 | Leaves of grass. |  |
1c
LEAVES OF GRASS.
SONGS
BEFORE PARTING.
2c
CONTENTS.
| As I sat Alone by Blue Ontario's shore......................... | 4 |
| LEAVES OF GRASS | |
| "O me, man of slack faith so long!"............................ | 22 |
| "Forms, qualities, lives, humanity, languages, thoughts"....... | 23 |
| "Now I make a leaf of Voices".................................. | — |
| "What am I, after all, but a child"............................ | 24 |
| "Locations and times — what is it in me that meets them"... | — |
| THOUGHTS | |
| "Of these years I sing"........................................ | 25 |
| "Of seeds dropping into the ground"............................ | 26 |
| As Nearing Departure........................................... | 27 |
| As I walk, Solitary, Unattended................................ | 28 |
| Song at Sunset................................................. | 29 |
| To a Historian................................................. | 31 |
| Assurances............................................ ......... | 32 |
| So Long!....................................................... | 33 |
3c
AS I SAT ALONE BY BLUE ONTARIO'S SHORE.
1
1 As I sat alone,
by blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these mighty days, and of peace re- turn'd, and the dead that return no more,
A Phantom, gigantic, superb, with stern visage, ac- cost'd me;
Chant me a poem, it said, of the range of the high Soul of Poets,
And chant of the welcome bards that breathe but my native air — invoke those bards;
And chant me, before you go, the Song of the throes of Democracy.
2 (Democracy — the destined conqueror — yet treacher- ous lip-smiles everywhere,
And Death and infidelity at every step.)
As I mused of these mighty days, and of peace re- turn'd, and the dead that return no more,
A Phantom, gigantic, superb, with stern visage, ac- cost'd me;
Chant me a poem, it said, of the range of the high Soul of Poets,
And chant of the welcome bards that breathe but my native air — invoke those bards;
And chant me, before you go, the Song of the throes of Democracy.
2 (Democracy — the destined conqueror — yet treacher- ous lip-smiles everywhere,
And Death and infidelity at every step.)
2
3 A nation announcing
itself,
I myself make the only growth by which I can be ap- preciated,
I reject none, accept all, then reproduce all in my own forms.
4 A breed whose proof is in
time and deeds;
What we are, we are — nativity is answer enough to objections;
We wield ourselves as a weapon is wielded,
We are powerful and tremendous in ourselves,
We are executive in ourselves — We are sufficient in the variety of ourselves,
We are the most beautiful to ourselves, and in our- selves;
We stand self-pois'd, in the middle, branching thence over the world;
From Missouri, Nebraska, or Kansas, laughing attacks to scorn.
5 Nothing is sinful to us outside of ourselves,
Whatever appears, whatever does not appear, we are beautiful or sinful in ourselves only.
6 (O mother! O sisters dear!
If we are lost, no victor else has destroy'd us;
It is by ourselves we go down to eternal night.)
I myself make the only growth by which I can be ap- preciated,
I reject none, accept all, then reproduce all in my own forms.
4c
What we are, we are — nativity is answer enough to objections;
We wield ourselves as a weapon is wielded,
We are powerful and tremendous in ourselves,
We are executive in ourselves — We are sufficient in the variety of ourselves,
We are the most beautiful to ourselves, and in our- selves;
We stand self-pois'd, in the middle, branching thence over the world;
From Missouri, Nebraska, or Kansas, laughing attacks to scorn.
5 Nothing is sinful to us outside of ourselves,
Whatever appears, whatever does not appear, we are beautiful or sinful in ourselves only.
6 (O mother! O sisters dear!
If we are lost, no victor else has destroy'd us;
It is by ourselves we go down to eternal night.)
3
7 Have you thought there
could be but a single
Supreme?
There can be any number of Supremes — One does not countervail another, any more than one eye- sight countervails another, or one life counter- vails another.
8 All is eligible to all,
All is for individuals — All is for you,
No condition is prohibited, not God's, or any.
9 All comes by the body — only health puts you rapport with the universe.
10 Produce great persons, the rest follows.
There can be any number of Supremes — One does not countervail another, any more than one eye- sight countervails another, or one life counter- vails another.
8 All is eligible to all,
All is for individuals — All is for you,
No condition is prohibited, not God's, or any.
9 All comes by the body — only health puts you rapport with the universe.
10 Produce great persons, the rest follows.
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4
11 America isolated I sing;
I say that works made here in the spirit of other lands, are so much poison to These States.
12 How dare these insects assume to write poems for America?
For our armies, and the offspring following the armies.
13 Piety and conformity to them that like!
Peace, obesity, allegiance, to them that like!
I am he who tauntingly compels men, women, nations,
Crying, Leap from your seats, and contend for your lives!
14 I am he who walks the States with a barbed tongue, questioning every one I meet;
Who are you, that wanted only to be told what you knew before?
Who are you, that wanted only a book to join you in your nonsense?
15 (With pangs and cries, as thine own, O bearer of many children!
This chant all wild, to a race of pride I give.)
16 O lands! would you be freer than all that has ever been before?
If you would be freer than all that has been before, come listen to me.
17 Fear grace — Fear delicatesse,
Fear the mellow sweet, the sucking of honey-juice;
Beware the advancing mortal ripening of nature,
Beware what precedes the decay of the ruggedness of states and men.
I say that works made here in the spirit of other lands, are so much poison to These States.
12 How dare these insects assume to write poems for America?
For our armies, and the offspring following the armies.
13 Piety and conformity to them that like!
Peace, obesity, allegiance, to them that like!
I am he who tauntingly compels men, women, nations,
Crying, Leap from your seats, and contend for your lives!
14 I am he who walks the States with a barbed tongue, questioning every one I meet;
Who are you, that wanted only to be told what you knew before?
Who are you, that wanted only a book to join you in your nonsense?
15 (With pangs and cries, as thine own, O bearer of many children!
This chant all wild, to a race of pride I give.)
16 O lands! would you be freer than all that has ever been before?
If you would be freer than all that has been before, come listen to me.
17 Fear grace — Fear delicatesse,
Fear the mellow sweet, the sucking of honey-juice;
Beware the advancing mortal ripening of nature,
Beware what precedes the decay of the ruggedness of states and men.
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5
18 Ages, precedents,
chants, have long been
accumu- lating
undirected materials,
America brings builders, and brings its own styles.
19 The poets of Asia and Europe have done their work, and pass'd to other spheres,
One work forever remains, the work of surpassing all they have done.
20 America, curious toward foreign characters, stands by its own at all hazards,
Stands removed, spacious, composite, sound, initiates the true use of precedents,
Does not repel them, or the past, or what they have produced under their forms,
Takes the lesson with calmness, perceives the corpse slowly borne from the house,
Perceives that it waits a little while in the door — that it was fittest for its days,
That its life has descended to the stalwart and well- shaped heir who approaches,
And that he shall be fittest for his days.
21 Any period, one nation must lead,
One land must be the promise and reliance of the future.
22 These States are the amplest poem,
Here is not merely a nation, but a teeming nation of nations,
Here the doings of men correspond with the broad- cast doings of the day and night,
Here is what moves in magnificent masses, careless of particulars,
Here are the roughs, beards, friendliness, combative- ness, the Soul loves,
Here the flowing trains — here the crowds, equality, diversity, the Soul loves.
America brings builders, and brings its own styles.
19 The poets of Asia and Europe have done their work, and pass'd to other spheres,
One work forever remains, the work of surpassing all they have done.
20 America, curious toward foreign characters, stands by its own at all hazards,
Stands removed, spacious, composite, sound, initiates the true use of precedents,
Does not repel them, or the past, or what they have produced under their forms,
Takes the lesson with calmness, perceives the corpse slowly borne from the house,
Perceives that it waits a little while in the door — that it was fittest for its days,
That its life has descended to the stalwart and well- shaped heir who approaches,
And that he shall be fittest for his days.
21 Any period, one nation must lead,
One land must be the promise and reliance of the future.
22 These States are the amplest poem,
Here is not merely a nation, but a teeming nation of nations,
Here the doings of men correspond with the broad- cast doings of the day and night,
Here is what moves in magnificent masses, careless of particulars,
Here are the roughs, beards, friendliness, combative- ness, the Soul loves,
Here the flowing trains — here the crowds, equality, diversity, the Soul loves.
7c
6
23 Land of lands, and bards
to corroborate!
