Songofmyself-whitman - Cesar Palma

8/16/2019 Songofmyself-whitman - Cesar Palma

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Song of Myself (1892 version)By Walt Whitman 1 I celebrate myself, and sing myself,

And what I assume you shall assume,For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

I loafe and invite my soul,I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.

My tongue, every atom of my blood, form’d from this soil, this air,Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same,I, now thirtyseven years old in perfect health begin,!oping to cease not till death.

"reeds and schools in abeyance,#etiring bac$ a while sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten,I harbor for good or bad, I permit to spea$ at every ha%ard,&ature without chec$ with original energy.

2 !ouses and rooms are full of perfumes, the shelves are crowded with perfumes,I breathe the fragrance myself and $now it and li$e it,'he distillation would into(icate me also, but I shall not let it.

'he atmosphere is not a perfume, it has no taste of the distillation, it is odorless,

It is for my mouth forever, I am in love with it,I will go to the ban$ by the wood and become undisguised and na$ed,I am mad for it to be in contact with me.

'he smo$e of my own breath,)choes, ripples, bu%%’d whispers, loveroot, sil$thread, crotch and vine,My respiration and inspiration, the beating of my heart, the passing of blood and air through my lungs,'he sniff of green leaves and dry leaves, and of the shore and dar$color’d searoc$s, and of hay in thebarn,'he sound of the belch’d words of my voice loos’d to the eddies of the wind,A few light $isses, a few embraces, a reaching around of arms,

'he play of shine and shade on the trees as the supple boughs wag,'he delight alone or in the rush of the streets, or along the fields and hillsides,'he feeling of health, the fullnoon trill, the song of me rising from bed and meeting the sun.

!ave you rec$on’d a thousand acres much* have you rec$on’d the earth much*!ave you practis’d so long to learn to read*!ave you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems*

+top this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all poems,

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/walt-whitman

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/walt-whitman



ou shall possess the good of the earth and sun, -there are millions of suns left,ou shall no longer ta$e things at second or third hand, nor loo$ through the eyes of the dead, nor feedon the spectres in boo$s,ou shall not loo$ through my eyes either, nor ta$e things from me,ou shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self.

3 I have heard what the tal$ers were tal$ing, the tal$ of the beginning and the end,But I do not tal$ of the beginning or the end.

'here was never any more inception than there is now,&or any more youth or age than there is now,And will never be any more perfection than there is now,&or any more heaven or hell than there is now.

/rge and urge and urge,Always the procreant urge of the world.

0ut of the dimness opposite e1uals advance, always substance and increase, always se(,Always a $nit of identity, always distinction, always a breed of life.

'o elaborate is no avail, learn’d and unlearn’d feel that it is so.

+ure as the most certain sure, plumb in the uprights, well entretied, braced in the beams,+tout as a horse, affectionate, haughty, electrical,I and this mystery here we stand.

"lear and sweet is my soul, and clear and sweet is all that is not my soul.

2ac$ one lac$s both, and the unseen is proved by the seen,'ill that becomes unseen and receives proof in its turn.

+howing the best and dividing it from the worst age ve(es age,3nowing the perfect fitness and e1uanimity of things, while they discuss I am silent, and go bathe andadmire myself.

Welcome is every organ and attribute of me, and of any man hearty and clean,&ot an inch nor a particle of an inch is vile, and none shall be less familiar than the rest.

I am satisfied4I see, dance, laugh, sing5As the hugging and loving bedfellow sleeps at my side through the night, and withdraws at the peep ofthe day with stealthy tread,2eaving me bas$ets cover’d with white towels swelling the house with their plenty,+hall I postpone my acceptation and reali%ation and scream at my eyes,'hat they turn from ga%ing after and down the road,And forthwith cipher and show me to a cent,)(actly the value of one and e(actly the value of two, and which is ahead*

4



'rippers and as$ers surround me,6eople I meet, the effect upon me of my early life or the ward and city I live in, or the nation,'he latest dates, discoveries, inventions, societies, authors old and new,My dinner, dress, associates, loo$s, compliments, dues,'he real or fancied indifference of some man or woman I love,'he sic$ness of one of my fol$s or of myself, or illdoing or loss or lac$ of money, or depressions or

e(altations,Battles, the horrors of fratricidal war, the fever of doubtful news, the fitful events5'hese come to me days and nights and go from me again,But they are not the Me myself.

Apart from the pulling and hauling stands what I am,+tands amused, complacent, compassionating, idle, unitary,2oo$s down, is erect, or bends an arm on an impalpable certain rest,2oo$ing with sidecurved head curious what will come ne(t,Both in and out of the game and watching and wondering at it.

Bac$ward I see in my own days where I sweated through fog with linguists and contenders,I have no moc$ings or arguments, I witness and wait.

5 I believe in you my soul, the other I am must not abase itself to you,And you must not be abased to the other.

2oafe with me on the grass, loose the stop from your throat,&ot words, not music or rhyme I want, not custom or lecture, not even the best,0nly the lull I li$e, the hum of your valv7d voice.

I mind how once we lay such a transparent summer morning,!ow you settled your head athwart my hips and gently turn’d over upon me,And parted the shirt from my bosombone, and plunged your tongue to my barestript heart,And reach’d till you felt my beard, and reach’d till you held my feet.

+wiftly arose and spread around me the peace and $nowledge that pass all the argument of the earth,And I $now that the hand of 8od is the promise of my own,And I $now that the spirit of 8od is the brother of my own,And that all the men ever born are also my brothers, and the women my sisters and lovers,And that a $elson of the creation is love,And limitless are leaves stiff or drooping in the fields,And brown ants in the little wells beneath them,And mossy scabs of the worm fence, heap’d stones, elder, mullein and po$eweed.

6 A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands5!ow could I answer the child* I do not $now what it is any more than he.

I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven.

0r I guess it is the hand$erchief of the 2ord,



A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropt,Bearing the owner’s name someway in the corners, that we may see and remar$, and say Whose?

0r I guess the grass is itself a child, the produced babe of the vegetation.

0r I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,

And it means, +prouting ali$e in broad %ones and narrow %ones,8rowing among blac$ fol$s as among white,3anuc$, 'uc$ahoe, "ongressman, "uff, I give them the same, I receive them the same.

And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.

'enderly will I use you curling grass,It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men,It may be if I had $nown them I would have loved them,It may be you are from old people, or from offspring ta$en soon out of their mothers’ laps,And here you are the mothers’ laps.

'his grass is very dar$ to be from the white heads of old mothers,9ar$er than the colorless beards of old men,9ar$ to come from under the faint red roofs of mouths.

0 I perceive after all so many uttering tongues,And I perceive they do not come from the roofs of mouths for nothing.

I wish I could translate the hints about the dead young men and women,And the hints about old men and mothers, and the offspring ta$en soon out of their laps.

What do you thin$ has become of the young and old men*And what do you thin$ has become of the women and children*

'hey are alive and well somewhere,'he smallest sprout shows there is really no death,And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it,And ceas’d the moment life appear’d.

All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses,And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luc$ier.

7 !as any one supposed it luc$y to be born*I hasten to inform him or her it is :ust as luc$y to die, and I $now it.

I pass death with the dying and birth with the newwash’d babe, and am not contain’d between my hatand boots,And peruse manifold ob:ects, no two ali$e and every one good,'he earth good and the stars good, and their ad:uncts all good.

I am not an earth nor an ad:unct of an earth,



I am the mate and companion of people, all :ust as immortal and fathomless as myself,-'hey do not $now how immortal, but I $now.

)very $ind for itself and its own, for me mine male and female,For me those that have been boys and that love women,For me the man that is proud and feels how it stings to be slighted,

For me the sweetheart and the old maid, for me mothers and the mothers of mothers,For me lips that have smiled, eyes that have shed tears,For me children and the begetters of children.

/ndrape; you are not guilty to me, nor stale nor discarded,I see through the broadcloth and gingham whether or no,And am around, tenacious, ac1uisitive, tireless, and cannot be sha$en away.

8 'he little one sleeps in its cradle,I lift the gau%e and loo$ a long time, and silently brush away flies with my hand.

'he youngster and the redfaced girl turn aside up the bushy hill,I peeringly view them from the top.

'he suicide sprawls on the bloody floor of the bedroom,I witness the corpse with its dabbled hair, I note where the pistol has fallen.

'he blab of the pave, tires of carts, sluff of bootsoles, tal$ of the promenaders,'he heavy omnibus, the driver with his interrogating thumb, the clan$ of the shod horses on the granitefloor,'he snowsleighs, clin$ing, shouted :o$es, pelts of snowballs,'he hurrahs for popular favorites, the fury of rous’d mobs,'he flap of the curtain’d litter, a sic$ man inside borne to the hospital,'he meeting of enemies, the sudden oath, the blows and fall,'he e(cited crowd, the policeman with his star 1uic$ly wor$ing his passage to the centre of the crowd,'he impassive stones that receive and return so many echoes,What groans of overfed or halfstarv’d who fall sunstruc$ or in fits,What e(clamations of women ta$en suddenly who hurry home and give birth to babes,What living and buried speech is always vibrating here, what howls restrain’d by decorum,Arrests of criminals, slights, adulterous offers made, acceptances, re:ections with conve( lips,I mind them or the show or resonance of them4I come and I depart.

9 'he big doors of the country barn stand open and ready,'he dried grass of the harvesttime loads the slowdrawn wagon,'he clear light plays on the brown gray and green intertinged,'he armfuls are pac$’d to the sagging mow.

I am there, I help, I came stretch’d atop of the load,I felt its soft :olts, one leg reclined on the other,I :ump from the crossbeams and sei%e the clover and timothy,And roll head over heels and tangle my hair full of wisps.



