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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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2

4

As I wend to the shores I know not,
As I list to the dirge, the voices of men and women wreck'd,
As I inhale the impalpable breezes that set in upon me,
As the ocean so mysterious rolls toward me closer and closer,
I too, but signify, at the utmost, a little wash'd-up drift,
A few sands and dead leaves to gather,
Gather, and merge myself as part of the sands and drift.
80

5

O baffled, balk'd, bent to the very earth,
Oppress'd with myself that I have dared to open my mouth,
Aware now, that, amid all that blab whose echoes recoil upon me, I have not once had the least idea who or what I am,
But that before all my insolent poems the real Me stands yet untouch'd, untold, altogether unreach'd,
Withdrawn far, mocking me with mock-congratulatory signs and bows,
With peals of distant ironical laughter at every word I have written,
Pointing in silence to these songs, and then to the sand beneath.

6

Now I perceive I have not understood anything—not a single object—and that no man ever can.

7

I perceive Nature, here in sight of the sea, is taking advantage of me, to dart upon me, and sting me,
Because I have dared to open my mouth to sing at all.
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