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to my Notes" is written along the top of the page.
Some lines in this manuscript can also be found in [I just spin out my notes], another prose manuscript
.00986My Native Sand and Salt Once MoreJuly 25 '81—Far Rockaway LI1881prose4 leaveshandwritten; A draft of My
26Come, said my Soul… Proof with signature.loc.00183xxx.00596Come, Said My Soul1881poetryhandwritten1
On verso reads "Copyright 1881, By Walt Whitman, All rights reserved" Come, Said My Soul
COME my tan-faced children, Follow well in order, get your weapons ready, Have you your pistols?
O my breast aches with tender love for all!
Whoever you are, now I place my hand upon you, that you be my poem, I whisper with my lips close to your
I call to the world to distrust the accounts of my friends, but listen to my enemies, as I myself do,
name, the Past, And in the name of these States and in your and my name, the Present time.
do I not see my love fluttering out among the breakers?
Loud I call to you, my love!
who I am, my love.
Hither my love! Here I am! here!
But my mate no more, no more with me! We two together no more.
LOVER divine and perfect Comrade, Waiting content, invisible yet, but certain, Be thou my God.
O Death, (for Life has served its turn,) Opener and usher to the heavenly mansion, Be thou my God.
All great ideas, the races' aspirations, All heroisms, deeds of rapt enthusiasts, Be ye my Gods.
arm and half enclose with my hand, That containing the start of each and all, the virtue, the germs
SKIRTING the river road, (my forenoon walk, my rest,) Skyward in air a sudden muffled sound, the dalliance
with bends and chutes, And my Illinois fields, and my Kansas fields, and my fields of Missouri, The
My limbs, my veins dilate, my theme is clear at last, Banner so broad advancing out of the night, I sing
VIGIL strange I kept on the field one night; When you my son and my comrade dropt at my side that day
WHILE my wife at my side lies slumbering, and the wars are over long, And my head on the pillow rests
Ah my silvery beauty—ah my woolly white and crimson! Ah to sing the song of you, my matron mighty!
O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN! O CAPTAIN! my Captain!
O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. O Captain!
my Captain!
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse
But I with mournful tread, Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.
body to meet my lover the sea, I will not touch my flesh to the earth as to other flesh to renew me.
COURAGE yet, my brother or my sister!
Me ruthless and devilish as any, that my wrists are not chain'd with iron, or my ankles with iron?
WHO LEARNS MY LESSON COMPLETE? WHO learns my lesson complete?
MY PICTURE-GALLERY.
dear brothers' and sisters' sake, for the soul's sake, Wending my way through the homes of men, rich
words, mine only, Young and strong I pass knowing well I am destin'd myself to an early death; But my
charity has no death—my wisdom dies not, neither early nor late, And my sweet love bequeath'd here and
side, warlike, equal with any, real as any, Nor time nor change shall ever change me or my words. 4
Softly I lay my right hand upon you, you just feel it, I do not argue, I bend my head close and half
my special word to thee. Hear me illustrious!
lengthen- ing lengthening shadows, Prepare my starry nights.
my city! ALL IS TRUTH.
WEAVE IN, MY HARDY LIFE.
Then my realities; What else is so real as mine?
Open mouth of my soul uttering gladness, Eyes of my soul seeing perfection, Natural life of me faithfully
MY LEGACY.
, And you trees down in your roots to bequeath to all future trees, My dead absorb or South or North—my
I remember I said before my leaves sprang at all, I would raise my voice jocund and strong with reference
I have offer'd my style to every one, I have journey'd with confi- dent confident step; While my pleasure
AS I ponder'd in silence, Returning upon my poems, considering, lingering long, A Phantom arose before
then I answered, I too haughty Shade also sing war, and a longer and greater one than any, Waged in my
Bear forth to them folded my love, (dear mariners, for you I fold it here in every leaf;) Speed on my
spread your white sails my little bark athwart the imperious waves, Chant on, sail on, bear o'er the
prove this puzzle the New World, And to define America, her athletic Democracy, Therefore I send you my
play of causes, (With vast results to come for thrice a thousand years,) These recitatives for thee,—my
And thee my soul, Joys, ceaseless exercises, exaltations, Thy yearning amply fed at last, prepared to
And so will some one when I am dead and gone write my life?