Of them, standing among them, one lifts to the light his west-bred face,
To him the hereditary countenance bequeath'd, both mother's and father's,
His first parts substances, earth, water, animals, trees,
Built of the common stock, having room for far and near.
Used to dispense with other lands, incarnating this land,
Attracting it Body and Soul to himself, hanging on its neck with incomparable love,
Plunging his semitic muscle into its merits and demerits,
Making its cities, beginnings, events, diversities, wars, vocal in him,
Making its rivers, lakes, bays, embouchure in him,
Mississippi with yearly freshets and changing chutes — Columbia, Niagara, Hudson, spending them- selves lovingly in him,
If the Atlantic coast stretch, or the Pacific coast stretch, he stretching with them north or south,
Spanning between them east and west, and touching whatever is between them,
Growths growing from him to offset the growth of pine, cedar, hemlock, live-oak, locust, chestnut, hickory, cotton-wood, orange, magnolia,
Tangles as tangled in him as any cane-brake or swamp,
He likening sides and peaks of mountains, forests coated with northern transparent ice,
Off him pasturage sweet and natural as savanna, up- land, prairie,
Through him flights, whirls, screams, answering those of the fish-hawk, mocking-bird, night-heron, and eagle;
His spirit surrounding his country's spirit, unclosed to good and evil,
Surrounding the essences of real things, old times
and present
times,
Surrounding just found shores, islands, tribes of red aborigines,
Weather-beaten vessels, landings, settlements, embryo stature and muscle,
The haughty defiance of the Year 1 — war, peace, the formation of the Constitution,
The separate States, the simple, elastic scheme, the immigrants,
The Union, always swarming with blatherers, and always sure and impregnable,
The unsurvey'd interior, log-houses, clearings, wild animals, hunters, trappers;
Surrounding the multiform agriculture, mines, tem- perature, the gestation of new States,
Congress convening every Twelfth-month, the mem- bers duly coming up from the uttermost parts;
Surrounding the noble character of mechanics and farmers, especially the young men,
Responding their manners, speech, dress, friendships — the gait they have of persons who never knew how it felt to stand in the presence of superiors,
The freshness and candor of their physiognomy, the copiousness and decision of their phrenology,
The picturesque looseness of their carriage, their fierceness when wrong'd,
The fluency of their speech, their delight in music, their curiosity, good temper, and open-handed- ness — the whole composite make,
The prevailing ardor and enterprise, the large amat- iveness,
The perfect equality of the female with the male, the fluid movement of the population,
The superior marine, free commerce, fisheries, whal- ing, gold-digging,
Wharf-hemm'd cities, railroad and steamboat lines, intersecting all points,
Factories, mercantile life, labor-saving machinery, the
north-east,
north-west, south-west,
Manhattan firemen, the Yankee swap, southern plan- tation life,
Slavery — the murderous, treacherous conspiracy to raise it upon the ruins of all the rest;
On and on to the grapple with it — Assassin! then your life or ours be the stake — and respite no more.
Of them, standing among them, one lifts to the light his west-bred face,
To him the hereditary countenance bequeath'd, both mother's and father's,
His first parts substances, earth, water, animals, trees,
Built of the common stock, having room for far and near.
Used to dispense with other lands, incarnating this land,
Attracting it Body and Soul to himself, hanging on its neck with incomparable love,
Plunging his semitic muscle into its merits and demerits,
Making its cities, beginnings, events, diversities, wars, vocal in him,
Making its rivers, lakes, bays, embouchure in him,
Mississippi with yearly freshets and changing chutes — Columbia, Niagara, Hudson, spending them- selves lovingly in him,
If the Atlantic coast stretch, or the Pacific coast stretch, he stretching with them north or south,
Spanning between them east and west, and touching whatever is between them,
Growths growing from him to offset the growth of pine, cedar, hemlock, live-oak, locust, chestnut, hickory, cotton-wood, orange, magnolia,
Tangles as tangled in him as any cane-brake or swamp,
He likening sides and peaks of mountains, forests coated with northern transparent ice,
Off him pasturage sweet and natural as savanna, up- land, prairie,
Through him flights, whirls, screams, answering those of the fish-hawk, mocking-bird, night-heron, and eagle;
His spirit surrounding his country's spirit, unclosed to good and evil,
8c
Surrounding just found shores, islands, tribes of red aborigines,
Weather-beaten vessels, landings, settlements, embryo stature and muscle,
The haughty defiance of the Year 1 — war, peace, the formation of the Constitution,
The separate States, the simple, elastic scheme, the immigrants,
The Union, always swarming with blatherers, and always sure and impregnable,
The unsurvey'd interior, log-houses, clearings, wild animals, hunters, trappers;
Surrounding the multiform agriculture, mines, tem- perature, the gestation of new States,
Congress convening every Twelfth-month, the mem- bers duly coming up from the uttermost parts;
Surrounding the noble character of mechanics and farmers, especially the young men,
Responding their manners, speech, dress, friendships — the gait they have of persons who never knew how it felt to stand in the presence of superiors,
The freshness and candor of their physiognomy, the copiousness and decision of their phrenology,
The picturesque looseness of their carriage, their fierceness when wrong'd,
The fluency of their speech, their delight in music, their curiosity, good temper, and open-handed- ness — the whole composite make,
The prevailing ardor and enterprise, the large amat- iveness,
The perfect equality of the female with the male, the fluid movement of the population,
The superior marine, free commerce, fisheries, whal- ing, gold-digging,
Wharf-hemm'd cities, railroad and steamboat lines, intersecting all points,
9c
Manhattan firemen, the Yankee swap, southern plan- tation life,
Slavery — the murderous, treacherous conspiracy to raise it upon the ruins of all the rest;
On and on to the grapple with it — Assassin! then your life or ours be the stake — and respite no more.
7
24 (Lo! high toward heaven,
this day,
Libertad! from the conqueress' field return'd,
I mark the new aureola around your head;
No more of soft astral, but dazzling and fierce,
With war's flames, and the lambent lightnings playing,
And your port immovable where you stand;
With still the inextinguishable glance, and the clench'd and lifted fist,
And your foot on the neck of the menacing one, the scorner, utterly crush'd beneath you;
The menacing, arrogant one, that strode and advanced with his senseless scorn, bearing the murderous knife;
Lo! the wide swelling one, the braggart, that would yesterday do so much!
To-day a carrion dead and damn'd, the despised of all the earth!
An offal rank, to the dunghill maggots spurn'd.)
Libertad! from the conqueress' field return'd,
I mark the new aureola around your head;
No more of soft astral, but dazzling and fierce,
With war's flames, and the lambent lightnings playing,
And your port immovable where you stand;
With still the inextinguishable glance, and the clench'd and lifted fist,
And your foot on the neck of the menacing one, the scorner, utterly crush'd beneath you;
The menacing, arrogant one, that strode and advanced with his senseless scorn, bearing the murderous knife;
Lo! the wide swelling one, the braggart, that would yesterday do so much!
To-day a carrion dead and damn'd, the despised of all the earth!
An offal rank, to the dunghill maggots spurn'd.)
8
25 Others take finish, but
the Republic is ever
con- structive,
and ever keeps vista;
Others adorn the past — but you, O days of the pres- ent, I adorn you!
O days of the future, I believe in you! I isolate my- self for your sake;
O America, because you build for mankind, I build
for you!
O wellcutters! I lead them who plan with decision and science,
I lead the present with friendly hand toward the future.
Bravas to all semitic impulses sending strong
26 child- ren to the next age!
But damn that which spends itself on flaunters and dalliers, with no thought of the stain, pains, dismay, feebleness, it is bequeathing.
Others adorn the past — but you, O days of the pres- ent, I adorn you!
O days of the future, I believe in you! I isolate my- self for your sake;
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O wellcutters! I lead them who plan with decision and science,
I lead the present with friendly hand toward the future.
Bravas to all semitic impulses sending strong
26 child- ren to the next age!
But damn that which spends itself on flaunters and dalliers, with no thought of the stain, pains, dismay, feebleness, it is bequeathing.
9
27 I heard the voice
arising, demanding bards;
By them, all native and grand — by them only can The States be fused into the compact organism of a nation.
28 To hold men together by paper and seal, or by com- pulsion, is no account,
That only holds men together which aggregates all in a living principle,, as the hold of the limbs of the body, or the fibres of plants.
