University of Virginia Library

1   COME closer to me;
Push close, my lovers, and take the best I possess;
Field closer and closer, and give me the best you      possess.
2  This is unfinish'd business with me — How is it with      you?
(I was chill'd with the cold types, cylinder, wet paper      between us.)
3  Male and Female!
I pass so poorly with paper and types, I must pass      with the contact of bodies and souls.
4  American masses!
I do not thank you for liking me as I am, and liking      the touch of me — I know that it is good for you      to do so.

5   This is the poem of occupations;
In the labor of engines and trades, and the labor of      fields, I find the developments,
And find the eternal meanings.
6  Workmen and Workwomen!
Were all educations, practical and ornamental, well      display'd out of me, what would it amount to?
Were I as the head teacher, charitable proprietor,      wise statesman, what would it amount to?
Were I to you as the boss employing and paying you,      would that satisfy you?
7  The learn'd, virtuous, benevolent, and the usual      terms;
A man like me, and never the usual terms.
8  Neither a servant nor a master am I;
I take no sooner a large price than a small price — I      will have my own, whoever enjoys me;
I will be even with you, and you shall be even with      me.
9  If you stand at work in a shop, I stand as nigh as      the nighest in the same shop;
If you bestow gifts on your brother or dearest friend,      I demand as good as your brother or dearest      friend;
If your lover, husband, wife, is welcome by day or      night, I must be personally as welcome;
If you become degraded, criminal, ill, then I become      so for your sake;
If you remember your foolish and outlaw'd deeds, do      you think I cannot remember my own foolish      and outlaw'd deeds?
If you carouse at the table, I carouse at the opposite      side of the table;
If you meet some stranger in the streets, and love      him or her — why I often meet strangers in the      street, and love them.
10  Why, what have you thought of yourself?
Is it you then that thought yourself less?
Is it you that thought the President greater than      you?
Or the rich better off than you? or the educated      wiser than you?
11   Because you are greasy or pimpled, or that you was      once drunk, or a thief,
Or diseas'd, or rheumatic, or a prostitute, or are so      now;
Or from frivolity or impotence, or that you are no      scholar, and never saw your name in print,
Do you give in that you are any less immortal?

12   Souls of men and women! it is not you I call un-     seen, unheard, untouchable and untouching;
It is not you I go argue pro and con about, and to      settle whether you are alive or no;
I own publicly who you are, if nobody else owns.
13  Grown, half-grown, and babe, of this country and      every country, indoors and outdoors, one just      as much as the other, I see,
And all else behind or through them.
14  The wife — and she is not one jot less than the      husband;
The daughter — and she is just as good as the son;
The mother — and she is every bit as much as the      father.
15  Offspring of ignorant and poor, boys apprenticed to      trades,
Young fellows working on farms, and old fellows      working on farms,
Sailor-men, merchant-men, coasters, immigrants,
All these I see — but nigher and farther the same I      see;
None shall escape me, and none shall wish to escape      me.
16  I bring what you much need, yet always have,
Not money, amours, dress, eating, but as good;
I send no agent or medium, offer no representative of      value, but offer the value itself.
17   There is something that comes home to one now      and perpetually;
It is not what is printed, preach'd, discuss'd — it eludes      discussion and print;
It is not to be put in a book — it is not in this book;
It is for you, whoever you are — it is no farther from      you than your hearing and sight are from you;
It is hinted by nearest, commonest; readiest — it is      ever provoked by them.
18  You may read in many languages, yet read nothing      about it;
You may read the President's Message, and read      nothing about it there;
Nothing in the reports from the State department or      Treasury department, or in the daily papers or      the weekly papers,
Or in the census or revenue returns, prices current,      or any accounts of stock.

