Leaves of Grass (1867)


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GIVE ME THE SPLENDID SILENT
SUN.



 

1

GIVE me the splendid silent sun, with all his beams full-
         dazzling;
Give me juicy autumnal fruit, ripe and red from the
         orchard;
Give me a field where the unmow'd grass grows;
Give me an arbor, give me the trellis'd grape;
Give me fresh corn and wheat—give me serene-moving
         animals, teaching content;
Give me nights perfectly quiet, as on high plateaus west
         of the Mississippi, and I looking up at the stars;
Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers,
         where I can walk undisturb'd;
Give me for marriage a sweet-breath'd woman, of whom
         I should never tire;
Give me a perfect child—give me, away, aside from the
         noise of the world, a rural domestic life;
Give me to warble spontaneous songs, reliev'd, recluse
         by myself, for my own ears only;
Give me solitude—give me Nature—give me again,
         O Nature, your primal sanities!
—These, demanding to have them, (tired with ceaseless
         excitement, and rack'd by the war-strife;)
These to procure, incessantly asking, rising in cries from
         my heart,
While yet incessantly asking, still I adhere to my city;
Day upon day, and year upon year, O city, walking
         your streets,
Where you hold me enchain'd a certain time, refusing
         to give me up;
Yet giving to make me glutted, enrich'd of soul—you
         give me forever faces;
 


View Page 48a
View Page 48a

(O I see what I sought to escape, confronting, reversing
         my cries;
I see my own soul trampling down what it ask'd for.)


 

2

Keep your splendid silent sun;
Keep your woods, O Nature, and the quiet places by
         the woods;
Keep your fields of clover and timothy, and your corn-
         fields and orchards;
Keep the blossoming buckwheat fields, where the Ninth-
         month bees hum;
Give me faces and streets! give me these phantoms in-
         cessant and endless along the trottoirs!
Give me interminable eyes! give me women! give me
         comrades and lovers by the thousand!
Let me see new ones every day! let me hold new ones
         by the hand every day!
Give me such shows! give me the streets of Manhattan!
Give me Broadway, with the soldiers marching—give
         me the sound of the trumpets and drums!
(The soldiers in companies or regiments—some, starting
         away, flush'd and reckless;
Some, their time up, returning, with thinn'd ranks—
         young, yet very old, worn, marching, noticing
         nothing;)
—Give me the shores and the wharves heavy-fringed
         with the black ships!
O such for me! O an intense life! O full to repletion,
         and varied!
The life of the theatre, bar-room, huge hotel, for me!
The saloon of the steamer! the crowded excursion for
         me! the torch-light procession!
The dense brigade, bound for the war, with high piled
         military wagons following;
People, endless, streaming, with strong voices, passions,
         pageants;
Manhattan streets, with their powerful throbs, with the
         beating drums, as now;
 


View Page 49a
View Page 49a

The endless and noisy chorus, the rustle and clank of
         muskets, (even the sight of the wounded;)
Manhattan crowds with their turbulent musical chorus
         —with varied chorus and light of the sparkling
         eyes;
Manhattan faces and eyes forever for me.
 
 
 
 
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