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Salut Au Monde!

SALUT AU MONDE!

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1O TAKE my hand, Walt Whitman! Such gliding wonders! such sights and sounds! Such join'd unended links, each hook'd to the next! Each answering all—each sharing the earth with all. 2What widens within you, Walt Whitman? What waves and soils exuding? What climes? what persons and lands are here? Who are the infants? some playing, some slumbering? Who are the girls? who are the married women? Who are the groups of old men going slowly with their  
 arms about each other's necks?
What rivers are these? what forests and fruits are  
 these?
What are the mountains call'd that rise so high in the  
 mists?
What myriads of dwellings are they, fill'd with dwellers?

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3Within me latitude widens, longitude lengthens; Asia, Africa, Europe, are to the east—America is pro- 
 vided for in the west;
Banding the bulge of the earth winds the hot equator, Curiously north and south turn the axis-ends; Within me is the longest day—the sun wheels in slant- 
 ing rings—it does not set for months;
  [ begin page 146 ]ppp.00270.148.jpg Stretch'd in due time within me the midnight sun just  
 rises above the horizon, and sinks again;
Within me zones, seas, cataracts, plants, volcanoes,  
 groups,
Malaysia, Polynesia, and the great West Indian islands.

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4What do you hear, Walt Whitman? 5I hear the workman singing, and the farmer's wife  
 singing;
I hear in the distance the sounds of children, and of  
 animals early in the day;
I hear quick rifle-cracks from the riflemen of East Ten- 
 nessee and Kentucky, hunting on hills;
I hear emulous shouts of Australians, pursuing the wild  
 horse;
I hear the Spanish dance, with castanets, in the chestnut  
 shade, to the rebeck and guitar;
I hear continual echoes from the Thames; I hear fierce French liberty songs; I hear of the Italian boat-sculler the musical recitative  
 of old poems;
I hear the Virginia plantation-chorus of negroes, of a  
 harvest night, in the glare of pine-knots;
I hear the strong baritone of the 'long-shore-men of  
 Mannahatta;
I hear the stevedores unlading the cargoes, and singing; I hear the screams of the water-fowl of solitary north- 
 west lakes;
I hear the rustling pattering of locusts, as they strike  
 the grain and grass with the showers of their  
 terrible clouds;
I hear the Coptic refrain, toward sundown, pensively  
 falling on the breast of the black venerable vast  
 mother, the Nile;
I hear the bugles of raft-tenders on the streams of  
 Kanada;
I hear the chirp of the Mexican muleteer, and the  
 bells of the mule;
  [ begin page 147 ]ppp.00270.149.jpg I hear the Arab muezzin, calling from the top of the  
 mosque;
I hear the Christian priests at the altars of their  
 churches—I hear the responsive base and  
 soprano;
I hear the wail of utter despair of the white-hair'd  
 Irish grand-parents, when they learn the death  
 of their grandson;
I hear the cry of the Cossack, and the sailor's voice,  
 putting to sea at Okotsk;
I hear the wheeze of the slave-coffle, as the slaves  
 march on—as the husky gangs pass on by twos  
 and threes, fasten'd together with wrist-chains  
 and ankle-chains;
I hear the entreaties of women tied up for punishment  
 —I hear the sibilant whisk of thongs through  
 the air;
I hear the Hebrew reading his records and psalms; I hear the rhythmic myths of the Greeks, and the  
 strong legends of the Romans;
I hear the tale of the divine life and bloody death of  
 the beautiful God—the Christ;
I hear the Hindoo teaching his favorite pupil the  
 loves, wars, adages, transmitted safely to this  
 day, from poets who wrote three thousand years  
 ago.

