let it die, or pass still-born to other spheres!
LG1871	6005	Let the sympathy that waits in every man, wait! or let it also pass, a dwarf, to other spheres!
LG1871	6006	Let contradictions prevail! let one thing contradict another! and let one line of my poems contra-dictcontradict another!
LG1871	6007	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!
LG1871	6008	(Stifled, O days! O lands! in every public and private corruption!
LG1871	6009	Smother'd in thievery, impotence, shamelessness, moun-tain-highmountain-high;
LG1871	6010	Brazen effrontery, scheming, rolling like ocean's waves around and upon you, O my days! my lands!
LG1871	6011	For not even those thunderstorms, nor fiercest light-ningslightnings of the war, have purified the atmosphere;)
LG1871	6012	—Let the theory of America still be management, caste, comparison! (Say! what other theory would you?)
LG1871	6013	Let them that distrust birth and death still lead the rest! (Say! why shall they not lead you?)
LG1871	6014	Let the crust of hell be near'd and trod on! let the days be darker than the nights! let slumber bring less slumber than waking time brings!
LG1871	6015	Let the world never appear to him or her for whom it was all made!
LG1871	6016	Let the heart of the young man still 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!
LG1871	6017	Let the sun and moon go! let scenery take the applause of the audience! let there be apathy under the stars!
LG1871	6018	Let freedom prove no man's inalienable right! every one who can tyrannize, let him tyrannize to his satisfaction!
LG1871	6019	Let none but infidels be countenanced!
LG1871	6020	Let the eminence of meanness, treachery, sarcasm, hate, greed, indecency, impotence, lust, be taken for granted above all! let writers, judges, govern-mentsgovernments, households, religions, philosophies, take such for granted above all!
LG1871	6021	Let the worst men beget children out of the worst women!
LG1871	6022	Let the priest still play at immortality!
LG1871	6023	Let death be inaugurated!
LG1871	6024	Let nothing remain but the ashes of teachers, artists; moralists, lawyers, and learn'd and polite per-sonspersons!
LG1871	6025	Let him who is without my poems be assassinated!
LG1871	6026	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!
LG1871	6027	Let churches accommodate serpents, vermin, and the corpses of those who have died of the most filty of diseases!
LG1871	6028	Let marriage slip down among fools, and be for none but fools!
LG1871	6029	Let men among themselves talk and think forever ob-scenelyobscenely of women! and let women among them-selvesthemselves talk and think obscenely of men!
LG1871	6030	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!
LG1871	6031	Let nothing but copies at second hand be permitted to exist upon the earth!
LG1871	6032	Let the earth desert God, nor let there ever henceforth be mention'd the name of God!
LG1871	6033	Let there be no God!
LG1871	6034	Let there be money, business, imports, exports, custom, authority, precedents, pallor, dyspepsia, smut, ignorance, unbelief!
LG1871	6035	Let judges and criminals be transposed! let the prison-keepersprison-keepers be put in prison! let those that were prisoners take the keys! (Say! why might they not just as well be transposed?)
LG1871	6036	Let the slaves be masters! let the masters become slaves!
LG1871	6037	Let the reformers descend from the stands where they are forever bawling! let an idiot or insane person appear on each of the stands!
LG1871	6038	Let the Asiatic, the African, the European, the Ameri-canAmerican, and the Australian, go armed against the murderous stealthiness of each other! let them sleep armed! let none believe in good will!
LG1871	6039	Let there be no unfashionable wisdom! let such be scorn'd and derided off from the earth!
LG1871	6040	Let a floating cloud in the sky—let a wave of the sea— let growing mint, spinach, onions, tomatoes— let these be exhibited as shows, at a great price for admission!
LG1871	6041	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!
LG1871	6042	Let shadows be furnish'd with genitals! let substances be deprived of their genitals!
LG1871	6043	Let there be wealthy and immense cities—but still through any of them, not a single poet, savior, knower, lover!
LG1871	6044	Let the infidels of These States laugh all faith away!
LG1871	6045	If one man be found who has faith, let the rest set upon him!
LG1871	6046	Let them affright faith! let them destroy the power of breeding faith!
LG1871	6047	Let the she-harlots and the he-harlots be prudent! let them dance on, while seeming lasts! (O seeming! seeming! seeming!)
LG1871	6048	Let the preachers recite creeds! let them still teach only what they have been taught!
LG1871	6049	Let insanity still have charge of sanity!
LG1871	6050	Let books take the place of trees, animals, rivers, clouds!
LG1871	6051	Let the daub'd portraits of heroes supersede heroes!
LG1871	6052	Let the manhood of man never take steps after itself!
LG1871	6053	Let it take steps after eunuchs, and after consumptive and genteel persons!
LG1871	6054	Let the white person again tread the black person under his heel! (Say! which is trodden under heel after all?)
LG1871	6055	Let the reflections of the things of the world be studied in mirrors! let the things themselves still con-tinuecontinue unstudied!
LG1871	6056	Let a man seek pleasure everywhere except in himself!
LG1871	6057	Let a woman seek happiness everywhere except in herself!
LG1871	6058	(What real happiness have you had one single hour through your whole life?)
LG1871	6059	Let the limited years of life do nothing for the limitless years of death! (What do you suppose death will do, then?)
LG1871	6060	TURN, O Libertad, for the war is over,
LG1871	6061	(From it and all henceforth expanding, doubting no more, resolute, sweeping the world,)
LG1871	6062	Turn from lands retrospective, recording proofs of the past;
LG1871	6063	From the singers that sing the trailing glories of the past;
LG1871	6064	From the chants of the feudal world—the triumphs of kings, slavery, caste;
LG1871	6065	Turn to the world, the triumphs reserv'd and to come— give up that backward world;
LG1871	6066	Leave to the singers of hitherto—give them the trailing past;
LG1871	6067	But what remains, remains for singers for you—wars to come are for you;
LG1871	6068	(Lo! how the wars of the past have duly inured to you —and the wars of the present also inure:)
LG1871	6069	—Then turn, and be not alarm'd, O Libertad—turn your undying face,
LG1871	6070	To where the future, greater than all the past,
LG1871	6071	Is swiftly, surely preparing for you.
LG1871	6072	ADIEU, O soldier!
LG1871	6073	You of the rude campaigning, (which we shared,)
LG1871	6074	The rapid march, the life of the camp,
LG1871	6075	The hot contention of opposing fronts—the long manuver,
LG1871	6076	Red battles with their slaughter,—the stimulus—the strong, terrific game,
LG1871	6077	Spell of all brave and manly hearts—the trains of Time through you, and like of you, all fill'd,
LG1871	6078	With war, and war's expression.
LG1871	6079	Adieu, dear comrade!
LG1871	6080	Your mission is fulfill'd—but I, more warlike,
LG1871	6081	Myself, and this contentious soul of mine,
LG1871	6082	Still on our own compaigning bound,
LG1871	6083	Through untried roads, with ambushes, opponents lined,
LG1871	6084	Through many a sharp defeat and many a crisis—often baffled,
LG1871	6085	Here marching, ever marching on, a war fight out— aye here,
LG1871	6086	To fiercer, weightier battles give expression.
LG1871	6087	As I walk these broad, majestic days of peace,
LG1871	6088	(For the war, the struggle of blood finish'd, wherein, O terrific Ideal!
LG1871	6089	Against vast odds, having gloriously won,
LG1871	6090	Now thou stridest on—yet perhaps in time toward denser wars,
LG1871	6091	Perhaps to engage in time in still more dreadful con-testscontests, dangers,
LG1871	6092	Longer campaigns and crises, labors beyond all others;)
LG1871	6093	—As I walk, solitary, unattended,
LG1871	6094	Around me I hear that eclat of the world—politics, produce,
LG1871	6095	The announcements of recognized things—science,
LG1871	6096	The approved growth of cities, and the spread of inven-tionsinventions.
LG1871	6097	I see the ships (they will last a few years,)
LG1871	6098	The vast factories, with their foremen and workmen,
LG1871	6099	And hear the endorsement of all, and do not object to it.
LG1871	6100	But I too announce solid things;
LG1871	6101	Science, ships, politics, cities, factories, are not nothing —I watch them,
LG1871	6102	Like a grand procession, to music of distant bugles, pouring, triumphantly moving—and grander heaving in sight;
LG1871	6103	They stand for realities—all is as it should be.
LG1871	6104	Then my realities;
LG1871	6105	What else is so real as mine?
LG1871	6106	Libertad, and the divine average—Freedom to every slave on the face of the earth,
LG1871	6107	The rapt promises and lumin of seers—the spiritual world—these centuries-lasting songs,
LG1871	6108	And our visions, the visions of poets, the most solid announcements of any.
LG1871	6109	For we support all, fuse all,
LG1871	6110	After the rest is done and gone, we remain;
LG1871	6111	There is no final reliance but upon us;
LG1871	6112	Democracy rests finally upon us, (I, my brethren, be-ginbegin it,)
LG1871	6113	And our visions sweep through eternity.
