Leaves of grass. (1861-1861)

Whitman, Walt (1819-1892)

[section]

Proto-Leaf.

WALT WHITMAN.

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CHANTS DEMOCRATIC AND NATIVE AMERICAN.

Apostroph.

[1. A nation announcing itself, (many in one,)]

[2. Broad-axe, shapely, naked, wan!]

[3. Come closer to me]

[4. America always!]

[5. Respondez! Respondez!]

[6. You just maturing youth! You male or female!]

[7. With antecedents]

[8. Splendor of falling day, floating and filling me]

[9. A thought of what I am here for]

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[10. Historian! you who celebrate bygones!]

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[11. The thought of fruitage]

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[12. To oratists—to male or female]

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[13. Laws for Creations]

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[14. Poets to come!]

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[15. Who has gone farthest? For I swear I will go farther]

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[16. They shall arise in the States—mediums shall]

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[17. Now we start hence, I with the rest, on our journeys through The States]

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[18. Me imperturbe]

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[19. I was looking a long while for the history of the past for myself, and for these Chants—and now I have found it,]

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[20. American mouth-songs!]

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[21. As I walk, solitary, unattended]

Leaves of Grass.

[1. Elemental drifts!]

[2. Great are the myths—I too delight in them]

[3. A young man came to me with a message from his brother]

[4. Something startles me where I thought I was safest]

[5. All day I have walked the city, and talked with my friends, and thought of prudence]

[6. Perfect sanity shows the master among philosophs]

[7. I need no assurances—I am a man who is preoccupied, of his own Soul]

[8. What shall I give? and which are my miracles?]

[9. There was a child went forth every day]

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[10. It is ended—I dally no more]

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[11. Who learns my lesson complete?]

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[12. This night I am happy]

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[13. O bitter sprig! Confession sprig!]

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[14. Unfolded out of the folds of the woman, man comes unfolded, as is always to come unfolded]

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[15. Night on the Prairies]

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[16. Sea-water, and all living below it]

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[17. I sit and look out upon all the sorrows of the world, and upon all oppression and shame]

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[18. O me, man of slack faith so long!]

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[19. Forms, qualities, lives, humanity, language, thoughts]

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[20. So far, and so far, and on toward the end]

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[21. Now I make a leaf of Voices—for I have found nothing mightier than they are]

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[22. What am I, after all, but a child, pleased with the sound of my own name? repeating it over and over]

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[23. Locations and times—what is it in me that meets them all, whenever and wherever, and makes me at home?]

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[24. Lift me close to your face till I whisper]

Salut au Monde!

Poem of Joys.

A WORD OUT OF THE SEA.

REMINISCENCE.

LEAF OF FACES.

EUROPE, The 72d and 73d Years of These States.

THOUGHT.

Enfans d' Adam.

[1. To the garden, the world, anew ascending]

[2. From that of myself, without which I were nothing]

[3. O my children! O mates!]

[4. A woman waits for me—she contains all, nothing is lacking]

[5. Spontaneous me, Nature]

[6. O furious! O confine me not!]

[7. You and I—what the earth is, we are]

[8. Native moments! when you come upon me—Ah you are here now!]

[9. Once I passed through a populous city, imprinting my brain, for future use, with its shows, architecture, customs, and traditions]

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[10. Inquiring, tireless, seeking that yet unfound]

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[11. In the new garden, in all the parts]

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[12. Ages and ages, returning at intervals]

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[13. O hymen! O hymenee!]

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[14. I am he that aches with love]

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[15. Early in the morning]

POEM OF THE ROAD.

TO THE SAYERS OF WORDS.

A BOSTON BALLAD, The 78th Year of These States.

CALAMUS.

[1. In paths untrodden]

[2. Scented herbage of my breast]

[3. Whoever you are holding me now in hand]

[4. These I, singing in spring, collect for lovers]

[5. States!]

[6. Not heaving from my ribbed breast only]

[7. Of the terrible question of appearances]

[8. Long I thought that knowledge alone would suffice me—O if I could but obtain knowledge!]

[9. Hours continuing long, sore and heavy-hearted]

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[10. You bards of ages hence! when you refer to me, mind not so much my poems]

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[11. When I heard at the close of the day how my name had been received with plaudits in the capitol, still it was not a happy night for me that followed]

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[12. Are you the new person drawn toward me, and asking something significant from me?]