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6What do you see, Walt Whitman? Who are they you salute, and that one after another  
 salute you?
7I see a great round wonder rolling through the air; I see diminute farms, hamlets, ruins, grave-yards, jails,  
 factories, palaces, hovels, huts of barbarians,  
 tents of nomads, upon the surface;
I see the shaded part on one side, where the sleepers  
 are sleeping—and the sun-lit part on the other  
 side,
I see the curious silent change of the light and shade,   [ begin page 148 ]ppp.00270.150.jpg I see distant lands, as real and near to the inhabitants  
 of them, as my land is to me.
8I see plenteous waters; I see mountain peaks—I see the sierras of Andes and  
 Alleghanies, where they range;
I see plainly the Himalayas, Chian Shahs, Altays,  
 Ghauts;
I see the giant pinnacles of Elbruz, Kazbek, Bazardjusi, I see the Rocky Mountains, and the Peak of Winds; I see the Styrian Alps, and the Karnac Alps; I see the Pyrenees, Balks, Carpathians—and to the  
 north the Dofrafields, and off at sea Mount  
 Hecla;
I see Vesuvius and Etna—I see the Anahuacs; I see the Mountains of the Moon, and the Snow  
 Mountains, and the Red Mountains of Mada- 
 gascar;
I see the Vermont hills, and the long string of Cor- 
 dilleras;
I see the vast deserts of Western America; I see the Lybian, Arabian, and Asiatic deserts; I see huge dreadful Arctic and Antarctic icebergs; I see the superior oceans and the inferior ones—the  
 Atlantic and Pacific, the sea of Mexico, the  
 Brazilian sea, and the sea of Peru,
The Japan waters, those of Hindostan, the China Sea,  
 and the Gulf of Guinea,
The spread of the Baltic, Caspian, Bothnia, the British  
 shores, and the Bay of Biscay,
The clear-sunn'd Mediterranean, and from one to an- 
 other of its islands,
The inland fresh-tasted seas of North America, The White Sea, and the sea around Greenland.
9I behold the mariners of the world; Some are in storms—some in the night, with the  
 watch on the look-out;
Some drifting helplessly—some with contagious dis- 
 eases.
  [ begin page 149 ]ppp.00270.151.jpg 10I behold the sail and steamships of the world, some  
 in clusters in port, some on their voyages;
Some double the Cape of Storms—some Cape Verde,  
 —others Cape Guardafui, Bon, or Bajadore;
Others Dondra Head—others pass the Straits of Sun- 
 da—others Cape Lopatka—others Behring's  
 Straits;
Others Cape Horn—others sail the gulf of Mexico, or  
 along Cuba or Hayti—others Hudson's Bay or  
 Baffin's Bay;
Others pass the Straits of Dover—others enter the  
 Wash—others the Firth of Solway—others  
 round Cape Clear—others the Land's End;
Others traverse the Zuyder Zee, or the Scheld; Others add to the exits and entrances at Sandy Hook; Others to the comers and goers at Gibraltar, or the  
 Dardanelles;
Others sternly push their way through the northern  
 winter-packs;
Others descend or ascend the Obi or the Lena; Others the Niger or the Congo—others the Indus, the  
 Burampooter and Cambodia;
Others wait at the wharves of Manhattan, steam'd up,  
 ready to start;
Wait, swift and swarthy, in the ports of Australia; Wait at Liverpool, Glasgow, Dublin, Marseilles, Lis- 
 bon, Naples, Hamburg, Bremen, Bordeaux, the  
 Hague, Copenhagen;
Wait at Valparaiso, Rio Janeiro, Panama; Wait at their moorings at Boston, Philadelphia, Balti- 
 more, Charleston, New Orleans, Galveston, San  
 Francisco.

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11I see the tracks of the rail-roads of the earth; I see them welding State to State, city to city, through  
 North America;
I see them in Great Britain, I see them in Europe; I see them in Asia and in Africa.
  [ begin page 150 ]ppp.00270.152.jpg 12I see the electric telegraphs of the earth; I see the filaments of the news of the wars, deaths,  
 losses, gains, passions, of my race.
13I see the long river-stripes of the earth; I see where the Mississippi flows—I see where the Co- 
 lumbia flows;
I see the Great River, and the Falls of Niagara; I see the Amazon and the Paraguay; I see the four great rivers of China, the Amour, the  
 Yellow River, the Yiang-tse, and the Pearl;
I see where the Seine flows, and where the Danube,  
 the Loire, the Rhone, and the Guadalquiver  
 flow;
I see the windings of the Volga, the Dnieper, the  
 Oder;
I see the Tuscan going down the Arno, and the Vene- 
 tian along the Po;
I see the Greek seaman sailing out of Egina bay.

