University of Virginia Library

RESPONDEZ! Respondez!
Let every one answer! Let those who sleep be
     waked! Let none evade — not you, any more
     than others!
(If it really be as is pretended, how much longer must
     we go on with our affectations and sneaking?
Let me bring this to a close — I pronounce openly for
     a new distribution of roles,)
Let that which stood in front go behind! and let
     that which was behind advance to the front and
     speak!
Let murderers, thieves, bigots, fools, unclean persons,
     offer new propositions!
Let the old propositions be postponed!
Let faces and theories be turned inside out! Let
     meanings be freely criminal, as well as results!
Let there be no suggestion above the suggestion of
     drudgery!
Let none be pointed toward his destination! (Say!
     do you know your destination?)
Let trillions of men and women be mocked with
     bodies and mocked with Souls!
Let the love that waits in them, wait! Let it die,
     or pass still-born to other spheres!
Let the sympathy that waits in every man, wait!
     or let it also pass, a dwarf, to other spheres!
Let contradictions prevail! Let one thing contradict
     another! and let one line of my poems contradict
     another!
Let the people sprawl with yearning aimless hands!
     Let their tongues be broken! Let their eyes be
     discouraged! Let none descend into their hearts
     with the fresh lusciousness of love!
Let the theory of America be management, caste,
     comparison! (Say! what other theory would
     you?)
Let them that distrust birth and death lead the
     rest! (Say! why shall they not lead you?)
Let the crust of hell be neared and trod on! Let the
     days be darker than the nights! Let slumber
     bring less slumber than waking-time brings!
Let the world never appear to him or her for whom
     it was all made!
Let the heart of the young man exile itself from the
     heart of the old man! and let the heart of the
     old man be exiled from that of the young man!
Let the sun and moon go! Let scenery take the
     applause of the audience! Let there be apathy
     under the stars!

Let freedom prove no man's inalienable right! Every
     one who can tyrannize, let him tyrannize to his
     satisfaction!
Let none but infidels be countenanced!
Let the eminence of meanness, treachery, sarcasm,
     hate, greed, indecency, impotence, lust, be taken
     for granted above all! Let writers, judges, gov-
     ernments, households, religions, philosophies, take
     such for granted above all!
Let the worst men beget children out of the worst
     women!
Let priests still play at immortality!
Let Death be inaugurated!
Let nothing remain upon the earth except the ashes of
     teachers, artists, moralists, lawyers, and learned
     and polite persons!
Let him who is without my poems be assassinated!
Let the cow, the horse, the camel, the garden-bee—
     Let the mud-fish, the lobster, the mussel, eel, the
     sting-ray, and the grunting pig-fish — Let these,
     and the like of these, be put on a perfect equality
     with man and woman!
Let churches accommodate serpents, vermin, and the
     corpses of those who have died of the most filthy
     of diseases!
Let marriage slip down among fools, and be for none
     but fools!
Let men among themselves talk and think obscenely
     of women! and let women among themselves
     talk and think obscenely of men!
Let every man doubt every woman! and let every
     woman trick every man!

Let us all, without missing one, be exposed in public,
     naked, monthly, at the peril of our lives! Let
     our bodies be freely handled and examined by
     whoever chooses!
Let nothing but copies, pictures, statues, reminis-
     cences, elegant works, be permitted to exist
     upon the earth!
Let the earth desert God, nor let there ever hence-
     forth be mentioned the name of God!
Let there be no God!
Let there be money, business, imports, exports, cus-
     tom, authority, precedents, pallor, dyspepsia,
     smut, ignorance, unbelief!
Let judges and criminals be transposed! Let the
     prison-keepers be put in prison! Let those that
     were prisoners take the keys! (Say! why might
     they not just as well be transposed?)
Let the slaves be masters! Let the masters become
     slaves!
Let the reformers descend from the stands where
     they are forever bawling! Let an idiot or insane
     person appear on each of the stands!
Let the Asiatic, the African, the European, the
     American and the Australian, go armed against
     the murderous stealthiness of each other! Let
     them sleep armed! Let none believe in good-will!
Let there be no unfashionable wisdom! Let such be
     scorned and derided off from the earth!
Let a floating cloud in the sky — Let a wave of the
     sea — Let one glimpse of your eye-sight upon the
     landscape or grass — Let growing mint, spinach,
     onions, tomatoes — Let these be exhibited as
     shows at a great price for admission!
Let all the men of These States stand aside for a
     few smouchers! Let the few seize on what they
     choose! Let the rest gawk, giggle, starve, obey!
Let shadows be furnished with genitals! Let sub-
     stances be deprived of their genitals!
Let there be wealthy and immense cities—but
     through any of them, not a single poet, saviour,
     knower, lover!
Let the infidels of These States laugh all faith away!
     If one man be found who has faith, let the rest
     set upon him! Let them affright faith! Let
     them destroy the power of breeding faith!
Let the she-harlots and the he-harlots be prudent!
     Let them dance on, while seeming lasts! (O
     seeming! seeming! seeming!)
Let the preachers recite creeds! Let them teach only
     what they have been taught!
Let the preachers of creeds never dare to go meditate
     candidly upon the hills, alone, by day or by
     night! (If one ever once dare, he is lost!)
Let insanity have charge of sanity!
Let books take the place of trees, animals, rivers,
     clouds!
Let the daubed portraits of heroes supersede heroes!
Let the manhood of man never take steps after itself!
     Let it take steps after eunuchs, and after con-
     sumptive and genteel persons!
Let the white person tread the black person under his
     heel! (Say! which is trodden under heel, after
     all ?)
Let the reflections of the things of the world be studied
     in mirrors! Let the things themselves continue
     unstudied!
Let a man seek pleasure everywhere except in him-
     self! Let a woman seek happiness everywhere
     except in herself! (Say! what real happiness
     have you had one single time through your whole
     life ?)
Let the limited years of life do nothing for the limit-
     less years of death! (Say! what do you suppose
     death will do, then ?)