Song of Myself the fields

and hill-sides,
By Walt Whitman The feeling of health, the full-noon trill, the song of me
rising
1
from bed and meeting the sun.
I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
Have you reckon'd a thousand acres much? have you
And what I assume you shall assume,
reckon'd the earth much?
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to
Have you practis'd so long to learn to read?
you.
Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?
I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of
Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess
summer grass.
the origin of
My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this
all poems,
soil, this air,
You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, (there
Born here of parents born here from parents the same,
are millions
and their
of suns left,)
parents the same,
You shall no longer take things at second or third hand,
I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,
nor look through
Hoping to cease not till death.
the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books,
Creeds and schools in abeyance,
You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take
Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are, but
things from me,
never forgotten,
You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your
I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every
self.
hazard,
Nature without check with original energy.
3
I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of
2
the
Houses and rooms are full of perfumes, the shelves are
beginning and the end,
crowded with
But I do not talk of the beginning or the end.
perfumes,
There was never any more inception than there is now,
I breathe the fragrance myself and know it and like it,
Nor any more youth or age than there is now,
The distillation would intoxicate me also, but I shall
And will never be any more perfection than there is
not let it.
now,
The atmosphere is not a perfume, it has no taste of the
Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.
distillation, it is odorless,
Urge and urge and urge,
It is for my mouth forever, I am in love with it, I will
Always the procreant urge of the world.
go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised
Out of the dimness opposite equals advance, always
and naked,
substance and
I am mad for it to be in contact with me.
increase, always sex,
The smoke of my own breath,
Always a knit of identity, always distinction, always a
Echoes, ripples, buzz'd whispers, love-root, silk-thread,
breed of life.
crotch and vine,
To elaborate is no avail, learn'd and unlearn'd feel that
My respiration and inspiration, the beating of my heart,
it is so.
the passing
Sure as the most certain sure, plumb in the uprights,
of blood and air through my lungs,
well
The sniff of green leaves and dry leaves, and of the
entretied, braced in the beams,
shore and
Stout as a horse, affectionate, haughty, electrical,
dark-color'd sea-rocks, and of hay in the barn,
I and this mystery here we stand.
The sound of the belch'd words of my voice loos'd to
Clear and sweet is my soul, and clear and sweet is all
the eddies of
that is not my soul.
the wind,
Lack one lacks both, and the unseen is proved by the
A few light kisses, a few embraces, a reaching around
seen,
of arms,
Till that becomes unseen and receives proof in its turn.
The play of shine and shade on the trees as the supple
Showing the best and dividing it from the worst age
boughs wag,
vexes age,
The delight alone or in the rush of the streets, or along
Knowing the perfect fitness and equanimity of things, I have no mockings or arguments, I witness and wait.
while they
discuss I am silent, and go bathe and admire myself. 5
Welcome is every organ and attribute of me, and of I believe in you my soul, the other I am must not abase
any man hearty and clean, itself to you,
Not an inch nor a particle of an inch is vile, and none And you must not be abased to the other.
shall be Loafe with me on the grass, loose the stop from your
less familiar than the rest. throat,
I am satisfied--I see, dance, laugh, sing; Not words, not music or rhyme I want, not custom or
As the hugging and loving bed-fellow sleeps at my side lecture, not
through the night, even the best,
and withdraws at the peep of the day with stealthy Only the lull I like, the hum of your valved voice.
tread, I mind how once we lay such a transparent summer
Leaving me baskets cover'd with white towels swelling morning,
the house with How you settled your head athwart my hips and gently
their plenty, turn'd over upon me,
Shall I postpone my acceptation and realization and And parted the shirt from my bosom-bone, and
scream at my eyes, plunged your tongue
That they turn from gazing after and down the road, to my bare-stript heart,
And forthwith cipher and show me to a cent, And reach'd till you felt my beard, and reach'd till you
Exactly the value of one and exactly the value of two, held my feet.
and which is ahead? Swiftly arose and spread around me the peace and
knowledge that pass
4 all the argument of the earth,
Trippers and askers surround me, And I know that the hand of God is the promise of my
People I meet, the effect upon me of my early life or own,
the ward and And I know that the spirit of God is the brother of my
city I live in, or the nation, own,
The latest dates, discoveries, inventions, societies, And that all the men ever born are also my brothers,
authors old and new, and the women
My dinner, dress, associates, looks, compliments, dues, my sisters and lovers,
And that a kelson of the creation is love,
The real or fancied indifference of some man or And limitless are leaves stiff or drooping in the fields,
woman I love, And brown ants in the little wells beneath them,
The sickness of one of my folks or of myself, or ill- And mossy scabs of the worm fence, heap'd stones,
doing or loss elder, mullein and
or lack of money, or depressions or exaltations, poke-weed.
Battles, the horrors of fratricidal war, the fever of
doubtful news, 6
the fitful events; A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with
These come to me days and nights and go from me full hands;
again, How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is
But they are not the Me myself. any more than he.
Apart from the pulling and hauling stands what I am, I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of
Stands amused, complacent, compassionating, idle, hopeful green
unitary, stuff woven.
Looks down, is erect, or bends an arm on an Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,
impalpable certain rest, A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropt,
Looking with side-curved head curious what will come Bearing the owner's name someway in the corners, that
next, we may see
Both in and out of the game and watching and and remark, and say Whose?
wondering at it. Or I guess the grass is itself a child, the produced babe
Backward I see in my own days where I sweated of the vegetation.
through fog with Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,
linguists and contenders, And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and
narrow zones, I am the mate and companion of people, all just as
Growing among black folks as among white, immortal and
Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them fathomless as myself,
the same, I (They do not know how immortal, but I know.)
receive them the same.
And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of Every kind for itself and its own, for me mine male and
graves. female,
Tenderly will I use you curling grass, For me those that have been boys and that love women,
It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men,
For me the man that is proud and feels how it stings to
It may be if I had known them I would have loved be slighted,
them, For me the sweet-heart and the old maid, for me
It may be you are from old people, or from offspring mothers and the
taken soon out mothers of mothers,
of their mothers' laps, For me lips that have smiled, eyes that have shed tears,
And here you are the mothers' laps. For me children and the begetters of children.
This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of Undrape! you are not guilty to me, nor stale nor
old mothers, discarded,
Darker than the colorless beards of old men, I see through the broadcloth and gingham whether or
Dark to come from under the faint red roofs of mouths. no,
And am around, tenacious, acquisitive, tireless, and
O I perceive after all so many uttering tongues, cannot be shaken away.
And I perceive they do not come from the roofs of
mouths for nothing. 8
I wish I could translate the hints about the dead young The little one sleeps in its cradle,
men and women, I lift the gauze and look a long time, and silently brush
And the hints about old men and mothers, and the away flies
offspring taken with my hand.
soon out of their laps. The youngster and the red-faced girl turn aside up the
What do you think has become of the young and old bushy hill,
men? I peeringly view them from the top.
And what do you think has become of the women and The suicide sprawls on the bloody floor of the
children? bedroom,
They are alive and well somewhere, I witness the corpse with its dabbled hair, I note where
The smallest sprout shows there is really no death, the pistol
And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not has fallen.
wait at the The blab of the pave, tires of carts, sluff of boot-soles,
end to arrest it, talk of
And ceas'd the moment life appear'd. the promenaders,
All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses, The heavy omnibus, the driver with his interrogating
And to die is different from what any one supposed, thumb, the
and luckier. clank of the shod horses on the granite floor,
The snow-sleighs, clinking, shouted jokes, pelts of
7 snow-balls,
Has any one supposed it lucky to be born? The hurrahs for popular favorites, the fury of rous'd
I hasten to inform him or her it is just as lucky to die, mobs,
and I know it. The flap of the curtain'd litter, a sick man inside borne
I pass death with the dying and birth with the new- to the hospital,
wash'd babe, and The meeting of enemies, the sudden oath, the blows
am not contain'd between my hat and boots, and fall,
And peruse manifold objects, no two alike and every The excited crowd, the policeman with his star quickly
one good, working his
The earth good and the stars good, and their adjuncts passage to the centre of the crowd,
all good. The impassive stones that receive and return so many
I am not an earth nor an adjunct of an earth, echoes,
What groans of over-fed or half-starv'd who fall hanging from their shoulders,
sunstruck or in fits, On a bank lounged the trapper, he was drest mostly in
What exclamations of women taken suddenly who skins, his luxuriant
hurry home and beard and curls protected his neck, he held his bride by
give birth to babes, the hand,
What living and buried speech is always vibrating here, She had long eyelashes, her head was bare, her coarse
what howls straight locks
restrain'd by decorum, descended upon her voluptuous limbs and reach'd to
Arrests of criminals, slights, adulterous offers made, her feet.
acceptances, The runaway slave came to my house and stopt
rejections with convex lips, outside,
I mind them or the show or resonance of them--I come I heard his motions crackling the twigs of the
and I depart. woodpile,
Through the swung half-door of the kitchen I saw him
9 limpsy and weak,
And went where he sat on a log and led him in and
The big doors of the country barn stand open and assured him,
ready, And brought water and fill'd a tub for his sweated body
The dried grass of the harvest-time loads the slow- and bruis'd feet,
drawn wagon, And gave him a room that enter'd from my own, and
The clear light plays on the brown gray and green gave him some
intertinged, coarse clean clothes,
The armfuls are pack'd to the sagging mow. And remember perfectly well his revolving eyes and
I am there, I help, I came stretch'd atop of the load, his awkwardness,
I felt its soft jolts, one leg reclined on the other, And remember putting piasters on the galls of his neck
I jump from the cross-beams and seize the clover and and ankles;
timothy, He staid with me a week before he was recuperated
And roll head over heels and tangle my hair full of and pass'd north,
wisps. I had him sit next me at table, my fire-lock lean'd in the
corner.
