Cluster: Leaves of Grass. (1860)

Poems in this cluster

LEAVES OF GRASS.

1.

¹ELEMENTAL drifts! O I wish I could impress others as you and the waves
have just been impressing me. ²As I ebbed with an ebb of the ocean of life, As I wended the shores I know, As I walked where the sea-ripples wash you, Pau-
manok, Where they rustle up, hoarse and sibilant, Where the fierce old mother endlessly cries for her
castaways, I, musing, late in the autumn day, gazing off south-
ward, Alone, held by the eternal self of me that threatens
to get the better of me, and stifle me, Was seized by the spirit that trails in the lines
underfoot, In the rim, the sediment, that stands for all the water
and all the land of the globe. [ begin page 196 ]

ppp.01500.204.jpg ³Fascinated, my eyes, reverting from the south,
dropped, to follow those slender winrows, Chaff, straw, splinters of wood, weeds, and the sea-
gluten, Scum, scales from shining rocks, leaves of salt-
lettuce, left by the tide; Miles walking, the sound of breaking waves the other
side of me, Paumanok, there and then, as I thought the old
thought of likenesses, These you presented to me, you fish-shaped island, As I wended the shores I know, As I walked with that eternal self of me, seeking
types. ⁴As I wend the shores I know not, As I listen to the dirge, the voices of men and women
wrecked, As I inhale the impalpable breezes that set in
upon me, As the ocean so mysterious rolls toward me closer
and closer, At once I find, the least thing that belongs to me, or
that I see or touch, I know not; I, too, but signify, at the utmost, a little washed-up
drift, A few sands and dead leaves to gather, Gather, and merge myself as part of the sands and
drift. ⁵O baffled, balked, Bent to the very earth, here preceding what follows, Oppressed with myself that I have dared to open my
mouth, [ begin page 197 ]

ppp.01500.205.jpg Aware now, that, amid all the blab whose echoes
recoil upon me, I have not once had the least
idea who or what I am, But that before all my insolent poems the real ME
still stands untouched, untold, altogether un-
reached, Withdrawn far, mocking me with mock-congrat-
ulatory signs and bows, With peals of distant ironical laughter at every word
I have written or shall write, Striking me with insults till I fall helpless upon the
sand. ⁶O I perceive I have not understood anything—not a
single object—and that no man ever can. ⁷I perceive Nature here, in sight of the sea, is taking
advantage of me, to dart upon me, and sting me, Because I was assuming so much, And because I have dared to open my mouth to sing
at all. ⁸You oceans both! You tangible land! Nature! Be not too rough with me—I submit—I close with
you, These little shreds shall, indeed, stand for all. ⁹You friable shore, with trails of debris! You fish-shaped island! I take what is underfoot; What is yours is mine, my father. ¹⁰I too Paumanok, I too have bubbled up, floated the measureless float,
and been washed on your shores; 17* [ begin page 198 ]

ppp.01500.206.jpg I too am but a trail of drift and debris, I too leave little wrecks upon you, you fish-shaped
island. ¹¹I throw myself upon your breast, my father, I cling to you so that you cannot unloose me, I hold you so firm, till you answer me something. ¹²Kiss me, my father, Touch me with your lips, as I touch those I love, Breathe to me, while I hold you close, the secret of
the wondrous murmuring I envy, For I fear I shall become crazed, if I cannot emulate
it, and utter myself as well as it. ¹³Sea-raff! Crook-tongued waves! O, I will yet sing, some day, what you have said
to me. ¹⁴Ebb, ocean of life, (the flow will return,) Cease not your moaning, you fierce old mother, Endlessly cry for your castaways—but fear not,
deny not me, Rustle not up so hoarse and angry against my feet, as
I touch you, or gather from you. ¹⁵I mean tenderly by you, I gather for myself, and for this phantom, looking
down where we lead, and following me and
mine. ¹⁶Me and mine! We, loose winrows, little corpses, Froth, snowy white, and bubbles, [ begin page 199 ]

ppp.01500.207.jpg (See! from my dead lips the ooze exuding at last! See—the prismatic colors, glistening and rolling!) Tufts of straw, sands, fragments, Buoyed hither from many moods, one contradicting
another, From the storm, the long calm, the darkness, the
swell, Musing, pondering, a breath, a briny tear, a dab of
liquid or soil, Up just as much out of fathomless workings fer-
mented and thrown, A limp blossom or two, torn, just as much over waves
floating, drifted at random, Just as much for us that sobbing dirge of Nature, Just as much, whence we come, that blare of the
cloud-trumpets; We, capricious, brought hither, we know not whence,
spread out before You, up there, walking or
sitting, Whoever you are—we too lie in drifts at your feet.

2.

¹GREAT are the myths—I too delight in them, Great are Adam and Eve—I too look back and
accept them, Great the risen and fallen nations, and their poets,
women, sages, inventors, rulers, warriors, and
priests. [ begin page 200 ]

ppp.01500.208.jpg ²Great is Liberty! great is Equality! I am their fol-
lower, Helmsmen of nations, choose your craft! where you
sail, I sail, Yours is the muscle of life or death—yours is the
perfect science—in you I have absolute faith. ³Great is To-day, and beautiful, It is good to live in this age—there never was any
better. ⁴Great are the plunges, throes, triumphs, downfalls of
Democracy, Great the reformers, with their lapses and screams, Great the daring and venture of sailors, on new ex-
plorations. ⁵Great are Yourself and Myself, We are just as good and bad as the oldest and young-
est or any, What the best and worst did, we could do, What they felt, do not we feel it in ourselves? What they wished, do we not wish the same? ⁶Great is Youth—equally great is Old Age—great
are the Day and Night, Great is Wealth—great is Poverty—great is Ex-
pression—great is Silence. ⁷Youth, large, lusty, loving—Youth, full of grace,
force, fascination, Do you know that Old Age may come after you, with
equal grace, force, fascination? [ begin page 201 ]

