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Leaves of Grass

  
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LEAVES OF GRASS.
 1. 
1 — Poem of Walt Whitman, an American.
 2. 
2 — Poem of Women.
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3 — Poem of Salutation.
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4 — Poem of The Daily Work of The Workmen and Workwomen of These States.
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5 — Broad-Axe Poem.
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6 — Poem of a Few Greatnesses.
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7 — Poem of The Body.
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8 — Poem of Many In One.
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9 — Poem of Wonder at The Resurrection of The Wheat.
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10 — Poem of You, Whoever You Are.
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11 — Sun-Down Poem.
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12 — Poem of The Road.
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13 — Poem of Procreation.
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14 — Poem of The Poet.
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15 — Clef Poem.
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16 — Poem of The Dead Young Men of Europe, The 72d and 73d Years of These States
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17 — Poem of The Heart of The Son of Manhattan Island.
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18 — Poem of The Last Explanation of Prudence.
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19 — Poem of The Singers, and of The Words of Poems.
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20 — Faith Poem.
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21 — Liberty Poem for Asia, Africa, Europe, America, Australia, Cuba, and The Archipelogoes of the Sea.
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22 — Poem of Apparitions in Boston, The 78th Year of These States.
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23 — Poem of Remembrances for A Girl or A Boy of These States.
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24 — Poem of Perfect Miracles.
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25 — Poem of The Child That Went Forth, and Always Goes Forth, Forever and Forever
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26 — Night Poem.
 27. 
27 — Poem of Faces.
 28. 
28 — Bunch Poem.
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29 — Lesson Poem.
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30 — Poem of The Propositions of Nakedness.
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31 — Poem of The Sayers of The Words of The Earth.
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32 — Burial Poem.
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LEAVES-DROPPINGS.
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Correspondence.
 1. 
LETTER TO WALT WHITMAN.
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LETTER TO RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
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Opinions. 1855-6.
 1. 
From the London Weekly Dispatch. (London, England.) LEAVES OF GRASS. By Walt Whitman. Horsell, Oxford Street.
 2. 
From the Brooklyn Daily Times. LEAVES OF GRASS. A volume of Poems, just published.
 3. 
From the Christian Spiritualist. LEAVES OF GRASS.
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From the American Phrenological Journal. AN ENGLISH AND AN AMERICAN POET.
 5. 
From the Critic. (London, England.) LEAVES OF GRASS. New York, 1855. London: Horsell.
 6. 
From the Examiner. (London, England.) LEAVES OF GRASS. Brooklyn, New York.
 7. 
From the London Leader. TRANSATLANTIC LATTER-DAY POETRY.
 7. 
From the Boston Intelligencer, May 8d, 1856 LEAVES OF GRASS. Brooklyn, New York, 1855.

  
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23 — Poem of Remembrances for A Girl or A Boy of These States.

REMEMBER the organic compact of These      States!
Remember the pledge of the Old Thirteen thence-     forward to the rights, life, liberty, equality, of      man!
Remember what was promulged by the founders,      ratified by The States, signed in black and      white by the Commissioners, read by Wash-     ington at the head of the army!
Remember the purposes of the founders! — Re-     member Washington!
Remember the copious humanity streaming from      every direction toward America!
Remember the hospitality that belongs to nations      and men! — (Cursed be nation, woman, man,      without hospitality!)
Remember, government is to subserve individuals!
Not any, not the President, is to have one jot more      than you or me,
Not any habitan of America is to have one jot less      than you or me.
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Anticipate when the thirty or fifty millions are to      become the hundred, or two hundred, or five      hundred millions, of equal freemen and free-     women, amicably joined.
Recall ages — One age is but a part — ages are      but a part,
Recall the angers, bickerings, delusions, supersti-     tions of the idea of caste,
Recall the bloody cruelties and crimes.
Anticipate the best women!
I say an unnumbered new race of hardy and well-     defined women are to spread through all      These States,
I say a girl fit for These States must be free,      capable, dauntless, just the same as a boy.
Anticipate your own life — retract with merciless      power,
Shirk nothing — retract in time — Do you see those      errors, diseases, weaknesses, lies, thefts?
Do you see that lost character? — Do you see      decay, consumption, rum-drinking, dropsy,      fever, mortal cancer or inflammation?
Do you see death, and the approach of death?
Think of the soul!
I swear to you that body of yours gives proportions      to your soul somehow to live in other spheres,
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I do not know how, but I know it is so.
Think of loving and being loved!
I swear to you, whoever you are, you can interfuse      yourself with such things that everybody that      sees you shall look longingly upon you!
Think of the past!
I warn you that in a little while others will find      their past in you and your times.
The race is never separated — nor man nor woman      escapes,
All is inextricable — things, spirits, nature, nations,      you too — from precedents you come.
Recall the ever-welcome defiers! (The mothers      precede them;)
Recall the sages, poets, saviours, inventors, law-     givers, of the earth,
Recall Christ, brother of rejected persons —      brother of slaves, felons, idiots, and of insane      and diseased persons.
Think of the time when you was not yet born!
Think of times you stood at the side of the dying!
Think of the time when your own body will be      dying!
Think of spiritual results!
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Sure as the earth swims through the heavens,      does every one of its objects pass into      spiritual results!
Think of manhood, and you to be a man!
Do you count manhood, and the sweet of manhood,      nothing?
Think of womanhood, and you to be a woman!
The creation is womanhood,
Have I not said that womanhood involves all?
Have I not told how the universe has nothing      better than the best womanhood?
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