10
Alone far in the wilds and mountains I hunt, 11
Wandering amazed at my own lightness and glee, Twenty-eight young men bathe by the shore,
In the late afternoon choosing a safe spot to pass the Twenty-eight young men and all so friendly;
night, Twenty-eight years of womanly life and all so
Kindling a fire and broiling the fresh-kill'd game, lonesome.
Falling asleep on the gather'd leaves with my dog and She owns the fine house by the rise of the bank,
gun by my side. She hides handsome and richly drest aft the blinds of
The Yankee clipper is under her sky-sails, she cuts the the window.
sparkle and scud, Which of the young men does she like the best?
My eyes settle the land, I bend at her prow or shout Ah the homeliest of them is beautiful to her.
joyously from the deck. Where are you off to, lady? for I see you,
The boatmen and clam-diggers arose early and stopt You splash in the water there, yet stay stock still in
for me, your room.
I tuck'd my trowser-ends in my boots and went and had Dancing and laughing along the beach came the
a good time; twenty-ninth bather,
You should have been with us that day round the The rest did not see her, but she saw them and loved
chowder-kettle. them.
I saw the marriage of the trapper in the open air in the The beards of the young men glisten'd with wet, it ran
far west, from their long hair,
the bride was a red girl, Little streams pass'd all over their bodies.
Her father and his friends sat near cross-legged and An unseen hand also pass'd over their bodies,
dumbly smoking, It descended tremblingly from their temples and ribs.
they had moccasins to their feet and large thick The young men float on their backs, their white bellies
blankets bulge to the
sun, they do not ask who seizes fast to them, distant and
They do not know who puffs and declines with pendant day-long ramble,
and bending arch, They rise together, they slowly circle around.
They do not think whom they souse with spray. I believe in those wing'd purposes,
And acknowledge red, yellow, white, playing within
12 me,
The butcher-boy puts off his killing-clothes, or And consider green and violet and the tufted crown
sharpens his knife intentional,
at the stall in the market, And do not call the tortoise unworthy because she is
I loiter enjoying his repartee and his shuffle and break- not something else,
down. And the in the woods never studied the gamut, yet trills
Blacksmiths with grimed and hairy chests environ the pretty well to me,
anvil, And the look of the bay mare shames silliness out of
Each has his main-sledge, they are all out, there is a me.
great heat in
the fire. 14
From the cinder-strew'd threshold I follow their The wild gander leads his flock through the cool night,
movements, Ya-honk he says, and sounds it down to me like an
The lithe sheer of their waists plays even with their invitation,
massive arms, The pert may suppose it meaningless, but I listening
Overhand the hammers swing, overhand so slow, close,
overhand so sure, Find its purpose and place up there toward the wintry
They do not hasten, each man hits in his place. sky.
The sharp-hoof'd moose of the north, the cat on the
13 house-sill, the
The negro holds firmly the reins of his four horses, the chickadee, the prairie-dog,
block swags The litter of the grunting sow as they tug at her teats,
underneath on its tied-over chain, The brood of the turkey-hen and she with her half-
The negro that drives the long dray of the stone-yard, spread wings,
steady and I see in them and myself the same old law.
tall he stands pois'd on one leg on the string-piece, The press of my foot to the earth springs a hundred
His blue shirt exposes his ample neck and breast and affections,
loosens over They scorn the best I can do to relate them.
his hip-band, I am enamour'd of growing out-doors,
His glance is calm and commanding, he tosses the Of men that live among cattle or taste of the ocean or
slouch of his hat woods,
away from his forehead, Of the builders and steerers of ships and the wielders
The sun falls on his crispy hair and mustache, falls on of axes and
the black of mauls, and the drivers of horses,
his polish'd and perfect limbs. I can eat and sleep with them week in and week out.
I behold the picturesque giant and love him, and I do What is commonest, cheapest, nearest, easiest, is Me,
not stop there, Me going in for my chances, spending for vast returns,
I go with the team also. Adorning myself to bestow myself on the first that will
In me the caresser of life wherever moving, backward take me,
as well as Not asking the sky to come down to my good will,
forward sluing, Scattering it freely forever.
To niches aside and junior bending, not a person or
object missing, 15
Absorbing all to myself and for this song. The pure contralto sings in the organ loft,
Oxen that rattle the yoke and chain or halt in the leafy The carpenter dresses his plank, the tongue of his
shade, what foreplane
is that you express in your eyes? whistles its wild ascending lisp,
It seems to me more than all the print I have read in my The married and unmarried children ride home to their
life. Thanksgiving dinner,
My tread scares the wood-drake and wood-duck on my The pilot seizes the king-pin, he heaves down with a
strong arm, The connoisseur peers along the exhibition-gallery
The mate stands braced in the whale-boat, lance and with half-shut
harpoon are ready, eyes bent sideways,
The duck-shooter walks by silent and cautious As the deck-hands make fast the steamboat the plank is
stretches, thrown for
The deacons are ordain'd with cross'd hands at the the shore-going passengers,
altar, The young sister holds out the skein while the elder
The spinning-girl retreats and advances to the hum of sister winds it
the big wheel, off in a ball, and stops now and then for the knots,
The farmer stops by the bars as he walks on a First-day The one-year wife is recovering and happy having a
loafe and week ago borne
looks at the oats and rye, her first child,
The lunatic is carried at last to the asylum a confirm'd The clean-hair'd Yankee girl works with her sewing-
case, machine or in the
(He will never sleep any more as he did in the cot in factory or mill,
his mother's The paving-man leans on his two-handed rammer, the
bed-room;) reporter's lead
The jour printer with gray head and gaunt jaws works flies swiftly over the note-book, the sign-painter is
at his case, lettering
He turns his quid of tobacco while his eyes blurr with with blue and gold,
the manuscript; The canal boy trots on the tow-path, the book-keeper
The malform'd limbs are tied to the surgeon's table, counts at his
What is removed drops horribly in a pail; desk, the shoemaker waxes his thread,
The quadroon girl is sold at the auction-stand, the The conductor beats time for the band and all the
drunkard nods by performers follow him,
the bar-room stove, The child is baptized, the convert is making his first
The machinist rolls up his sleeves, the policeman professions,
travels his beat, The regatta is spread on the bay, the race is begun,
the gate-keeper marks who pass, (how the white
The young fellow drives the express-wagon, (I love sails sparkle!)
him, though I do The drover watching his drove sings out to them that
not know him;) would stray,
The half-breed straps on his light boots to compete in The pedler sweats with his pack on his back, (the
the race, purchaser higgling
The western turkey-shooting draws old and young, about the odd cent;)
some lean on their The bride unrumples her white dress, the minute-hand
rifles, some sit on logs, of the clock
Out from the crowd steps the marksman, takes his moves slowly,
position, levels his piece; The opium-eater reclines with rigid head and just-
The groups of newly-come immigrants cover the wharf open'd lips,
or levee, The prostitute draggles her shawl, her bonnet bobs on
As the woolly-pates hoe in the sugar-field, the overseer her tipsy and
views them pimpled neck,
from his saddle, The crowd laugh at her blackguard oaths, the men jeer
The bugle calls in the ball-room, the gentlemen run for and wink to
their each other,
partners, the dancers bow to each other, (Miserable! I do not laugh at your oaths nor jeer you;)
The youth lies awake in the cedar-roof'd garret and The President holding a cabinet council is surrounded
harks to the by the great
musical rain, Secretaries,
The Wolverine sets traps on the creek that helps fill the On the piazza walk three matrons stately and friendly
Huron, with twined arms,
The squaw wrapt in her yellow-hemm'd cloth is The crew of the fish-smack pack repeated layers of
offering moccasins and halibut in the hold,
bead-bags for sale, The Missourian crosses the plains toting his wares and
his cattle, same and the
As the fare-collector goes through the train he gives largest the same,
notice by the A Southerner soon as a Northerner, a planter
jingling of loose change, nonchalant and
The floor-men are laying the floor, the tinners are hospitable down by the Oconee I live,
tinning the A Yankee bound my own way ready for trade, my
roof, the masons are calling for mortar, joints the limberest
In single file each shouldering his hod pass onward the joints on earth and the sternest joints on earth,
laborers; A Kentuckian walking the vale of the Elkhorn in my
Seasons pursuing each other the indescribable crowd is deer-skin
gather'd, it leggings, a Louisianian or Georgian,
is the fourth of Seventh-month, (what salutes of cannon A boatman over lakes or bays or along coasts, a
and small arms!) Hoosier, Badger, Buckeye;
Seasons pursuing each other the plougher ploughs, the At home on Kanadian snow-shoes or up in the bush, or
mower mows, with fishermen
and the winter-grain falls in the ground; off Newfoundland,
Off on the lakes the pike-fisher watches and waits by At home in the fleet of ice-boats, sailing with the rest
the hole in and tacking,
the frozen surface, At home on the hills of Vermont or in the woods of
The stumps stand thick round the clearing, the squatter Maine, or the
strikes deep Texan ranch,
with his axe, Comrade of Californians, comrade of free North-
Flatboatmen make fast towards dusk near the cotton- Westerners, (loving
wood or pecan-trees, their big proportions,)
Coon-seekers go through the regions of the Red river Comrade of raftsmen and coalmen, comrade of all who
or through shake hands
those drain'd by the Tennessee, or through those of the and welcome to drink and meat,
Arkansas, A learner with the simplest, a teacher of the
Torches shine in the dark that hangs on the thoughtfullest,
Chattahooche or Altamahaw, A novice beginning yet experient of myriads of
Patriarchs sit at supper with sons and grandsons and seasons,
great-grandsons Of every hue and caste am I, of every rank and
around them, religion,
In walls of adobie, in canvas tents, rest hunters and A farmer, mechanic, artist, gentleman, sailor, quaker,
trappers after Prisoner, fancy-man, rowdy, lawyer, physician, priest.