ppp.01500.209.jpg ⁸Day, full-blown and splendid—Day of the immense
sun, action, ambition, laughter, The Night follows close, with millions of suns, and
sleep, and restoring darkness. ⁹Wealth with the flush hand, fine clothes, hospitality, But then the Soul's wealth, which is candor, knowl-
edge, pride, enfolding love; (Who goes for men and women showing Poverty
richer than wealth?) ¹⁰Expression of speech! in what is written or said, for-
get not that Silence is also expressive, That anguish as hot as the hottest, and contempt as
cold as the coldest, may be without words, That the true adoration is likewise without words,
and without kneeling. ¹¹Great is the greatest Nation—the nation of clusters
of equal nations. ¹²Great is the Earth, and the way it became what it is; Do you imagine it is stopped at this? the increase
abandoned? Understand then that it goes as far onward from
this, as this is from the times when it lay in
covering waters and gases, before man had ap-
peared. ¹³Great is the quality of Truth in man, The quality of truth in man supports itself through
all changes, [ begin page 202 ]

ppp.01500.210.jpg It is inevitably in the man—he and it are in love,
and never leave each other. ¹⁴The truth in man is no dictum, it is vital as eye-
sight, If there be any Soul, there is truth—if there be man
or woman, there is truth—if there be physical
or moral, there is truth, If there be equilibrium or volition, there is truth—
if there be things at all upon the earth, there
is truth. ¹⁵O truth of the earth! O truth of things! I am de-
termined to press my way toward you, Sound your voice! I scale mountains, or dive in the
sea after you. ¹⁶Great is Language—it is the mightiest of the sci-
ences, It is the fulness, color, form, diversity of the earth,
and of men and women, and of all qualities
and processes, It is greater than wealth—it is greater than build-
ings, ships, religions, paintings, music. ¹⁷Great is the English speech—what speech is so
great as the English? Great is the English brood—what brood has so vast
a destiny as the English? It is the mother of the brood that must rule the earth
with the new rule, The new rule shall rule as the Soul rules, and as the
love, justice, equality in the Soul, rule. [ begin page 203 ]

ppp.01500.211.jpg ¹⁸Great is Law—great are the old few landmarks of
the law, They are the same in all times, and shall not be
disturbed. ¹⁹Great are commerce, newspapers, books, free-trade,
railroads, steamers, international mails, tele-
graphs, exchanges. ²⁰Great is Justice! Justice is not settled by legislators and laws—it is in
the Soul, It cannot be varied by statues, any more than love,
pride, the attraction of gravity, can, It is immutable—it does not depend on majorities—
majorities or what not come at last before the
same passionless and exact tribunal. ²¹For justice are the grand natural lawyers and perfect
judges—it is in their Souls, It is well assorted—they have not studied for noth-
ing—the great includes the less, They rule on the highest grounds—they oversee all
eras, states, administrations. ²²The perfect judge fears nothing—he could go front
to front before God, Before the perfect judge all shall stand back—life
and death shall stand back—heaven and hell
shall stand back. ²³Great is Goodness! I do not know what it is, any more than I know what
health is—but I know it is great. [ begin page 204 ]

ppp.01500.212.jpg ²⁴Great is Wickedness—I find I often admire it, just as
much as I admire goodness, Do you call that a paradox? It certainly is a paradox. ²⁵The eternal equilibrium of things is great, and the
eternal overthrow of things is great, And there is another paradox. ²⁶Great is Life, real and mystical, wherever and whoever, Great is Death—sure as Life holds all parts together,
Death holds all parts together, Death has just as much purport as Life has, Do you enjoy what Life confers? you shall enjoy what
Death confers, I do not understand the realities of Death, but I know
they are great, I do not understand the least reality of Life—how then
can I understand the realities of Death?

3.

¹A YOUNG man came to me with a message from his
brother, How should the young man know the whether and
when of his brother? Tell him to send me the signs. ²And I stood before the young man face to face, and
took his right hand in my left hand, and his left
hand in my right hand, [ begin page 205 ]

ppp.01500.213.jpg And I answered for his brother, and for men, and I
answered for THE POET, and sent these signs. ³Him all wait for—him all yield up to—his word is
decisive and final, Him they accept, in him lave, in him perceive them-
selves, as amid light, Him they immerse, and he immerses them. ⁴Beautiful women, the haughtiest nations, laws, the
landscape, people, animals, The profound earth and its attributes, and the unquiet
ocean, All enjoyments and properties, and money, and what-
ever money will buy, The best farms—others toiling and planting, and he
unavoidably reaps, The noblest and costliest cities—others grading and
building, and he domiciles there, Nothing for any one, but what is for him—near and
far are for him, The ships in the offing—the perpetual shows and
marches on land, are for him, if they are for any
body. ⁵He puts things in their attitudes, He puts to-day out of himself, with plasticity and
love, He places his own city, times, reminiscences, parents,
brothers and sisters, associations, employment,
politics, so that the rest never shame them after-
ward, nor assume to command them. 18 [ begin page 206 ]

