In the course of the
Key
| Textual Feature | Appearance |
|---|---|
| Overwritten | brown with strikethrough |
| Added inline | purple with double underline |
| Uncertain | gray with wavy underline |
| Supplied from another source | turquoise with brackets |
| Metamark | |
| Long deletion | gray background with top and bottom border |
[begin leaf 1 recto]
In the course of the winding path through the grass
And when once spirits go
they went far enough to see
the happiness beyond, Thatis
was the reason no wit or temptation
can ever
could
drawlure them back,
to the body.
[cut away] grass is
^And now it
it the grass seems
to me the dark,
uncropped uncut hair of graves:
Tenderly will I touch use you, tressy grass,
It may be you effuse transpire from the breasts of young men—
It may be if I had known them I would have loved them.
You may be sprout from
dead babes
infants ^young little ones taken soon out of their
mothers' laps, And now you yourselvesrest in are the mothers' laps.
How can you be so dark?
Are you not from the white ^white
blanched white heads of the
old mothers of
old mothers?
Are you not from the colorless beards of old men?
Are no you not from
pale red tongues and
under the faint red roofs of
mouths?
O, now I know what you mean!
You do not come out of tongues and the roofs of mouths for nothing
You would
tell
whisper
me what is done to the young men,
And to the old men and the mothers
[begin leaf 1 verso]
[begin leaf 2 recto]
And the [cut away] ^[cut away] taken soon out of their laps—
Then even the cinders they left behind them,
and than the parings cinders and soiled cl rags they dropped as they went left us,
Even they continue on, and become new live fire, and
plentiful beautiful clothing. Andthat when once they soul ^spirit soul goes far enough into to see the happiness beyond, And That is the reason why no art or cunning can wit
or temptation could ever lures it them back to the ^cold flesh.— to the body body flesh. body.
Yet I cannot say, any more than you,
their spirits went far enough what has become
of the young ^and old men, Nor what has become of the women and children Only I amsure positive enough they are all alive and well
somewhere. Because this grass tells me there is no such thing
as death, Or if ever there was, itstood at the beginning preceded all, primitive
and does not wait at the end, And ceased the moment the first live thing began. And that nothingrecedes, ^collapses, but all goes onward and outward
And that to die is not what what you one supposeds.—
Have you supposed it good to be born?
Have I hasten to
inform tell you it is just as good to die, [illegible] and I know it;
I know it For I take my death with the dying,
And my birth with the new-washed babe
[cut away]
[begin leaf 2 verso]
In the course of the winding path through the grass
And when once the happiness beyond, That
draw
mothers' laps, And now you yourselves
[begin leaf 2 recto]
And the [cut away] ^[cut away] taken soon out of their laps—
Then even the cinders they left behind them,
and than the plentiful beautiful clothing. And
of the young ^and old men, Nor what has become of the women and children Only I am
somewhere. Because this grass tells me there is no such thing
as death, Or if ever there was, it
and does not wait at the end, And ceased the moment the first live thing began. And that nothing
