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Leaves of grass (1872)

Whitman, Walt (1819-1892)

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Leaves of Grass.
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INSCRIPTIONS.
  
ONE'S-SELF I SING.
  
AS I PONDER'D IN SILENCE.
  
IN CABIN'D SHIPS AT SEA.
  
TO FOREIGN LANDS.
  
TO A HISTORIAN.
  
FOR HIM I SING.
  
WHEN I READ THE BOOK.
  
BEGINNING MY STUDIES.
  
TO THEE, OLD CAUSE!
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Starting from Paumanok.
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THE SHIP STARTING.
  
UNFOLDED OUT OF THE FOLDS.
  
TO YOU.
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WALT WHITMAN.
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Laws for Creations.
  
VISOR'D.
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CHILDREN OF ADAM.
  
To the Garden, the World.
  
From Pent-up Aching Rivers.
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I SING THE BODY ELECTRIC.
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A Woman Waits for Me.
  
Spontaneous Me.
  
One Hour to Madness and Joy.
  
We Two—How long We were Fool'd.
  
Out of the Rolling Ocean, the Crowd.
  
Native Moments.
  
Once I pass'd through a Populous City.
  
Facing West from California's Shores.
  
AGES AND AGES, RETURNING AT INTERVALS.
  
O HYMEN! O HYMENEE!
  
AS ADAM, EARLY IN THE MORNING.
  
I Heard You, Solemn-sweet Pipes of the Organ.
  
I AM HE THAT ACHES WITH LOVE.
  
To Him that was Crucified.
  
Perfections.
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CALAMUS.
  
In Paths Untrodden.
  
Scented Herbage of My Breast.
  
Whoever you are, Holding me now in Hand.
  
These I, Singing in Spring.
  
A Song.
  
Not Heaving from my Ribb'd Breast only.
  
Of the Terrible Doubt of Appearances.
  
The Base of all Metaphysics.
  
Recorders Ages Hence.
  
WHEN I HEARD AT THE CLOSE OF THE DAY.
  
Are You the New Person drawn toward Me?
  
Roots and Leaves Themselves Alone.
  
Not Heat Flames up and Consumes.
  
Trickle, Drops.
  
City of Orgies.
  
Behold this Swarthy Face.
  
I saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing.
  
TO A STRANGER.
  
This Moment, Yearning and Thoughtful.
  
I Hear it was Charged Against Me.
  
The Prairie-Grass Dividing.
  
We Two Boys Together Clinging.
  
A Promise to California.
  
Here the Frailest Leaves of Me.
  
When I Peruse the Conquer'd Fame.
  
What Think You I take my Pen in Hand?
  
A Glimpse.
  
No Labor-Saving Machine.
  
A LEAF FOR HAND IN HAND.
  
TO THE EAST AND TO THE WEST.
  
Earth! My Likeness!
  
I DREAM'D IN A DREAM.
  
FAST ANCHOR'D, ETERNAL, O LOVE!
  
Sometimes with One I Love.
  
That Shadow, my Likeness.
  
AMONG THE MULTITUDE.
  
TO A WESTERN BOY.
  
O you whom I Often and Silently Come.
  
Full of Life, Now.
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SALUT AU MONDE!
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A Child's Amaze.
  
The Runner.
  
Beautiful Women.
  
Mother and Babe.
  
Thought.
  
American Feuillage.
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Song of the Broad-Axe.
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Song of the Open Road.
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Leaves of Grass.
  
I Sit and Look Out.
  
Me Imperturbe.
  
As I Lay with my Head in your Lap, Camerado.
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Crossing Brooklyn Ferry.
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WITH ANTECEDENTS.
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THE ANSWERER.
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Now List to my Morning's Romanza.
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The Indications.
  
Poets to Come.
  
I hear America Singing.
  
The City Dead-House.
  
A Farm Picture.
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Carol of Occupations.
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THOUGHTS.
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THE SLEEPERS.
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CAROL OF WORDS.
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Ah Poverties, Wincings, and Sulky Retreats.
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Leaves of Grass.
  
A BOSTON BALLAD.
  
Year of Meteors.
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A Broadway Pageant.
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SUGGESTIONS.
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Great are the Myths.
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Thought.
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Leaves of Grass.
  
There was a Child went Forth.
  
Longings for Home.
  
Think of the Soul.
  