(As if any man really knew aught of my life, Why even I myself I often think know little or nothing of
my real life, Only a few hints, a few diffused faint clews and indirections I seek for my own use to
Beginning My Studies. BEGINNING MY STUDIES.
BEGINNING my studies the first step pleas'd me so much, The mere fact consciousness, these forms, the
aplomb in the midst of irrational things, Imbued as they, passive, receptive, silent as they, Finding my
woods or of any farm-life of these States or of the coast, or the lakes or Kanada Canada , Me wherever my
minute, Thither every-day life, speech, utensils, politics, persons, estates; Thither we also, I with my
well-fill'd shelves, yet needed most, I bring, Forth from the war emerging, a book I have made, The words of my
rais'd by a perfect mother, After roaming many lands, lover of populous pavements, Dweller in Mannahatta my
, Or rude in my home in Dakota's woods, my diet meat, my drink from the spring, Or withdrawn to muse
place with my own day here.
My comrade!
my intrepid nations! O I at any rate include you all with perfect love!
My voice goes after what my eyes cannot reach, With the twirl of my tongue I encompass worlds and volumes
My ties and ballasts leave me, my elbows rest in sea-gaps, I skirt sierras, my palms cover continents
We closed with him, the yards entangled, the cannon touch'd, My captain lash'd fast with his own hands
Now I laugh content, for I hear the voice of my little captain, We have not struck, he composedly cries
My lovers suffocate me, Crowding my lips, thick in the pores of my skin, Jostling me through streets
daughters, sons, preluding, The love, the life of their bodies, meaning and being, Curious here behold my
cycles in their wide sweep having brought me again, Amorous, mature, all beautiful to me, all wondrous, My
wondrous, Existing I peer and penetrate still, Content with the present, content with the past, By my
I were nothing, From what I am determin'd to make illustrious, even if I stand sole among men, From my
at random, Renascent with grossest Nature or among animals, Of that, of them and what goes with them my
The oath of the inseparableness of two together, of the woman that loves me and whom I love more than my
the right person not near, From the soft sliding of hands over me and thrusting of fingers through my
beautiful, curious, breathing, laughing flesh is enough, To pass among them or touch any one, or rest my
As I see my soul reflected in Nature, As I see through a mist, One with inexpressible completeness, sanity
For they do not conceal themselves, and cannot conceal themselves. 9 O my body!
likes of the soul, (and that they are the soul,) I believe the likes of you shall stand or fall with my
poems, and that they are my poems, Man's, woman's, child's, youth's, wife's, husband's, mother's, father's
It is I, you women, I make my way, I am stern, acrid, large, undissuadable, but I love you, I do not
babes I beget upon you are to beget babes in their turn, I shall demand perfect men and women out of my
SPONTANEOUS me, Nature, The loving day, the mounting sun, the friend I am happy with, The arm of my friend
hanging idly over my shoulder, The hillside whiten'd with blossoms of the mountain ash, The same late
and glued together with love, Earth of chaste love, life that is only life after love, The body of my
trembling encircling fingers, the young man all color'd, red, ashamed, angry; The souse upon me of my
greed that eats me day and night with hungry gnaw, till I saturate what shall produce boys to fill my
What do my shouts amid lightnings and raging winds mean?)
(I bequeath them to you my children, I tell them to you, for reasons, O bridegroom and bride.)
To rise thither with my inebriate soul! To be lost if it must be so!