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14I see the site of the old empire of Assyria, and that  
 of Persia, and that of India;
I see the falling of the Ganges over the high rim of  
 Saukara.
15I see the place of the idea of the Deity incarnated by  
 avatars in human forms;
I see the spots of the successions of priests on the earth  
 —oracles, sacrificers, brahmins, sabians, lamas,  
 monks, muftis, exhorters;
I see where druids walked the groves of Mona—I see  
 the mistletoe and vervain;
I see the temples of the deaths of the bodies of Gods—  
 I see the old signifiers.
16I see Christ once more eating the bread of his last  
 supper, in the midst of youths and old persons;
I see where the strong divine young man, the Hercules,  
 toil'd faithfully and long, and then died;
  [ begin page 151 ]ppp.00270.153.jpg I see the place of the innocent rich life and hapless fate  
 of the beautiful nocturnal son, the full-limb'd  
 Bacchus;
I see Kneph, blooming, drest in blue, with the crown  
 of feathers on his head;
I see Hermes, unsuspected, dying, well-beloved, saying  
 to the people, Do not weep for me,
This is not my true country, I have lived banish'd from  
  my true country—I now go back there,
I return to the celestial sphere, where every one goes in his  
  turn.

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17I see the battle-fields of the earth—grass grows upon  
 them, and blossoms and corn;
I see the tracks of ancient and modern expeditions.
18I see the nameless masonries, venerable messages of  
 the unknown events, heroes, records of the earth.
19I see the places of the sagas; I see pine-trees and fir-trees torn by northern blasts; I see granite boulders and cliffs—I see green meadows  
 and lakes;
I see the burial-cairns of Scandinavian warriors; I see them raised high with stones, by the marge of  
 restless oceans, that the dead men's spirits, when  
 they wearied of their quiet graves, might rise up  
 through the mounds, and gaze on the tossing bil- 
 lows, and be refresh'd by storms, immensity, lib- 
 erty, action.
20I see the steppes of Asia; I see the tumuli of Mongolia—I see the tents of Kal- 
 mucks and Baskirs;
I see the nomadic tribes, with herds of oxen and cows; I see the table-lands notch'd with ravines—I see the  
 jungles and deserts;
I see the camel, the wild steed, the bustard, the fat- 
 tail'd sheep, the antelope, and the burrowing  
 wolf.
  [ begin page 152 ]ppp.00270.154.jpg 21I see the high-lands of Abyssinia; I see flocks of goats feeding, and see the fig-tree, tama- 
 rind, date,
And see fields of teff-wheat, and see the places of ver- 
 dure and gold.
22I see the Brazilian vaquero; I see the Bolivian ascending Mount Sorata; I see the Wacho crossing the plains—I see the incom- 
 parable rider of horses with his lasso on his  
 arm;
I see over the pampas the pursuit of wild cattle for  
 their hides.

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23I see little and large sea-dots, some inhabited, some  
 uninhabited;
I see two boats with nets, lying off the shore of Pau- 
 manok, quite still;
I see ten fishermen waiting—they discover now a thick  
 school of moss-bonkers—they drop the join'd  
 seine-ends in the water,
The boats separate—they diverge and row off, each on  
 its rounding course to the beach, enclosing the  
 mossbonkers;
The net is drawn in by a windlass by those who stop  
 ashore,
Some of the fishermen lounge in their boats—others  
 stand negligently ankle-deep in the water, pois'd  
 on strong legs;
The boats are partly drawn up—the water slaps against  
 them;
On the sand, in heaps and winrows, well out from the  
 water, lie the green-back'd spotted mossbonkers.

