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Who is he that would become my follower? Who would sign himself a candidate for my affections?

be abandon'd, Therefore release me now before troubling yourself any further, let go your hand from my

acquire it, Nor do those know me best who admire me and vauntingly praise me, Nor will the candidates for my

love (unless at most a very few) prove victorious, Nor will my poems do good only, they will do just

now and then in the silence, Alone I had thought, yet soon a troop gathers around me, Some walk by my

side and some behind, and some embrace my arms or neck, They the spirits of dear friends dead or alive

something for tokens, tossing toward whoever is near me, Here, lilac, with a branch of pine, Here, out of my

Not Heaving From My Ribb'd Breast Only. NOT HEAVING FROM MY RIBB'D BREAST ONLY.

NOT heaving from my ribb'd breast only, Not in sighs at night in rage dissatisfied with myself, Not in

those long-drawn, ill-supprest sighs, Not in many an oath and promise broken, Not in my wilful and savage

soul's volition, Not in the subtle nourishment of the air, Not in this beating and pounding at my temples

O pulse of my life! Need I that you exist and show yourself any more than in these songs.

knows, aught of them,) May-be seeming to me what they are (as doubtless they indeed but seem) as from my

, from entirely changed points of view; To me these and the like of these are curiously answer'd by my

lovers, my dear friends, When he whom I love travels with me or sits a long while holding me by the

appearances or that of identity beyond the grave, But I walk or sit indifferent, I am satisfied, He ahold of my

I will take you down underneath this impassive exterior, I will tell you what to say of me, Publish my

name and hang up my picture as that of the tenderest lover, The friend the lover's portrait, of whom

WHEN I heard at the close of the day how my name had been receiv'd with plaudits in the capitol, still

it was not a happy night for me that follow'd, And else when I carous'd, or when my plans were accomplish'd

and undressing bathed, laughing with the cool waters, and saw the sun rise, And when I thought how my

dear friend my lover was on his way coming, O then I was happy, O then each breath tasted sweeter, and

all that day my food nourish'd me more, and the beautiful day pass'd well, And the next came with equal

down-balls nor perfumes, nor the high rain-emitting clouds, are borne through the open air, Any more than my

my blue veins leaving! O drops of me!

from me falling, drip, bleeding drops, From wounds made to free you whence you were prison'd, From my

face, from my forehead and lips, From my breast, from within where I was conceal'd, press forth red

the streets, nor the bright windows with goods in them, Nor to converse with learn'd persons, or bear my

as I pass O Manhattan, your frequent and swift flash of eyes offering me love, Offering response to my

BEHOLD this swarthy face, these gray eyes, This beard, the white wool unclipt upon my neck, My brown

upon it, and twined around it a little moss, And brought it away, and I have placed it in sight in my

room, It is not needed to remind me as of my own dear friends, (For I believe lately I think of little

or a girl with me, I ate with you and slept with you, your body has become not yours only nor left my

body mine only, You give me the pleasure of your eyes, face, flesh, as we pass, you take of my beard

dialects, And it seems to me if I could know those men I should become attached to them as I do to men in my

HERE the frailest leaves of me and yet my strongest lasting, Here I shade and hide my thoughts, I myself

do not expose them, And yet they expose me more than all my other poems.

Earth, My Likeness. EARTH, MY LIKENESS.

EARTH, my likeness, Though you look so impassive, ample and spheric there, I now suspect that is not

cheerfully accept, A little sustenance, a hut and garden, a little money, as I rendez- vous rendezvous with my

SKIRTING the river road, (my forenoon walk, my rest,) Skyward in air a sudden muffled sound, the dalliance

it harm'd me, giving others the same chances and rights as myself—as if it were not indispensable to my

FIRST O songs for a prelude, Lightly strike on the stretch'd tympanum pride and joy in my city, How she

O Manhattan, my own, my peerless! O strongest you in the hour of danger, in crisis!

Forty years had I in my city seen soldiers parading, Forty years as a pageant, till unawares the lady

AS I ponder'd in silence, Returning upon my poems, considering, lingering long, A Phantom arose before

Bear forth to them folded my love, (dear mariners, for you I fold it here in every leaf;) Speed on my

And so will some one when I am dead and gone write my life?

my real life, Only a few hints, a few diffused faint clews and indirections I seek for my own use to

BEGINNING MY STUDIES.

What do my shouts amid lightnings and raging winds mean?)

To rise thither with my inebriate soul! To be lost if it must be so!

songs in Sex, Offspring of my loins.

was still ringing little bells last night under my ear.

voice, approach, Touch me, touch the palm of your hand to my body as I pass, Be not afraid of my body

SCENTED HERBAGE OF MY BREAST.

O blossoms of my blood!

EARTH, MY LIKENESS.

WHAT THINK YOU I TAKE MY PEN IN HAND? WHAT think you I take my pen in hand to record?

THAT SHADOW MY LIKENESS.