their day's sport, I resist any thing better than my own diversity,
The city sleeps and the country sleeps, Breathe the air but leave plenty after me,
The living sleep for their time, the dead sleep for their And am not stuck up, and am in my place.
time, (The moth and the fish-eggs are in their place,
The old husband sleeps by his wife and the young The bright suns I see and the dark suns I cannot see are
husband sleeps by his wife; in their place,
And these tend inward to me, and I tend outward to The palpable is in its place and the impalpable is in its
them, place.)
And such as it is to be of these more or less I am,
And of these one and all I weave the song of myself. 17

16 These are really the thoughts of all men in all ages and
I am of old and young, of the foolish as much as the lands, they
wise, are not original with me,
Regardless of others, ever regardful of others, If they are not yours as much as mine they are nothing,
Maternal as well as paternal, a child as well as a man, or next to nothing,
Stuff'd with the stuff that is coarse and stuff'd with the If they are not the riddle and the untying of the riddle
stuff they are nothing,
that is fine, If they are not just as close as they are distant they are
One of the Nation of many nations, the smallest the nothing.
This is the grass that grows wherever the land is and This hour I tell things in confidence,
the water is, I might not tell everybody, but I will tell you.
This the common air that bathes the globe.

18 20
With music strong I come, with my cornets and my Who goes there? hankering, gross, mystical, nude;
drums, How is it I extract strength from the beef I eat?
I play not marches for accepted victors only, I play What is a man anyhow? what am I? what are you?
marches for All I mark as my own you shall offset it with your
conquer'd and slain persons. own,
Have you heard that it was good to gain the day? Else it were time lost listening to me.
I also say it is good to fall, battles are lost in the same I do not snivel that snivel the world over,
spirit That months are vacuums and the ground but wallow
in which they are won. and filth.
I beat and pound for the dead, Whimpering and truckling fold with powders for
I blow through my embouchures my loudest and gayest invalids, conformity
for them. goes to the fourth-remov'd,
Vivas to those who have fail'd! I wear my hat as I please indoors or out.
And to those whose war-vessels sank in the sea! Why should I pray? why should I venerate and be
And to those themselves who sank in the sea! ceremonious?
And to all generals that lost engagements, and all Having pried through the strata, analyzed to a hair,
overcome heroes! counsel'd with
And the numberless unknown heroes equal to the doctors and calculated close,
greatest heroes known! I find no sweeter fat than sticks to my own bones.
In all people I see myself, none more and not one a
19 barley-corn less,
This is the meal equally set, this the meat for natural And the good or bad I say of myself I say of them.
hunger, I know I am solid and sound,
It is for the wicked just same as the righteous, I make To me the converging objects of the universe
appointments perpetually flow,
with all, All are written to me, and I must get what the writing
I will not have a single person slighted or left away, means.
The kept-woman, sponger, thief, are hereby invited, I know I am deathless,
The heavy-lipp'd slave is invited, the venerealee is I know this orbit of mine cannot be swept by a
invited; carpenter's compass,
There shall be no difference between them and the rest. I know I shall not pass like a child's carlacue cut with a
burnt
This is the press of a bashful hand, this the float and stick at night.
odor of hair, I know I am august,
This the touch of my lips to yours, this the murmur of I do not trouble my spirit to vindicate itself or be
yearning, understood,
This the far-off depth and height reflecting my own I see that the elementary laws never apologize,
face, (I reckon I behave no prouder than the level I plant my
This the thoughtful merge of myself, and the outlet house by,
again. after all.)
Do you guess I have some intricate purpose? I exist as I am, that is enough,
Well I have, for the Fourth-month showers have, and If no other in the world be aware I sit content,
the mica on the And if each and all be aware I sit content.
side of a rock has. One world is aware and by far the largest to me, and
Do you take it I would astonish? that is myself,
Does the daylight astonish? does the early redstart And whether I come to my own to-day or in ten
twittering thousand or ten
through the woods? million years,
Do I astonish more than they? I can cheerfully take it now, or with equal cheerfulness
I can wait. Sea of stretch'd ground-swells,
My foothold is tenon'd and mortis'd in granite, Sea breathing broad and convulsive breaths,
I laugh at what you call dissolution, Sea of the brine of life and of unshovell'd yet always-
And I know the amplitude of time. ready graves,
Howler and scooper of storms, capricious and dainty
21 sea,
I am the poet of the Body and I am the poet of the I am integral with you, I too am of one phase and of all
Soul, phases.
The pleasures of heaven are with me and the pains of Partaker of influx and efflux I, extoller of hate and
hell are with me, conciliation,
The first I graft and increase upon myself, the latter I Extoller of amies and those that sleep in each others'
translate arms.
into new tongue. I am he attesting sympathy,
I am the poet of the woman the same as the man, (Shall I make my list of things in the house and skip
And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man, the house that
And I say there is nothing greater than the mother of supports them?)
men. I am not the poet of goodness only, I do not decline to
I chant the chant of dilation or pride, be the poet
We have had ducking and deprecating about enough, of wickedness also.
I show that size is only development. What blurt is this about virtue and about vice?
Have you outstript the rest? are you the President? Evil propels me and reform of evil propels me, I stand
It is a trifle, they will more than arrive there every one, indifferent,
and My gait is no fault-finder's or rejecter's gait,
still pass on. I moisten the roots of all that has grown.
I am he that walks with the tender and growing night, Did you fear some scrofula out of the unflagging
I call to the earth and sea half-held by the night. pregnancy?
Press close bare-bosom'd night--press close magnetic Did you guess the celestial laws are yet to be work'd
nourishing night! over and rectified?
Night of south winds--night of the large few stars! I find one side a balance and the antipedal side a
Still nodding night--mad naked summer night. balance,
Smile O voluptuous cool-breath'd earth! Soft doctrine as steady help as stable doctrine,
Earth of the slumbering and liquid trees! Thoughts and deeds of the present our rouse and early
Earth of departed sunset--earth of the mountains misty- start.
topt! This minute that comes to me over the past decillions,
Earth of the vitreous pour of the full moon just tinged There is no better than it and now.
with blue! What behaved well in the past or behaves well to-day
Earth of shine and dark mottling the tide of the river! is not such wonder,
Earth of the limpid gray of clouds brighter and clearer The wonder is always and always how there can be a
for my sake! mean man or an infidel.
Far-swooping elbow'd earth--rich apple-blossom'd
earth! 23
Smile, for your lover comes. Endless unfolding of words of ages!
Prodigal, you have given me love--therefore I to you And mine a word of the modern, the word En-Masse.
give love! A word of the faith that never balks,
O unspeakable passionate love. Here or henceforward it is all the same to me, I accept
Time absolutely.
22 It alone is without flaw, it alone rounds and completes
You sea! I resign myself to you also--I guess what you all,
mean, That mystic baffling wonder alone completes all.
I behold from the beach your crooked fingers, I accept Reality and dare not question it,
I believe you refuse to go back without feeling of me, Materialism first and last imbuing.
We must have a turn together, I undress, hurry me out Hurrah for positive science! long live exact
of sight of the land, demonstration!
Cushion me soft, rock me in billowy drowse, Fetch stonecrop mixt with cedar and branches of lilac,
Dash me with amorous wet, I can repay you. This is the lexicographer, this the chemist, this made a
grammar of Voices indecent by me clarified and transfigur'd.
the old cartouches, I do not press my fingers across my mouth,
These mariners put the ship through dangerous I keep as delicate around the bowels as around the head
unknown seas. and heart,
This is the geologist, this works with the scalper, and Copulation is no more rank to me than death is.
this is a
mathematician. I believe in the flesh and the appetites,
Gentlemen, to you the first honors always! Seeing, hearing, feeling, are miracles, and each part
Your facts are useful, and yet they are not my and tag of me
dwelling, is a miracle.