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24I see the despondent red man in the west, lingering  
 about the banks of Moingo, and about Lake  
 Pepin;
  [ begin page 153 ]ppp.00270.155.jpg He has heard the quail and beheld the honey-bee, and  
 sadly prepared to depart.
25I see the regions of snow and ice; I see the sharp-eyed Samoiede and the Finn; I see the seal-seeker in his boat, poising his lance; I see the Siberian on his slight-built sledge, drawn by  
 dogs;
I see the porpoise-hunters—I see the whale-crews of  
 the South Pacific and the North Atlantic;
I see the cliffs, glaciers, torrents, valleys, of Switzerland  
 —I mark the long winters, and the isolation.
26I see the cities of the earth, and make myself at ran- 
 dom a part of them;
I am a real Parisian; I am a habitan of Vienna, St. Petersburg, Berlin, Con- 
 stantinople;
I am of Adelaide, Sidney, Melbourne; I am of London, Manchester, Bristol, Edinburgh, Lim- 
 erick;
I am of Madrid, Cadiz, Barcelona, Oporto, Lyons, Brus- 
 sels, Berne, Frankfort, Stuttgart, Turin, Florence;
I belong in Moscow, Cracow, Warsaw—or northward  
 in Christiania or Stockholm—or in Siberian  
 Irkutsk—or in some street in Iceland;
I descend upon all those cities, and rise from them  
 again.

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27I see vapors exhaling from unexplored countries; I see the savage types, the bow and arrow, the poison'd  
 splint, the fetish, and the obi.
28I see African and Asiatic towns; I see Algiers, Tripoli, Derne, Mogadore, Timbuctoo,  
 Monrovia;
I see the swarms of Pekin, Canton, Benares, Delhi,  
 Calcutta, Yedo;
I see the Kruman in his hut, and the Dahoman and  
 Ashantee-man in their huts;
  [ begin page 154 ]ppp.00270.156.jpg I see the Turk smoking opium in Aleppo; I see the picturesque crowds at the fairs of Khiva, and  
 those of Herat;
I see Teheran—I see Muscat and Medina, and the inter- 
 vening sands—I see the caravans toiling onward;
I see Egypt and the Egyptians—I see the pyramids and  
 obelisks;
I look on chisel'd histories, songs, philosophies, cut in  
 slabs of sand-stone, or on granite-blocks;
I see at Memphis mummy-pits, containing mummies,  
 embalm'd, swathed in linen cloth, lying there  
 many centuries;
I look on the fall'n Theban, the large-ball'd eyes, the  
 side-drooping neck, the hands folded across the  
 breast.
29I see the menials of the earth, laboring; I see the prisoners in the prisons; I see the defective human bodies of the earth; I see the blind, the deaf and dumb, idiots, hunchbacks,  
 lunatics;
I see the pirates, thieves, betrayers, murderers, slave- 
 makers of the earth;
I see the helpless infants, and the helpless old men and  
 women.
30I see male and female everywhere; I see the serene brotherhood of philosophs; I see the constructiveness of my race; I see the results of the perseverance and industry of  
 my race;
I see ranks, colors, barbarisms, civilizations—I go  
 among them—I mix indiscriminately,
And I salute all the inhabitants of the earth.