WHEN LILACS LAST IN THE DOORYARD BLOOM'D . . . 255 O CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN . . . . . . . . 262 HUSH'D BE

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

walk'dst thy years in barter, 'mid the haunts of brokers, Nor heroism thine, nor war, nor glory. 2 Silent, my

trod, by you Patapsco, You Hudson, you endless Mississippi—nor you alone, But to the high seas launch, my

the road or at some crevice door by chance, or open'd win- dow window , Pausing, inclining, baring my

MY spirit to yours dear brother, Do not mind because many sounding your name do not under- stand understand

you, I do not sound your name, but I understand you, I specify you with joy O my comrade to salute you

- ousies jealousies , recriminations on every side, They close peremptorily upon us to surround us, my

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

do 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

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

body, Unfolded only out of the inimitable poems of woman can come the poems of man, (only thence have my

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

Who Learns My Lesson Complete? WHO LEARNS MY LESSON COMPLETE? WHO learns my lesson complete?

as every one is im- mortal immortal ; I know it is wonderful, but my eyesight is equally wonderful, and

how I was conceived in my mother's womb is equally wonderful, And pass'd from a babe in the creeping

And that my soul embraces you this hour, and we affect each other without ever seeing each other, and

ON my Northwest coast in the midst of the night a fishermen's group stands watching, Out on the lake

Dim smitten star, Orb not of France alone, pale symbol of my soul, its dearest hopes, The struggle and

IN a far-away northern county in the placid pastoral region, Lives my farmer friend, the theme of my

appears to them, (books, politics, poems, depart—all else departs,) I confess I envy only his fascination—my

WANDERING at morn, Emerging from the night from gloomy thoughts, thee in my thoughts, Yearning for thee

Thee coil'd in evil times my country, with craft and black dismay, with every meanness, treason thrust

its young, The singing thrush whose tones of joy and faith ecstatic, Fail not to certify and cheer my

If vermin so transposed, so used and bless'd may be, Then may I trust in you, your fortunes, days, my

My Picture-Gallery. MY PICTURE-GALLERY.

bugle-calls, Trooping tumultuous, filling the midnight late, bending me power- less powerless , Entering my

2 Come forward O my soul, and let the rest retire, Listen, lose not, it is toward thee they tend, Parting

the midnight, entering my slumber-chamber, For thee they sing and dance O soul.

cannot tell itself.) 3 Ah from a little child, Thou knowest soul how to me all sounds became music, My

6 Then I woke softly, And pausing, questioning awhile the music of my dream, And questioning all those

PASSAGE TO INDIA. 1 SINGING my days, Singing the great achievements of the present, Singing the strong

Struggles of many a captain, tales of many a sailor dead, Over my mood stealing and spreading they come

of you strong mountains of my land! Of you O prairies! of you gray rocks! O morning red! O clouds!

the blood burns in my veins! Away O soul! hoist instantly the anchor!

O my brave soul! O farther farther sail! O daring joy, but safe! are they not all the seas of God?

Thou knowest my years entire, my life, My long and crowded life of active work, not adoration merely;

Thou knowest the prayers and vigils of my youth, Thou knowest my manhood's solemn and visionary meditations

All my emprises have been fill'd with Thee, My speculations, plans, begun and carried on in thoughts

, I yield my ships to Thee.

My hands, my limbs grow nerveless, My brain feels rack'd, bewilder'd, Let the old timbers part, I will

THE SLEEPERS. 1 I WANDER all night in my vision, Stepping with light feet, swiftly and noiselessly stepping

I stand in the dark with drooping eyes by the worst-suffering and the most restless, I pass my hands

He whom I call answers me and takes the place of my lover, He rises with me silently from the bed.

. 2 I descend my western course, my sinews are flaccid, Perfume and youth course through me and I am

darn my grandson's stockings.

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

of reminiscences, brooding, with many wiles, (Though it was thought I was baffled and dispel'd, and my

side, warlike, equal with any, real as any, Nor time nor change shall ever change me or my words. 4

in the room where I eat or sleep, I should be satisfied, And if the corpse of any one I love, or if my

YET, yet, ye downcast hours, I know ye also, Weights of lead, how ye clog and cling at my ankles, Earth

Despairing cries float ceaselessly toward me, The call of my nearest lover, putting forth, alarm'd, uncertain

, The sea I am quickly to sail, come tell me, Come tell me where I am speeding, tell me my destination

And you O my soul where you stand, Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space, Ceaselessly

need be form'd, till the ductile anchor hold, Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my

Softly I lay my right hand upon you, you just feel it, I do not argue, I bend my head close and half

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

AS I sit with others at a great feast, suddenly while the music is playing, To my mind, (whence it comes

thee, And royal feudal Europe sails with thee. 5 Beautiful world of new superber birth that rises to my

(Lo, where arise three peerless stars, To be thy natal stars my country, Ensemble, Evolution, Freedom

my special word to thee. Hear me illustrious!

wood edge, thy touching-distant beams enough, Or man matured, or young or old, as now to thee I launch my

launch thy subtle dazzle and thy strength for these, Prepare the later afternoon of me myself—prepare my

lengthen- ing lengthening shadows, Prepare my starry nights.