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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!

Yes, if you will allow me to say so, I, my friends, if you do not, can plainly see her, The same undying

I say I see, my friends, if you do not, the illustrious emigré, (having it is true in her day, although

4 But hold—don't I forget my manners?

Hence from my shuddering sight to never more return that show of blacken'd, mutilated corpses!

And by the spells which ye vouchsafe to those your ministers in earnest, I here personify and call my

Farewell my brethren, Farewell O earth and sky, farewell ye neighboring waters, My time has ended, my

heard not, As the wood-spirits came from their haunts of a thousand years to join the refrain, But in my

many a summer sun, And the white snows and night and the wild winds; O the great patient rugged joys, my

Neither a servant nor a master I, I take no sooner a large price than a small price, I will have my own

become so for your sake, If you remember your foolish and outlaw'd deeds, do you think I cannot remember my

are, I am this day just as much in love with them as you, Then I am in love with You, and with all my

List close my scholars dear, Doctrines, politics and civilization exurge from you, Sculpture and monuments

friendly companions, I intend to reach them my hand, and make as much of them as I do of men and women

Air, soil, water, fire—those are words, I myself am a word with them—my qualities interpenetrate with

theirs—my name is nothing to them, Though it were told in the three thousand languages, what would air

, soil, water, fire, know of my name?

When I undertake to tell the best I find I cannot, My tongue is ineffectual on its pivots, My breath

COME my tan-faced children, Follow well in order, get your weapons ready, Have you your pistols?

For we cannot tarry here, We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger, We the youthful

O my breast aches with tender love for all!

See my children, resolute children, By those swarms upon our rear we must never yield or falter, Ages

I too with my soul and body, We, a curious trio, picking, wandering on our way, Through these shores

Whoever you are, now I place my hand upon you, that you be my poem, I whisper with my lips close to your

O I have been dilatory and dumb, I should have made my way straight to you long ago, I should have blabb'd

I paint myriads of heads, but paint no head without its nim- bus nimbus of gold-color'd light, From my

I walk'd the shores of my Eastern sea, Heard over the waves the little voice, Saw the divine infant where

and cogent I maintain the bequeath'd cause, as for all lands, And I send these words to Paris with my

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

I call to the world to distrust the accounts of my friends, but listen to my enemies, as I myself do,

indifferent, but trembling with age and your unheal'd wounds you mounted the scaffold;) I would sing in my

, and singled you out with attachment;) Nor forget I to sing of the wonder, the ship as she swam up my

bay, Well-shaped and stately the Great Eastern swam up my bay, she was 600 feet long, Her moving swiftly

WITH ANTECEDENTS. 1 WITH antecedents, With my fathers and mothers and the accumulations of past ages,

to-day and America could no-how be better than they are. 3 In the name of these States and in your and my

name, the Past, And in the name of these States and in your and my name, the Present time.

salutes, When the fire-flashing guns have fully alerted me, and heaven- clouds heaven-clouds canopy my

To us, my city, Where our tall-topt marble and iron beauties range on opposite sides, to walk in the

See my cantabile!

, I chant the world on my Western sea, I chant copious the islands beyond, thick as stars in the sky,

sail-ships and steam-ships threading the archipelagoes, My stars and stripes fluttering in the wind,

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.

Fascinated, my eyes reverting from the south, dropt, to follow those slender windrows, Chaff, straw,

O baffled, balk'd, bent to the very earth, Oppress'd with myself that I have dared to open my mouth,

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

sight of the sea taking advantage of me to dart upon me and sting me, Because I have dared to open my

Me and mine, loose windrows, little corpses, Froth, snowy white, and bubbles, (See, from my dead lips

That sport'st amid the lightning-flash and thunder-cloud, In them, in thy experiences, had'st thou my

Weep not, child, Weep not, my darling, With these kisses let me remove your tears, The ravening clouds

Something there is, (With my lips soothing thee, adding I whisper, I give thee the first suggestion,

Of sea-captains young or old, and the mates, and of all intrepid sailors, Of the few, very choice, taciturn

rest, A spiritual woven signal for all nations, emblem of man elate above death, Token of all brave captains

and mates, And all that went down doing their duty, Reminiscent of them, twined from all intrepid captains

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 deceiv'd, I will run a furrow with my plough,

I will press my spade through the sod and turn it up underneath, I am sure I shall expose some of the

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

COURAGE yet, my brother or my sister!

that was not the end of those nations or any person of them, any more than this shall be the end of my

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.

WHILE my wife at my side lies slumbering, and the wars are over long, And my head on the pillow rests

night midnight passes, And through the stillness, through the dark, I hear, just hear, the breath of my

with eager calls and orders of officers, While from some distant part of the field the wind wafts to my

far or near, (rousing even in dreams a devilish exultation and all the old mad joy in the depths of my

galloping by or on a full run, With the patter of small arms, the warning s-s-t of the rifles, (these in my

Me master years a hundred since from my parents sunder'd, A little child, they caught me as the savage

of the sisters Death and Night incessantly softly wash again, and ever again, this soil'd world; For my

look where he lies white-faced and still in the coffin—I draw near, Bend down and touch lightly with my

glance upward out of this page studying you, dear friend, whoever you are,) How solemn the thought of my

As I Lay With My Head in Your Lap Camerado. AS I LAY WITH MY HEAD IN YOUR LAP CAMERADO.

AS I lay with my head in your lap camerado, The confession I made I resume, what I said to you and the

open air I resume, I know I am restless and make others so, I know my words are weapons full of danger

Covering all my lands—all my seashores lining! Flag of death!

Ah my silvery beauty—ah my woolly white and crimson! Ah to sing the song of you, my matron mighty!

My sacred one, my mother.

therefore leave my works, And go lull yourself with what you can understand, and with piano- tunes piano-tunes

Ere departing fade from my eyes your forests of bayonets; Spirit of gloomiest fears and doubts, (yet

steps keep time; Spirit of hours I knew, all hectic red one day, but pale as death next day, Touch my

mouth ere you depart, press my lips close, Leave me your pulses of rage—bequeath them to me—fill me

with currents convulsive, Let them scorch and blister out of my chants when you are gone, Let them identify

TO the leaven'd soil they trod calling I sing for the last, (Forth from my tent emerging for good, loosing

vistas beyond, to the South and the North, To the leaven'd soil of the general Western world to attest my

Northern ice and rain that began me nourish me to the end, But the hot sun of the South is to fully ripen my