I but enter by them to an area of my dwelling. Divine am I inside and out, and I make holy whatever I
Less the reminders of properties told my words, touch or am
And more the reminders they of life untold, and of touch'd from,
freedom and extrication, The scent of these arm-pits aroma finer than prayer,
And make short account of neuters and geldings, and This head more than churches, bibles, and all the
favor men and creeds.
women fully equipt, If I worship one thing more than another it shall be the
And beat the gong of revolt, and stop with fugitives spread of
and them that my own body, or any part of it,
plot and conspire. Translucent mould of me it shall be you!
Shaded ledges and rests it shall be you!
24 Firm masculine colter it shall be you!
Walt Whitman, a kosmos, of Manhattan the son, Whatever goes to the tilth of me it shall be you!
Turbulent, fleshy, sensual, eating, drinking and You my rich blood! your milky stream pale strippings
breeding, of my life!
No sentimentalist, no stander above men and women or Breast that presses against other breasts it shall be you!
apart from them,
No more modest than immodest. My brain it shall be your occult convolutions!
Unscrew the locks from the doors! Root of wash'd sweet-flag! timorous pond-snipe! nest
Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs! of guarded
Whoever degrades another degrades me, duplicate eggs! it shall be you!
And whatever is done or said returns at last to me. Mix'd tussled hay of head, beard, brawn, it shall be
Through me the afflatus surging and surging, through you!
me the current Trickling sap of maple, fibre of manly wheat, it shall
and index. be you!
I speak the pass-word primeval, I give the sign of Sun so generous it shall be you!
democracy, Vapors lighting and shading my face it shall be you!
By God! I will accept nothing which all cannot have You sweaty brooks and dews it shall be you!
their Winds whose soft-tickling genitals rub against me it
counterpart of on the same terms. shall be you!
Through me many long dumb voices, Broad muscular fields, branches of live oak, loving
Voices of the interminable generations of prisoners and lounger in my
slaves, winding paths, it shall be you!
Voices of the diseas'd and despairing and of thieves Hands I have taken, face I have kiss'd, mortal I have
and dwarfs, ever touch'd,
Voices of cycles of preparation and accretion, it shall be you.
And of the threads that connect the stars, and of wombs I dote on myself, there is that lot of me and all so
and of the luscious,
father-stuff, Each moment and whatever happens thrills me with
And of the rights of them the others are down upon, joy,
Of the deform'd, trivial, flat, foolish, despised, I cannot tell how my ankles bend, nor whence the
Fog in the air, beetles rolling balls of dung. cause of my faintest wish,
Through me forbidden voices, Nor the cause of the friendship I emit, nor the cause of
Voices of sexes and lusts, voices veil'd and I remove the
the veil, friendship I take again.
That I walk up my stoop, I pause to consider if it really toward you.
be, Writing and talk do not prove me,
A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than I carry the plenum of proof and every thing else in my
the metaphysics face,
of books. With the hush of my lips I wholly confound the
skeptic.
To behold the day-break! 26
The little light fades the immense and diaphanous Now I will do nothing but listen,
shadows, To accrue what I hear into this song, to let sounds
The air tastes good to my palate. contribute toward it.
Hefts of the moving world at innocent gambols silently I hear bravuras of birds, bustle of growing wheat,
rising gossip of flames,
freshly exuding, clack of sticks cooking my meals,
Scooting obliquely high and low. I hear the sound I love, the sound of the human voice,
Something I cannot see puts upward libidinous prongs, I hear all sounds running together, combined, fused or
Seas of bright juice suffuse heaven. following,
The earth by the sky staid with, the daily close of their Sounds of the city and sounds out of the city, sounds of
junction, the day and night,
The heav'd challenge from the east that moment over Talkative young ones to those that like them, the loud
my head, laugh of
The mocking taunt, See then whether you shall be work-people at their meals,
master! The angry base of disjointed friendship, the faint tones
of the sick,
25 The judge with hands tight to the desk, his pallid lips
Dazzling and tremendous how quick the sun-rise pronouncing
would kill me, a death-sentence,
If I could not now and always send sun-rise out of me. The heave'e'yo of stevedores unlading ships by the
We also ascend dazzling and tremendous as the sun, wharves, the
We found our own O my soul in the calm and cool of refrain of the anchor-lifters,
the daybreak. The ring of alarm-bells, the cry of fire, the whirr of
My voice goes after what my eyes cannot reach, swift-streaking
With the twirl of my tongue I encompass worlds and engines and hose-carts with premonitory tinkles and
volumes of worlds. color'd lights,
Speech is the twin of my vision, it is unequal to The steam-whistle, the solid roll of the train of
measure itself, approaching cars,
It provokes me forever, it says sarcastically, The slow march play'd at the head of the association
Walt you contain enough, why don't you let it out marching two and two,
then? (They go to guard some corpse, the flag-tops are
Come now I will not be tantalized, you conceive too draped with black muslin.)
much of I hear the violoncello, ('tis the young man's heart's
articulation, complaint,)
Do you not know O speech how the buds beneath you I hear the key'd cornet, it glides quickly in through my
are folded? ears,
Waiting in gloom, protected by frost, It shakes mad-sweet pangs through my belly and
The dirt receding before my prophetical screams, breast.
I underlying causes to balance them at last, I hear the chorus, it is a grand opera,
My knowledge my live parts, it keeping tally with the Ah this indeed is music--this suits me.
meaning of all things, A tenor large and fresh as the creation fills me,
Happiness, (which whoever hears me let him or her set The orbic flex of his mouth is pouring and filling me
out in search full.
of this day.) I hear the train'd soprano (what work with hers is this?)
My final merit I refuse you, I refuse putting from me
what I really am, The orchestra whirls me wider than Uranus flies,
Encompass worlds, but never try to encompass me, It wrenches such ardors from me I did not know I
I crowd your sleekest and best by simply looking possess'd them,
It sails me, I dab with bare feet, they are lick'd by the I went myself first to the headland, my own hands
indolent waves, carried me there.
I am cut by bitter and angry hail, I lose my breath, You villain touch! what are you doing? my breath is
Steep'd amid honey'd morphine, my windpipe throttled tight in its throat,
in fakes of death, Unclench your floodgates, you are too much for me.
At length let up again to feel the puzzle of puzzles,
And that we call Being.
29
27 Blind loving wrestling touch, sheath'd hooded sharp-
To be in any form, what is that? tooth'd touch!
(Round and round we go, all of us, and ever come back Did it make you ache so, leaving me?
thither,) Parting track'd by arriving, perpetual payment of
If nothing lay more develop'd the quahaug in its perpetual loan,
callous shell were enough. Rich showering rain, and recompense richer afterward.
Mine is no callous shell, Sprouts take and accumulate, stand by the curb prolific
I have instant conductors all over me whether I pass or and vital,
stop, Landscapes projected masculine, full-sized and golden.
They seize every object and lead it harmlessly through
me.
I merely stir, press, feel with my fingers, and am 30
happy, All truths wait in all things,
To touch my person to some one else's is about as They neither hasten their own delivery nor resist it,
much as I can stand. They do not need the obstetric forceps of the surgeon,
The insignificant is as big to me as any,
28 (What is less or more than a touch?)
Is this then a touch? quivering me to a new identity, Logic and sermons never convince,
Flames and ether making a rush for my veins, The damp of the night drives deeper into my soul.
Treacherous tip of me reaching and crowding to help (Only what proves itself to every man and woman is
them, so,
My flesh and blood playing out lightning to strike what Only what nobody denies is so.)
is hardly A minute and a drop of me settle my brain,
different from myself, I believe the soggy clods shall become lovers and
On all sides prurient provokers stiffening my limbs, lamps,
Straining the udder of my heart for its withheld drip, And a compend of compends is the meat of a man or
Behaving licentious toward me, taking no denial, woman,
Depriving me of my best as for a purpose, And a summit and flower there is the feeling they have
Unbuttoning my clothes, holding me by the bare waist, for each other,
Deluding my confusion with the calm of the sunlight And they are to branch boundlessly out of that lesson
and pasture-fields, until it
Immodestly sliding the fellow-senses away, becomes omnific,
They bribed to swap off with touch and go and graze at And until one and all shall delight us, and we them.
the edges of me,
No consideration, no regard for my draining strength or 31
my anger, I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey
Fetching the rest of the herd around to enjoy them a work of the stars,
while, And the pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand,
Then all uniting to stand on a headland and worry me. and the egg
The sentries desert every other part of me, of the wren,
They have left me helpless to a red marauder, And the tree-toad is a chef-d'oeuvre for the highest,
They all come to the headland to witness and assist And the running blackberry would adorn the parlors of
against me. heaven,
I am given up by traitors, And the narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all
I talk wildly, I have lost my wits, I and nobody else am machinery,
the And the cow crunching with depress'd head surpasses
greatest traitor, any statue,
And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of Not too exclusive toward the reachers of my
infidels. remembrancers,
I find I incorporate gneiss, coal, long-threaded moss, Picking out here one that I love, and now go with him
fruits, on brotherly terms.
grains, esculent roots, A gigantic beauty of a stallion, fresh and responsive to
And am stucco'd with quadrupeds and birds all over, my caresses,
And have distanced what is behind me for good Head high in the forehead, wide between the ears,
reasons, Limbs glossy and supple, tail dusting the ground,
But call any thing back again when I desire it. Eyes full of sparkling wickedness, ears finely cut,
In vain the speeding or shyness, flexibly moving.
