Leaves of Grass (1856)
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| PERFECT sanity shows the master among
philosophs, |
| Time, always without flaw, indicates itself in
parts, |
| What always indicates the poet, is the crowd of
the pleasant company of singers, and their words, |
| The words of the singers are the hours or min-
utes of the light or dark—but the words of the maker of poems are the complete light and dark, |
| The maker of poems settles justice, reality, im-
mortality, |
| His insight and power encircle things and the
human race, |
| He is the glory and extract, thus far, of things
and of the human race. |
| The singers do not beget—only the poet be-
gets, |
)
|
| The singers are welcomed, understood, appear
often enough—but rare has the day been, likewise the spot, of the birth of the maker of poems, |
| Not every century, or every five centuries, has
contained such a day, for all its names. |
| The singers of successive hours of centuries may
have ostensible names, but the name of each of them is one of the singers, |
| The name of each is, a heart-singer, eye-singer,
hymn-singer, law-singer, ear-singer, head- singer, sweet-singer, wise-singer, droll- singer, thrift-singer, sea-singer, wit-singer, echo-singer, parlor-singer, love-singer, pas- sion-singer, mystic-singer, weeping-singer, fable-singer, item-singer, or something else. |
| All this time, and at all times, wait the words of
poems; |
| The greatness of sons is the exuding of the great-
ness of mothers and fathers, |
| The words of poems are the tuft and final applause
of science. |
| Divine instinct, breadth of vision, the law of
reason, health, rudeness of body, withdrawn- ness, gaiety, sun-tan, air-sweetness—such are the words of poems. |
)
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| The sailor and traveler underlie the maker of poems, |
| The builder, geometer, mathematician, astronomer,
melodist, philosoph, chemist, anatomist, spiritualist, language-searcher, geologist, phrenologist, artist—all these underlie the maker of poems. |
| The words of poems give you more than poems, |
| They give you to form for yourself poems,
religions, politics, war, peace, behaviour, histories, essays, romances, and every thing else, |
| They balance ranks, colors, races, creeds, and the
sexes, |
| They do not seek beauty, they are sought —
forever touching them, or close upon them, follows beauty, longing, fain, love-sick; |
| They are not the finish, but rather the outset, |
| They bring none to his or her terminus, or to be
content and full, |
| Whom they take, they take into space, to behold
the birth of stars, to learn one of the meanings, |
| To launch off with absolute faith—to sweep
through the ceaseless rings, and never be quiet again. |