Leaves of Grass (1860)


contents   |  previous   |  next
 


 

THOUGHTS.




 

1.

OF the visages of things—And of piercing through
         to the accepted hells beneath;
Of ugliness—To me there is just as much in it as
         there is in beauty—And now the ugliness of
         human beings is acceptable to me;
Of detected persons—To me, detected persons are
         not, in any respect, worse than undetected per-
         sons—and are not in any respect worse than I
         am myself;
Of criminals—To me, any judge, or any juror, is
         equally criminal—and any reputable person is
         also—and the President is also.



 

2.

OF waters, forests, hills,
Of the earth at large, whispering through medium
         of me;
Of vista—Suppose some sight in arriere, through the
         formative chaos, presuming the growth, fulness,
         life, now attained on the journey;
 


View Page 409
View Page 409

(But I see the road continued, and the journey ever
         continued;)
Of what was once lacking on the earth, and in due
         time has become supplied—And of what will
         yet be supplied,
Because all I see and know, I believe to have purport
         in what will yet be supplied.



 

3.

OF persons arrived at high positions, ceremonies,
         wealth, scholarships, and the like,
To me, all that those persons have arrived at, sinks
         away from them, except as it results to their
         bodies and Souls,
So that often to me they appear gaunt and naked,
And often, to me, each one mocks the others, and
         mocks himself or herself,
And of each one, the core of life, namely happiness,
         is full of the rotten excrement of maggots,
And often, to me, those men and women pass un-
         wittingly the true realities of life, and go toward
         false realities,
And often, to me, they are alive after what custom
         has served them, but nothing more,
And often, to me, they are sad, hasty, unwaked son-
         nambules, walking the dusk.
 


View Page 410
View Page 410




 

4.

OF ownership—As if one fit to own things could not
         at pleasure enter upon all, and incorporate them
         into himself or herself;
Of Equality—As if it harmed me, giving others the
         same chances and rights as myself—As if it
         were not indispensable to my own rights that
         others possess the same;
Of Justice—As if Justice could be any thing but
         the same ample law, expounded by natural
         judges and saviours,
As if it might be this thing or that thing, according
         to decisions.



 

5.

AS I sit with others, at a great feast, suddenly, while
         the music is playing,
To my mind, (whence it comes I know not,) spectral,
         in mist, of a wreck at sea,
Of the flower of the marine science of fifty genera-
         tions, foundered off the Northeast coast, and
         going down—Of the steamship Arctic going
         down,
Of the veiled tableau—Women gathered together
         on deck, pale, heroic, waiting the moment that
         draws so close—O the moment!
 


View Page 411
View Page 411

O the huge sob—A few bubbles—the white foam
         spirting up—And then the women gone,
Sinking there, while the passionless wet flows on—
         And I now pondering, Are those women indeed
         gone?
Are Souls drowned and destroyed so?
Is only matter triumphant?



 

6.

OF what I write from myself—As if that were not
         the resumé;
Of Histories—As if such, however complete, were
         not less complete than my poems;
As if the shreds, the records of nations, could possibly
         be as lasting as my poems;
As if here were not the amount of all nations, and of
         all the lives of heroes.



 

7.

OF obedience, faith, adhesiveness;
As I stand aloof and look, there is to me something
         profoundly affecting in large masses of men, fol-
         lowing the lead of those who do not believe in
         men.
 
 
 
 
contents   |  previous   |  next