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31You, whoever you are! You daughter or son of England! You of the mighty Slavic tribes and empires! you Russ  
 in Russia!
  [ begin page 155 ]ppp.00270.157.jpg You dim-descended, black, divine-soul'd African, large,  
 fine-headed, nobly-form'd, superbly destin'd, on  
 equal terms with me!
You Norwegian! Swede! Dane! Icelander! you Prus- 
 sian!
You Spaniard of Spain! you Portuguese! You Frenchwoman and Frenchman of France! You Belge! you liberty-lover of the Netherlands! You sturdy Austrian! you Lombard! Hun! Bohemian!  
 farmer of Styria!
You neighbor of the Danube! You working-man of the Rhine, the Elbe, or the Weser!  
 you working-woman too!
You Sardinian! you Bavarian! Swabian! Saxon! Wal- 
 lachian! Bulgarian!
You citizen of Prague! Roman! Neapolitan! Greek! You lithe matador in the arena at Seville! You mountaineer living lawlessly on the Taurus or  
 Caucasus!
You Bokh horse-herd, watching your mares and stal- 
 lions feeding!
You beautiful-bodied Persian, at full speed in the sad- 
 dle, shooting arrows to the mark!
You Chinaman and Chinawoman of China! you Tartar  
 of Tartary!
You women of the earth subordinated at your tasks! You Jew journeying in your old age through every risk,  
 to stand once on Syrian ground!
You other Jews waiting in all lands for your Messiah! You thoughtful Armenian, pondering by some stream  
 of the Euphrates! you peering amid the ruins  
 of Ninevah! you ascending Mount Ararat!
You foot-worn pilgrim welcoming the far-away sparkle  
 of the minarets of Mecca!
You sheiks along the stretch from Suez to Bab-el-man- 
 deb, ruling your families and tribes!
You olive-grower tending your fruit on fields of Naza- 
 reth, Damascus, or Lake Tiberias!
You Thibet trader on the wide inland, or bargaining  
 in the shops of Lassa!
  [ begin page 156 ]ppp.00270.158.jpg You Japanese man or woman! you liver in Madagas- 
 car, Ceylon, Sumatra, Borneo!
All you continentals of Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia,  
 indifferent of place!
All you on the numberless islands of the archipelagoes  
 of the sea!
And you of centuries hence, when you listen to me! And you, each and everywhere, whom I specify not, but  
 include just the same!
Health to you! Good will to you all—from me and  
 America sent.
32Each of us inevitable; Each of us limitless—each of us with his or her right  
 upon the earth;
Each of us allow'd the eternal purports of the earth; Each of us here as divinely as any is here.

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33You Hottentot with clicking palate! You woolly- 
 hair'd hordes!
You own'd persons, dropping sweat-drops or blood- 
 drops!
You human forms with the fathomless ever-impressive  
 countenances of brutes!
I dare not refuse you—the scope of the world, and of  
 time and space, are upon me.
34You poor koboo whom the meanest of the rest look  
 down upon, for all your glimmering language  
 language spirituality!
You low expiring aborigines of the hills of Utah, Ore- 
 gon, California!
You dwarf'd Kamtschatkan, Greenlander, Lapp! You Austral negro, naked, red, sooty, with protrusive  
 lip, grovelling, seeking your food!
You Caffre, Berber, Soudanese! You haggard, uncouth, untutor'd, Bedowee! You plague-swarms in Madras, Nankin, Kaubul, Cairo! You bather bathing in the Ganges!   [ begin page 157 ]ppp.00270.159.jpg You benighted roamer of Amazonia! you Patagonian!  
 you Fejee-man!
You peon of Mexico! you slave of Carolina, Texas,  
 Tennessee!
I do not prefer others so very much before you either; I do not say one word against you, away back there,  
 where you stand;
(You will come forward in due time to my side.)
35My spirit has pass'd in compassion and determina- 
 tion around the whole earth;
I have look'd for equals and lovers, and found them  
 ready for me in all lands;
I think some divine rapport has equalized me with  
 them.

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36O vapors! I think I have risen with you, and moved  
 away to distant continents, and fallen down there,  
 for reasons;
I think I have blown with you, O winds; O waters, I have finger'd every shore with you.
37I have run through what any river or strait of the  
 globe has run through;
I have taken my stand on the bases of peninsulas, and  
 on the high embedded rocks, to cry thence.
38 Salut au monde! What cities the light or warmth penetrates, I penetrate  
 those cities myself;
All islands to which birds wing their way, I wing my  
 way myself.
39Toward all, I raise high the perpendicular hand—I make the signal, To remain after me in sight forever, For all the haunts and homes of men.
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