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Song of the Open Road.

SONG OF THE OPEN ROAD.

1

AFOOT and light-hearted I take to the open road, Healthy, free, the world before me, The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.   [ begin page 121 ]ppp.01663.127.jpg Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune, Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing, Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms, Strong and content I travel the open road. The earth, that is sufficient, I do not want the constellations any nearer, I know they are very well where they are, I know they suffice for those who belong to them. (Still here I carry my old delicious burdens, I carry them, men and women, I carry them with me wherever I go, I swear it is impossible for me to get rid of them, I am fill'd with them, and I will fill them in return.)

2

You road I enter upon and look around, I believe you are not all  
 that is here,
I believe that much unseen is also here.
Here the profound lesson of reception, nor preference nor denial, The black with his woolly head, the felon, the diseas'd, the illiterate  
 person, are not denied;
The birth, the hasting after the physician, the beggar's tramp, the  
 drunkard's stagger, the laughing party of mechanics,
The escaped youth, the rich person's carriage, the fop, the eloping  
 couple,
The early market-man, the hearse, the moving of furniture into the  
 town, the return back from the town,
They pass, I also pass, any thing passes, none can be interdicted, None but are accepted, none but shall be dear to me.

3

You air that serves me with breath to speak! You objects that call from diffusion my meanings and give them  
 shape!
You light that wraps me and all things in delicate equable showers! You paths worn in the irregular hollows by the roadsides! I believe you are latent with unseen existences, you are so dear  
 to me.
You flagg'd walks of the cities! you strong curbs at the edges! You ferries! you planks and posts of wharves! you timber-lined  
 sides! you distant ships!
  [ begin page 122 ]ppp.01663.128.jpg You rows of houses! you window-pierc'd façades! you roofs! You porches and entrances! you copings and iron guards! You windows whose transparent shells might expose so much! You doors and ascending steps! you arches! You gray stones of interminable pavements! you trodden crossings! From all that has touch'd you I believe you have imparted to  
 yourselves, and now would impart the same secretly to me,
From the living and the dead you have peopled your impassive  
 surfaces, and the spirits thereof would be evident and  
 amicable with me.

4

The earth expanding right hand and left hand, The picture alive, every part in its best light, The music falling in where it is wanted, and stopping where it is  
 not wanted,
The cheerful voice of the public road, the gay fresh sentiment of  
 the road.
O highway I travel, do you say to me Do not leave me? Do you say Venture not—if you leave me you are lost? Do you say I am already prepared, I am well-beaten and un- 
 denied, adhere to me?
O public road, I say back I am not afraid to leave you, yet I love  
 you,
You express me better than I can express myself, You shall be more to me than my poem.
I think heroic deeds were all conceiv'd in the open air, and all  
 free poems also,
I think I could stop here myself and do miracles, I think whatever I shall meet on the road I shall like, and who- 
 ever beholds me shall like me,
I think whoever I see must be happy.

5

From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of limits and imaginary  
 lines,
Going where I list, my own master total and absolute, Listening to others, considering well what they say, Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating, Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds  
 that would hold me.
  [ begin page 123 ]ppp.01663.129.jpg I inhale great draughts of space, The east and the west are mine, and the north and the south are  
 mine.
I am larger, better than I thought, I did not know I held so much goodness. All seems beautiful to me, I can repeat over to men and women You have done such good  
 to me I would do the same to you,
I will recruit for myself and you as I go, I will scatter myself among men and women as I go, I will toss a new gladness and roughness among them, Whoever denies me it shall not trouble me, Whoever accepts me he or she shall be blessed and shall bless me.

6

Now if a thousand perfect men were to appear it would not amaze  
 me,
Now if a thousand beautiful forms of women appear'd it would  
 not astonish me.
Now I see the secret of the making of the best persons, It is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth. Here a great personal deed has room, (Such a deed seizes upon the hearts of the whole race of men, Its effusion of strength and will overwhelms law and mocks all  
 authority and all argument against it.)
Here is the test of wisdom, Wisdom is not finally tested in schools, Wisdom cannot be pass'd from one having it to another not  
 having it,
Wisdom is of the soul, is not susceptible of proof, is its own proof, Applies to all stages and objects and qualities and is content, Is the certainty of the reality and immortality of things, and the  
 excellence of things;
Something there is in the float of the sight of things that provokes  
 it out of the soul.
Now I re-examine philosophies and religions, They may prove well in lecture-rooms, yet not prove at all under  
 the spacious clouds and along the landscape and flowing  
 currents.
  [ begin page 124 ]ppp.01663.130.jpg Here is realization, Here is a man tallied—he realizes here what he has in him, The past, the future, majesty, love—if they are vacant of you,  
 you are vacant of them.
Only the kernel of every object nourishes; Where is he who tears off the husks for you and me? Where is he that undoes stratagems and envelopes for you and me? Here is adhesiveness, it is not previously fashion'd, it is apropos; Do you know what it is as you pass to be loved by strangers? Do you know the talk of those turning eye-balls?