LG1871	6114	WEAVE in! weave in, my hardy life!
LG1871	6115	Weave yet a soldier strong and full, for great campaigns to come;
LG1871	6116	Weave in red blood; weave sinews in, like ropes! the senses, sight weave in!
LG1871	6117	Weave lasting sure! weave day and night the weft, the warp, incessant weave! tire not!
LG1871	6118	(We know not what the use, O life! nor know the aim, the end—nor really aught we know;
LG1871	6119	But know the work, the need goes on, and shall go on— the death-envelop'd march of peace as well as war goes on;)
LG1871	6120	For great campaigns of peace the same, the wiry threads to weave;
LG1871	6121	We know not why or what, yet weave, forever weave.
LG1871	6122	RACE of veterans! Race of victors!
LG1871	6123	Race of the soil, ready for conflict! race of the conquer-ingconquering march!
LG1871	6124	(No more credulity's race, abiding-temper'd race;)
LG1871	6125	Race henceforth owning no law but the law of itself;
LG1871	6126	Race of passion and the storm.
LG1871	6127	O SUN of real peace! O hastening light!
LG1871	6128	O free and extatic! O what I here, preparing, warble for!
LG1871	6129	O the sun of the world will ascend, dazzling, and take his height—and you too, O my Ideal, will surely ascend!
LG1871	6130	O so amazing and broad—up there resplendent, dart-ingdarting and burning!
LG1871	6131	O vision prophetic, stagger'd with weight of light! with pouring glories!
LG1871	6132	O lips of my soul, already becoming powerless!
LG1871	6133	O ample and grand Presidentiads! Now the war, the war is over!
LG1871	6134	New history! new heroes! I project you!
LG1871	6135	Visions of poets! only you really last! sweep on! sweep on!
LG1871	6136	O heights too swift and dizzy yet!
LG1871	6137	O purged and luminous! you threaten me more than I can stand!
LG1871	6138	(I must not venture—the ground under my feet men-acesmenaces me—it will not support me:
LG1871	6139	O future too immense,)—O present, I return, while yet I may, to you.
LG1871	6140	SOMETHING startles me where I thought I was safest;
LG1871	6141	I withdraw from the still woods I loved;
LG1871	6142	I will not go now on the pastures to walk;
LG1871	6143	I will not strip the clothes from my body to meet my lover the sea;
LG1871	6144	I will not touch my flesh to the earth, as to other flesh, to renew me.
LG1871	6145	O how can it be that the ground does not sicken?
LG1871	6146	How can you be alive, you growths of spring?
LG1871	6147	How can you furnish health, you blood of herbs, roots, orchards, grain?
LG1871	6148	Are they not continually putting distemper'd corpses within you?
LG1871	6149	Is not every continent work'd over and over with sour dead?
LG1871	6150	Where have you disposed of their carcasses?
LG1871	6151	Those drunkards and gluttons of so many generations;
LG1871	6152	Where have you drawn off all the foul liquid and meat;
LG1871	6153	I do not see any of it upon you to-day—or perhaps I am deceiv'd;
LG1871	6154	I will run a furrow with my plough—I will press my spade through the sod, and turn it up under-neathunderneath;
LG1871	6155	I am sure I shall expose some of the foul meat.
LG1871	6156	Behold this compost! behold it well!
LG1871	6157	Perhaps every mite has once form'd part of a sick per-sonperson—Yet behold!
LG1871	6158	The grass of spring covers the prairies,
LG1871	6159	The bean bursts noiselessly through the mould in the garden,
LG1871	6160	The delicate spear of the onion pierces upward,
LG1871	6161	The apple-buds cluster together on the apple-branches,
LG1871	6162	The resurrection of the wheat appears with pale visage out of its graves,
LG1871	6163	The tinge awakes over the willow-tree and the mulberry-treemulberry-tree,
LG1871	6164	The he-birds carol mornings and evenings, while the birds sit on their nests,
LG1871	6165	The young of poultry break through the hatch'd eggs,
LG1871	6166	The new-born of animals appear—the calf is dropt from the cow, the colt from the mare,
LG1871	6167	Out of its little hill faithfully rise the potato's dark green leaves,
LG1871	6168	Out of its hill rises the yellow maize-stalk—the lilacs bloom in the door-yards;
LG1871	6169	The summer growth is innocent and disdainful above all those strata of sour dead.
LG1871	6170	What chemistry!
LG1871	6171	That the winds are really not infectious,
LG1871	6172	That this is no cheat, this transparent green-wash of the sea, which is so amorous after me,
LG1871	6173	That it is safe to allow it to lick my naked body all over with its tongues,
LG1871	6174	That it will not endanger me with the fevers that have deposited themselves in it,
LG1871	6175	That all is clean forever and forever,
LG1871	6176	That the cool drink from the well tastes so good,
LG1871	6177	That blackberries are so flavorous and juicy,
LG1871	6178	That the fruits of the apple-orchard, and of the orange-orchardorange-orchard—that melons, grapes, peaches, plums, will none of them poison me,
LG1871	6179	That when I recline on the grass I do not catch any disease,
LG1871	6180	Though probably every spear of grass rises out of what was once a catching disease.
LG1871	6181	Now I am terrified at the Earth! it is that calm and patient,
LG1871	6182	It grows such sweet things out of such corruptions,
LG1871	6183	It turns harmless and stainless on its axis, with such endless successions of diseas'd corpses,
LG1871	6184	It distils such exquisite winds out of such infused fetor,
LG1871	6185	It renews with such unwitting looks, its prodigal, an-nualannual, sumptuous crops,
LG1871	6186	It gives such divine materials to men, and accepts such leavings from them at last.
LG1871	6187	NATIONS ten thousand years before These States, and many times ten thousand years before These States;
LG1871	6188	Garner'd clusters of ages, that men and women like us grew up and travel'd their course, and pass'd on;
LG1871	6189	What vast-built cities—what orderly republics—what pastoral tribes and nomads;
LG1871	6190	What histories, rulers, heroes, perhaps transcending all others;
LG1871	6191	What laws, customs, wealth, arts, traditions;
LG1871	6192	What sort of marriage—what costumes—what physi-ologyphysiology and phrenology;
LG1871	6193	What of liberty and slavery among them—what they thought of death and the soul;
LG1871	6194	Who were witty and wise—who beautiful and poetic— who brutish and undevelop'd;
LG1871	6195	Not a mark, not a record remains—And yet all remains.
LG1871	6196	O I know that those men and women were not for nothing, any more than we are for nothing;
LG1871	6197	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.
LG1871	6198	Afar they stand—yet near to me they stand,
LG1871	6199	Some with oval countenances, learn'd and calm,
LG1871	6200	Some naked and savage—Some like huge collections of insects,
LG1871	6201	Some in tents—herdsmen, patriarchs, tribes, horsemen,
LG1871	6202	Some prowling through woods—Some living peaceably on farms, laboring, reaping, filling barns,
LG1871	6203	Some traversing paved avenues, amid temples, palaces, factories, libraries, shows, courts, theatres, won-derfulwonderful monuments.
LG1871	6204	Are those billions of men really gone?
LG1871	6205	Are those women of the old experience of the earth gone?
LG1871	6206	Do their lives, cities, arts, rest only with us?
LG1871	6207	Did they achieve nothing for good, for themselves?
LG1871	6208	I believe of all those billions of men and women that fill'd 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, sinn'd, in life.
LG1871	6209	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;
LG1871	6210	Of their languages, governments, marriage, literature, products, games, wars, manners, crimes, prisons, slaves, heroes, poets, I suspect their results curiously await in the yet unseen world—coun-terpartscounterparts of what accrued to them in the seen world,
LG1871	6211	I suspect I shall meet them there,
LG1871	6212	I suspect I shall there find each old particular of those unnamed lands.
LG1871	6213	I WAS asking for something specific and perfect for my city,
LG1871	6214	Whereupon, lo! upsprang the aboriginal name!
LG1871	6215	Now I see what there is in a name, a word, liquid, sane, unruly, musical, self-sufficient;
LG1871	6216	I see that the word of my city is that word up there,
LG1871	6217	Because I see that word nested in nests of water-bays, superb, with tall and wonderful spires,
LG1871	6218	Rich, hemm'd thick all around with sailships and steamships—an island sixteen miles long, solid-foundedsolid-founded,
LG1871	6219	Numberless crowded streets—high growths of iron, slender, strong, light, splendidly uprising to-wardtoward clear skies,
LG1871	6220	Tides swift and ample, well-loved by me, toward sun-downsundown,
LG1871	6221	The flowing sea-currents, the little islands, larger ad-joiningadjoining islands, the heights, the villas,
LG1871	6222	The countless masts, the white shore-steamers, the light-erslighters, the ferry-boats, the black sea-steamers, well-model'dwell-model'd;
LG1871	6223	The down-town streets, the jobbers' houses of business —the houses of business of the ship-merchants, and money-brokers—the river-streets;
LG1871	6224	Immigrants arriving, fifteen or twenty thousand in a week;
LG1871	6225	The carts hauling goods—the manly race of drivers of horses—the brown-faced sailors;
LG1871	6226	The summer air, the bright sun shining, and the sail-ingsailing clouds aloft;
LG1871	6227	The winter snows, the sleigh-bells—the broken ice in the river, passing along, up or down, with the flood-tide or ebb-tide;
LG1871	6228	The mechanics of the city, the masters, well-form'd, beautiful-faced, looking you straight in the eyes;
LG1871	6229	Trottoirs throng'd—vehicles—Broadway—the women— the shops and shows,
LG1871	6230	The parades, processions, bugles playing, flags flying, drums beating;
LG1871	6231	A million people—manners free and superb—open voices—hospitality—the most courageous and friendly young men;
LG1871	6232	The free city! no slaves! no owners of slaves!
