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Leaves of Grass (1860)
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2.
| FROM that of myself, without which I were nothing, |
From what I am determined to make illustrious, even
if I stand sole among men,
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| From my own voice resonant—singing the phallus, |
| Singing the song of procreation, |
Singing the need of superb children, and therein
superb grown people,
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| Singing the muscular urge and the blending, |
| Singing the bedfellow's song, (O resistless yearning! |
| O for any and each, the body correlative attracting! |
O for you, whoever you are, your correlative body!
O it, more than all else, you delighting!)
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| From the pent up rivers of myself, |
| From the hungry gnaw that eats me night and day, |
From native moments—from bashful pains—sing-
ing them,
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Singing something yet unfound, though I have dili-
gently sought it, ten thousand years,
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| Singing the true song of the Soul, fitful, at random, |
Singing what, to the Soul, entirely redeemed her, the
faithful one, the prostitute, who detained me when
I went to the city,
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| Singing the song of prostitutes; |
| Renascent with grossest Nature, or among animals, |
Of that—of them, and what goes with them, my
poems informing,
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Of the smell of apples and lemons—of the pairing
of birds,
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| Of the wet of woods—of the lapping of waves, |
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Of the mad pushes of waves upon the land—I them
chanting,
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The overture lightly sounding—the strain antici-
pating,
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The welcome nearness—the sight of the perfect
body,
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The swimmer swimming naked in the bath, or mo-
tionless on his back lying and floating,
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The female form approaching—I, pensive, love-flesh
tremulous, aching;
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The slave's body for sale—I, sternly, with harsh
voice, auctioneering,
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The divine list, for myself or you, or for any one,
making,
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The face—the limbs—the index from head to foot,
and what it arouses,
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The mystic deliria—the madness amorous—the utter
abandonment,
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| (Hark, close and still, what I now whisper to you, |
| I love you—O you entirely possess me, |
O I wish that you and I escape from the rest, and go
utterly off—O free and lawless,
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Two hawks in the air—two fishes swimming in the
sea not more lawless than we;)
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The furious storm through me careering—I passion-
ately trembling,
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The oath of the inseparableness of two together—of
the woman that loves me, and whom I love more
than my life—That oath swearing,
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| (O I willingly stake all, for you! |
| O let me be lost, if it must be so! |
O you and I—what is it to us what the rest do or
think?
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What is all else to us? only that we enjoy each other,
and exhaust each other, if it must be so;)
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| From the master—the pilot I yield the vessel to, |
The general commanding me, commanding all—from
him permission taking,
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From time the programme hastening, (I have loitered
too long, as it is;)
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| From sex—From the warp and from the woof, |
(To talk to the perfect girl who understands me—the
girl of The States,
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To waft to her these from my own lips—to effuse
them from my own body;)
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| From privacy—From frequent repinings alone, |
From plenty of persons near, and yet the right person
not near,
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From the soft sliding of hands over me, and thrusting
of fingers through my hair and beard,
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From the long-sustained kiss upon the mouth or
bosom,
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From the close pressure that makes me or any man
drunk, fainting with excess,
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From what the divine husband knows—from the
work of fatherhood,
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From exultation, victory, and relief—from the bed-
fellow's embrace in the night,
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| From the act-poems of eyes, hands, hips, and bosoms, |
| From the cling of the trembling arm, |
| From the bending curve and the clinch, |
| From side by side, the pliant coverlid off throwing, |
From the one so unwilling to have me leave—and
me just as unwilling to leave,
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| (Yet a moment, O tender waiter, and I return,) |
| From the hour of shining stars and dropping dews, |
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| From the night, a moment, I, emerging, flitting out, |
| Celebrate you, enfans prepared for, |
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)
)
)