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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
take from my lips this kiss, Whoever you are, I give it especially to you; So long—and I hope we shall
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
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
ALL day I have walked the city, and talked with my friends, and thought of prudence, Of time, space,
do not doubt there is more in myself than I have supposed—and more in all men and women— and more in my
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
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
their dead songs about dead Europe, and its stupid monks and priests, its chivalry, and its thing a-my-bobs
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
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
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
meet and drawing their love in Never losing old friends, or new ones; and finding new on every day of my
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!
See, for instance: "I take my place among you as much as among any," (1855, p. 48); "Nor do I understand
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
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
verses in this notebook were published posthumously as [I Stand and Look], Ship of Libertad, and Of 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.
giving others the same chances and rights as myself— As if it were not indis‑ indispensable pensable to my
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!
You objects that call from diffusion my meanings and give them shape!
Why are there men and women that while they are nigh me, the sun-light expands my blood?
Why, when they leave me, do my pennants of joy sink flat and lank?
It is safe—I have tried it—my own feet have tried it well. Allons! Be not detained!
I give you my hand!
This poem later appeared as "Calamus No. 40," Leaves of Grass (1860); as "That Shadow My Likeness," Leaves
home in Kanuck woods, Or wandering and hunting, my drink water, my diet meat, Or withdrawn to muse and
In the Year 80 of The States, My tongue, every atom of my blood, formed from this soil, this air, Born
Take my leaves, America!
My comrade!
steamers steaming through my poems!
.; TThis manuscript bears some similarity in subject to the poem that became "Who Learns My Lesson Complete
I loafe and invite my Soul, I lean and loafe at my ease, observing a spear of summer grass.
The smoke of my own breath, Echoes, ripples, buzzed whispers, love-root, silk-thread, crotch and vine
, My respiration and inspiration, the beating of my heart, the passing of blood and air through my lungs
The sound of the belched words of my voice, words loosed to the eddies of the wind, A few light kisses
Our poet goes on to say (105): I know I am august, I do not trouble my spirit to vindicate itself or
O truth of things, I am determined to press my way toward you; Sound your voice!
I exclude you; Not till the waters refuse to glisten for you, and the leaves to rustle for you, do my
to be found in these prurient pages and how any respectable House could publish the volume is beyond my
They look at me, and my eyes start out of my head; they speak to me, and I yell with de- light delight
; they touch me, and the flesh crawls off my bones.
heaven, it bears me beyond the stars, I tread upon the air, I sail upon the ether, I spread myself my
O my soul! O your soul, which is no better than my soul, and no worse, but just the same!
O my eye! 1247. These things are not in Webster's Dictionary— Unabridged, Pictorial.
death with the dying, and birth with the new-washed new- washed babe, and am not contained between my
hat and my boots.
I know perfectly well my own egotism.
strong in the knees, and of an inquiring and communicative disposi- tion disposition Also instructive in my
If I worship any particular thing, it shall be some of the spread of my own body."—p. 55.
O TAKE my hand, Walt Whitman! Such gliding wonders! Such sights and sounds!
change of the light and shade, I see distant lands, as real and near to the inhabitants of them, as my
see Hermes, unsuspected, dying, well-beloved, saying to the people, Do not weep for me, This is not my
race, I see the results of the perseverance and industry of my race, I see ranks, colors, barbarisms
My spirit has passed in compassion and determination around the whole earth, I have looked for equals
Thither every-day life, speech, utensils, politics, per- sons persons , estates, Thither we also, I with my
—What seek you do you want among my haughty and jealous democracies of the north?
woman, or my flesh and blood.
—There are my officers and my courts.—At the Capitol is my Legislature.
—It is foreign to my usages, as to my eyes and ears.—Go back to the power that sent you.
free cities, or my teeming country towns, or along my rivers, or sea shore.— 19 But why do I babble
Receive me and my lover too—he will not let me go without him.
my clothes were stolen while I was abed, Now I am thrust forth, where shall I run?
I descend my western course, my sinews are flaccid, Perfume and youth course through me, and I am their
carefully darn my grandson's stockings.
How he informs against my brother and sister, and takes pay for their blood!
I remember I said to myself at the winter-close, before my leaves sprang at all, that I would become
a candid and unloosed summer-poet, I said I would raise my voice jocund and strong, with reference to
what was promised, When each part is peopled with free people, When there is no city on earth to lead my
I have pressed through in my own right, I have offered my style to every one—I have jour- neyed journeyed
Remember my words—I love you—I depart from materials, I am as one disembodied, triumphant, dead.
I do not know what I carry in my arms pressed close to my side and bosom!
I turn my steps to "Zion's Mill" a cemetery.
My womb is clean and pure. It is ready for thy child my love.
how lovingly will I cherish and guard it, our child my love. Thine the pleasure my love.
My motives are pure and holy. Our boy my love! Do you not already love him?
—My wife sends her warm regards to you. She desires much to see you. W.W.T.
My dear little wife wants to write you a letter, and will when the domestic gods are propitious, so that
it harmed me, giving others the same chances and rights as myself—As if it were not indispensable to my
AS I sit with others, at a great feast, suddenly, while the music is playing, To my mind, (whence it
if that were not the resumé; Of Histories—As if such, however complete, were not less complete than my
poems; As if the shreds, the records of nations, could possibly be as lasting as my poems; As if here
who should serve the good old cause, the prog- ress progress and freedom of the race, the cause of my
I exclude you, Not till the waters refuse to glisten for you, and the leaves to rustle for you, do my
My girl, I appoint with you an appointment—and I charge you that you make preparation to be worthy to
my brother or my sister! Keep on!
MY spirit to yours, dear brother, Do not mind because many, sounding your name, do not understand you
I do not sound your name, but I understand you, (there are others also;) I specify you with joy, O my
divisions, jealousies, recriminations on every side, They close peremptorily upon us, to surround us, my
To My Soul TO MY SOUL.
The States—but I cannot tell whither or how long; Perhaps soon, some day or night while I am singing, my
Then all may arrive to but this; The glances of my eyes, that swept the daylight, The unspeakable love
I interchanged with women, My joys in the open air—my walks through the Man- nahatta Manahatta , The
of my mouth, rude, ignorant, arrogant— my many faults and derelictions, 38* The light touches, on my
Softly I lay my right hand upon you—you just feel it, I do not argue—I bend my head close, and half-
for something to repre- sent represent the new race, our self-poised Democracy, Therefore I send you my
cheerfully accept, A little sustenance, a hut and garden, a little money —these as I rendezvous with my