29 Of all races and eras, These States, with veins full of poetical stuff, most need poets, and are to have the greatest, and use them the greatest;
Their Presidents shall not be their common referee so much as their poets shall.
30 (Soul of love, and tongue of fire!
Eye to pierce the deepest deeps, and sweep the world!
— Ah, mother! prolific and full in all besides — yet how long barren, barren?)
By them, all native and grand — by them only can The States be fused into the compact organism of a nation.
28 To hold men together by paper and seal, or by com- pulsion, is no account,
That only holds men together which aggregates all in a living principle,, as the hold of the limbs of the body, or the fibres of plants.
29 Of all races and eras, These States, with veins full of poetical stuff, most need poets, and are to have the greatest, and use them the greatest;
Their Presidents shall not be their common referee so much as their poets shall.
30 (Soul of love, and tongue of fire!
Eye to pierce the deepest deeps, and sweep the world!
— Ah, mother! prolific and full in all besides — yet how long barren, barren?)
11c
10
31 Of mankind, the poet is
the equable man,
Not in him, but off from him, things are grotesque, eccentric, fail of their full returns,
Nothing out of its place is good, nothing in its place is bad,
He bestows on every object or quality its fit propor- tion, neither more nor less,
He is the arbiter of the diverse, he is the key,
He is the equalizer of his age and land,
He supplies what wants supplying — he checks what wants checking,
In peace, out of him speaks the spirit of peace, large, rich, thrifty, building populous towns, encour- aging agriculture, arts, commerce, lighting the study of man, the Soul, health, immortality, government,
In war, he is the best backer of the war — he fetches artillery as good as the engineer's — he can make every word he speaks draw blood;
The years straying toward infidelity, he withholds by his steady faith,
He is no arguer, he is judgment — (Nature accepts him absolutely;)
He judges not as the judge judges, but as the sun falling round a helpless thing;
As he sees the farthest, he has the most faith,
His thoughts are the hymns of the praise of things,
In the dispute on God and eternity he is silent,
He sees eternity less like a play with a prologue and denouement,
He sees eternity in men and women — he does not see men and women as dreams or dots.
32 For the great Idea, the idea of perfect and free individuals,
For that idea, the bard walks in advance, leader of leaders,
The attitude of him cheers up slaves, and horrifies
foreign
despots.
33 Without extinction is Liberty! Without retrograde is Equality!
They live in the feelings of young men, and the best women,
Not for nothing have the indomitable heads of the earth been always ready to fall for Liberty.
Not in him, but off from him, things are grotesque, eccentric, fail of their full returns,
Nothing out of its place is good, nothing in its place is bad,
He bestows on every object or quality its fit propor- tion, neither more nor less,
He is the arbiter of the diverse, he is the key,
He is the equalizer of his age and land,
He supplies what wants supplying — he checks what wants checking,
In peace, out of him speaks the spirit of peace, large, rich, thrifty, building populous towns, encour- aging agriculture, arts, commerce, lighting the study of man, the Soul, health, immortality, government,
In war, he is the best backer of the war — he fetches artillery as good as the engineer's — he can make every word he speaks draw blood;
The years straying toward infidelity, he withholds by his steady faith,
He is no arguer, he is judgment — (Nature accepts him absolutely;)
He judges not as the judge judges, but as the sun falling round a helpless thing;
As he sees the farthest, he has the most faith,
His thoughts are the hymns of the praise of things,
In the dispute on God and eternity he is silent,
He sees eternity less like a play with a prologue and denouement,
He sees eternity in men and women — he does not see men and women as dreams or dots.
32 For the great Idea, the idea of perfect and free individuals,
For that idea, the bard walks in advance, leader of leaders,
12c
33 Without extinction is Liberty! Without retrograde is Equality!
They live in the feelings of young men, and the best women,
Not for nothing have the indomitable heads of the earth been always ready to fall for Liberty.
11
34 For the great Idea!
For that we live, my brethren — that is the mission of Poets.
35 With their poems of stern defiance, ever ready,
With songs of the rapid arming, and the march,
And the flag of peace quick-folded, and the song, instead, of the flag we know,
The flag of the youths and veterans — flaunting flag,
Warlike flag of the great Idea.
36 (Angry cloth I saw there leaping!
I stand again in the leaden rain, your flapping folds saluting;
I sing you over all, flying, beckoning through the fight — O the hard-contested fight!
O the cannons ope their rosy-flashing muzzles! the hurtled balls scream!
The battle-front forms amid the smoke — the volleys pour incessant from the line;
Hark! the ringing word, Charge! — now the tussle, and the furious maddening yells;
Now the corpses tumble curl'd upon the ground,
Cold, cold in death, for precious life of you,
Angry cloth I saw there leaping.)
For that we live, my brethren — that is the mission of Poets.
35 With their poems of stern defiance, ever ready,
With songs of the rapid arming, and the march,
And the flag of peace quick-folded, and the song, instead, of the flag we know,
The flag of the youths and veterans — flaunting flag,
Warlike flag of the great Idea.
36 (Angry cloth I saw there leaping!
I stand again in the leaden rain, your flapping folds saluting;
I sing you over all, flying, beckoning through the fight — O the hard-contested fight!
O the cannons ope their rosy-flashing muzzles! the hurtled balls scream!
The battle-front forms amid the smoke — the volleys pour incessant from the line;
Hark! the ringing word, Charge! — now the tussle, and the furious maddening yells;
Now the corpses tumble curl'd upon the ground,
Cold, cold in death, for precious life of you,
Angry cloth I saw there leaping.)
12
37 Are you he who would
assume a place to teach here,
or lead here,
or be a poet here?
The place is august — the terms obdurate.
38 Who would assume to
teach here, may well prepare
himself, body
and mind,
He may well survey, ponder, arm, fortify, harden, make lithe, himself,
He shall surely be question'd beforehand by me with many and stern questions.
39 Who are you, indeed, who would talk or sing to America?
Have you studied out my land, its idioms and men?
Have you learn'd the physiology, phrenology, politics, geography, pride, freedom, friendship, of my land? its substratums and objects?
Have you consider'd the organic compact of the first day of the first year of the independence of The States, sign'd by the Commissioners, ratified by The States, and read by Washington at the head of the army?
Have you possess'd yourself of the Federal Constitu- tion?
Do you see who have left all feudal processes and poems behind them, and assumed the poems and processes of Democracy?
Are you faithful to things? Do you teach as the land and sea, the bodies of men, womanhood, amativenesss, angers, teach?
Have you sped through fleeting customs, popularities?
Can you hold your hand against all seductions, follies, whirls, fierce contentions? Are you very strong? Are you really of the whole people?
Are you not of some coterie? some school or mere religion?
Are you done with reviews and criticisms of life? animating now to life itself?
Have you vivified yourself from the maternity of These States?
Have you too the old, ever-fresh, forbearance and impartiality?
Do you hold the like love for those hardening to
maturity; for
the last-born? little and big?
and for the
errant?
40 What is this you bring my America?
Is it uniform with my country?
Is it not something that has been better told or done before?
Have you not imported this, or the spirit of it, in some ship?
Is it a mere tale? a rhyme? a prettiness?
Has it not dangled long at the heels of the poets, politicians, literats, of enemies' lands?
Does it not assume that what is notoriously gone is still here?
Does it answer universal needs? Will it improve manners?
Can your performance face the open fields and the sea-side?
Will it absorb into me as I absorb food, air — to appear again in my strength, gait, face?
Have real employments contributed to it? original makers — not mere amanuenses?
Does it meet modern discoveries, calibers, facts, face to face?
What does it mean to me? to American persons, pro- gresses, cities? Chicago, Kanada, Arkansas? the planter, Yankee, Georgian, native, immi- grant, sailors, squatters, old States, new States?
Does it encompass all The States, and the unexcep- tional rights of all the men and women of the earth? (the genital impulse of These States;)
Does it see behind the apparent custodians, the real custodians, standing, menacing, silent — the mechanics, Manhattanese, western men, south- erners, significant alike in their apathy, and in the promptness of their love?
Does it see what finally befalls, and has always finally
befallen,
each temporizer, patcher, outsider,
partialist,
alarmist, infidel, who has ever ask'd
anything of
America?
What mocking and scornful negligence?
The track strew'd with the dust of skeletons;
By the roadside others disdainfully toss'd.
The place is august — the terms obdurate.