In vain the plutonic rocks send their old heat against His nostrils dilate as my heels embrace him,
my approach, His well-built limbs tremble with pleasure as we race
In vain the mastodon retreats beneath its own powder'd around and return.
bones, I but use you a minute, then I resign you, stallion,
In vain objects stand leagues off and assume manifold Why do I need your paces when I myself out-gallop
shapes, them?
In vain the ocean settling in hollows and the great Even as I stand or sit passing faster than you.
monsters lying low,
In vain the buzzard houses herself with the sky, 33
In vain the snake slides through the creepers and logs, Space and Time! now I see it is true, what I guess'd at,
In vain the elk takes to the inner passes of the woods, What I guess'd when I loaf'd on the grass,
In vain the razor-bill'd auk sails far north to Labrador, What I guess'd while I lay alone in my bed,
I follow quickly, I ascend to the nest in the fissure of And again as I walk'd the beach under the paling stars
the cliff. of the morning.
My ties and ballasts leave me, my elbows rest in sea-
32 gaps,
I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so I skirt sierras, my palms cover continents,
placid and I am afoot with my vision.
self-contain'd, By the city's quadrangular houses--in log huts,
I stand and look at them long and long. camping with lumber-men,
They do not sweat and whine about their condition, Along the ruts of the turnpike, along the dry gulch and
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their rivulet bed,
sins, Weeding my onion-patch or hosing rows of carrots and
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to parsnips,
God, crossing savannas, trailing in forests,
Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the Prospecting, gold-digging, girdling the trees of a new
mania of purchase,
owning things, Scorch'd ankle-deep by the hot sand, hauling my boat
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived down the
thousands of shallow river,
years ago, Where the panther walks to and fro on a limb
Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole overhead, where the
earth. buck turns furiously at the hunter,
So they show their relations to me and I accept them, Where the rattlesnake suns his flabby length on a rock,
They bring me tokens of myself, they evince them where the
plainly in their otter is feeding on fish,
possession. Where the alligator in his tough pimples sleeps by the
I wonder where they get those tokens, bayou,
Did I pass that way huge times ago and negligently Where the black bear is searching for roots or honey,
drop them? where the
Myself moving forward then and now and forever, beaver pats the mud with his paddle-shaped tall;
Gathering and showing more always and with velocity, Over the growing sugar, over the yellow-flower'd
cotton plant, over
Infinite and omnigenous, and the like of these among the rice in its low moist field,
them, Over the sharp-peak'd farm house, with its scallop'd
scum and countenance,
slender shoots from the gutters, Upon a door-step, upon the horse-block of hard wood
Over the western persimmon, over the long-leav'd outside,
corn, over the Upon the race-course, or enjoying picnics or jigs or a
delicate blue-flower flax, good game of
Over the white and brown buckwheat, a hummer and base-ball,
buzzer there with At he-festivals, with blackguard gibes, ironical license,
the rest,
Over the dusky green of the rye as it ripples and shades bull-dances, drinking, laughter,
in the breeze; At the cider-mill tasting the sweets of the brown mash,
Scaling mountains, pulling myself cautiously up, sucking the
holding on by low juice through a straw,
scragged limbs, At apple-peelings wanting kisses for all the red fruit I
Walking the path worn in the grass and beat through find,
the leaves of the brush, At musters, beach-parties, friendly bees, huskings,
Where the quail is whistling betwixt the woods and the house-raisings;
wheat-lot, Where the mocking-bird sounds his delicious gurgles,
Where the bat flies in the Seventh-month eve, where cackles,
the great screams, weeps,
goldbug drops through the dark, Where the hay-rick stands in the barn-yard, where the
Where the brook puts out of the roots of the old tree dry-stalks are
and flows to scatter'd, where the brood-cow waits in the hovel,
the meadow, Where the bull advances to do his masculine work,
Where cattle stand and shake away flies with the where the stud to
tremulous the mare, where the cock is treading the hen,
shuddering of their hides, Where the heifers browse, where geese nip their food
Where the cheese-cloth hangs in the kitchen, where with short jerks,
andirons straddle Where sun-down shadows lengthen over the limitless
the hearth-slab, where cobwebs fall in festoons from and lonesome prairie,
the rafters; Where herds of buffalo make a crawling spread of the
Where trip-hammers crash, where the press is whirling square miles
its cylinders, far and near,
Wherever the human heart beats with terrible throes Where the humming-bird shimmers, where the neck of
under its ribs, the long-lived
Where the pear-shaped balloon is floating aloft, swan is curving and winding,
(floating in it Where the laughing-gull scoots by the shore, where she
myself and looking composedly down,) laughs her
Where the life-car is drawn on the slip-noose, where near-human laugh,
the heat Where bee-hives range on a gray bench in the garden
hatches pale-green eggs in the dented sand, half hid by the
Where the she-whale swims with her calf and never high weeds,
forsakes it, Where band-neck'd partridges roost in a ring on the
Where the steam-ship trails hind-ways its long pennant ground with
of smoke, their heads out,
Where the fin of the shark cuts like a black chip out of Where burial coaches enter the arch'd gates of a
the water, cemetery,
Where the half-burn'd brig is riding on unknown Where winter wolves bark amid wastes of snow and
currents, icicled trees,
Where shells grow to her slimy deck, where the dead Where the yellow-crown'd heron comes to the edge of
are corrupting below; the marsh at
Where the dense-starr'd flag is borne at the head of the night and feeds upon small crabs,
regiments, Where the splash of swimmers and divers cools the
Approaching Manhattan up by the long-stretching warm noon,
island, Where the katy-did works her chromatic reed on the
Under Niagara, the cataract falling like a veil over my walnut-tree over
the well, mother in its belly,
Through patches of citrons and cucumbers with silver- Storming, enjoying, planning, loving, cautioning,
wired leaves, Backing and filling, appearing and disappearing,
Through the salt-lick or orange glade, or under conical I tread day and night such roads.
firs, I visit the orchards of spheres and look at the product,
Through the gymnasium, through the curtain'd saloon, And look at quintillions ripen'd and look at quintillions
through the green.
office or public hall; I fly those flights of a fluid and swallowing soul,
Pleas'd with the native and pleas'd with the foreign, My course runs below the soundings of plummets.
pleas'd with
the new and old, I help myself to material and immaterial,
Pleas'd with the homely woman as well as the No guard can shut me off, no law prevent me.
handsome,
Pleas'd with the quakeress as she puts off her bonnet I anchor my ship for a little while only,
and talks melodiously, My messengers continually cruise away or bring their
Pleas'd with the tune of the choir of the whitewash'd returns to me.
church,
Pleas'd with the earnest words of the sweating I go hunting polar furs and the seal, leaping chasms
Methodist preacher, with a
impress'd seriously at the camp-meeting; pike-pointed staff, clinging to topples of brittle and
Looking in at the shop-windows of Broadway the blue.
whole forenoon,
flatting the flesh of my nose on the thick plate glass, I ascend to the foretruck,
Wandering the same afternoon with my face turn'd up I take my place late at night in the crow's-nest,
to the clouds, We sail the arctic sea, it is plenty light enough,
or down a lane or along the beach, Through the clear atmosphere I stretch around on the
My right and left arms round the sides of two friends, wonderful beauty,
and I in the middle; The enormous masses of ice pass me and I pass them,
Coming home with the silent and dark-cheek'd bush- the scenery is
boy, (behind me plain in all directions,
he rides at the drape of the day,) The white-topt mountains show in the distance, I fling
Far from the settlements studying the print of animals' out my
feet, or the fancies toward them,
moccasin print, We are approaching some great battle-field in which
By the cot in the hospital reaching lemonade to a we are soon to
feverish patient, be engaged,
Nigh the coffin'd corpse when all is still, examining We pass the colossal outposts of the encampment, we
with a candle; pass with still
Voyaging to every port to dicker and adventure, feet and caution,
Hurrying with the modern crowd as eager and fickle as Or we are entering by the suburbs some vast and ruin'd
any, city,
Hot toward one I hate, ready in my madness to knife The blocks and fallen architecture more than all the
him, living cities
Solitary at midnight in my back yard, my thoughts of the globe.
gone from me a long while, I am a free companion, I bivouac by invading
Walking the old hills of Judaea with the beautiful watchfires,
gentle God by my side, I turn the bridgroom out of bed and stay with the bride
Speeding through space, speeding through heaven and myself,
the stars, I tighten her all night to my thighs and lips.
Speeding amid the seven satellites and the broad ring, My voice is the wife's voice, the screech by the rail of
and the the stairs,
diameter of eighty thousand miles, They fetch my man's body up dripping and drown'd.
Speeding with tail'd meteors, throwing fire-balls like I understand the large hearts of heroes,
the rest, The courage of present times and all times,
Carrying the crescent child that carries its own full How the skipper saw the crowded and rudderless
wreck of the me forth.
steamship, and Death chasing it up and down the I lie in the night air in my red shirt, the pervading hush
storm, is for my sake,
How he knuckled tight and gave not back an inch, and Painless after all I lie exhausted but not so unhappy,
was faithful of White and beautiful are the faces around me, the heads
days and faithful of nights, are bared
And chalk'd in large letters on a board, Be of good of their fire-caps,
cheer, we will The kneeling crowd fades with the light of the torches.
not desert you; Distant and dead resuscitate,
How he follow'd with them and tack'd with them three They show as the dial or move as the hands of me, I
days and am the clock myself.
would not give it up, I am an old artillerist, I tell of my fort's bombardment,
How he saved the drifting company at last, I am there again.
