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10   I am a dance — Play up, there! the fit is whirling      me fast!
11  I am the ever-laughing — it is new moon and twi-     light,
I see the hiding of douceurs — I see nimble ghosts      whichever way I look,
Cache, and cache again, deep in the ground and sea,      and where it is neither ground or sea.
12  Well do they do their jobs, those journeymen di-     vine,
Only from me can they hide nothing, and would not      if they could,
I reckon I am their boss, and they make me a pet      besides,
And surround me and lead me, and run ahead when      I walk,
To lift their cunning covers, to signify me with      stretch'd arms, and resume the way;
Onward we move! a gay gang of blackguards! with      mirth-shouting music, and wild-flapping pen-     nants of joy!
13  I am the actor, the actress, the voter, the politician;
The emigrant and the exile, the criminal that stood      in the box,
He who has been famous, and he who shall be famous      after to-day,
The stammerer, the well-form'd person, the wasted or      feeble person.
14  I am she who adorn'd herself and folded her hair      expectantly,
My truant lover has come, and it is dark.
15  Double yourself and receive me, darkness!
Receive me and my lover too — he will not let me go      without him.
16  I roll myself upon you, as upon a bed — I resign      myself to the dusk.
17  He whom I call answers me, and takes the place of      my lover,
He rises with me silently from the bed.
18   Darkness! you are gentler than my lover — his flesh      was sweaty and panting,
I feel the hot moisture yet that he left me.
19  My hands are spread forth, I pass them in all direc-     tions,
I would sound up the shadowy shore to which you are      journeying.
20  Be careful, darkness! already, what was it touch'd      me?
I thought my lover had gone, else darkness and he are      one,
I hear the heart-beat — I follow, I fade away.
21  O hot-cheek'd and blushing! O foolish hectic!
O for pity's sake, no one must see me now! my clothes      were stolen while I was abed,
Now I am thrust forth, where shall I run?
22  Pier that I saw dimly last night, when I look'd from      the windows!
Pier out from the main, let me catch myself with you,      and stay — I will not chafe you,
I feel ashamed to go naked about the world.
23  I am curious to know where my feet stand — and      what this is flooding me, childhood or manhood       — and the hunger that crosses the bridge      between.
24  The cloth laps a first sweet eating and drinking,
Laps lifecorn, milky      and just ripen'd;
The white teeth stay, and the boss-tooth advances in      darkness,
And liquor is spill'd on lips and bosoms by touching      glasses, and the best liquor afterward.