19   The sun and stars that float in the open air;
The apple-shaped earth, and we upon it — surely the      drift of them is something grand!
I do not know what it is, except that it is grand, and      that it is happiness,
And that the enclosing purport of us here is not a      speculation, or bon-mot, or reconnoissance,
And that it is not something which by luck may turn      out well for us, and without luck must be a      failure for us,
And not something which may yet be retracted in a      certain contingency.
20  The light and shade, the curious sense of body and      identity, the greed that with perfect complais-     ance devours all things, the endless pride and      out-stretching of man, unspeakable joys and      sorrows,
The wonder every one sees in every one else he sees,      and the wonders that fill each minute of time      forever,
What have you reckon'd them for, camerado?
Have you reckon'd them for a trade, or farm-work?      or for the profits of a store?
Or to achieve yourself a position ? or to fill a gentle-     man's leisure, or a lady's leisure?
21  Have you reckon'd the landscape took substance and      form that it might be painted in a picture?
Or men and women that they might be written of,      and songs sung?
Or the attraction of gravity, and the great laws and      harmonious combinations, and the fluids of the      air, as subjects for the savans?
Or the brown land and the blue sea for maps and      charts?
Or the stars to be put in constellations and named      fancy names?
Or that the growth of seeds is for agricultural tables,      or agriculture itself?
22  Old institutions — these arts, libraries, legends, col-     lections, and the practice handed along in man-     ufactures — will we rate them so high?
Will we rate our cash and business high ? — I have no      objection;
I rate them as high as the highest — then a child born      of a woman and man I rate beyond all rate.
23  We thought our Union grand, and our Constitution      grand;
I do not say they are not grand and good, for they      are;
I am this day just as much in love with them as you;
Then I am in love with you, and with all my fellows      upon the earth.
24   We consider bibles and religions divine — I do not      say they are not divine;
I say they have all grown out of you, and may grow      out of you still;
It is not they who give the life — it is you who give      the life;
Leaves are not more shed from the trees, or trees      from the earth, than they are shed out of you.

25   When the psalm sings instead of the singer;
When the script preaches, instead of the preacher;
When the pulpit descends and goes, instead of the      carver that carved the supporting desk;
When I can touch the body of books, by night or by      day, and when they touch my body back again;
When a university course convinces, like a slumber-     ing woman and child convince;
When the minted gold in the vault smiles like the      night-watchman's daughter;
When warrantee deeds loafe in chairs opposite, and      are my friendly companions;
I intend to reach them my hand, and make as much      of them as I do of men and women like you.
26  The sum of all known reverence I add up in you,      whoever you are;
The President is there in the White House for you —      it is not you who are here for him;
The Secretaries act in their bureaus for you — not you      here for them;
The Congress convenes every Twelfth-month for you;
Laws, courts, the forming of States, the charters of      cities, the going and coming of commerce and      mails, are all for you.
27  List close, my scholars dear!
All doctrines, all politics and civilization, exurge from      you;
All sculpture and monuments, and anything inscribed      anywhere, are tallied in you;
The gist of histories and statistics as far back as the      records reach, is in you this hour, and myths      and tales the same;
If you were not breathing and walking here, where      would they all be?
The most renown'd poems would be ashes, orations      and plays would be vacuums.
28  All architecture is what you do to it when you look      upon it;
(Did you think it was in the white or gray stone? or      the lines of the arches and cornices?)
29  All music is what awakes from you, when you are      reminded by the instruments;
It is not the violins and the cornets — it is not the oboe      nor the beating drums, nor the score of the      baritone singer singing his sweet romanza — nor      that of the men's chorus, nor that of the wo-     men's chorus,
It is nearer and farther than they.