How the lank loose-gown'd women look'd when boated Again the long roll of the drummers,
from the Again the attacking cannon, mortars,
side of their prepared graves, Again to my listening ears the cannon responsive.
How the silent old-faced infants and the lifted sick, and I take part, I see and hear the whole,
the The cries, curses, roar, the plaudits for well-aim'd
sharp-lipp'd unshaved men; shots,
All this I swallow, it tastes good, I like it well, it The ambulanza slowly passing trailing its red drip,
becomes mine, Workmen searching after damages, making
I am the man, I suffer'd, I was there. indispensable repairs,
The disdain and calmness of martyrs, The fall of grenades through the rent roof, the fan-
The mother of old, condemn'd for a witch, burnt with shaped explosion,
dry wood, her The whizz of limbs, heads, stone, wood, iron, high in
children gazing on, the air.
The hounded slave that flags in the race, leans by the Again gurgles the mouth of my dying general, he
fence, furiously waves
blowing, cover'd with sweat, with his hand,
The twinges that sting like needles his legs and neck, He gasps through the clot Mind not me--mind--the
the murderous entrenchments.
buckshot and the bullets,
All these I feel or am. 34
I am the hounded slave, I wince at the bite of the dogs, Now I tell what I knew in Texas in my early youth,
Hell and despair are upon me, crack and again crack (I tell not the fall of Alamo,
the marksmen, Not one escaped to tell the fall of Alamo,
I clutch the rails of the fence, my gore dribs, thinn'd The hundred and fifty are dumb yet at Alamo,)
with the 'Tis the tale of the murder in cold blood of four
ooze of my skin, hundred and twelve
I fall on the weeds and stones, young men.
The riders spur their unwilling horses, haul close, Retreating they had form'd in a hollow square with
Taunt my dizzy ears and beat me violently over the their baggage for
head with whip-stocks. breastworks,
Agonies are one of my changes of garments, Nine hundred lives out of the surrounding enemies,
I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself nine times their
become the number, was the price they took in advance,
wounded person, Their colonel was wounded and their ammunition
My hurts turn livid upon me as I lean on a cane and gone,
observe. They treated for an honorable capitulation, receiv'd
I am the mash'd fireman with breast-bone broken, writing and
Tumbling walls buried me in their debris, seal, gave up their arms and march'd back prisoners of
Heat and smoke I inspired, I heard the yelling shouts of war.
my comrades, They were the glory of the race of rangers,
I heard the distant click of their picks and shovels, Matchless with horse, rifle, song, supper, courtship,
They have clear'd the beams away, they tenderly lift Large, turbulent, generous, handsome, proud, and
affectionate, The transit to and from the magazine is now stopt by
Bearded, sunburnt, drest in the free costume of hunters, the sentinels,
They see so many strange faces they do not know
Not a single one over thirty years of age. whom to trust.
The second First-day morning they were brought out in Our frigate takes fire,
squads and The other asks if we demand quarter?
massacred, it was beautiful early summer, If our colors are struck and the fighting done?
The work commenced about five o'clock and was over Now I laugh content, for I hear the voice of my little
by eight. captain,
None obey'd the command to kneel, We have not struck, he composedly cries, we have just
Some made a mad and helpless rush, some stood stark begun our part
and straight, of the fighting.
A few fell at once, shot in the temple or heart, the Only three guns are in use,
living and dead One is directed by the captain himself against the
lay together, enemy's main-mast,
The maim'd and mangled dug in the dirt, the new- Two well serv'd with grape and canister silence his
comers saw them there, musketry and
Some half-kill'd attempted to crawl away, clear his decks.
These were despatch'd with bayonets or batter'd with The tops alone second the fire of this little battery,
the blunts of muskets, especially
A youth not seventeen years old seiz'd his assassin till the main-top,
two more They hold out bravely during the whole of the action.
came to release him, Not a moment's cease,
The three were all torn and cover'd with the boy's The leaks gain fast on the pumps, the fire eats toward
blood. the powder-magazine.
At eleven o'clock began the burning of the bodies; One of the pumps has been shot away, it is generally
That is the tale of the murder of the four hundred and thought we are sinking.
twelve young men. Serene stands the little captain,
He is not hurried, his voice is neither high nor low,
35 His eyes give more light to us than our battle-lanterns.
Would you hear of an old-time sea-fight? Toward twelve there in the beams of the moon they
Would you learn who won by the light of the moon and surrender to us.
stars?
List to the yarn, as my grandmother's father the sailor 36
told it to me. Stretch'd and still lies the midnight,
Our foe was no sulk in his ship I tell you, (said he,) Two great hulls motionless on the breast of the
His was the surly English pluck, and there is no darkness,
tougher or truer, Our vessel riddled and slowly sinking, preparations to
and never was, and never will be; pass to the
Along the lower'd eve he came horribly raking us. one we have conquer'd,
We closed with him, the yards entangled, the cannon The captain on the quarter-deck coldly giving his
touch'd, orders through a
My captain lash'd fast with his own hands. countenance white as a sheet,
We had receiv'd some eighteen pound shots under the Near by the corpse of the child that serv'd in the cabin,
water, The dead face of an old salt with long white hair and
On our lower-gun-deck two large pieces had burst at carefully
the first fire, curl'd whiskers,
killing all around and blowing up overhead. The flames spite of all that can be done flickering aloft
Fighting at sun-down, fighting at dark, and below,
Ten o'clock at night, the full moon well up, our leaks The husky voices of the two or three officers yet fit for
on the gain, duty,
and five feet of water reported, Formless stacks of bodies and bodies by themselves,
The master-at-arms loosing the prisoners confined in dabs of flesh
the after-hold upon the masts and spars,
to give them a chance for themselves. Cut of cordage, dangle of rigging, slight shock of the
soothe of waves, I remember now,
Black and impassive guns, litter of powder-parcels, I resume the overstaid fraction,
strong scent, The grave of rock multiplies what has been confided to
A few large stars overhead, silent and mournful it, or to any graves,
shining, Corpses rise, gashes heal, fastenings roll from me.
Delicate sniffs of sea-breeze, smells of sedgy grass and I troop forth replenish'd with supreme power, one of an
fields by average
the shore, death-messages given in charge to survivors, unending procession,
Inland and sea-coast we go, and pass all boundary
The hiss of the surgeon's knife, the gnawing teeth of lines,
his saw, Our swift ordinances on their way over the whole
Wheeze, cluck, swash of falling blood, short wild earth,
scream, and long, The blossoms we wear in our hats the growth of
dull, tapering groan, thousands of years.
These so, these irretrievable. Eleves, I salute you! come forward!
Continue your annotations, continue your questionings.
37
You laggards there on guard! look to your arms!
In at the conquer'd doors they crowd! I am possess'd! 39
Embody all presences outlaw'd or suffering, The friendly and flowing savage, who is he?
See myself in prison shaped like another man, Is he waiting for civilization, or past it and mastering
And feel the dull unintermitted pain. it?
For me the keepers of convicts shoulder their carbines Is he some Southwesterner rais'd out-doors? is he
and keep watch, Kanadian?
It is I let out in the morning and barr'd at night. Is he from the Mississippi country? Iowa, Oregon,
Not a mutineer walks handcuff'd to jail but I am California?
handcuff'd to him The mountains? prairie-life, bush-life? or sailor from
and walk by his side, the sea?
(I am less the jolly one there, and more the silent one Wherever he goes men and women accept and desire
with sweat him,
on my twitching lips.) They desire he should like them, touch them, speak to
Not a youngster is taken for larceny but I go up too, them, stay with them.
and am tried Behavior lawless as snow-flakes, words simple as
and sentenced. grass, uncomb'd
Not a cholera patient lies at the last gasp but I also lie head, laughter, and naivete,
at the last gasp, Slow-stepping feet, common features, common modes
My face is ash-color'd, my sinews gnarl, away from me and emanations,
people retreat. They descend in new forms from the tips of his fingers,
Askers embody themselves in me and I am embodied
in them, They are wafted with the odor of his body or breath,
I project my hat, sit shame-faced, and beg. they fly out of
the glance of his eyes.
38
Enough! enough! enough! 40
Somehow I have been stunn'd. Stand back! Flaunt of the sunshine I need not your bask--lie over!
Give me a little time beyond my cuff'd head, slumbers, You light surfaces only, I force surfaces and depths
dreams, gaping, also.
I discover myself on the verge of a usual mistake. Earth! you seem to look for something at my hands,
That I could forget the mockers and insults! Say, old top-knot, what do you want?
That I could forget the trickling tears and the blows of Man or woman, I might tell how I like you, but cannot,
the
bludgeons and hammers! And might tell what it is in me and what it is in you,
That I could look with a separate look on my own but cannot,
crucifixion and And might tell that pining I have, that pulse of my
bloody crowning. nights and days.
