Leaves of Grass (1860)
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| 1 A YOUNG man came to me with a message from his
brother, |
| How should the young man know the whether and
when of his brother? |
| Tell him to send me the signs. |
| 2 And I stood before the young man face to face, and
took his right hand in my left hand, and his left hand in my right hand, |
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| And I answered for his brother, and for men, and I
answered for THE POET, and sent these signs. |
| 3 Him all wait for—him all yield up to—his word is
decisive and final, |
| Him they accept, in him lave, in him perceive them-
selves, as amid light, |
| Him they immerse, and he immerses them. |
| 4 Beautiful women, the haughtiest nations, laws, the
landscape, people, animals, |
| The profound earth and its attributes, and the unquiet
ocean, |
| All enjoyments and properties, and money, and what-
ever money will buy, |
| The best farms—others toiling and planting, and he
unavoidably reaps, |
| The noblest and costliest cities—others grading and
building, and he domiciles there, |
| Nothing for any one, but what is for him—near and
far are for him, |
| The ships in the offing—the perpetual shows and
marches on land, are for him, if they are for any body. |
| 5 He puts things in their attitudes, |
| He puts to-day out of himself, with plasticity and
love, |
| He places his own city, times, reminiscences, parents,
brothers and sisters, associations, employment, politics, so that the rest never shame them after- ward, nor assume to command them. |
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| 6 He is the answerer, |
| What can be answered he answers—and what cannot
be answered, he shows how it cannot be answered. |
| 7 A man is a summons and challenge; |
| (It is vain to skulk—Do you hear that mocking and
laughter? Do you hear the ironical echoes?) |
| 8 Books, friendships, philosophers, priests, action, pleas-
ure, pride, beat up and down, seeking to give satisfaction, |
| He indicates the satisfaction, and indicates them that
beat up and down also. |
| 9 Whichever the sex, whatever the season or place, he
may go freshly and gently and safely, by day or by night, |
| He has the pass-key of hearts—to him the response
of the prying of hands on the knobs. |
| 10 His welcome is universal—the flow of beauty is not
more welcome or universal than he is, |
| The person he favors by day or sleeps with at night is
blessed. |
| 11 Every existence has its idiom—everything has an
idiom and tongue, |
| He resolves all tongues into his own, and bestows it
upon men, and any man translates, and any man translates himself also, |
| One part does not counteract another part—he is the
joiner—he sees how they join. |
| 12 He says indifferently and alike, How are you, friend?
to the President at his levee, |
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| And he says, Good-day, my brother! to Cudge that
hoes in the sugar-field, |
| And both understand him, and know that his speech
is right. |
| 13 He walks with perfect ease in the capitol, |
| He walks among the Congress, and one representative
says to another, Here is our equal, appearing and new . |
| 14 Then the mechanics take him for a mechanic, |
| And the soldiers suppose him to be a captain, and the
sailors that he has followed the sea, |
| And the authors take him for an author, and the
artists for an artist, |
| And the laborers perceive he could labor with them
and love them, |
| No matter what the work is, that he is the one to fol-
low it, or has followed it, |
| No matter what the nation, that he might find his
brothers and sisters there. |
| 15 The English believe he comes of their English stock, |
| A Jew to the Jew he seems—a Russ to the Russ—
usual and near, removed from none. |
| 16 Whoever he looks at in the traveller's coffee-house
claims him, |
| The Italian or Frenchman is sure, and the German is
sure, and the Spaniard is sure, and the island Cuban is sure; |
| 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. |
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| 17 The gentleman of perfect blood acknowledges his per-
fect blood, |
| The insulter, the prostitute, the angry person, the
beggar, see themselves in the ways of him—he strangely transmutes them, |
| They are not vile any more—they hardly know them-
selves, they are so grown. |
| 18 Do you think it would be good to be the writer of
melodious verses? |
| Well, it would be good to be the writer of melodious
verses; |
| But what are verses beyond the flowing character you
could have? or beyond beautiful manners and behavior? |
| Or beyond one manly or affectionate deed of an ap-
prentice-boy? or old woman? or man that has been in prison, or is likely to be in prison? |