Leaves of Grass 3
Part of the cluster LEAVES OF GRASS.
3.
1 NIGHT on the prairies; The supper is over—the fire on the ground burnslow; The wearied emigrants sleep, wrapt in their blankets; I walk by myself—I stand and look at the stars,
which I think now I never realized before. 2Now I absorb immortality and peace, I admire death, and test propositions. 3How plenteous! How spiritual! How resumé! The same Old Man and Soul—the same old aspira-
tions, and the same content. 4I was thinking the day most splendid, till I saw
what the not-day exhibited, I was thinking this globe enough, till there sprang
out so noiseless around me myriads of other
globes. 5Now, while the great thoughts of space and eternity
fill me, I will measure myself by them; And now, touch'd with the lives of other globes, ar-
rived as far along as those of the earth, [ begin page 288 ]
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Or waiting to arrive, or pass'd on farther than those of the earth, I henceforth no more ignore them, than I ignore my
own life, Or the lives of the earth arrived as far as mine, or
waiting to arrive. 6O I see now that life cannot exhibit all to me—as
the day cannot, I see that I am to wait for what will be exhibited by
death.
Part of the cluster LEAVES OF GRASS.