10 Alone far in the wilds and mountains I hunt,Wandering ama%ed at my own lightness and glee,In the late afternoon choosing a safe spot to pass the night,3indling a fire and broiling the fresh$ill’d game,

Falling asleep on the gather’d leaves with my dog and gun by my side.

'he an$ee clipper is under her s$ysails, she cuts the spar$le and scud,

My eyes settle the land, I bend at her prow or shout :oyously from the dec$.

'he boatmen and clamdiggers arose early and stopt for me,I tuc$’d my trowserends in my boots and went and had a good time5ou should have been with us that day round the chowder$ettle.

I saw the marriage of the trapper in the open air in the far west, the bride was a red girl,!er father and his friends sat near crosslegged and dumbly smo$ing, they had moccasins to their feetand large thic$ blan$ets hanging from their shoulders,0n a ban$ lounged the trapper, he was drest mostly in s$ins, his lu(uriant beard and curls protected hisnec$, he held his bride by the hand,+he had long eyelashes, her head was bare, her coarse straight loc$s descended upon her voluptuouslimbs and reach’d to her feet.

'he runaway slave came to my house and stopt outside,I heard his motions crac$ling the twigs of the woodpile,'hrough the swung halfdoor of the $itchen I saw him limpsy and wea$,And went where he sat on a log and led him in and assured him,And brought water and fill’d a tub for his sweated body and bruis’d feet,And gave him a room that enter’d from my own, and gave him some coarse clean clothes,And remember perfectly well his revolving eyes and his aw$wardness,And remember putting plasters on the galls of his nec$ and an$les5!e staid with me a wee$ before he was recuperated and pass’d north,I had him sit ne(t me at table, my fireloc$ lean’d in the corner.

11 'wentyeight young men bathe by the shore,'wentyeight young men and all so friendly5'wentyeight years of womanly life and all so lonesome.

+he owns the fine house by the rise of the ban$,+he hides handsome and richly drest aft the blinds of the window.

Which of the young men does she li$e the best*Ah the homeliest of them is beautiful to her.

Where are you off to, lady* for I see you,ou splash in the water there, yet stay stoc$ still in your room.



9ancing and laughing along the beach came the twentyninth bather,'he rest did not see her, but she saw them and loved them.

'he beards of the young men glisten’d with wet, it ran from their long hair,2ittle streams pass’d all over their bodies.

An unseen hand also pass’d over their bodies,It descended tremblingly from their temples and ribs.

'he young men float on their bac$s, their white bellies bulge to the sun, they do not as$ who sei%es fastto them,'hey do not $now who puffs and declines with pendant and bending arch,'hey do not thin$ whom they souse with spray.

12 'he butcherboy puts off his $illingclothes, or sharpens his $nife at the stall in the mar$et,I loiter en:oying his repartee and his shuffle and brea$down.

Blac$smiths with grimed and hairy chests environ the anvil,)ach has his mainsledge, they are all out, there is a great heat in the fire.

From the cinderstrew’d threshold I follow their movements,'he lithe sheer of their waists plays even with their massive arms,0verhand the hammers swing, overhand so slow, overhand so sure,'hey do not hasten, each man hits in his place.

13 'he negro holds firmly the reins of his four horses, the bloc$ swags underneath on its tiedover chain,'he negro that drives the long dray of the stoneyard, steady and tall he stands pois’d on one leg on thestringpiece,!is blue shirt e(poses his ample nec$ and breast and loosens over his hipband,!is glance is calm and commanding, he tosses the slouch of his hat away from his forehead,'he sun falls on his crispy hair and mustache, falls on the blac$ of his polish’d and perfect limbs.

I behold the pictures1ue giant and love him, and I do not stop there,I go with the team also.

In me the caresser of life wherever moving, bac$ward as well as forward sluing,'o niches aside and :unior bending, not a person or ob:ect missing,Absorbing all to myself and for this song.

0(en that rattle the yo$e and chain or halt in the leafy shade, what is that you e(press in your eyes*It seems to me more than all the print I have read in my life.

My tread scares the wooddra$e and woodduc$ on my distant and daylong ramble,'hey rise together, they slowly circle around.

I believe in those wing’d purposes,And ac$nowledge red, yellow, white, playing within me,



And consider green and violet and the tufted crown intentional,And do not call the tortoise unworthy because she is not something else,And the :ay in the woods never studied the gamut, yet trills pretty well to me,And the loo$ of the bay mare shames silliness out of me.

14

'he wild gander leads his floc$ through the cool night,Ya-honk he says, and sounds it down to me li$e an invitation,'he pert may suppose it meaningless, but I listening close,Find its purpose and place up there toward the wintry s$y.

'he sharphoof’d moose of the north, the cat on the housesill, the chic$adee, the prairiedog,'he litter of the grunting sow as they tug at her teats,'he brood of the tur$eyhen and she with her halfspread wings,I see in them and myself the same old law.

'he press of my foot to the earth springs a hundred affections,'hey scorn the best I can do to relate them.

I am enamour’d of growing outdoors,0f men that live among cattle or taste of the ocean or woods,0f the builders and steerers of ships and the wielders of a(es and mauls, and the drivers of horses,I can eat and sleep with them wee$ in and wee$ out.

What is commonest, cheapest, nearest, easiest, is Me,Me going in for my chances, spending for vast returns,Adorning myself to bestow myself on the first that will ta$e me,&ot as$ing the s$y to come down to my good will,+cattering it freely forever.

15 'he pure contralto sings in the organ loft,'he carpenter dresses his plan$, the tongue of his foreplane whistles its wild ascending lisp,'he married and unmarried children ride home to their 'han$sgiving dinner,'he pilot sei%es the $ingpin, he heaves down with a strong arm,'he mate stands braced in the whaleboat, lance and harpoon are ready,

'he duc$shooter wal$s by silent and cautious stretches,'he deacons are ordain’d with cross’d hands at the altar,'he spinninggirl retreats and advances to the hum of the big wheel,'he farmer stops by the bars as he wal$s on a Firstday loafe and loo$s at the oats and rye,'he lunatic is carried at last to the asylum a confirm’d case,-!e will never sleep any more as he did in the cot in his mother’s bedroom5'he :our printer with gray head and gaunt :aws wor$s at his case,!e turns his 1uid of tobacco while his eyes blurr with the manuscript5'he malform’d limbs are tied to the surgeon’s table,What is removed drops horribly in a pail5'he 1uadroon girl is sold at the auctionstand, the drun$ard nods by the barroom stove,'he machinist rolls up his sleeves, the policeman travels his beat, the gate$eeper mar$s who pass,



'he young fellow drives the e(presswagon, -I love him, though I do not $now him5'he halfbreed straps on his light boots to compete in the race,'he western tur$eyshooting draws old and young, some lean on their rifles, some sit on logs,0ut from the crowd steps the mar$sman, ta$es his position, levels his piece5'he groups of newlycome immigrants cover the wharf or levee,As the woollypates hoe in the sugarfield, the overseer views them from his saddle,

'he bugle calls in the ballroom, the gentlemen run for their partners, the dancers bow to each other,'he youth lies awa$e in the cedarroof’d garret and har$s to the musical rain,'he Wolverine sets traps on the cree$ that helps fill the !uron,'he s1uaw wrapt in her yellowhemm’d cloth is offering moccasins and beadbags for sale,'he connoisseur peers along the e(hibitiongallery with halfshut eyes bent sideways,As the dec$hands ma$e fast the steamboat the plan$ is thrown for the shoregoing passengers,'he young sister holds out the s$ein while the elder sister winds it off in a ball, and stops now and thenfor the $nots,'he oneyear wife is recovering and happy having a wee$ ago borne her first child,'he cleanhair’d an$ee girl wor$s with her sewingmachine or in the factory or mill,'he pavingman leans on his twohanded rammer, the reporter’s lead flies swiftly over the noteboo$,the signpainter is lettering with blue and gold,'he canal boy trots on the towpath, the boo$$eeper counts at his des$, the shoema$er wa(es histhread,'he conductor beats time for the band and all the performers follow him,'he child is bapti%ed, the convert is ma$ing his first professions,'he regatta is spread on the bay, the race is begun, -how the white sails spar$le;'he drover watching his drove sings out to them that would stray,'he pedler sweats with his pac$ on his bac$, -the purchaser higgling about the odd cent5'he bride unrumples her white dress, the minutehand of the cloc$ moves slowly,'he opiumeater reclines with rigid head and :ustopen’d lips,'he prostitute draggles her shawl, her bonnet bobs on her tipsy and pimpled nec$,'he crowd laugh at her blac$guard oaths, the men :eer and win$ to each other,-Miserable; I do not laugh at your oaths nor :eer you5'he 6resident holding a cabinet council is surrounded by the great +ecretaries,0n the pia%%a wal$ three matrons stately and friendly with twined arms,'he crew of the fishsmac$ pac$ repeated layers of halibut in the hold,'he Missourian crosses the plains toting his wares and his cattle,As the farecollector goes through the train he gives notice by the :ingling of loose change,'he floormen are laying the floor, the tinners are tinning the roof, the masons are calling for mortar,In single file each shouldering his hod pass onward the laborers5+easons pursuing each other the indescribable crowd is gather’d, it is the fourth of +eventhmonth,-what salutes of cannon and small arms;+easons pursuing each other the plougher ploughs, the mower mows, and the wintergrain falls in theground50ff on the la$es the pi$efisher watches and waits by the hole in the fro%en surface,'he stumps stand thic$ round the clearing, the s1uatter stri$es deep with his a(e,Flatboatmen ma$e fast towards dus$ near the cottonwood or pecantrees,"oonsee$ers go through the regions of the #ed river or through those drain’d by the 'ennessee, orthrough those of the Ar$ansas,'orches shine in the dar$ that hangs on the "hattahooche or Altamahaw,

6atriarchs sit at supper with sons and grandsons and greatgrandsons around them,



In walls of adobie, in canvas tents, rest hunters and trappers after their day’s sport,'he city sleeps and the country sleeps,'he living sleep for their time, the dead sleep for their time,'he old husband sleeps by his wife and the young husband sleeps by his wife5And these tend inward to me, and I tend outward to them,And such as it is to be of these more or less I am,

And of these one and all I weave the song of myself.