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He may well survey, ponder, arm, fortify, harden, make lithe, himself,
He shall surely be question'd beforehand by me with many and stern questions.
39 Who are you, indeed, who would talk or sing to America?
Have you studied out my land, its idioms and men?
Have you learn'd the physiology, phrenology, politics, geography, pride, freedom, friendship, of my land? its substratums and objects?
Have you consider'd the organic compact of the first day of the first year of the independence of The States, sign'd by the Commissioners, ratified by The States, and read by Washington at the head of the army?
Have you possess'd yourself of the Federal Constitu- tion?
Do you see who have left all feudal processes and poems behind them, and assumed the poems and processes of Democracy?
Are you faithful to things? Do you teach as the land and sea, the bodies of men, womanhood, amativenesss, angers, teach?
Have you sped through fleeting customs, popularities?
Can you hold your hand against all seductions, follies, whirls, fierce contentions? Are you very strong? Are you really of the whole people?
Are you not of some coterie? some school or mere religion?
Are you done with reviews and criticisms of life? animating now to life itself?
Have you vivified yourself from the maternity of These States?
Have you too the old, ever-fresh, forbearance and impartiality?
14c
40 What is this you bring my America?
Is it uniform with my country?
Is it not something that has been better told or done before?
Have you not imported this, or the spirit of it, in some ship?
Is it a mere tale? a rhyme? a prettiness?
Has it not dangled long at the heels of the poets, politicians, literats, of enemies' lands?
Does it not assume that what is notoriously gone is still here?
Does it answer universal needs? Will it improve manners?
Can your performance face the open fields and the sea-side?
Will it absorb into me as I absorb food, air — to appear again in my strength, gait, face?
Have real employments contributed to it? original makers — not mere amanuenses?
Does it meet modern discoveries, calibers, facts, face to face?
What does it mean to me? to American persons, pro- gresses, cities? Chicago, Kanada, Arkansas? the planter, Yankee, Georgian, native, immi- grant, sailors, squatters, old States, new States?
Does it encompass all The States, and the unexcep- tional rights of all the men and women of the earth? (the genital impulse of These States;)
Does it see behind the apparent custodians, the real custodians, standing, menacing, silent — the mechanics, Manhattanese, western men, south- erners, significant alike in their apathy, and in the promptness of their love?
15c
What mocking and scornful negligence?
The track strew'd with the dust of skeletons;
By the roadside others disdainfully toss'd.
13
41 Rhymes and rhymers pass
away — poems distill'd
from other
poems pass away,
The swarms of reflectors and the polite pass, and leave ashes;
Admirers, importers, obedient persons, make but the soil of literature;
America justifies itself, give it time — no disguise can deceive it, or conceal from it — it is impassive enough,
Only toward the likes of itself will it advance to meet them,
If its poets appear, it will in due time advance to meet them — there is no fear of mistake,
(The proof of a poet shall be sternly deferr'd, till his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorb'd it.)
42 He masters whose spirit masters — he tastes sweetest who results sweetest in the long run;
The blood of the brawn beloved of time is uncon- straint;
In the need of poems, philosophy, politics, manners, engineering, an appropriate native grand-opera, shipcraft, any craft, he or she is greatest who contributes the greatest original practical ex- ample.
43 Already a nonchalant breed, silently emerging, appears on the streets,
People's lips salute only doers, lovers, satisfiers,
positive
knowers;
There will shortly be no more priests — I say their work is done,
Death is without emergencies here, but life is per- petual emergencies here,
Are your body, days, manners, superb? after death you shall be superb;
Justice, health, self-esteem, clear the way with irre- sistible power;
How dare you place anything before a man?
The swarms of reflectors and the polite pass, and leave ashes;
Admirers, importers, obedient persons, make but the soil of literature;
America justifies itself, give it time — no disguise can deceive it, or conceal from it — it is impassive enough,
Only toward the likes of itself will it advance to meet them,
If its poets appear, it will in due time advance to meet them — there is no fear of mistake,
(The proof of a poet shall be sternly deferr'd, till his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorb'd it.)
42 He masters whose spirit masters — he tastes sweetest who results sweetest in the long run;
The blood of the brawn beloved of time is uncon- straint;
In the need of poems, philosophy, politics, manners, engineering, an appropriate native grand-opera, shipcraft, any craft, he or she is greatest who contributes the greatest original practical ex- ample.
43 Already a nonchalant breed, silently emerging, appears on the streets,
16c
There will shortly be no more priests — I say their work is done,
Death is without emergencies here, but life is per- petual emergencies here,
Are your body, days, manners, superb? after death you shall be superb;
Justice, health, self-esteem, clear the way with irre- sistible power;
How dare you place anything before a man?
14
44 Fall behind me, States!
A man before all — myself, typical, before all.
45 Give me the pay I have served for!
Give me to sing the songs of the great Idea! take all the rest;
I have loved the earth, sun, animals — I have despised riches,
I have given alms to every one that ask'd, stood up for the stupid and crazy, devoted my income and labor to others,
I have hated tyrants, argued not concerning God, had patience and indulgence toward the peo- ple, taken off my hat to nothing known or un- known,
I have gone freely with powerful uneducated persons, and with the young, and with the mothers of families,
I have read these leaves to myself in the open air — I have tried them by trees, stars, rivers,
I have dismiss'd whatever insulted my own Soul or defiled my Body,
I have claim'd nothing to myself which I have not carefully claim'd for others on the same terms,
I have sped to the camps, and comrades found and accepted from every State,
I am willing to wait to be understood by the growth
of the taste
of myself,
I reject none, I permit all.
46 (Say, O mother! have I not to your thought been faithful?
Have I not, through life, kept that alone before me?)
A man before all — myself, typical, before all.
45 Give me the pay I have served for!
Give me to sing the songs of the great Idea! take all the rest;
I have loved the earth, sun, animals — I have despised riches,
I have given alms to every one that ask'd, stood up for the stupid and crazy, devoted my income and labor to others,
I have hated tyrants, argued not concerning God, had patience and indulgence toward the peo- ple, taken off my hat to nothing known or un- known,
I have gone freely with powerful uneducated persons, and with the young, and with the mothers of families,
I have read these leaves to myself in the open air — I have tried them by trees, stars, rivers,
I have dismiss'd whatever insulted my own Soul or defiled my Body,
I have claim'd nothing to myself which I have not carefully claim'd for others on the same terms,
I have sped to the camps, and comrades found and accepted from every State,
17c
I reject none, I permit all.
46 (Say, O mother! have I not to your thought been faithful?
Have I not, through life, kept that alone before me?)
15
47 I swear I begin to see
the meaning of these things!
It is not the earth, it is not America, who is so great,
It is I who am great, or to be great — it is you up there, or any one,
It is to walk rapidly through civilizations, govern- ments, theories,
Through poems, pageants, shows, to individuals.
48 Underneath all, individuals!
I swear nothing is good to me now that ignores individuals!
The American compact is altogether with individuals,
The only government is that which makes minute of individuals,
The whole theory of the universe is directed to one single individual — namely, to You.
49 (Mother! with subtle sense — with the naked sword in your hand,
I saw you at last refuse to treat but directly with individuals.)
It is not the earth, it is not America, who is so great,
It is I who am great, or to be great — it is you up there, or any one,
It is to walk rapidly through civilizations, govern- ments, theories,
Through poems, pageants, shows, to individuals.
48 Underneath all, individuals!
I swear nothing is good to me now that ignores individuals!
The American compact is altogether with individuals,
The only government is that which makes minute of individuals,
The whole theory of the universe is directed to one single individual — namely, to You.
49 (Mother! with subtle sense — with the naked sword in your hand,
I saw you at last refuse to treat but directly with individuals.)
16
50 Underneath all,
nativity,
I swear I will stand by my own nativity — pious or impious, so be it;
I swear I am charm'd with nothing except nativity,
Men, women, cities, nations, are only beautiful from nativity.
51 Underneath all is the
need of the expression of love
for men and
women,
I swear I have seen enough of mean and impotent modes of expressing love for men and women,
After this day I take my own modes of expressing love for men and women.
52 I swear I will have each quality of my race in myself,
(Talk as you like, he only suits These States whose manners favor the audacity and sublime turbu- lence of The States.)
53 Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownerships, I swear I perceive other lessons,
Underneath all, to me is myself — to you, yourself, (the same monotonous old song.)