LG1871	6233	The beautiful city, the city of hurried and sparkling waters! the city of spires and masts!
LG1871	6234	The city nested in bays! my city!
LG1871	6235	The city of such women, I am mad to be with them! I will return after death to be with them!
LG1871	6236	The city of such young men, I swear I cannot live happy, without I often go talk, walk, eat, drink, sleep, with them!
LG1871	6237	FAR hence, amid an isle of wondrous beauty,
LG1871	6238	Crouching over a grave, an ancient sorrowful mother,
LG1871	6239	Once a queen—now lean and tatter'd, seated on the ground,
LG1871	6240	Her old white hair drooping dishevel'd round her shoul-dersshoulders;
LG1871	6241	At her feet fallen an unused royal harp,
LG1871	6242	Long silent—she too long silent—mourning her shroud-edshrouded hope and heir;
LG1871	6243	Of all the earth her heart most full of sorrow, because most full of love.
LG1871	6244	Yet a word, ancient mother;
LG1871	6245	You need crouch there no longer on the cold ground, with forehead between your knees;
LG1871	6246	O you need not sit there, veil'd in your old white hair, so dishevel'd;
LG1871	6247	For know you, the one you mourn is not in that grave;
LG1871	6248	It was an illusion—the heir, the son you love, was not really dead;
LG1871	6249	The Lord is not dead—he is risen again, young and strong, in another country;
LG1871	6250	Even while you wept there by your fallen harp, by the grave,
LG1871	6251	What you wept for, was translated, pass'd from the grave,
LG1871	6252	The winds favor'd, and the sea sail'd it,
LG1871	6253	And now with rosy and new blood,
LG1871	6254	Moves to-day in a new country.
LG1871	6255	TO ORATISTS—to male or female,
LG1871	6256	Vocalism, measure, concentration, determination, and the divine power to use words.
LG1871	6257	Are you full-lung'd and limber-lipp'd from long trial? from vigorous practice? from physique?
LG1871	6258	Do you move in these broad lands as broad as they?
LG1871	6259	Come duly to the divine power to use words?
LG1871	6260	For only at last, after many years—after chastity, friendship, procreation, prudence, and nakedness;
LG1871	6261	After treading ground and breasting river and lake;
LG1871	6262	After a loosen'd throat—after absorbing eras, tempera-mentstemperaments, races—after knowledge, freedom, crimes;
LG1871	6263	After complete faith—after clarifyings, elevations, and removing obstructions;
LG1871	6264	After these, and more, it is just possible there comes to a man, a woman, the divine power to use words.
LG1871	6265	Then toward that man or that woman, swiftly hasten all—None refuse, all attend;
LG1871	6266	Armies, ships, antiquities, the dead, libraries, paintings, machines, cities, hate, despair, amity, pain, theft, murder, aspiration, form in close ranks;
LG1871	6267	They debouch as they are wanted to march obediently through the mouth of that man, or that woman.
LG1871	6268	….O I see arise orators fit for inland America;
LG1871	6269	And I see it is as slow to become an orator as to be-comebecome a man;
LG1871	6270	And I see that all power is folded in a great vocalism.
LG1871	6271	Of a great vocalism, the merciless light thereof shall pour, and the storm rage,
LG1871	6272	Every flash shall be a revelation, an insult,
LG1871	6273	The glaring flame on depths, on heights, on suns, on stars,
LG1871	6274	On the interior and exterior of man and woman,
LG1871	6275	On the laws of Nature—on passive materials,
LG1871	6276	On what you called death—(and what to you therefore was death,
LG1871	6277	As far as there can be death.)
LG1871	6278	SOLID, ironical, rolling orb!
LG1871	6279	Master of all, and matter of fact!—at last I accept your terms;
LG1871	6280	Bringing to practical, vulgar tests, of all my ideal dreams,
LG1871	6281	And of me, as lover and hero.
LG1871	6282	BATHED in war's perfume—delicate flag!
LG1871	6283	(Should the days needing armies, needing fleets, come again,)
LG1871	6284	O to hear you call the sailors and the soldiers! flag like a beautiful woman!
LG1871	6285	O to hear the tramp, tramp, of a million answering men! O the ships they arm with joy!
LG1871	6286	O to see you leap and beckon from the tall masts of ships!
LG1871	6287	O to see you peering down on the sailors on the decks!
LG1871	6288	Flag like the eyes of women.
LG1871	6289	DELICATE cluster! flag of teeming life!
LG1871	6290	Covering all my lands! all my sea-shores lining!
LG1871	6291	Flag of death! (how I watch'd you through the smoke of battle pressing!
LG1871	6292	How I heard you flap and rustle, cloth defiant!)
LG1871	6293	Flag cerulean! sunny flag! with the orbs of night dap-pleddappled!
LG1871	6294	Ah my silvery beauty! ah my woolly white and crim-soncrimson!
LG1871	6295	Ah to sing the song of you, my matron mighty!
LG1871	6296	My sacred one, my mother.
LG1871	6297	O A new song, a free song,
LG1871	6298	Flapping, flapping, flapping, flapping, by sounds, by voices clearer,
LG1871	6299	By the wind's voice and that of the drum,
LG1871	6300	By the banner's voice, and child's voice, and sea's voice, and father's voice,
LG1871	6301	Low on the ground and high in the air,
LG1871	6302	On the ground where father and child stand,
LG1871	6303	In the upward air where their eyes turn,
LG1871	6304	Where the banner at day-break is flapping.
LG1871	6305	Words! book-words! what are you?
LG1871	6306	Words no more, for hearken and see,
LG1871	6307	My song is there in the open air—and I must sing,
LG1871	6308	With the banner and pennant a-flapping.
LG1871	6309	I'll weave the cord and twine in,
LG1871	6310	Man's desire and babe's desire—I'll twine them in, I'll put in life;
LG1871	6311	I'll put the bayonet's flashing point—I'll let bullets and slugs whizz;
LG1871	6312	(As one carrying a symbol and menace, far into the future,
LG1871	6313	Crying with trumpet voice, Arouse and beware! Beware and arouse!)
LG1871	6314	I'll pour the verse with streams of blood, full of voli-tionvolition, full of joy;
LG1871	6315	Then loosen, launch forth, to go and compete,
LG1871	6316	With the banner and pennant a-flapping.
LG1871	6317	Come up here, bard, bard;
LG1871	6318	Come up here, soul, soul;
LG1871	6319	Come up here, dear little child,
LG1871	6320	To fly in the clouds and winds with me, and play with the measureless light.
LG1871	6321	Father, what is that in the sky beckoning to me with long finger?
LG1871	6322	And what does it say to me all the while?
LG1871	6323	Nothing, my babe, you see in the sky;
LG1871	6324	And nothing at all to you it says. But look you, my babe,
LG1871	6325	Look at these dazzling things in the houses, and see you the money-shops opening;
LG1871	6326	And see you the vehicles preparing to crawl along the streets with goods:
LG1871	6327	These! ah, these! how valued and toil'd for, these!
LG1871	6328	How envied by all the earth!
LG1871	6329	Fresh and rosy red, the sun is mounting high;
LG1871	6330	On floats the sea in distant blue, careering through its channels;
LG1871	6331	On floats the wind over the breast of the sea, setting in toward land;
LG1871	6332	The great steady wind from west and west-by-south,
LG1871	6333	Floating so buoyant, with milk-white foam on the waters.
LG1871	6334	But I am not the sea, nor the red sun;
LG1871	6335	I am not the wind with girlish laughter;
LG1871	6336	Not the immense wind which strengthens—not the wind which lashes;
LG1871	6337	Not the spirit that ever lashes its own body to terror and death;
LG1871	6338	But I am that which unseen comes and sings, sings, sings,
LG1871	6339	Which babbles in brooks and scoots in showers on the land,
LG1871	6340	Which the birds know in the woods, mornings and evenings,
LG1871	6341	And the shore-sands know, and the hissing wave, and that banner and pennant,
LG1871	6342	Aloft there flapping and flapping.
LG1871	6343	O father, it is alive—it is full of people—it has chil-drenchildren!