16 I am of old and young, of the foolish as much as the wise,#egardless of others, ever regardful of others,Maternal as well as paternal, a child as well as a man,+tuff’d with the stuff that is coarse and stuff’d with the stuff that is fine,0ne of the &ation of many nations, the smallest the same and the largest the same,A +outherner soon as a &ortherner, a planter nonchalant and hospitable down by the 0conee I live,A an$ee bound my own way ready for trade, my :oints the limberest :oints on earth and the sternest :oints on earth,A 3entuc$ian wal$ing the vale of the )l$horn in my deers$in leggings, a 2ouisianian or 8eorgian,A boatman over la$es or bays or along coasts, a !oosier, Badger, Buc$eye5At home on 3anadian snowshoes or up in the bush, or with fishermen off &ewfoundland,At home in the fleet of iceboats, sailing with the rest and tac$ing,At home on the hills of <ermont or in the woods of Maine, or the 'e(an ranch,"omrade of "alifornians, comrade of free &orthWesterners, -loving their big proportions,"omrade of raftsmen and coalmen, comrade of all who sha$e hands and welcome to drin$ and meat,A learner with the simplest, a teacher of the thoughtfullest,A novice beginning yet e(perient of myriads of seasons,0f every hue and caste am I, of every ran$ and religion,A farmer, mechanic, artist, gentleman, sailor, 1ua$er,6risoner, fancyman, rowdy, lawyer, physician, priest.

I resist any thing better than my own diversity,Breathe the air but leave plenty after me,And am not stuc$ up, and am in my place.

-'he moth and the fisheggs are in their place,'he bright suns I see and the dar$ suns I cannot see are in their place,'he palpable is in its place and the impalpable is in its place.

17 'hese are really the thoughts of all men in all ages and lands, they are not original with me,If they are not yours as much as mine they are nothing, or ne(t to nothing,If they are not the riddle and the untying of the riddle they are nothing,If they are not :ust as close as they are distant they are nothing.

'his is the grass that grows wherever the land is and the water is,'his the common air that bathes the globe.

18 With music strong I come, with my cornets and my drums,



I play not marches for accepted victors only, I play marches for con1uer’d and slain persons.

!ave you heard that it was good to gain the day*I also say it is good to fall, battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won.

I beat and pound for the dead,

I blow through my embouchures my loudest and gayest for them.

<ivas to those who have fail’d;And to those whose warvessels san$ in the sea;And to those themselves who san$ in the sea;And to all generals that lost engagements, and all overcome heroes;And the numberless un$nown heroes e1ual to the greatest heroes $nown;

19 'his is the meal e1ually set, this the meat for natural hunger,It is for the wic$ed :ust the same as the righteous, I ma$e appointments with all,I will not have a single person slighted or left away,'he $eptwoman, sponger, thief, are hereby invited,'he heavylipp’d slave is invited, the venerealee is invited5'here shall be no difference between them and the rest.

'his is the press of a bashful hand, this the float and odor of hair,'his the touch of my lips to yours, this the murmur of yearning,'his the faroff depth and height reflecting my own face,'his the thoughtful merge of myself, and the outlet again.

9o you guess I have some intricate purpose*Well I have, for the Fourthmonth showers have, and the mica on the side of a roc$ has.

9o you ta$e it I would astonish*9oes the daylight astonish* does the early redstart twittering through the woods*9o I astonish more than they*

'his hour I tell things in confidence,I might not tell everybody, but I will tell you.

20 Who goes there* han$ering, gross, mystical, nude5!ow is it I e(tract strength from the beef I eat*

What is a man anyhow* what am I* what are you*

All I mar$ as my own you shall offset it with your own,)lse it were time lost listening to me.

I do not snivel that snivel the world over,'hat months are vacuums and the ground but wallow and filth.



Whimpering and truc$ling fold with powders for invalids, conformity goes to the fourthremov’d,I wear my hat as I please indoors or out.

Why should I pray* why should I venerate and be ceremonious*

!aving pried through the strata, analy%ed to a hair, counsel’d with doctors and calculated close,

I find no sweeter fat than stic$s to my own bones.

In all people I see myself, none more and not one a barleycorn less,And the good or bad I say of myself I say of them.

I $now I am solid and sound,'o me the converging ob:ects of the universe perpetually flow,All are written to me, and I must get what the writing means.

I $now I am deathless,I $now this orbit of mine cannot be swept by a carpenter’s compass,I $now I shall not pass li$e a child’s carlacue cut with a burnt stic$ at night.

I $now I am august,I do not trouble my spirit to vindicate itself or be understood,I see that the elementary laws never apologi%e,-I rec$on I behave no prouder than the level I plant my house by, after all.

I e(ist as I am, that is enough,If no other in the world be aware I sit content,And if each and all be aware I sit content.

0ne world is aware and by far the largest to me, and that is myself,And whether I come to my own today or in ten thousand or ten million years,I can cheerfully ta$e it now, or with e1ual cheerfulness I can wait.

My foothold is tenon’d and mortis’d in granite,I laugh at what you call dissolution,And I $now the amplitude of time.

21 I am the poet of the Body and I am the poet of the +oul,'he pleasures of heaven are with me and the pains of hell are with me,'he first I graft and increase upon myself, the latter I translate into a new tongue.

I am the poet of the woman the same as the man,And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man,And I say there is nothing greater than the mother of men.

I chant the chant of dilation or pride,We have had duc$ing and deprecating about enough,I show that si%e is only development.



!ave you outstript the rest* are you the 6resident*It is a trifle, they will more than arrive there every one, and still pass on.

I am he that wal$s with the tender and growing night,I call to the earth and sea halfheld by the night.

6ress close barebosom’d night4press close magnetic nourishing night;&ight of south winds4night of the large few stars;+till nodding night4mad na$ed summer night.

+mile 0 voluptuous coolbreath’d earth;)arth of the slumbering and li1uid trees;)arth of departed sunset4earth of the mountains mistytopt;)arth of the vitreous pour of the full moon :ust tinged with blue;)arth of shine and dar$ mottling the tide of the river;)arth of the limpid gray of clouds brighter and clearer for my sa$e;Farswooping elbow’d earth4rich appleblossom’d earth;+mile, for your lover comes.

6rodigal, you have given me love4therefore I to you give love;0 unspea$able passionate love.

22 ou sea; I resign myself to you also4I guess what you mean,I behold from the beach your croo$ed inviting fingers,I believe you refuse to go bac$ without feeling of me,We must have a turn together, I undress, hurry me out of sight of the land,"ushion me soft, roc$ me in billowy drowse,9ash me with amorous wet, I can repay you.

+ea of stretch’d groundswells,+ea breathing broad and convulsive breaths,+ea of the brine of life and of unshovell’d yet alwaysready graves,!owler and scooper of storms, capricious and dainty sea,I am integral with you, I too am of one phase and of all phases.

6arta$er of influ( and efflu( I, e(toller of hate and conciliation,)(toller of amies and those that sleep in each others’ arms.

I am he attesting sympathy,-+hall I ma$e my list of things in the house and s$ip the house that supports them*

I am not the poet of goodness only, I do not decline to be the poet of wic$edness also.

What blurt is this about virtue and about vice*)vil propels me and reform of evil propels me, I stand indifferent,My gait is no faultfinder’s or re:ecter’s gait,I moisten the roots of all that has grown.



9id you fear some scrofula out of the unflagging pregnancy*9id you guess the celestial laws are yet to be wor$’d over and rectified*

I find one side a balance and the antipodal side a balance,+oft doctrine as steady help as stable doctrine,'houghts and deeds of the present our rouse and early start.

'his minute that comes to me over the past decillions,'here is no better than it and now.

What behaved well in the past or behaves well today is not such a wonder,'he wonder is always and always how there can be a mean man or an infidel.

23 )ndless unfolding of words of ages;And mine a word of the modern, the word )nMasse.

A word of the faith that never bal$s,!ere or henceforward it is all the same to me, I accept 'ime absolutely.

It alone is without flaw, it alone rounds and completes all,'hat mystic baffling wonder alone completes all.

I accept #eality and dare not 1uestion it,Materialism first and last imbuing.

!urrah for positive science; long live e(act demonstration;Fetch stonecrop mi(t with cedar and branches of lilac,'his is the le(icographer, this the chemist, this made a grammar of the old cartouches,'hese mariners put the ship through dangerous un$nown seas.'his is the geologist, this wor$s with the scalpel, and this is a mathematician.

8entlemen, to you the first honors always;our facts are useful, and yet they are not my dwelling,I but enter by them to an area of my dwelling.

2ess the reminders of properties told my words,And more the reminders they of life untold, and of freedom and e(trication,And ma$e short account of neuters and geldings, and favor men and women fully e1uipt,And beat the gong of revolt, and stop with fugitives and them that plot and conspire.

24 Walt Whitman, a $osmos, of Manhattan the son,'urbulent, fleshy, sensual, eating, drin$ing and breeding,&o sentimentalist, no stander above men and women or apart from them,&o more modest than immodest.