I swear I will stand by my own nativity — pious or impious, so be it;
I swear I am charm'd with nothing except nativity,
Men, women, cities, nations, are only beautiful from nativity.
18c
I swear I have seen enough of mean and impotent modes of expressing love for men and women,
After this day I take my own modes of expressing love for men and women.
52 I swear I will have each quality of my race in myself,
(Talk as you like, he only suits These States whose manners favor the audacity and sublime turbu- lence of The States.)
53 Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownerships, I swear I perceive other lessons,
Underneath all, to me is myself — to you, yourself, (the same monotonous old song.)
17
54 O I see now, flashing,
that this America is only you
and me,
Its power, weapons, testimony, are you and me,
Its crimes, lies, thefts, defections, slavery, are you and me,
Its Congress is you and me — the officers, capitols, armies, ships, are you and me,
Its endless gestations of new States are you and me,
The war — that war so bloody and grim — the war I wish to forget — was you and me,
Natural and artificial are you and me,
Freedom, language, poems, employments, are you and me,
Past, present, future, are you and me.
Its power, weapons, testimony, are you and me,
Its crimes, lies, thefts, defections, slavery, are you and me,
Its Congress is you and me — the officers, capitols, armies, ships, are you and me,
Its endless gestations of new States are you and me,
The war — that war so bloody and grim — the war I wish to forget — was you and me,
Natural and artificial are you and me,
Freedom, language, poems, employments, are you and me,
Past, present, future, are you and me.
18
55 I swear I dare not shirk
any part of myself,
Not any part of America, good or bad,
Not the promulgation of Liberty — not to cheer up
slaves and
horrify foreign despots,
Not to build for that which builds for mankind,
Not to balance ranks, complexions, creeds, and the sexes,
Not to justify science, nor the march of equality,
Nor to feed the arrogant blood of the brawn beloved of time.
56 I swear I am for those that have never been master'd!
For men and women whose tempers have never been master'd,
For those whom laws, theories, conventions, can never master.
57 I swear I am for those who walk abreast with the whole earth!
Who inaugurate one, to inaugurate all.
58 I swear I will not be outfaced by irrational things!
I will penetrate what it is in them that is sarcastic upon me!
I will make cities and civilizations defer to me!
This is what I have learnt from America — it is the amount — and it I teach again.
59 (Democracy! while weapons were everywhere aim'd at your breast,
I saw you serenely give birth to children — saw in dreams your dilating form;
Saw you with spreading mantle covering the world.)
Not any part of America, good or bad,
19c
Not to build for that which builds for mankind,
Not to balance ranks, complexions, creeds, and the sexes,
Not to justify science, nor the march of equality,
Nor to feed the arrogant blood of the brawn beloved of time.
56 I swear I am for those that have never been master'd!
For men and women whose tempers have never been master'd,
For those whom laws, theories, conventions, can never master.
57 I swear I am for those who walk abreast with the whole earth!
Who inaugurate one, to inaugurate all.
58 I swear I will not be outfaced by irrational things!
I will penetrate what it is in them that is sarcastic upon me!
I will make cities and civilizations defer to me!
This is what I have learnt from America — it is the amount — and it I teach again.
59 (Democracy! while weapons were everywhere aim'd at your breast,
I saw you serenely give birth to children — saw in dreams your dilating form;
Saw you with spreading mantle covering the world.)
19
60 I will confront these
shows of the day and night!
I will know if I am to be less than they!
I will see if I am not as majestic as they!
I will see if I am not as subtle and real as they!
I will see if I am to be less generous than they!
61 I will see if I have no
meaning, while the houses
and ships
have meaning!
I will see if the fishes and birds are to be enough for themselves, and I am not to be enough for myself.
I will know if I am to be less than they!
I will see if I am not as majestic as they!
I will see if I am not as subtle and real as they!
I will see if I am to be less generous than they!
20c
I will see if the fishes and birds are to be enough for themselves, and I am not to be enough for myself.
20
62 I match my spirit
against yours, you orbs, growths,
mountains,
brutes,
Copious as you are, I absorb you all in myself, and become the master myself.
63 America isolated, yet embodying all, what is it finally except myself?
These States — what are they except myself?
64 I know now why the earth is gross, tantalizing, wicked — it is for my sake,
I take you to be mine, you beautiful, terrible, rude forms.
65 (Mother! bend down, bend close to me your face!
I know not what these plots and deferments are for;
I know not fruition's success — but I know that through war and peace your work goes on, and must yet go on.)
Copious as you are, I absorb you all in myself, and become the master myself.
63 America isolated, yet embodying all, what is it finally except myself?
These States — what are they except myself?
64 I know now why the earth is gross, tantalizing, wicked — it is for my sake,
I take you to be mine, you beautiful, terrible, rude forms.
65 (Mother! bend down, bend close to me your face!
I know not what these plots and deferments are for;
I know not fruition's success — but I know that through war and peace your work goes on, and must yet go on.)
21
66 ...... Thus, by blue
Ontario's shore,
While the winds fann'd me, and the waves came trooping toward me,
I sang with the Power's pulsations — and the charm of my theme was upon me,
Till the tissues that held me, parted their ties upon me.
67 And I saw the free Soul of poets;
The loftiest bards of past ages strode before me,
Strange, large men, long unwaked, undisclosed, were disclosed to me.
While the winds fann'd me, and the waves came trooping toward me,
I sang with the Power's pulsations — and the charm of my theme was upon me,
Till the tissues that held me, parted their ties upon me.
67 And I saw the free Soul of poets;
The loftiest bards of past ages strode before me,
Strange, large men, long unwaked, undisclosed, were disclosed to me.
21c
22
68 O my rapt song, my charm
— mock me not!
Not for the bards of the past — not to invoke them have I launch'd you forth,
Not to call even those lofty bards here by Ontario's shores,
Have I sung, so capricious and loud, my savage song.
69 But, O strong soul of Poets,
Bards for my own land, ere I go, I invoke.
70 You Bards grand as these days so grand!
Bards of the great Idea! Bards of the wondrous in- ventions!
Bards of the marching armies — a million soldiers waiting ever-ready,
Bards towering like hills — (no more these dots, these pigmies, these little piping straws, these gnats, that fill the hour, to pass for poets;)
Bards with songs as from burning coals, or the light- ning's fork'd stripes!
Ample Ohio's bards — bards for California! inland bards;
Bards of pride! Bards tallying the ocean's roar, and the swooping eagle's scream!
You, by my charm, I invoke!
Not for the bards of the past — not to invoke them have I launch'd you forth,
Not to call even those lofty bards here by Ontario's shores,
Have I sung, so capricious and loud, my savage song.
69 But, O strong soul of Poets,
Bards for my own land, ere I go, I invoke.
70 You Bards grand as these days so grand!
Bards of the great Idea! Bards of the wondrous in- ventions!
Bards of the marching armies — a million soldiers waiting ever-ready,
Bards towering like hills — (no more these dots, these pigmies, these little piping straws, these gnats, that fill the hour, to pass for poets;)
Bards with songs as from burning coals, or the light- ning's fork'd stripes!
Ample Ohio's bards — bards for California! inland bards;
Bards of pride! Bards tallying the ocean's roar, and the swooping eagle's scream!
You, by my charm, I invoke!
22c
LEAVES OF GRASS.
1
1 O ME, man of slack faith so long!
Standing aloof — denying portions so long;
Only aware to-day of compact, all-diffused truth;
Discovering to-day there is no lie, or form of lie, and can be none, but grows as inevitably upon it- self as the truth does upon itself,
Or as any law of the earth, or any natural production of the earth does.
2 (This is curious, and may not be realized immedi- ately — But it must be realized;
I feel in myself that I represent falsehoods equally with the rest,
And that the universe does.)
3 Where has fail'd a perfect return, indifferent of lies or the truth?
Is it upon the ground, or in water or fire? or in the spirit of man? or in the meat and blood?
4 Meditating among liars, and retreating sternly into myself, I see that there are really no liars or lies after all,
And that nothing fails its perfect return — And that what are called lies are perfect returns,
And that each thing exactly represents itself, and what has preceded it,
And that the truth includes all, and is compact, just as much as space is compact,
And that there is no flaw or vacuum in the amount of
the truth
— but that all is truth without
ex- ception;
And henceforth I will go celebrate anything I see or am,
And sing and laugh, and deny nothing.