LG1871	6344	O now it seems to me it is talking to its children!
LG1871	6345	I hear it—it talks to me—O it is wonderful!
LG1871	6346	O if stretches—it spreads and runs so fast! O my father,
LG1871	6347	It is so broad, it covers the whole sky!
LG1871	6348	Cease, cease, my foolish babe,
LG1871	6349	What you are saying is sorrowful to me—much it dis-pleasesdispleases me;
LG1871	6350	Behold with the rest, again I say—behold not banners and pennants aloft;
LG1871	6351	But the well-prepar'd pavements behold—and mark the solid-wall'd houses.
LG1871	6352	Speak to the child, O bard, out of Manhattan;
LG1871	6353	(The war is over—yet never over….out of it, we are born to real life and identity;)
LG1871	6354	Speak to our children all, or north or south of Man-hattanManhattan,
LG1871	6355	Where our factory-engines hum, where our miners delve the ground,
LG1871	6356	Where our hoarse Niagara rumbles, where our prairie-plowsprairie-plows are plowing;
LG1871	6357	Speak, O bard! point this day, leaving all the rest, to us over all—and yet we know not why;
LG1871	6358	For what are we, mere strips of cloth, profiting nothing,
LG1871	6359	Only flapping in the wind?
LG1871	6360	I hear and see not strips of cloth alone;
LG1871	6361	I hear again the tramp of armies, I hear the challenging sentry;
LG1871	6362	I hear the jubilant shouts of millions of men—I hear LIBERTY!
LG1871	6363	I hear the drums beat, and the trumpets yet blowing;
LG1871	6364	I myself move abroad, swift-rising, flying then;
LG1871	6365	I use the wings of the land-bird, and use the wings of the sea-bird, and look down as from a height;
LG1871	6366	I do not deny the precious results of peace—I see pop-ulouspopulous cities, with wealth incalculable;
LG1871	6367	I see numberless farms—I see the farmers working in their fields or barns;
LG1871	6368	I see mechanics working—I see buildings everywhere founded, going up, or finish'd;
LG1871	6369	I see trains of cars swiftly speeding along railroad tracks, drawn by the locomotives;
LG1871	6370	I see the stores, depots, of Boston, Baltimore, Charles-tonCharleston, New Orleans;
LG1871	6371	I see far in the west the immense area of grain—I dwell awhile, hovering;
LG1871	6372	I pass to the lumber forests of the north, and again to the southern plantation, and again to California;
LG1871	6373	Sweeping the whole, I see the countless profit, the busy gatherings, earned wages;
LG1871	6374	See the identity formed out of thirty-eight spacious and haughty States, (and many more to come;)
LG1871	6375	See forts on the shores of harbors—see ships sailing in and out;
LG1871	6376	Then over all, (aye! aye!) my little and lengthen'd pennant shaped like a sword,
LG1871	6377	Runs swiftly up, indicating war and defiance—And now the halyards have rais'd it,
LG1871	6378	Side of my banner broad and blue—side of my starry banner,
LG1871	6379	Discarding peace over all the sea and land.
LG1871	6380	Yet louder, higher, stronger, bard! yet farther, wider cleave!
LG1871	6381	No longer let our children deem us riches and peace alone;
LG1871	6382	We may be terror and carnage, and are so now;
LG1871	6383	Not now are we any one of these spacious and haughty States, (nor any five, nor ten;)
LG1871	6384	Nor market nor depot are we, nor money-bank in the city;
LG1871	6385	But these, and all, and the brown and spreading land, and the mines below, are ours;
LG1871	6386	And the shores of the sea are ours, and the rivers great and small;
LG1871	6387	And the fields they moisten are ours, and the crops and the fruits are ours;
LG1871	6388	Bays and channels, and ships sailing in and out, are ours—and we over all,
LG1871	6389	Over the area spread below, the three or four millions of square miles—the capitals,
LG1871	6390	The forty millions of people—O bard! in life and death supreme,
LG1871	6391	We, even we, henceforth flaunt out masterful, high up above,
LG1871	6392	Not for the present alone, for a thousand years, chant-ingchanting through you,
LG1871	6393	This song to the soul of one poor little child.
LG1871	6394	O my father, I like not the houses;
LG1871	6395	They will never to me be anything—nor do I like money;
LG1871	6396	But to mount up there I would like, O father dear— that banner I like;
LG1871	6397	That pennant I would be, and must be.
LG1871	6398	Child of mine, you fill me with anguish;
LG1871	6399	To be that pennant would be too fearful;
LG1871	6400	Little you know what it is this day, and after this day, forever;
LG1871	6401	It is to gain nothing, but risk and defy everything;
LG1871	6402	Forward to stand in front of wars—and O, such wars; —what have you to do with them?
LG1871	6403	With passions of demons, slaughter, premature death?
LG1871	6404	Demons and death then I sing;
LG1871	6405	Put in all, aye all, will I—sword-shaped pennant for war, and banner so broad and blue,
LG1871	6406	And a pleasure new and extatic, and the prattled yearn-ingyearning of children,
LG1871	6407	Blent with the sounds of the peaceful land, and the liquid wash of the sea;
LG1871	6408	And the black ships, fighting on the sea, enveloped in smoke;
LG1871	6409	And the icy cool of the far, far north, with rustling cedars and pines;
LG1871	6410	And the whirr of drums, and the sound of soldiers marching, and the hot sun shining south;
LG1871	6411	And the beach-waves combing over the beach on my eastern shore, and my western shore the same;
LG1871	6412	And all between those shores, and my ever-running Mississippi, with bends and chutes;
LG1871	6413	And my Illinois fields, and my Kansas fields, and my fields of Missouri;
LG1871	6414	The CONTINENT—devoting the whole identity, without reserving an atom,
LG1871	6415	Pour in! whelm that which asks, which sings, with all, and the yield of all.
LG1871	6416	Aye all! for ever, for all!
LG1871	6417	From sea to sea, north and south, east and west,
LG1871	6418	(The war is completed, the price is paid, the title is settled beyond recall;)
LG1871	6419	Fusing and holding, claiming, devouring the whole;
LG1871	6420	No more with tender lip, nor musical labial sound,
LG1871	6421	But, out of the night emerging for good, our voice per-suasivepersuasive no more,
LG1871	6422	Croaking like crows here in the wind.
LG1871	6423	My limbs, my veins dilate;
LG1871	6424	The blood of the world has fill'd me full—my theme is clear at last:
LG1871	6425	—Banner so broad, advancing out of the night, I sing you haughty and resolute;
LG1871	6426	I burst through where I waited long, too long, deafen'd and blinded;
LG1871	6427	My sight, my hearing and tongue, are come to me, (a little child taught me;)
LG1871	6428	I hear from above, O pennant of war, your ironical call and demand;
LG1871	6429	Insensate! insensate! (yet I at any rate chant you,) O banner!
LG1871	6430	Not houses of peace indeed are you, nor any nor all their prosperity, (if need be, you shall again have every one of those houses to destroy them;
LG1871	6431	You thought not to destroy those valuable houses, standing fast, full of comfort, built with money;
LG1871	6432	May they stand fast, then? Not an hour, except you, above them and all, stand fast;)
LG1871	6433	—O banner! not money so precious are you, not farm produce you, nor the material good nutriment,
LG1871	6434	Nor excellent stores, nor landed on wharves from the ships;
LG1871	6435	Not the superb ships, with sail-power or steam-power, fetching and carrying cargoes,
LG1871	6436	Nor machinery, vehicles, trade, nor revenues,—But you, as henceforth I see you,
LG1871	6437	Running up out of the night, bringing your cluster of stars, (ever-enlarging stars;)
LG1871	6438	Divider of day-break you, cutting the air, touch'd by the sun, measuring the sky,
LG1871	6439	(Passionately seen and yearn'd for by one poor little child,
LG1871	6440	While others remain busy, or smartly talking, forever teaching thrift, thrift;)
LG1871	6441	O you up there! O pennant! where you undulate like a snake, hissing so curious,
LG1871	6442	Out of reach—an idea only—yet furiously fought for, risking bloody death—loved by me!
LG1871	6443	So loved! O you banner leading the day, with stars brought from the night!
LG1871	6444	Valueless, object of eyes, over all and demanding all— (absolute owner of ALL)—O banner and pennant!
LG1871	6445	I too leave the rest—great as it is, it is nothing—houses, machines are nothing—I see them not;
LG1871	6446	I see but you, O warlike pennant! O banner so broad, with stripes, I sing you only,
LG1871	6447	Flapping up there in the wind.
LG1871	6448	WHO are you, dusky woman, so ancient, hardly human,
LG1871	6449	With your woolly-white and turban'd head, and bare bony feet?
LG1871	6450	Why, rising by the roadside here, do you the colors greet?
LG1871	6451	('Tis while our army lines Carolina's sand and pines,
LG1871	6452	Forth from thy hovel door, thou, Ethiopia, com'st to me,
LG1871	6453	As, under doughty Sherman, I march toward the sea.)
