Walt Whitman - Leaves of Grass Volume 1, 1902 by gnosisclassics

THIS EDITION

ISSUED

UNDER ARRANGEMENT WITH

MESSRS. SMALL, MAYNARD,

CO.,

OF BOSTON

THE PUBLISHERS OF THE AUTHORIZED EDITIONS OF THE WRITINGS OF WALT WHITMAN

PAUMANOK

EDITION

This Edition of the Complete Works of Walt

Whitman

printed on Ruisdael hand'made

papert and limited which

this is

Number.-

Three Hundred Setst of

Walt Whitman Etched by Jacques Reich from the photograph by Thomas Eakins, Philadelphia ( Whitman's last photograph)

THE

COMPLETE WRITINGS or

WALT iTMA Issued under the editorial super-

vision of his Literary Executors,

Richard

Maurice Bucke,

Thomas B.Harned, and Horace

L. Traubel

With additional bibliographical

and

critical

terial

ma-

prepared

by Oscar Lovell Triggs, Ph.D.

G.RPVTNAM'* S2NS NEWY6RK $ LSNDN THE KNICKERBOCKER PRESS

LEAVES OF GRASS BY

WALT WHITMAN

VOLUME

INCLUDING A BIOGRAPHY OF WHITMAN BY HIS LITERARY EXECUTORS

PUTNAM'S SONS NEW YORK AND LONDON

Ube Knickerbocker press 1902

1871,

1876,

1855,

1856,

1860,

1867

1881,

1882,

1883,

1884, 1888, 1891

WALT WHITMAN

THOMAS

HARNED AND HORACE

LITERARY EXECUTORS OF

TRAUBEL

WALT WHITMAN

HARNED AND HORACE

SURVIVING LITERARY EXECUTORS OF

TRAUBEL

WALT WHITMAN

ENTERED AT STATIONERS HALL

Ube

ftnicfcerbocfter

prce,

*Uw

Korb

COME, SAID

SOUL,

SUCH VERSES FOR MY BODY LET US WRITE, (FOR THAT SHOULD AFTER DEATH INVISIBLY RETURN,

ARE ONE,)

OTHER SPHERES, THERE TO SOME GROUP OF MATES THE CHANTS RESUMING, OR, LONG, LONG HENCE, IN

(TALLYING EARTH'S SOIL, TREES, WINDS, TUMULTUOUS WAVES,)

EVER WITH PLEAS'D SMILE

MAY KEEP

EVER AND EVER YET THE VERSES OWNING SIGNING FOR SOUL

ON, AS, FIRST,

HERE AND NOW,

AND BODY, SET TO THEM MY NAME,

273539

AUTHOR'S NOTE FROM 1891-2 EDITION.

As texts

and

there are

dates,

now

several editions of L. of G., different

wish to say that

prefer

present one, complete, for future printing,

and recommend

there should be any

a copy and fac-simile, indeed, of the text of these 438 pages.

subsequent adjusting interval which

this ;

The

so important to form'd

and launch'd work, books especially, has pass'd and waiting till fully after that, I have given ( pages 423-438 ) my concluding ;

w w

words. These concluding words appear on pp. 41 -66 of Volume of the present edition.

III.

Contents INSCRIPTIONS. One's-Self

. I Sing . Ponder'd in Silence

In Cabin'd Ships at Sea

To Foreign Lands To a Historian To Thee Old Cause

Him I

Sing

Read the Book

Beginning

On Journeys

4 5

9 .

.10 10

through the States

To a Certain Cantatrice Me Imperturbe

.11 1 1

Savantism

The Ship

Starting

Hear America Singing

What Still

Place

though the

One

13 ?

Besieged

Sing

.14

Shut not Your Doors Poets to

Come

To You Thou Reader i.

Studies

. Beginners To the States

VOL.

........

Eid61ons

When

For

15 .

[vii]

,,,_

.15

Contents Starting from

Song

Paumanok

of Myself

...

PAOB

CHILDREN OF ADAM. To the Garden the World From Pent-up Aching Rivers

no no

131

132

Sing the

Body

A Woman

Waits

Spontaneous

One Hour

Electric for

Madness and Joy Out of the Rolling Ocean the Crowd to

Ages and Ages Returning

at Intervals

How Long We were Hymen! O Hymenee! V'

We 1

Two,

am He

that

Fool'd

Aches with Love

133

Moments

Once

Pass'd through a Populous City

133

Heard You Solemn-Sweet Pipes of the Organ Facing West from California's Shores . I

As Adam

Native I

113

.124 .126 .129

Early in the

*>?

Morning

.134 .

134

.135 .136

CALAMUS. Untrodden

Scented Herbage of

In Paths

^ Breast

Whoever You are Holding Me For You O Democracy *

Now

Hand

These

. Singing in Spring ; Not Heaving from my Ribb'd Breast Only

Of the Terrible Doubt of Appearances The Base of All Metaphysics '

Recorders Ages Hence When I Heard at the Close of the [viii]

.137 .138 .

.... Day

140

.142 .142 .

144 145

146

.147

148

Contents

CALAMUS

Continued.

Are You the

PAGE

New

Person

Drawn toward Me?

Roots and Leaves Themselves Alone

Not Heat Flames up and Consumes

149

.149 .150

Trickle Drops

151

City of Orgies

151

Behold this Swarthy Face I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing

152 .

a Stranger

Moment \Yearning and Thoughtful Hear It was fcharged against Me

Here the

A A

Frailest

Leaves of Me

155

.156 157

157

Leaf for Hand

Hand

in a

Love!

Hand

.... .

O You Whom Full of Life

160 .

Often and Silently My Likeness .

160

.160 161

Now

.159 .159

the Multitude

That Shadow

157

158

Fast- Anchor'd Eternal

Among

Likeness

Dream What Think You I Take My Pen To the East and to the West Sometimes with One I Love To a Western Boy Dream'd

156

Glimpse

Labor- Saving Machine

Earth,

154

155

Prairie-Grass Dividing

When Peruse the Conquered Fame We Two Boys Together Clinging A Promise to California

The

152 1

This I

Come

161 161

.162

v Salut au

Monde!

163

vSong of the Open Road

177 [ix]

(

Contents PAGE

Crossing Brooklyn Ferry

Song of the Answerer Our Old Feuillage Song

of Joys

191

200

\&/<

206

213

223

A Song

of the Broad-Axe

...

;

,'.

/.;

....

;

Song of the Exposition Song of the Redwood-Tree

T^ Song for Occupations . A Song of the Rolling Earth

',..,;

, ;

Youth, Day, Old Age, and Night

^^>.,

<><

238 .

251

257 268

,.^

;

-:.

275

BIRDS OF PASSAGE. Song of the Universal Pioneers!

Pioneers!

>-. ,

;

To You

France.

^;^

Myself and Mine Year of Meteors.

;

* .

-*-'

. ,

With Antecedents

(1859-60) .

;,.: *

276

279

284

287

289

291

292

V-

'.-.k

...

UUustrations

Walt Whitman

....

Frontispiece

Etched by Jacques Reich from the photograph by

Thomas Eakins, Philadelphia (Whitman's

last

photograph).

Walt Whitman, From a

1855

engraving by Samuel Hollyer after the daguerreotype by Gabriel Harrison. steel

Walt Whitman, 1849 This

the earliest portrait of

...

Whitman.

Walt Whitman, 1877 From a

sketch by G. W. Waters. H. Johnston, Esq., Brooklyn, N. Y.

202 Owned

by J.

ffntrobuction f

BORN here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same." Such is Walt Whitman's pithy and picturesque reference to the subject of his lineage. for

purposes of biography

statement, emphasizing

might

make the same broad

with a certain perhaps dry

and yet significant particularity. It is considered consistent with the object of this, the first definite edition of Whitman's writings, to survey briefly and statistically

his

antecedent stock and contemplate

bearing upon his career. Back of Whitman's

its

grandparents the trail is up from all accessible facts

vague. A chart made takes us on his father's side to the

Whitman, who was born about

name

of Abijah

From this who was born

1560.

Abijah descended a son, Zachariah,

From Zachariah came Joseph Whitman, who lived in Huntington, Long Island, from 1660 to 1690. Following Joseph was the male heir through in

1595.

whom we

trace the

Whitman

descent.

But the

name of this individual is lost, though his grandson is known to have been Nehemiah Whitman, who [xiii]

flntrobuctkm

was born about 1705. Nehemiah married Sarah White, whose life was a hale one, making a span from 1713 to 1803. From this couple came Jesse Whitman, the grandfather of Walt Whitman, who was born January 29, 1749, was married to Hannah Brush, April 22, 1755, and died February 12, Hannah Brush was the daughter of Tredwell 1803. and lived from October 6, 1753, to January Brush, 6,

The son

1834.

Whitman, born July

14,

July

The

Hannah was Walter Walter Whitman was

of Jesse and

father of Walt. 1789, married

June

1816,

and died

1855.

lineage of

Whitman's mother cannot be

traced with any certainty to a period earlier than A suggestion of moment is contained in 1742.

Walt's reference to

Dutch Kossabone, old

salt,

liest

my mother's side, far back." The earreliable record discovers the name of Garrett

Van

Velsor,

1742 to

1812.

Garrett married

Mary

Kossabone (presumably a granddaughter of "Old Salt "), this

who

lived from about 1745 to 1792.

A son by

match was Major Cornelius Van Velsor (1768 to

was Naomi or Amy Williams, who died in February, 1826. Naomi was the daughter of Captain John Williams, whose wife was Mary Woolley. Thence came the most potent personality 1837).

the

Cornelius's wife

of the poet's forbears, the girl-child of and Cornelius, Louisa Van Velsor, the mother list

Naomi of Walt Whitman.

Louisa [xiv]

was born September

22,

flntrobuction

was married

to Walter

Whitman, June 8, 1816, and died May 23, 1873. Walt Whitman was born May 31, 1819, and died March 26, 1892. 1795,

This catalogue presents in dry root the material from which the career of Walt Whitman finds itself

an issue.

We assume that there are spiritual

integers

implied in this recital which no reiteration of dates could display. But it may be seen, nevertheless, that this reversion to Walt's pedigree is imperative.

Walt was of English Quaker His mother's strain was half Dutch and half stock. Welsh. Louisa Whitman was in reality much more Dutch than Welsh. Hence, the union of his father and mother left the Hollander element prepotent. It

his father's side

therefore correct to say that, while remaining

largely English with a

man was,

Welsh

as pointed out

blend,

Walt Whit-

by Kennedy, predomi-

nantly indebted to the Netherlandish influence for his make-up. Any such union and concentration of

from an ancestry so strongly

qualities so diverse,

charactered,

And

bound

momentous

to produce

to this convergence of racial attributes

effects.

have

to add a rare complex of personal qualities not ancesIt must be remembered, trally to be accounted for. too, that the

Whitmans were

largely farmers

and

mechanics or genuine producers of one sort or another.

Van

The

poet's father

Velsors were

was a

farmers

and

Williamses and Kossabones were [XV]

house-builder, the stock-raisers, sailors,

the

and Hannah

flntro&uction

Brush was a school-teacher.

Whitman

occupations Walt

and he regarded

all

of these

was

past maswith concrete and

himself

them passionate appreciation. We seem gesting that his ancestors seemed ter,

several

justified in sugin

very unusual

to live again in his career.

ways Of Walt's father we know

little in detail.

He was

a quiet, kind, industrious man, physically of large frame, solidly built, with a plain, strong face. He was

regarded as markedly truthful and honest. Though a Quaker, descended from a long line of the same stock, he seems to have abandoned the perfunctory practices even of that faith.

and then said

From what Walt now

in referring to his father, it

could be

seen that the father's attitude towards religion was much that of Thomas Paine and Elias Hicks, for both of

whom

all

he confessed the devoutest admiration. the Whitmans this father, though fundamen-

tally sluggish,

rable

was,

vehemence.

when aroused, capable of memoAnd we know that Walt himself

had stormy scenes with the old man. For, while Walt was never critical, he told us that his father sometimes strove to exert an undue parentalism which Walt had, out of self-respect, to resent. Walt

would add that on such occasions invariably the peacemaker.

his

Walter Whitman was a

carpenter, serving his apprenticeship in

when the

mother was

New

York

nineteenth century was in its teens. He remained in the metropolis several years after his [xvi]

flntrotwction

industrial

went

West

was

passed. Subsequently he Hills, where he entered upon business

novitiate

He was recognized

as a builder.

as a first-rate crafts-

man, always doing notable and conscientious work. It must be constantly borne in mind that Walt Whitman's ancestors of both sexes, as far back as known, and in all their ramifications, with the possible exception of the great-grandfather of the poet's

great-grandfather, Zachariah

Whitman, who was a

clergyman, were working people, possessed of little or no formal culture, and with no marked artistic tastes in

any direction. Of Walt Whitman's mother, and of the lifelong exceptional affection which existed between the two,

much might be written,

for, at this point,

not to speak

of the correspondence on both sides, the data is overwhelming. Everything goes to show how apt was

Walt's

own

description of her:

practical, spiritual,

an ideal

Benignant, calm,

woman."

remember this grave woman in Camden. She was powerful and restrained, as is true of all She would have been reexceptional personalities. garded as absolutely

illiterate

by those who

insist

mode as necessary to culture. But most awkward weapon was her pen, she

upon a fixed

though her had much of Walt's

own

impressiveness of utterance even in the petty colloquialism of her domestic enIn those who were her neighbors, as well tourage. as in those who, coming to visit Walt, met her, this VOL.

[xvii]

IJntro&uction

was

inevitably

Whitman's

ancestors,

conviction of simple organic energy

produced. It

may be

said here that

all

known, were in the exact sense first-rate that is, they were strong, long-lived, moral people without puritanism, rational, and many of them were reputed to have been exceptionally hospitable and charitable. There was no positive trace of degeneracy anywhere in the breed. Large families seem to have been the rule with the Whitmans. For instance, Nehemiah Whitman left four sons and two daughters. We have discovered the names of twenty-two men and women, the sons and daughters of five of these six. The other child probably had a family also, and the five had certainly other children of whom we have not the names. The material runs that way as far as

though the curious lapse of the line with Walt's own generation seems to show that right through,

was uncommonly vigorous as long it lasted, its roundup was sharp and quick. We may seem to repeat ourselves at this point

while the stream as

unnecessarily.

But

we do

so for the sake of certain

must be understood that Walt Whitman

facts.

did not

come from

professional

men

forty generations of

or warriors in

clergymen or or out of arms, but

from an unbroken sequence of plain men in the industriesthe best, while the most obscure, soil of democracy.

Hannah Brush, wife of [xviii]

Jesse

Whitman, Walt's

flntrobuction

was an orphan brought up by her aunt, Vashti Platt, who owned a large farm at the east end of Suffolk county, and kept a number of slaves. Hannah Whitman was an accomplished needle woman. She was She had taught school several years. grandfather,

shrewd and good-looking, sensible, cheerful, healthy " the old school." a woman of what is often called The Whitman and Brush families contributed to the most ardent of the Continental "rebels" in Suffolk county. Major Brush was often and angrily denounced in the British proclamations and by the royalists of

Long

He was confined

Island.

for a

time

New

York under the charge of the notorious Cunningham. in

the

Provost"

The Whitmans Hills (still standing,

lived

the old

home

West

and used as a carriage-house and

granary only a few years ago) from before the time of Nehemiah, more than a hundred years ago. They

owned

a large tract of land there, all or a large part of which descended to Nehemiah, who on his own account became a still more extensive landoriginally

owner in and about West Hills. Nehemiah was born and died in the old Whitman house. One of Nehemiah's sons was a lieutenant in Col. Josiah Smith's regiment of the American army.

participated in

the disastrous battle of Brooklyn and there lost his life. In "The Centenarian's Story," in Drum Taps, will

be found some impersonal account of this por-

tentous event. [xix]

llntro&uction

Sarah White, Walt's great-great-grandmother, was a large, strong woman who lived to be ninety years

She chewed tobacco, used opium, petted her " little niggers" slaves, and always had a crowd of about her. She was masculine in her character and old.

demeanor, offensive generally to the strangers who encountered her, but a woman of sterling energy and vital force, who at bottom commanded respect and faith.

The Van Velsor family miles from West Hills on a that

wound up from Cold

lived only

two

or three

solitary, picturesque

road

Springs Harbor.

was Major Van Velsor, and her mother's maiden name Naomi Williams. NaWalt's mother's father

omi

described as a mild, gentle, sweet-tempered woman, fond of children, remarkably generous and is

hospitable in disposition, a good wife and parent. are told that in dress she affected a Quaker sim-

Naomi's mother was known as Mary WoolHer father was a Captain John Williams, who

plicity.

ley.

between New York and Florida. Captain and Mrs. Williams had a family of two sons and eight daughters: John, Thomas, Amy, Sally, Peggy, Hannah, Clara and Molly are some of the names disclosed. Captain John was noted for his genial qualities and for his charity, and was

was owner of a

known

vessel that plied

man

fond of physical good-living. Mary was easy, good-natured, and with perhaps a deserved reputation for domestic shiftlessness. also as a

His wife

[XX]

Untro&uction

Walt Whitman's mother's grandfather, Garrett Van Velsor, died, aged seventy,

when

Mrs.

Whitman was

His wife, Mary Kossabone, had eighteen years old. six children, three boys and three girls. Cornelius Van Velsor was the second son. Mrs. Garrett Van

Velsor

beloved.

said to

have been a superior woman, much

Garrett

Van Velsor was

This business of Walt's ancestry

upon here to the

a cloth weaver.

may seem insisted

limit of tediousness.

But as so much

of his ancestry was in Walt, as the stream arrived in him still so jubilantly at its flood, we find that we

cannot account for him by starting anywhere short of his adamic forbears. We cannot, in fact, account for

him anyhow.

Genius cannot be accounted

for.

we may

bring together the more significant biographical signs and seals of the Whitman contingent and leave them to be interpreted in the light of

But

the singular literary fabric in which they ultimated. \ Walt Whitman was born at West Hills, on Long Island.

same

He came with

farm.

the third generation on the His parents had a large family, seven

boys and two girls, in which group Walt was the second in years. They were, almost without exception, remarked as being of solid, strong frame, fond of animals, and addicted to the

wholesome

labors

and

pleasures of the open air.* *For Whitman's account of his birthplace and early life see vol. iv., this edition, In this connection read Kennedy's articles : "Dutch Traits," "Quaker pp. 9-23. Traits." In Re Walt Whitman.

flntro&uction

Walt was very ready

to the other side.

pay

tribute to the virile

Yet his supreme acknowl-

qualities of his father.

edgment always went

affectionally

and

He was convinced

his larger traits, in so far as they

intellectually

that he

were

large,

owed and

owed to any heredity, to this "ample woman." "Ample woman" he so called her. He writes of her as "the frequently and best sweetest woman ever saw and ever to see." His mother was unquestionably expect so

far as

they could be

of more comprehensive personality than his father, and he never tired of saying that to her he was indebted largely "for such spirituality and simpli-

There are mysteries about heredity, however, which make impossible that exactitude of statement which any final word city" as characterized him.

There is so much in which no parent and no line of ancestry, heroic or debased, could explicate. From father and mother alike Whitman derived his magnificent in

the matter would require.

character

physique.

He was,

as he said himself,

"well be-

gotten and raised by a perfect mother." Whitman describes Long Island as being "shaped like a fish, plenty of seashore, the horizon boundless, the sea

and healthy, the numerous bays and creeks swarming with aquatic birds, the south side mead-

air fresh

ows covered with

salt

hay, the

soil

generally tough but being abundantly supplied with springs of the sweetest waters in the world." This was in part [xxii]

flntrotwction

"the long foreground somewhere," which in Emerson's surmise must have been enjoyed by Leaves of Grass "for such a start." William Douglas O'Connor has said:

No one

can ever really get at Whitman's

poems, and their finest lights and shades, until he has visited and familiarized himself with the freshness, scope, wildness,

island."

and sea beauty of

Certainly in

the

particular

this

rugged as-

localities

Whitmans, the farms, the woods and the shores were eminently impressive and

sociated with the

alluring.