/nscrew the loc$s from the doors;/nscrew the doors themselves from their :ambs;



Whoever degrades another degrades me,And whatever is done or said returns at last to me.

'hrough me the afflatus surging and surging, through me the current and inde(.

I spea$ the password primeval, I give the sign of democracy,By 8od; I will accept nothing which all cannot have their counterpart of on the same terms.

'hrough me many long dumb voices,<oices of the interminable generations of prisoners and slaves,<oices of the diseas’d and despairing and of thieves and dwarfs,<oices of cycles of preparation and accretion,And of the threads that connect the stars, and of wombs and of the fatherstuff,And of the rights of them the others are down upon,0f the deform’d, trivial, flat, foolish, despised,Fog in the air, beetles rolling balls of dung.

'hrough me forbidden voices,<oices of se(es and lusts, voices veil’d and I remove the veil,<oices indecent by me clarified and transfigur’d.

I do not press my fingers across my mouth,I $eep as delicate around the bowels as around the head and heart,"opulation is no more ran$ to me than death is.

I believe in the flesh and the appetites,+eeing, hearing, feeling, are miracles, and each part and tag of me is a miracle.

9ivine am I inside and out, and I ma$e holy whatever I touch or am touch’d from,'he scent of these armpits aroma finer than prayer,'his head more than churches, bibles, and all the creeds.

If I worship one thing more than another it shall be the spread of my own body, or any part of it,'ranslucent mould of me it shall be you;+haded ledges and rests it shall be you;Firm masculine colter it shall be you;Whatever goes to the tilth of me it shall be you;ou my rich blood; your mil$y stream pale strippings of my life;Breast that presses against other breasts it shall be you;My brain it shall be your occult convolutions;#oot of wash’d sweetflag; timorous pondsnipe; nest of guarded duplicate eggs; it shall be you;Mi(’d tussled hay of head, beard, brawn, it shall be you;'ric$ling sap of maple, fibre of manly wheat, it shall be you;+un so generous it shall be you;<apors lighting and shading my face it shall be you;ou sweaty broo$s and dews it shall be you;Winds whose softtic$ling genitals rub against me it shall be you;Broad muscular fields, branches of live oa$, loving lounger in my winding paths, it shall be you;



!ands I have ta$en, face I have $iss’d, mortal I have ever touch’d, it shall be you.

I dote on myself, there is that lot of me and all so luscious,)ach moment and whatever happens thrills me with :oy,I cannot tell how my an$les bend, nor whence the cause of my faintest wish,&or the cause of the friendship I emit, nor the cause of the friendship I ta$e again.

'hat I wal$ up my stoop, I pause to consider if it really be,A morningglory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of boo$s.

'o behold the daybrea$;'he little light fades the immense and diaphanous shadows,'he air tastes good to my palate.

!efts of the moving world at innocent gambols silently rising freshly e(uding,+cooting obli1uely high and low.

+omething I cannot see puts upward libidinous prongs,+eas of bright :uice suffuse heaven.

'he earth by the s$y staid with, the daily close of their :unction,'he heav’d challenge from the east that moment over my head,'he moc$ing taunt, +ee then whether you shall be master;

25 9a%%ling and tremendous how 1uic$ the sunrise would $ill me,If I could not now and always send sunrise out of me.

We also ascend da%%ling and tremendous as the sun,We found our own 0 my soul in the calm and cool of the daybrea$.

My voice goes after what my eyes cannot reach,With the twirl of my tongue I encompass worlds and volumes of worlds.

+peech is the twin of my vision, it is une1ual to measure itself,It provo$es me forever, it says sarcastically,Walt you contain enough, why don’t you let it out then?

"ome now I will not be tantali%ed, you conceive too much of articulation,9o you not $now 0 speech how the buds beneath you are folded*Waiting in gloom, protected by frost,'he dirt receding before my prophetical screams,I underlying causes to balance them at last,My $nowledge my live parts, it $eeping tally with the meaning of all things,!appiness, -which whoever hears me let him or her set out in search of this day.

My final merit I refuse you, I refuse putting from me what I really am,)ncompass worlds, but never try to encompass me,I crowd your slee$est and best by simply loo$ing toward you.



Writing and tal$ do not prove me,I carry the plenum of proof and every thing else in my face,With the hush of my lips I wholly confound the s$eptic.

26

&ow I will do nothing but listen,'o accrue what I hear into this song, to let sounds contribute toward it.

I hear bravuras of birds, bustle of growing wheat, gossip of flames, clac$ of stic$s coo$ing my meals,I hear the sound I love, the sound of the human voice,I hear all sounds running together, combined, fused or following,+ounds of the city and sounds out of the city, sounds of the day and night,'al$ative young ones to those that li$e them, the loud laugh of wor$people at their meals,'he angry base of dis:ointed friendship, the faint tones of the sic$,'he :udge with hands tight to the des$, his pallid lips pronouncing a deathsentence,'he heave’e’yo of stevedores unlading ships by the wharves, the refrain of the anchorlifters,'he ring of alarmbells, the cry of fire, the whirr of swiftstrea$ing engines and hosecarts withpremonitory tin$les and color’d lights,'he steam whistle, the solid roll of the train of approaching cars,'he slow march play’d at the head of the association marching two and two,-'hey go to guard some corpse, the flagtops are draped with blac$ muslin.

I hear the violoncello, -’tis the young man’s heart’s complaint,I hear the $ey’d cornet, it glides 1uic$ly in through my ears,It sha$es madsweet pangs through my belly and breast.

I hear the chorus, it is a grand opera,Ah this indeed is music4this suits me.

A tenor large and fresh as the creation fills me,'he orbic fle( of his mouth is pouring and filling me full.

I hear the train’d soprano -what wor$ with hers is this*'he orchestra whirls me wider than /ranus flies,It wrenches such ardors from me I did not $now I possess’d them,It sails me, I dab with bare feet, they are lic$’d by the indolent waves,I am cut by bitter and angry hail, I lose my breath,+teep’d amid honey’d morphine, my windpipe throttled in fa$es of death,

At length let up again to feel the pu%%le of pu%%les,And that we call Being.

27 'o be in any form, what is that*-#ound and round we go, all of us, and ever come bac$ thither,If nothing lay more develop’d the 1uahaug in its callous shell were enough.

Mine is no callous shell,



I have instant conductors all over me whether I pass or stop,'hey sei%e every ob:ect and lead it harmlessly through me.

I merely stir, press, feel with my fingers, and am happy,'o touch my person to some one else’s is about as much as I can stand.

28 Is this then a touch* 1uivering me to a new identity,Flames and ether ma$ing a rush for my veins,'reacherous tip of me reaching and crowding to help them,My flesh and blood playing out lightning to stri$e what is hardly different from myself,0n all sides prurient provo$ers stiffening my limbs,+training the udder of my heart for its withheld drip,Behaving licentious toward me, ta$ing no denial,9epriving me of my best as for a purpose,/nbuttoning my clothes, holding me by the bare waist,9eluding my confusion with the calm of the sunlight and pasturefields,Immodestly sliding the fellowsenses away,'hey bribed to swap off with touch and go and gra%e at the edges of me,&o consideration, no regard for my draining strength or my anger,Fetching the rest of the herd around to en:oy them a while,'hen all uniting to stand on a headland and worry me.

'he sentries desert every other part of me,'hey have left me helpless to a red marauder,'hey all come to the headland to witness and assist against me.

I am given up by traitors,I tal$ wildly, I have lost my wits, I and nobody else am the greatest traitor,I went myself first to the headland, my own hands carried me there.

ou villain touch; what are you doing* my breath is tight in its throat,/nclench your floodgates, you are too much for me.

29 Blind loving wrestling touch, sheath’d hooded sharptooth’d touch;9id it ma$e you ache so, leaving me*

6arting trac$’d by arriving, perpetual payment of perpetual loan,#ich showering rain, and recompense richer afterward.

+prouts ta$e and accumulate, stand by the curb prolific and vital,2andscapes pro:ected masculine, fullsi%ed and golden.

30 All truths wait in all things,'hey neither hasten their own delivery nor resist it,'hey do not need the obstetric forceps of the surgeon,'he insignificant is as big to me as any,



-What is less or more than a touch*

2ogic and sermons never convince,'he damp of the night drives deeper into my soul.

-0nly what proves itself to every man and woman is so,

0nly what nobody denies is so.

A minute and a drop of me settle my brain,I believe the soggy clods shall become lovers and lamps,And a compend of compends is the meat of a man or woman,And a summit and flower there is the feeling they have for each other,And they are to branch boundlessly out of that lesson until it becomes omnific,And until one and all shall delight us, and we them.

31 I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the :ourneywor$ of the stars,And the pismire is e1ually perfect, and a grain of sand, and the egg of the wren,And the treetoad is a chefd’=uvre for the highest,And the running blac$berry would adorn the parlors of heaven,And the narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery,And the cow crunching with depress’d head surpasses any statue,And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger se(tillions of infidels.

I find I incorporate gneiss, coal, longthreaded moss, fruits, grains, esculent roots,And am stucco’d with 1uadrupeds and birds all over,And have distanced what is behind me for good reasons,But call any thing bac$ again when I desire it.

In vain the speeding or shyness,In vain the plutonic roc$s send their old heat against my approach,In vain the mastodon retreats beneath its own powder’d bones,In vain ob:ects stand leagues off and assume manifold shapes,In vain the ocean settling in hollows and the great monsters lying low,In vain the bu%%ard houses herself with the s$y,In vain the sna$e slides through the creepers and logs,In vain the el$ ta$es to the inner passes of the woods,In vain the ra%orbill’d au$ sails far north to 2abrador,I follow 1uic$ly, I ascend to the nest in the fissure of the cliff.