ppp.01500.214.jpg ⁶He is the answerer, What can be answered he answers—and what cannot
be answered, he shows how it cannot be answered. ⁷A man is a summons and challenge; (It is vain to skulk—Do you hear that mocking and
laughter? Do you hear the ironical echoes?) ⁸Books, friendships, philosophers, priests, action, pleas-
ure, pride, beat up and down, seeking to give
satisfaction, He indicates the satisfaction, and indicates them that
beat up and down also. ⁹Whichever the sex, whatever the season or place, he
may go freshly and gently and safely, by day or
by night, He has the pass-key of hearts—to him the response
of the prying of hands on the knobs. ¹⁰His welcome is universal—the flow of beauty is not
more welcome or universal than he is, The person he favors by day or sleeps with at night is
blessed. ¹¹Every existence has its idiom—everything has an
idiom and tongue, He resolves all tongues into his own, and bestows it
upon men, and any man translates, and any man
translates himself also, One part does not counteract another part—he is the
joiner—he sees how they join. ¹²He says indifferently and alike, How are you, friend?
to the President at his levee, [ begin page 207 ]

ppp.01500.215.jpg And he says, Good-day, my brother! to Cudge that
hoes in the sugar-field, And both understand him, and know that his speech
is right. ¹³He walks with perfect ease in the capitol, He walks among the Congress, and one representative
says to another, Here is our equal, appearing and
new. ¹⁴Then the mechanics take him for a mechanic, And the soldiers suppose him to be a captain, and the
sailors that he has followed the sea, And the authors take him for an author, and the
artists for an artist, And the laborers perceive he could labor with them
and love them, No matter what the work is, that he is the one to fol-
low it, or has followed it, No matter what the nation, that he might find his
brothers and sisters there. ¹⁵The English believe he comes of their English stock, A Jew to the Jew he seems—a Russ to the Russ—
usual and near, removed from none. ¹⁶Whoever he looks at in the traveller's coffee-house
claims him, The Italian or Frenchman is sure, and the German is
sure, and the Spaniard is sure, and the island
Cuban is sure; The engineer, the deck-hand on the great lakes, or on
the Mississippi, or St. Lawrence, or Sacramento,
or Hudson, or Paumanok Sound, claims him. [ begin page 208 ]

ppp.01500.216.jpg ¹⁷The gentleman of perfect blood acknowledges his per-
fect blood, The insulter, the prostitute, the angry person, the
beggar, see themselves in the ways of him—he
strangely transmutes them, They are not vile any more—they hardly know them-
selves, they are so grown. ¹⁸Do you think it would be good to be the writer of
melodious verses? Well, it would be good to be the writer of melodious
verses; But what are verses beyond the flowing character you
could have? or beyond beautiful manners and
behavior? Or beyond one manly or affectionate deed of an ap-
prentice-boy? or old woman? or man that has
been in prison, or is likely to be in prison?

4.

¹SOMETHING startles me where I thought I was safest, I withdraw from the still woods I loved, I will not go now on the pastures to walk, I will not strip the clothes from my body to meet my
lover the sea, I will not touch my flesh to the earth, as to other
flesh, to renew me. [ begin page 209 ]

ppp.01500.217.jpg ²O Earth! O how can the ground of you not sicken? How can you be alive, you growths of spring? How can you furnish health, you blood of herbs, roots,
orchards, grain? Are they not continually putting distempered corpses
in you? Is not every continent worked over and over with sour
dead? ³Where have you disposed of those carcasses of the
drunkards and gluttons of so many generations? Where have you drawn off all the foul liquid and meat? I do not see any of it upon you to-day—or perhaps
I am deceived, I will run a furrow with my plough—I will press
my spade through the sod, and turn it up un-
derneath, I am sure I shall expose some of the foul meat. ⁴Behold! This is the compost of billions of premature corpses, Perhaps every mite has once formed part of a sick
person—Yet behold! The grass covers the prairies, The bean bursts noiselessly through the mould in the
garden, The delicate spear of the onion pierces upward, The apple-buds cluster together on the apple-branches, The resurrection of the wheat appears with pale visage
out of its graves, The tinge awakes over the willow-tree and the mul-
berry-tree, 18* [ begin page 210 ]

ppp.01500.218.jpg The he-birds carol mornings and evenings, while the
she-birds sit on their nests, The young of poultry break through the hatched eggs, The new-born of animals appear—the calf is dropt
from the cow, the colt from the mare, Out of its little hill faithfully rise the potato's dark
green leaves, Out of its hill rises the yellow maize-stalk; The summer growth is innocent and disdainful above
all those strata of sour dead. ⁵What chemistry! That the winds are really not infectious, That this is no cheat, this transparent green-wash of
the sea, which is so amorous after me, That it is safe to allow it to lick my naked body all
over with its tongues, That it will not endanger me with the fevers that
have deposited themselves in it, That all is clean, forever and forever, That the cool drink from the well tastes so good, That blackberries are so flavorous and juicy, That the fruits of the apple-orchard, and of the
orange-orchard—that melons, grapes, peaches,
plums, will none of them poison me, That when I recline on the grass I do not catch any
disease, Though probably every spear of grass rises out of
what was once a catching disease. ⁶Now I am terrified at the Earth! it is that calm and
patient, It grows such sweet things out of such corruptions, [ begin page 211 ]

ppp.01500.219.jpg It turns harmless and stainless on its axis, with such
endless successions of diseased corpses, It distils such exquisite winds out of such infused
fetor, It renews, with such unwitting looks, its prodigal,
annual, sumptuous crops, It gives such divine materials to men, and accepts
such leavings from them at last.

5.