You may go anywhere about West

Hills

and Huntington and participate in an almost monotonous opulence of view. We recall in particular one point of observation known as "Jayne's Hill," almost adjacent to the old Whitman farm. It may have been that in his youth Walt Whitman lingered hereabouts, looking far over the slopes, the crests covered with trees, and the valleys between dotted with farmhouses. To the south, far off, are the just visible waters of the Atlantic; to the north,

There could have been no

glimpses of the Sound.

ground better fitted to furnish the concrete setting of such a book as Leaves of Grass. While Walt was still a child (1823) his parents moved to Brooklyn, where he remained until his

training

maturity.

But as lad and young

man Whitman

fre-

quently returned to his birthplace on visits, and spent much time in roaming through Queens and Suffolk counties.

He attended

the

[xxiii]

common

schools of

llntro&uction

he was thirteen years of age. Thence his occupations were various. First he entered a lawBrooklyn

until

yer's office.

Then he spent

with a doctor.

and learned to

1833-4 he worked for a printer

set type.

of sixteen

schools in

Long

a short period of service

seventeen, Island

1836-7,

when

he taught

a youth

country At

and ''boarded round."

age he began writing for the newspapers

this early

and magazines. In 1839-40 we find him establishing and publishing the Long Islander, which still exists at Huntington. In 1840 he went back to New York city, staying there until 1845, working meantime in printing offices as compositor. He spent his summers in the country, doing some of the practical labor of the farm. During this period

he wrote a number of essays and tales which may be found in the files of the Democratic Review. In / 1842 he published Franklin Evans; or, The Inebriate:^ Tale of the Times, a temperance novel which had a wide contemporary circulation. This archaic pro-

The New The announcement of

duction appeared in a periodical called

World,

November,

1842.

composition was made in a preceding number a manner that was quite sensational and is worth " Friends of Tem-% repeating. This is what was said:

its

perance Ahoy! Franklin Evans; or, The Inebriate: Tale of the Times. By a popular American author. This novel, which is dedicated to the TemperanceSocieties

and the

friends of the [xxiv]

Temperance Cause

flntro&uction

throughout the United States, will create a sensation, both for the ability with which it is written, as well as the interest of the subject, and will be universally read and admired.

pressly for the novelists

work the demon

great

was

New World, by one

written ex-

of the best

with a view to aid the

this country,

young men from The incidents of the

of reform, and rescue of Intemperance.

wrought out with great effect, and the excellence of its moral, and the beneficial influence

plot

are

should interest the friends of the

will have,

perance Reformation

giving this Tale the widest Shortly before Walt died we

possible circulation."

asked him

how we

Tem-

could get a copy of Franklin

him that we had been scouring the country for some time to secure one. He replied that he did not have a copy and that he tfloffd to God" our search would never be rewarded. He wished the book to remain in oblivion. He had no good opinion of this early effort in the

Evans.

novel

told

business.

have since his death un-

You could not read far without discovering why Whitman discountenanced it. We do not know which of its two dominant characearthed the curio.

teristics

he hated most

its

puritan odor of sanctity. " ing of collateral matters

its

yond it

all

that.

lasted."

But

From no

flamboyant phrase or

was

said once, in speak-

promptly got

way

be-

a strong feeling while

literary

philosophical

flntrobuction

human

side could

moment. he

"I do not

said:

crude

be regarded as of weight or

know

that's all."

know how

came

it,"

the green and Franklin Evans is not a work

was simply

clumsy and inane. But while we are None of cataloguing we must give it a place. this early experimenting in Whitman's case grades up anywhere near the average of his matured of

art.

It is

utterance.

was

the years between nineteen and thirtyfour or thirty-five that Whitman put the edge on his It

Only those who are sympathetically familiar with Leaves of Grass can understand the full meaning " " of that word education when applied to his case. culture.

cannot be too profoundly emphasized. To a man like him it was the most comprehensive and satisfyIt

ing equipment to be conceived, though many things that the schools prescribe were not here regarded as requisite. It amounted to a species of absorption into himself of the in

town and

afield.

atmosphere of the

He was

To New

common

lost in the

life,

cosmopoli-

Brooklyn, and their suburban and rustic edges he devoted the worship, He studied not only, of this peculiar personal faith.

tan stream.

their

York,

"outside shows," but

heart and meaning.

far

studied

more life

their interior^

men, women^

on equal terms with everyone. He liked people and people liked him! He knew most men far better than they knew them-!

and

children.

travelled

[xxvi]

flntrobuction

And

selves.

his apprenticeship of these years

was

to the concrete spiritual as well as to the abstract.

how

Note the

shops,

taverns,

thoroughly conversant he became with houses,

religious

sidewalks,

assemblies,

ferries,

political

factories;

meetings,

carousings, and the vast paraphernalia of urban He had every rustic instinct for out of civilization. doors. fares. life.

delighted in the phenomena of thoroughBut he did not lose in life the meaning of

He knew

their inmates.

prisons,

and

and about

dis-

hospitals, poorhouses,

He passed

freely in

the city which are inhabited by the worst He knew evil people, and many of characters.

tricts of

them knew him.

He learned to tolerate squalor, vice, He saw the good (" there is always

and ignorance. so much more good than the self-righteous think") and the bad that mixed in the same blood, and he realized that which would excuse and justify a wanton life. It has been said that these people, even the worst of them, while entire strangers to Walt Whitman, quite invariably received him with

Thousands who have courtesy and gratitude. known the man personally or have derived equivalent impressions from his books, will dwell

upon the

It is not surgeneric magnetism of his presence. prising that he went among the ulterior classes

enjoying the same unhesitating and unequivocal renown. Many of the most dubious of those characters

became attached

to him. [xxvii]

His interest

the

flntro&uctkm

fakir thief,

and the huckster,

merged

men

the old

tenth,

the ragamuffin and the and old women of the subin

was no humbug

profession intended

Many men intellectuapprehend democracy. But in Whitman de-

to subserve a false repute. ally

mocracy had found

itself fact

as well

as theory.

Whitman

Even the outcasts patronized nobody. were to him as good as the best, though temporarily

dimmed and

blurred.

fortunate classes on the

hospitable with

all.

same

received the

He was equally

plane.

Merchants, lawyers, doctors,

scholars and writers

were among his friends. But the people he knew best and liked most, who knew him best and liked him most, were at neither extreme of social preference. They were the farmers, masons, printers, deck-hands, teamsters, drovers, and so forth, who constitute the creative background of our civilmechanics, carpenters,

ization.

With

pilots, drivers,

these, with their wives

and children,

with their old mothers and fathers, exquisite

rela-

He easily adjusted his life to any circle. No man was more gallant than he in his informal way could become. He had all that was

tions developed.

essential in the culture of four hundreds,

and then,

had a simple quality of direct approach which took him to the average man and kept him addition,

there a royally cherished figure.

Whitman made

himself familiar with

reading trade reports and

statistics,

[xxviii]

life,

not by

by any

extra-

flntrobuction

neous or living

hair-splitting theory,

but by loafing and

or less with mechanics,

his intimate friends.

who were

often

visited the foundries, shops,

rolling-mills, slaughter-houses,

factories, shipyards,

wharves, shops, and every known hostelry of

He attended clam-bakes,

races, auctions,

labor.

weddings,

and bathing parties, christenings, and all shades and degrees of public and private entertainment. And he shared without constraint all pros and cons in the popular experience. He was a fresailing

quent speaker at debating societies. On Sundays he occasionally went to church. But he did not

one church above another, or all churches to no church. If there had been Buddhist temples, Mohammedan mosques, and Confucian joss-houses prefer

he would undoubtedly have visited those with equal interest and sympathy. He had no foraccessible,

mal

religious

feeling

whatever and no

inclination

towards any perfunctory symbolism worship. And yet no man ever more devoutly honored rein

was more capable

of apprehending the sound root of the religious life. But the religious life to him was not at all an affair necessarily of a ligion

church.

loom or the

was

as well an affair of the office, the

scaffold.

Whitman liked to loaf in libraries and museums. There was in his youth in New York a very inclusive collection of Egyptian antiquities,

two

years, off

and

for

over

and on, he spent many an hour [xxix]

flntrotwction

examining

it.

dicate the quiet

This

noted because

way he had of getting

serves to in-

to the sources

of culture and perfecting his grasp of essential knowlHe is often spoken of as unlearned. And if edge. learning

to satisfy the rote

But no

drawn

gone through with of a text-book, he was unlearned.

a perfunctory exercise,

man

had, in broad grasp of social law, from basic apprehension of the sciences and

of historic perspective, a

positive

equipment

than he possessed. Reading did not perform any exclusive part in Walt Whitman's education. He found he could get

more from things themselves than from pictures His or descriptions of them drawn from others. aim was to absorb humanity and modern life, and he neglected no means, books included, by which this

aim could be furthered.

favorite

mode

study with him was to take an early breakfast and then go, by stage or on foot, to some solitary spot

by the seashore, generally Coney

Island (conserving

a very different purpose from that which it now enjoys), taking with him a knapsack containing a bit

He would spend of plain food, a towel, and a book. the day in this solitude, walking, thinking, observing the sea and sky, bathing, reading, or perhaps reciting aloud Homer and Shakespeare as he walked

would be hard to imagine a life more He speaks of himself happily educed. as ''wandering, amazed" at his "own lightness and about the beach.

[xxx]

flntrobuction

glee."

Whatever he did

saw gave him

pleasure.

At one period of his life his cardinal enjoyment in New York was riding up and down Broadway on

He would

omnibuses.

sit

watch the crowds and species of exhilaration,

swarming

vehicles,

pavements."

and

breast, in a

the limitless push of the was a lover of "populous

He Or he would

streets.

front with the driver

cross the East river, half

the day or half the night in the pilot-houses of Brooklyn ferry-boats, watching the multitudes coming and going, observing the sights on the waters, feeling the quiver of the boat from the strong beat of the paddles, and the rush through the yielding

At other times he would go out to sea with his friends of the pilot-boats, and all day and all night enjoy the air, the motion of the waves, the speed of water.

the boat, the isolation, the deep feeling of communion with free nature and the great brine. The simplest pursuits, even those regarded as common-

him

He was

sound and well, and consequently all life's delights were matters of course. Along in his twenty-third year he became well known as a speaker at Democratic mass place, suited

meetings.

few years

best.

perfectly

But he was never a rabid partisan. later

find his political fealties shifted to

the Republican party. life his sympathies, so

In the closing far

as they

decade of his

were

for a party

were Democratic again. His speaking was mostly done in New York City and down at country

all,

[xxxi]

Untro&uction

gatherings on

Long

Brooklyn and

New

Though he took

Island.

(in

York, 1840-45) no strenuous political controversy, he watched

personal part in events with a profound and concerned eye. He foresaw the drift assumed by the heated and violent

debate North and South. slavery, but in

all

He was

this

practical,

tumultuous, varied, and

one unequalled enjoyment all

bias.

was full of inspiration to Walt come to his young maturity

generally outdoor life Whitman, there had

the climax of

towards

else that characterized this acri-

monious period he was without

Though

stern as

the

opera to him

Italian opera.

And

was the

singing of the us that he did not

famous contralto Alboni. He tells miss one of her performances. He has acknowledged that the influence upon him of Alboni's sing-

ing was a most important factor in his poetic growth. He speaks of her as "the lustrous orb, Venus con-

the blooming mother, sister of loftiest Gods." opera always remained to him a source of great

tralto,

The

He heard all the good bands, orchestras, and soloists who came to New York from 1840 to delight.

and many passages in his poetic and prose work can be traced back to such inspirations. He had the habit of jotting down these impressions at 1860,

the

moment

or with

of the note-books in

little

delay.

possess

many

which such memoranda occurs

movement in music which came through Wagner he knew but

great

abundance.

the

[xxxii]

later

flntro&uctkm But he said: "I

little.

fellows talk of

music of the

Whitman

Leaves.'

gamut of

entire

way you is

the

down

the

Wagner

these years ran up and

The compreindicated by John

social legerdemain.

hensiveness of this tutelage

Burroughs

from the

that the music of

know

his

first

book about Whitman

which Whitman himself contributed invaluable features in advice and revision: " For a few years he now seems to be a member

book

of that light battalion of writers for the press

with

facile

pen,

compose

tale,

report,

who,

editorial or

what-not, for pleasure and a living; a peculiar class; always to be found in any large city; once in a

while he appears at the political mass meetings as a He is on the Democratic side, at the time speaker.

Van Buren for President, and, in due He spoke in New York and down course, for Polk. in Long Island, where he was made much of.

going

for

without entering into particulars, it is enough to say that he sounded all experiences of life, with all their passions, pleas-

Through

this period (1840-55),

ures and abandonments.

He was young,

in perfect

bodily condition, and had the city of New York and its ample opportunities around him. I trace

some of the poems

of Children of and occasionally in other parts of his book,

this period in

Adam,

including Calamus/'

Whitman was occupied during VOL. I

[xxxiii]

1847

and the year

flntrotwction

And it following as editor of the Brooklyn Eagle. was in 1848, when nearly thirty years of age, and after having lived so far entirely on Long Island and

Brooklyn and

a long tour

Western

through

States.

dates this trip

New the

York, that he started on Middle,

Southern,

and

Specimen Days he erroneously In this sally South he was 1849. In

accompanied by his brother Jeff. Jeff was the only one of the Whitmans who, outside his mother, entered into relations of actual intimacy with Walt. And even Jeff never seemed to have any conception

Walt

much

as a figure of

which history would take

cognizance.

Walt had been engaged, while

still

home

New

York, in organizing the staff of a daily newspaper, the Crescent, which was to be at once started

New

He reached

by steamer Friday night (February 25th), and the first number of the Crescent was issued on Sunday, March 5th. The brothers remained at work on the paper, Walt in the editorial rooms and Jeff in the office, until near the end of May, in which month, on Saturday in

Orleans.

that city

the 2yth, they left by steamer for the North. Several of their letters home and part of a journal kept by Walt at this time are still extant and in our

They seem to have thoroughly enjoyed South, and would doubtless have stayed

possession. their visit

there

much

longer had not something, the water

or the climate, proved deleterious to Jeffs health. [xxxiv]

flntro&uction

They ascended the cago,

and took

Mississippi, crossed to Chi-

steamer

there

by way of lakes and Erie to Buffalo.

Huron, St. Glair, Walt wrote at the time in this Michigan,

"We

clusion of his trip:

way about the conarrived on Monday even-

and spent that night and a portion of next day In the morning of the next examining the place. day got in the cars and went out to Niagara. Great ing,

What

God!

a sight!

saw the whirlpool and

all

Falls,

the other things, includ-

ing the suspension bridge.

went under the

On Tuesday

evening

Albany and travelled all night. From the time daylight afforded us a view of the country found it very rich and well cultivated. Every few started for

miles there were large towns and villages. On Wednesday evening arrived in Albany. Spent the evening in loitering about. Next morning started

down

the

Hudson

the Ali&a.

Never before did

look upon such grand and varied scenery. Arrived about five o'clock in Brooklyn. Found all well." I

probably had far more significance in Whitman's future than is generally known or could This

trip

be exploited here. detail of

which

the period of his career,

absolutely missing.

There was

atmosphere of mysteriousness unconsciously He occupied himself thrown about the episode.

New

Orleans with observing the raison d'etre of Southern life, much as he had done

during his stay

previously with cities North. [xxxv]

His associates were

flntrobuction

in all classes

and grades.

element of the caste

mix-up escaped him. He appreciated the fact that he was experiencing novel conditions for which the North furnished no it

left

with him

was an

The profound

parallel.

influence

indicated in his after work.

almost a miraculous, student. never knew a time up to his latest days in which this power deserted him. apt,

Whitman is And yet, lent.

often regarded as having been indo-

as a matter of fact, he kept himself at

him instrumental in establishing and publishing The Freeman, in Brooklyn. It was about this period, and until 1854, that he got into the business of building and selling houses of the middle class in Brooklyn. Here he had hit fiscally the most prosperous venture of his life. Had he continued in this gilt-edged course he would all

times busy.

In 1850-5

find

probably have accumulated a fortune. the danger of such success and retired

But he in time.

knew What

had he to do with the making of money or the losing of money? He was neither for nor against money.

He was

for the

his career

human

spirit.

And

the next act in

was the launching of his extracontinental He deliberately surrendered all prospects

emprise. of what is called success in

The year

1855

life

for a

was formally the To the surprise

mad

speculation.

red-letter year of

Whitman's life. of every one he printed and issued his first edition of Leaves of Grass. No one had had any suggestion of what was to [xxxvi]

flntrotwction

come.

The hidden purpose

of his

life

was suddenly

revealed.

to this time,

Whitman,

have seen, had

newspaper editor, a story- writer, a carpenter, a house-builder. These were been a

printer, a school-teacher, a

and digressions, none of them becoming

really asides

any considerable feature of his deliberated

life.

From

his entrance to the period of his maturity his serious

was the composition of Leaves of Grass. This book was conceived and executed in the freedom task

and reticence of the broadest opportunity. All that he felt and knew was focussed to one point and included

the simple letter of his vigorous scripture. And, though none of his contemporaries suspected the revelation he was to make, it is seen by reference in

to his note-books of the prior years that the impetus of his faith had been of one character from the start.

He had long felt and thought towards it inchoately. Now power was come and he could speak. A hundred men have tried to describe the extraordinary poem, attempt no one has more than temporally succeeded. Leaves of Grass is, in fact, in itself

but

in this

cosmic and

baffles all

adequate account, just as does

the ostensible and so-called objective universe. In the first place, it is a picture of America in the nine-

America

Nothing is lackThe transcripts of our manifolded new world ing. are poured out one after the other in an almost limit-

teenth century.

less stream.

All

is in it.

are presented, not seriatim [xxxvii]

but

Introduction

a consecutive arrangement of intermitted and, as it were, casual flashes, with the original wilderness of in

North America and

World

its

its first

aborigines, explorers, trappers, pioneers,

settlers, farmers, planters,

includes

groes.

West and

East.

trader, the sailor,

work

all

miners, slave and free ne-

types, Southern

and Northern,

embraces the manufacturer, the the fisherman, the rich and the poor, It

and especially paid of

Old

colonization from the

tribute to laborers in every field

that distinguishes our industrialism.

portrays the country

itself

its

Then

lakes, rivers, lagoons,

canyons, mountains, coasts, bays, ports, cities, and boundaries its deserts, swamps, its pastoral plains ;

;

innumerable farms with

its

all

their products

cotton, maize, rye, sugar, rice, cattle, fir,

poplar, cedar, live-oak, cypress

;

wheat,

wood, maple,

its

interminable

southern wildernesses of cane-brake, rushes, and the swamp-grass; its fruits, South and North orange, pineapple, papaw, persimmon, grape, peach, All

apple, melon, pear, cherry, plum, strawberry.

elements of

its

municipal.

The sky overhead

government

are there its

national, state,

sun,

moon,

stars,

as well as meteors, clouds, rain, snow, hail, fogs the smack and solidity of the solid ground under-

neath, with out. is all

all

between, are arrayed.

Nothing

The anatomy, physiology, psychology

exploited. politics

lutionary

and

All family relations, all

history, are betrayed.

war and the war of [xxxviii]

is left

man

usages of life, And the Revo-

Secession.

And

all

Untrofcuction

thoughts, suggestions, aspirations, pictures, city and country, by day and night. Leaves of Grass is the

book of peace and war, of the most daring specuan archangelic philosophy, as well as of It is for outdoor platitudes and the commonplace. lation, of

health, for land all

and

the earth, for

all

sea, for good-will, for

America, for

nations, for the so-called

common

every claim, ideal or line is tempered by every other line, claim or ideal; every wish and All right is tempered by every other right and wish. In

people.

this

and much more makes the book, as

we have said,

a veritable cosmos, a universe of the self-sufficient soul. And then this is, after all, nothing but the shell of the book.

Its

substance

Whitman

himself

one

of the great spiritual forces of the modern world. Whitman is the book, and the book is Whitman. And this

Whitman

a thousand times vaster than either

the book or the man.

