Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman

Leaves of Grass (1871-72)

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TO THINK OF TIME.

1

¹ To think of time—of all that retrospection!

To think of to-day, and the ages continued hence-
forward.

² Have you guess'd you yourself would not continue?

Have you dreaded these earth-beetles?

Have you fear'd the future would be nothing to you?

³ Is to-day nothing? Is the beginningless past noth-
ing?

If the future is nothing, they are just as surely nothing.

⁴ To think that the sun rose in the east! that men and
women were flexible, real, alive! that everything
was alive!

To think that you and I did not see, feel, think, nor
bear our part!

To think that we are now here, and bear our part.

2

⁵ Not a day passes—not a minute or second, without an
accouchement!

Not a day passes—not a minute or second, without a
corpse!

⁶ The dull nights go over, and the dull days also,

The soreness of lying so much in bed goes over,

The physician, after long putting off, gives the silent
and terrible look for an answer,

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The children come hurried and weeping, and the broth-
ers and sisters are sent for,

Medicines stand unused on the shelf—(the camphor-
smell has long pervaded the rooms,)

The faithful hand of the living does not desert the hand
of the dying,

The twitching lips press lightly on the forehead of the
dying,

The breath ceases, and the pulse of the heart ceases,

The corpse stretches on the bed, and the living look
upon it,

It is palpable as the living are palpable.

⁷ The living look upon the corpse with their eye-sight,

But without eye-sight lingers a different living, and
looks curiously on the corpse.

3

⁸ To think the thought of Death, merged in the thought
of materials!

To thank that the rivers will flow, and the snow fall,
and fruits ripen, and act upon others as upon us
now—yet not act upon us!

To think of all these wonders of city and country, and
others taking great interest in them—and we
taking no interest in them!

⁹ To think how eager we are in building our houses!

To think others shall be just as eager, and we quite
indifferent!

¹⁰ (I see one building the house that serves him a few
years, or seventy or eighty years at most,

I see one building the house that serves him longer
than that.)

¹¹ Slow-moving and black lines creep over the whole
earth—they never cease—they are the burial
lines,

He that was President was buried, and he that is now
President shall surely be buried.

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4

¹² A reminiscence of the vulgar fate,

A frequent sample of the life and death of workmen,

Each after his kind:

Cold dash of waves at the ferry-wharf—posh and ice in
         the river, half-frozen mud in the streets, a gray
         discouraged sky overhead, the short last daylight
         of Twelfth-month,

A hearse and stages—other vehicles give place—the
funeral of an old Broadway stage-driver, the
cortege mostly drivers.

¹³ Steady the trot to the cemetery, duly rattles the
death-bell, the gate is pass'd, the new-dug grave
is halted at, the living alight, the hearse uncloses,

The coffin is pass'd out, lower'd and settled, the whip is
laid on the coffin, the earth is swiftly shovel'd in,

The mound above is flatted with the spades—silence,

A minute—no one moves or speaks—it is done,

He is decently put away—is there any thing more?

¹⁴ He was a good fellow, free-mouth'd, quick-temper'd,
         not bad-looking, able to take his own part, witty,
         sensitive to a slight, ready with life or death for
         a friend, fond of women, gambled, ate hearty,
         drank hearty, had known what it was to be flush,
         grew low-spirited toward the last, sicken'd, was
         help'd by a contribution, died, aged forty-one
         years—and that was his funeral.

¹⁵ Thumb extended, finger uplifted, apron, cape, gloves,
         strap, wet-weather clothes, whip carefully chosen,
         boss, spotter, starter, hostler, somebody loafing
         on you, you loafing on somebody, headway, man
         before and man behind, good day's work, bad
         day's work, pet stock, mean stock, first out, last
         out, turning-in at night;

To think that these are so much and so nigh to other
drivers—and he there takes no interest in them!

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5

¹⁶ The markets, the government, the working-man's
wages—to think what account they are through
our nights and days!

To think that other working-men will make just as
great account of them, yet we make little or no
account!

¹⁷ The vulgar and the refined—what you call sin,
and what you call goodness—to think how wide a
difference!

To think the difference will still continue to others, yet
we lie beyond the difference.

¹⁸ To think how much pleasure there is!

Have you pleasure from looking at the sky? have you
pleasure from poems?

Do you enjoy yourself in the city? or engaged in bus-
iness? or planning a nomination and election?
or with your wife and family?