7

Here is the efflux of the soul, The efflux of the soul comes from within through embower'd  
 gates, ever provoking questions,
These yearnings why are they? these thoughts in the darkness  
 why are they?
Why are there men and women that while they are nigh me the  
 sunlight expands my blood?
Why when they leave me do my pennants of joy sink flat and lank? Why are there trees I never walk under but large and melodious  
 thoughts descend upon me?
(I think they hang there winter and summer on those trees and  
 always drop fruit as I pass;)
What is it I interchange so suddenly with strangers? What with some driver as I ride on the seat by his side? What with some fisherman drawing his seine by the shore as I  
 walk by and pause?
What gives me to be free to a woman's and man's good-will?  
 what gives them to be free to mine?

8

The efflux of the soul is happiness, here is happiness, I think it pervades the open air, waiting at all times, Now it flows unto us, we are rightly charged. Here rises the fluid and attaching character, The fluid and attaching character is the freshness and sweetness  
 of man and woman,
(The herbs of the morning sprout no fresher and sweeter every  
 day out of the roots of themselves, than it sprouts fresh  
 and sweet continually out of itself.)
  [ begin page 125 ]ppp.01663.131.jpg Toward the fluid and attaching character exudes the sweat of the  
 love of young and old,
From it falls distill'd the charm that mocks beauty and attainments, Toward it heaves the shuddering longing ache of contact.

9

Allons! whoever you are come travel with me! Traveling with me you find what never tires. The earth never tires, The earth is rude, silent, incomprehensible at first, Nature is rude  
 and incomprehensible at first,
Be not discouraged, keep on, there are divine things well envelop'd, I swear to you there are divine things more beautiful than words  
 can tell.
Allons! we must not stop here, However sweet these laid-up stores, however convenient this dwell- 
 ing we cannot remain here,
However shelter'd this port and however calm these waters we  
 must not anchor here,
However welcome the hospitality that surrounds us we are per- 
 mitted to receive it but a little while.

10

Allons! the inducements shall be greater, We will sail pathless and wild seas, We will go where winds blow, waves dash, and the Yankee clipper  
 speeds by under full sail.
Allons! with power, liberty, the earth, the elements, Health, defiance, gayety, self-esteem, curiosity; Allons! from all formules! From your formules, O bat-eyed and materialistic priests. The stale cadaver blocks up the passage—the burial waits no  
 longer.
Allons! yet take warning! He traveling with me needs the best blood, thews, endurance, None may come to the trial till he or she bring courage and health, Come not here if you have already spent the best of yourself, Only those may come who come in sweet and determin'd bodies, No diseas'd person, no rum-drinker or venereal taint is permitted  
 here.
  [ begin page 126 ]ppp.01663.132.jpg (I and mine do not convince by arguments, similes, rhymes, We convince by our presence.)

11

Listen! I will be honest with you, I do not offer the old smooth prizes, but offer rough new prizes, These are the days that must happen to you: You shall not heap up what is call'd riches, You shall scatter with lavish hand all that you earn or achieve, You but arrive at the city to which you were destin'd, you hardly  
 settle yourself to satisfaction before you are call'd by an  
 irresistible call to depart,
You shall be treated to the ironical smiles and mockings of those  
 who remain behind you,
What beckonings of love you receive you shall only answer with  
 passionate kisses of parting,
You shall not allow the hold of those who spread their reach'd  
 hands toward you.