This

Whitman

man

at all in

spirit.

not a

physiological sense.

America

new efflux

any primary or

specified because

belongs to him, in a sort is Whitman his outside shell but the individual man, Walt Whitman, cosmically construed,

the blood and brawn of the book.

All

the crusadings of his outward life, and with them all spiritual entrances and exits, are reflected in artless

but trenchant songs. his

poem

poems

all

And that

as he seeks to include in

objective to

him

that

so the world, and, above all, all America he equally seeks to include and portray all that is

to say,

all

[xxxix]

flntrofcuction

and if in him, then equally, though often obscured and unconscious of itself, in every one. In depicting natural objects, as well as men and subjective in him,

women, Whitman necessarily and simply reports what he sees. He may seem to surround them with a halo to lift them into an atmosphere of glory and splendor that at

first

seems exaggerated and

sight

But ultimately (and

purpose of the book) you are sure to discover that he has taken simply the true view, our old view having been inade-

false.

this is the

quate and misleading. But to say that Whitman speaks of himself in one place and of the so-called external world in another

to use the language of

convention, not of truth. As Whitman sees it, and as it really is, the external universe is Whitman, and

Whitman

And this

but one.

They are not two not of Whitman only but of

the external universe.

every person. soul?" he asks.

true

"Was somebody And he answers

asking to see the :

"See your own

shape and countenance, persons, substances, beasts, the trees, the running rivers, the rocks, and sands." For, says

another place: "Objects gross and the "

So that Whitman's absorption in the physical, the objective, is not, as some have thought, atomic, but spiritual, after a fashion and unseen soul are one.

degree heretofore unknown.

Though Whitman labels.

There

be enclosed.

often labelled he escapes

all

no one influence by which he can is

too big for parties, partialisms

Untro&uction

or schisms.

too

much

too free for the bondsman and

bond

Whitman

for the licentious.

He has caught

thoroughly oriented.

the sacred

And

yet in the very process of orientation he wings his spirit beyond the obligations of its ceremonialism. But Whitman could not be roundly spell.

valued with the mysticism left out. He is the rallying centre of East and West. In his symbols the mystical abstract strikes light with the mystical

Because Whitman was a big man who weighed two hundred pounds, and could laugh at a joke, and could write poems about sex, some good concrete.

people, even

some of

his biographers,

name in letters too gross even Whitman will get his own only his

have spelled But

for censure.

that day and recognizes in his text the majesty

generation which of its superphysical ascents.

and omit the mystical

write of

Whitman

to write of the universe

For Whitman comes to literature not ignoring it. out of New York alone but just as much from Singapore. in

He has no

which

will not serve as well

a Buddhist temple as in a Christian church and

honor both. of

altar

Or even on the

Whitman go back

of visible

highroad.

men and

The

roots

verified his-

tory to races and zones pretercivilized. Such observations take Whitman's democracy away from geography and give it to the spirit.

Whitman, and choose.

must be understood, does not pick

He does not

look round for subjects or

[xli]

flntroZmction

good or bad in morals or for shining lights or for eclipses. The art that so deliberately narrows its privileges would not corellate his ampler designs. pTo him all nature and all humanity is sacred, and is to be sung and So it is not his scheme to include in his celebrated. book the accepted subjects only, but all conceivable subjects; for, to Whitman, in man and in woman, in nature and in animals, all processes, functions, relations, instincts, passions, since God made and ordained them, are throughout pure and good. But Whitman has another reason, and a stronger one, for including certain forbidden subjects. To him the beautiful things or ugly things or for

any other topic whatever. Yet by other poets, as in the world at large, it is shunned and tabooed, and what in itself

topic of sex

innocent

as unobjectionable as

made

to appear vile.

that the feeling that there

Whitman

something

thinks

intrinsically

impure in the sex relation is a false feeling, and that it has done and still does immense injury to the race. He wishes to oppose and if possible to destroy and

remove that

feeling,

both

the interest of truth and in

So he takes the bull by the horns, and glorifies sex just as he glorifies patriotism or courage, treating the one in the same open, matterWhitman was himof-course manner as the other.

the interest of morals.

thoroughly free from all antique notions as to sex. this had not been so he never could have written

self If

his Children of

Adam poems. He could not but ques-

Untrobuction

tion the feeling, so essentially discreditable to ity,

that there

an ineradicable uncleanness

human-

in sex, as

does not attach to any other of our organs Therefore he knew perfectly well what or functions. sex, that

he was doing and ceived at

first.

how

would be reHe was under no illusion and was not these passages

away by any passion or fancy. He felt sure he knew what should be done, and he was going to " do it. Hence, we find him declaring And sexual carried

organs and acts! do you concentrate in me, for I am determined to tell you with courageous clear voice to prove you illustrious." And in another place he is still

definite:

"Through me many long dumb Through me forbidden voices, Voices of sexes and Voices indecent by

lusts,

voices

voices veil'd and

clarified

and

remove the

veil,

" transfigur'd.

He knows this topic is forbidden, but he is for that very reason determined to tear away the veil. He means to let in the open air and the sunlight, and to disinfect, clarify, and transfigure that which has been maligned.

At this juncture, and while treating of Leaves of Grass in the abstract, while trying to get at Whitman's handiwork by such its first

drafts

light as

and culminations,

comes to us through it

may not be

amiss

make

a slight digression. It is not our purpose to introduce a critical estimate of Whitman's position in the literature of the country and of the world, but we to

may

be pardoned

out of an abundant appreciation [xliii]

flntro&uction

our judgment are some essential Rather than intending to features of his message. select

what

come with any

between Whitman's work and his readers, we wish to step and stay aside, and And yet we must let interpretation take care of itself. not hesitate to express the certain heres and theres explication

which may serve to indicate what it is in Whitman which makes him to us a gigantic force in the recent This opinion will not take the place of any other opinion, and will not have any It is only one It is not expert opinion. authority. literature of the race.

contributed with thousands of opinions, some, no doubt, of more and some of less validity, and asks with the rest only the privilege to be heard. opinion,

Leaves of Grass is one poem, in its unity analogous to Faust. It may superficially seem disjointed, but its

essential coherence will eventually

edged.

found

It is

artistic

adhered

to.

consistency.

be acknowl-

the outgrowth and completion of a proscheme, austerely conceived and rigidly

The book Its

characterized

foundation

by an

epic

a man, moral, aes-

thetic, religious, emotional, meditative, patriotic.

man from

the cradle to the grave. Nay, more, before the cradle and beyond the grave, limitless either way, accepting neither a beginning nor an

tallies this

Within the concept of a single mind we discover an idealistic philosophy akin to that of certain

end.

of the great Teutonic systems the recognition of the essential identity of the spiritual and material [xliv]

llntrobuction

but one that

worlds

poetic,

and

the end

triumphantly conclusive. It is

of crucial

moment

to apply to such a

poem

as the Song of Myself the test of the larger criticism. This poem celebrates or glorifies Walt Whitman,

body, mind, and soul, with

all

the functions and

attributes that are implied, and then, by a subtle but inevitable implication, becomes equally a song of exaltation, as

rendered by any

man

woman, upon

the beauty and perfection of his or her body and spirit, the material being treated as equally divine with the immaterial. As quickly as you realize the

Walt Whitman of this song you take his place. Beyond such a primary significance the poem has sublime import as the chant of cosmical man of the whole universe, considered as self-sufficient in the immortality of man. And then, from point of view, the poem becomes a

hymn

of what

in exaltation

known

still

another

commanding

as external na-

get a little nearer the book each reader must himself in heroic pride become its author.

ture.

Whitman was always saying to us "The book is as much yours as mine yes, even as much your actual handiwork as mine." And so we find him :

assuring his reader " I know well perfectly

Know my

my own

egotism,

and must not write any less, And would fetch you, whoever you are, flush with myself.

omnivorous

lines,

[xlv]

flntroJwction "

It is

you

talking just as

much

you, Tied in your mouth, in mine

Then he

declares

" :

as myself,

act as the

tongue of

begins to be loosen'd."

Who touches this book touches

And now we commence to understand what he means when he speaks of democracy. He does not offer you ease and a chair. He knows he is He is not surprised or pained a hard proposition. when he is rejected. a man."

" But these leaves conning, you con at peril, For these leaves and me you will not understand,

They

will elude

you

at first,

and

still

more afterwards,

will

certainly elude you,

Even while you think you had unquestionably caught me, behold!

Already you see

have escaped from you."

Whitman does not

desire to

be misunderstood.

But he would rather have you misunderstand him He is stimulating in than misunderstand himself. his indirection,

and purposes having

his reader inde-

pendently think out a portion of the argument. He does not design to stand for you. He expects to see you stand for yourself. Observe his continuity.

accused of playing false. But while he was without formal, he was always distinguished for is

essential, logic.

You

learn to acquiesce in his notion

of form and sequence. And yet his dithyrambs may not convey the same meaning to every reader alike. [xlvi]

flntro&uction

Such philosophy, such

He simply demands

look a

that

insight,

ultra

visioned.

step out of bond

must get

little for

ourselves.

reflection

and by

reflections of reflections.

man who

pay the price

willing to

that less

Every

competent to

secure adequate spiritual leverage. Whitman warns men against anything that would reduce in them

the quality of an initiating personality. "Houses and rooms

are

full

of perfumes, the shelves are

crowded

with perfumes, I

know it and me also, but

breathe the fragrance myself and

The

would intoxicate The atmosphere is not a perfume, distillation

tion, It is I

for

will

it is

it,

shall not let

has no taste of the

it.

distilla-

odorless,

mouth

to the

forever,

in love

with

it,

bank by the wood and become undisguised and

naked, I

am mad

for

to be in contact with

me.

Long enough have you dream'd contemptible dreams, Now I wash the gum from your eyes,

You must habit yourself to the dazzle of the light and of every moment of your life. Long have you timidly waded holding a plank by the shore,

Now

will

To jump

you

to be a bold

off in the

swimmer,

midst of the sea,

rise again,

and laughingly dash with your

Whitman was idea. He gets to it

nod to me,

shout,

hair."

tenaciously determined in this all

ways [xlvii]

both prose and verse,

Untro&uction

and

such diversity of statement as to finally imWe have press even the skepticism fye distrusts. long enough tarried with the ancients and the honin

and philosophy followed apWe have taken too proved systems and schools. much for granted and have lacked the courage to look for ourselves. Now he proposes to have us orables in religion

face

all

and

all

things,

shifts of fortune,

with confidence

and joyous and rounded life. He recurs again and again to the principle that governments have but one object the preservation of liberty. And this declaration he faith,

living

thereby a free

extends with continent inevitableness to

tions.

refuses privilege

and

favor.

institu-

all

will not

take from society that which all cannot have the counterpart of dn the same terms. To favorites of arrogant political fortune and their superservitors, great and small, he vehemently says:

"The

President

you

The

who

White House

there in the

not

you here

for

are here for him,

Secretaries act in their bureaus for you, not

them.

it is

for you,

and civilization exurge from you, and anything inscribed anywhere and monuments Sculptures Doctrines, politics

are tallied in you." .'

He man.

**o^s,

v o.^

-\W

M^V^

refuses to abstract himself trom the average

He has no semi demi democracies

to be sold

powers or preferences or to superior persons. / He draws one line for all. And the elements of the for

[xlviii]

flntrobuction

he enforces are not complex. They are In one place exigent and drastic but not exacting. he alludes to the democrat as to one citizenship

"Who

and

says, indifferently

alike

How

are you, friend? to

the President at his levee,

And he

says

Good

day,

brother, to

Cudge

that hoes in the

field,

And

sugar both understand and

know

that his speech

right."

the anti-slavery controversies of the last century, when the politicians were wrong, when judges In

were too generally subservient, when the pulpit was too apt to see the slaveholder and miss the Christ,

Walt Whitman declared "

Man The

shall not hold least

the sternest tone:

property in man.

develop'd person on earth

just as important

and

sacred to himself or herself as the most develop'd person is

to himself or herself."

Look

from what angle you

Whitman imperturbably

may you

discover

associating his humanistic

He saw no gifts, no prophecies, no spiritual futures, whose august suffrage was not universally decreed. He dealt nowhere in remnants. When Whitman was through no man was left out. philosophy with the fate of the mass.

"Each of us Each of us

inevitable,

limitless

each of us with his or her right upon

the earth,

Each of us allow'd the eternal purports of the earth,

Each of us here as divinely as any VOL.

[xiix]

here."

Tlntrobuction

Leaves of Grass offers a species of Bible to our modern democracy. What the Vedas were to

Brahmanism, the Law and the Prophets to Judaism, the Avesta to Zoroastrianism, the Pauline writings to Christianity, Leaves of Grass will be to the future of American civilization.

Not the

special

American

have to-day developed, or the civilization of any one continent, but that American civilization which, without a single geographical spot to civilization

upon, will consummate itself in the international democracies. Though Emerson and finally settle

men

other

of letters were uncompromising advocates

which was to be purely American in its character, none of them seemed fully to understand in what way that literature must differ from any other. Whitman advocated a radical and abrupt change in form and spirit. "The great poems," Shakespeare included, he claims, "are poisonous to the idea of the pride and dignity of the of a

national

common

literature,

people, the life-blood of democracy.

models of our lands,

grown

have had

their birth in courts,

many

from other

and basked and

sunshine; all smell of princes' faworkers of a certain sort we have, indeed,

plenty, contributing after their kind;

the

get

in castle

vors.

literature,

The

learned,

national

all

test,

many

complacent.

But,

the

tried

elegant,

touched by standards

democratic personality, they wither to ashes. And what is there in the modern world that is of value

Untro&uction

unless the underlying spirit of democracy pervades

it?"

Again and again Whitman insists that our poets must be singers of some such democracy. America

demands

a poetic

movement

that

and cosmical as she

inclusive,

as bold, modern,

herself

a poetry

the people, with whom the cultured few are included, and not for an elect class, to which are for

awarded

all

the choice prizes of

out upon the land.

He paces

off its length

Rockies.

He threads He stands

sissippi.

before

its

life.

awed by

Then he looks its

its prairies.

magnitude.

and breadth.

climbs

fords

its

Mis-

awe, though not dread, half-revelations and its unthinkable tremen-

He notes

herculean problems everyAnd then he observes where vastness, grandeur. that every other country has a literature that will dousness.

bear

its

some comparison

its

physical and social im-

He is provoked to prophecy. Whitman What has America? " Possessing the richest

portance. asks:

"the

first

sign of proportionate native, imaginative soul,

and

mass of material ever furnished a first-class

work

match

is,

nation,

far,

wanting."

Whitman had reached this stage in his speculation when he determined to create an American poem. In Leaves

of Grass he proposed to sing a song of

commensurate breadth.

upon his task. He never saw life small. Life to him was ever and " for ever immense in passion, pulse and power, dilates

flntrobuction

action form'd

for freest

cheerful,

under the laws

divine."

Twelve poems made up the original 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass, which was printed in the establishment of Andrew and James Rome, at the corner of Cranberry and Fulton streets, Brooklyn, the author himself setting up most of the type. We will append a pithy reference to this period of Whitman's life, furnished in 1881 by a person who met him at close range: "Walt Whitman had a small printing office and book store on Myrtle avenue, Brooklyn, where after his return from the South he started the Freeman newspaper, first as a weekly, then as a daily, and continued

own

living.

He wore

a year or so.

his

thought him a very natural person.

plain,

cheap clothes, which were always

Everybody knew him

particularly clean.

members

;

every-

all

of us [referring to

of his family

brothers, sisters,

one, almost, liked him.

the other

He always earned

father and mother], long before he published Leaves of Grass, looked upon him as a man who was to

make

mark

his

He was always a knew of late years,

the world.

good listener, the best

ever

he talks somewhat more. In those early years (1849-54) he talked very little indeed. When he did talk his conversation was remarkably pointed, I

think,

attractive,

peared

and

clear.

thought

When

Leaves of Grass first apa great book, but that the man [Hi]

flntro&uction

was greater than the book. His singular coolness have never seen him was an especial feature. excited in the least degree never heard him swear but once. He was quite gray at thirty. He had a 1

;

look of age in his youth, as he

youth

now

has a look of

in his

The

age." exact years covered

by the

early note-books

our possession cannot be ascertained. It had been continuously his habit to make copious memoin the street, on the boats, at randa in the open in

the seaside, in the fields.

to be recalled that

he quit house-building in the spring of 1855 to print and publish his amazing songs. "When the book aroused such a tempest of anger and condemnation " I went off to the east end of everywhere," he said, Long Island and Peconic Bay. Then came back to

New York I

with the confirmed resolution, from which never afterwards wavered, to go on with my poetic

enterprise in

my own way

and

finish

as well as

As exposing the diverse impressions produced by the book at the time, we should remember that while Whittier threw the copy sent him into the fire, Emerson sat down and wrote Whitman the " marvellous letter in which he said: greet you at could."

the beginning of a great career." At this time there were more Whittiers than Emersons. But the Em-

ersons have prevailed. He had got into the fight which was to last out his life. Walt Whitman

from this period proceeded to

fulfil

the scheme so

Introduction

What

long speculated upon and finally announced.

he had done was no half-way forage across

was

a splendid assertion of integral exerted in defence of a spiritual heritage. acres.

Leaves of Grass

grew

rapidly.

In 1856 a

alien

power second

a small i6mo, 384-page volume,

edition appeared

containing thirty-two poems, published by ler & Wells. This, again, had little or no

Fowsale.

The same howl continued. Whitman saw that he was misunderstood. He knew that he had either to retrace his steps, to apologize for what he had done, or let recognition take care of itself. So he decided to let recognition take care of itself. But

meanwhile he conceived plans by which to create

some popular

foretaste

of himself.

Among

other

schemes elaborately surveyed but never consummated was the idea of going up and down the country delivering and selling a series of lectures. It can be seen that he had given much thought to the subject of oratory. The reader may refer to the matter on that subject to be found in volume eight

A document

of this edition.

indicating the serious-

ness of this intention to lecture

us at his death. small

piece of

stiff

man's Lectures.

written on both sides of a

paper

cover of a book which

was discovered by

was

He had

intended as the front to contain

"Walt Whit-

inscribed on this sheet

"15 cents. Walt Whitman's Lectures." Then he announces: "I desire to go by degrees through [liv]

flntrofcuction

These States, especially West and South and through Canada: Lecturing (my own way) henceforth my employment, my means of earning my all

work elsewhere alluded to, that takes precedence. Of this, or through the list, present and to come (see last page of cover), any living,

subject to the

be recited before any society or association of

will

friends, or at the

defrayment of some special person.

"AMERICA: A PROGRAM

"Some

plan

lectures free;

seek to have the vocal delivery of but at present a low price of ad-

mission, one dime, or

(When any "Each

&c.

fee for reciting here $10.00

distance expenses in addition).

lecture will be printed with

its

recitation;

needing to be carefully perused afterwards. sonally

sell

per-

the printed copies.

"BROOKLYN, NEW YORK:

1858.

"Trade supplied by DeWitt,

New

162

Nassau

Street,

York."

Then over the

leaf

on the inside page of the

cover the writing continues as follows " Notice Random Intentions Two Branches " Henceforth two co-expressions. They expand, :

amicable from vidual stamps

common by

sources, but each with indi-

itself.

"First POEMS, Leaves of Grass, as of INTUITIONS, the Soul, the Body (male or female), descending

below laws,

social

routine,

creeds,

literature,

flntro&uction

celebrate the inherent, the red blood, one self,

woman

or one

avowed

as well be

Walt Whitman, out and ever he

him-

Songs of thoughts

in herself.

and wants hitherto suppressed by

may

man

writers.

to give the personality of

and good, what-

out, evil

or thinks, that sharply set

book, the Spirit commanding

it;

down

certain outsiders

stop puzzled, or dispute, or laugh, very well. " Second, Lectures, of Reasoning, Reminiscences, the Intellectual, the Esthetic, the desire for knowledge, the sense of richness,

Comparison,

Politics,

refinement and beauty in the mind, as an sensation from an American point of view.

act,

Also,

the meaning of Religion, as a statement, every thing from an American point of view. "Of the above so far both would increase the in Lectures,

bearings upon themselves, not at any time finished any more than any live operation of nature is but unfolding, urging

fashion

for

onward and outward.