32 I thin$ I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and selfcontain’d,I stand and loo$ at them long and long.

'hey do not sweat and whine about their condition,'hey do not lie awa$e in the dar$ and weep for their sins,'hey do not ma$e me sic$ discussing their duty to 8od,&ot one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things,&ot one $neels to another, nor to his $ind that lived thousands of years ago,



&ot one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.

+o they show their relations to me and I accept them,'hey bring me to$ens of myself, they evince them plainly in their possession.

I wonder where they get those to$ens,

9id I pass that way huge times ago and negligently drop them*

Myself moving forward then and now and forever,8athering and showing more always and with velocity,Infinite and omnigenous, and the li$e of these among them,&ot too e(clusive toward the reachers of my remembrancers,6ic$ing out here one that I love, and now go with him on brotherly terms.

A gigantic beauty of a stallion, fresh and responsive to my caresses,!ead high in the forehead, wide between the ears,2imbs glossy and supple, tail dusting the ground,)yes full of spar$ling wic$edness, ears finely cut, fle(ibly moving.

!is nostrils dilate as my heels embrace him,!is wellbuilt limbs tremble with pleasure as we race around and return.

I but use you a minute, then I resign you, stallion,Why do I need your paces when I myself outgallop them*)ven as I stand or sit passing faster than you.

33 +pace and 'ime; now I see it is true, what I guess’d at,What I guess’d when I loaf’d on the grass,What I guess’d while I lay alone in my bed,And again as I wal$’d the beach under the paling stars of the morning.

My ties and ballasts leave me, my elbows rest in seagaps,I s$irt sierras, my palms cover continents,I am afoot with my vision.

By the city’s 1uadrangular houses4in log huts, camping with lumbermen,Along the ruts of the turnpi$e, along the dry gulch and rivulet bed,Weeding my onionpatch or hoeing rows of carrots and parsnips, crossing savannas, trailing in forests,6rospecting, golddigging, girdling the trees of a new purchase,+corch’d an$ledeep by the hot sand, hauling my boat down the shallow river,Where the panther wal$s to and fro on a limb overhead, where the buc$ turns furiously at the hunter,Where the rattlesna$e suns his flabby length on a roc$, where the otter is feeding on fish,Where the alligator in his tough pimples sleeps by the bayou,Where the blac$ bear is searching for roots or honey, where the beaver pats the mud with his paddleshaped tail50ver the growing sugar, over the yellowflower’d cotton plant, over the rice in its low moist field,0ver the sharppea$’d farm house, with its scallop’d scum and slender shoots from the gutters,0ver the western persimmon, over the longleav’d corn, over the delicate blueflower fla(,



0ver the white and brown buc$wheat, a hummer and bu%%er there with the rest,0ver the dus$y green of the rye as it ripples and shades in the bree%e5+caling mountains, pulling myself cautiously up, holding on by low scragged limbs,Wal$ing the path worn in the grass and beat through the leaves of the brush,Where the 1uail is whistling betwi(t the woods and the wheatlot,Where the bat flies in the +eventhmonth eve, where the great goldbug drops through the dar$,

Where the broo$ puts out of the roots of the old tree and flows to the meadow,Where cattle stand and sha$e away flies with the tremulous shuddering of their hides,Where the cheesecloth hangs in the $itchen, where andirons straddle the hearthslab, where cobwebsfall in festoons from the rafters5Where triphammers crash, where the press is whirling its cylinders,Wherever the human heart beats with terrible throes under its ribs,Where the pearshaped balloon is floating aloft, -floating in it myself and loo$ing composedly down,Where the lifecar is drawn on the slipnoose, where the heat hatches palegreen eggs in the dentedsand,Where the shewhale swims with her calf and never forsa$es it,Where the steamship trails hindways its long pennant of smo$e,Where the fin of the shar$ cuts li$e a blac$ chip out of the water,Where the halfburn’d brig is riding on un$nown currents,Where shells grow to her slimy dec$, where the dead are corrupting below5Where the densestarr’d flag is borne at the head of the regiments,Approaching Manhattan up by the longstretching island,/nder &iagara, the cataract falling li$e a veil over my countenance,/pon a doorstep, upon the horsebloc$ of hard wood outside,/pon the racecourse, or en:oying picnics or :igs or a good game of baseball,At hefestivals, with blac$guard gibes, ironical license, bulldances, drin$ing, laughter,At the cidermill tasting the sweets of the brown mash, suc$ing the :uice through a straw,At applepeelings wanting $isses for all the red fruit I find,At musters, beachparties, friendly bees, hus$ings, houseraisings5Where the moc$ingbird sounds his delicious gurgles, cac$les, screams, weeps,Where the hayric$ stands in the barnyard, where the drystal$s are scatter’d, where the broodcowwaits in the hovel,Where the bull advances to do his masculine wor$, where the stud to the mare, where the coc$ istreading the hen,Where the heifers browse, where geese nip their food with short :er$s,Where sundown shadows lengthen over the limitless and lonesome prairie,Where herds of buffalo ma$e a crawling spread of the s1uare miles far and near,Where the hummingbird shimmers, where the nec$ of the longlived swan is curving and winding,Where the laughinggull scoots by the shore, where she laughs her nearhuman laugh,Where beehives range on a gray bench in the garden half hid by the high weeds,Where bandnec$’d partridges roost in a ring on the ground with their heads out,Where burial coaches enter the arch’d gates of a cemetery,Where winter wolves bar$ amid wastes of snow and icicled trees,Where the yellowcrown’d heron comes to the edge of the marsh at night and feeds upon small crabs,Where the splash of swimmers and divers cools the warm noon,Where the $atydid wor$s her chromatic reed on the walnuttree over the well,'hrough patches of citrons and cucumbers with silverwired leaves,'hrough the saltlic$ or orange glade, or under conical firs,'hrough the gymnasium, through the curtain’d saloon, through the office or public hall5



6leas’d with the native and pleas’d with the foreign, pleas’d with the new and old,6leas’d with the homely woman as well as the handsome,6leas’d with the 1ua$eress as she puts off her bonnet and tal$s melodiously,6leas’d with the tune of the choir of the whitewash’d church,6leas’d with the earnest words of the sweating Methodist preacher, impress’d seriously at the campmeeting5

2oo$ing in at the shopwindows of Broadway the whole forenoon, flatting the flesh of my nose on thethic$ plate glass,Wandering the same afternoon with my face turn’d up to the clouds, or down a lane or along the beach,My right and left arms round the sides of two friends, and I in the middle5"oming home with the silent and dar$chee$’d bushboy, -behind me he rides at the drape of the day,Far from the settlements studying the print of animals’ feet, or the moccasin print,By the cot in the hospital reaching lemonade to a feverish patient,&igh the coffin’d corpse when all is still, e(amining with a candle5<oyaging to every port to dic$er and adventure,!urrying with the modern crowd as eager and fic$le as any,!ot toward one I hate, ready in my madness to $nife him,+olitary at midnight in my bac$ yard, my thoughts gone from me a long while,Wal$ing the old hills of >ud?a with the beautiful gentle 8od by my side,+peeding through space, speeding through heaven and the stars,+peeding amid the seven satellites and the broad ring, and the diameter of eighty thousand miles,+peeding with tail’d meteors, throwing fireballs li$e the rest,"arrying the crescent child that carries its own full mother in its belly,+torming, en:oying, planning, loving, cautioning,Bac$ing and filling, appearing and disappearing,I tread day and night such roads.

I visit the orchards of spheres and loo$ at the product,And loo$ at 1uintillions ripen’d and loo$ at 1uintillions green.

I fly those flights of a fluid and swallowing soul,My course runs below the soundings of plummets.

I help myself to material and immaterial,&o guard can shut me off, no law prevent me.

I anchor my ship for a little while only,My messengers continually cruise away or bring their returns to me.

I go hunting polar furs and the seal, leaping chasms with a pi$epointed staff, clinging to topples ofbrittle and blue.

I ascend to the foretruc$,I ta$e my place late at night in the crow’snest,We sail the arctic sea, it is plenty light enough,'hrough the clear atmosphere I stretch around on the wonderful beauty,'he enormous masses of ice pass me and I pass them, the scenery is plain in all directions,'he whitetopt mountains show in the distance, I fling out my fancies toward them,We are approaching some great battlefield in which we are soon to be engaged,



We pass the colossal outposts of the encampment, we pass with still feet and caution,0r we are entering by the suburbs some vast and ruin’d city,'he bloc$s and fallen architecture more than all the living cities of the globe.

I am a free companion, I bivouac by invading watchfires,I turn the bridegroom out of bed and stay with the bride myself,

I tighten her all night to my thighs and lips.

My voice is the wife’s voice, the screech by the rail of the stairs,'hey fetch my man’s body up dripping and drown’d.

I understand the large hearts of heroes,'he courage of present times and all times,!ow the s$ipper saw the crowded and rudderless wrec$ of the steamship, and 9eath chasing it up anddown the storm,!ow he $nuc$led tight and gave not bac$ an inch, and was faithful of days and faithful of nights,And chal$’d in large letters on a board, Be of good cheer, we will not desert you; !ow he follow’d with them and tac$’d with them three days and would not give it up,!ow he saved the drifting company at last,!ow the lan$ loosegown’d women loo$’d when boated from the side of their prepared graves,!ow the silent oldfaced infants and the lifted sic$, and the sharplipp’d unshaved men5All this I swallow, it tastes good, I li$e it well, it becomes mine,I am the man, I suffer’d, I was there.

