Leaves of Grass (1860)
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| 1 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 minutes of
the light or dark—but the words of the maker of poems are the general light and dark, |
| The maker of poems settles justice, reality, immor-
tality, |
| 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. |
| 2 The singers do not beget—only THE POET begets, |
| 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 con-
tained such a day, for all its names. |
| 3 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, passion-singer, mystic-singer, fable-singer, item-singer, weeping-singer, or something else. |
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| 4 All this time, and at all times, wait the words of
poems; |
| The greatness of sons is the exuding of the greatness
of mothers and fathers, |
| The words of poems are the tuft and final applause of
science. |
| 5 Divine instinct, breadth of vision, the law of reason,
health, rudeness of body, withdrawnness, gayety, sun-tan, air-sweetness—such are some of the words of poems. |
| 6 The sailor and traveller underlie the maker of poems, |
| The builder, geometer, mathematician, astronomer,
melodist, chemist, anatomist, spiritualist, lan- guage-searcher, geologist, phrenologist, artist— all these underlie the maker of poems. |
| 7 The words of poems give you more than poems, |
| They give you to form for yourself poems, religions,
politics, war, peace, behavior, histories, essays, romances, and everything 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. |
| 8 They prepare for death—yet are they not the finish,
but rather the outset, |
| They bring none to his or her terminus, or to be con-
tent and full; |
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| 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. |