12

Allons! after the great Companions, and to belong to them! They too are on the road—they are the swift and majestic men—  
 they are the greatest women,
Enjoyers of calms of seas and storms of seas, Sailors of many a ship, walkers of many a mile of land, Habituès of many distant countries, habituès of far-distant dwellings, Trusters of men and women, observers of cities, solitary toilers, Pausers and contemplators of tufts, blossoms, shells of the shore, Dancers at wedding-dances, kissers of brides, tender helpers of  
 children, bearers of children,
Soldiers of revolts, standers by gaping graves, lowerers-down of  
 coffins,
Journeyers over consecutive seasons, over the years, the curious  
 years each emerging from that which preceded it,
Journeyers as with companions, namely their own diverse phases, Forth-steppers from the latent unrealized baby-days, Journeyers gayly with their own youth, journeyers with their  
 bearded and well-grain'd manhood,
Journeyers with their womanhood, ample, unsurpass'd, content, Journeyers with their own sublime old age of manhood or woman- 
 hood,
Old age, calm, expanded, broad with the haughty breadth of the  
 universe,
Old age, flowing free with the delicious near-by freedom of death.
  [ begin page 127 ]ppp.01663.133.jpg

13

Allons! to that which is endless as it was beginningless, To undergo much, tramps of days, rests of nights, To merge all in the travel they tend to, and the days and nights  
 they tend to,
Again to merge them in the start of superior journeys, To see nothing anywhere but what you may reach it and pass it, To conceive no time, however distant, but what you may reach it  
 and pass it,
To look up or down no road but it stretches and waits for you,  
 however long but it stretches and waits for you,
To see no being, not God's or any, but you also go thither, To see no possession, but you may possess it, enjoying all without  
 labor or purchase, abstracting the feast yet not abstracting  
 one particle of it,
To take the best of the farmer's farm and the rich man's elegant  
 villa, and the chaste blessings of the well-married couple,  
 and the fruits of orchards and flowers of gardens,
To take to your use out of the compact cities as you pass through, To carry buildings and streets with you afterward wherever you go, To gather the minds of men out of their brains as you encounter  
 them, to gather the love out of their hearts,
To take your lovers on the road with you, for all that you leave  
 them behind you,
To know the universe itself as a road, as many roads, as roads for  
 traveling souls.
All parts away for the progress of souls, All religion, all solid things, arts, governments—all that was or is  
 apparent upon this globe or any globe, falls into niches and  
 corners before the procession of souls along the grand roads  
 of the universe.
Of the progress of the souls of men and women along the grand  
 roads of the universe, all other progress is the needed  
 emblem and sustenance.
Forever alive, forever forward, Stately, solemn, sad, withdrawn, baffled, mad, turbulent, feeble,  
 dissatisfied,
Desperate, proud, fond, sick, accepted by men, rejected by men, They go! they go! I know that they go, but I know not where  
 they go,
But I know that they go toward the best—toward something  
 great.
  [ begin page 128 ]ppp.01663.134.jpg Whoever you are, come forth! or man or woman come forth! You must not stay sleeping and dallying there in the house,  
 though you built it, or though it has been built for you.
Out of the dark confinement! out from behind the screen! It is useless to protest, I know all and expose it. Behold through you as bad as the rest, Through the laughter, dancing, dining, supping, of people, Inside of dresses and ornaments, inside of those wash'd and  
 trimm'd faces,
Behold a secret silent loathing and despair.
No husband, no wife, no friend, trusted to hear the confession, Another self, a duplicate of every one, skulking and hiding it goes, Formless and wordless through the streets of the cities, polite and  
 bland in the parlors,
In the cars of railroads, in steamboats, in the public assembly, Home to the houses of men and women, at the table, in the bed- 
 room, everywhere,
Smartly attired, countenance smiling, form upright, death under  
 the breast-bones, hell under the skull-bones,
Under the broadcloth and gloves, under the ribbons and artificial  
 flowers,
Keeping fair with the customs, speaking not a syllable of itself, Speaking of any thing else but never of itself.

14

Allons! through struggles and wars! The goal that was named cannot be countermanded. Have the past struggles succeeded? What has succeeded? yourself? your nation? Nature? Now understand me well—it is provided in the essence of things  
 that from any fruition of success, no matter what, shall  
 come forth something to make a greater struggle necessary.
My call is the call of battle, I nourish active rebellion, He going with me must go well arm'd, He going with me goes often with spare diet, poverty, angry  
 enemies, desertions.

15

Allons! the road is before us! It is safe—I have tried it—my own feet have tried it well—be  
 not detain'd!
  [ begin page 129 ]ppp.01663.135.jpg Let the paper remain on the desk unwritten, and the book on the  
 shelf unopen'd!
Let the tools remain in the workshop! let the money remain  
 unearn'd!
Let the school stand! mind not the cry of the teacher! Let the preacher preach in his pulpit! let the lawyer plead in the  
 court, and the judge expound the law.
Camerado, I give you my hand! I give you my love more precious than money, I give you myself before preaching or law; Will you give me yourself? will you come travel with me? Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?
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