'he disdain and calmness of martyrs,'he mother of old, condemn’d for a witch, burnt with dry wood, her children ga%ing on,'he hounded slave that flags in the race, leans by the fence, blowing, cover’d with sweat,'he twinges that sting li$e needles his legs and nec$, the murderous buc$shot and the bullets,All these I feel or am.

I am the hounded slave, I wince at the bite of the dogs,!ell and despair are upon me, crac$ and again crac$ the mar$smen,I clutch the rails of the fence, my gore dribs, thinn’d with the oo%e of my s$in,I fall on the weeds and stones,'he riders spur their unwilling horses, haul close,'aunt my di%%y ears and beat me violently over the head with whipstoc$s.

Agonies are one of my changes of garments,I do not as$ the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person,My hurts turn livid upon me as I lean on a cane and observe.

I am the mash’d fireman with breastbone bro$en,'umbling walls buried me in their debris,!eat and smo$e I inspired, I heard the yelling shouts of my comrades,I heard the distant clic$ of their pic$s and shovels,'hey have clear’d the beams away, they tenderly lift me forth.

I lie in the night air in my red shirt, the pervading hush is for my sa$e,6ainless after all I lie e(hausted but not so unhappy,



White and beautiful are the faces around me, the heads are bared of their firecaps,'he $neeling crowd fades with the light of the torches.

9istant and dead resuscitate,'hey show as the dial or move as the hands of me, I am the cloc$ myself.

I am an old artillerist, I tell of my fort’s bombardment,I am there again.

Again the long roll of the drummers,Again the attac$ing cannon, mortars,Again to my listening ears the cannon responsive.

I ta$e part, I see and hear the whole,'he cries, curses, roar, the plaudits for wellaim’d shots,'he ambulan%a slowly passing trailing its red drip,Wor$men searching after damages, ma$ing indispensable repairs,'he fall of grenades through the rent roof, the fanshaped e(plosion,'he whi%% of limbs, heads, stone, wood, iron, high in the air.

Again gurgles the mouth of my dying general, he furiously waves with his hand,!e gasps through the clot Mind not me—mind—the entrenchments.

34 &ow I tell what I $new in 'e(as in my early youth,-I tell not the fall of Alamo,&ot one escaped to tell the fall of Alamo,'he hundred and fifty are dumb yet at Alamo,’'is the tale of the murder in cold blood of four hundred and twelve young men.

#etreating they had form’d in a hollow s1uare with their baggage for breastwor$s,&ine hundred lives out of the surrounding enemy’s, nine times their number, was the price they too$ inadvance,'heir colonel was wounded and their ammunition gone,'hey treated for an honorable capitulation, receiv’d writing and seal, gave up their arms and march’dbac$ prisoners of war.

'hey were the glory of the race of rangers,Matchless with horse, rifle, song, supper, courtship,2arge, turbulent, generous, handsome, proud, and affectionate,Bearded, sunburnt, drest in the free costume of hunters,&ot a single one over thirty years of age.

'he second Firstday morning they were brought out in s1uads and massacred, it was beautiful earlysummer,'he wor$ commenced about five o’cloc$ and was over by eight.

&one obey’d the command to $neel,+ome made a mad and helpless rush, some stood star$ and straight,



A few fell at once, shot in the temple or heart, the living and dead lay together,'he maim’d and mangled dug in the dirt, the newcomers saw them there,+ome half$ill’d attempted to crawl away,'hese were despatch’d with bayonets or batter’d with the blunts of mus$ets,A youth not seventeen years old sei%’d his assassin till two more came to release him,'he three were all torn and cover’d with the boy’s blood.

At eleven o’cloc$ began the burning of the bodies5'hat is the tale of the murder of the four hundred and twelve young men.

35 Would you hear of an oldtime seafight*Would you learn who won by the light of the moon and stars*2ist to the yarn, as my grandmother’s father the sailor told it to me.

0ur foe was no s$ul$ in his ship I tell you, -said he,!is was the surly )nglish pluc$, and there is no tougher or truer, and never was, and never will be5Along the lower’d eve he came horribly ra$ing us.

We closed with him, the yards entangled, the cannon touch’d,My captain lash’d fast with his own hands.

We had receiv’d some eighteen pound shots under the water,0n our lowergundec$ two large pieces had burst at the first fire, $illing all around and blowing upoverhead.

Fighting at sundown, fighting at dar$,'en o’cloc$ at night, the full moon well up, our lea$s on the gain, and five feet of water reported,'he masteratarms loosing the prisoners confined in the afterhold to give them a chance forthemselves.

'he transit to and from the maga%ine is now stopt by the sentinels,'hey see so many strange faces they do not $now whom to trust.

0ur frigate ta$es fire,'he other as$s if we demand 1uarter*If our colors are struc$ and the fighting done*

&ow I laugh content, for I hear the voice of my little captain,We hae not struck, he composedly cries, we hae !ust "egun our #art of the fighting.

0nly three guns are in use,0ne is directed by the captain himself against the enemy’s mainmast,'wo well serv’d with grape and canister silence his mus$etry and clear his dec$s.

'he tops alone second the fire of this little battery, especially the maintop,'hey hold out bravely during the whole of the action.

&ot a moment’s cease,



'he lea$s gain fast on the pumps, the fire eats toward the powdermaga%ine.

0ne of the pumps has been shot away, it is generally thought we are sin$ing.

+erene stands the little captain,!e is not hurried, his voice is neither high nor low,

!is eyes give more light to us than our battlelanterns.

'oward twelve there in the beams of the moon they surrender to us.

36 +tretch’d and still lies the midnight,'wo great hulls motionless on the breast of the dar$ness,0ur vessel riddled and slowly sin$ing, preparations to pass to the one we have con1uer’d,'he captain on the 1uarterdec$ coldly giving his orders through a countenance white as a sheet,&ear by the corpse of the child that serv’d in the cabin,'he dead face of an old salt with long white hair and carefully curl’d whis$ers,'he flames spite of all that can be done flic$ering aloft and below,'he hus$y voices of the two or three officers yet fit for duty,Formless stac$s of bodies and bodies by themselves, dabs of flesh upon the masts and spars,"ut of cordage, dangle of rigging, slight shoc$ of the soothe of waves,Blac$ and impassive guns, litter of powderparcels, strong scent,A few large stars overhead, silent and mournful shining,9elicate sniffs of seabree%e, smells of sedgy grass and fields by the shore, deathmessages given incharge to survivors,'he hiss of the surgeon’s $nife, the gnawing teeth of his saw,Whee%e, cluc$, swash of falling blood, short wild scream, and long, dull, tapering groan,'hese so, these irretrievable.

37 ou laggards there on guard; loo$ to your arms;In at the con1uer’d doors they crowd; I am possess’d;)mbody all presences outlaw’d or suffering,+ee myself in prison shaped li$e another man,And feel the dull unintermitted pain.

For me the $eepers of convicts shoulder their carbines and $eep watch,It is I let out in the morning and barr’d at night.

&ot a mutineer wal$s handcuff’d to :ail but I am handcuff’d to him and wal$ by his side,-I am less the :olly one there, and more the silent one with sweat on my twitching lips.

&ot a youngster is ta$en for larceny but I go up too, and am tried and sentenced.

&ot a cholera patient lies at the last gasp but I also lie at the last gasp,My face is ashcolor’d, my sinews gnarl, away from me people retreat.

As$ers embody themselves in me and I am embodied in them,I pro:ect my hat, sit shamefaced, and beg.



38 )nough; enough; enough;+omehow I have been stunn’d. +tand bac$;8ive me a little time beyond my cuff’d head, slumbers, dreams, gaping,I discover myself on the verge of a usual mista$e.

'hat I could forget the moc$ers and insults;'hat I could forget the tric$ling tears and the blows of the bludgeons and hammers;'hat I could loo$ with a separate loo$ on my own crucifi(ion and bloody crowning.

I remember now,I resume the overstaid fraction,'he grave of roc$ multiplies what has been confided to it, or to any graves,"orpses rise, gashes heal, fastenings roll from me.

I troop forth replenish’d with supreme power, one of an average unending procession,Inland and seacoast we go, and pass all boundary lines,0ur swift ordinances on their way over the whole earth,'he blossoms we wear in our hats the growth of thousands of years.

)leves, I salute you; come forward;"ontinue your annotations, continue your 1uestionings.

39 'he friendly and flowing savage, who is he*Is he waiting for civili%ation, or past it and mastering it*

Is he some +outhwesterner rais’d outdoors* is he 3anadian*Is he from the Mississippi country* Iowa, 0regon, "alifornia*'he mountains* prairielife, bushlife* or sailor from the sea*

Wherever he goes men and women accept and desire him,'hey desire he should li$e them, touch them, spea$ to them, stay with them.

Behavior lawless as snowfla$es, words simple as grass, uncomb’d head, laughter, and naivet@,+lowstepping feet, common features, common modes and emanations,'hey descend in new forms from the tips of his fingers,'hey are wafted with the odor of his body or breath, they fly out of the glance of his eyes.

40 Flaunt of the sunshine I need not your bas$4lie over;ou light surfaces only, I force surfaces and depths also.

)arth; you seem to loo$ for something at my hands,+ay, old top$not, what do you want*

Man or woman, I might tell how I li$e you, but cannot,And might tell what it is in me and what it is in you, but cannot,



And might tell that pining I have, that pulse of my nights and days.

Behold, I do not give lectures or a little charity,When I give I give myself.

ou there, impotent, loose in the $nees,

0pen your scarf’d chops till I blow grit within you,+pread your palms and lift the flaps of your poc$ets,I am not to be denied, I compel, I have stores plenty and to spare,And any thing I have I bestow.

