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Cluster: Leaves of Grass. (1860) LEAVES OF GRASS. 1. ELEMENTAL drifts!

things in their attitudes, He puts to-day out of himself, with plasticity and love, He places his own city

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

doubt that shallowness, meanness, malig- nance malignance , are provided for; I do not doubt that cities

tidy and fresh-cheeked girls—and the bare- foot barefoot negro boy and girl, And all the changes of city

Cluster: Enfans D'adam. (1860) Enfans d'Adam. 1.

And if the body were not the Soul, what is the Soul?

sons—and in them were the fathers of sons.

A WOMAN waits for me—she contains all, nothing is lacking, Yet all were lacking, if sex were lacking,

ONCE I passed through a populous city, imprinting my brain, for future use, with its shows, architec-

Cluster: Calamus. (1860) CALAMUS. 1.

Were you looking to be held together by the lawyers? By an agreement on a paper? Or by arms? Away!

CITY of my walks and joys!

Or the vaunted glory and growth of the great city spread around me?

, if I could be with you, and become your lover; Be it as if I were with you.

Cluster: Messenger Leaves. (1860) MESSENGER LEAVES. To You, Whoever You Are.

TO The States, or any one of them, or any city of The States, Resist much, obey little, Once unquestioning

obedience, once fully enslaved, Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city, of this earth, ever afterward

Cluster: Thoughts. (1860) THOUGHTS. 1.

herself; Of Equality—As if it harmed me, giving others the same chances and rights as myself—As if it were

OF what I write from myself—As 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 were not the amount of all nations, and of all the lives of heroes.

Cluster: Debris. (1860) DEBRIS.

HAVE you learned lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for

to have their chance, In it physique, intellect, faith—in it just as much as to manage an army or a city

Paumanok, where I was born, Fond of the sea—lusty-begotten and various, Boy of the Mannahatta, the city

of ships, my city, Or raised inland, or of the south savannas, Or full-breath'd on Californian air,

put in my poems, that with you is heroism, upon land and sea—And I will report all heroism from an American

ideal of manly love, indicating it in me; I will therefore let flame from me the burning fires that were

count- less countless herds of buffalo, feeding on short curly grass; See, in my poems, old and new cities

I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the beginning and the end, But I do not talk

All I mark as my own, you shall offset it with your own, Else it were time lost listening to me.

, The blocks and fallen architecture more than all the living cities of the globe.

If our colors were struck, and the fighting done?

Were mankind murderous or jealous upon you, my brother, my sister?

O you teeming cities! O so invincible, turbulent, proud! O race of the future! O women! O fathers!

even if it be only a few ragged huts; O the city where women walk in public processions in the streets

Cities! defiant of all outside authority! I spring at once into your arms! you I most love!

Chants Democratic and Native American 1 1.

incomparable love, Plunging his semitic muscle into its merits and demerits, Making its geography, cities

, The superior marine, free commerce, fisheries, whaling, gold-digging, Wharf-hemmed cities, railroad

to American persons, progresses, cities? Chicago, Kanada, Arkansas?

I will make cities and civilizations defer to me!

the greatest city in the whole world.

Where the city stands with the brawniest breed of orators and bards, Where the city stands that is beloved

city of the healthiest fathers stands, Where the city of the best-bodied mothers stands, There the greatest

city stands.

Were those your vast and solid?

American masses!

Were all educations, practical and ornamental, well displayed out of me, what would it amount to?

Were I as the head teacher, charitable proprietor, wise statesman, what would it amount to?

Were I to you as the boss employing and paying you, would that satisfy you?

, the trottoirs of a city when thousands of well-dressed people walk up and down, The cotton, woollen

Always the prairies, pastures, forests, vast cities, travellers, Kanada, the snows; Always these compact

White drift spooning ahead, where the ship in the tempest dashes; On solid land, what is done in cities

cotton-bales piled on banks and wharves; Encircling all, vast-darting, up and wide, the Amer- ican American

day, driving the herd of cows, and shouting to them as they loiter to browse by the road-side; The city

and down, casting swift shadows in specks on the opposite wall, where the shine is; The athletic American

Chants Democratic and Native American 5 5. RESPONDEZ! Respondez! Let every one answer!

Let those that were prisoners take the keys! (Say! why might they not just as well be transposed?)

Let the Asiatic, the African, the European, the American and the Australian, go armed against the murderous

Let there be wealthy and immense cities—but through any of them, not a single poet, saviour, knower,

Chants Democratic and Native American 6 6. YOU just maturing youth! You male or female!