Standing aloof — denying portions so long;
Only aware to-day of compact, all-diffused truth;
Discovering to-day there is no lie, or form of lie, and can be none, but grows as inevitably upon it- self as the truth does upon itself,
Or as any law of the earth, or any natural production of the earth does.
2 (This is curious, and may not be realized immedi- ately — But it must be realized;
I feel in myself that I represent falsehoods equally with the rest,
And that the universe does.)
3 Where has fail'd a perfect return, indifferent of lies or the truth?
Is it upon the ground, or in water or fire? or in the spirit of man? or in the meat and blood?
4 Meditating among liars, and retreating sternly into myself, I see that there are really no liars or lies after all,
And that nothing fails its perfect return — And that what are called lies are perfect returns,
And that each thing exactly represents itself, and what has preceded it,
And that the truth includes all, and is compact, just as much as space is compact,
23c
And henceforth I will go celebrate anything I see or am,
And sing and laugh, and deny nothing.
2.
FORMS, qualities, lives,
humanity, language, thoughts,
The ones known, and the ones unknown — the ones on the stars,
The stars themselves, some shaped, others unshaped,
Wonders as of those countries — the soil, trees, cities, inhabitants, whatever they may be,
Splendid suns, the moons and rings, the countless combinations and effects;
Such-like, and as good as such-like, visible here or anywhere, stand provided for in a handful of space, which I extend my arm and half enclose with my hand;
That contains the start of each and all — the virtue, the germs of all.
The ones known, and the ones unknown — the ones on the stars,
The stars themselves, some shaped, others unshaped,
Wonders as of those countries — the soil, trees, cities, inhabitants, whatever they may be,
Splendid suns, the moons and rings, the countless combinations and effects;
Such-like, and as good as such-like, visible here or anywhere, stand provided for in a handful of space, which I extend my arm and half enclose with my hand;
That contains the start of each and all — the virtue, the germs of all.
3.
1 Now I make a
leaf of Voices — for I have found
nothing
mightier than they are,
And I have found that no word spoken, but is beauti- ful, in its place.
2 O what is it in me that makes me tremble so at voices?
Surely, whoever speaks to me in the right voice, him or her I shall follow,
As the water follows the moon, silently, with fluid
steps any
where around the globe.
3 All waits for the right voices;
Where is the practis'd and perfect organ? Where is the develop'd Soul?
For I see every word utter'd thence has deeper, sweeter, new sounds, impossible on less terms.
4 I see brains and lips closed — tympans and temples unstruck,
Until that comes which has the quality to strike and to unclose,
Until that comes which has the quality ot bring forth what lies slumbering, forever ready, in all words.
And I have found that no word spoken, but is beauti- ful, in its place.
2 O what is it in me that makes me tremble so at voices?
Surely, whoever speaks to me in the right voice, him or her I shall follow,
24c
3 All waits for the right voices;
Where is the practis'd and perfect organ? Where is the develop'd Soul?
For I see every word utter'd thence has deeper, sweeter, new sounds, impossible on less terms.
4 I see brains and lips closed — tympans and temples unstruck,
Until that comes which has the quality to strike and to unclose,
Until that comes which has the quality ot bring forth what lies slumbering, forever ready, in all words.
4.
1 WHAT am I, after all, but a child,
pleased with the
sound of my
own name? repeating it over and
over;
I stand apart to hear — it never tires me.
2 To you, your name also,
Did you think there was nothing but two or three pro- nunciations in the sound of your name?
I stand apart to hear — it never tires me.
2 To you, your name also,
Did you think there was nothing but two or three pro- nunciations in the sound of your name?
5
LOCATIONS and times —
what is it in me that meets them
all, whenever
and wherever, and makes me at
home?
Forms, colors, densities, odors — what is it in me that corresponds with them?
Forms, colors, densities, odors — what is it in me that corresponds with them?
25c
THOUGHTS.
1.
OF these years I sing,
How they pass through convuls'd pains, as through parturitions;
How America illustrates birth, gigantic youth, the promise, the sure fulfilment, despite of people — Illustrates evil as well as good;
How many hold despairingly yet to the models de- parted, caste, myths, obedience, compulsion, and to infidelity;
How few see the arrived models, the Athletes, The States — or see freedom or spirituality — or hold any faith in results,
(But I see the Athletes — and I see the results glorious and inevitable — and they again leading to other results;)
How the great cities appear — How the Democratic masses, turbulent, wilful, as I love them,
How the whirl, the contest, the wrestle of evil with good, the sounding and resounding, keep on and on;
How society waits unform'd, and is between things ended and things begun;
How America is the continent of glories, and of the triumph of freedom, and of the Democracies, and of the fruits of society, and of all that is begun;
And how The States are complete in themselves — And how all triumphs and glories are complete in themselves, to lead onward,
And how these of mine, and of The States, will in their turn be convuls'd, and serve other par- turitions and transitions,
And how all people, sights, combinations, the Demo- cratic masses, too, serve — and how every fact serves,
And how now, or at any time, each serves the exquisite
transition of
Death.
How they pass through convuls'd pains, as through parturitions;
How America illustrates birth, gigantic youth, the promise, the sure fulfilment, despite of people — Illustrates evil as well as good;
How many hold despairingly yet to the models de- parted, caste, myths, obedience, compulsion, and to infidelity;
How few see the arrived models, the Athletes, The States — or see freedom or spirituality — or hold any faith in results,
(But I see the Athletes — and I see the results glorious and inevitable — and they again leading to other results;)
How the great cities appear — How the Democratic masses, turbulent, wilful, as I love them,
How the whirl, the contest, the wrestle of evil with good, the sounding and resounding, keep on and on;
How society waits unform'd, and is between things ended and things begun;
How America is the continent of glories, and of the triumph of freedom, and of the Democracies, and of the fruits of society, and of all that is begun;
And how The States are complete in themselves — And how all triumphs and glories are complete in themselves, to lead onward,
And how these of mine, and of The States, will in their turn be convuls'd, and serve other par- turitions and transitions,
And how all people, sights, combinations, the Demo- cratic masses, too, serve — and how every fact serves,
26c
2.
OF seeds dropping into the
ground — of birth,
Of the steady concentration of America, inland, up- ward, to impregnable and swarming places,
Of what Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and the rest, are to be,
Of what a few years will show there in Nebraska, Colorado, Nevada, and the rest;
Of what the feuillage of America is the preparation for — and of what all the sights, North, South, East and West, are;
Of the temporary use of materials, for identity's sake,
Of departing — of the growth of a mightier race than any yet,
Of myself, soon, perhaps, closing up my songs by these shores,
Of California — of Oregon — and of me journeying to live and sing there;
Of the Western Sea — of the spread inland between it and the spinal river,
Of the great pastoral area, athletic and feminine,
Of all sloping down there where the fresh free giver, the mother, the Mississippi flows,
Of future men and women there — of happiness in those high plateaus, ranging three thousand miles, warm and cold;
Of cities yet unsurvey'd and unsuspected, (as I am also, and as it must be;)
Of the new and good names — of the strong develop- ments — of inalienable homesteads;
Of a free and original life there — of simple diet and clean and sweet blood;
Of litheness, majestic faces, clear eyes, and perfect physique there;
Of immense spiritual results, future years, each side
of the
Anahuacs;
Of these leaves, well understood there, (being made for that area;)
Of the native scorn of grossness and gain there;
(O it lurks in me night and day — What is gain, after all, to savageness and freedom?)
Of the steady concentration of America, inland, up- ward, to impregnable and swarming places,
Of what Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and the rest, are to be,
Of what a few years will show there in Nebraska, Colorado, Nevada, and the rest;
Of what the feuillage of America is the preparation for — and of what all the sights, North, South, East and West, are;
Of the temporary use of materials, for identity's sake,
Of departing — of the growth of a mightier race than any yet,
Of myself, soon, perhaps, closing up my songs by these shores,
Of California — of Oregon — and of me journeying to live and sing there;
Of the Western Sea — of the spread inland between it and the spinal river,
Of the great pastoral area, athletic and feminine,
Of all sloping down there where the fresh free giver, the mother, the Mississippi flows,
Of future men and women there — of happiness in those high plateaus, ranging three thousand miles, warm and cold;
Of cities yet unsurvey'd and unsuspected, (as I am also, and as it must be;)
Of the new and good names — of the strong develop- ments — of inalienable homesteads;
Of a free and original life there — of simple diet and clean and sweet blood;
Of litheness, majestic faces, clear eyes, and perfect physique there;
27c
Of these leaves, well understood there, (being made for that area;)
Of the native scorn of grossness and gain there;
(O it lurks in me night and day — What is gain, after all, to savageness and freedom?)