I do not as$ who you are, that is not important to me,ou can do nothing and be nothing but what I will infold you.

'o cottonfield drudge or cleaner of privies I lean,0n his right chee$ I put the family $iss,And in my soul I swear I never will deny him.

0n women fit for conception I start bigger and nimbler babes.-'his day I am :etting the stuff of far more arrogant republics.

'o any one dying, thither I speed and twist the $nob of the door.'urn the bedclothes toward the foot of the bed,2et the physician and the priest go home.

I sei%e the descending man and raise him with resistless will,0 despairer, here is my nec$,By 8od, you shall not go down; hang your whole weight upon me.

I dilate you with tremendous breath, I buoy you up,)very room of the house do I fill with an arm’d force,2overs of me, bafflers of graves.

+leep4I and they $eep guard all night,&ot doubt, not decease shall dare to lay finger upon you,I have embraced you, and henceforth possess you to myself,And when you rise in the morning you will find what I tell you is so.

41 I am he bringing help for the sic$ as they pant on their bac$s,And for strong upright men I bring yet more needed help.

I heard what was said of the universe,!eard it and heard it of several thousand years5It is middling well as far as it goes4but is that all*

Magnifying and applying come I,0utbidding at the start the old cautious huc$sters,'a$ing myself the e(act dimensions of >ehovah,



2ithographing 3ronos, eus his son, and !ercules his grandson,Buying drafts of 0siris, Isis, Belus, Brahma, Buddha,In my portfolio placing Manito loose, Allah on a leaf, the crucifi( engraved,With 0din and the hideousfaced Me(itli and every idol and image,'a$ing them all for what they are worth and not a cent more,Admitting they were alive and did the wor$ of their days,

-'hey bore mites as for unfledg’d birds who have now to rise and fly and sing for themselves,Accepting the rough deific s$etches to fill out better in myself, bestowing them freely on each man andwoman I see,9iscovering as much or more in a framer framing a house,6utting higher claims for him there with his roll’dup sleeves driving the mallet and chisel,&ot ob:ecting to special revelations, considering a curl of smo$e or a hair on the bac$ of my hand :ustas curious as any revelation,2ads ahold of fireengines and hoo$andladder ropes no less to me than the gods of the anti1ue wars,Minding their voices peal through the crash of destruction,'heir brawny limbs passing safe over charr’d laths, their white foreheads whole and unhurt out of theflames5By the mechanic’s wife with her babe at her nipple interceding for every person born,'hree scythes at harvest whi%%ing in a row from three lusty angels with shirts bagg’d out at theirwaists,'he snagtooth’d hostler with red hair redeeming sins past and to come,+elling all he possesses, traveling on foot to fee lawyers for his brother and sit by him while he is triedfor forgery5What was strewn in the amplest strewing the s1uare rod about me, and not filling the s1uare rod then,'he bull and the bug never worshipp’d half enough,9ung and dirt more admirable than was dream’d,'he supernatural of no account, myself waiting my time to be one of the supremes,'he day getting ready for me when I shall do as much good as the best, and be as prodigious5By my lifelumps; becoming already a creator,6utting myself here and now to the ambush’d womb of the shadows.

42 A call in the midst of the crowd,My own voice, orotund sweeping and final.

"ome my children,"ome my boys and girls, my women, household and intimates,&ow the performer launches his nerve, he has pass’d his prelude on the reeds within.

)asily written loosefinger’d chords4I feel the thrum of your clima( and close.

My head slues round on my nec$,Music rolls, but not from the organ,Fol$s are around me, but they are no household of mine.

)ver the hard unsun$ ground,)ver the eaters and drin$ers, ever the upward and downward sun, ever the air and the ceaseless tides,)ver myself and my neighbors, refreshing, wic$ed, real,)ver the old ine(plicable 1uery, ever that thorn’d thumb, that breath of itches and thirsts,



)ver the ve(er’s hoot$ hoot$ till we find where the sly one hides and bring him forth,)ver love, ever the sobbing li1uid of life,)ver the bandage under the chin, ever the trestles of death.

!ere and there with dimes on the eyes wal$ing,'o feed the greed of the belly the brains liberally spooning,

'ic$ets buying, ta$ing, selling, but in to the feast never once going,Many sweating, ploughing, thrashing, and then the chaff for payment receiving,A few idly owning, and they the wheat continually claiming.

'his is the city and I am one of the citi%ens,Whatever interests the rest interests me, politics, wars, mar$ets, newspapers, schools,'he mayor and councils, ban$s, tariffs, steamships, factories, stoc$s, stores, real estate and personalestate.

'he little plentiful mani$ins s$ipping around in collars and tail’d coats,I am aware who they are, -they are positively not worms or fleas,I ac$nowledge the duplicates of myself, the wea$est and shallowest is deathless with me,What I do and say the same waits for them,)very thought that flounders in me the same flounders in them.

I $now perfectly well my own egotism,3now my omnivorous lines and must not write any less,And would fetch you whoever you are flush with myself.

&ot words of routine this song of mine,But abruptly to 1uestion, to leap beyond yet nearer bring5'his printed and bound boo$4but the printer and the printingoffice boy*'he wellta$en photographs4but your wife or friend close and solid in your arms*'he blac$ ship mail’d with iron, her mighty guns in her turrets4but the pluc$ of the captain andengineers*In the houses the dishes and fare and furniture4but the host and hostess, and the loo$ out of their eyes*'he s$y up there4yet here or ne(t door, or across the way*'he saints and sages in history4but you yourself*+ermons, creeds, theology4but the fathomless human brain,And what is reason* and what is love* and what is life*

43 I do not despise you priests, all time, the world over,My faith is the greatest of faiths and the least of faiths,)nclosing worship ancient and modern and all between ancient and modern,Believing I shall come again upon the earth after five thousand years,Waiting responses from oracles, honoring the gods, saluting the sun,Ma$ing a fetich of the first roc$ or stump, powowing with stic$s in the circle of obis,!elping the llama or brahmin as he trims the lamps of the idols,9ancing yet through the streets in a phallic procession, rapt and austere in the woods a gymnosophist,9rin$ing mead from the s$ullcup, to +hastas and <edas admirant, minding the 3oran,Wal$ing the teo$allis, spotted with gore from the stone and $nife, beating the serpents$in drum,Accepting the 8ospels, accepting him that was crucified, $nowing assuredly that he is divine,



'o the mass $neeling or the puritan’s prayer rising, or sitting patiently in a pew,#anting and frothing in my insane crisis, or waiting deadli$e till my spirit arouses me,2oo$ing forth on pavement and land, or outside of pavement and land,Belonging to the winders of the circuit of circuits.

0ne of that centripetal and centrifugal gang I turn and tal$ li$e a man leaving charges before a :ourney.

9ownhearted doubters dull and e(cluded,Frivolous, sullen, moping, angry, affected, dishearten’d, atheistical,I $now every one of you, I $now the sea of torment, doubt, despair and unbelief.

!ow the flu$es splash;!ow they contort rapid as lightning, with spasms and spouts of blood;

Be at peace bloody flu$es of doubters and sullen mopers,I ta$e my place among you as much as among any,'he past is the push of you, me, all, precisely the same,And what is yet untried and afterward is for you, me, all, precisely the same.

I do not $now what is untried and afterward,But I $now it will in its turn prove sufficient, and cannot fail.

)ach who passes is consider’d, each who stops is consider’d, not a single one can it fail.

It cannot fail the young man who died and was buried,&or the young woman who died and was put by his side,&or the little child that peep’d in at the door, and then drew bac$ and was never seen again,&or the old man who has lived without purpose, and feels it with bitterness worse than gall,&or him in the poor house tubercled by rum and the bad disorder,&or the numberless slaughter’d and wrec$’d, nor the brutish $oboo call’d the ordure of humanity,&or the sacs merely floating with open mouths for food to slip in,&or any thing in the earth, or down in the oldest graves of the earth,&or any thing in the myriads of spheres, nor the myriads of myriads that inhabit them,&or the present, nor the least wisp that is $nown.

44 It is time to e(plain myself4let us stand up.

What is $nown I strip away,I launch all men and women forward with me into the /n$nown.

'he cloc$ indicates the moment4but what does eternity indicate*

We have thus far e(hausted trillions of winters and summers,'here are trillions ahead, and trillions ahead of them.

Births have brought us richness and variety,And other births will bring us richness and variety.



I do not call one greater and one smaller,'hat which fills its period and place is e1ual to any.

Were man$ind murderous or :ealous upon you, my brother, my sister*I am sorry for you, they are not murderous or :ealous upon me,All has been gentle with me, I $eep no account with lamentation,

-What have I to do with lamentation*

I am an acme of things accomplish’d, and I an encloser of things to be.

My feet stri$e an ape( of the apices of the stairs,0n every step bunches of ages, and larger bunches between the steps,All below duly travel’d, and still I mount and mount.

#ise after rise bow the phantoms behind me,Afar down I see the huge first &othing, I $now I was even there,I waited unseen and always, and slept through the lethargic mist,And too$ my time, and too$ no hurt from the fetid carbon.

2ong I was hugg’d close4long and long.

Immense have been the preparations for me,Faithful and friendly the arms that have help’d me.

"ycles ferried my cradle, rowing and rowing li$e cheerful boatmen,For room to me stars $ept aside in their own rings,'hey sent influences to loo$ after what was to hold me.

Before I was born out of my mother generations guided me,My embryo has never been torpid, nothing could overlay it.