These States

(it

may

By degrees as well be

avowed) two athletic volumes, the first to speak of the permanent soul (which speaks for all, material too, but can be understood only by the like of itself the same being the reason that what is wisdom music to one is gibberish to another). But the second, temporary, shall be the speech of the attempt at

Both to illustrate Statements, Argumentation, Art. America illustrate the whole, not merely sections,

members, throbbing from the [Ivi]

heart, the

West around

flntrobuction

the great Lakes, or along the flowing Ohio, or Missouri or Mississippi.

"Curious, much advertising his own appearance and views (it cannot be helped), offensive to many, too savage and natural, candidly owning that he has neither virtue or knowledge such, en passant, of Walt Whitman, going his own way to too

free,

own work

because that, with the rest, is needed because on less terms how can he get what he is resolved to have to himself, and to his

America?

Whitman

did things lazily but

was not

lazy.

His leisurely manner was too much for the unwary. He was considered indolent. But this explicit docu-

ment

just produced

shows

that he took

no mental

He was always doing what the noisy man could not do. He was always employed with something that contributed to his master-task. He was no desultory craftsman. He argued all his life out with himself on paper. He asked questions and vacations.

answered them, argued against himself and himself; he appeared as self plaintiff and fendant, in

all

He never

attempted to the lecture field, but he

establish his

surveys in lived his plans out to the In

1860,

self de-

the exigencies of his difficult but

illuminated career.

ment of the

justified

literally

last

item in the unfold-

Leaves.

issued through Thayer & Elthe third edition of Leaves of

Whitman

dridge, of Boston,

[Ivii]

Untrotwction

Grass

six pages. lishers

The

handsome book of four hundred and fiftyBut the war came on and found his pub-

with enough Southern credits to

plates of the

were purchased

book were sold

swamp them.

at auction,

and

song by Richard Worthington, for years and up to the time of

for a

New

York, who Whitman's death persistently produced one edition These plates after another, and piratically sold them. of

were purchased and are now owned by the literary executors, and this edition is no longer on the market.

what Whitman himself has written about the war and his share in its gains and losses, it would be gratuitous and feeble for us to enlarge upon that event here. But something must be said in order to After

' '

But keep our record at least statistically unbroken. for the war," we have heard him remark, "the Leaves "

Whitman had would not have been complete. dreamed democracy, written democracy, talked

Now

He showed by concrete example what his summons meant. He answered his own call. Had his act failed That is what all his words would have failed. he intended we should know when he said he saw democracy.

he lived democracy.

that the Leaves climaxed in the war.

before

was prophecy.

What came

What had gone after

was

reaffir-

between the resplendent comradeship he had announced received mation.

But, in the stormy interval

a visible transfiguration. [Iviii]

flntrobuction

Whitman's brother George had volunteered and gone to the front. One morning in the middle of October,

1862,

just after the

Whitman saw by

battle,

New York Herald

Fredericksburg the military news in the

that George

was wounded,

was

At an hour's notice Walt started

thought seriously. for the

first

Rappahannock.

did not realize at the

time that this signalized his permanent removal from

New

York and Brooklyn, and yet

it is

a fact that he

never again returned to either city except to pay an occasional visit. He wintered partly with the Army

was thus he began his historic service in the hospitals. Out of so innocent a beginning so much resulted. He did not go South intending to do what eventually his tranquil spirit spontaneously got into the habit of doing. The work fell to him in the drift of events. He loyally accepted its responsibilities. With more than marof the Potomac.

tial

heroism he matured the promises of his youthful

proclamations.

Try to conceive of Whitman as an impromptu nurse in the crowded hospitals, where thousands lay

wounded, helpless, dying. It has been estimated that he contributed in some way to the com-

sick,

fort of at least

100,000 of these waifs of the war.

North and South were vice

all

one.

letters

ser-

He never looked for men who had but for men who had wounds. He wrote home for these men. He read to them. He

was needed.

merits

He served where

[lix]

flntrofcuctlon

knapsack he carried paper, postage stamps, oranges, and miscellaneous articles of comfort. From many he received the final mesran their errands.

sage and to

In his

many he

imparted the

last

word and

The memoranda

of this period, published in the present edition of his works, contains the best This memorabilia poetic story of the war extant. caress.

and prose

war

aspects never before It is handled in a quite so graphically apprehended. presents

new way, by

picture

and

and with Without con-

spiritual allegory,

impassioned emotional interludes. taining one specific argument against war

consti-

most powerful arraignment of war in our literature, and perhaps in any literature. Whitman's service in the hospitals was without Possessing no ulterior resources, he turned inpay.

tutes the

cidentally to journalism for an income, doing

correspondence, notably for the And these years of unflinching

some

New York

Times.

work and

terrible

suspense and excitement changed him from a young to an old man. The moral strain was constant and

immense.

Any even

cursory reference to a few of his

poems in Drum-Taps, for instance, March in the Ranks Hard-Prest, and Come Up

representative to

from

the Fields Father,

and Vigil Strange,

as well

more graphic of the Wound Dresser letters, will show without argument what such a man must have suffered. So he broke down. Doctors called his as to the

trouble

hospital malaria."

But

ran deeper than

Untrofcuction

was

His splendid physique was sapped by labor and watching, but it was still more denuded by the lavish emotional outlay in-

that.

heartbreak.

His magnetism was incredible and exhaustHe could have changed the atmosphere of a

volved. less.

The doctors had a way of saying of some " He is patient about whose fate they were puzzled: a hopeless case. Turn him over to Whitman. Whitsepulchre.

man

will save

him."

Whitman went into the The chief of this service of the Interior Department. was told that Whitman bureau Harlan, of Iowa was the author of an indecent book. To satisfy It

was

after the

war

that

himself of the truth of this charge he one evening surreptitiously abstracted Whitman's working copy of the Leaves from a drawer of his desk, and just as secretively returned it before Whitman next day re-

Harlan was convinced that his ported for duty. informant was correct. Whitman was forthwith dis-

Even charged. The incident was much discussed. as a reminiscence it invites contempt and challenge. It

would be easy

to pillory Harlan.

But he has

Such an outrage

ficiently pilloried himself.

suf-

best

immortal infamy. Then we do owe something to Harlan. But for his act we never would have had O'Connor's classical polemic on left

its

own

The Good Gray Poet, which Henry J. Raymond pronounced "the most brilliant monograph in American

literature."

Harlan justice.

[bri]

He was

flntrobuction

not narrower than his mind.

did the thing which

Whitman to his belated intelligence seemed right. was not damaged in the flurry. He went his way without resentment and was well taken care of by his unshakable equanimity. In fact, he was promptly put back into the government service, this time in the department of the Attorney General. Whitman took his reverses, as he always took his victories,

He never ranted at fortune. much or too little of his luck. He never expected men to do things that transcended He never mushed over men their development. with stoic benignity. He never thought too

who had

got beyond their infirmities. It gives a touch of romance to this event with Harlan to be told that

upon

Whitman was contemporaneously working

his Lincoln elegy,

which, while not necessarily

the greatest poem of its character of that war or in literature, has come to invite the most general concessions.

we must

not forget that

had created a state of war.

Like Jesus, he

In dealing

Whitman

with Harlan

came to bring not peace but a sword. That sword was the preliminary of a peace. But while it was a sword, before it was beaten into a ploughshare, it was double-edged and produced fratricidal results. Whitman invoked criticism against criticism. He divided the

critical

masters of the world.

the professorial classes on edge.

set the teeth of

All this

treating his principles polemically, or as [Ixii]

not by

waging

flntrotwction

some miniatured schism, but by the simplest truce of his Quaker spirit. It is not surprising that Harlan went astray in such an atmosbattle in the interest of

men than

Harlan did things as small and thought things as narrow. It is not necessary to enforce this statement by a tiresome citation of details. phere.

Abler

easy to forgive a mistake that has been historishould rather welcome than recally refuted. It is

sent the embattled bridges that

They In

left

him confirmed by the

1866

Whitman

printed

Whitman had to cross. final arbiters

of worth.

Drum-Taps with

its

sequel poems written during the war. This volume included When Lilacs Last in the Door- Yard Bloom' d,

and other pieces ninety-six pages of matter in all. And in 1867 he succeeded in producing the fourth edition of the Leaves,

now

still

further enlarged, in a

bulky book of three hundred and thirty-eight pages. Here for the first time the poems begin .to take on the order and classification eventually settled upon by their author and found in his final editions. This year was also of note for having seen the issuance of Walt Whitman as Poet and Person, a biographical

and philosophic statement of the case of the Leaves by John Burroughs, who was Whitman's fellowclerk in Washington at the time, and who had the the project mentioned of Whitman's personal counsel and endorsement. That Washington group was of unusual calibre.

advantage

included such characters as Burroughs, Stedman, [Ixiii]

flntrobuction

Trowbridge, Eldridge and O'Connor, whose ardent genius burned out in the fire of unaccomplished design, but whose intrepid adherence to Whitman in the thick of every fight will reflect upon him an unWhitman fondly spoke of qualifiable distinction.

O'Connor's various eloquent deliverances on the "

Leaves as

integral to their final life."

wrote a story called The Carpenter.

was Whitman.

It is

This carpenter

a divine figure fixed in

human background.

nificent relief in a

O'Connor

American writer once said to one of

mag-

An eminent

us, referring to

O'Connor: "There was a great story teller, a romantiof positive genius, lost in a pamphleteer. It is a It is a tragedy." To O'Connor himself this pity.

cist

And to the apparent. the fortunes of Whitman will be

pity, this tragedy,

future, in

which

was not

regarded as of classic consequence, this great apostle will not cut a sorry figure. may reverently

O'Connor to that renown. We have mentioned a few names. We might easily increase the list. But our motive is not to do more than collect the representative data. Whitman's life in Washleave

ington in the post-war period, even as 1873,

was

its

sense prosperous.

far

along as the real

happy and in Whitman himself had the

essentials

temperament which could extract

all

sort of

sorts of joys out

He was not making money. But he was making friends. And his book was mov-

of the smallest capital.

ing on towards that sort of recognition

which would

flntrobuction

assure

him

have hurried away. delay, and no man was better

would

leisurely

Had fame

a perpetual suffrage. also

hurried to

came with

satisfied

than

Whitman.

We could not pass by this

decade without noting

the entrance of Peter Doyle into Whitman's life. " " Doyle is often spoken of as Walt's humble friend.

He was humble because he was a conductor. He was humble because he came out of Lee's army as he had gone into it, a private. But Whitman had no friend humbler than any other friend. His friends were all kings or all simply men together. No one

them was quoted high or low at the expense of some one else or alone. It is a mistake, then, to refer to Pete as humble unless you also include Walt in the same epithet. But at any rate Pete was now in Walt's life. How he was in that life is so well in the Calamus prose of this edition that portrayed no word added here could strengthen his case. At the start Whitman seemed more popularly of

heard

England than

scattered,

England he had 1868 William Michael Ros-

individual adherents here

adherents in bulk.

He had

America. ;

but

brought out the English volume of Selections, always since associated with his name. The corsetti

respondence leading up to this edition throws much light upon the peculiar perils with which Whitman's It cannot be detailed here. generalship had to cope. This same year Freiligrath reviewed the Leaves VOL.

[Ixv]

flntrotwction

memorably in a German periodical. In May, 1870, Anne Gilchrist's A Woman's Estimate of Walt

Whitman

appeared in Sidney Morse's Radical. This remarkable deliverance (the essence in text of a

by Mrs. Gilchrist to William Michael Rossetti) stirred up hornets' nests on both sides of the ocean and disturbed that ultra-good element of the opposition which looked upon Whitman as a satyr. In one of the few personal poems written by Whitman he refers to Anne Gilchrist as " his noblest woman friend." And while we do not series of letters written

regard the present as the time nor this page as the place to go into the details of such an episode, it may

be said that the correspondence which for all the years of her life following was carried on between this

woman and Whitman

reveals

on both sides the exand respect.

istence of a superterrestrial confidence

would be gratuitous to repeat too generally the details of Whitman's concrete life. All such matter is accessible in the biographical work of Bucke, in Kennedy's memorabilia, and in the large mass of magazine matter which has rehearsed and catechised the man Whitman from wardrobe to soul more times and in more gradings of interpretation than accompany most literary pedigrees. And yet this recital It

cannot neglect data so important, even if its arraignment is secured at the expense of some repetition. In 1871 Whitman read "After all, not to create only," in present editions the

"Song

of the

flntrobuction

tion," at the opening of the

American

Institute,

New

same year came the fifth edition of the Leaves, which included Passage to India, as well as Drum-Taps, Marches Now the War is Over, So had the Leaves gradually grown from litetc. In the

York.

tle

continuing its revelation of a maintaining an unquenchable vigor to

and

much,

life,

the

very last, when the old man physically was a wreck. We may also note the appearance of a

Edward Dowden contemporaneously published The Poetry

second edition of the Burroughs biography. of Democracy, with 1872

Whitman

ions Free

own

As a

delivered

Strong Bird on Pin-

the

Whitman this year, to use two months' trip through

with Thy Equal Brood. his

as a central figure.

Dartmouth College commenceknow the poem now as Thou Mother

ment.

Whitman

note,

"took a

New

England States, up the Connecticut Valley, Vermont, the Adirondack region and to Burlington, Vt," to see his "dear sister Hannah once more, re-

the

turning had a pleasant day trip down Lake plain, and the next day down the Hudson."

times

in his life

turn.

years

were

Whitman was brought

refer to

1855,

them

1862,

launched Leaves of Grass.

ChamThree

to a sharp

the rough, these pivotal

and

1873.

In 1862

1855

he entered upon

In 1873 came his paralysis experiences. and the era of his declining physical manhood. The shock of this year (1873), consequent upon the

his

war

[Ixvii]

flntrofcuction

mother

Camden, N. J., left him He never went back to Washingsadly eclipsed. ton to live. From this date he remained a resident Like the superficial accident that took of Camden. him to the war, this later event pregnantly affected sudden

loss of his

his future history. It is

vein.

quite natural for us to

It is

fall

into the personal

not at the best intended that these notes

should include more than the crucial underpinnings of biography. So much of Whitman's real biog-

raphy

auto.

You

resort to his text

anywhere, That is the

prose or verse, and you find the man. sort of man we found, dropping in upon him and

having him drop

Camden, during our life there together through two decades. The mere dates which fix his poems into a calendar are, after in

upon

us, in

of slight significance. It is for their spiritual sequence and periodicity that their author was most

all,

concerned.

And no

loyal historian

would

substitute

a reduced standard.

Whitman had no most men even of other,

or,

experience of the hurrah which

genius enjoy at one time or perhaps, on repeated occasions, in the

He had no sort public rarely went

course of their careers.

of popular

to him at vogue. The general first hand. They got him as he leaked to them

through the meshes of a

soiled,

not absolutely

He blamed nobody

for mendacious, interpretation. this. Nor do we. He never complained of the not [Ixviii]

flntrotwcticm

peculiar fortune

author.

the light

which made him an unrecognized

And as he waited he saw slowly strengthen. He found himself be-

He could

wait.

coming the companion of original and powerful Not necessarily the famous but necespersonalities.

And

knew anything he knew The man who is able to that this was prophetic. convince the prophets of his own generation is certain sarily the strong.

But his main concern was not to be

of the future.

successful with critics but successful with himself.

own uses to the end. supposed by those who have perhaps

He preserved himself It

must not be

read too

much about

he was

for

for his

the virulent abuse to which

twenty-five years subjected that he travelled without a guard. As there was never a

man more

completely misunderstood and more violently denounced, so there was never a man more And if you will attend gallantly companioned.

upon any bibliographical statement of his career, you will discover that he heard from the beginning, on both continents, a gradually increased chorus of staunch and virile amens. The gaps were closely

only superficial. Though his reputation has always proceeded without a loyalty either of mass or class.

appeals in cated instincts.

man

to early causes and unsophisti-

That

he gets hold of those young in years before they have had a chance to go dry, and of those whose honor is always young, and of those

who

why

prolong into maturer [Ixix]

life

that distaste

Untrofcuction

which youth always maniupon, and which makes of one piece

for formal institutions fests

and

insists

the essential scriptures of races in other

haps variant

and

ways

per-

erratic.

names in order The to get whole on the topography of Whitman. year of his mother's death was the year of his For the two years following indeed, paralysis. he was physically until somewhat along into 1876 This does not mean utter disablement, prostrated. Then after 1876 for Whitman was always at work. he seemed in bodily ways somewhat retrieved. Let us rehearse a few dates and

Yet he could never entirely or even substantially recover the lost ground. The paralysis continued But

until death.

for years

he held

sternly at bay.

Running along through the ensuing decade were everywhere signs of gratifying appreciation. Among notable tributes really cherished by Whitman himself, and frequently referred to by him in the pressence of his companions, were a few to which we wish to recur. Arthur Clive, in the Gentleman's Magazine

(1875),

wrote of Whitman as

The Poet of

Joy." In Birds and Poets, Burroughs (1877) treated "The Flight of Whitman under a striking caption: of the Eagle."

cussed In

the

In that

same year

Marvin

dis-

Whitman in an essay in the Radical Review. New Quarterly Magazine (1878) appeared

Stevenson's

now well-known "Gospel

Walt Whitman."

according to

Papers for the Times (1879) [Ixx]

flntrofcucticm

were two studies

one by

Walters and the

The Nineteenth Century Bathgate. (1882) contained an able tribute to Whitman from S. C. Macaulay, and in the same year Rudolf other

by H.

Schmidt wrote of Whitman

the Danish.

Carpenter published Towards Democracy find

Edward 883).

Whitman more and more

gravely received and

(1883):

discussed.

Rolleston wrote

Walt

Whitman

Bin Vortrag. In 1885 Robert Buchanan wrote of Socrates in Camden, and in 1886 Karl Knortz printed his Walt Whitman Bin Vortrag. After these

came the

recognition of enfranchised

from Symonds, in an essay on Democratic Art; from Havelock Ellis, in The New Spirit; from Robert Ingersoll in Liberty in Literature; characters everywhere

from Dr. John Johnston, in Notes of a Visit to Walt Whitman; from Gabriel Sarrazin, in Poesie Anglaise. These are but straws. But they represent the sort

was accumulating. Whitman was no more elated by success than

of acknowledgment that

depressed by to

him

all

his repose.

pleased.

failure.

have been near enough

times to note the enduring quality of Yet he had the child's manner of being

He took

roundly to heart.

all

praise as well as

He was

all

blame

correspondence with internationally about his work and in

men and women his life. He and Symonds, though they

never met,

sustained unbroken epistolary relations which on Symonds's side were deferential in the extreme. [Ixxi]

Untrobuction

Symonds addressed Whitman as "dear master," and Whitman could never quite accustom himself to it even when told that "master" was a word easier to use in

period

England than here.

Dowden was

writing

him

this

During

frequently.

Ten-

nyson was not lacking in friendliness. He wrote Whitman on a number of occasions with reservations

enough but

a spirit of

manly good-will. and restrained. Tennyson never knew just where to Bucke visited the English bard place Whitman. through the intercessory letter of Whitman, and on in

And Whitman was on

this occasion

his side just as courtly

Tennyson showed

enough that he was much at sea. "Whitman," he said to " do not know is a great big something, Bucke, what. But honor him." But even this is farther along than either Whittier or Lowell on this side plainly

was

Longfellow's manifested personal acknowledgment of Whitman was abstracted from any concessions to his literary merit. willing to go, while

While busily occupied with his friendships Whitman was always doing the editing necessary for new

He succeeded in bringing out the Centennial Edition, which was in two volumes and was in some part the mechanical work of his issues of his books.

own

hands.

Five years edition, from the press of

later

came the seventh

Osgood & Co. Six months after the issue of this book the Osgoods were threatened with prosecution by a MassachuJ.