AS NEARING DEPARTURE.
1 As nearing departure,
As the time draws nigh, glooming, a cloud,
A dread beyond, of I know not what, darkens me.
2 I shall go forth,
I shall traverse The States — but I cannot tell whither or how long;
Perhaps soon, some day or night while I am singing, my voice will suddenly cease.
3 O book and chant! must all then amount to but this?
Must we barely arrive at this beginning of me? . . . And yet it is enough, O soul!
O soul! we have positively appear'd — that is enough.
As the time draws nigh, glooming, a cloud,
A dread beyond, of I know not what, darkens me.
2 I shall go forth,
I shall traverse The States — but I cannot tell whither or how long;
Perhaps soon, some day or night while I am singing, my voice will suddenly cease.
3 O book and chant! must all then amount to but this?
Must we barely arrive at this beginning of me? . . . And yet it is enough, O soul!
O soul! we have positively appear'd — that is enough.
28c
AS I WALK, SOLITARY, UNATTENDED.
1 As I walk, solitary, unattended,
Around me I hear that eclat of the world — politics, produce,
The announcements of recognized things — science,
The approved growth of cities, and the spread of inventions.
2 I see the ships, (they will last a few years,)
The vast factories, with their foremen and workmen,
And hear the indorsement of all, and do not object to it.
3 But we too announce solid things;
Science, ships, politics, cities, factories, are not nothing — they serve,
They stand for realities — all is as it should be.
4 Then my realities;
What else is so real as mine?
Libertad, and the divine average — Freedom to every slave on the face of the earth,
The rapt promises and luminé of seers — the spiritual world — these centuries-lasting songs,
And our visions, the visions of poets, the most solid announcements of any.
5 For we support all,
After the rest is done and gone, we remain;
There is no final reliance but upon us;
Democracy rests finally upon us, (I, my brethren, begin it,)
And our visions sweep through eternity.
Around me I hear that eclat of the world — politics, produce,
The announcements of recognized things — science,
The approved growth of cities, and the spread of inventions.
2 I see the ships, (they will last a few years,)
The vast factories, with their foremen and workmen,
And hear the indorsement of all, and do not object to it.
3 But we too announce solid things;
Science, ships, politics, cities, factories, are not nothing — they serve,
They stand for realities — all is as it should be.
4 Then my realities;
What else is so real as mine?
Libertad, and the divine average — Freedom to every slave on the face of the earth,
The rapt promises and luminé of seers — the spiritual world — these centuries-lasting songs,
And our visions, the visions of poets, the most solid announcements of any.
5 For we support all,
After the rest is done and gone, we remain;
There is no final reliance but upon us;
Democracy rests finally upon us, (I, my brethren, begin it,)
And our visions sweep through eternity.
29c
SONG AT SUNSET.
1 SPLENDOR of ended day, floating and filling
me!
Hour prophetic — hour resuming the past!
Inflating my throat — you, divine average!
You, Earth and Life, till the last ray gleams, I sing.
2 Open mouth of my Soul, uttering gladness,
Eyes of my Soul, seeing perfection,
Natural life of me, faithfully praising things;
Corroborating forever the triumph of things.
3 Illustrious every one!
Illustrious what we name space — sphere of unnum- ber'd spirits;
Illustrious the mystery of motion, in all beings, even the tiniest insect;
Illustrious the attribute of speech — the senses — the body;
Illustrious the passing light! Illustrious the pale reflection on the new moon in the western sky!
Illustrious whatever I see, or hear, or touch, to the last.
4 Good in all,
In the satisfaction and aplomb of animals,
In the annual return of the seasons,
In the hilarity of youth,
In the strength and flush of manhood,
In the grandeur and exquisiteness of old age,
In the superb vistas of Death.
5 Wonderful to depart;
Wonderful to be here!
The heart, to jet the all-alike and innocent blood,
To breathe the air, how delicious!
To speak! to walk! to seize something by the hand!
To prepare for sleep, for bed — to look on my
rose- color'd
flesh,
To be conscious of my body, so happy, so large,
To be this incredible God I am,
To have gone forth among other Gods — those men and women I love.
6 Wonderful how I celebrate you and myself!
How my thoughts play subtly at the spectacles around!
How the clouds pass silently overhead!
How the earth darts on and on! and how the sun, moon, stars, dart on and on!
How the water sports and sings! (Surely it is alive!)
How the trees rise and stand up — with strong trunks — with branches and leaves!
(Surely there is something more in each of the trees — some living Soul.)
7 O amazement of things! even the least particle!
O spirituality of things!
O strain musical, flowing through ages and continents — now reaching me and America!
I take your strong chords — I intersperse them, and cheerfully pass them forward.
8 I too carol the sun, usher'd, or at noon, or, as now, setting,
I too throb to the brain and beauty of the earth, and of all the growths of the earth,
I too have felt the resistless call of myself.
9 As I sail'd down the Mississippi,
As I wander'd over the prairies,
As I have lived — As I have look'd through my win- dows, my eyes,
As I went forth in the morning — As I beheld the light breaking in the east;
As I bathed on the beach of the Eastern Sea, and
again on the
beach of the Western Sea;
As I roam'd the streets of inland Chicago — whatever streets I have roam'd;
Wherever I have been, I have charged myself with contentment and triumph.
10 I sing the Equalities;
I sing the endless finalés of things;
I say Nature continues — Glory continues;
I praise with electric voice;
For I do not see one imperfection in the universe;
And I do not see one cause or result lamentable at last in the universe.
11 O setting sun! though the time has come,
I still warble under you, unmitigated adoration.
Hour prophetic — hour resuming the past!
Inflating my throat — you, divine average!
You, Earth and Life, till the last ray gleams, I sing.
2 Open mouth of my Soul, uttering gladness,
Eyes of my Soul, seeing perfection,
Natural life of me, faithfully praising things;
Corroborating forever the triumph of things.
3 Illustrious every one!
Illustrious what we name space — sphere of unnum- ber'd spirits;
Illustrious the mystery of motion, in all beings, even the tiniest insect;
Illustrious the attribute of speech — the senses — the body;
Illustrious the passing light! Illustrious the pale reflection on the new moon in the western sky!
Illustrious whatever I see, or hear, or touch, to the last.
4 Good in all,
In the satisfaction and aplomb of animals,
In the annual return of the seasons,
In the hilarity of youth,
In the strength and flush of manhood,
In the grandeur and exquisiteness of old age,
In the superb vistas of Death.
5 Wonderful to depart;
Wonderful to be here!
The heart, to jet the all-alike and innocent blood,
To breathe the air, how delicious!
To speak! to walk! to seize something by the hand!
30c
To be conscious of my body, so happy, so large,
To be this incredible God I am,
To have gone forth among other Gods — those men and women I love.
6 Wonderful how I celebrate you and myself!
How my thoughts play subtly at the spectacles around!
How the clouds pass silently overhead!
How the earth darts on and on! and how the sun, moon, stars, dart on and on!
How the water sports and sings! (Surely it is alive!)
How the trees rise and stand up — with strong trunks — with branches and leaves!
(Surely there is something more in each of the trees — some living Soul.)
7 O amazement of things! even the least particle!
O spirituality of things!
O strain musical, flowing through ages and continents — now reaching me and America!
I take your strong chords — I intersperse them, and cheerfully pass them forward.
8 I too carol the sun, usher'd, or at noon, or, as now, setting,
I too throb to the brain and beauty of the earth, and of all the growths of the earth,
I too have felt the resistless call of myself.
9 As I sail'd down the Mississippi,
As I wander'd over the prairies,
As I have lived — As I have look'd through my win- dows, my eyes,
As I went forth in the morning — As I beheld the light breaking in the east;
31c
As I roam'd the streets of inland Chicago — whatever streets I have roam'd;
Wherever I have been, I have charged myself with contentment and triumph.
10 I sing the Equalities;
I sing the endless finalés of things;
I say Nature continues — Glory continues;
I praise with electric voice;
For I do not see one imperfection in the universe;
And I do not see one cause or result lamentable at last in the universe.
11 O setting sun! though the time has come,
I still warble under you, unmitigated adoration.