You Felons on Trial in Courts.
  
To a Common Prostitute.
  
I was Looking a Long While.
  
To a President.
  
TO THE STATES,
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DRUM-TAPS.
  
[Aroused and angry]
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DRUM-TAPS.
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1861.
  
BEAT! BEAT! DRUMS!
  
From Paumanok Starting I Fly like a Bird.
  
Rise, O Days, from your Fathomless Deeps.
  
City of Ships.
  
The Centenarian's Story.
  
An Army Corps on the March.
  
Cavalry Crossing a Ford.
  
Bivouac on a Mountain Side.
  
By the Bivouac's Fitful Flame.
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Come Up from the Fields, Father.
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Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field one Night.
  
A March in the Ranks Hard-prest, and the Road Unknown.
  
A Sight in Camp in the Day-break Grey and Dim.
  
Not the Pilot.
  
As Toilsome I Wander'd Virginia's Woods.
  
Year that Trembled and Reel'd Beneath Me.
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The Dresser.
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Long, too long, O Land.
  
Give Me the Splendid Silent Sun.
  
Dirge for Two Veterans.
  
Over the Carnage Rose Prophetic a Voice.
  
The Artilleryman's Vision.
  
I Saw Old General at Bay.
  
O Tan-Faced Prairie-Boy.
  
LOOK DOWN FAIR MOON.
  
Reconciliation.
  
Spirit whose Work is Done.
  
How Solemn, as One by One.
  
Not Youth Pertains to Me.
  
To the Leaven'd Soil They Trod.
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Leaves of Grass.
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FACES.
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MANHATTAN'S STREETS I SAUNTER'D, PONDERING.
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All is Truth.
  
Voices.
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Marches now the War is Over.
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As I sat Alone by Blue Ontario's Shore.
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Pioneers! O Pioneers!
  
RESPONDEZ!
  
Turn O Libertad.
  
Adieu to a Soldier.
  
As I walk These Broad, Majestic Days.
  
Weave In, Weave In, My Hardy Life.
  
Race of Veterans.
  
O Sun of Real Peace.
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Leaves of Grass.
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THIS COMPOST.
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UNNAMED LANDS.
  
Mannahatta.
  
OLD IRELAND.
  
To Oratists
  
SOLID, IRONICAL, ROLLING ORB.
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Bathed in War's Perfume.
  
BATHED IN WAR'S PERFUME.
  
DELICATE CLUSTER.
  
Song of the Banner at Day-Break.
  
Ethiopia Saluting the Colors.
  
Lo! Victress on the Peaks!
  
World, Take Good Notice.
  
Thick-Sprinkled Bunting.
  
A Hand-Mirror.
  
Germs.
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Leaves of Grass.
  
O ME! O LIFE!
  
THOUGHTS.
  
BEGINNERS.
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Songs of Insurrection.
  
STILL THOUGH THE ONE I SING.
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TO A FOIL'D EUROPEAN REVOLUTIONAIRE.
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FRANCE,
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EUROPE,
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Walt Whitman's Caution.
  
To a Certain Cantatrice.
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Leaves of Grass.
  
To You.
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SONGS OF PARTING.
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AS THE TIME DRAWS NIGH.
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YEARS OF THE MODERN.
  
THOUGHTS.
  
Song at Sunset.
  
When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer.
  
To Rich Givers.
  
Thought.
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SO LONG!
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PASSAGE TO INDIA.
  
[Gliding o'er all, through all]
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Passage to India.
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Thought.
  
O Living Always—Always Dying!
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Proud Music of the Storm.
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ASHES OF SOLDIERS.
  
ASHES OF SOLDIERS.
  
IN MIDNIGHT SLEEP.
  
Camps of Green.
  
TO A CERTAIN CIVILIAN.
  
PENSIVE ON HER DEAD GAZING, I HEARD THE MOTHER OF ALL.
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President Lincoln's Burial Hymn.
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WHEN LILACS LAST IN THE DOOR-YARD BLOOM'D.
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O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN!
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HUSH'D BE THE CAMPS TO-DAY.
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THIS DUST WAS ONCE THE MAN.
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POEM OF JOYS.
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To Think of Time.
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CHANTING THE SQUARE DEIFIC.
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WHISPERS OF HEAVENLY DEATH.
  
WHISPERS OF HEAVENLY DEATH.
  