[Ixxii]

flntrotwction

Oliver Stevens. Attorney By abandoning Whitman the publishers lost a golden opportunity of distinguishing themselves and selling a setts District

book.

They

lived to regret their timidity.

The

state

never could have sustained the contention of

its

George William Curtis wrote O'Connor on this occasion that Whitman's case was the case of free authorship and that the sympathy of all

functionary.

no matter what their critical opinion of his work, belonged to him in this crisis. Osgood himself at a later day frankly confessed his mistake. And this confession was supported after Whitman's authors,

death

by Osgood's

solicitous

application

to the

executors to grant him the privilege of bringing out something, anything, of Whitman's, in England. At that time Osgood was in partnership with MacIlvaine

London.

The correspondence between

Whitman and

the publishers attaching to this event appears in the miscellanies of this edition and was distinguished for the courtesy displayed on both sides.

never

knew Whitman

to alter the tone

good-humored apologies for Osgood. O'Connor became vocal again and sang his clarion protests He flayed Stevens and his across the continent. apologists with what Philip Hale called "a mastery of scholarly and polished invective." The Whitman books were taken to Philadelphia and issued under the imprint of Rees, Welsh & Co., who were sucof his

ceeded

business by David [Ixxiii]

McKay.

Whitman

flntrotwction

the event.

prospered highly

books was amazingly accelerated. debated in every newspaper and

The sale of the He saw his cause every avenue

or settlement of opinion, radical and conservative, and was convinced that the agitation could not fail

to affect his career. to help me.

or not mattered

was up

greater than his

work.

prose material

men Days and

have a cause

this is

bound

have no cause this could not hurt

And he knew

me."

that whether he had a cause

little

since the principle involved

any cause. Imperturbably he kept In 1882 he gathered together the

now

constituting the bulk of Speci-

was an arduous task, he would say. He never

Collect.

"half hated, half loved," liked editorial jobs. But he had stubbornness enough to take

were

him

them when they the prose recital would

cheerfully through

inevitable.

felt

that

It might serve as a sort of help his poetic fame. The book has never sold vestibule to the temple.

any vehement degree. And yet it contains a Whitman which is raw product indispensable to the

structure of Leaves of Grass.

Bucke's

Walt Whitman appeared

1883,

and

bore McKay's imprint. This biography has special value because of its authoritative origin. It was statistically

and

spiritually revised

cover to cover.

November Boughs, a appeared.

far as

goes

by Whitman from it is

final.

collection of later prose

In 1889 a

group of the [Ixxiv]

poems

In 1888

and

verse,

translated

flntro&uction

into the

German by T. W.

was published

Rolleston and Karl Knortz

Zurich.

Whitman succeeded

and disabling illness, in bringing out a bulky autographical volume which he called his Complete Poems and Prose. This almost

this time, in spite of painful

clumsy product had an

original prologue

and an

epi-

logue, as well as a title-page reproduction of one of

Lear" pictures of Whitman. Otherwise the edition was but reprint. It was limited and

the so-called

now

off the market.

In 1889

he published,

in cel-

ebration of his seventieth anniversary, the limited,

autographed, pocket-book edition of Leaves of Grass, in which are included Sands at Seventy and Back-

ward Glance O'er Travel' d Roads. Two years later Good-Bye My Fancy was got out after great difficulties incident to Whitman's broken health. His physical defects had taken radical turns now for some But Whitman persevered without complaint. the work of revision and editing done from 1887

years. All

on was accomplished by the co-operation of Traubel. Whitman was taken down with his last illness in But he had succeeded in getting his December, 89 crowning wishes accomplished in the rounding out of Leaves of Grass with the Good-Bye poems. He devotedly adhered to his friends. In recognition of 1

1 .

he issued special editions of the November Boughs and Good-Bye My Fancy volumes their loyalty

few hundred copies which were not to be marketed. The wish came unduly late and was

just a

[Ixxv]

flntrofcuction

only consummated by us after his death.

In this

same autumn he had a hundred copies of the now completed Leaves bound up in rough gray paper covers, yellow labelled, designing to distribute them in the wide circle of his cooperators. When he felt that his case was hopeless Whitman had Traubel despatch these books. As he was too weak to sign them, though he hoped against hope to be able to do so, they went out minus the grace of this last courtesy. In the quick of this

comment

do more than note the

sible to

would be impos-

least transitory of

the influences emanating from Whitman's career. The discussion did not stop with his death. Since the

month

of March, 1892,

rate studies of

have had

lives or elabo-

Whitman from John Addington Sy-

monds, William Clarke, Oscar Lovell Triggs, William Sloane Kennedy, John Burroughs,Thomas Donaldson, Edmund Holmes, besides countless appreciations, which have appeared in about every magazine and newspaper of repute on the two continents. Of new matter from Whitman, printed since his death, we may mention the Calamus and the Wound Dresser

Old Age Echoes

Leaves of Grass, the Notes and Fragments, edited by Dr. Bucke, and the additions made in this collection. The executors letters,

the

published a formidable volume of memorabilia entitled In Re Walt Whitman. Horace Traubel edited

Good-Bye and Hail Walt Whitman [Ixxvi]

a pamphlet

Untro&uction containing the addresses and readings given at the funeral., An edition of Leaves of Grass has been

brought out

the Dutch (NaturLevenJ,byMzur\to Small, Maynard & Co., of Boston,

Wagenvoort. succeeded David

the formal publishing of Their prose volume is printed from a

Whitman.

new

McKay

set of plates.

1892

McKay added

to the

book the fresh prose which Whitman had used in November Boughs and Good-Bye My Fancy. Whitman is being ever more attentively read in continenEurope, especially in Germany, where during the last two or three years the reviews have seriously

tal

taken him up, and he has appeared as the central figure in several volumes discussing the literary

movements the

of the

New

World.

Italy

has given us

of Signor Janaccone's several volumes projected in study of the format of Whitman's verse and the relations of that verse to his philosophy. It first

must

startle

without form

those if

who

contend that Whitman

not void to have his form discussed

with such soundness and approval by a distinguished scholar.

not our motive to go far authorities for Whitman's fame. It is

there were

many who smacked

in a

quotation of When he died

their lips

with

satis-

and declared that he was dead indeed. But he has lived on with drastic persistency. Long before his death criticism was found coming his faction

way.

did not

come

driving everything before [Isxvii]

flntrotwction

or without questions.

But

And

came.

its

pe-

composition left nothing to be desired. Whitman could not have expected acceptance without making a struggle for it. Towards the end he was " often found saying Well, boys, we may not have

culiar

done much, but hardly likely

have gained a foothold." It is that he ever had any essential doubts.

"I always saw either entire success or utter failure. Sometimes things looked

Once he remarked:

saw only failure. But the air would clear, success would now emerge. guess it will be success." He was a man to whom success could only come in one way. In his way. Anything less than this would not have been success. It would be impossible to write of Whitman black and

without referring incidentally to the peculiar personal, almost domestic, nature of his fame. Whitman does not primarily appeal to the in this place

He does not first of all appeal He goes into the deeper to your brain or your wit. That is why Whitman and soil of your emotion. literary imagination.

That

his readers realize a practical fraternity.

those

who

had no

who

absolutely

knew Whitman

why

the flesh

experience not realized as well by those can in no have known him by the books. real

account for the extraordinary nature of the regard professed by Whitman's friends. This other

way

compensate Whitman for what might the have seemed though he never called it that

went

far to

[Ixxviii]

Untrofcuction

public neglect. father's

greeting

Emerson's son has written of his

Waldo immediately ceived.

Whitman

realized

But there exists a

written eight years such a revocation.

later,

though Ralph that he had been de-

from Emerson, which imparts no sign of letter

Thoreau's opinion was always Bronson Alcott called unequivocally expressed. Whitman "the American Columbus." Stedman has clinched his

own

dorsements.

may not Whitman by

opinion of Whitman in the extraordinary Introduction to his American Anthology. And yet it may be easy to make too much of enIt

matter a great deal what

recognized men and may matter a good deal what sort of root he was able to grow in the common soil. And his career will not

was

said of

go short or long because of its fitness to decorate a hall of fame, but by the amplitude of its spiritual resource. It may be said, in a general way, that the sort of men and women affected by Whitman, and moved by him to some measure of and often to extrava-

No man in history gant acquiescence, is prophetic. whose work so poignantly affected the pioneer line of his generation ever missed historic immortality. Whitman's most powerful friends were apt to be the

They were

non-elect.

and unpopular. the casual and inci-

often radical

the here and there, dental, the disciples of revolution. alarmists and disturbers. They were

They were

to build

Whitman up

or tear [hcxix]

They were little

inclined

him down out of

flntrofcuction

Now,

respect for professional traditions.

seems

hardly fair to name the few of reputation and to forget the many who crowd obscurely the porches of feel guilty in having departed so his renown.

far

from our rule as to have specified a single name.

The

circle

women equally

have

described

was

extracontinental.

most diverse minds and

good reasons

for writing

my gospel." He

individualist

and

interests find

Whitman:

touches archist

socialist, rebel

Men and

and

You

and anarchist,

loyalist, optimist

and pessimist. This effect is not achieved because he has fooled anybody by duplicity or obscurity

him we really do reach the spiritual moment in which assent and dissent coalesce. We have alluded to interpreters and interpretaIt is, of course, unnecessary to say that Whittion. but because

man

not responsible for anything written about

Whitman

Fellowship, which was formally created in 1894 and has held annual meetings since. This entirely innocent assembly is often

There

him.

spoken of as a cult. But as it is, as an organization, absolutely without opinion or doctrine it could not yield to that charge.

would

feel here, as in

the

Fellowship, that we had violated the fundamentals of good taste to quote a line about Whitman, or to indite one, that should stand in place of his

work

We as

or be insisted

own

upon as a necessary exegesis.

hope to pass on his injunction to have left all free." [Ixxx]

leave

all

free

flntrobuction

Our disjecta has brought us along to Camden, where Whitman spent the last nineteen years of his We have left out much that should have been life. included and included some things which may seem unimportant or

infelicitous.

clination to attempt a

But

rounded

we have

recitative

little in-

and

less to

conform to any set of rules that is observed on such But before we conclude we deeditorial occasions. sire

our

down some memoranda derived from own personal intercourse with Whitman in the to set

Camden.

explained at this juncture that although

seasons of our rendezvous together

may be

had been assisted by Dr. Bucke

massing the data for these notes, the Doctor's sudden death before the actual composition had been undertaken in

threw upon the two remaining executors the literal is,

what is here Bucke had approved

responsibility for

while Dr.

set forth.

entire

That

of the general

scheme he had no lot in its embodiment. And as Dr. Bucke lived in Canada, and was only rarely in the States, what is to be subsequently said reminiscently and descriptively of Whitman must be attributed to his confreres.

Whitman for years resided with his brother George Camden. He was particularly fond of George's

wife and had a very

worldly judgment.

wholesome He named her

respect for her finally as his ex-

respected George's mechanical talents, but never looked to him for any literary sympathy, ecutrix.

[Ixxxi]

flntrobuction

From the marriage of George had come a boy who was named for Walt but who lived only a few years. Walt's family regarded him spiritually with mingled awe and distrust. He would say of George: "We brotherly feelings for each other. But George does not know me. Maybe I don't know George,

have

all

And he

on one other occasion: "Leaves of Grass might just as well never have been written, so far as George is concerned. guess George would have preferred me in another occupation." Nothing need be superfluously added about either."

also said

Walt's

was

life in

this household.

serene, unruffled,

and

far as

we know

the main lines satisfac-

Yet Walt was always looking forward to a "ranch" of his own. He was often found talking

tory.

So when the Massachusetts incident occurred Walt felt flush, and took its first returns, along with five hundred dollars borrowed from

about

it.

George Childs, and purchased the frame "shack," as he would call it, on Mickle Street, where he remained until his death. From this time he was He could do more or less as he better contented. pleased.

creased.

Some

of his discomforts were perhaps inBut the practical consciousness of freedom

secured more than compensated for the disadvantages of the move. He was not easily fixed into at last

the domestic routine, and this abstraction, therefore, It to a habitat of his own was of real significance. is

true he afterwards

had a housekeeper. [Ixxxii]

But the

flntrotwction

house was never formally "kept." It always more This had both good and bad reor less kept itself. But Whitman came and went as he pleased, dispensed the sort of hospitality he preferred, and

sults.

tied himself

down

no time to scheduled meals and

He lived in a the formulas of sleeping and waking. In the years during which certain sense lawlessly. this arrangement continued he was fond of his horse and carriage (the and fond, last of wheel-chair.

gift all,

of his friends), fond of walking, of being taken out-doors in his

He kept going beyond

loafed in the streets

all

prediction.

and on the ferry-boats and

open country. He was occasionHe wrote. ally called upon to lecture somewhere. He never seemed to be doing anything and yet

took

trips into the

always got a good deal done. This must have been an old trick. For while every one writing of Whitman in earlier years described him as lethargic and unsystematic to the degree of laziness, we discovered by the voluminousness of his note-books and the

body of his miscellaneous literary remains that he must have worked like a Trojan. This quietism was his norm. He could tell a good story. He was full of still humor. He was without wit or epigram. He had hauteur without quills. You could vast

He never wholly unbosomed. He always kept ways open for retreat. He was not a frivolous talker. He was not given to never get nearer than near.

quick reply.

Everything he said impressed you as [Ixxxiii]

flntrofcuction

having come out of matured reflection. In business transacted by us together he was always deliberate.

he was asked to decide a point or binders he would call for time. If

for the printers

Leave

with

him browse with it overnight. But when finally he had decided and the decision proved to be a mistake he expressed no regrets. He was too wholesome to have remorses or despairs. Even on his deathbed he would laconically observe:

him

evening.

till

Death

death

may be view."

Let

next door but

His temper

was

won't

live

with

imperturbable.

Traubel worked with him for six years daily and saw him profoundly aroused to anger but twice. Piques

querulous humors In the afflicted the invariableness of his courtesy.

were impossible to him.

days of his severest physical depression he remained sweet and without irritation. He was fond of saying

good things about people. He got the better of all his enemies by treating them with the justice they He was at home where he was at refused him. home and he was at home where he was not at home. He could have given courts pointers on essential

manners.

And

yet his range of behavior

Without being tough himself he could make the tough see that he asserted no priorities. He was not literary. He read books and wrote books and yet he never fell into biblical included the foot of the scale.

You always got the human impression first. supposed by the guessers that Whitman was

habits. It

[Ixxxiv]

Introduction

No man

not familiar with literary history. more from books than Whitman.

ever got But he never as-

sumed for books the precedence that belonged to He postponed all professional grandeurs to the life. inarticulate humanities of the average. He seemed to deport himself with the same humility before the simplest

man and woman,

saying:

"After

you." For years

Whitman spent his Sundays in Harned's home. This was neutral ground. Here the visitors would come to find him. Here he would open his heart freely. Nothing under sun or moon escaped his observation. He would talk philosophy, religion, He had no opinions that he was poetry, science. and no opinions that he would You were struck with the vastness of

interested in hiding

brag about.

And

yet you found him always more ready with questions than declarations. He was far more willing to have you talk than to talk his information.

he discovered that you had a specialty he was sure to get round to it and humbly sit at himself.

your

feet.

He made no attempt

to shine.

He was

man

of spontaneous good-will who gave to every occasion his prevalent humor. The Harneds did not a

him an uncertain quantity, sometimes to be He was given to loved, sometimes to be feared. referring to Harned's house as his "other home." He was a deferential guest. He fell in rationally with the plans and circumstances of the house. He find

[Ixxxv]

flntrotwction

liked to sit alone before the fire or at the

window.

He loved to have the children playing about even when he did not play with them. He was not disturbed by their noise. Often he would be asked to and would do so, but he refused to own poems. "I know none of them." recite

recite his

He was

equable without compromise, compassionate withIn the Harned household he beout weakness.

Yet he anticipated no came an inevitable figure. He came every week. He did not come bedates. cause he had promised but because he loved

to.

"Every Sunday when get up say to myself: 'I " This resolution guess I'll go to Tom's to-day. would come to him as freshly as if he had not said I

Harned the day before: "I guess I'll be there." It is not hard to see the connection between such personal habits and the sort of scripture we discover in the Leaves. Whitman seemed always new always When he lay there dying he gave us just made. to

the notion of a

man about

make

a fresh start.

him never looked despair or surrender. At Harned's he would discuss the last letter, the morning's paper, the new book, and, best of all, somesome everyday man body up or down the street or woman who had broken a leg or had lost a baby or had a run of good luck or had got Life in

Elbowing on so many epochal days next a man of this stripe, Harned found himself enjoying a perpetual endowment. left

politics

or trade.

[Ixxxvi]

flntrotwction

Though the

visits

ceased the visitor has always

remained.

Whitman was such

He never took And yet familiarities.

a neighbor.

and never allowed the

last

man felt himself full size in Whitman's presence. He did not make you think he was a man of genius and you were not. You suspected there was genius every

who had it. A great own size. A great man

the room but you wondered

book expands you to

its

You may be sure that if man makes you feel mean that book or that

shares his level with you.

book or

man has spoken only in temporal accents. Whitman was looked up in Camden by the so-called great and small of the world. He received them with His deequal courtesy and with the same reserves. mocracy always afforded the individual his escape.

some primacy as But only enough. Not enough against the crowd. Whitman to make individual and crowd enemies. was apt to prefer the greatly simple to the simply He did not run after men of power or parties. great. He saw no tuft brilliant enough to excite his ardor. He saw no ignominy ignominious enough to disarm He had friends whom others among his his faith. friends shook their heads about. But with Whitman

The

individual

was

entitled to

these friends were not to be saint^or sinners

they

were to be friends. In consorting with his neighbors he was charged with lacking discrimination. But to one who has got past man's crimes to man [Ixxxvii]

Untrobuction

would be of no use: there is nothHe was unfailingly collected. We ing to prefer. have seen him in trying and almost tragic situHe was the coolest ations absolutely aplomb. man in any crowd. In a case in which his horse was backing the carriage overboard, and in one instance of runaway, and in a railroad wreck, he kept his nerve. This triumphant manner carried him through the most difficult social passes. A woman who met him with some misgiving remarked: "He has wonderful manners they are not fordiscrimination

mal

and

accustomed,

He gave

right

and

left.

but they are manners." He served with money

He had poorer relations He was loyal with whom he shared his little. He was loyal to family and friends. to the bone. For But, best of all, he was loyal to the crowd. our primary debts are owed to the crowd. Whitman received praise with humility and blame with and served with

delight.

service.

But he always pursued his

own

desires.

It was in 1888 His birthdays were great occasions. This that the first of his birthdays was celebrated. No wa's an occasion arranged at Harned's home.

Its observance birthday since has been neglected. the largest hall in in 1889 was a big affair, requiring Whitman was still able to be Camden. In

about, and

met

\vith us at Reisser's, in Philadelphia.

This was the year Ingersoll got over and impromptued across the table to Whitman for fifty-five [Ixxxviii]

flntrobuction

minutes

in a

speech which

Whitman thought the most

consummate piece of oratory he had ever enjoyed. The next year was our last with Whitman. He was at So

that time home-tied.

dinner

in his

arranged to have the

Until the very

house.

moment we were

would even be able to get downBut he came, and we had a hal-

doubtful whether he stairs to join us.

cyon evening together. read

An account of this may be Walt Whitman, which,

Round Table with

Symonds wrote us from Switzerland, affected him "with a great solemnity and to tears." Whitman was never more royally simple, more proudly the democrat, than when detected thus in the bosom of his that family of comrades whose lives were family so inextricably one with his own. The evening of the last meeting between Ingersoll and Whitman (1892) was a sad one. Walt never bettered from that attack. While Ingersoll was outwardly cheerful he realized that Whitman's stream of life ran low. But the two big men had their talk out and parted like lovers who were resigned to events.

Ingersoll's practical generosity

Whitman had been unprecedented. Whitman spoke of Symonds and Ingersoll as his best victories "Symonds one of the most scholarly, Ingersoll one of the most magnetically spontaneous men

on the planet." being final.

native

But he never dwelt upon this as

To him only the general effect was He looked for native men and women with moments to correlate the substance of the

final.