Or with your mother and sisters? or in womanly house-
work? or the beautiful maternal cares?

—These also flow onward to others—you and I flow
onward,

But in due time, you and I shall take less interest in
them.

¹⁹ Your farm, profits, crops,—to think how engross'd
you are!

To think there will still be farms, profits, crops—yet for
you, of what avail?

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²⁰ What will be will be well—for what is, is well,

To take interest is well, and not to take interest shall
be well.

²¹ The sky continues beautiful,

The pleasure of men with women shall never be sated,
nor the pleasure of women with men, nor the
pleasure from poems,

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The domestic joys, the daily housework or business, the
building of houses—these are not phantasms—
they have weight, form, location;

Farms, profits, crops, markets, wages, government, are
none of them phantasms,

The difference between sin and goodness is no delusion,

The earth is not an echo—man and his life and all the
things of his life, are well-consider'd.

²² You are not thrown to the winds—you gather cer-
tainly and safely around yourself;

Yourself! yourself! Yourself, for ever and ever!

7

²³ It is not to diffuse you that you were born of your
mother and father, it is to identify you;

It is not that you should be undecided, but that you
should be decided;

Something long preparing and formless is arrived and
form'd in you,

You are henceforth secure, whatever comes or goes.

²⁴ The threads that were spun are gather'd, the weft
crosses the warp, the pattern is systematic.

²⁵ The preparations have every one been justified,

The orchestra have sufficiently tuned their instruments
—the baton has given the signal.

²⁶ The guest that was coming—he waited long, for rea-
sons—he is now housed,

He is one of those who are beautiful and happy—he is
one of those that to look upon and be with is
enough.

²⁷ The law of the past cannot be eluded,

The law of the present and future cannot be eluded,

The law of the living cannot be eluded—it is eternal,

The law of promotion and transformation cannot be
eluded,

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The law of heroes and good-doers cannot be eluded,

The law of drunkards, informers, mean persons—not
one iota thereof can be eluded.

8

²⁸ Slow moving and black lines go ceaselessly over the
earth,

Northerner goes carried and Southerner goes carried,
         and they on the Atlantic side and they on the
         Pacific, and they between, and all through the
         Mississippi country, and all over the earth.

²⁹ The great masters and kosmos are well as they go—
the heroes and good-doers are well,

The known leaders and inventors, and the rich owners
and pious and distinguish'd, may be well,

But there is more account than that—there is strict
account of all.

³⁰ The interminable hordes of the ignorant and wicked
are not nothing,

The barbarians of Africa and Asia are not nothing,

The common peoples of Europe are not nothing—the
American aborigines are not nothing,

The infected in the immigrant hospital are not nothing
—the murderer or mean person is not nothing,

The perpetual successions of shallow people are not
nothing as they go,

The lowest prositute is not nothing—the mocker of
religion is not nothing as he goes.

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³¹ Of and in all these things,

I have dream'd that we are not to be changed so much,
nor the law of us changed,

I have dream'd that heroes and good-doers shall be
under the present and past law,

And that murderers, drunkards, liars, shall be under
the present and past law,

For I have dream'd that the law they are under now is
enough.

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³² If otherwise, all came but to ashes of dung,

If maggots and rats ended us, then Alarum! for we are
betray'd!

Then indeed suspicion of death.

³³ Do you suspect death? If I were to suspect death, I
should die now,

Do you think I could walk pleasantly and well-suited
toward annihilation?

³⁴ Pleasantly and well-suited I walk,

Whither I walk I cannot define, but I know it is good,

The whole universe indicates that it is good,

The past and the present indicate that it is good.

³⁵ How beautiful and perfect are the animals!

How perfect the earth, and the minutest thing upon it!

What is called good is perfect, and what is called bad is
just as perfect,

The vegetables and minerals are all perfect, and the
imponderable fluids are perfect;

Slowly and surely they have pass'd on to this, and
slowly and surely they yet pass on.

11

³⁵ I swear I think now that every thing without excep-
tion has an eternal Soul!

The trees have, rooted in the ground! the weeds of the
sea have! the animals!

³⁷ I swear I think there is nothing but immortality!

That the exquisite scheme is for it, and the nebulous
float is for it, and the cohering is for it;

And all preparation is for it! and identity is for it! and
life and materials are altogether for it!

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