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Leaves of grass. (1861-1861)

Whitman, Walt (1819-1892)

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[section]
  
Proto-Leaf.
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WALT WHITMAN.
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CHANTS DEMOCRATIC AND NATIVE AMERICAN.
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Leaves of Grass.
  
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.
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Enfans d' Adam.
  
POEM OF THE ROAD.
  
TO THE SAYERS OF WORDS.
  
A BOSTON BALLAD, The 78th Year of These States.
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CALAMUS.
 1. 
[1. In paths untrodden]
 2. 
[2. Scented herbage of my breast]
 3. 
[3. Whoever you are holding me now in hand]
 4. 
[4. These I, singing in spring, collect for lovers]
 5. 
[5. States!]
 6. 
[6. Not heaving from my ribbed breast only]
 7. 
[7. Of the terrible question of appearances]
 8. 
[8. Long I thought that knowledge alone would suffice me—O if I could but obtain knowledge!]
 9. 
[9. Hours continuing long, sore and heavy-hearted]
 10. 
[10. You bards of ages hence! when you refer to me, mind not so much my poems]
 11. 
[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]
 12. 
[12. Are you the new person drawn toward me, and asking something significant from me?]
 13. 
[13. Calamus taste]
 14. 
[14. Not heat flames up and consumes]
 15. 
[15. O drops of me! trickle, slow drops]
 16. 
[16. Who is now reading this?]
 17. 
[17. Of him I love day and night, I dreamed I heard he was dead]
 18. 
[18. City of my walks and joys!]
 19. 
[19. Mind you the the timid models of the rest, the majority?]
 20. 
[20. I saw in Louisiana a live-oak growing]
 21. 
[21. Music always round me, unceasing, unbeginning—yet long untaught I did not hear]
 22. 
[22. Passing stranger! you do not know how longingly I look upon you]
 23. 
[23. This moment as I sit alone, yearning and thoughtful, it seems to me there are other men in other lands, yearning and thoughtful]
 24. 
[24. I hear it is charged against me that I seek to destroy institutions]
 25. 
[25. The prairie-grass dividing—its own odor breathing]
 26. 
[26. We two boys together clinging]
 27. 
[27. O love!]
 28. 
[28. When I peruse the conquered fame of heroes, and the victories of mighty generals, I do not envy the generals]
 29. 
[29. One flitting glimpse, caught through an interstice]
 30. 
[30. A promise and gift to California]
 31. 
[31. What ship, puzzled at sea, cons for the true reckoning?]
 32. 
[32. What think you I take my pen in hand to record?]
 33. 
[33. No labor-saving machine]
 34. 
[34. I dreamed in a dream, I saw a city invincible to the attacks of the whole of the rest of the earth]
 35. 
[35. To you of New England]
 36. 
[36. Earth! my likeness!]
 37. 
[37. A leaf for hand in hand!]
 38. 
[38. Primeval my love for the woman I love]
 39. 
[39. Sometimes with one I love, I fill myself with rage, for fear I effuse unreturned love]
 40. 
[40. That shadow, my likeness, that goes to and fro, seeking a livelihood, chattering, chaffering]
 41. 
[41. Among the men and women, the multitude, I perceive one picking me out by secret and divine signs]
 42. 
[42. To the young man, many things to absorb, to engraft, to develop, I teach, to help him become élève of mine]
 43. 
[43. O you whom I often and silently come where you are, that I may be with you]
 44. 
[44. Here my last words, and the most baffling]
 45. 
[45. Full of life, sweet-blooded, compact, visible]
  
CROSSING BROOKLYN FERRY.
  
LONGINGS FOR HOME.
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MESSENGER LEAVES.
  
MANNAHATTA.
  
FRANCE, The 18th Year of These States.
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THOUGHTS.
  
UNNAMED LANDS.
  
KOSMOS.
  
A HAND-MIRROR.
  
BEGINNERS.
  
TESTS.
  
SAVANTISM.
  
PERFECTIONS.
  
SAYS.
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DEBRIS.
  
SLEEP-CHASINGS.
  
BURIAL.
  
TO MY SOUL.
  
So long!

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[27. O love!]

O love!
O dying—always dying!
O the burials of me, past and present!
O me, while I stride ahead, material, visible, imperious as ever!
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O me, what I was for years, now dead, (I lament not—I am content;)
O to disengage myself from those corpses of me, which I turn and look at, where I cast them!
To pass on, (O living! always living!) and leave the corpses behind!
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