[Ixxxix]

Introduction

Some

Leaves.

that

of his friends

and

Ingersoll

Bucke

came

to him, urging

were extreme.

How

made responsible for any ex"They are men of first rank," he re-

could the Leaves be

travagance?

"men of the first remove or no remove: and love men of that sort." And he argued again: "What have to do with men's ideas, good or

plied I

bad?

And he would

intimate that he

was

neither

nor against ideas but chiefly concerned about A woman at Harned's asked him: "What love. for

kind of love, Mr. Whitman? and he replied: "Just love." never discovered him in a mood to argue

men good

He was

every man for the great

finally deposited

Yet he was

in forgiveness.

ideas.

or bad.

full

fire

capable of intensest emotion and of

emotional expression rigorously prophetic. No man loved America better. And yet his America was not an

affair

amens. but on

of political hurrahs but of spiritual

His America

human

lines.

cent tendencies: leave the real

was not built on geographical He lamented certain then re-

"They

are

work undone.

They momentary. real America is

The

not to establish empires but to destroy them. Any America that stopt with America would be a story half told." In Harned's parlor he warmly declared " to a group of arguers: America is not railroads but

men.

must be

matter

better.

how good

your railroads your men The chief thing is men. America is

the influence that will

make men

possible.

And

Introduction

this

America can be as active

America's as

America

meant America he meant all said religion he

in soil

not technically

When Whitman When he said religions.

itself."

all

And when he saw

races.

America expanding he did not see it going armed He was not a controversialist with gun and club. in these later years, yet he entertained convictions

whose solemn

utterance

was pentecostal. He opposed

policies in state or social

all

which threatened to

life

the courts and customs against the people which victimized the people to privilege and caste. set

He was

favor of

intercontinental

emigrations.

Speaking of America he said: ''Let them

can

digest

them

all."

all

come.

He was sometimes

quoted as an enemy of churches. But one of the last things he said was this: "I am only opposed to churches because

in favor

of the church."

Such

reminiscent evidence, which could be indefinitely extended, shows how well sustained was his interest in

contemporary

life.

did not share in any schol-

arly antipathy to the newspaper. "

He looked

Whitman was only physically a sick man. He did no He had no sick passions. One hour sick thinking. before he died he counted his own pulse and announced that he was about done for. He labored under no delusions. He practised no self-deception. He had none of the old-man querilities. The youth for the ''abstract

and chronicle

of his time.

of this man's old age kept his thinking perennially in [xci]

flntrobuction

His head died from the bottom up. Said the autopsist after his the last to go.

seedtime.

was

death: will."

He must have

lived

weeks by mere

Knowing from nearby

tions of his last sickness,

force of

the trying condimarvelled that no exall

tension of physical feebleness dimmed the lustre of his brain. In the three months from December 17, 1891, to

March

26, 1892,

he died a thousand deaths.

a thing, however, that need not be dwelt upon. For most other men die plucky deaths, fighting to It is

Whitman would say himself, referring to the boys in the hospitals: "They all died handsomely." He died handsomely. Whitman died March 26, 1892. The last entry " in his diary was this: Dec. 2 x 4th ^ 2d, }d day &

the last ditch.

night g't suffering."

Whitman's in

America.

funeral

It is

not

was wholly without

parallel

difficult to create a furore

the remains of the generals and the statesmen,

over

whose

It is grandiose stature excites an immediate reward. far more difficult to gain the public eye or ear for an

abstraction.

And

literary, philosophic,

and

religious

So that Whitman's appeal was to an element in the human psychus hard to reach and puzzling to hold. Yet the appeal was made and its success was eminent. While the outpouring was vast it seemed concerted. It resembled the flow and overflow of some irrevocable and inexplicable effects are abstract.

but archaically uncorrupted emotion. [xcii]

For hours,

flntrobttction

while the body lay exposed in his home, a stream many thousands in number passed by, and was only limit.

From the

ferries to Harleigh, a distance

of perhaps

by a necessary time

finally cut off

Delaware

three miles, the roads were busy with people coming and going, and with fakirs who sold fruits and a It strange miscellany of wares. the funeral as the merrymaking.

was not so much It

kaleidoscopic features of the country

possessed the

The

fair.

faces

of the people were even glad faces. For while the people were not glad that Whitman was dead they were glad that he had lived.

may be

that few of the

mourners knew more than vaguely why they had undertaken their errand. Some fundamental urge had swept them from their moorings into a strolling

Whitman had always been familiarly one He had gone among the peopeople's own.

current.

of the ple

own manners and with and with their own entire

with their

sympathies ness.

He had

dedicated

his

full

their

own

unaffected-

faith

the

These crowds showed some apaverage service. prehension of that unequivocal award. For it was award.

He had awarded

had given

his being to them.

Not an atom was left alien. man could have wished for any tribute all.

have been the

come among

of the popular gladness. them strange and distrusted gift

lachrymose funerals.

Whit-

would He had and had

Whitman did not The funeral was not a

departed as one of conceded kin. like

[xciii]

flntrobuction

march confessing defeat but a pilgrimage chanting

And

victory.

that

spirit,

was

in this,

assembled

never

in a dejected,

Whitman's grave.

had desired to escape all attitudinizing. No rote of church, no chemistry of criticism, would have harmonized with a life so optimistically and so impulsively charged. The words addressed to Whitman's death by the several friends who were chosen to speak were, therefore, free of all amalgams on the one hand of ecclesiastical, and on the other of philosophic, deAnd the scripture of the occasion was drawn spair.

from

all

sources with relevant resolution.

Whitman " If

said

often repeated an old remark of his

perhaps that I have not H the criminals and the outcasts.

regret anything

enough

for

own:

it is

When

asked what he thought he had done by living " he replied: I think I have got a foothold on which honestly to die."

Traubel, just a couple of days be-

Whitman's death, plied him in this way: Your books are not the Walt Whitman who will die tomorrow. They are the Walt Whitman who will live eternally." To which Whitman himself added "You are right they are that or they are nothing; and they are by the same sign not the fore

John Smith or any other fellow who will die but the John Smith who is doomed to go on eternally and live."

its

Leaves of Grass at Whitman's death had paid all debts to criticism and wiped off most of its scores [xciv]

flntrobucticm

with tradition.

had got away from the simply

diatribal aspects of its controversies.

Whitman was

only modestly confident when he said: "We came to measure a few sights and sounds ourselves and I think our measurements will keep." It is often an-

nounced with a

sniff

precipitate

victory that

though Whitman wrote for the people the people have refused to hear him. Even if that was wholly true it would not dispose of Whitman. The prophchance at the first curbstone. et's vogue does not In

an unpublished

letter

we find Emerson

referring to

Whitman as "the people's darling and their champion." Whitman did not die feeling that he was understood, but he died confident that he was to be heard. He

was fundamental, that its came out of the meanings deepest backgrounds of hisfelt

that his message

was, perhaps, so far the most pregnant revelation from the god in man to itself. This colossal

tory: that

supposition

was

relieved of

Whitman's abstractions of personality.

its

stain of

egotism by claims from his single

all

delivered the message in his

own

name. But any other name would have served as well.

was utilizing him. And while he was proud enough to make preposterous demands he was humble enough to dissipate these demands in a universal benefaction. He was not distressed

felt

that gravitation

because any present half democracies failed to connect with him. He saw democracies die in democracy.

And he knew

that, [xcv]

whatever happened to

flntrobuction

democracies, democracy would the glass.

know

its

own

face in

RICHARD MAURICE BUCKE.

THOMAS HORACE September

1902.

[*cvi]

HARNED.

TRAUBEL.

Inscriptions ne's-Self ONE'S-SELF

sing, a simple separate person,

Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-Masse.

Of physiology from top

to toe

sing,

Not physiognomy alone nor brain alone say the Form complete

worthier

The Female equally with the Male

Of Life immense

in passion, pulse,

worthy

for the

far,

sing.

and power,

Cheerful, for freest action form'd under the laws divine,

The Modern Man

sing.

as As

ponfcer'fc tn Silence*

ponder'd in silence,

Returning upon

A Phantom

poems, considering, lingering long,

arose before

Terrible in beauty, age,

with distrustful aspect,

and power,

The genius of poets of old lands, As to me directing like flame its eyes,

Muse

Heaves of (Braes With

many immortal songs, What singest thou ? it said,

finger pointing to

And menacing

voice,

Know'st thou not there

And that is

the theme of

The making of perfect Be

it so,

/ too

then

but one theme for ever-enduring bards ?

War,

the fortune of battles,

soldiers.

answer' d,

haughty Shade also sing war, and a longer and greater one than any,

Waged

booh with varying fortune, with flight, advance

retreat, victory deferred

and

and wavering,

( Yet methinks certain, or as good as certain, at the last,) the field the world,

For

life

and

Lo, I too

I above all

death, for the

Body and for

come, chanting the chant of

promote brave

fln

the eternal Soul, battles,

soldiers.

Cabin^ Sbfps

at Sea*

IN cabin'd ships at sea,

The boundless blue on every

side expanding,

With whistling winds and music

of the waves, the large imperious

waves,

Or some

lone bark buoy'd on the dense marine,

Where joyous

full

of faith, spreading white

sails,

She cleaves the ether mid the sparkle and the foam of day, or under

many

a star at night, [2]

"(Inscriptions

sailors

young and

old haply will

a reminiscence of the land,

be read, In full rapport at last.

Here are our thoughts, -voyagers' thoughts,

Here not the land, firm land, alone appears, be

may

then by them

said,

The sky o'er arches here, we feel the undulating deck beneath our feet,

We feel the long pulsation

and flow of endless motion, the vague and vast suggestions of the

ebb

The tones of unseen mystery,

briny world, the liquid-flowing syllables,

The perfume, the faint creaking of the cordage, the melancholy rhythm,

The boundless

And this Then

falter

-vista

and

the horizon far

and dim are

ocean's poem.

not

book,

fulfil

your destiny,

You

not a reminiscence of the land alone,

You

too as a lone bark cleaving the ether, purpos'd whither, yet ever

full

Consort to every ship that Bear forth to them folded it

all here,

know

not

of faith,

sails, sail

you

love, (dear mariners, for

you

fold

here in every leaf;)

Speed on

my book!

spread your white

sails

my little bark athwart

the imperious waves,

Chant on,

sail

on, bear o'er the boundless blue

This song for mariners and

all

their ships. [3]

from

sea

to every

leaves of (Braes Jforeian Xante, I

HEARD that you ask'd for something to prove

New And

World,

to define America, her athletic

Therefore

this puzzle the

send you

my poems

Democracy,

that

you behold

them what

you wanted. -'-..

Uo a You who

Who

celebrate bygones,

that has exhibited

have treated of rulers

Ifoistortaru

have explored the outward, the surfaces of the life

Who

and

man

itself,

priests,

own

him

great pride of

life

man

that has

seldom exhibited

in himself,)

Chanter of Personality, outlining what

yet to be,

project the history of the future.

Ubee thee old cause

as he

in himself

rights,

Pressing the pulse of the

races, the

as the creature of politics, aggregates,

habitan of the Alleghanies, treating of in his

.^Slmm

Cause*

Thou

peerless, passionate,

Thou

stern, remorseless, sweet idea,

good

cause,

Deathless throughout the ages, races, lands, [4]

itself,

(the

Inscriptions After a strange sad war, great (I

think

war

war through time was

all

for thee,

really fought,

and ever

will

really fought, for thee,)

These chants for (A war

this

Thou orb

thee.

soldiers not for itself alone,

more stood

Far, far

march of

thee, the eternal

silently

waiting behind,

now

book.)

many

orbs

Thou seething principle thou well-kept, !

latent

germ thou centre

Around the

idea of thee the

With

angry and vehement play of causes,

all its

(With vast

These

results to

come

recitatives for thee,

Merged

to advance in

in its spirit

wheel on

Around the

its

war

revolving,

for thrice a

my book

thousand years,)

and the war are one,

and mine, as the contest hinged on thee,

axis turns, this

book unwitting

itself,

idea of thee.

|||

)it>6ions, I

MET a

seer,

Passing the hues and objects of the world,

The

fields of art

To Put

No more Put

first

and learning, pleasure, sense,

glean eid61ons. in

thy chants said he,

the puzzling hour nor day, nor segments, parts, put before the rest as light for

That of eid6lons. [5]

all

and entrance-song of

in,

all,

leaves of (Braes Ever the dim beginning, Ever the growth, the rounding of the Ever the summit and the merge

circle,

at last, (to surely start again,)

Eid6lons! eid61ons!

Ever the mutable, Ever materials, changing, crumbling, re-cohering, Ever the

ateliers,

the factories divine,

Issuing eid61ons.

Lo,

or you,

Or woman, man,

seeming But

solid wealth, strength,

unknown,

beauty build,

really build eid6lons.

The

ostent evanescent,

The substance

known

or state,

of an artist's

mood

or savan's studies long,

warrior's, martyr's, hero's toils,

fashion his eid61on.

Of every human

life,

(The units gather' d, posted, not a thought, emotion, deed, out,)

The whole -

or large or small

summ'd, added up,

In its eid6lon.

i ne The

oiu urge, old, old oiu,

Based on the ancient pinnacles,

From

science and the

The

modern

lo,

still

newer, higher pinnacles, impell'd,

old, old urge, eid6lons. [6]

left

Inscriptions The present now and

here,

America's busy, teeming, intricate whirl,

Of aggregate and segregate

for only thence releasing,

To-day's eid6lons.

These with the

vanish'd lands, of

all

past,

the reigns of kings across the sea,

Old conquerors, old campaigns, old

sailors'

voyages,

Joining eid61ons.

Densities, growth, facades, Strata of mountains, soils, rocks, giant trees,

Far-born, far-dying, living long, to leave,

Eidolons everlasting.

Exalte, rapt, ecstatic,

The

visible

Of orbic

but their

womb

of birth,

tendencies to shape and shape and shape,

The mighty All space,

earth-eidolon.

all

time,

(The stars, the terrible perturbations of the suns, Swelling, collapsing, ending, serving their longer, shorter use,) Fill'd

The

with eidolons only.

noiseless myriads,

The

infinite

The

separate countless free identities, like eyesight,

oceans where the rivers empty,

The

true realities, eid6lons. [7]

Xeaves of (Brass Not

this the

Nor these the

world,

universes, they the universes,

Purport and end, ever the permanent

life

life,

Eid6lons, eid6lons.

Beyond thy

lectures learn'd professor,

Beyond thy telescope or spectroscope observer keen, beyond mathematics,

Beyond

The

beyond

che mi st ry

the chemist with

entities of entities, eidolons.

Unfix'd yet

Ever

[his

the doctor's surgery, anatomy,

all

fix'd,

have been and

shall be, ever

Sweeping the present

are,

to the infinite future,

Eidolons, eid6lons, eid6lons.

The prophet and

the bard,

Shall yet maintain themselves, in higher stages yet,

Shall mediate to the

Modern, to Democracy, interpret yet to them,

God and

eidolons.

And

thee

soul,

Joys, ceaseless exercises, exaltations,

Thy yearning amply

Tny

fed at

last,

prepared to meet,

mates, eid6lons.

Thy body permanent, The body lurking there within thy body, The only purport of the form thou art, the

image, an eid6lon. [8]

real

myself,

Inscriptions Thy very songs

not in thy songs,

special strains to sing,

none

for

itself,

But from the whole resulting, rising

at last

and

floating,

round full-orb'd eid6lon.

ffor 1bim

FOR him I

sing,

on the

raise the present

(As some

past,

perennial tree out of its roots, the present

on the

With time and space him dilate and fuse the immortal To make himself by them the law unto himself. I

Wben WHEN

is this

And

so will if

Only I

then (said

even

few

seek for

Itoofe,

what the author

some one when

any man

When

1Rea& tbe

laws,

read the book, the biography famous,

And

(As

past,)

really

myself

hints, a

my own

knew aught I

man's

life ?

dead and gone write of

often think

few diffused

calls a

faint

life,

know

little

life ?

rea j ufe

or nothing of

clews and indirections

use to trace out here.)

3Be0fnnfna /IDs Stu&fes,

BEGINNING

The mere

fact consciousness, these forms, the

studies the

first

step pleas'd

[9]

so much,

power

of motion,

leaves of (Braes The

least insect or animal, the senses, eyesight, love,

The

first

step

say

awed me and

pleas'd

so much,

have hardly gone and hardly wish'd to go any farther,

But stop and

loiter all the

time to sing

in ecstatic songs.

Beginners*

How

they are provided for upon the earth, (appearing at intervals,)

How dear and dreadful they are to the earth, How they inure to themselves as much as to any

what

a paradox

appears their age,

How How How

people respond to them, yet there all

something

know them

relentless in their fate

not, all

times,

times mischoose the objects of their adulation and

reward,

And how

the

same inexorable

price

must

still

be paid

for the

same

great purchase.

tro tbe States*

To the

States or

any one of them, or any

much, obey

city of the States, Resist

little,

Once unquestioning obedience, once fully enslaved, Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city of this afterward resumes

its liberty.

[10]

earth, ever

flnscriptione

On Journeys ON

tbrousb tbe States.

journeys through the States

start,

(Ay through the world, urged by these songs, Sailing henceforth to every land, to every sea,)

willing learners of

have watch'd the seasons dispensing themselves and passing

all,

teachers of

all,

and lovers of all.

on,

And have

said,

Why

should not a

the seasons, and effuse as

We We

dwell a while

man

much

woman do

much

every city and town,

pass through Kanada, the North-east, the vast valley of the Mississippi,

and the Southern

States,

We confer on equal terms with each of the States, We make trial of ourselves and invite men and women to hear, We say to ourselves, Remember, fear not, be candid, promulge the

body and the

soul,

fnetic

Dwell a while and pass on, be copious, temperate, chaste, mag-

And what you effuse may then return as the And may be just as much as the seasons.

ZIo

HERE, take this I

was

reserving

seasons return,

a Certain Cantatrfce.

gift, it

One who should

for

some

serve the

hero, speaker, or general,

good old

cause, the great idea, the

progress and freedom of the race,

leaves of (Braes Some brave But

confronter of despots,

what

see that

was

some daring

rebel

;

reserving belongs to you just as

much

as to any.

''^ ";'

flDe flmperturbe,

imperturbe, standing at ease in Nature,

Master of

all

or mistress of

all,

in the

aplomb

midst of

irrational

things,

Imbued Finding

as they, passive, receptive, silent as they,

occupation, poverty, notoriety, foibles, crimes, less

important than

thought,

Me toward the Mexican

sea, or in the

Mannahatta or the Tennes-

see, or far north or inland,

river

man, or a man of the woods or of any

farm-life of these

States or of the coast, or the lakes or Kanada,

Me wherever my

life is

lived,

to be self-balanced for contin-

gencies,

confront night, storms, hunger, ridicule, accidents, rebuffs,

and animals do.

as the trees '

'^ff-jjl

<' ',..":?"

'/U,^'

Savanttenu THITHER as

look

see each result and glory retracing itself and

nestling close, always obligated,

Thither hours, months, years lishments, even the

Thither every-day

life,

thither trades, compacts, estab-

most minute,

speech, utensils, politics, persons, estates [12]

;

Inscriptions Thither

also,

with

leaves

and songs,

trustful,

admirant,

a father to his father going takes his children along with him.

Sbfp Starting Lo, the

its

unbounded

sea,

breast a ship starting, spreading

all sails,

carrying even her

moonsails,

The pennant is flying aloft as she speeds she speeds so below emulous waves press forward,

stately

They surround the ship with shining curving motions and foam.

r 1T

Ifoear

Hmettca Sfnafna*

HEAR America singing, the varied carols

Those of mechanics, each one singing

hear,

his as

should be blithe

and strong,

The carpenter singing

The mason singing

his as

he measures his plank or beam,

he makes ready for work, or leaves off

work,

The boatman singing what belongs to him in hand singing on the steamboat deck,

The shoemaker singing

as he sits

his boat, the

deck-

his bench, the hatter singing

as he stands,

The wood-cutter's song, ing, or at

The

the ploughboy's on his

noon intermission or

way in

girl

sewing or washing, [13]

morn-

sundown,

delicious singing of the mother, or of the

work, or of the

the

young wife

Xeat>e0 of (Braes Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none

The day what belongs

to the

night the party of

day

else,

young

fellows, robust, friendly,

Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.