¹ALL day I have walked the city, and talked with my
friends, and thought of prudence, Of time, space, reality—of such as these, and abreast
with them, prudence. ²After all, the last explanation remains to be made
about prudence, Little and large alike drop quietly aside from the
prudence that suits immortality. ³The Soul is of itself, All verges to it—all has reference to what ensues, All that a person does, says, thinks, is of conse-
quence, Not a move can a man or woman make, that affects
him or her in a day, month, any part of the
direct life-time, or the hour of death, but the
same affects him or her onward afterward
through the indirect life-time. [ begin page 212 ]

ppp.01500.220.jpg ⁴The indirect is more than the direct, The spirit receives from the body just as much as it
gives to the body, if not more. ⁵Not one word or deed—not venereal sore, discolor-
ation, privacy of the onanist, putridity of gluttons
or rum-drinkers, peculation, cunning, betrayal,
murder, seduction, prostitution, but has results
beyond death, as really as before death. ⁶Charity and personal force are the only investments
worth anything. ⁷No specification is necessary—all that a male or
female does, that is vigorous, benevolent, clean,
is so much profit to him or her, in the unshakable
order of the universe, and through the whole
scope of it forever. ⁸Who has been wise, receives interest, Savage, felon, President, judge, farmer, sailor, me-
chanic, young, old, it is the same, The interest will come round—all will come round. ⁹Singly, wholly, to affect now, affected their time, will
forever affect, all of the past, and all of the
present, and all of the future, All the brave actions of war and peace, All help given to relatives, strangers, the poor, old,
sorrowful, young children, widows, the sick, and
to shunned persons, All furtherance of fugitives, and of the escape of
slaves, [ begin page 213 ]

ppp.01500.221.jpg All self-denial that stood steady and aloof on wrecks,
and saw others fill the seats of the boats, All offering of substance or life for the good old cause,
or for a friend's sake, or opinion's sake, All pains of enthusiasts, scoffed at by their neighbors, All the limitless sweet love and precious suffering of
mothers, All honest men baffled in strifes recorded or unre-
corded, All the grandeur and good of ancient nations whose
fragments we inherit, All the good of the hundreds of ancient nations un-
known to us by name, date, location, All that was ever manfully begun, whether it suc-
ceeded or no, All suggestions of the divine mind of man, or the
divinity of his mouth, or the shaping of his great
hands; All that is well thought or said this day on any part
of the globe—or on any of the wandering stars,
or on any of the fixed stars, by those there as we
are here, All that is henceforth to be thought or done by you,
whoever you are, or by any one, These inure, have inured, shall inure, to the identities
from which they sprang, or shall spring. ¹⁰Did you guess anything lived only its moment? The world does not so exist—no parts palpable or
impalpable so exist, No consummation exists without being from some
long previous consummation—and that from
some other, [ begin page 214 ]

ppp.01500.222.jpg Without the farthest conceivable one coming a bit
nearer the beginning than any. ¹¹Whatever satisfies Souls is true, Prudence entirely satisfies the craving and glut of
Souls, Itself finally satisfies the Soul, The Soul has that measureless pride which revolts
from every lesson but its own. ¹²Now I give you an inkling, Now I breathe the word of the prudence that walks
abreast with time, space, reality, That answers the pride which refuses every lesson but
its own. ¹³What is prudence, is indivisible, Declines to separate one part of life from every part, Divides not the righteous from the unrighteous, or
the living from the dead, Matches every thought or act by its correlative, Knows no possible forgiveness or deputed atonement, Knows that the young man who composedly perilled
his life and lost it, has done exceeding well for
himself, without doubt, That he who never perilled his life, but retains it to
old age in riches and ease, has probably achieved
nothing for himself worth mentioning; Knows that only the person has really learned, who
has learned to prefer results, Who favors body and Soul the same, Who perceives the indirect assuredly following the
direct, Who in his spirit in any emergency whatever neither
hurries or avoids death. [ begin page 215 ]

ppp.01500.223.jpg

6.

¹PERFECT sanity shows the master among philosophs, Time, always without flaw, indicates itself in parts, What always indicates the poet, is the crowd of the
pleasant company of singers, and their words, The words of the singers are the hours or minutes of
the light or dark—but the words of the maker
of poems are the general light and dark, The maker of poems settles justice, reality, immor-
tality, His insight and power encircle things and the human
race, He is the glory and extract, thus far, of things, and
of the human race. ²The singers do not beget—only THE POET begets, The singers are welcomed, understood, appear often
enough—but rare has the day been, likewise the
spot, of the birth of the maker of poems, Not every century, or every five centuries, has con-
tained such a day, for all its names. ³The singers of successive hours of centuries may have
ostensible names, but the name of each of them
is one of the singers, The name of each is, a heart-singer, eye-singer, hymn-
singer, law-singer, ear-singer, head-singer, sweet-
singer, wise-singer, droll-singer, thrift-singer, sea-
singer, wit-singer, echo-singer, parlor-singer, love-
singer, passion-singer, mystic-singer, fable-singer,
item-singer, weeping-singer, or something else. [ begin page 216 ]

ppp.01500.224.jpg ⁴All this time, and at all times, wait the words of
poems; The greatness of sons is the exuding of the greatness
of mothers and fathers, The words of poems are the tuft and final applause of
science. ⁵Divine instinct, breadth of vision, the law of reason,
health, rudeness of body, withdrawnness, gayety,
sun-tan, air-sweetness—such are some of the
words of poems. ⁶The sailor and traveller underlie the maker of poems, The builder, geometer, mathematician, astronomer,
melodist, chemist, anatomist, spiritualist, lan-
guage-searcher, geologist, phrenologist, artist—
all these underlie the maker of poems. ⁷The words of poems give you more than poems, They give you to form for yourself poems, religions,
politics, war, peace, behavior, histories, essays,
romances, and everything else, They balance ranks, colors, races, creeds, and the
sexes, They do not seek beauty—they are sought, Forever touching them, or close upon them, follows
beauty, longing, fain, love-sick. ⁸They prepare for death—yet are they not the finish,
but rather the outset, They bring none to his or her terminus, or to be con-
tent and full; [ begin page 217 ]

ppp.01500.225.jpg Whom they take, they take into space, to behold the
birth of stars, to learn one of the meanings, To launch off with absolute faith—to sweep through
the ceaseless rings, and never be quiet again.