LG1871	6454	Me, master, years a hundred, since from my parents sun-der'dsunder'd,
LG1871	6455	A little child, they caught me as the savage beast is caught;
LG1871	6456	Then hither me, across the sea, the cruel slaver brought.
LG1871	6457	No further does she say, but lingering all the day,
LG1871	6458	Her high-borne turban'd head she wags, and rolls her darkling eye,
LG1871	6459	And curtseys to the regiments, the guidons moving by.
LG1871	6460	What is it, fateful woman—so blear, hardly human?
LG1871	6461	Why wag your head, with turban bound—yellow, red and green?
LG1871	6462	Are the things so strange and marvelous, you see or have seen?
LG1871	6463	Lo! Victress on the peaks!
LG1871	6464	Where thou, with mighty brow, regarding the world,
LG1871	6465	(The world, O Libertad, that vainly conspired against thee;)
LG1871	6466	Out of its countless, beleaguering toils, after thwarting them all;)
LG1871	6467	Dominant, with the dazzling sun around thee,
LG1871	6468	Flauntest now unharm'd, in immortal soundness and bloom—lo! in these hours supreme,
LG1871	6469	No poem proud, I, chanting, bring to thee—nor mastery's rapturous verse;
LG1871	6470	But a book, containing night's darkness, and blood-drippingblood-dripping wounds,
LG1871	6471	And psalms of the dead.
LG1871	6472	WORLD, take good notice, silver stars fading,
LG1871	6473	Milky hue ript, weft of white detaching,
LG1871	6474	Coals thirty-eight, baleful and burning,
LG1871	6475	Scarlet, significant, hands off warning,
LG1871	6476	Now and henceforth flaunt from these shores.
LG1871	6477	THICK-SPRINKLED bunting! Flag of stars!
LG1871	6478	Long yet your road, fateful flag!—long yet your road, and lined with bloody death!
LG1871	6479	For the prize I see at issue, at last is the world!
LG1871	6480	All its ships and shores I see, interwoven with your threads, greedy banner!
LG1871	6481	—Dream'd again the flags of kings, highest borne, to flaunt unrival'd?
LG1871	6482	O hasten, flag of man! O with sure and steady step, passing highest flags of kings,
LG1871	6483	Walk supreme to the heavens, mighty symbol—run up above them all,
LG1871	6484	Flag of stars! thick-sprinkled bunting!
LG1871	6485	HOLD it up sternly! See this it sends back! (Who is it? Is it you?)
LG1871	6486	Outside fair costume—within ashes and filth,
LG1871	6487	No more a flashing eye—no more a sonorous voice or springy step;
LG1871	6488	Now some slave's eye, voice, hands, step,
LG1871	6489	A drunkard's breath, unwholesome eater's face, vene-realee'svenerealee's flesh,
LG1871	6490	Lungs rotting away piecemeal, stomach sour and can-kerouscankerous,
LG1871	6491	Joints rheumatic, bowels clogged with abomination,
LG1871	6492	Blood circulating dark and poisonous streams,
LG1871	6493	Words babble, hearing and touch callous,
LG1871	6494	No brain, no heart left—no magnetism of sex;
LG1871	6495	Such, from one look in this looking-glass ere you go hence,
LG1871	6496	Such a result so soon—and from such a beginning!
LG1871	6497	FORMS, qualities, lives, humanity, language, thoughts,
LG1871	6498	The ones known, and the ones unknown—the ones on the stars,
LG1871	6499	The stars themselves, some shaped, others unshaped,
LG1871	6500	Wonders as of those countries—the soil, trees, cities, inhabitants, whatever they may be,
LG1871	6501	Splendid suns, the moons and rings, the countless com-binationscombinations and effects;
LG1871	6502	Such-like, and as good as such-like, visible here or any-whereanywhere, stand provided for in a handful of space, which I extend my arm and half enclose with my hand;
LG1871	6503	That contains the start of each and all—the virtue, the germs of all.
LG1871	6504	O ME! O life!…of the questions of these recurring;
LG1871	6505	Of the endless trains of the faithless—of cities fill'd with the foolish;
LG1871	6506	Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
LG1871	6507	Of eyes that vainly crave the light—of the objects mean —of the struggle ever renew'd;
LG1871	6508	Of the poor results of all—of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me;
LG1871	6509	Of the empty and useless years of the rest—with the rest me intertwined;
LG1871	6510	The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?
LG1871	6511	That you are here—that life exists, and identity;
LG1871	6512	That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.
LG1871	6513	OF Public Opinion;
LG1871	6514	Of a calm and cool fiat, sooner or later, (How impas-siveimpassive! How certain and final!)
LG1871	6515	Of the President with pale face, asking secretly to him-selfhimself, What will the people say at last?
LG1871	6516	Of the frivolous Judge—Of the corrupt Congressman, Governor, Mayor—Of such as these, standing helpless and exposed;
LG1871	6517	Of the mumbling and screaming priest—(soon, soon deserted;)
LG1871	6518	Of the lessening, year by year, of venerableness, and of the dicta of officers, statutes, pulpits, schools;
LG1871	6519	Of the rising forever taller and stronger and broader, of the intuitions of men and women, and of self-esteemself-esteem, and of personality;
LG1871	6520	—Of the New World—Of the Democracies, resplendent, en-masse;
LG1871	6521	Of the conformity of politics, armies, navies, to them and to me,
LG1871	6522	Of the shining sun by them—Of the inherent light, greater than the rest,
LG1871	6523	Of the envelopment of all by them, and of the effusion of all from them.
LG1871	6524	How they are provided for upon the earth, (appearing at intervals;)
LG1871	6525	How dear and dreadful they are to the earth;
LG1871	6526	How they inure to themselves as much as to any— What a paradox appears, their age;
LG1871	6527	How people respond to them, yet know them not;
LG1871	6528	How there is something relentless in their fate, all times;
LG1871	6529	How all times mischoose the objects of their adulation and reward,
LG1871	6530	And how the same inexorable price must still be paid for the same great purchase.
LG1871	6531	STILL, though the one I sing,
LG1871	6532	(One, yet of contradictions made,) I dedicate to Nation-alityNationality,
LG1871	6533	I leave in him Revolt, (O latent right of insurrection! O quenchless, indispensable fire!)
LG1871	6534	COURAGE yet! my brother or my sister!
LG1871	6535	Keep on! Liberty is to be subserv'd, whatever occurs;
LG1871	6536	That is nothing, that is quell'd by one or two failures, or any number of failures,
LG1871	6537	Or by the indifference or ingratitude of the people, or by any unfaithfulness,
LG1871	6538	Or the show of the tushes of power, soldiers, cannon, penal statutes.
LG1871	6539	Revolt! and still revolt! revolt!
LG1871	6540	What we believe in waits latent forever through all the continents, and all the islands and archi-pelagosarchipelagos of the sea;
LG1871	6541	What we believe in invites no one, promises nothing, sits in calmness and light, is positive and com-posedcomposed, knows no discouragement,
LG1871	6542	Waiting patiently, waiting its time.
LG1871	6543	(Not songs of loyalty alone are these,
LG1871	6544	But songs of insurrection also;
LG1871	6545	For I am the sworn poet of every dauntless rebel, the world over,
LG1871	6546	And he going with me leaves peace and routine behind him,
LG1871	6547	And stakes his life, to be lost at any moment.)
LG1871	6548	Revolt! and the downfall of tyrants!
LG1871	6549	The battle rages with many a loud alarm, and frequent advance and retreat,
LG1871	6550	The infidel triumphs—or supposes he triumphs,
LG1871	6551	Then the prison, scaffold, garrote, hand-cuffs, iron neck-lacenecklace and anklet, lead-balls, do their work,
LG1871	6552	The named and unnamed heroes pass to other spheres,
LG1871	6553	The great speakers and writers are exiled—they lie sick in distant lands,
LG1871	6554	The cause is asleep—the strongest throats are still, choked with their own blood,
LG1871	6555	The young men droop their eyelashes toward the ground when they meet;
LG1871	6556	—But for all this, liberty has not gone out of the place, nor the infidel enter'd into full possession,
LG1871	6557	When liberty goes out of a place, it is not the first to go, nor the second or third to go,
LG1871	6558	It waits for all the rest to go—it is the last.
LG1871	6559	When there are no more memories of heroes and martyrs,
LG1871	6560	And when all life, and all the souls of men and women are discharged from any part of the earth,
LG1871	6561	Then only shall liberty, or the idea of liberty, be dis-chargeddischarged from that part of the earth,
LG1871	6562	And the infidel come into full possession.
LG1871	6563	Then courage! European revolter! revoltress!
LG1871	6564	For, till all ceases, neither must you cease.
LG1871	6565	I do not know what you are for, (I do not know what I am for myself, nor what anything is for,)
LG1871	6566	But I will search carefully for it even in being foil'd,
LG1871	6567	In defeat, poverty, misconception, imprisonment—for they too are great.
