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My children and grand-children—my white hair and beard, My largeness, calmness, majesty, out of the long

stretch of my life.

is my mind!

O the real life of my senses and flesh, transcending my senses and flesh; O my body, done with materials—my

O to have my life henceforth my poem of joys!

giving others the same chances and rights as myself— As if it were not indis‑ indispensable pensable to my

Friend Walter— I design bearly to say How do you do, while you are in Boston, & to express my own pleasure

I know what is your mental fare in Boston from my own past personal experience and without wishing to

intrude myself above my true level I could wish I were, at least, a stander-by.

How shall I rise to life (action), is, now, my all pressing & all urgent question.

Accept my affectionate regards. O. K. Sammis To Walt Whitman. O. K.

verses in this notebook were published posthumously as [I Stand and Look], Ship of Libertad, and Of My

by the indolent waves, I am exposed, cut by bitter and poisoned hail Steeped amid honeyed morphine , my

darkness Our vessel riddled and slowly sinking—preparations to pass to the one we had conquered— The captain

27O Captain! My Captain! (1865).

.00218My Captainabout 1865poetryhandwritten3 leaves; Draft of the poem that would be published as O Captain

My Captain! in 1865, titled here My Captain.

My Captain

See, for instance: "I take my place among you as much as among any," (1855, p. 48); "Nor do I understand

I WAS asking for something specific and perfect for my city, and behold!

there is in a name, a word, liquid, sane, unruly, musical, self-sufficient, I see that the word of my

my city! The city of such women, I am mad to be with them!

meet and drawing their love in Never losing old friends, or new ones; and finding new on every day of my

Walter it is so strange you hav e not got my letter I sent one last friday Friday morning and should

and have had all you have sent and come very acceptable I had got down to 10 cents you must have got my

told him I had hired so much of the house out he would have to hire his board write Walt if you got my

institutionalizing Jesse because, according to her December 25, 1863 letter, she "could not find it in my

My South! O quick mettle, rich blood, impulse, and love! Good and evil! O all dear to me!

O dear to me my birth-things—All moving things, and the trees where I was born—the grains, plants, rivers

; Dear to me my own slow sluggish rivers where they flow, distant, over flats of silvery sands, or through

the Tombigbee, the Santee, the Coosa, and the Sabine; O pensive, far away wandering, I return with my

the graceful palmetto; I pass rude sea-headlands and enter Pamlico Sound through an inlet, and dart my

Bent to the very earth, here preceding what follows, Terrified with myself that I have dared to open my

echoes re- coil recoil upon me, I have not once had the least idea who or what I am, But that before all my

their dead songs about dead Europe, and its stupid monks and priests, its chivalry, and its thing a-my-bobs

thereof—and no less in myself than the whole of the Mannahatta in itself, Singing the song of These, my

ever united lands—my body no more inevitably united, part to part, and made one identity, any more than

my lands are inevitably united, and made one identity, Nativities, climates, the grass of the great

and which are my miracles?

Realism is mine—my miracles—Take freely, Take without end—I offer them to you wherever your feet can

As to me, I know of nothing else but miracles, Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan, Or dart my sight

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

perfect old man, or the perfect old woman, Or the sick in hospitals, or the dead carried to burial, Or my

do not doubt there is more in myself than I have supposed—and more in all men and women— and more in my

ALL day I have walked the city, and talked with my friends, and thought of prudence, Of time, space,

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

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 underneath , I am sure I shall expose

transparent green-wash of the sea, which is so amorous after me, That it is safe to allow it to lick my

And 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, And I answered for his brother, and for men, and I answered for THE POET, and

to the President at his levee, And he says, Good-day, my brother!

Then the mechanics take him for a mechanic, And the soldiers suppose him to be a captain, and the sailors

take from my lips this kiss, Whoever you are, I give it especially to you; So long—and I hope we shall

WHAT am I, after all, but a child, pleased with the sound of my own name?

tell why it affects me so much, when I hear it from women's voices, and from men's voices, or from my

No—it has not yet fully risen ;) Whether I shall complete what is here started, Whether I shall attain my

I am de- termined determined to press my way toward you, Sound your voice!

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

arrive, or passed on farther than those of the earth, I henceforth no more ignore them than I ignore my

, Unfolded only out of the inimitable poem of the woman, can come the poems of man—only thence have my

Me, ruthless and devilish as any, that my wrists are not chained with iron, or my ankles with iron?

distinctly I comprehend no better sphere than this earth, I comprehend no better life than the life of my

I do not know what follows the death of my body, But I know well that whatever it is, it is best for

I am not uneasy but I shall have good housing to myself, But this is my first—how can I like the rest

face the same, But this is the nipple of a breast of my mother, always near and always divine to me,

— and that the experience of this earth will prove only one out of myriads; But I believe my body and

WHO learns my lesson complete?

