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Leaves of grass. (1861-1861)

Whitman, Walt (1819-1892)

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Proto-Leaf.
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WALT WHITMAN.
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CHANTS DEMOCRATIC AND NATIVE AMERICAN.
  
Apostroph.
 1. 
[1. A nation announcing itself, (many in one,)]
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[2. Broad-axe, shapely, naked, wan!]
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[3. Come closer to me]
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[4. America always!]
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[5. Respondez! Respondez!]
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[6. You just maturing youth! You male or female!]
 7. 
[7. With antecedents]
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[8. Splendor of falling day, floating and filling me]
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[9. A thought of what I am here for]
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[10. Historian! you who celebrate bygones!]
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[11. The thought of fruitage]
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[12. To oratists—to male or female]
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[13. Laws for Creations]
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[14. Poets to come!]
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[15. Who has gone farthest? For I swear I will go farther]
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[16. They shall arise in the States—mediums shall]
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[17. Now we start hence, I with the rest, on our journeys through The States]
 18. 
[18. Me imperturbe]
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[19. I was looking a long while for the history of the past for myself, and for these Chants—and now I have found it,]
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[20. American mouth-songs!]
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[21. As I walk, solitary, unattended]
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Leaves of Grass.
 1. 
[1. Elemental drifts!]
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[2. Great are the myths—I too delight in them]
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[3. A young man came to me with a message from his brother]
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[4. Something startles me where I thought I was safest]
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[5. All day I have walked the city, and talked with my friends, and thought of prudence]
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[6. Perfect sanity shows the master among philosophs]
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[7. I need no assurances—I am a man who is preoccupied, of his own Soul]
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[8. What shall I give? and which are my miracles?]
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[9. There was a child went forth every day]
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[10. It is ended—I dally no more]
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[11. Who learns my lesson complete?]
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[12. This night I am happy]
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[13. O bitter sprig! Confession sprig!]
 14. 
[14. Unfolded out of the folds of the woman, man comes unfolded, as is always to come unfolded]
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[15. Night on the Prairies]
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[16. Sea-water, and all living below it]
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[17. I sit and look out upon all the sorrows of the world, and upon all oppression and shame]
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[18. O me, man of slack faith so long!]
 19. 
[19. Forms, qualities, lives, humanity, language, thoughts]
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[20. So far, and so far, and on toward the end]
 21. 
[21. Now I make a leaf of Voices—for I have found nothing mightier than they are]
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[22. What am I, after all, but a child, pleased with the sound of my own name? repeating it over and over]
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[23. Locations and times—what is it in me that meets them all, whenever and wherever, and makes me at home?]
 24. 
[24. Lift me close to your face till I whisper]
  
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.
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[1. To the garden, the world, anew ascending]
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[2. From that of myself, without which I were nothing]
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[3. O my children! O mates!]
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[4. A woman waits for me—she contains all, nothing is lacking]
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[5. Spontaneous me, Nature]
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[6. O furious! O confine me not!]
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[7. You and I—what the earth is, we are]
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[8. Native moments! when you come upon me—Ah you are here now!]
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[9. Once I passed through a populous city, imprinting my brain, for future use, with its shows, architecture, customs, and traditions]
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[10. Inquiring, tireless, seeking that yet unfound]
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[11. In the new garden, in all the parts]
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[12. Ages and ages, returning at intervals]
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[13. O hymen! O hymenee!]
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[14. I am he that aches with love]
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[15. Early in the morning]
  
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]
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[2. Scented herbage of my breast]
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[3. Whoever you are holding me now in hand]
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[4. These I, singing in spring, collect for lovers]
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[5. States!]
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[6. Not heaving from my ribbed breast only]
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[7. Of the terrible question of appearances]
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[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]
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[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]
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[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?]
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[20. I saw in Louisiana a live-oak growing]
 21. 
[21. Music always round me, unceasing, unbeginning—yet long untaught I did not hear]
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[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]
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[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]
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[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.
  
To You, Whoever You Are.
  
To a Foiled Revolter or Revoltress.
  
To Him that was Crucified.
  
To One shortly To Die.
  
To a Common Prostitute.
  
To Rich Givers.
  
To a Pupil.
  
To The States, To Identify the 16th, 17th, or 18th Presidentiad.
  
To a Cantatrice.
  
Walt Whitman's Caution.
  
To a President.
  
To other Lands.
  
To Old Age.
  
To You.
  
To You.
  
MANNAHATTA.
  
FRANCE, The 18th Year of These States.
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THOUGHTS.
 1. 
[1. Of the visages of things—And of piercing through to the accepted hells beneath]
 2. 
[2. Of waters, forests, hills]
 3. 
[3. Of persons arrived at high positions, ceremonies, wealth, scholarships, and the like]
 4. 
[4. Of ownership—As if one fit to own things could not at pleasure enter upon all, and incorporate them into himself or herself]
 5. 
[5. As I sit with others, at a great feast, suddenly, while the music is playing]
 6. 
[6. Of what I write from myself—As if that were not the resumé]
 7. 
[7. Of obedience, faith, adhesiveness]
  
UNNAMED LANDS.
  
KOSMOS.
  
A HAND-MIRROR.
  
BEGINNERS.
  
TESTS.
  
SAVANTISM.
  
PERFECTIONS.
  
SAYS.
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DEBRIS.
  
[He is wisest who has the most caution]
  
[Any thing is as good as established, when that is established that will produce it and continue it]
  
[What General has a good army in himself, has a good army]
  
[Have you learned lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you?]
  
[Despairing cries float ceaselessly toward me, day and night]
  
[I understand your anguish, but I cannot help you]
  
[A thousand perfect men and women appear]
  
[A mask—a perpetual natural disguiser of herself]
  
[One sweeps by, attended by an immense train]
  
[One sweeps by, old, with black eyes, and profuse white hair]
  
[Three old men slowly pass, followed by three others, and they by three others]
  
[Women sit, or move to and fro—some old, some young]
  
[What weeping face is that looking from the window?]
  
[I will take an egg out of the robin's nest in the orchard]
  
[Behavior—fresh, native, copious, each one for himself or herself]
  
[Not the pilot has charged himself to bring his ship into port, though beaten back, and many times baffled]
  
[I thought I was not alone, walking here by the shore]
  
SLEEP-CHASINGS.
  
BURIAL.
  
TO MY SOUL.
  
So long!

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220.

I take part—I see and hear the whole,
The cries, curses, roar—the plaudits for well-aimed shots,
76

The ambulanza slowly passing, trailing its red drip,
Workmen searching after damages, making indispensable repairs,
The fall of grenades through the rent roof—the fan-shaped explosion,
The whizz of limbs, heads, stone, wood, iron, high in the air.
previous section Leaves of grass. (1861-1861)
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