|
Leaves of Grass (1871-72)
contents
| previous
| next
NOW FINALE TO THE SHORE.
NOW FINALE TO THE SHORE.
Now, land and life, finale, and farewell! |
Now Voyager depart! (much, much for thee is yet in
store;)
|
Often enough hast though adventur'd o'er the seas, |
Cautiously cruising, studying the charts, |
Duly again to port, and hawser's tie, returning: |
—But now obey thy cherish'd, secret wish, |
Embrace thy friends—leave all in order; |
To port, and hawser's tie, no more returning, |
Depart upon thy endless cruise, old Sailor! |
SHUT NOT YOUR DOORS, &c.
SHUT not your doors to me, proud libraries, |
For that which was lacking on all your well-fill'd
shelves, yet needed most, I bring,
|
Forth from the army, the war emerging—a book I
have made,
|
The words of my book nothing—the drift of it every-
thing;
|
View Page 118
|
A book separate, not link'd with the rest, nor felt by
the intellect,
|
But you, ye untold latencies, will thrill to every page; |
Through Space and Time, fused in a chant, and the
flowing, eternal Identity,
|
To Nature, encompassing these, encompassing God—
to the joyous, electric All,
|
To the sense of Death—and accepting, exulting in
Death, in its turn, the same as life,
|
The entrance of Man I sing. |
THOUGHT.
Of what underlies the precedent songs—of my aims in
them;
|
Of the seed I have sought to plant in them; |
Of joy, sweet joy, through many a year, in them; |
(For them—for them have I lived—in them my work
is done;)
|
Of many an aspiration fond—of many a dream and
plan,
|
Of you, O mystery great!—to place on record faith in
you, O death!
|
—To compact you, ye parted, diverse lives! |
To put rapport the mountains, and rocks, and streams, |
And the winds of the north, and the forests of oak and
pine,
|
THE UNTOLD WANT.
THE untold want, by life and land ne'er granted, |
Now, Voyager, sail thou forth, to seek and find. |
View Page 119
|
PORTALS.
WHAT are those of the known, but to ascend and enter
the Unknown?
|
And what are those of life, but for Death? |
THESE CAROLS.
THESE Carols, sung to cheer my passage through the
world I see,
|
For completion, I dedicate to the Invisible World. |
THIS DAY, O SOUL.
THIS day, O Soul, I give you a wondrous mirror; |
Long in the dark, in tarnish and cloud it lay—But the
cloud has pass'd, and the tarnish gone;
|
. . . Behold, O Soul! It is now a clean and bright
mirror,
|
Faithfully showing you all the things of the world. |
WHAT PLACE IS BESIEGED?
WHAT place is besieged, and vainly tries to raise the
siege?
|
Lo! I send to that place a commander, swift, brave,
immortal;
|
And with him horse and foot—and parks of artil-
lery,
|
And artillery-men, the deadliest that ever fired gun. |
View Page 120
|
TO THE READER AT PARTING.
Now, dearest comrade, lift me to your face, |
We must separate awhile—Here! take from my lips
this kiss;
|
Whoever you are, I give it especially to you; |
So long! —And I hope we shall meet again. |
JOY, SHIPMATE, JOY!
(Pleas'd to my Soul at death I cry;) |
Our life is closed—our life begins; |
The long, long anchorage we leave, |
The ship is clear at last—she leaps! |
She swiftly courses from the shore; |
contents
| previous
| next
|
| |