'^^

.. _

What WHAT Lo,

place

besieged, and vainly tries to raise the siege

horse and foot, and parks of

artillery,

artillery-men, the deadliest that ever fired gun.

Still tbouflb tbe STILL though the one

leave in

him

less,

revolt,

>ne

sing,

(One, yet of contradictions made,) I

send to that place a commander, swift, brave, immortal,

And with him And

place

(

indispensable

dedicate to Nationality,

latent right of insurrection

O quench-

fire !)

>,--;^ Bfetft

SHUT not your doors For that which

was

needed most,

Wot

ItJour

proud

lacking on I

libraries, all

your

A book

well-fill'd shelves, yet

bring,

Forth from the war emerging, a book

The words

Boors*

my book

have made,

nothing, the drift of

separate, not link'd with the rest nor

But you ye untold latencies will

thrill

[14]

every thing,

felt

by the

to every page.

intellect,

Inscriptions poets to Come* POETS to come

Not to-day

But you, a

new

before

Arouse

for

orators, singers, musicians to

to justify

and answer what

come

for,

brood, native, athletic, continental, greater than

known, you must

me.

justify

myself but write one or

but advance a

moment

two

words

indicative

for the future,

only to wheel and hurry back in the

darkness.

man who,

sauntering along without fully stopping, turns

a casual look

Leaving

upon you and then

you to prove and define

averts his face,

it,

Expecting the main things from you.

TTo

STRANGER,

you passing meet me and

why should you not speak to me And why should not speak to you ?

desire to speak to me,

TTbou

THOU

reader throbbest

life

IReafcer.

and pride and love the same as

Therefore for thee the following chants.

[15]

Starting from paumanofc

STARTING from fish-shape Paumanok where

was

born,

Well-begotten, and rais'd by a perfect mother, After roaming

Dweller

many

lands, lover of

Mannahatta

a soldier

city,

camp'd or carrying

populous pavements,

or on southern savannas,

my knapsack

and gun, or a miner

in California,

Or rude

my home

Dakota's woods,

diet meat,

drink

from the spring,

Or withdrawn Far

from

the

muse and meditate

clank

crowds

some deep

intervals

recess,

passing rapt and

happy,

Aware

of the fresh free giver the flowing Missouri, aware of

mighty Niagara,

Aware

of the buffalo herds grazing the plains, the hirsute and

strong-breasted

earth,

rocks,

snow,

bull,

Fifth-month flowers experienced,

stars,

rain,

amaze,

Having studied the mocking-bird's tones and the

mountain-hawk, [16]

flight

of the

Starting from And heard

dawn

paumanoh

the unrivall'd one, the hermit thrush from

the swamp-cedars, Solitary, singing in the

West,

strike up. for a

New

World.

Victory, union, faith, identity, time,

The

indissoluble compacts, riches, mystery,

Eternal progress, the kosmos,

This then

Here

and the modern

reports.

is life,

what has come

to the surface after so

many

throes and

convulsions.

How

curious

how

Underfoot the divine

real

soil,

overhead the sun.

See revolving the globe,

The ancestor-continents away group'd together, The present and future continents north and

south, with the

isthmus between. See, vast trackless spaces,

in a

dream they change, they swiftly

fill,

Countless masses debouch upon them,

They

are

now

tions,

cover' d with the foremost people, arts, institu-

known.

See, projected through time,

For

With

an audience interminable.

firm and regular step they

wend, they never

[17]

stop,

leaves of (Brass Successions of men, Americanos, a hundred millions,

One

generation playing

its

Another generation playing

With

its

faces turn'd sideways or

With eyes

part

and passing on

backward towards

in its turn,

to listen,

retrospective towards me.

Americanos Foremost

and passing on,

part

conquerors

marches humanitarian

century marches

Libertad

masses

For you a programme of chants.

Chants of the

prairies,

Chants of the long-running Mississippi, and Chants of Ohio, Indiana,

Illinois,

down

to the

sea

Mexican

Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota,

Chants going forth from the centre from Kansas, and thence equidistant,

Shooting

in pulses of fire ceaseless to vivify

all.

Take

leaves America, take

Make welcome

for

them South and take them North,

them everywhere,

for they are

your

own

off-

spring,

Surround them East and West, for they would surround you,

And you

precedents, connect lovingly with them, for they con-

nect lovingly with you. I

conn'd old times,

sat

studying

at the feet

of the great masters,

Now if eligible O that the great masters might return and study me. [18]

Starting from paumanofc In the

Why

name

of these States shall

scorn the antique

these are the children of the antique to justify

? it.

Dead

poets, philosophs, priests,

Martyrs,

artists,

inventors,

governments long

since,

Language-shapers on other shores, Nations once powerful, I

dare not proceed

wafted I

till

now I

respectfully credit

it,

own

it is

admirable, (moving awhile

Think nothing can ever be

more than

stand in

it all

what you have

left

hither,

have perused

Regarding

reduced, withdrawn, or desolate,

among it,)

greater, nothing can ever deserve

deserves,

intently a long while, then dismissing

place with

my own

it,

day here.

Here lands female and male, Here the heir-ship and heiress-ship of the world, here the flame of materials,

Here

spirituality the translatress, the

openly-avow'd,

The

ever-tending, the finale of visible forms,

The

satisfier, after

Yes here comes

due long-waiting

now

advancing,

mistress the soul.

The

soul,

Forever and forever

longer than

soil is

than water ebbs and flows. [19]

brown and

solid

longer

Xeaves of (Braes I

make

will

most

And For

will

think they are to be the

poems,

spiritual

the

poems

my body

and of mortality,

then supply myself with the poems of

shall

of materials, for

poems

make

think

the

soul and of immortality.

make

will

song

for these States that

no one State may under

any circumstances be subjected to another

And

will

make

song that there

night between

And

will

make

all

And

the

weapons I

of the

glittering

Resolute warlike

One

will

will trail the

points,

countless dissatisfied faces

One

form'd out of

One whose head

including and over

(However high the head of any I

two of them,

a song for the ears of the President, full of

song make

The fang'd and

be comity by day and by

the States, and between any

weapons with menacing

And behind

shall

State,

else that

acknowledge contemporary

;

all,

over

all,

head

over

all.)

lands,

whole geography of the globe and

salute courte-

ously every city large and small,

And employments

will put in

ism upon land and

And

will report

all

my poems that with you is hero-

sea,

heroism from an American point of view.

will sing the

will

believe these are to found their

song of companionship,

show what

cating

alone

must

finally

me, [20]

compact

own

these,

ideal of

manly

love, indi-

Starting from paumanofe I

threatening to will

will

will write the I

And who but

consume me,

evangel-poem of comrades and of

should understand love with

man

advance from the people

the credulous

Omnes I

make

what sings !

omnes

the

poem

say there there

(It

own

in their

spirit,

of evil also,

much

is in it

what they may, commemorate that part

others ignore

evil as

fact

good, and

nation

also, is

and

evil,

just as important to you, to the land or

any thing

else.)

follow'd by many, inaugurate a religion,

destin'd to utter the loudest cries there, the

ner's pealing shouts,

Who knows ?

they

Each

its

sorrow and joy

descend into the arena,

may be

love,

of qualities, ages, races,

many and

too, following

fires,

unrestricted faith.

let

say

to me, as

myself just as

all its

should be the poet of comrades

were

fires that

lift

For who but

(Or

the burning

what has too long kept down those smouldering give them complete abandonment,

Here

from

will therefore let flame

not for

may

own

rise

[thing.)

from

yet,

and soar above every

sake,

say the whole earth and sake.

win-

all

the stars in the sky are for religion's

leaves of <5rae0 I

man

say no

has ever yet been half devout enough,

None has ever

yet adored or worship'd half enough,

None has begun

to think

tain the future

how

divine he himself

is,

and

how

cer-

is.

say that the real and permanent grandeur of these States must

be their

religion,

Otherwise there

(Nor character nor

Nor land nor

man

real

life

and permanent grandeur

worthy the

woman

name without

without

;

religion,

religion.)

What

are

you doing young man

Are you so earnest, so given up to literature, science,

These ostensible

Your ambition It is

well

points

realities, politics,

or business whatever

against such

But behold! such swiftly subside, burnt up For not

all

life

Any more

matter

is fuel

amours

may

say not a word,

art,

their poet also,

for religion's sake,

to heat, impalpable flame, the essential

of the earth,

than such are to religion.

What do you seek so pensive and What do you need camerado ? Dear son do you think Listen dear son It is

listen

it is

love

silent ?

America, daughter or son,

a painful thing to love a

man

satisfies, it is great,

[22]

woman

to excess,

and yet

Starting from ipaumanoft But there

else

something

very great,

makes the whole

coin-

cide, It,

magnificent,

beyond

and provides for

materials,

with continuous hands sweeps

all.

Know

you, solely to drop in the earth the germs of a greater religion,

The following chants each

comrade

for

its

kind

sing.

For you to share with inclusive

The greatness

me two

greatnesses,

and a

third

one

rising

and more resplendent,

of Love and Democracy, and the greatness of Re-

ligion.

Melange mine own, the unseen and the seen, Mysterious ocean where the streams empty, Prophetic spirit of materials shifting and flickering around me, Living beings, identities

know

not

now

doubtless near us in the air that

of,

Contact daily and hourly that will not release me,

These

selecting, these in hints

Not he with a

daily kiss

demanded

onward from childhood

Has winded and twisted around

Any more

than

of me.

that

kissing me,

which holds

held to the heavens and

all

what they have done

to me, suggesting themes. [23]

to him,

the spiritual

world, After

leaves of (Brass such themes

equalities

divine average

Warblings under the sun, usher'd as now, or at noon, or

set-

ting,

Strains musical flowing through ages,

now

reaching hither,

take to your reckless and composite chords, add to them, and

cheerfully pass

them forward. ii

have walk'd

Alabama

morning walk,

have seen where the she-bird the mocking-bird sat on her nest

in the briers hatching her brood.

have seen the he-bird

have paus'd to hear him near at hand inflating his throat and

also,

joyfully singing.

And

while

paus'd

was not Nor

for his

came

that

what he

really

sang for

there only,

mate nor himself only, nor all sent back by the echoes,

But subtle, clandestine,

away beyond,

charge transmitted and gift occult for those being born. 12

Democracy

near at hand to you a throat

now

inflating itself

and joyfully singing.

Ma femme For those I

for the

who

brood beyond us and of

us,

belong here and those to come,

exultant to be ready for

them

will

now shake out carols stronger

and haughtier than have ever yet been heard upon [24]

earth.

Starting from paumanofc

make

will

And your songs outlaw'd

make

will

the true

poem

will effuse egotism

the

their

way,

scan you with kindred

same

as any.

of riches,

mind whatever adheres and goes

earn for the body and the

forward and I

offenders, for

and carry you with

eyes,

them

the songs of passion to give

not dropt by death

and show

;

underlying

all,

and

will

be the

bard of personality,

And

will

show

of male and female that either

but the equal

of the other,

And

sexual organs and acts

determin'd to

And

tell

you

illustrious,

will

show

do you concentrate

you with courageous

that there

me, for

clear voice to prove

no imperfection

in the present,

and

can be none in the future,

And

will

show

that whatever happens to

anybody

may be

turn'd to beautiful results,

And

will

show

that nothing can

happen more beautiful than

death,

And

will thread a thread

through

my poems

that time and

events are compact,

And

that

all

the things of the universe are perfect miracles, each

as profound as any.

make poems with reference to parts, will make poems, songs, thoughts, with

will not

But

ensemble, [25]

reference to

leaves of (Brass And

will not sing all

And

with reference to a day, but with reference to

days,

will not

make

poem nor

the least part of a

poem but has

reference to the soul,

Because having look'd is

at the objects of the universe,

no one nor any

particle of

find there

one but has reference to the

soul.

Was somebody asking to see the soul ? See, your own shape and countenance, the

beasts,

trees,

the running

persons, substances,

rivers,

rocks

the

and

sands. i

All hold spiritual joys

How

can the

Of your

real

and afterwards loosen them

body ever

die

and be buried

body and any man's or woman's

real

Item for item

will elude the

;

real

body,

hands of the corpse-cleaners and

pass to fitting spheres,

Carrying what has accrued to

moment Not the types

from the

moment

of birth to the

of death.

set

up by the

printer return their impression, the

meaning, the main concern,

Any more

than a man's substance and

stance and

life

return in the

Indifferently before death

and

life

body and the

after death. [26]

or a

woman's subsoul,

Starting from paumanofc body includes and is the meaning, the main concern and includes and is the soul

Behold, the

;

Whoever you any

are,

part of

how it

how

superb and

divine

your body, or

H Whoever you

you endless announcements

are, to

Daughter of the lands did you wait for your poet Did you wait

Toward

for

one with a flowing mouth and indicative hand

the male of the States, and toward the female of the

States,

Exulting words, words to Democracy's lands.

Interlink'd, food-yielding lands

Land of

coal

and iron

Land of wheat,

beef,

land of gold

pork

land of

apple and the grape

Land of the pastoral

land of cotton, sugar, rice

wool and hemp

land of the

world

Land of the herd, the garden, the healthy house of adobie

plains, the grass-fields of the

of those sweet-air'd interminable plateaus

land

Lands where the north-west Columbia winds, and where the south-west Colorado winds

Land of the eastern Chesapeake

Land of Ontario,

land of the Delaware

Huron, Michigan

Erie,

Land of the Old Thirteen and Connecticut

Massachusetts land

land of

land of sierras and peaks

sailors

fishermen's land [27]

Land of the ocean shores

Land of boatmen and

Vermont

leaves of (Brass lands

Inextricable

ones

The

side

the

clutch'd

side

the elder and younger brothers

the feminine

and the inexperienced Far breath'd land

sisters

Arctic braced

the compact

and each well-loved by rate include

another death

the bony-

the experienced sisters

Mexican breez'd

the Virginian

you

all

the diverse

the double Carolinian

intrepid nations

with perfect love

cannot be discharged from you

The Pennsylvanian

passionate

The great women's land

any

the

limb'd

all

together

not from one any sooner than

for

all

that,

yet of you unseen this hour with

irrepressible love,

Walking

New

Splashing

England, a friend, a traveler, bare feet in the edge of the

summer

ripples

Paumanok's sands, Crossing the

prairies,

dwelling again in Chicago, dwelling

every town,

Observing shows,

births,

Listening to orators

Of and through

my The

arts,

in public halls,

the States as during

life,

each

man and woman

neighbor,

Louisianian, the Georgian, as near to me,

him and

The

improvements, structures,

and oratresses

and

as near to

her,

Mississippian and Arkansian yet with me, and

of them, [28]

yet with any

Starting from panmanofc Yet upon the plains west of the spinal

river,

yet in

house of

adobie,

Yet returning eastward, yet

in the

Seaside State or in Mary-

land,

Yet Kanadian cheerily braving the winter, the snow and

come

ice

wel-

me,

Yet a true son either of Maine or of the Granite

State, or the

Narragansett Bay State, or the Empire State,

Yet

annex the same, yet welcoming

sailing to other shores to

every

new

brother,

Hereby applying these leaves to the

new

ones from the hour they

unite with the old ones,

Coming among equal,

the

new

ones myself to be their companion and

coming personally

you now,

Enjoining you to acts, characters, spectacles, with me.

With me with For your (I

life

may have

firm holding, yet haste, haste on.

adhere to me, to be persuaded

myself

really to you,

many

times before

but what of that

Must not Nature be persuaded many times

dainty dolce affettuoso

consent to give

I, *

Bearded, sun-burnt, gray-neck'd, forbidding,

To be

wrestled with as

For such

afford

have arrived,

pass for the solid prizes of the universe,

whoever can persevere [29]

win them.

Xeaves of (Braes 16

On my way

Here for you the

Still

moment

and here

present

pause, for

raise

America still

aloft,

the future of the States

harbinge glad and sublime,

And

for the past

pronounce what the

air

holds of the red

aborigines.

The

red aborigines,

Leaving natural breaths, sounds of rain and winds,

and animals

in the

woods, syllabled

calls as of birds

to us for

names,

Okonee, Koosa, Ottawa, Monongahela, Sauk, Natchez, Chattahoochee, Kaqueta, Oronoco,

Wabash, Miami, Saginaw, Chippewa, Oshkosh, Walla- Walla, Leaving such to the States they melt, they depart, charging the

water and the land with names. 17

Expanding and

swift, henceforth,

Elements, breeds, adjustments, turbulent, quick and audacious,

A world primal again, vistas of glory incessant and branching, A new race dominating previous ones and grander far, with new contests,

New

politics,

These,

new

[arts

literatures

voice announcing

You oceans

and I

religions,

will sleep

that have been calm within

new

inventions and

no more but

arise,

feel you,

how

fathomless, stirring, preparing unprecedented

storms. [30]

waves and

Starting from paumnaofc 18

See, steamers steaming through See, in

my poems

See, in arriere, the

poems,

immigrants continually coming and landing, the

wigwam,

trail,

the hunter's hut, the

and the

boat, the maize-leaf, the claim, the rude fence,

backwoods See,

flat-

village,

on the one side the Western Sea and on the other the Eastern

how

Sea,

upon

their

they advance and retreat upon

own

see,

shores,

See, pastures and forests

tame

my poems

see,

animals wild and

beyond the Kaw, countless herds of

buffalo

feeding on short curly grass, See, in

poems,

cities, solid, vast, inland,

with iron and stone

with paved

edifices, ceaseless vehicles,

streets,

and com-

merce, See, the many-cylinder' d steam printing-press

see, the electric

telegraph stretching across the continent, See, through Atlantica's depths pulses

American Europe reaching,

pulses of Europe duly return'd, See, the

strong and quick locomotive as

departs, panting,

blowing the steam-whistle, See,

ploughmen ploughing farms see, the

numberless

See, mechanics busy

see,

miners digging mines

factories,

at their

benches with tools

them superior judges, philosophs, drest in

working

see from

Presidents,

among

emerge,

dresses,

See, lounging through the shops and fields of the States,

belov'd, close-held

by day and [31]

night,

well-

Xeaves of <5ras$ Hear the loud echoes of

songs there

read the hints

come

last.

O camerado close O you and me at last, and us two only. O a word to clear one's path ahead endlessly O something ecstatic and undemonstrable O music wild O now triumph and you shall also O hand in hand O wholesome pleasure O one more desirer !

and lover

O to

;

haste firm holding

to haste, haste

on with me.

CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself,

And what

assume you

shall

For every atom belonging to

and

C.I loafe I

lean

and

invite

assume,

good belongs to you.

my souO my ease observing

loafe at

tongue, every atom of

a spear of

summer

blood, form'd from this

grass. soil, this

air,

Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same, I,

now

thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,

Hoping

to cease not

Creeds and schools

till

death.

abeyance,

Retiring back awhile sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten, I

harbor for good or bad,

permit to speak at every hazard,

Nature without check with original energy.

Houses and rooms are

full

of perfumes, the shelves are

with perfumes, [33]

crowded

TLeavea of (Braes

breathe the fragrance myself and

The

distillation

would

The atmosphere it is

tion, It is

for

to the

will

am mad

not a perfume,

and

also,

but

shall

it,

not

let

has no taste of the

it.

distilla-

odorless,

my mouth

intoxicate

know

forever,

with

in love

it,

bank by the wood and become undisguised and

naked, for

The smoke of

to be in contact with me.

my own

breath,

Echoes, ripples, buzz'd whispers, love-root, silk-thread, crotch

and

vine,

respiration

and

passing of blood and

The

sniff of

beating of

inspiration, the air

through

green leaves and dry leaves,

heart, the

lungs,

and of the shore and

dark-color'd sea-rocks, and of hay in the barn,

The sound

of the belch'd

words of

voice loos'd to the eddies

of the wind,

few

light kisses, a

few embraces, a reaching around of arms,

The play of shine and shade on the trees as the supple boughs wag, The delight alone or in the rush of the streets, or along the fields and

The

hill-sides,

feeling of health, the full-noon

trill,

the song of

rising

from bed and meeting the sun.