LG1871	6568	Revolt! and the bullet for tyrants!
LG1871	6569	Did we think victory great?
LG1871	6570	So it is—But now it seems to me, when it cannot be help'd, that defeat is great,
LG1871	6571	And that death and dismay are great.
LG1871	6572	A GREAT year and place;
LG1871	6573	A harsh, discordant, natal scream out-sounding, to touch the mother's heart closer than any yet.
LG1871	6574	I walk'd the shores of my Eastern Sea,
LG1871	6575	Heard over the waves the little voice,
LG1871	6576	Saw the divine infant, where she woke, mournfully wail-ingwailing, amid the roar of cannon, curses, shouts, crash of falling buildings;
LG1871	6577	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;
LG1871	6578	Was not so desperate at the battues of death—was not so shock'd at the repeated fusillades of the guns.
LG1871	6579	Pale, silent, stern, what could I say to that long-accruedlong-accrued retribution?
LG1871	6580	Could I wish humanity different?
LG1871	6581	Could I wish the people made of wood and stone?
LG1871	6582	Or that there be no justice in destiny or time?
LG1871	6583	O Liberty! O mate for me!
LG1871	6584	Here too the blaze, the grape-shot and the axe, in re-servereserve, to fetch them out in case of need;
LG1871	6585	Here too, though long represt, can never be destroy'd;
LG1871	6586	Here too could rise at last, murdering and extatic;
LG1871	6587	Here too demanding full arrears of vengeance.
LG1871	6588	Hence I sign this salute over the sea,
LG1871	6589	And I do not deny that terrible red birth and baptism,
LG1871	6590	But remember the little voice that I heard wailing—and wait with perfect trust, no matter how long;
LG1871	6591	And from to-day, sad and cogent, I maintain the be-queath'dbequeath'd cause, as for all lands,
LG1871	6592	And I send these words to Paris with my love,
LG1871	6593	And I guess some chansonniers there will understand them,
LG1871	6594	For I guess there is latent music yet in France—floods of it;
LG1871	6595	O I hear already the bustle of instruments—they will soon be drowning all that would interrupt them;
LG1871	6596	O I think the east wind brings a triumphal and free march,
LG1871	6597	It reaches hither—it swells me to joyful madness,
LG1871	6598	I will run transpose it in words, to justify it,
LG1871	6599	I will yet sing a song for you, MA FEMME.
LG1871	6600	SUDDENLY, out of its stale and drowsy lair, the lair of slaves,
LG1871	6601	Like lightning it le'pt forth, half startled at itself,
LG1871	6602	Its feet upon the ashes and the rags—its hands tight to the throats of kings.
LG1871	6603	O hope and faith!
LG1871	6604	O aching close of exiled patriots' lives!
LG1871	6605	O many a sicken'd heart!
LG1871	6606	Turn back unto this day, and make yourselves afresh.
LG1871	6607	And you, paid to defile the People! you liars, mark!
LG1871	6608	Not for numberless agonies, murders, lusts,
LG1871	6609	For court thieving in its manifold mean forms, worming from his simplicity the poor man's wages,
LG1871	6610	For many a promise sworn by royal lips, and broken, and laugh'd at in the breaking,
LG1871	6611	Then in their power, not for all these, did the blows strike revenge, or the heads of the nobles fall;
LG1871	6612	The People scorn'd the ferocity of kings;
LG1871	6613	But the sweetness of mercy brew'd bitter destruction, and the frighten'd monarchs come back;
LG1871	6614	Each comes in state, with his train—hangman, priest, tax-gatherer,
LG1871	6615	Soldier, lawyer, lord, jailer, and sycophant.
LG1871	6616	Yet behind all, lowering, stealing—lo, a Shape,
LG1871	6617	Vague as the night, draped interminably, head, front and form, in scarlet folds,
LG1871	6618	Whose face and eyes none may see,
LG1871	6619	Out of its robes only this—the red robes, lifted by the arm,
LG1871	6620	One finger, crook'd, pointed high over the top, like the head of a snake appears.
LG1871	6621	Meanwhile, corpses lie in new-made graves—bloody corpses of young men,
LG1871	6622	The rope of the gibbet hangs heavily, the bullets of princes are flying, the creatures of power laugh aloud,
LG1871	6623	And all these things bear fruits—and they are good.
LG1871	6624	Those corpses of young men,
LG1871	6625	Those martrys that hang from the gibbets—those hearts pierc'd by the gray lead,
LG1871	6626	Cold and motionless as they seem, live elsewhere with unslaughter'd vitality.
LG1871	6627	They live in other young men, O kings!
LG1871	6628	They live in brothers, again ready to defy you!
LG1871	6629	They were purified by death—they were taught and exalted.
LG1871	6630	Not a grave of the murder'd for freedom, but grows seed for freedom, in its turn to bear seed,
LG1871	6631	Which the winds carry afar and re-sow, and the rains and the snows nourish.
LG1871	6632	Not a disembodied spirit can the weapons of tyrants let loose,
LG1871	6633	But it stalks invisibly over the earth, whispering, coun-selingcounseling, cautioning.
LG1871	6634	Liberty! let others despair of you! I never despair of you.
LG1871	6635	Is the house shut? Is the master away?
LG1871	6636	Nevertheless, be ready—be not weary of watching;
LG1871	6637	He will soon return—his messengers come anon.
LG1871	6638	TO The States, or any one of them, or any city of The States, Resist much, obey little;
LG1871	6639	Once unquestioning obedience, once fully enslaved;
LG1871	6640	Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city, of this earth, ever afterward resumes its liberty.
LG1871	6641	HERE, take this gift!
LG1871	6642	I was reserving it for some hero, speaker, or General,
LG1871	6643	One who should serve the good old cause, the great Idea, the progress and freedom of the race;
LG1871	6644	Some brave confronter of despots—some daring rebel;
LG1871	6645	—But I see that what I was reserving, belongs to you just as much as to any.
LG1871	6646	WHOEVER you are, I fear you are walking the walks of dreams,
LG1871	6647	I fear these supposed realities are to melt from under your feet and hands;
LG1871	6648	Even now, your features, joys, speech, house, trade, manners, troubles, follies, costume, crimes, dissi-patedissipate away from you,
LG1871	6649	Your true Soul and Body appear before me,
LG1871	6650	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.
LG1871	6651	Whoever you are, now I place my hand upon you, that you be my poem;
LG1871	6652	I whisper with my lips close to your ear,
LG1871	6653	I have loved many women and men, but I love none better than you.
LG1871	6654	O I have been dilatory and dumb;
LG1871	6655	I should have made my way straight to you long ago;
LG1871	6656	I should have blabb'd nothing but you, I should have chanted nothing but you.
LG1871	6657	I will leave all, and come and make the hymns of you;
LG1871	6658	None have understood you, but I understand you;
LG1871	6659	None have done justice to you—you have not done justice to yourself;
LG1871	6660	None but have found you imperfect—I only find no imperfection in you;
LG1871	6661	None but would subordinate you—I only am he who will never consent to subordinate you;
LG1871	6662	I only am he who places over you no master, owner, better, God, beyond what waits intrinsically in yourself.
LG1871	6663	Painters have painted their swarming groups, and the centre figure of all;
LG1871	6664	From the head of the centre figure spreading a nimbus of gold-color'd light;
LG1871	6665	But I paint myriads of heads, but paint no head with-outwithout its nimbus of gold-color'd light;
LG1871	6666	From my hand, from the brain of every man and woman it streams, effulgently flowing forever.
LG1871	6667	O I could sing such grandeurs and glories about you!
LG1871	6668	You have not known what you are—you have slumber'd upon yourself all your life;
LG1871	6669	Your eye-lids have been the same as closed most of the time;
LG1871	6670	What you have done returns already in mockeries;
LG1871	6671	Your thrift, knowledge, prayers, if they do not return in mockeries, what is their return?)
LG1871	6672	The mockeries are not you;
LG1871	6673	Underneath them, and within them, I see you lurk;
LG1871	6674	I pursue you where none else has pursued you;
LG1871	6675	Silence, the desk, the flippant expression, the night, the accustom'd routine, if these conceal you from others, or from yourself, they do not conceal you from me;
LG1871	6676	The shaved face, the unsteady eye, the impure com-plexioncomplexion, if these balk others, they do not balk me,
LG1871	6677	The pert apparel, the deform'd attitude, drunkenness, greed, premature death, all these I part aside.
LG1871	6678	There is no endowment in man or woman that is not tallied in you;
LG1871	6679	There is no virtue, no beauty, in man or woman, but as good is in you;
LG1871	6680	No pluck, no endurance in others, but as good is in you;
LG1871	6681	No pleasure waiting for others, but an equal pleasure waits for you.
LG1871	6682	As for me, I give nothing to any one, except I give the like carefully to you;
LG1871	6683	I sing the songs of the glory of none, not God, sooner than I sing the songs of the glory of you.
