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 | Leaves of grass. |  |
1.
1 THINK of the Soul;
I swear to you that body of yours gives proportions to your Soul somehow to live in other spheres;
I do not know how, but I know it is so.
2 Think of loving and being loved;
I swear to you, whoever you are, you can interfuse yourself with such things that everybody that sees you shall look longingly upon you.
3 Think of the past;
I warn you that in a little while, others will find their past in you and your times.
4 The race is never separated — nor man nor woman escapes;
All is inextricable — things, spirits, nature, nations, you too — from precedents you come.
5 Recall the ever-welcome defiers, (The mothers pre-
cede them;)
Recall the sages, poets, saviors, inventors, lawgivers, of the earth;
Recall Christ, brother of rejected persons — brother of slaves, felons, idiots, and of insane and diseas'd persons.
6 Think of the time when you was not yet born;
Think of times you stood at the side of the dying;
Think of the time when your own body will be dying.
7 Think of spiritual
results,
Sure as the earth swims through the heavens, does every one of its objects pass into spiritual results.
8 Think of manhood, and you to be a man;
Do you count manhood, and the sweet of manhood, nothing?
9 Think of womanhood, and you to be a woman;
The creation is womanhood;
Have I not said that womanhood involves all?
Have I not told how the universe has nothing better than the best womanhood?
I swear to you that body of yours gives proportions to your Soul somehow to live in other spheres;
I do not know how, but I know it is so.
2 Think of loving and being loved;
I swear to you, whoever you are, you can interfuse yourself with such things that everybody that sees you shall look longingly upon you.
3 Think of the past;
I warn you that in a little while, others will find their past in you and your times.
4 The race is never separated — nor man nor woman escapes;
All is inextricable — things, spirits, nature, nations, you too — from precedents you come.
5 Recall the ever-welcome defiers, (The mothers pre-
cede them;)
Recall the sages, poets, saviors, inventors, lawgivers, of the earth;
Recall Christ, brother of rejected persons — brother of slaves, felons, idiots, and of insane and diseas'd persons.
6 Think of the time when you was not yet born;
Think of times you stood at the side of the dying;
Think of the time when your own body will be dying.
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Sure as the earth swims through the heavens, does every one of its objects pass into spiritual results.
8 Think of manhood, and you to be a man;
Do you count manhood, and the sweet of manhood, nothing?
9 Think of womanhood, and you to be a woman;
The creation is womanhood;
Have I not said that womanhood involves all?
Have I not told how the universe has nothing better than the best womanhood?
| Leaves of grass. | |