7.

I NEED no assurances—I am a man who is pre-
occupied, of his own Soul; I do not doubt that whatever I know at a given time,
there waits for me more, which I do not know; I do not doubt that from under the feet, and beside
the hands and face I am cognizant of, are now
looking 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 there are realizations I have no idea of,
waiting for me through time, and through the
universes—also upon this earth; 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 purpose
—and that I shall one day be eligible to do as
much as they, and more than they; I do not doubt there is far more in trivialities, insects,
vulgar persons, slaves, dwarfs, weeds, rejected
refuse, than I have supposed; 19 [ begin page 218 ]

ppp.01500.226.jpg I do not doubt there is more in myself than I have
supposed—and more in all men and women—
and more in my poems than I have supposed; I do not doubt that temporary affairs keep on and on,
millions of years; I do not doubt interiors have their interiors, and
exteriors have their exteriors—and that the
eye-sight has another eye-sight, 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; 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 point; I do not doubt that shallowness, meanness, malig-
nance, are provided for; I do not doubt that cities, you, America, the re-
mainder of the earth, politics, freedom, degra-
dations, are carefully provided for; I do not doubt that whatever can possibly happen,
any where, at any time, is provided for, in the
inherences of things. [ begin page 219 ]

ppp.01500.227.jpg

8.

¹WHAT shall I give? and which are my miracles? ²Realism is mine—my miracles—Take freely, Take without end—I offer them to you wherever
your feet can carry you, or your eyes reach. ³Why! who makes much of a miracle? As to me, I know of nothing else but miracles, Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan, Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the
sky, Or wade with naked feet along the beach, just in the
edge of the water, Or stand under trees in the woods, Or talk by day with any one I love—or sleep in the
bed at night with any one I love, Or sit at the table at dinner with my mother, Or look at strangers opposite me riding in the car, Or watch honey-bees busy around the hive, of a sum-
mer forenoon, Or animals feeding in the fields, Or birds—or the wonderfulness of insects in the air, Or the wonderfulness of the sun-down—or of stars
shining so quiet and bright, Or the exquisite, delicate, thin curve of the new-moon
in spring; Or whether I go among those I like best, and that like
me best—mechanics, boatmen, farmers, [ begin page 220 ]

ppp.01500.228.jpg Or among the savans—or to the soiree—or to the
opera, Or stand a long while looking at the movements of
machinery, Or behold children at their sports, Or the admirable sight of the perfect old man, or the
perfect old woman, Or the sick in hospitals, or the dead carried to burial, Or my own eyes and figure in the glass, These, with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles, The whole referring—yet each distinct and in its
place. ⁴To me, every hour of the light and dark is miracle, Every inch of space is a miracle, Every square yard of the surface of the earth is spread
with the same, Every cubic foot of the interior swarms with the same; Every spear of grass—the frames, limbs, organs, of
men and women, and all that concerns them, All these to me are unspeakably perfect miracles. ⁵To me the sea is a continual miracle, The fishes that swim—the rocks—the motion of the
waves—the ships, with men in them, What stranger miracles are there? [ begin page 221 ]

ppp.01500.229.jpg

9.

¹THERE was a child went forth every day, And the first object he looked upon and received
with wonder, pity, love, or dread, that object he
became, And that object became part of him for the day, or a
certain part of the day, or for many years, or
stretching cycles of years. ²The early lilacs became part of this child, And grass, and white and red morning-glories, and
white and red clover, and the song of the phœbe-
bird, And the Third Month lambs, and the sow's pink-faint
litter, and the mare's foal, and the cow's calf, And the noisy brood of the barn-yard, or by the mire
of the pond-side, And the fish suspending themselves so curiously below
there—and the beautiful curious liquid, And the water-plants with their graceful flat heads—
all became part of him. ³The field-sprouts of Fourth Month and Fifth Month
became part of him, Winter-grain sprouts, and those of the light-yellow
corn, and the esculent roots of the garden, And the apple-trees covered with blossoms, and the
fruit afterward, and wood-berries, and the com-
monest weeds by the road; 19* [ begin page 222 ]

ppp.01500.230.jpg And the old drunkard staggering home from the out-
house of the tavern, whence he had lately risen, And the school-mistress that passed on her way to the
school, And the friendly boys that passed—and the quarrel-
some boys, And the tidy and fresh-cheeked girls—and the bare-
foot negro boy and girl, And all the changes of city and country, wherever he
went. ⁴His own parents, He that had fathered him, and she that conceived him
in her womb, and birthed him, They gave this child more of themselves than that, They gave him afterward every day—they and of
them became part of him. ⁵The mother at home, quietly placing the dishes on the
supper-table, The mother with mild words—clean her cap and
gown, a wholesome odor falling off her person
and clothes as she walks by; The father, strong, self-sufficient, manly, mean, an-
gered, unjust, The blow, the quick loud word, the tight bargain, the
crafty lure, The family usages, the language, the company, the
furniture—the yearning and swelling heart, Affection that will not be gainsayed—the sense of
what is real—the thought if, after all, it should
prove unreal, The doubts of day-time and the doubts of night-time—
the curious whether and how, [ begin page 223 ]

ppp.01500.231.jpg Whether that which appears so is so, or is it all flashes
and specks? Men and women crowding fast in the streets—if they
are not flashes and specks, what are they? The streets themselves, and the façades of houses, and
goods in the windows, Vehicles, teams, the heavy-planked wharves—the
huge crossing at the ferries, The village on the highland, seen from afar at sunset—
the river between, Shadows, aureola and mist, light falling on roofs and
gables of white or brown, three miles off, The schooner near by, sleepily dropping down the
tide—the little boat slack-towed astern, The hurrying tumbling waves, quick-broken crests,
slapping, The strata of colored clouds, the long bar of maroon-
tint, away solitary by itself—the spread of purity
it lies motionless in, The horizon's edge, the flying sea-crow, the fragrance
of salt-marsh and shore-mud; These became part of that child who went forth every
day, and who now goes, and will always go forth
every day, And these become part of him or her that peruses
them here. [ begin page 224 ]

ppp.01500.232.jpg

10.