For it the nebula cohered to an orb,'he long slow strata piled to rest it on,<ast vegetables gave it sustenance,Monstrous sauroids transported it in their mouths and deposited it with care.

All forces have been steadily employ’d to complete and delight me,&ow on this spot I stand with my robust soul.

45 0 span of youth; everpush’d elasticity;0 manhood, balanced, florid and full.

My lovers suffocate me,"rowding my lips, thic$ in the pores of my s$in,>ostling me through streets and public halls, coming na$ed to me at night,"rying by day Ahoy; from the roc$s of the river, swinging and chirping over my head,"alling my name from flowerbeds, vines, tangled underbrush,2ighting on every moment of my life,



Bussing my body with soft balsamic busses,&oiselessly passing handfuls out of their hearts and giving them to be mine.

0ld age superbly rising; 0 welcome, ineffable grace of dying days;

)very condition promulges not only itself, it promulges what grows after and out of itself,

And the dar$ hush promulges as much as any.

I open my scuttle at night and see the farsprin$led systems,And all I see multiplied as high as I can cipher edge but the rim of the farther systems.

Wider and wider they spread, e(panding, always e(panding,0utward and outward and forever outward.

My sun has his sun and round him obediently wheels,!e :oins with his partners a group of superior circuit,And greater sets follow, ma$ing spec$s of the greatest inside them.

'here is no stoppage and never can be stoppage,If I, you, and the worlds, and all beneath or upon their surfaces, were this moment reduced bac$ to apallid float, it would not avail in the long run,We should surely bring up again where we now stand,And surely go as much farther, and then farther and farther.

A few 1uadrillions of eras, a few octillions of cubic leagues, do not ha%ard the span or ma$e itimpatient,'hey are but parts, any thing is but a part.

+ee ever so far, there is limitless space outside of that,"ount ever so much, there is limitless time around that.

My rende%vous is appointed, it is certain,'he 2ord will be there and wait till I come on perfect terms,'he great "amerado, the lover true for whom I pine will be there.

46 I $now I have the best of time and space, and was never measured and never will be measured.

I tramp a perpetual :ourney, -come listen all;My signs are a rainproof coat, good shoes, and a staff cut from the woods,&o friend of mine ta$es his ease in my chair,I have no chair, no church, no philosophy,I lead no man to a dinnertable, library, e(change,But each man and each woman of you I lead upon a $noll,My left hand hoo$ing you round the waist,My right hand pointing to landscapes of continents and the public road.

&ot I, not any one else can travel that road for you,ou must travel it for yourself.



It is not far, it is within reach,6erhaps you have been on it since you were born and did not $now,6erhaps it is everywhere on water and on land.

+houlder your duds dear son, and I will mine, and let us hasten forth,

Wonderful cities and free nations we shall fetch as we go.

If you tire, give me both burdens, and rest the chuff of your hand on my hip,And in due time you shall repay the same service to me,For after we start we never lie by again.

'his day before dawn I ascended a hill and loo$’d at the crowded heaven,And I said to my spirit When we "ecome the enfolders of those or"s, and the #leasure and knowledgeof eery thing in them, shall we "e fill’d and satisfied then? And my spirit said %o, we "ut leel that lift to #ass and continue "eyond.

ou are also as$ing me 1uestions and I hear you,I answer that I cannot answer, you must find out for yourself.

+it a while dear son,!ere are biscuits to eat and here is mil$ to drin$,But as soon as you sleep and renew yourself in sweet clothes, I $iss you with a goodby $iss and openthe gate for your egress hence.

2ong enough have you dream’d contemptible dreams,&ow I wash the gum from your eyes,ou must habit yourself to the da%%le of the light and of every moment of your life.

2ong have you timidly waded holding a plan$ by the shore,&ow I will you to be a bold swimmer,'o :ump off in the midst of the sea, rise again, nod to me, shout, and laughingly dash with your hair.

47 I am the teacher of athletes,!e that by me spreads a wider breast than my own proves the width of my own,!e most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher.

'he boy I love, the same becomes a man not through derived power, but in his own right,Wic$ed rather than virtuous out of conformity or fear,Fond of his sweetheart, relishing well his stea$,/nre1uited love or a slight cutting him worse than sharp steel cuts,Firstrate to ride, to fight, to hit the bull’s eye, to sail a s$iff, to sing a song or play on the ban:o,6referring scars and the beard and faces pitted with smallpo( over all latherers,And those welltann’d to those that $eep out of the sun.

I teach straying from me, yet who can stray from me*I follow you whoever you are from the present hour,My words itch at your ears till you understand them.



I do not say these things for a dollar or to fill up the time while I wait for a boat,-It is you tal$ing :ust as much as myself, I act as the tongue of you,'ied in your mouth, in mine it begins to be loosen’d.

I swear I will never again mention love or death inside a house,

And I swear I will never translate myself at all, only to him or her who privately stays with me in theopen air.

If you would understand me go to the heights or watershore,'he nearest gnat is an e(planation, and a drop or motion of waves a $ey,'he maul, the oar, the handsaw, second my words.

&o shutter’d room or school can commune with me,But roughs and little children better than they.

'he young mechanic is closest to me, he $nows me well,'he woodman that ta$es his a(e and :ug with him shall ta$e me with him all day,'he farmboy ploughing in the field feels good at the sound of my voice,In vessels that sail my words sail, I go with fishermen and seamen and love them.

'he soldier camp’d or upon the march is mine,0n the night ere the pending battle many see$ me, and I do not fail them,0n that solemn night -it may be their last those that $now me see$ me.

My face rubs to the hunter’s face when he lies down alone in his blan$et,'he driver thin$ing of me does not mind the :olt of his wagon,'he young mother and old mother comprehend me,'he girl and the wife rest the needle a moment and forget where they are,'hey and all would resume what I have told them.

48 I have said that the soul is not more than the body,And I have said that the body is not more than the soul,And nothing, not 8od, is greater to one than one’s self is,And whoever wal$s a furlong without sympathy wal$s to his own funeral drest in his shroud,And I or you poc$etless of a dime may purchase the pic$ of the earth,And to glance with an eye or show a bean in its pod confounds the learning of all times,And there is no trade or employment but the young man following it may become a hero,And there is no ob:ect so soft but it ma$es a hub for the wheel’d universe,And I say to any man or woman, 2et your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes.

And I say to man$ind, Be not curious about 8od,For I who am curious about each am not curious about 8od,-&o array of terms can say how much I am at peace about 8od and about death.

I hear and behold 8od in every ob:ect, yet understand 8od not in the least,&or do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself.



Why should I wish to see 8od better than this day*I see something of 8od each hour of the twentyfour, and each moment then,In the faces of men and women I see 8od, and in my own face in the glass,I find letters from 8od dropt in the street, and every one is sign’d by 8od’s name,And I leave them where they are, for I $now that wheresoe’er I go,0thers will punctually come for ever and ever.

49 And as to you 9eath, and you bitter hug of mortality, it is idle to try to alarm me.

'o his wor$ without flinching the accoucheur comes,I see the elderhand pressing receiving supporting,I recline by the sills of the e(1uisite fle(ible doors,And mar$ the outlet, and mar$ the relief and escape.

And as to you "orpse I thin$ you are good manure, but that does not offend me,I smell the white roses sweetscented and growing,I reach to the leafy lips, I reach to the polish’d breasts of melons.

And as to you 2ife I rec$on you are the leavings of many deaths,-&o doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before.

I hear you whispering there 0 stars of heaven,0 suns40 grass of graves40 perpetual transfers and promotions,If you do not say any thing how can I say any thing*

0f the turbid pool that lies in the autumn forest,0f the moon that descends the steeps of the soughing twilight,'oss, spar$les of day and dus$4toss on the blac$ stems that decay in the muc$,'oss to the moaning gibberish of the dry limbs.

I ascend from the moon, I ascend from the night,I perceive that the ghastly glimmer is noonday sunbeams reflected,And debouch to the steady and central from the offspring great or small.

50 'here is that in me4I do not $now what it is4but I $now it is in me.

Wrench’d and sweaty4calm and cool then my body becomes,I sleep4I sleep long.

I do not $now it4it is without name4it is a word unsaid,It is not in any dictionary, utterance, symbol.

+omething it swings on more than the earth I swing on,'o it the creation is the friend whose embracing awa$es me.

6erhaps I might tell more. 0utlines; I plead for my brothers and sisters.



9o you see 0 my brothers and sisters*It is not chaos or death4it is form, union, plan4it is eternal life4it is !appiness.

51 'he past and present wilt4I have fill’d them, emptied them,And proceed to fill my ne(t fold of the future.

2istener up there; what have you to confide to me*2oo$ in my face while I snuff the sidle of evening,-'al$ honestly, no one else hears you, and I stay only a minute longer.

9o I contradict myself*<ery well then I contradict myself,-I am large, I contain multitudes.

I concentrate toward them that are nigh, I wait on the doorslab.

Who has done his day’s wor$* who will soonest be through with his supper*Who wishes to wal$ with me*

Will you spea$ before I am gone* will you prove already too late*

52 'he spotted haw$ swoops by and accuses me, he complains of my gab and my loitering.

I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.

'he last scud of day holds bac$ for me,It flings my li$eness after the rest and true as any on the shadow’d wilds,It coa(es me to the vapor and the dus$.

I depart as air, I sha$e my white loc$s at the runaway sun,I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy :ags.

I be1ueath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,If you want me again loo$ for me under your bootsoles.

ou will hardly $now who I am or what I mean,But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,And filter and fibre your blood.

Failing to fetch me at first $eep encouraged,Missing me one place search another,I stop somewhere waiting for you.

Documents

Songofmyself-whitman - Cesar Palma