LG1871	6684	Whoever you are! claim your own at any hazard!
LG1871	6685	These shows of the east and west are tame, compared to you;
LG1871	6686	These immense meadows—these interminable rivers— you are immense and interminable as they;
LG1871	6687	These furies, elements, storms, motions of Nature, throes of apparent dissolution—you are he or she who is master or mistress over them,
LG1871	6688	Master or mistress in your own right over Nature, ele-mentselements, pain, passion, dissolution.
LG1871	6689	The hopples fall from your ankles—you find an un-failingunfailing sufficiency;
LG1871	6690	Old or young, male or female, rude, low, rejected by the rest, whatever you are promulges itself;
LG1871	6691	Through birth, life, death, burial, the means are pro-videdprovided, nothing is scanted;
LG1871	6692	Through angers, losses, ambition, ignorance, ennui, what you are picks its way.
LG1871	6693	As the time draws nigh, glooming, a cloud,
LG1871	6694	A dread beyond, of I know not what, darkens me.
LG1871	6695	I shall go forth,
LG1871	6696	I shall traverse The States awhile—but I cannot tell whither or how long;
LG1871	6697	Perhaps soon, some day or night while I am singing, my voice will suddenly cease.
LG1871	6698	O book, O chants! must all then amount to but this?
LG1871	6699	Must we barely arrive at this beginning of us?… And yet it is enough, O soul!
LG1871	6700	O soul! we have positively appear'd—that is enough.
LG1871	6701	YEARS of the modern! years of the unperform'd!
LG1871	6702	Your horizon rises—I see it parting away for more august dramas;
LG1871	6703	I see not America only—I see not only Liberty's nation, but other nations preparing;
LG1871	6704	I see tremendous entrances and exits—I see new com-binationscombinations—I see the solidarity of races;
LG1871	6705	I see that force advancing with irresistible power on the world's stage;
LG1871	6706	(Have the old forces, the old wars, played their parts? are the acts suitable to them closed?)
LG1871	6707	I see Freedom, completely arm'd, and victorious, and very haughty, with Law on one side, and Peace on the other,
LG1871	6708	A stupendous Trio, all issuing forth against the idea of caste;
LG1871	6709	—What historic denouements are these we so rapidly approach?
LG1871	6710	I see men marching and countermarching by swift mil-lionsmillions;
LG1871	6711	I see the frontiers and boundaries of the old aristocracies broken;
LG1871	6712	I see the landmarks of European kings removed;
LG1871	6713	I see this day the People beginning their landmarks, (all others give way;)
LG1871	6714	—Never were such sharp questions ask'd as this day;
LG1871	6715	Never was average man, his soul, more energetic, more like a God;
LG1871	6716	Lo! how he urges and urges, leaving the masses no rest;
LG1871	6717	His daring foot is on land and sea everywhere—he col-onizescolonizes the Pacific, the archipelagoes;
LG1871	6718	With the steam-ship, the electric telegraph, the news-papernewspaper, the wholesale engines of war,
LG1871	6719	With these, and the world-spreading factories, he inter-linksinterlinks all geography, all lands;
LG1871	6720	—What whispers are these, O lands, running ahead of you, passing under the seas?
LG1871	6721	Are all nations communing? is there going to be but one heart to the globe?
LG1871	6722	Is humanity forming, en-masse?—for lo! tyrants trem-bletremble, crowns grow dim;
LG1871	6723	The earth, restive, confronts a new era, perhaps a gen-eralgeneral divine war;
LG1871	6724	No one knows what will happen next—such portents fill the days and nights;
LG1871	6725	Years prophetical! the space ahead as I walk, as I vain-lyvainly try to pierce it, is full of phantoms;
LG1871	6726	Unborn deeds, things soon to be, project their shapes around me;
LG1871	6727	This incredible rush and heat—this strange extatic fever of dreams, O years!
LG1871	6728	Your dreams, O years, how they penetrate through me! (I know not whether I sleep or wake!)
LG1871	6729	The perform'd America and Europe grow dim, retiring in shadow behind me,
LG1871	6730	The unperform'd, more gigantic than ever, advance, ad-vanceadvance upon me.
LG1871	6731	OF these years I sing,
LG1871	6732	How they pass and have pass'd, through convuls'd pains, as through parturitions;
LG1871	6733	How America illustrates birth, muscular youth, the promise, the sure fulfillment, the Absolute Suc-cessSuccess, despite of people—Illustrates evil as well as good;
LG1871	6734	How many hold despairingly yet to the models de-parteddeparted, caste, myths, obedience, compulsion, and to infidelity;
LG1871	6735	How few see the arrived models, the Athletes, the Western States—or see freedom or spirituality— or hold any faith in results,
LG1871	6736	(But I see the Athletes—and I see the results of the war glorious and inevitable—and they again leading to other results;)
LG1871	6737	How the great cities appear—How the Democratic masses, turbulent, wilful, as I love them;
LG1871	6738	How the whirl, the contest, the wrestle of evil with good, the sounding and resounding, keep on and on;
LG1871	6739	How society waits unform'd, and is for a while between things ended and things begun;
LG1871	6740	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;
LG1871	6741	And how The States are complete in themselves—And how all triumphs and glories are complete in themselves, to lead onward,
LG1871	6742	And how these of mine, and of The States, will in their turn be convuls'd, and serve other parturitions and transitions,
LG1871	6743	And how all people, sights, combinations, the Demo-craticDemocratic masses, too, serve—and how every fact, and war itself, with all its horrors, serves,
LG1871	6744	And how now, or at any time, each serves the exquisite transition of death.
LG1871	6745	OF seeds dropping into the ground—of birth,
LG1871	6746	Of the steady concentration of America, inland, upward, to impregnable and swarming places,
LG1871	6747	Of what Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and the rest, are to be,
LG1871	6748	Of what a few years will show there in Nebraska, Col-oradoColorado, Nevada, and the rest;
LG1871	6749	(Of afar, mounting the Northern Pacific to Sitka or Aliaska;)
LG1871	6750	Of what the feuillage of America is the preparation for —and of what all sights, North, South, East and West, are;
LG1871	6751	Of This Union, soak'd, welded in blood—of the solemn price paid—of the unnamed lost, ever present in my mind;
LG1871	6752	—Of the temporary use of materials, for identity's sake,
LG1871	6753	Of the present, passing, departing—of the growth of completer men than any yet,
LG1871	6754	Of myself, soon, perhaps, closing up my songs by these shores,
LG1871	6755	Of California, of Oregon—and of me journeying to live and sing there;
LG1871	6756	Of the Western Sea—of the spread inland between it and the spinal river,
LG1871	6757	Of the great pastoral area, athletic and feminine,
LG1871	6758	Of all sloping down there where the fresh free giver, the mother, the Mississippi flows,
LG1871	6759	Of future women there—of happiness in those high plateaus, ranging three thousand miles, warm and cold;
LG1871	6760	Of mighty inland cities yet unsurvey'd, and unsus-pectedunsuspected, (as I am also, and as it must be;)
LG1871	6761	Of the new and good names—of the modern develop-mentsdevelopments—of inalienable homesteads;
LG1871	6762	Of a free and original life there—of simple diet and clean and sweet blood;
LG1871	6763	Of litheness, majestic faces, clear eyes, and perfect physique there;
LG1871	6764	Of immense spiritual results, future years, far west, each side of the Anahuacs;
LG1871	6765	Of these leaves, well understood there, (being made for that area;)
LG1871	6766	Of the native scorn of grossness and gain there;
LG1871	6767	(O it lurks in me night and day—What is gain, after all, to savageness and freedom?)
LG1871	6768	SPLENDOR of ended day, floating and filling me!
LG1871	6769	Hour prophetic—hour resuming the past!
LG1871	6770	Inflating my throat—you, divine average!
LG1871	6771	You, Earth and Life, till the last ray gleams, I sing.
LG1871	6772	Open mouth of my Soul, uttering gladness,
LG1871	6773	Eyes of my Soul, seeing perfection,
LG1871	6774	Natural life of me, faithfully praising things;
LG1871	6775	Corroborating forever the triumph of things.
LG1871	6776	Illustrious every one!
LG1871	6777	Illustrious what we name space—sphere of unnum-ber'dunnumber'd spirits;
LG1871	6778	Illustrious the mystery of motion, in all beings, even the tiniest insect;
LG1871	6779	Illustrious the attribute of speech—the senses—the body;
LG1871	6780	Illustrious the passing light! Illustrious the pale reflection on the new moon in the western sky!
LG1871	6781	Illustrious whatever I see, or hear, or touch, to the last.
LG1871	6782	Good in all,
LG1871	6783	In the satisfaction and aplomb of animals,
LG1871	6784	In the annual return of the seasons,
LG1871	6785	In the hilarity of youth,
LG1871	6786	In the strength and flush of manhood,
LG1871	6787	In the grandeur and exquisiteness of old age,
LG1871	6788	In the superb vistas of Death.