¹IT is ended—I dally no more, After to-day I inure myself to run, leap, swim,
wrestle, fight, To stand the cold or heat—to take good aim with a
gun—to sail a boat—to manage horses—to
beget superb children, To speak readily and clearly—to feel at home among
common people, And to hold my own in terrible positions, on land
and sea. ²Not for an embroiderer, (There will always be plenty of embroiderers—I
welcome them also;) But for the fibre of things, and for inherent men and
women. ³Not to chisel ornaments, But to chisel with free stroke the heads and limbs of
plenteous Supreme Gods, that The States may
realize them, walking and talking. ⁴Let me have my own way, Let others promulge the laws—I will make no ac-
count of the laws, Let others praise eminent men and hold up peace—
I hold up agitation and conflict, I praise no eminent man—I rebuke to his face the
one that was thought most worthy. [ begin page 225 ]

ppp.01500.233.jpg ⁵(Who are you? you mean devil! And what are you
secretly guilty of, all your life? Will you turn aside all your life? Will you grub
and chatter all your life?) ⁶(And who are you—blabbing by rote, years, pages,
languages, reminiscences, Unwitting to-day that you do not know how to speak
a single word?) ⁷Let others finish specimens—I never finish specimens, I shower them by exhaustless laws, as nature does,
fresh and modern continually. ⁸I give nothing as duties, What others give as duties, I give as living impulses; (Shall I give the heart's action as a duty?) ⁹Let others dispose of questions—I dispose of noth-
ing—I arouse unanswerable questions; Who are they I see and touch, and what about them? What about these likes of myself, that draw me so
close by tender directions and indirections? ¹⁰Let others deny the evil their enemies charge against
them—but how can I the like? Nothing ever has been, or ever can be, charged against
me, half as bad as the evil I really am; I call to the world to distrust the accounts of my
friends, but listen to my enemies—as I my-
self do; I charge you, too, forever, reject those who would
expound me—for I cannot expound myself, [ begin page 226 ]

ppp.01500.234.jpg I charge that there be no theory or school founded out
of me, I charge you to leave all free, as I have left all free. ¹¹After me, vista! O, I see life is not short, but immeasurably long, I henceforth tread the world, chaste, temperate, an
early riser, a gymnast, a steady grower, Every hour the semen of centuries—and still of cen-
turies. ¹²I will follow up these continual lessons of the air,
water, earth, I perceive I have no time to lose.

11.

¹WHO learns my lesson complete? Boss, journeyman, apprentice—churchman and athe-
ist, The stupid and the wise thinker—parents and off-
spring—merchant, clerk, porter, and customer, Editor, author, artist, and schoolboy—Draw nigh and
commence; It is no lesson — it lets down the bars to a good
lesson, And that to another, and every one to another still. ²The great laws take and effuse without argument, I am of the same style, for I am their friend, [ begin page 227 ]

ppp.01500.235.jpg I love them quits and quits—I do not halt and make
salaams. ³I lie abstracted, and hear beautiful tales of things,
and the reasons of things, They are so beautiful, I nudge myself to listen. ⁴I cannot say to any person what I hear—I cannot
say it to myself—it is very wonderful. ⁵It is no small matter, this round and delicious globe,
moving so exactly in its orbit forever and ever,
without one jolt, or the untruth of a single
second, I do not think it was made in six days, nor in ten
thousand years, nor ten billions of years, Nor planned and built one thing after another, as an
architect plans and builds a house. ⁶I do not think seventy years is the time of a man or
woman, Nor that seventy millions of years is the time of a
man or woman, Nor that years will ever stop the existence of me, or
any one else. ⁷Is it wonderful that I should be immortal? as every
one is immortal, I know it is wonderful—but my eye-sight is equally
wonderful, and how I was conceived in my moth-
er's womb is equally wonderful; [ begin page 228 ]

ppp.01500.236.jpg And how I was not palpable once, but am now—and
was born on the last day of Fifth Month, in the
Year 43 of America, And passed from a babe, in the creeping trance of
three summers and three winters, to articulate
and walk—All this is equally wonderful. ⁸And that I grew six feet high, and that I have become
a man thirty-six years old in the Year 79 of
America—and that I am here anyhow—are all
equally wonderful. ⁹And that my Soul embraces you this hour, and we af-
fect each other without ever seeing each other,
and never perhaps to see each other, is every bit
as wonderful. ¹⁰And that I can think such thoughts as these, is just as
wonderful, And that I can remind you, and you think them and
know them to be true, is just as wonderful. ¹¹And that the moon spins round the earth, and on with
the earth, is equally wonderful, And that they balance themselves with the sun and
stars, is equally wonderful. ¹²Come! I should like to hear you tell me what there
is in yourself that is not just as wonderful, And I should like to hear the name of anything be-
tween First Day morning and Seventh Day night
that is not just as wonderful. [ begin page 229 ]

ppp.01500.237.jpg

12.