DAREST THOU NOW, O SOUL.
  
OF HIM I LOVE DAY AND NIGHT.
  
ASSURANCES.
  
YET, YET, YE DOWNCAST HOURS.
  
QUICKSAND YEARS.
  
THAT MUSIC ALWAYS ROUND ME.
  
AS IF A PHANTOM CARESS'D ME.
  
HERE, SAILOR!
  
A NOISELESS, PATIENT SPIDER.
  
THE LAST INVOCATION.
  
AS I WATCH'D THE PLOUGHMAN PLOUGHING.
  
PENSIVE AND FALTERING.
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SEA-SHORE MEMORIES.
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OUT OF THE CRADLE ENDLESSLY ROCKING.
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ELEMENTAL DRIFTS.
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TEARS.
  
ABOARD, AT A SHIP'S HELM.
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ON THE BEACH, AT NIGHT.
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THE WORLD BELOW THE BRINE.
  
ON THE BEACH AT NIGHT ALONE.
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Leaves of Grass.
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A CAROL OF HARVEST, FOR 1867.
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THE SINGER IN THE PRISON.
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WARBLE FOR LILAC TIME.
  
Who Learns My Lesson Complete?
  
Thought.
  
Myself and Mine.
  
TO OLD AGE.
  
MIRACLES.
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SPARKLES FROM THE WHEEL.
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EXCELSIOR.
  
Mediums.
  
KOSMOS.
  
TO A PUPIL.
  
WHAT AM I, AFTER ALL.
  
OTHERS MAY PRAISE WHAT THEY LIKE.
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BROTHER OF ALL, WITH GENEROUS HAND.
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NIGHT ON THE PRAIRIES.
  
ON JOURNEYS THROUGH THE STATES.
  
SAVANTISM.
  
LOCATIONS AND TIMES.
  
THOUGHT.
  
OFFERINGS.
  
TESTS.
  
THE TORCH.
  
TO YOU.
  
GODS.
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TO ONE SHORTLY TO DIE.
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Now Finale to the Shore.
  
NOW FINALE TO THE SHORE.
  
SHUT NOT YOUR DOORS, &c.
  
THOUGHT.
  
THE UNTOLD WANT.
  
PORTALS.
  
THESE CAROLS.
  
THIS DAY, O SOUL.
  
WHAT PLACE IS BESIEGED?
  
TO THE READER AT PARTING.
  
JOY, SHIPMATE, JOY!

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3

5

To the drum-taps prompt,
The young men falling in and arming;
The mechanics arming, (the trowel, the jack-plane, the blacksmith's hammer, tost aside with precipitation;)
The lawyer leaving his office, and arming—the judge leaving the court;
The driver deserting his wagon in the street, jumping down, throwing the reins abruptly down on the horses' backs;
The salesman leaving the store—the boss, book-keeper, porter, all leaving;
Squads gather everywhere by common consent, and arm;
The new recruits, even boys—the old men show them how to wear their accoutrements—they buckle the straps carefully;
Outdoors arming—indoors arming—the flash of the musket-barrels;
The white tents cluster in camps—the arm'd sentries around—the sunrise cannon, and again at sunset;
263

Arm'd regiments arrive every day, pass through the city, and embark from the wharves;
(How good they look, as they tramp down to the river, sweaty, with their guns on their shoulders!
How I love them! how I could hug them, with their brown faces, and their clothes and knapsacks cover'd with dust!)
The blood of the city up—arm'd! arm'd! the cry everywhere;
The flags flung out from the steepless of churches, and from all the public buildings and stores;
The tearful parting—the mother kisses her son—the son kisses his mother;
(Loth is the mother to part—yet not a word does she speak to detain him;)
The tumultuous escort—the ranks of policemen preceding, clearing the way;
The unpent enthusiasm—the wild cheers of the crowd for their favorites;
The artillery—the silent cannons, bright as gold, drawn along, rumble lightly over the stones;
(Silent cannons—soon to cease your silence!
Soon, unlimber'd, to begin the red business;)
All the mutter of preparation—all the determin'd arming;
The hospital service—the lint, bandages, and medicines;
The women volunteering for nurses—the work begun for, in earnest—no mere parade now;
War! an arm'd race is advancing!—the welcome for battle—no turning away;
War! be it weeks, months, or years—an arm'd race is advancing to welcome it.
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