30   Will the whole come back then?
Can each see signs of the best by a look in the look-     ing-glass? is there nothing greater or more?
Does all sit there with you, with the mystic, unseen      Soul?
31  Strange and hard that paradox true I give;
Objects gross and the unseen Soul are one.
32  House-building, measuring, sawing the boards;
Blacksmithing, glass-blowing, nail-making, coopering,      tin-rooting, shingle-dressing,
Ship-joining, dock-biulding, fish-curing, ferrying, flag-     ging of side-walks by flaggers,
The pump, the pile-driver, the great derrick, the coal-     kiln and brick-kiln,
Coal-mines, and all that is down there, — the lamps in      the darkness, echoes, songs, what meditations,      what vast native thoughts looking through      smutch'd faces,
Iron-works, forge-fires in the mountains, or by the      river-banks — men around feeling the melt with      huge crowbars — lumps of ore, the due com-     bining of ore, limestone, coal — the blast-fur-     nace and the puddling-furnace, the loup-lump      at the bottom of the melt at last — the rolling-     mill, the stumpy bars of pig-iron, the strong,      clean-shaped T-rail for railroads;
Oil-works, silk-works, white-lead-works, the sugar-     house, steam-saws, the great mills and factories;
Stone-cutting, shapely trimmings, for façades, or win-     dow or door-lintels — the mallet, the tooth      chisel, the jib to protect the thumb,
Oakum, the oakum-chisel, the caulking-iron — the      kettle of boiling vault-cement, and the fire un-     der the kettle,
The cotton-bale, the stevedore's hook, the saw and      buck of the sawyer, the mould of the moulder,      the working-knife of the butcher, the ice-saw,      and all the work with ice,
The implemements for daguerreotyping — the tools of      the rigger, grappler, sail-maker, block-maker,
Goods of gutta-percha, papier-mache, colors, brushes,      brush-making, glazier's implements,
The veneer and glue-pot, the confectioner's ornaments,      the decanter and glasses, the shears and flat-iron,
The awl and knee-strap, the pint measure and quart      measure, the counter and stool, the writing-     pen of quill or metal — the making of all sorts      of edged tools,
The brewery, brewing, the malt, the vats, every thing      that is done by brewers, also by wine-makers,      also vinegar-makers,
Leather-dressing, coach-making, boiler-making, rope-     twisting, distilling, sign-painting, lime-burning,      cotton-picking — electro-plating, electrotyping,      stereotyping,
Stave-machines, planing-machines, reaping-machines,      ploughing-machines, thrashing-machines, steam      wagons,
The cart of the carman, the omnibus, the ponderous      dray;
Pyrotechny, letting off color'd fire-works at night,      fancy figures and jets,
Beef on the butcher's stall, the slaughter-house of      the butcher, the butcher in his killing-clothes,
The pens of live pork, the killing-hammer, the hog-     hook, the scalder's tub, gutting, the cutter's      cleaver, the packer's maul, and the plenteous      winter-work of pork-packing,
Flour-works, grinding of wheat, rye, maize, rice — the      barrels and the half and quarter barrels, the      loaded barges, the high piles on wharves and      levees,
The men, and the work of the men, on railroads,      coasters, fish-boats, canals;
The daily routine of your own or any man's life — the      shop, yard, store, or factory;
These shows all near you by day and night — work-     men! whoever you are, your daily life!
In that and them the heft of the heaviest — in them      far more than you estimated, and far less also;
In them realities for you and me — in them poems for      you and me;
In them, not yourself — you and your Soul enclose all      things, regardless of estimation;
In them the development good — in them, all themes      and hints.
33   I do not affirm what you see beyond is futile — I do      not advise you to stop;
I do not say leadings you thought great are not great;
But I say that none lead to greater, than those lead to.

34   Will you seek afar off? You surely come back at last,
In things best known to you, finding the best, or as      good as the best,
In folks nearest to you finding the sweetest, strongest,      lovingest;
Happiness, knowledge, not in another place, but this      place — not for another hour, but this hour;
Man in the first you see or touch — always in friend,      brother, nighest neighbor — Woman in mother,      lover, wife;
The popular tastes and employments taking precedence      in poems or any where,
You workwomen and workmen of these States having      your own divine and strong life,
And all else giving place to men and women like you.