¹THIS night I am happy; As I walk the beach where the old mother sways to
and fro, singing her savage and husky song, As I watch the stars shining—I think a thought of
the clef of the universes, and of the future. ²What can the future bring me more than I have? Do you suppose I wish to enjoy life in other spheres? ³I say distinctly I comprehend no better sphere than
this earth, I comprehend no better life than the life of my body. ⁴I do not know what follows the death of my body, But I know well that whatever it is, it is best for me, And I know well that whatever is really Me shall live
just as much as before. ⁵I am not uneasy but I shall have good housing to
myself, But this is my first—how can I like the rest any
better? Here I grew up—the studs and rafters are grown
parts of me. ⁶I am not uneasy but I am to be beloved by young and
old men, and to love them the same, 20 [ begin page 230 ]

ppp.01500.238.jpg I suppose the pink nipples of the breasts of women
with whom I shall sleep will touch the side of my
face the same, But this is the nipple of a breast of my mother, always
near and always divine to me, her true child and
son, whatever comes. ⁷I suppose I am to be eligible to visit the stars, in my
time, I suppose I shall have myriads of new experiences—
and that the experience of this earth will prove
only one out of myriads; But I believe my body and my Soul already indicate
those experiences, And I believe I shall find nothing in the stars more
majestic and beautiful than I have already found
on the earth, And I believe I have this night a clew through the
universes, And I believe I have this night thought a thought of
the clef of eternity. ⁸A VAST SIMILITUDE interlocks all, All spheres, grown, ungrown, small, large, suns,
moons, planets, comets, asteroids, All the substances of the same, and all that is spiritual,
upon the same, All distances of place, however wide, All distances of time—all inanimate forms, All Souls—all living bodies, though they be ever so
different, or in different worlds, All gaseous, watery, vegetable, mineral processes—
the fishes, the brutes, [ begin page 231 ]

ppp.01500.239.jpg All men and women—me also, All nations, colors, barbarisms, civilizations, languages, All identities that have existed, or may exist, on this
globe or any globe, All lives and deaths—all of past, present, future, This vast similitude spans them, and always has
spanned, and shall forever span them, and
compactly hold them.

13.

¹O BITTER sprig! Confession sprig! In the bouquet I give you place also—I bind you in, Proceeding no further till, humbled publicly, I give fair warning, once for all. ²I own that I have been sly, thievish, mean, a prevari-
cator, greedy, derelict, And I own that I remain so yet. ³What foul thought but I think it—or have in me the
stuff out of which it is thought? What in darkness in bed at night, alone or with a
companion? ⁴You felons on trials in courts, You convicts in prison cells—you sentenced assas-
sins, chained and handcuffed with iron, [ begin page 232 ]

ppp.01500.240.jpg Who am I, that I am not on trial, or in prison? Me, ruthless and devilish as any, that my wrists are
not chained with iron, or my ankles with iron? ⁵You prostitutes flaunting over the trottoirs, or obscene
in your rooms, Who am I, that I should call you more obscene than
myself? ⁶O culpable! O traitor! O I acknowledge—I exposé! (O admirers! praise not me! compliment not me! you
make me wince, I see what you do not—I know what you do not;) Inside these breast-bones I lie smutch'd and choked, Beneath this face that appears so impassive, hell's
tides continually run, Lusts and wickedness are acceptable to me, I walk with delinquents with passionate love, I feel I am of them—I belong to those convicts and
prostitutes myself, And henceforth I will not deny them—for how can I
deny myself? [ begin page 233 ]

ppp.01500.241.jpg

14.

UNFOLDED out of the folds of the woman, man comes
unfolded, as is always to come unfolded, Unfolded only out of the superbest woman of the
earth, is to come the superbest man of the earth, Unfolded out of the friendliest woman, is to come
the friendliest man, Unfolded only out of the perfect body of a woman,
can a man be formed of perfect body, Unfolded only out of the inimitable poem of the
woman, can come the poems of man—only
thence have my poems come, Unfolded out of the strong and arrogant woman I
love, only thence can appear the strong and
arrogant man I love, Unfolded by brawny embraces from the well-muscled
woman I love, only thence come the brawny
embraces of the man, Unfolded out of the folds of the woman's brain, come
all the folds of the man's brain, duly obedient, Unfolded out of the justice of the woman, all justice
is unfolded, Unfolded out of the sympathy of the woman is all
sympathy; A man is a great thing upon the earth, and through
eternity—but every jot of the greatness of man
is unfolded out of woman, First the man is shaped in the woman, he can then be
shaped in himself. 20* [ begin page 234 ]

ppp.01500.242.jpg

15.

¹NIGHT on the Prairies; 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 aspi-
rations, 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 tumbled
upon me myriads of other globes. ⁵Now while the great thoughts of space and eternity
fill me, I will measure myself by them, And now, touched with the lives of other globes,
arrived as far along as those of the earth, Or waiting to arrive, or passed on farther than those
of the earth, I henceforth no more ignore them than I ignore my
own life, Or the lives on the earth arrived as far as mine, or
waiting to arrive. ⁶O how plainly I see now that life cannot exhibit all to
me—as the day cannot, O I see that I am to wait for what will be exhibited
by death. [ begin page 235 ]

ppp.01500.243.jpg

16.

