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Leaves of Grass (1871-72)
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As I Lay with my Head in your Lap, Camerado.
As I lay with my head in your lap, Camerado, |
The confession I made I resume—what I said to you
and the open air I resume:
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I know I am restless, and make others so; |
I know my words are weapons, full of danger, full of
death;
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(Indeed I am myself the real soldier: |
It is not he, there, with his bayonet, and not the red-
striped artilleryman;)
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For I confront peace, security, and all the settled laws,
to unsettle them;
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I am more resolute because all have denied me, than I
could ever have been had all accepted me;
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I heed not, and have never heeded, either experience,
cautions, majorities, nor ridicule;
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And the threat of what is call'd hell is little or nothing
to me;
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And the lure of what is call'd heaven is little or nothing
to me;
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…Dear camerado! I confess I have urged you onward
with me, and still urge you, without the least
idea what is our destination,
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Or whether we shall be victorious, or utterly quell'd and
defeated.
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