TO A HISTORIAN.
You who celebrate bygones!
Who have explored the outward, the surfaces of the races — the life that has exhibited itself;
Who have treated of man as the creature of politics, aggregates, rulers and priests;
I,habitué of the Alleghanies, treating man as he is in himself, in his own rights,
Pressing the pulse of the life that has seldom ex- hibited itself, (the great pride of man in him- self;)
Chanter of Personality, outlining what is yet to be,
I project the history of the future.
Who have explored the outward, the surfaces of the races — the life that has exhibited itself;
Who have treated of man as the creature of politics, aggregates, rulers and priests;
I,habitué of the Alleghanies, treating man as he is in himself, in his own rights,
Pressing the pulse of the life that has seldom ex- hibited itself, (the great pride of man in him- self;)
Chanter of Personality, outlining what is yet to be,
I project the history of the future.
32c
ASSURANCES.
I NEED no assurances — I
am a man who is
pre- occupied, of
his own Soul;
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 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 pur- pose — and that I shall one day be eligible to do as much as they, and more than they;
I do not doubt that temporary affairs keep on and on, millions of years;
I do not doubt interiors have their interiors, and ex- teriors 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 provided for, to the minutest points;
I do not doubt that shallowness, meanness, malig- nance, are provided for;
I do not doubt that cities, you, America, the remain- der of the earth, politics, freedom, degrada- tions, 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.
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 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 pur- pose — and that I shall one day be eligible to do as much as they, and more than they;
I do not doubt that temporary affairs keep on and on, millions of years;
I do not doubt interiors have their interiors, and ex- teriors 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 provided for, to the minutest points;
I do not doubt that shallowness, meanness, malig- nance, are provided for;
I do not doubt that cities, you, America, the remain- der of the earth, politics, freedom, degrada- tions, 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.
33c
SO LONG!
1
1 To conclude
— I announce what comes after me,
I announce mightier offspring, orators, days, and then depart.
2 I remember I said, before my leaves sprang at all,
I would raise my voice jocund and strong, with re- ference to consummations.
3 When America does what was promis'd,
When there are plentiful athletic bards, inland and seaboard,
When through These States walk a hundred millions of superb persons,
When the rest part away for superb persons, and con- tribute to them,
When breeds of the most perfect mothers denote America,
Then to me my due fruition.
4 I have press'd through in my own right,
I have offer'd my style to every one — I have journey'd with confident step,
While my pleasure is yet at the full, I whisper, So long!
And take the young woman's hand, and the young man's hand, for the last time.
I announce mightier offspring, orators, days, and then depart.
2 I remember I said, before my leaves sprang at all,
I would raise my voice jocund and strong, with re- ference to consummations.
3 When America does what was promis'd,
When there are plentiful athletic bards, inland and seaboard,
When through These States walk a hundred millions of superb persons,
When the rest part away for superb persons, and con- tribute to them,
When breeds of the most perfect mothers denote America,
Then to me my due fruition.
4 I have press'd through in my own right,
I have offer'd my style to every one — I have journey'd with confident step,
While my pleasure is yet at the full, I whisper, So long!
And take the young woman's hand, and the young man's hand, for the last time.
2
5 I announce natural
persons to arise,
I announce justice triumphant,
I announce uncompromising liberty and equality,
I announce the justification of candor, and the justi- fication of pride.
6 I announce that the identity of These States is a single identity only,
I announce the Union more and more compact,
I announce splendors and majesties to make all the previous politics of the earth insignificant.
7 I announce adhesiveness — I say it shall be limitless, unloosen'd,
I say you shall yet find the friend you was looking for.
8 I announce a man or woman coming — perhaps you are the one, (So long!)
I announce the great individual, fluid as Nature, chaste, affectionate, compassionate, fully armed.
9 I announce a life that shall be copious, vehement, spiritual, bold,
And I announce an old age that shall lightly and joy- fully meet its translation.
I announce justice triumphant,
34c
I announce the justification of candor, and the justi- fication of pride.
6 I announce that the identity of These States is a single identity only,
I announce the Union more and more compact,
I announce splendors and majesties to make all the previous politics of the earth insignificant.
7 I announce adhesiveness — I say it shall be limitless, unloosen'd,
I say you shall yet find the friend you was looking for.
8 I announce a man or woman coming — perhaps you are the one, (So long!)
I announce the great individual, fluid as Nature, chaste, affectionate, compassionate, fully armed.
9 I announce a life that shall be copious, vehement, spiritual, bold,
And I announce an old age that shall lightly and joy- fully meet its translation.
3
10 O thicker and faster!
(So long!)
O crowding too close upon me;
I foresee too much — it means more than I thought,
It appears to me I am dying.
11 Hasten throat, and sound your last!
Salute me — salute the days once more. Peal the old cry once more.
12 Screaming electric, the
atmosphere using,
At random glancing, each as a notice absorbing,
Swiftly on, but a little while alighting,
Curious envelop'd messages delivering,
Sparkles hot, seed ethereal, down in the dirt dropping,
Myself unknowing, my commission obeying, to ques- tion it never daring,
To ages, and ages yet, the growth of the seed leaving,
To troops out of me rising — they the tasks I have set promulging,
To women certain whispers of myself bequeathing — their affection me more clearly explaining,
To young men my problems offering — no dallier I — I the muscle of their brains trying,
So I pass — a little time vocal, visible, contrary,
Afterward, a melodious echo, passionately bent for — (death making me really undying,)
The best of me then when no longer visible — for to- ward that I have been incessantly preparing.
13 What is there more, that I lag and pause, and crouch extended with unshut mouth?
Is there a single final farewell?
O crowding too close upon me;
I foresee too much — it means more than I thought,
It appears to me I am dying.
11 Hasten throat, and sound your last!
Salute me — salute the days once more. Peal the old cry once more.
35c
At random glancing, each as a notice absorbing,
Swiftly on, but a little while alighting,
Curious envelop'd messages delivering,
Sparkles hot, seed ethereal, down in the dirt dropping,
Myself unknowing, my commission obeying, to ques- tion it never daring,
To ages, and ages yet, the growth of the seed leaving,
To troops out of me rising — they the tasks I have set promulging,
To women certain whispers of myself bequeathing — their affection me more clearly explaining,
To young men my problems offering — no dallier I — I the muscle of their brains trying,
So I pass — a little time vocal, visible, contrary,
Afterward, a melodious echo, passionately bent for — (death making me really undying,)
The best of me then when no longer visible — for to- ward that I have been incessantly preparing.
13 What is there more, that I lag and pause, and crouch extended with unshut mouth?
Is there a single final farewell?
4
14 My songs cease
— I abandon them,
From behind the screen where I hid, I advance per- sonally, solely to you.
15 Camerado! This is no book,
Who touches this, touches a man,
(Is it night? Are we here alone?)
It is I you hold, and who holds you,
I spring from the pages into your arms — decease calls me forth.
16 O how your fingers
drowse me!
Your breath falls around me like dew — your pulse lulls the tympans of my ears,
I feel immerged from head to foot,
Delicious — enough.
17 Enough, O deed impromptu and secret!
Enough, O gliding present! Enough, O summ'd-up past!
From behind the screen where I hid, I advance per- sonally, solely to you.
15 Camerado! This is no book,
Who touches this, touches a man,
(Is it night? Are we here alone?)
It is I you hold, and who holds you,
I spring from the pages into your arms — decease calls me forth.
36c
Your breath falls around me like dew — your pulse lulls the tympans of my ears,
I feel immerged from head to foot,
Delicious — enough.
17 Enough, O deed impromptu and secret!
Enough, O gliding present! Enough, O summ'd-up past!
5
18 Dear friend, whoever you
are, here, take this kiss,
I give it especially to you — Do not forget me,
I feel like one who has done his work — I progress on, — (long enough have I dallied with Life,)
The unknown sphere, more real than I dream'd, more direct, darts awakening rays about me — So long!
Remember my words — I love you — I depart from materials,
I am as one disembodied, triumphant, dead.
I give it especially to you — Do not forget me,
I feel like one who has done his work — I progress on, — (long enough have I dallied with Life,)
The unknown sphere, more real than I dream'd, more direct, darts awakening rays about me — So long!
Remember my words — I love you — I depart from materials,
I am as one disembodied, triumphant, dead.
FINIS.
| Leaves of grass. | |