Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman

Leaves of Grass (1871-72)

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ASSURANCES.

I NEED no assurances, I am a man who is pre-occupied,
of his own Soul;

I do not doubt that from under the feet, and beside the
         hands and face I am cognizant of, are now look-
         ing faces I am not cognizant of—calm and actual
         faces

I do not doubt but the majesty and beauty of the world
are latent in any iota of the world;

I do not doubt I am limitless, and that the universes
are limitless—in vain I try to think how limitless—

I do not doubt that the orbs and the systems of orbs
         play their swift sports through the air on pur-
         pose—and that I shall one day be eligible to do
         as much as they, and more than they;

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I do not doubt that temporary affairs keep on and on,
millions of years;

I do not doubt interiors have their interiors, and exte-
         riors have their exteriors—and that the eyesight
         has another eyesight, and the hearing another
         hearing, and the voice another voice;

I do not doubt that the passionately-wept deaths of
         young men are provided for—and that the deaths
         of young women, and the deaths of little children,
         are provided for;

(Did you think Life was so well provided for—and
Death, the purport of all Life, is not well pro-
vided for?)

I do not doubt that wrecks at sea, no matter what the
         horrors of them—no matter whose wife, child,
         husband, father, lover, has gone down, are pro-
         vided for, to the minutest points;

I do not doubt that whatever can possibly happen, any
where, at any time, is provided for in the inher-
ences of things;

I do not think Life provides for all, and for Time and
Space—but I believe Heavenly Death provides
for all.

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