LG1871	6789	Wonderful to depart;
LG1871	6790	Wonderful to be here!
LG1871	6791	The heart, to jet the all-alike and innocent blood!
LG1871	6792	To breathe the air, how delicious!
LG1871	6793	To speak! to walk! to seize something by the hand!
LG1871	6794	To prepare for sleep, for bed—to look on my rose-color'drose-color'd flesh;
LG1871	6795	To be conscious of my body, so satisfied, so large;
LG1871	6796	To be this incredible God I am;
LG1871	6797	To have gone forth among other Gods—these men and women I love.
LG1871	6798	Wonderful how I celebrate you and myself!
LG1871	6799	How my thoughts play subtly at the spectacles around!
LG1871	6800	How the clouds pass silently overhead!
LG1871	6801	How the earth darts on and on! and how the sun, moon, stars, dart on and on!
LG1871	6802	How the water sports and sings! (Surely it is alive!)
LG1871	6803	How the trees rise and stand up—with strong trunks— with branches and leaves!
LG1871	6804	(Surely there is something more in each of the trees— some living Soul,)
LG1871	6805	O amazement of things! even the least particle!
LG1871	6806	O spirituality of things!
LG1871	6807	O strain musical, flowing through ages and continents —now reaching me and America!
LG1871	6808	I take your strong chords—I intersperse them, and cheerfully pass them forward.
LG1871	6809	I too carol the sun, usher'd, or at noon, or, as now, setting,
LG1871	6810	I too throb to the brain and beauty of the earth, and of all the growths of the earth,
LG1871	6811	I too have felt the resistless call of myself.
LG1871	6812	As I sail'd down the Mississippi,
LG1871	6813	As I wander'd over the prairies,
LG1871	6814	As I have lived—As I have look'd through my windows, my eyes,
LG1871	6815	As I went forth in the morning—As I beheld the light breaking in the east;
LG1871	6816	As I bathed on the beach of the Eastern Sea, and again on the beach of the Western Sea;
LG1871	6817	As I roam'd the streets of inland Chicago—whatever streets I have roam'd;
LG1871	6818	Or cities, or silent woods, or peace, or even amid the sights of war;
LG1871	6819	Wherever I have been, I have charged myself with con-tentmentcontentment and triumph.
LG1871	6820	I sing the Equalities, modern or old,
LG1871	6821	I sing the endless finales of things;
LG1871	6822	I say Nature continues—Glory continues;
LG1871	6823	I praise with electric voice;
LG1871	6824	For I do not see one imperfection in the universe;
LG1871	6825	And I do not see one cause or result lamentable at last in the universe.
LG1871	6826	O setting sun! though the time has come,
LG1871	6827	I still warble under you, if none else does, unmitigated adoration.
LG1871	6828	WHEN I heard the learn'd astronomer;
LG1871	6829	When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;
LG1871	6830	When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them;
LG1871	6831	When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lec-turedlectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
LG1871	6832	How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;
LG1871	6833	Till rising and gliding out, I wander'd off by myself,
LG1871	6834	In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
LG1871	6835	Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.
LG1871	6836	WHAT you give me, I cheerfully accept,
LG1871	6837	A little sustenance, a hut and garden, a little money— these, as I rendezvous with my poems;
LG1871	6838	A traveler's lodging and breakfast as I journey through The States—Why should I be ashamed to own such gifts? Why to advertise for them?
LG1871	6839	For I myself am not one who bestows nothing upon man and woman;
LG1871	6840	For I bestow upon any man or woman the entrance to all the gifts of the universe.
LG1871	6841	OF what I write from myself—As if that were not the resumé;
LG1871	6842	Of Histories—As if such, however complete, were not less complete than the preceding poems;
LG1871	6843	As if those shreds, the records of nations, could possibly be as lasting as the preceding poems;
LG1871	6844	As if here were not the amount of all nations, and of all the lives of heroes.
LG1871	6845	TO conclude—I announce what comes after me;
LG1871	6846	I announce mightier offspring, orators, days, and then, for the present, depart.
LG1871	6847	I remember I said, before my leaves sprang at all,
LG1871	6848	I would raise my voice jocund and strong, with reference to consummations.
LG1871	6849	When America does what was promis'd,
LG1871	6850	When there are plentiful athletic bards, inland and seaboard,
LG1871	6851	When through These States walk a hundred millions of superb persons,
LG1871	6852	When the rest part away for superb persons, and con-tributecontribute to them,
LG1871	6853	When breeds of the most perfect mothers denote America,
LG1871	6854	Then to me and mine our due fruition.
LG1871	6855	I have press'd through in my own right,
LG1871	6856	I have sung the Body and the Soul—War and Peace have I sung,
LG1871	6857	And the songs of Life and of Birth—and shown that there are many births:
LG1871	6858	I have offer'd my style to every one—I have journey'd with confident step;
LG1871	6859	While my pleasure is yet at the full, I whisper, So long!
LG1871	6860	And take the young woman's hand, and the young man's hand, for the last time.
LG1871	6861	I announce natural persons to arise;
LG1871	6862	I announce justice triumphant;
LG1871	6863	I announce uncompromising liberty and equality;
LG1871	6864	I announce the justification of candor, and the justifica-tionjustification of pride.
LG1871	6865	I announce that the identity of These States is a single identity only;
LG1871	6866	I announce the Union more and more compact, indis-solubleindissoluble;
LG1871	6867	I announce splendors and majesties to make all the previous politics of the earth insignificant.
LG1871	6868	I announce adhesiveness—I say it shall be limitless, unloosen'd;
LG1871	6869	I say you shall yet find the friend you were looking for.
LG1871	6870	I announce a man or woman coming—perhaps you are the one, (So long!)
LG1871	6871	I announce the great individual, fluid as Nature, chaste, affectionate, compassionate, fully armed.
LG1871	6872	I announce a life that shall be copious, vehement, spiritual, bold;
LG1871	6873	I announce an end that shall lightly and joyfully meet its translation;
LG1871	6874	I announce myriads of youths, beautiful, gigantic, sweet-bloodedsweet-blooded;
LG1871	6875	I announce a race of splendid and savage old men.
LG1871	6876	O thicker and faster! (So long!)
LG1871	6877	O crowding too close upon me;
LG1871	6878	I foresee too much—it means more than I thought;
LG1871	6879	It appears to me I am dying.
LG1871	6880	Hasten throat, and sound your last!
LG1871	6881	Salute me—salute the days once more. Peal the old cry once more.
LG1871	6882	Screaming electric, the atmosphere using,
LG1871	6883	At random glancing, each as I notice absorbing,
LG1871	6884	Swiftly on, but a little while alighting,
LG1871	6885	Curious envelop'd messages delivering,
LG1871	6886	Sparkles hot, seed ethereal, down in the dirt dropping,
LG1871	6887	Myself unknowing, my commission obeying, to question it never daring,
LG1871	6888	To ages, and ages yet, the growth of the seed leaving,
LG1871	6889	To troops out of me, out of the army, the war arising— they the tasks I have set promulging,
LG1871	6890	To women certain whispers of myself bequeathing— their affection me more clearly explaining,
LG1871	6891	To young men my problems offering—no dallier I—I the muscle of their brains trying,
LG1871	6892	So I pass—a little time vocal, visible, contrary;
LG1871	6893	Afterward, a melodious echo, passionately bent for— (death making me really undying;)
LG1871	6894	The best of me then when no longer visible—for toward that I have been incessantly preparing.
LG1871	6895	What is there more, that I lag and pause, and crouch extended with unshut mouth?
LG1871	6896	Is there a single final farewell?
LG1871	6897	My songs cease—I abandon them;
LG1871	6898	From behind the screen where I hid, I advance person-allypersonally, solely to you.
LG1871	6899	Camerado! This is no book;
LG1871	6900	Who touches this, touches a man;
LG1871	6901	(Is it night? Are we here alone?)
LG1871	6902	It is I you hold, and who holds you;
LG1871	6903	I spring from the pages into your arms—decease calls me forth.
LG1871	6904	O how your fingers drowse me!
LG1871	6905	Your breath falls around me like dew—your pulse lulls the tympans of my ears;
LG1871	6906	I feel immerged from head to foot;
LG1871	6907	Delicious—enough.
LG1871	6908	Enough, O deed impromptu and secret!
LG1871	6909	Enough, O gliding present! Enough, O summ'd-up past!
LG1871	6910	Dear friend, whoever you are, take this kiss,
LG1871	6911	I give it especially to you—Do not forget me;
LG1871	6912	I feel like one who has done work for the day, to retire awhile;
LG1871	6913	I receive now again of my many translations—from my avataras ascending—while others doubtless await me;
LG1871	6914	An unknown sphere, more real than I dream'd, more direct, darts awakening rays about me—So long!
LG1871	6915	Remember my words—I may again return,
LG1871	6916	I love you—I depart from materials;
LG1871	6917	I am as one disembodied, triumphant, dead.