Behold, I do not give lectures or a little charity, With Odin and the hideous-faced Mexitli and every
When I give I give myself. idol and image,
You there, impotent, loose in the knees, Taking them all for what they are worth and not a cent
Open your scarf'd chops till I blow grit within you, more,
Spread your palms and lift the flaps of your pockets, Admitting they were alive and did the work of their
I am not to be denied, I compel, I have stores plenty days,
and to spare, (They bore mites as for unfledg'd birds who have now
And any thing I have I bestow. to rise and fly
I do not ask who you are, that is not important to me, and sing for themselves,)
You can do nothing and be nothing but what I will Accepting the rough deific sketches to fill out better in
infold you. myself,
To cotton-field drudge or cleaner of privies I lean, bestowing them freely on each man and woman I see,
On his right cheek I put the family kiss, Discovering as much or more in a framer framing a
And in my soul I swear I never will deny him. house,
Putting higher claims for him there with his roll'd-up
On women fit for conception I start bigger and nimbler sleeves
babes. driving the mallet and chisel,
(This day I am jetting the stuff of far more arrogant Not objecting to special revelations, considering a curl
republics.) of smoke or
To any one dying, thither I speed and twist the knob of a hair on the back of my hand just as curious as any
the door. revelation,
Turn the bed-clothes toward the foot of the bed, Lads ahold of fire-engines and hook-and-ladder ropes
Let the physician and the priest go home. no less to me
I seize the descending man and raise him with than the gods of the antique wars,
resistless will, Minding their voices peal through the crash of
O despairer, here is my neck, destruction,
By God, you shall not go down! hang your whole Their brawny limbs passing safe over charr'd laths,
weight upon me. their white
I dilate you with tremendous breath, I buoy you up, foreheads whole and unhurt out of the flames;
Every room of the house do I fill with an arm'd force, By the mechanic's wife with her babe at her nipple
Lovers of me, bafflers of graves. interceding for
Sleep--I and they keep guard all night, every person born,
Not doubt, not decease shall dare to lay finger upon Three scythes at harvest whizzing in a row from three
you, lusty angels
I have embraced you, and henceforth possess you to with shirts bagg'd out at their waists,
myself, The snag-tooth'd hostler with red hair redeeming sins
And when you rise in the morning you will find what I past and to come,
tell you is so. Selling all he possesses, traveling on foot to fee
lawyers for his
41 I am he bringing help for the sick as they pant on brother and sit by him while he is tried for forgery;
their backs, What was strewn in the amplest strewing the square
And for strong upright men I bring yet more needed rod about me, and
help. not filling the square rod then,
I heard what was said of the universe, The bull and the bug never worshipp'd half enough,
Heard it and heard it of several thousand years; Dung and dirt more admirable than was dream'd,
It is middling well as far as it goes--but is that all? The supernatural of no account, myself waiting my
Magnifying and applying come I, time to be one of
Outbidding at the start the old cautious hucksters, the supremes,
Taking myself the exact dimensions of Jehovah, The day getting ready for me when I shall do as much
Lithographing Kronos, Zeus his son, and Hercules his good as the
grandson, best, and be as prodigious;
Buying drafts of Osiris, Isis, Belus, Brahma, Buddha, By my life-lumps! becoming already a creator,
In my portfolio placing Manito loose, Allah on a leaf, Putting myself here and now to the ambush'd womb of
the crucifix the shadows.
engraved,
42 is deathless with me,
What I do and say the same waits for them,
A call in the midst of the crowd, Every thought that flounders in me the same flounders
My own voice, orotund sweeping and final. in them.
Come my children, I know perfectly well my own egotism,
Come my boys and girls, my women, household and Know my omnivorous lines and must not write any
intimates, less,
Now the performer launches his nerve, he has pass'd And would fetch you whoever you are flush with
his prelude on myself.
the reeds within. Not words of routine this song of mine,
Easily written loose-finger'd chords--I feel the thrum of But abruptly to question, to leap beyond yet nearer
your bring;
climax and close. This printed and bound book--but the printer and the
My head slues round on my neck, printing-office boy?
Music rolls, but not from the organ, The well-taken photographs--but your wife or friend
Folks are around me, but they are no household of close and solid
mine. in your arms?
Ever the hard unsunk ground, The black ship mail'd with iron, her mighty guns in her
Ever the eaters and drinkers, ever the upward and turrets--but
downward sun, ever the pluck of the captain and engineers?
the air and the ceaseless tides, In the houses the dishes and fare and furniture--but the
Ever myself and my neighbors, refreshing, wicked, host and
real, hostess, and the look out of their eyes?
Ever the old inexplicable query, ever that thorn'd The sky up there--yet here or next door, or across the
thumb, that way?
breath of itches and thirsts, The saints and sages in history--but you yourself?
Ever the vexer's hoot! hoot! till we find where the sly Sermons, creeds, theology--but the fathomless human
one hides brain,
and bring him forth, And what is reason? and what is love? and what is life?
Ever love, ever the sobbing liquid of life,
Ever the bandage under the chin, ever the trestles of
death. 43
Here and there with dimes on the eyes walking,
To feed the greed of the belly the brains liberally I do not despise you priests, all time, the world over,
spooning, My faith is the greatest of faiths and the least of faiths,
Tickets buying, taking, selling, but in to the feast never Enclosing worship ancient and modern and all between
once going, ancient and modern,
Many sweating, ploughing, thrashing, and then the Believing I shall come again upon the earth after five
chaff for payment thousand years,
receiving, Waiting responses from oracles, honoring the gods,
A few idly owning, and they the wheat continually saluting the sun,
claiming. Making a fetich of the first rock or stump, powowing
This is the city and I am one of the citizens, with sticks in
Whatever interests the rest interests me, politics, wars, the circle of obis,
markets, Helping the llama or brahmin as he trims the lamps of
newspapers, schools, the idols,
The mayor and councils, banks, tariffs, steamships, Dancing yet through the streets in a phallic procession,
factories, rapt and
stocks, stores, real estate and personal estate. austere in the woods a gymnosophist,
The little plentiful manikins skipping around in collars Drinking mead from the skull-cap, to Shastas and
and tail'd coats Vedas admirant,
I am aware who they are, (they are positively not minding the Koran,
worms or fleas,) Walking the teokallis, spotted with gore from the stone
I acknowledge the duplicates of myself, the weakest and knife,
and shallowest beating the serpent-skin drum,
Accepting the Gospels, accepting him that was Nor any thing in the earth, or down in the oldest graves
crucified, knowing of the earth,
assuredly that he is divine, Nor any thing in the myriads of spheres, nor the
To the mass kneeling or the puritan's prayer rising, or myriads of myriads
sitting that inhabit them,
patiently in a pew, Nor the present, nor the least wisp that is known.
Ranting and frothing in my insane crisis, or waiting
dead-like till 44
my spirit arouses me, It is time to explain myself--let us stand up.
Looking forth on pavement and land, or outside of What is known I strip away,
pavement and land, I launch all men and women forward with me into the
Belonging to the winders of the circuit of circuits. Unknown.
One of that centripetal and centrifugal gang I turn and The clock indicates the moment--but what does
talk like eternity indicate?
man leaving charges before a journey. We have thus far exhausted trillions of winters and
summers,
Down-hearted doubters dull and excluded, There are trillions ahead, and trillions ahead of them.
Frivolous, sullen, moping, angry, affected, Births have brought us richness and variety,
dishearten'd, atheistical, And other births will bring us richness and variety.
I know every one of you, I know the sea of torment, I do not call one greater and one smaller,
doubt, despair That which fills its period and place is equal to any.
and unbelief. Were mankind murderous or jealous upon you, my
How the flukes splash! brother, my sister?
How they contort rapid as lightning, with spasms and I am sorry for you, they are not murderous or jealous
spouts of blood! upon me,
Be at peace bloody flukes of doubters and sullen All has been gentle with me, I keep no account with
mopers, lamentation,
I take my place among you as much as among any, (What have I to do with lamentation?)
The past is the push of you, me, all, precisely the same, I am an acme of things accomplish'd, and I an encloser
of things to be.
And what is yet untried and afterward is for you, me, My feet strike an apex of the apices of the stairs,
all, precisely On every step bunches of ages, and larger bunches
the same. between the steps,
I do not know what is untried and afterward, All below duly travel'd, and still I mount and mount.
But I know it will in its turn prove sufficient, and Rise after rise bow the phantoms behind me,
cannot fail. Afar down I see the huge first Nothing, I know I was
Each who passes is consider'd, each who stops is even there,
consider'd, not I waited unseen and always, and slept through the
single one can it fall. lethargic mist,
It cannot fall the young man who died and was buried, And took my time, and took no hurt from the fetid
Nor the young woman who died and was put by his carbon.
side, Long I was hugg'd close--long and long.
Nor the little child that peep'd in at the door, and then Immense have been the preparations for me,
drew back Faithful and friendly the arms that have help'd me.
and was never seen again, Cycles ferried my cradle, rowing and rowing like
Nor the old man who has lived without purpose, and cheerful boatmen,
feels it with For room to me stars kept aside in their own rings,
bitterness worse than gall, They sent influences to look after what was to hold me.