Chants Democratic and Native American 7 7.

that the old accounts, bibles, genealogies, are true, without exception, I assert that all past days were

what they should have been, And that they could no-how have been better than they were, And that to-day

Chants Democratic and Native American 8 8.

Chants Democratic and Native American 9 9.

I see the results glorious and inevitable—and they again leading to other results;) How the great cities

Chants Democratic and Native American 10 10. HISTORIAN! you who celebrate bygones!

do not tell the usual facts, proved by records and documents, What I tell, (talking to every born American

nor afraid; Chanter of Personality, outlining a history yet to be, I project the ideal man, the American

Chants Democratic and Native American 11 11.

women there—of happiness in those high plateaus, ranging three thousand miles, warm and cold, Of cities

Chants Democratic and Native American 12 12.

refuse, all attend, Armies, ships, antiquities, the dead, libraries, paint- ings paintings , machines, cities

Chants Democratic and Native American 13 13.

Chants Democratic and Native American 14 14. POETS to come!

Indeed, if it were not for you, what would I be?

Chants Democratic and Native American 15 15. WHO has gone farthest?

For I think I have reason to be the proudest son alive—for I am the son of the brawny and tall-topt city

Chants Democratic and Native American 16 16.

ucts products —they shall enjoy the sight of the beef, lumber, bread-stuffs, of Chicago, the great city

Chants Democratic and Native American 17 17.

We dwell a while in every city and town, We pass through Kanada, the north-east, the vast valley of the

Chants Democratic and Native American 18 18.

Chants Democratic and Native American 19 19.

Chants Democratic and Native American 20 20. AMERICAN mouth-songs!

Chants Democratic and Native American 21 21.

the world—politics, produce, The announcements of recognized things—science, The approved growth of cities

But we too announce solid things, Science, ships, politics, cities, factories, are not noth- ing nothing

, The best farms—others toiling and planting, and he unavoidably reaps, The noblest and costliest cities—others

things in their attitudes, He puts to-day out of himself, with plasticity and love, He places his own city

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

deputed atonement, Knows that the young man who composedly perilled his life and lost it, has done exceeding

doubt that shallowness, meanness, malig- nance malignance , are provided for; I do not doubt that cities

tidy and fresh-cheeked girls—and the bare- foot barefoot negro boy and girl, And all the changes of city

The stars themselves, some shaped, others unshaped, Wonders as of those countries—the soil, trees, cities

I see the tracks of the rail-roads of the earth, I see them welding State to State, city to city, through

I see the cities of the earth, and make myself at ran- dom random a part of them, I am a real Parisian

Christiania or Stockholm—or in Siberian Irkutsk—or in some street in Iceland; I descend upon all those cities

What cities the light or warmth penetrates, I pen- etrate penetrate those cities myself, 22* All islands

O the streets of cities! The flitting faces—the expressions, eyes, feet, cos- tumes costumes !

, Down from the showered halo, Up from the mystic play of shadows, twining and twisting as if they were

I saw the rich ladies in full dress at the soiree, I heard what the singers were singing so long, Heard

They were purified by death—they were taught and exalted.

FROM that of myself, without which I were nothing, From what I am determined to make illustrious, even

Soul, entirely redeemed her, the faithful one, the prostitute, who detained me when I went to the city

And if the body were not the Soul, what is the Soul?

I knew a man, He was a common farmer—he was the father of five sons, And in them were the fathers of

sons—and in them were the fathers of sons.

visit him to see—he was wise also, 25* He was six feet tall, he was over eighty years old— his sons were

from head to foot, It attracts with fierce undeniable attraction, I am drawn by its breath as if I were

A WOMAN waits for me—she contains all, nothing is lacking, Yet all were lacking, if sex were lacking,

or if the moisture of the right man were lacking.

YOU and I—what the earth is, we are, We two—how long we were fooled!

ONCE I passed through a populous city, imprinting my brain, for future use, with its shows, architec-

ture architecture , customs, and traditions; Yet now, of all that city, I remember only a woman I casually

met there, who detained me for love of me, Day by day and night by night we were together,— All else

IN the new garden, in all the parts, In cities now, modern, I wander, Though the second or third result

original loins, perfectly sweet, I, chanter of Adamic songs, Through the new garden, the West, the great cities

his or her body under- stands understands by subtle analogies all other theories, The theory of a city

meanings unknown before, Subtler than ever, more harmony, as if born here, related here, Not to the city's

A NEWER garden of creation, no primal solitude, Dense, joyous, modern, populous millions, cities and