 | Leaves of grass. |  |
7.
I NEED no assurances—I am a man who is pre-
occupied, of his own Soul;
I do not doubt that whatever I know at a given time,
there waits for me more, which I do not know;
I do not doubt that from under the feet, and beside
the hands and face I am cognizant of, are now
looking faces I am not cognizant of—calm and
actual faces;
I do not doubt but the majesty and beauty of the
world are latent in any iota of the world;
I do not doubt there are realizations I have no idea of,
waiting for me through time, and through the
universes—also upon this earth;
I do not doubt I am limitless, and that the universes
are limitless—in vain I try to think how
limitless;
I do not doubt that the orbs, and the systems of orbs,
play their swift sports through the air on purpose
—and that I shall one day be eligible to do as
much as they, and more than they;
I do not doubt there is far more in trivialities, insects,
vulgar persons, slaves, dwarfs, weeds, rejected
refuse, than I have supposed;
I do not doubt there is more in myself than I have
supposed—and more in all men and women—
and more in my poems than I have supposed;
I do not doubt that temporary affairs keep on and on,
millions of years;
I do not doubt interiors have their interiors, and
exteriors have their exteriors—and that the
eye-sight has another eye-sight, and the hearing
another hearing, and the voice another voice;
I do not doubt that the passionately-wept deaths of
young men are provided for—and that the
deaths of young women, and the deaths of little
children, are provided for;
I do not doubt that wrecks at sea, no matter what the
horrors of them—no matter whose wife, child,
husband, father, lover, has gone down—are pro-
vided for, to the minutest point;
I do not doubt that shallowness, meanness, malig-
nance, are provided for;
I do not doubt that cities, you, America, the re-
mainder of the earth, politics, freedom, degra-
dations, are carefully provided for;
I do not doubt that whatever can possibly happen,
any where, at any time, is provided for, in the
inherences of things.
occupied, of his own Soul;
I do not doubt that whatever I know at a given time,
there waits for me more, which I do not know;
I do not doubt that from under the feet, and beside
the hands and face I am cognizant of, are now
looking faces I am not cognizant of—calm and
actual faces;
I do not doubt but the majesty and beauty of the
world are latent in any iota of the world;
I do not doubt there are realizations I have no idea of,
waiting for me through time, and through the
universes—also upon this earth;
I do not doubt I am limitless, and that the universes
are limitless—in vain I try to think how
limitless;
I do not doubt that the orbs, and the systems of orbs,
play their swift sports through the air on purpose
—and that I shall one day be eligible to do as
much as they, and more than they;
I do not doubt there is far more in trivialities, insects,
vulgar persons, slaves, dwarfs, weeds, rejected
refuse, than I have supposed;
218
supposed—and more in all men and women—
and more in my poems than I have supposed;
I do not doubt that temporary affairs keep on and on,
millions of years;
I do not doubt interiors have their interiors, and
exteriors have their exteriors—and that the
eye-sight has another eye-sight, and the hearing
another hearing, and the voice another voice;
I do not doubt that the passionately-wept deaths of
young men are provided for—and that the
deaths of young women, and the deaths of little
children, are provided for;
I do not doubt that wrecks at sea, no matter what the
horrors of them—no matter whose wife, child,
husband, father, lover, has gone down—are pro-
vided for, to the minutest point;
I do not doubt that shallowness, meanness, malig-
nance, are provided for;
I do not doubt that cities, you, America, the re-
mainder of the earth, politics, freedom, degra-
dations, are carefully provided for;
I do not doubt that whatever can possibly happen,
any where, at any time, is provided for, in the
inherences of things.
219
| Leaves of grass. | |