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Chants Democratic and Native American 18

18.

ME imperturbe, Me standing at ease in Nature, Master of all, or mistress of all—aplomb in the  
 midst of irrational things,
Imbued as they—passive, receptive, silent as they, Finding my occupation, poverty, notoriety, foibles, 
 crimes, less important than I thought;
Me private, or public, or menial, or solitary—all  
 these subordinate, (I am eternally equal with  
 the best—I am not subordinate;)
Me toward the Mexican Sea, or in the Mannahatta, 
 or the Tennessee, or far north, or inland,
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,
Me, wherever my life is to be lived, O to be self-bal- 
 anced for contingencies!
O to confront night, storms, hunger, ridicule, acci- 
 dents, rebuffs, as the trees and animals do.
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