Leaves of grass. :: :: University of Virginia Library

OF the visages of things—And of piercing through
     to the accepted hells beneath;
Of ugliness—To me there is just as much in it as
     there is in beauty—And now the ugliness of
     human beings is acceptable to me;
Of detected persons—To me, detected persons are
     not, in any respect, worse than undetected per-
     sons—and are not in any respect worse than I
     am myself;
Of criminals—To me, any judge, or any juror, is
     equally criminal—and any reputable person is
     also—and the President is also.

2.

Of waters, forests, hills,
Of the earth at large, whispering through medium
     of me;
Of vista—Suppose some sight in arriere, through the
     formative chaos, presuming the growth, fulness,
     life, now attained on the journey;

409

(But I see the road continued, and the journey ever
(A=5)continued;)
Of what was once lacking on the earth, and in due
     time has become supplied—And of what will
     yet be supplied,
Because all I see and know, I believe to have purport
     in what will yet be supplied.

3.

OF persons arrived at high positions, ceremonies,
     wealth, scholarships, and the like,
To me, all that those persons have arrived at, sinks
     away from them, except as it results to their
     bodies and Souls,
So that often to me they appear gaunt and naked,
And often, to me, each one mocks the others, and
     mocks himself or herself,
And of each one, the core of life, namely happiness,
     is full of the rotten excrement of maggots,
And often, to me, those men and women pass un-
     wittingly the true realities of life, and go toward
     false realities,
And often, to me, they are alive after what custom
     has served them, but nothing more,
And often, to me, they are sad, hasty, unwaked son-
     nambules, walking the dusk.

410

4.

OF ownership—As if one fit to own things could not
     at pleasure enter upon all, and incorporate them
     into himself or herself;
Of Equality—As if it harmed me, giving others the
     same chances and rights as myself—As if it
     were not indispensable to my own rights that
     others possess the same;
Of Justice—As if Justice could be any thing but
     the same ample law, expounded by natural
     judges and saviours,
As if it might be this thing or that thing, according
     to decisions.

5.

As I sit with others, at a great feast, suddenly, while
     the music is playing,
To my mind, (whence it comes I know not,) spectral,
     in mist, of a wreck at sea,
Of the flower of the marine science of fifty genera-
     tions, foundered off the Northeast coast, and
     going down—Of the steamship Arctic going
     down,
Of the veiled tableau—Women gathered together
     on deck, pale, heroic, waiting the moment that
     draws so close—O the moment!

411

O the huge sob—A few bubbles—the white foam
     spirting up—And then the women gone,
Sinking there, while the passionless wet flows on—
     And I now pondering, Are those women indeed
     gone?
Are Souls drowned and destroyed so?
Is only matter triumphant?

6.

OF what I write from myself—As if that were not
     the resumè;
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.

7.

OF obedience, faith, adhesiveness;
As I stand aloof and look, there is to me something
     profoundly affecting in large masses of men, fol-
     lowing the lead of those who do not believe in
     men.