Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman

contents | previous | next

¹ WHO is now reading this?

² May-be one is now reading this who knows some
wrong-doing of my past life,

Or may-be a stranger is reading this who has secretly
loved me,

Or may-be one who meets all my grand assumptions
and egotisms with derision,

Or may-be one who is puzzled at me.

View Page 362

³ As if I were not puzzled at myself!

Or as if I never deride myself! (O conscience-struck!
O self-convicted!)

Or as if I do not secretly love strangers! (O tenderly,
a long time, and never avow it;)

Or as if I did not see, perfectly well, interior in
myself, the stuff of wrong-doing,

Or as if it could cease transpiring from me until it
must cease.

contents | previous | next