Leaves of grass (1872) | ||
100
Myself and Mine.
1
Myself and mine gymnastic ever,To stand the cold or heat—to take good aim with a gun—to sail a boat—to manage horses—to beget superb children,
To speak readily and clearly—to feel at home among common people,
And to hold our own in terrible positions, on land and sea.
2
Not for an embroiderer;(There will always be plenty of embroiderers—I welcome them also;)
But for the fibre of things, and for inherent men and women.
3
Not to chisel ornaments,But to chisel with free stroke the heads and limbs of plenteous Supreme Gods, that The States may realize them, walking and talking.
4
Let me have my own way;Let others promulge the laws—I will make no account of the laws;
Let others praise eminent men and hold up peace—I hold up agitation and conflict;
I praise no eminent man—I rebuke to his face the one that was thought most worthy.
5
(Who are you? you mean devil! And what are you secretly guilty of, all your life?Will you turn aside all your life? Will you grub and chatter all your life?)
6
(And who are you—blabbing by rote, years, pages, languages, reminiscences,Unwitting to-day that you do not know how to speak a single word?)
101
7
Let others finish specimens—I never finish specimens;I shower them by exhaustless laws, as Nature does, fresh and modern continually.
8
I give nothing as duties;What others give as duties, I give as living impulses;
(Shall I give the heart's action as a duty?)
9
Let others dispose of questions—I dispose of nothing—I arouse unanswerable questions;Who are they I see and touch, and what about them?
What about these likes of myself, that draw me so close by tender directions and indirections?
10
I call to the world to distrust the accounts of my friends, but listen to my enemies—as I myself do;I charge you, too, forever, reject those who would expound me—for I cannot expound myself;
I charge that there be no theory or school founded out of me;
I charge you to leave all free, as I have left all free.
11
After me, vista!O, I see life is not short, but immeasurably long;
I henceforth tread the world, chaste, temperate, an early riser, a steady grower,
Every hour the semen of centuries—and still of centuries.
12
I will follow up these continual lessons of the air, water, earth;I perceive I have no time to lose.
Leaves of grass (1872) | ||