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[13. Calamus taste]

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[14. Not heat flames up and consumes]

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[15. O drops of me! trickle, slow drops]

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[16. Who is now reading this?]

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[17. Of him I love day and night, I dreamed I heard he was dead]

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[18. City of my walks and joys!]

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[19. Mind you the the timid models of the rest, the majority?]

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[20. I saw in Louisiana a live-oak growing]

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[21. Music always round me, unceasing, unbeginning—yet long untaught I did not hear]

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[22. Passing stranger! you do not know how longingly I look upon you]

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[23. This moment as I sit alone, yearning and thoughtful, it seems to me there are other men in other lands, yearning and thoughtful]

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[24. I hear it is charged against me that I seek to destroy institutions]

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[25. The prairie-grass dividing—its own odor breathing]

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[26. We two boys together clinging]

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[27. O love!]

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[28. When I peruse the conquered fame of heroes, and the victories of mighty generals, I do not envy the generals]

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[29. One flitting glimpse, caught through an interstice]

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[30. A promise and gift to California]

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[31. What ship, puzzled at sea, cons for the true reckoning?]

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[32. What think you I take my pen in hand to record?]

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[33. No labor-saving machine]

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[34. I dreamed in a dream, I saw a city invincible to the attacks of the whole of the rest of the earth]

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[35. To you of New England]

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[36. Earth! my likeness!]

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[37. A leaf for hand in hand!]

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[38. Primeval my love for the woman I love]

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[39. Sometimes with one I love, I fill myself with rage, for fear I effuse unreturned love]

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[40. That shadow, my likeness, that goes to and fro, seeking a livelihood, chattering, chaffering]

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[41. Among the men and women, the multitude, I perceive one picking me out by secret and divine signs]

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[42. To the young man, many things to absorb, to engraft, to develop, I teach, to help him become élève of mine]

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[43. O you whom I often and silently come where you are, that I may be with you]

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[44. Here my last words, and the most baffling]

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[45. Full of life, sweet-blooded, compact, visible]

CROSSING BROOKLYN FERRY.

LONGINGS FOR HOME.

MESSENGER LEAVES.

To You, Whoever You Are.

To a Foiled Revolter or Revoltress.

To Him that was Crucified.

To One shortly To Die.

To a Common Prostitute.

To Rich Givers.

To a Pupil.

To The States, To Identify the 16th, 17th, or 18th Presidentiad.

To a Cantatrice.

Walt Whitman's Caution.

FRANCE, The 18th Year of These States.

THOUGHTS.

[1. Of the visages of things—And of piercing through to the accepted hells beneath]

[2. Of waters, forests, hills]

[3. Of persons arrived at high positions, ceremonies, wealth, scholarships, and the like]

[4. Of ownership—As if one fit to own things could not at pleasure enter upon all, and incorporate them into himself or herself]

[5. As I sit with others, at a great feast, suddenly, while the music is playing]

[6. Of what I write from myself—As if that were not the resumé]

[7. Of obedience, faith, adhesiveness]

[He is wisest who has the most caution]

[Any thing is as good as established, when that is established that will produce it and continue it]

[What General has a good army in himself, has a good army]

[Have you learned lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you?]

[Despairing cries float ceaselessly toward me, day and night]

[I understand your anguish, but I cannot help you]

[A thousand perfect men and women appear]

[A mask—a perpetual natural disguiser of herself]

[One sweeps by, attended by an immense train]

[One sweeps by, old, with black eyes, and profuse white hair]

[Three old men slowly pass, followed by three others, and they by three others]

[Women sit, or move to and fro—some old, some young]

[What weeping face is that looking from the window?]

[I will take an egg out of the robin's nest in the orchard]

[Behavior—fresh, native, copious, each one for himself or herself]

[Not the pilot has charged himself to bring his ship into port, though beaten back, and many times baffled]

[I thought I was not alone, walking here by the shore]

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Loafe with me on the grass—loose the stop from your throat,

Not words, not music or rhyme I want—not custom or lecture, not even the best,
Only the lull I like, the hum of your valved voice.

University of Virginia Library

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