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 mother's womb is equally wonderful; And how I was not palpable once, but

And that my Soul embraces you this hour, and we af- fect affect each other without ever seeing each other

beget superb children, To speak readily and clearly—to feel at home among common people, And to hold my

Let me have my own way, Let others promulge the laws—I will make no ac- count account of the laws, Let

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 myself do; I charge you, too, forever, reject those

Fascinated, my eyes, reverting from the south, dropped, to follow those slender winrows, Chaff, straw

Bent to the very earth, here preceding what follows, Oppressed with myself that I have dared to open my

I take what is underfoot; What is yours is mine, my father.

I throw myself upon your breast, my father, I cling to you so that you cannot unloose me, I hold you

from my dead lips the ooze exuding at last! See—the prismatic colors, glistening and rolling!)

my Soul!

We closed with him—the yards entangled—the cannon touched, My captain lashed fast with his own hands.

I laughed content when I heard the voice of my little captain, We have not struck, he composedly cried

O the real life of my senses and flesh, transcending my senses and flesh; O my body, done with materials—my

my brother or my sister! Keep on!

I could not shut my eyes to their wild, rough beauty nor close my soul to the truths they expressed.

I write simply to express my unqualified disgust with the portions I have read.

more foolish than the rest of the volume:— "I too am not a bit tamed—I too am untranslatable, I sound my

The last scud of day holds back for me, It flings my likeness, after the rest, and true as any, on the

I depart as air—I shake my white locks at the run-away sun, I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it

To prepare for sleep, for bed—to look on my rose-coloured flesh, To be conscious of my body, so amorous

Have you learned the physiology, phrenology, politics, geography, pride, freedom, friendship, of my land

Earth of the limpid grey of clouds, brighter and clearer for my sake! Far-swooping elbowed Earth!

since, after the closest inquiry, "I find no sweeter fat than sticks to my own bones."

If I worship any particular thing, it shall be some the spread of my own body."

As for Mine, Mine has the idea of my own, and what's Mine is my own, and my own is all Mine and believes

in your and my name, the Present time. 6.

I lie in the night air in my red shirt—the pervading hush is for my sake, Painless after all I lie, exhausted

If I worship any particular thing, it shall be some of the spread of my own body."—p. 55.

Features of my equals, would you trick me with your creased and cadaverous march?

I saw the face of the most smeared and slobbering idiot they had at the asylum, And I knew for my consolation

what they knew not, And I knew of the agents that emptied and broke my brother, The same wait to clear

she blushingly cries—Come nigh to me, limber-hipp'd man, and give me your finger and thumb, Stand at my

upon you, Fill me with albescent honey, bend down to me, Rub to me with your chafing beard, rub to my

But I take back my promise. For if you are not sane what will writing avail?

It is a waste of breath for my friend to tell me I am healthy when my pulse records the circumstance

Isaac v Joseph Stephen & Jesse (my grandfather) sons of Nehemiah Whitman Phebe daughters Hannah Brush

of the lines only to reintroduce them in Sands at Seventy (1888), under the title Small the Theme of My

Both One's-self I Sing and Small the Theme of My Chant appeared in the 1891-92 edition of Leaves of Grass

of the lines only to reintroduce them in Sands at Seventy (1888), under the title Small the Theme of My

Both One's-self I Sing and Small the Theme of My Chant appeared in the 1892 edition of Leaves of Grass

first several lines of "Pictures" (not including these lines) were eventually revised and published as "My

first several lines of "Pictures" (not including these lines) were eventually revised and published as "My

The first several lines of "Pictures" (not including this line) were revised and published as "My Picture-Gallery

In a the garden, the world, I, a new Adam, again wander, Curious, here behold my resurrection after ages

is wondrous—I am myself most wondrous, The All is I have con I exist, I peer and penetrate still, By my

4 To me I subject all the teachings of the schools, and all dicta and authority, to my the tests of myself

And myself,—and I encourage you to subject the same to the tests of yourself—and to subject me and my

first poem of the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass , later called "Song of Myself": "I do not trouble my

The first several lines of the notebook (not including this line) were revised and published as "My Picture-Gallery

just granting his request, with great commiseration, when an old lady from the gallery cries out "O my

Saturday Press, New York, Mch March 27 18 60 My dear Walt: I am so busy that I hardly have time to breathe

This must explain my not answering yr your letter promptly.

I could if necessary give my note at three mos for the amount and it is a good note since we have never

to whom I am an entire stranger will do anything of the kind: but in suggesting it, I have done only my

Monday May 14, '60 My dear Walt : I spent much time yesterday reading your poems, and am more charmed

I want to do great things for you with the book, and as soon as I get over my immediate troubles will

My dear Walt, The books are duly delivered.

Meanwhile I am up to my eyes—and over my eyes even to blindness—in the slough of a fearful road to that

plainer English I am fighting like a thousand Humans to establish the Saturday Press, and have for my

My brother George will deliver this. He is of the right stamp. In haste Henry Clapp.

Hear my fife!—I am a recruiter Who Come, who will join my troop?

first several lines of "Pictures" (not including this line) were eventually revised and published as "My

Hear my fife

first several lines of "Pictures" (not including this line) were eventually revised and published as "My

of the poem (not including this line) were revised and published in The American in October 1880 as "My