SEA-WATER, and all living below it, Forests at the bottom of the sea—the branches and
leaves, Sea-lettuce, vast lichens, strange flowers and seeds—
the thick tangle, the openings, and the pink turf, Different colors, pale gray and green, purple, white,
and gold—the play of light through the water, Dumb swimmers there among the rocks—coral,
gluten, grass, rushes—and the aliment of the
swimmers, Sluggish existences grazing there, suspended, or
slowly crawling close to the bottom, The sperm-whale at the surface, blowing air and
spray, or disporting with his flukes, The leaden-eyed shark, the walrus, the turtle, the
hairy sea-leopard, and the sting-ray; Passions there—wars, pursuits, tribes—sight in
those ocean-depths—breathing that thick-breath-
ing air, as so many do, The change thence to the sight here, and to the subtle
air breathed by beings like us, who walk this
sphere; The change onward from ours to that of beings who
walk other spheres. [ begin page 236 ]

ppp.01500.244.jpg

17.

I SIT and look out upon all the sorrows of the world,
and upon all oppression and shame, I hear secret convulsive sobs from young men, at
anguish with themselves, remorseful after deeds
done; I see, in low life, the mother misused by her children,
dying, neglected, gaunt, desperate, I see the wife misused by her husband—I see the
treacherous seducer of the young woman, I mark the ranklings of jealousy and unrequited love,
attempted to be hid—I see these sights on the
earth, I see the workings of battle, pestilence, tyranny—I
see martyrs and prisoners, I observe a famine at sea—I observe the sailors
casting lots who shall be killed, to preserve the
lives of the rest, I observe the slights and degradations cast by arro-
gant persons upon laborers, the poor, and upon
negroes, and the like; All these—All the meanness and agony without end,
I sitting, look out upon, See, hear, and am silent. [ begin page 237 ]

ppp.01500.245.jpg

18.

¹O ME, man of slack faith so long! Standing aloof—denying portions so long; Me with mole's eyes, unrisen to buoyancy and vision
—unfree, Only aware to-day of compact, all-diffused truth, Discovering to-day there is no lie, or form of lie,
and can be none, but grows just as inevitably
upon itself as the truth does upon itself, Or as any law of the earth, or any natural production
of the earth does. ²(This is curious, and may not be realized immedi-
ately—But it must be realized; I feel in myself that I represent falsehoods equally
with the rest, And that the universe does.) ³Where has failed a perfect return, indifferent of lies
or the truth? Is it upon the ground, or in water or fire? or in the
spirit of man? or in the meat and blood? ⁴Meditating among liars, and retreating sternly into
myself, I see that there are really no liars or
lies after all, And that nothing fails its perfect return—And that
what are called lies are perfect returns, [ begin page 238 ]

ppp.01500.246.jpg And that each thing exactly represents itself, and
what has preceded it, And that the truth includes all, and is compact, just
as much as space is compact, And that there is no flaw or vacuum in the amount
of the truth—but that all is truth without ex-
ception, And henceforth I will go celebrate anything I see
or am, And sing and laugh, and deny nothing.

19.

FORMS, qualities, lives, humanity, language, thoughts, The ones known, and the ones unknown—the ones
on the stars, The stars themselves, some shaped, others unshaped, Wonders as of those countries—the soil, trees, cities,
inhabitants, whatever they may be, Splendid suns, the moons and rings, the countless
combinations and effects, Such-like, and as good as such-like, visible here or
anywhere, stand provided for in a handful of
space, which I extend my arm and half enclose
with my hand, That contains the start of each and all—the virtue,
the germs of all; That is the theory as of origins. [ begin page 239 ]

ppp.01500.247.jpg

20.

SO far, and so far, and on toward the end, Singing what is sung in this book, from the irresisti-
ble impulses of me; But whether I continue beyond this book, to ma-
turity, Whether I shall dart forth the true rays, the ones
that wait unfired, (Did you think the sun was shining its brightest? No—it has not yet fully risen ;) Whether I shall complete what is here started, Whether I shall attain my own height, to justify these,
yet unfinished, Whether I shall make THE POEM OF THE NEW WORLD,
transcending all others—depends, rich persons,
upon you, Depends, whoever you are now filling the current Presidentiad, upon you, Upon you, Governor, Mayor, Congressman, And you, contemporary America. [ begin page 240 ]

ppp.01500.248.jpg

21.

¹NOW I make a leaf of Voices—for I have found noth-
ing mightier than they are, And I have found that no word spoken, but is beau-
tiful, in its place. ²O what is it in me that makes me tremble so at
voices? ³Surely, whoever speaks to me in the right voice, him
or her I shall follow, as the waters follow the
moon, silently, with fluid steps, any where around
the globe. ⁴Now I believe that all waits for the right voices; Where is the practised and perfect organ? Where is
the developed Soul? For I see every word uttered thence has deeper,
sweeter, new sounds, impossible on less terms. ⁵I see brains and lips closed—I see tympans and tem-
ples unstruck, Until that comes which has the quality to strike and
to unclose, Until that comes which has the quality to bring forth
what lies slumbering, forever ready, in all words. [ begin page 241 ]

ppp.01500.249.jpg

22.

¹WHAT am I, after all, but a child, pleased with the
sound of my own name? repeating it over and
over, I cannot tell why it affects me so much, when I hear
it from women's voices, and from men's voices,
or from my own voice, I stand apart to hear—it never tires me. ²To you, your name also, Did you think there was nothing but two or three
pronunciations in the sound of your name?

23.

LOCATIONS and times—what is it in me that meets
them all, whenever and wherever, and makes me
at home? Forms, colors, densities, odors—what is it in me that
corresponds with them? What is the relation between me and them? 21 [ begin page 242 ]

ppp.01500.250.jpg

24.

LIFT me close to your face till I whisper, What you are holding is in reality no book, nor part
of a book, It is a man, flushed and full-blooded—it is I—So
long! We must separate—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.

Table of Contents (1860–1861)