Nor him in the poor house tubercled by rum and the
bad disorder, Before I was born out of my mother generations guided
Nor the numberless slaughter'd and wreck'd, nor the me,
brutish koboo My embryo has never been torpid, nothing could
call'd the ordure of humanity, overlay it.
Nor the sacs merely floating with open mouths for food For it the nebula cohered to an orb,
to slip in, The long slow strata piled to rest it on,
Vast vegetables gave it sustenance, They are but parts, any thing is but a part.
Monstrous sauroids transported it in their mouths and See ever so far, there is limitless space outside of that,
deposited it Count ever so much, there is limitless time around that.
with care.
All forces have been steadily employ'd to complete and My rendezvous is appointed, it is certain,
delight me, The Lord will be there and wait till I come on perfect
Now on this spot I stand with my robust soul. terms,
The great Camerado, the lover true for whom I pine
45 will be there.
O span of youth! ever-push'd elasticity!
O manhood, balanced, florid and full. 46
I know I have the best of time and space, and was
My lovers suffocate me, never measured and
Crowding my lips, thick in the pores of my skin, never will be measured.
Jostling me through streets and public halls, coming I tramp a perpetual journey, (come listen all!)
naked to me at night, My signs are a rain-proof coat, good shoes, and a staff
Crying by day, Ahoy! from the rocks of the river, cut from the woods,
swinging and No friend of mine takes his ease in my chair,
chirping over my head, I have no chair, no church, no philosophy,
Calling my name from flower-beds, vines, tangled I lead no man to a dinner-table, library, exchange,
underbrush, But each man and each woman of you I lead upon a
Lighting on every moment of my life, knoll,
Bussing my body with soft balsamic busses, My left hand hooking you round the waist,
Noiselessly passing handfuls out of their hearts and My right hand pointing to landscapes of continents and
giving them to be mine. the public road.
Old age superbly rising! O welcome, ineffable grace of Not I, not any one else can travel that road for you,
dying days! You must travel it for yourself.
Every condition promulges not only itself, it promulges It is not far, it is within reach,
what grows Perhaps you have been on it since you were born and
after and out of itself, did not know,
And the dark hush promulges as much as any. Perhaps it is everywhere on water and on land.
I open my scuttle at night and see the far-sprinkled Shoulder your duds dear son, and I will mine, and let
systems, us hasten forth,
And all I see multiplied as high as I can cipher edge Wonderful cities and free nations we shall fetch as we
but the rim of go.
the farther systems. If you tire, give me both burdens, and rest the chuff of
Wider and wider they spread, expanding, always your hand
expanding, on my hip,
Outward and outward and forever outward. And in due time you shall repay the same service to
My sun has his sun and round him obediently wheels, me,
He joins with his partners a group of superior circuit, For after we start we never lie by again.
And greater sets follow, making specks of the greatest This day before dawn I ascended a hill and look'd at
inside them. the crowded heaven,
There is no stoppage and never can be stoppage, And I said to my spirit When we become the enfolders
If I, you, and the worlds, and all beneath or upon their of those orbs,
surfaces, and the pleasure and knowledge of every thing in them,
were this moment reduced back to a pallid float, it shall we
would be fill'd and satisfied then?
not avail the long run, And my spirit said No, we but level that lift to pass and
We should surely bring up again where we now stand, continue beyond.
And surely go as much farther, and then farther and You are also asking me questions and I hear you,
farther. I answer that I cannot answer, you must find out for
A few quadrillions of eras, a few octillions of cubic yourself.
leagues, do Sit a while dear son,
not hazard the span or make it impatient, Here are biscuits to eat and here is milk to drink,
But as soon as you sleep and renew yourself in sweet No shutter'd room or school can commune with me,
clothes, I kiss you But roughs and little children better than they.
with a good-by kiss and open the gate for your egress The young mechanic is closest to me, he knows me
hence. well,
Long enough have you dream'd contemptible dreams, The woodman that takes his axe and jug with him shall
Now I wash the gum from your eyes, take me with
You must habit yourself to the dazzle of the light and him all day,
of every The farm-boy ploughing in the field feels good at the
moment of your life. sound of my voice,
Long have you timidly waded holding a plank by the In vessels that sail my words sail, I go with fishermen
shore, and seamen
Now I will you to be a bold swimmer, and love them.
To jump off in the midst of the sea, rise again, nod to The soldier camp'd or upon the march is mine,
me, shout, On the night ere the pending battle many seek me, and
and laughingly dash with your hair. I do not fail them,
On that solemn night (it may be their last) those that
47 know me seek me.
I am the teacher of athletes, My face rubs to the hunter's face when he lies down
He that by me spreads a wider breast than my own alone in his blanket,
proves the width of my own, The driver thinking of me does not mind the jolt of his
He most honors my style who learns under it to destroy wagon,
the teacher. The young mother and old mother comprehend me,
The boy I love, the same becomes a man not through The girl and the wife rest the needle a moment and
derived power, forget where they are,
but in his own right, They and all would resume what I have told them.
Wicked rather than virtuous out of conformity or fear,
Fond of his sweetheart, relishing well his steak, 48
Unrequited love or a slight cutting him worse than I have said that the soul is not more than the body,
sharp steel cuts, And I have said that the body is not more than the soul,
First-rate to ride, to fight, to hit the bull's eye, to sail a
skiff, to sing a song or play on the banjo, And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one's self
Preferring scars and the beard and faces pitted with is,
small-pox over And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks
all latherers, to his own
And those well-tann'd to those that keep out of the sun. funeral drest in his shroud,
And I or you pocketless of a dime may purchase the
I teach straying from me, yet who can stray from me? pick of the earth,
I follow you whoever you are from the present hour, And to glance with an eye or show a bean in its pod
My words itch at your ears till you understand them. confounds the
I do not say these things for a dollar or to fill up the learning of all times,
time while And there is no trade or employment but the young
I wait for a boat, man following it
(It is you talking just as much as myself, I act as the may become a hero,
tongue of you, And there is no object so soft but it makes a hub for the
Tied in your mouth, in mine it begins to be loosen'd.) wheel'd universe,
I swear I will never again mention love or death inside And I say to any man or woman, Let your soul stand
a house, cool and composed
And I swear I will never translate myself at all, only to before a million universes.
him or her And I say to mankind, Be not curious about God,
who privately stays with me in the open air. For I who am curious about each am not curious about
If you would understand me go to the heights or water- God,
shore, (No array of terms can say how much I am at peace
The nearest gnat is an explanation, and a drop or about God and
motion of waves key, about death.)
The maul, the oar, the hand-saw, second my words. I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand
God not in the least, becomes,
Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful I sleep--I sleep long.
than myself. I do not know it--it is without name--it is a word
Why should I wish to see God better than this day? unsaid,
I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, It is not in any dictionary, utterance, symbol.
and each moment then, Something it swings on more than the earth I swing on,
In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my
own face in the glass, To it the creation is the friend whose embracing
I find letters from God dropt in the street, and every awakes me.
one is sign'd Perhaps I might tell more. Outlines! I plead for my
by God's name, brothers and sisters.
And I leave them where they are, for I know that Do you see O my brothers and sisters?
wheresoe'er I go, It is not chaos or death--it is form, union, plan--it is
Others will punctually come for ever and ever. eternal
life--it is Happiness.
49
And as to you Death, and you bitter hug of mortality, it 51
is idle to The past and present wilt--I have fill'd them, emptied
try to alarm me. them.
And proceed to fill my next fold of the future.
To his work without flinching the accoucheur comes, Listener up there! what have you to confide to me?
I see the elder-hand pressing receiving supporting, Look in my face while I snuff the sidle of evening,
I recline by the sills of the exquisite flexible doors, (Talk honestly, no one else hears you, and I stay only a
And mark the outlet, and mark the relief and escape. minute longer.)
And as to you Corpse I think you are good manure, but Do I contradict myself?
that does not Very well then I contradict myself,
offend me, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)
I smell the white roses sweet-scented and growing, I concentrate toward them that are nigh, I wait on the
I reach to the leafy lips, I reach to the polish'd breasts door-slab.
of melons. Who has done his day's work? who will soonest be
And as to you Life I reckon you are the leavings of through with his supper?
many deaths, Who wishes to walk with me?
(No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times Will you speak before I am gone? will you prove
before.) already too late?
I hear you whispering there O stars of heaven,
O suns--O grass of graves--O perpetual transfers and 52
promotions, The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he
If you do not say any thing how can I say any thing? complains of my gab
Of the turbid pool that lies in the autumn forest, and my loitering.
Of the moon that descends the steeps of the soughing I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,
twilight, I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.
Toss, sparkles of day and dusk--toss on the black stems The last scud of day holds back for me,
that decay It flings my likeness after the rest and true as any on
in the muck, the shadow'd wilds,
Toss to the moaning gibberish of the dry limbs. It coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk.
I ascend from the moon, I ascend from the night, I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway
I perceive that the ghastly glimmer is noonday sun,
sunbeams reflected, I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.
And debouch to the steady and central from the I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I
offspring great or small. love,
If you want me again look for me under your boot-
50 soles.
There is that in me--I do not know what it is--but I You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
know it is in me. But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
Wrench'd and sweaty--calm and cool then my body And filter and fibre your blood.
Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you.