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Leaves of Grass (1860)
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2.
| 1 GREAT are the myths—I too delight in them, |
Great are Adam and Eve—I too look back and
accept them,
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Great the risen and fallen nations, and their poets,
women, sages, inventors, rulers, warriors, and
priests.
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2 Great is Liberty! great is Equality! I am their fol-
lower,
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Helmsmen of nations, choose your craft! where you
sail, I sail,
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Yours is the muscle of life or death—yours is the
perfect science—in you I have absolute faith.
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| 3 Great is To-day, and beautiful, |
It is good to live in this age—there never was any
better.
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4 Great are the plunges, throes, triumphs, downfalls of
Democracy,
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| Great the reformers, with their lapses and screams, |
Great the daring and venture of sailors, on new ex-
plorations.
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| 5 Great are Yourself and Myself, |
We are just as good and bad as the oldest and young-
est or any,
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| What the best and worst did, we could do, |
| What they felt, do not we feel it in ourselves? |
| What they wished, do we not wish the same? |
6 Great is Youth—equally great is Old Age—great
are the Day and Night,
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Great is Wealth—great is Poverty—great is Ex-
pression—great is Silence.
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7 Youth, large, lusty, loving—Youth, full of grace,
force, fascination,
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Do you know that Old Age may come after you, with
equal grace, force, fascination?
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8 Day, full-blown and splendid—Day of the immense
sun, action, ambition, laughter,
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The Night follows close, with millions of suns, and
sleep, and restoring darkness.
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| 9 Wealth with the flush hand, fine clothes, hospitality, |
But then the Soul's wealth, which is candor, knowl-
edge, pride, enfolding love;
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(Who goes for men and women showing Poverty
richer than wealth?)
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10 Expression of speech! in what is written or said, for-
get not that Silence is also expressive,
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That anguish as hot as the hottest, and contempt as
cold as the coldest, may be without words,
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That the true adoration is likewise without words,
and without kneeling.
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11 Great is the greatest Nation—the nation of clusters
of equal nations.
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| 12 Great is the Earth, and the way it became what it is; |
Do you imagine it is stopped at this? the increase
abandoned?
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Understand then that it goes as far onward from
this, as this is from the times when it lay in
covering waters and gases, before man had ap-
peared.
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| 13 Great is the quality of Truth in man, |
The quality of truth in man supports itself through
all changes,
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It is inevitably in the man—he and it are in love,
and never leave each other.
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14 The truth in man is no dictum, it is vital as eye-
sight,
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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,
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If there be equilibrium or volition, there is truth—
if there be things at all upon the earth, there
is truth.
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15 O truth of the earth! O truth of things! I am de-
termined to press my way toward you,
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Sound your voice! I scale mountains, or dive in the
sea after you.
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16 Great is Language—it is the mightiest of the sci-
ences,
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It is the fulness, color, form, diversity of the earth,
and of men and women, and of all qualities
and processes,
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It is greater than wealth—it is greater than build-
ings, ships, religions, paintings, music.
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17 Great is the English speech—what speech is so
great as the English?
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Great is the English brood—what brood has so vast
a destiny as the English?
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It is the mother of the brood that must rule the earth
with the new rule,
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The new rule shall rule as the Soul rules, and as the
love, justice, equality in the Soul, rule.
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18 Great is Law—great are the old few landmarks of
the law,
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They are the same in all times, and shall not be
disturbed.
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19 Great are commerce, newspapers, books, free-trade,
railroads, steamers, international mails, tele-
graphs, exchanges.
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Justice is not settled by legislators and laws—it is in
the Soul,
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It cannot be varied by statues, any more than love,
pride, the attraction of gravity, can,
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It is immutable—it does not depend on majorities—
majorities or what not come at last before the
same passionless and exact tribunal.
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21 For justice are the grand natural lawyers and perfect
judges—it is in their Souls,
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It is well assorted—they have not studied for noth-
ing—the great includes the less,
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They rule on the highest grounds—they oversee all
eras, states, administrations.
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22 The perfect judge fears nothing—he could go front
to front before God,
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Before the perfect judge all shall stand back—life
and death shall stand back—heaven and hell
shall stand back.
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I do not know what it is, any more than I know what
health is—but I know it is great.
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24 Great is Wickedness—I find I often admire it, just as
much as I admire goodness,
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| Do you call that a paradox? It certainly is a paradox. |
25 The eternal equilibrium of things is great, and the
eternal overthrow of things is great,
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| And there is another paradox. |
| 26 Great is Life, real and mystical, wherever and whoever, |
Great is Death—sure as Life holds all parts together,
Death holds all parts together,
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| Death has just as much purport as Life has, |
Do you enjoy what Life confers? you shall enjoy what
Death confers,
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I do not understand the realities of Death, but I know
they are great,
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I do not understand the least reality of Life—how then
can I understand the realities of Death?
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