 | Leaves of grass (1872) |  |
257
Think of the Soul.
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 precede 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 were 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?
258
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 (1872) | |