Now we have met, we have look'd, we are safe, Return in peace to the ocean my love, I too am part of
that ocean my love, we are not so much sepa- rated separated , Behold the great rondure, the cohesion
little space—know you I salute the air, the ocean and the land, Every day at sundown for your dear sake my
Deliriate, thus prelude what is generated, offering these, offering myself, Bathing myself, bathing my
songs in Sex, Offspring of my loins.
moments—when you come upon me—ah you are here now, Give me now libidinous joys only, Give me the drench of my
and drink with the drinkers, The echoes ring with our indecent calls, I pick out some low person for my
one condemn'd by others for deeds done, I will play a part no longer, why should I exile myself from my
ONCE I pass'd through a populous city imprinting my brain for future use with its shows, architecture
Italian tenor singing at the opera, I heard the soprano in the midst of the quartet singing; Heart of my
you too I heard murmuring low through one of the wrists around my head, Heard the pulse of you when all
was still ringing little bells last night under my ear.
over waves, towards the house of maternity, the land of migrations, look afar, Look off the shores of my
early in the morning, Walking forth from the bower refresh'd with sleep, Behold me where I pass, hear my
voice, approach, Touch me, touch the palm of your hand to my body as I pass, Be not afraid of my body
hitherto publish'd, from the pleasures, profits, conformities, Which too long I was offering to feed my
soul, Clear to me now standards not yet publish'd, clear to me that my soul, That the soul of the man
substantial life, Bequeathing hence types of athletic love, Afternoon this delicious Ninth-month in my
forty-first year, I proceed for all who are or have been young men, To tell the secret of my nights
What Think You I Take My Pen in Hand? WHAT THINK YOU I TAKE MY PEN IN HAND?
WHAT think you I take my pen in hand to record?
is no unreturn'd love, the pay is certain one way or another, (I loved a certain person ardently and my
Then separate, as disembodied or another born, Ethereal, the last athletic reality, my consolation, I
ascend, I float in the regions of your love O man, O sharer of my roving life.
That Shadow My Likeness. THAT SHADOW MY LIKENESS.
THAT shadow my likeness that goes to and fro seeking a liveli- hood livelihood , chattering, chaffering
and looking at it where it flits, How often I question and doubt whether that is really me; But among my
When you read these I that was visible am become invisible, Now it is you, compact, visible, realizing my
1 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-belov'd, 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
side.) 13 My spirit has pass'd in compassion and determination around the whole earth, I have look'd
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 sunlight 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—be not detain'd!
Camerado, I give you my hand!
than you suppose, And you that shall cross from shore to shore years hence are more to me, and more in my
forever held in solution, I too had receiv'd identity by my body, That I was I knew was of my body,
What is more subtle than this which ties me to the woman or man that looks in my face?
Which fuses me into you now, and pours my meaning into you? We understand then do we not?
loudly and musically call me by my nighest name! Live, old life!
SONG OF THE ANSWERER. 1 NOW list to my morning's romanza, I tell the signs of the Answerer, To the cities
And I stand before the young man face to face, and take his right hand in my left hand and his left hand
in my right hand, And I answer for his brother and for men, and I answer for him that answers for all
landscape, people, animals, The profound earth and its attributes and the unquiet ocean, (so tell I my
to the President at his levee, And he says Good-day my brother, to Cudge that hoes in the sugar-field
New Orleans, San Francisco, The departing ships when the sailors heave at the capstan; Evening—me in my
room—the setting sun, The setting summer sun shining in my open window, showing the swarm of flies,
freedom, futurity, In space the sporades, the scatter'd islands, the stars—on the firm earth, the lands, 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 out of a thousand diverse
O I cruise my old cruise again!
My children and grand-children, my white hair and beard, My largeness, calmness, majesty, out of the
long stretch of my life.
my senses and flesh, My body done with materials, my sight done with my material eyes, Proved to me
this day beyond cavil that it is not my material eyes which finally see, Nor my material body which finally
untrodden and mouldy, I see no longer any axe upon it, I see the mighty and friendly emblem of the power of my
I do not vaunt my love for you, I have what I have.) The axe leaps!