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Leaves of Grass (1867)
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ONE HOUR TO MADNESS AND JOY
| 1 ONE hour to madness and joy! |
| O furious! O confine me not! |
| (What is this that frees me so in storms? |
What do my shouts amid lightnings and raging winds
mean?)
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2 O to drink the mystic deliria deeper than any
other man!
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| O savage and tender achings! |
| (I bequeath them to you, my children, |
I tell them to you, for reasons, O bridegroom and
bride.)
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3 O to be yielded to you, whoever you are, and you to
be yielded to me, in defiance of the world!
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| O to return to Paradise! O bashful and feminine! |
O to draw you to me—to plant on you for the first
time the lips of a determin'd man!
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4 O the puzzle—the thrice-tied knot—the deep and
dark pool! O all untied and illumin'd!
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O to speed where there is space enough and air
enough at last!
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O to be absolv'd from previous ties and conventions—
I from mine, and you from yours!
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O to find a new unthought-of nonchalance with the
best of nature!
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| O to have the gag remov'd from one's mouth! |
O to have the feeling, to-day or any day, I am suffi-
cient as I am!
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| 5 O something unprov'd! something in a trance! |
| O madness amorous! O trembling! |
| O to escape utterly from others' anchors and holds! |
To drive free! to love free! to dash reckless and dan-
gerous!
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| To court destruction with taunts—with invitations! |
To ascend—to leap to the heavens of the love indicated
to me!
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| To rise thither with my inebriate Soul! |
| To be lost, if it must be so! |
To feed the remainder of life with one hour of fulness
and freedom!
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| With one brief hour of madness and joy. |
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