Have you reckon'd a thousand acres much the earth

much

have you reckon'd

Have you

practis'd so long to learn to read ?

Have you

felt

so proud to get at the meaning of [34]

poems ?

Walt Whitman, 1855 From a steel engraving

by Samuel Hollyer after the daguerreotype by Gabriel Harrison

Song Stop this day and night with of

You

all

me and you

possess the origin

shall

poems,

possess the good of the earth and sun, (there are mil-

shall

lions of suns left,)

You

no longer take things

shall

second or third hand, nor look

through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres

books,

You

shall not

You

shall listen to all sides

look through

eyes either, nor take things from

me,

and

filter

them from your

self.

have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the beginning and the end,

But

do not

talk of the

beginning or the end.

There was never any more inception than there

Nor any more youth

And

will never

or age than there

now,

be any more perfection than there

Nor any more heaven or

hell

than there

now,

now.

Urge and urge and urge,

Always the procreant urge of the world. Out of the dimness opposite equals advance, always substance and increase, always sex, Always a of

knit of identity,

always

distinction,

always a breed

life.

elaborate

avail, learn'd

and unlearn'd

[35]

feel that

it is

so.

Xeaves of (Brass Sure as the most certain sure, plumb tied,

braced

in the

in the uprights, well entre-

beams,

Stout as a horse, affectionate, haughty, electrical, I

and

this

Clear and sweet

stand.

soul,

and

mystery here is

clear

Lack one lacks both, and the unseen Till that

becomes unseen and

Showing the

Knowing

is all

that

not

proved by the seen,

receives proof in

best and dividing

its

turn.

from the worst age vexes age,

the perfect fitness and equanimity of things, while

they discuss

Welcome

and sweet

soul.

silent,

and go bathe and admire myself.

every organ and attribute of me, and of any

man

hearty and clean,

Not an inch nor a less familiar

satisfied

particle of

than the

an inch

is vile,

and none

shall

rest.

see, dance, laugh, sing

As the hugging and loving bed-fellow

;

sleeps at

side through

the night, and withdraws at the peep of the day with stealthy tread,

Leaving

me baskets

cover' d with white towels swelling the house

with their plenty, Shall

postpone

acceptation and realization and scream at

eyes,

That they turn from gazing after and

And

forthwith cipher and

show me [36]

down

the road,

to a cent,

Song

Exactly the value of one and exactly the value of two, and

which

ahead

Trippers and askers surround me,

People

and

The

meet, the effect upon

latest

live in, or

city

life

early

or the

ward

the nation, inventions, societies, authors old

dates, discoveries,

and new,

dinner, dress, associates, looks, compliments, dues,

The

some man

real or fancied indifference of

The sickness of one of loss or lack of Battles,

the horrors

news, the

These come to

;

Stands amused, complacent, compassionating, is

erect, or

again,

myself.

Apart from the pulling and hauling stands what

Looks down,

love,

war, the fever of doubtful

fratricidal

events

exaltations,

days and nights and go from

But they are not the

woman

folks or of myself, or ill-doing or

money, or depressions or

fitful

am,

idle,

unitary,

bends an arm on an impalpable certain

rest,

Looking with side-curved head curious what will come next, Both

and out of the game and watching and wondering

Backward

see in

my own

days where

have no mockings or arguments, [37]

it.

sweated through fog

with linguists and contenders, I

witness and wait.

leaves of (Brass

5 I

believe in

you

soul, the other

am must

not abase

itself to

you,

And you must Loafe with

not be abased to the other.

me on

the grass, loose the stop from your throat,

Not words, not music

rhyme

want, not custom or

lecture,

not even the best,

Only the

lull

like,

mind how once we

How

you

settled

hum of^nir

the

valved voice.

lay such a transparent

your head athwart

summer morning,

hips and gently turn'd

over upon me,

And

parted the shirt from

tongue to

And

reach'd

till

you

bosom-bone, and plunged your

bare-stript heart,

felt

my beard,

and reach'd

Swiftly arose and spread around that pass

all

the

know

that the

And

know

that the spirit of

And

that

all

the

hand of God

men

women my

and

that a kelson of the creation

And

limitless are leaves stiff or

ants in the

And mossy

scabs of the

little

my own, of my own,

the brother

brothers,

and the

lovers,

And

And brown

knowledge

earth,

ever born are also

sisters

my feet.

the promise of

God

you held

the peace and

argument of the

And

till

love,

drooping

in the fields,

wells beneath them,

worm

fence, heap'd stones, elder, mullein

and poke-weed. [38]

Song

A child said What is the grass ? fetching it to me with full hands How could answer the child ? do not know what it is any ;

more than I

guess

must be the

stuff

guess

he.

flag of

my disposition,

out of hopeful green

woven.

it is

the handkerchief of the Lord,

scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropt,

name someway in the and remark, and say Whose ?

Bearing the owner's see

corners, that

we may

guess the grass

itself

a child, the produced babe of the

vegetation.

And

guess it

a uniform hieroglyphic,

it is

means, Sprouting alike

Growing among black

folks as

broad zones and narrow zones,

among

Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman,

seems to

Tenderly will

may be you

may be may

give

them the same,

the beautiful uncut hair of 'graves.

transpire from the breasts of

had known them

young men,

would have loved them,

be you are from old people, or from offspring taken soon out of their mothers' laps,

And

use you curling grass,

Cuff,

them the same.

receive

And now

white,

here you are the mothers' laps. [39]

Heaves of (Brass This grass

very dark to be from the white heads of old mothers,

Darker than the colorless beards of old men,

Dark

come from under

And

perceive

many uttering tongues, they do not come from the roofs

perceive after

the faint red roofs of mouths.

all

mouths

for

nothing.

wish

could translate the hints about the dead young

men and

women,

And

men and

the hints about old

mothers, and the offspring

taken soon out of their laps.

What do you think And what do you dren

They

(The

And

think has

All

chil-

smallest sprout

ever there

shows

was

ceas'd the

there

is really

led forward

no death,

life,

and does not wait

it,

moment

life

appear'd.

goes onward and outward, nothing collapses,

And

to die

different

Has any one supposed I

become of the women and

and well somewhere,

the end to arrest

And

men ?

are alive

has become of the young and old

hasten to inform

know

from what any one supposed, and

him

lucky to be born or her

it.

[40]

luckier.

just as lucky to die,

and

Song I

pass death with the dying and birth with the

and

not contain'd between

And

peruse manifold objects, no

The

earth

good and the

stars

two

new-wash'd babe,

hat and boots,

alike

and every one good,

good, and their adjuncts

not an earth nor an adjunct of an earth,

the mate and companion of people,

all

good.

just as immortal

and

fathomless as myself,

(They do not

know how

Every kind for For For

itself

and

immortal, but its

own,

for

know.)

me mine

male and female,

those that have been boys and that love

the

man

that

proud and

women,

how

feels

stings to be

slighted,

For

me the

sweet-heart and the old maid, for

mothers and the

mothers of mothers, For

lips that

have smiled, eyes that have shed

For

children

and the begetters of

Undrape I

you

children.

are not guilty to me, nor stale nor discarded,

see through the broadcloth and

And am

tears,

gingham whether

around, tenacious, acquisitive,

tireless,

or no,

and cannot be

shaken away. 8

The I

lift

little

one sleeps

with

away flies

hand.

The youngster and I

in its cradle,

the gauze and look a long time, and silently brush

peeringly view

the red-faced girl turn aside

them from the

top.

[41]

up the bushy

hill,

Xeaves of (Braea The I

suicide sprawls on the bloody floor of the bedroom,

witness the corpse with has

The blab

its

dabbled

hair,

note where the pistol

fallen.

of the pave, tires of carts, sluff of boot-soles, talk of

the promenaders,

The heavy omnibus,

the driver with his interrogating thumb,

the clank of the shod horses on the granite floor,

The snow-sleighs, clinking, shouted jokes, pelts of snow-balls, The hurrahs for popular favorites, the fury of rous'd mobs, The

man

flap of the curtain'd litter, a sick

inside borne to the

hospital,

The meeting of enemies, the sudden oath, the blows and fall, The excited crowd, the policeman with his star quickly working his passage to the centre of the

The impassive

What

crowd,

stones that receive and return so

groans of over-fed or half-starv'd

who

many

fall

echoes,

sunstruck or in

fits,

What

exclamations of

and give

What

women

taken suddenly

who

hurry

home

birth to babes,

living

and buried speech

howls

restrain'd

always vibrating here, what

by decorum,

Arrests of criminals, slights, adulterous offers made, acceptances, rejections I

mind them

with convex

or the

show

lips,

or resonance of

[depart

them

come and

The big doors of the country barn stand open and ready, The dried grass of the harvest-time loads the slow-drawn wagon, [42]

Song The

on the brown gray and green intertinged,

clear light plays

The armfuls

felt its soft jolts,

jump from the cross-beams and

And

there,

help,

came

stretch'd atop of the load,

one leg reclined on the other, seize the clover

head over heels and tangle

roll

mow.

are pack'd to the sagging

and timothy,

hair full of wisps.

Alone

the wilds and mountains

far in

Wandering amazed

fire

hunt,

and

lightness

and broiling the

fresh-kill'd

Falling asleep on the gather'd leaves with

The Yankee

clipper

glee,

choosing a safe spot to pass the night,

In the late afternoon

Kindling a

my own

under her

game,

r^^ my

dog and gun by

sky-sails, she cuts the sparkle

and scud,

eyes

settle the land,

bend

at her

prow

or shout joyously

from the deck.

The boatmen and clam-diggers arose I

tuck'd

time

trowser-ends

early

and stopt for me,

boots and went and had a good

;

You should have been with us that day round I

saw

the chowder-kettle.

the marriage of the trapper in the open air in the far west, the bride

was

Her father and

his

a red

girl,

friends sat near cross-legged and

smoking, they had moccasins to

their feet

blankets hanging from their shoulders, [43]

and

dumbly

large thick

Heaves of (Brass On

bank lounged the trapper, he was and

luxuriant beard

bride

drest mostly in skins, his

curls protected his neck, he held his

by the hand,

She had long eyelashes, her head was bare, her coarse straight

upon her voluptuous limbs and reach'd

locks descended to her feet.

The runaway I

slave

came

house and stopt outside,

heard his motions crackling the twigs of the woodpile,

Through the swung half-door

of the kitchen

saw him limpsy

and weak,

And went where he

sat

And brought water and

a log

fill'd

and led him

and assured him,

a tub for his sweated

body and

bruis'd feet,

And gave him some

room

that enter'd

from

own, and gave him

coarse clean clothes,

And remember

perfectly well his revolving eyes

and

his

awk-

wardness,

And remember putting He

staid

with

plasters

week

on the galls of

before he

was

his

neck and ankles

;

recuperated and pass'd

north, I

had him

sit

at table,

fire-lock lean'd in the corner.

Twenty-eight young men bathe by the shore, Twenty-eight young men and Twenty-eight years of

all

womanly

so friendly life

[44]

and

all

;

so lonesome.

Sons She owns the

fine

house by the

rise of

the bank,

She hides handsome and richly drest

aft the blinds of the

Which

like the best ?

of the

young men does she

the homeliest of

Where You

are

you

them

window.

beautiful to her.

off to, lady ? for

see you,

splash in the water there, yet stay stock

still

your room.

Dancing and laughing along the beach came the twenty-ninth bather,

The

rest did

saw them and loved them.

not see her, but she

The beards of the young men

glisten'd

with wet,

ran from

their long hair, Little

streams pass'd

An unseen hand It

over their bodies.

all

also pass'd over their bodies,

descended tremblingly from

The young men

float

their

temples and

their backs, their

who

the sun, they do not ask

They do not know who

puffs

ribs.

white

bellies

bulge to

seizes fast to them,

and declines with pendant and

bending arch,

They do not think

whom

they souse with spray. 12

The butcher-boy puts knife at the I

loiter

off

stall in

his

killing-clothes,

or sharpens his

the market,

enjoying his repartee and his shuffle and break-down. [45]

Xeaves of (Brass Blacksmiths with grimed and hairy chests environ the anvil,

Each has

his main-sledge, they are

all

out, there is a great heat

in the fire.

From The

the cinder-strew'd threshold

lithe

follow their movements,

sheer of their waists plays even with their massive arms,

Overhand the hammers swing, overhand so slow, overhand so sure,

They do not

hasten, each

man

hits in his place.

The negro holds

firmly the reins of his four horses, the block

swags underneath on

The negro tall

its

tied-over chain,

that drives the long dray of the stone-yard, steady

and

he stands pois'd on one leg on the string-piece,

His blue shirt exposes his ample neck and breast and loosens

over his hip-band, His glance hat

The sun

calm and commanding, he tosses the slouch of his

away from

falls

his forehead,

his crispy hair

and mustache,

falls

on the black

of his polish'd and perfect limbs. r

behold the picturesque giant and love him, and

do not stop

there, I

go with the team

also.

the caresser of

life

wherever moving, backward as well as

forward sluing, [46]

Song To

niches aside and junior bending, not a person or object missing, all

Absorbing

Oxen

that rattle the

what It

seems

to myself

that

and for

yoke and chain or

you express

me more

this song.

than

all

halt in the leafy shade, ?

your eyes

the print

have read

wood-drake and wood-duck on

tread scares the

life.

distant

and day-long ramble,

They I

rise together,

they slowly

circle

around.

believe in those winjg'd purposes,

And acknowledge red, yellow, white, And consider green and violet and the And do

not

thing

And

call

the tortoise

playing within me, tufted

crown

unworthy because she

intentional, is

not some-

else,

the jay in the

woods never

studied the gamut, yet

trills

pretty well to me,

And

the look of the bay mare shames silliness out of me.

M The wild gander Ya-honk he

The

pert

Find

its

says,

leads his flock through the cool night,

and sounds

may suppose

down

meaningless, but

an invitation,

listening close,

purpose and place up there toward the wintry sky.

The sharp-hoof d moose of the

north, the cat

on the

the chickadee, the prairie-dog,

The

litter

of the grunting

sow

as they tug at her teats, [47]

house-sill,

Heaves of (Braes The brood I

press of

am enamour'd

Of men Of

old law.

foot to the earth springs a hundred affections,

They scorn the best I

and she with her half-spread wings,

them and myself the same

see in

The

of the turkey-hen

that live

can do to relate them.

growing out-doors,

among

cattle or taste of the

ocean or woods,

the builders and steerers of ships and the wielders of axes and

mauls, and the drivers of horses, I

can eat and sleep with them

What

week

commonest, cheapest,

going

in for

and week

nearest, easiest,

Scattering

Me,

chances, spending for vast returns,

Adorning myself to bestow myself on the

Not asking the sky

out.

come down

that will take

first

good

me,

will,

freely forever.

The pure contralto sings in the organ loft, The carpenter dresses his plank, the tongue whistles

its

wild ascending

The married and unmarried

of his foreplane

lisp,

children ride

home

to their

Thanks-

giving dinner,

The

pilot seizes the king-pin,

The mate stands braced

he heaves

down

with a strong arm,

in the whale-boat, lance

and harpoon

are ready,

The duck-shooter walks by silent and cautious stretches, The deacons are ordain'd with cross'd hands at the altar, [48]

of flD?self

Song The

spinning-girl retreats

and advances to the

hum

of the big

wheel, the bars as he walks on a First-day loafe

The farmer stops by and looks

the oats and rye,

The

lunatic

(He

will never sleep

carried at last to the

a conflrm'd case,

asylum

any more as he did

in the cot in his mother's

bed-room ;)

The jour

printer with gray

head and gaunt jaws works

at his

case,

manu-

turns his quid of tobacco while his eyes blurr with the script;

The malform'd limbs

What

are tied to the surgeon's table,

removed drops horribly

The quadroon

girl is sold at

the auction-stand, the drunkard nods

rolls

his sleeves, the

the gate-keeper marks

The young fellow The

;

the bar-room stove,

The machinist

in a pail

who

policeman travels

his beat,

pass,

drives the express-wagon,

love him, though

do not know him ;)

half-breed straps on his light boots to compete in the race,

The western turkey-shooting draws their rifles, some sit on logs, Out from

the

crowd

levels his piece

steps the

old and young,

marksman, takes

some

lean on

his position,

;

The groups of newly-come immigrants cover

the

wharf or

levee,

As the woolly-pates hoe in the them from his saddle,

sugar-field, the overseer

[49]

views

%eat>e6 of (Brass

The bugle

the ball-room, the'gentlemen run for their part-

calls in

ners, the dancers

The youth

awake

lies

musical

bow

to each other,

in the cedar-roof 'd garret

and harks to the

rain,

The Wolverine

sets

traps

on the

creek

that

helps

fill

the

Huron,

The squaw wrapt sins

her yellow-hemm'd cloth

and bead-bags for

The connoisseur

offering

mocca-

sale,

peers along the exhibition-gallery with half-shut

eyes bent sideways,

the deck-hands

make

fast the

steamboat the plank

thrown

for the shore-going passengers,

The young it

holds out the skein while the elder sister winds

sister

off in a ball,

The one-year wife borne her

The

clean-hair'd

and stops

now and

then for the knots,

recovering and happy having a

week ago

first child,

Yankee

girl

works with her sewing-machine

in the factory or mill,

The paving-man lead

flies

lettering

The

canal

boy

leans

his

two-handed rammer, the

reporter's

swiftly over the note-book, the sign-painter

with blue and gold,

trots

his desk, the

The conductor

on the tow-path, the book-keeper counts

shoemaker waxes

his thread,

beats time for the band and

all

the performers

follow him,

The

child

The

regatta

white

baptized, the convert is

making

spread on the bay, the race

sails

sparkle

[50]

his first professions, is

begun, (how the

Song The drover watching

drove sings out to them that would

his

stray,

The pedler sweats with

his

pack on

higgling about the odd cent

The

(the purchaser

;)

bride unrumples her white dress, the minute-hand of the

clock

moves slowly, reclines with rigid

The opium-eater

The

his back,

head and just-open'd

lips,

her tipsy prostitute draggles her shawl, her bonnet bobs on

and pimpled neck,

The crowd laugh

at her

men

blackguard oaths, the

jeer

and wink

to each other,

(Miserable

do not laugh

your oaths nor

The President holding a cabinet

council

jeer

you

;)

surrounded by the great

Secretaries,

walk three matrons

the piazza

stately

and friendly with

twined arms,

The crew

of the fish-smack pack repeated layers of halibut in the

hold,

The Missourian crosses the

plains toting his

wares and

his cattle,

the fare-collector goes through the train he gives notice by the jingling of loose change,

The floor-men

are laying the floor, the tinners are tinning the

roof, the In

single

each

file

laborers

masons

are calling for mortar,

shouldering

his

hod

pass

onward

;

Seasons pursuing each other the indescribable crowd it is

the

gather'd,

the fourth of Seventh-month, (what salutes of cannon

and small arms

[Si]

leaves of (Brass Seasons pursuing each other the plougher ploughs, the

mows, and

the winter-grain

falls in

the ground

mower

;

Off on the lakes the pike-fisher watches and waits by the hole in the frozen surface,

The stumps stand deep with

thick round the clearing, the squatter strikes his axe,

Flatboatmen make fast towards dusk near the cotton-wood or pecan-trees,

Coon-seekers go through the regions of the Red river or through those drain'd by the Tennessee, or through those of the

Arkansas,

Torches shine

in the

dark that hangs on the Chattahooche or

Altamahaw, Patriarchs

sit

supper with sons and grandsons and great-

grandsons around them, In walls of adobie, in canvas tents, rest hunters

and trappers

after their day's sport,

The

city sleeps

The

living sleep for their time, the

The

old

husband sleeps by

sleeps

And

his

wife

sleeps,

his

of these

it is

all

their time,

;

to be of these

one and

dead sleep for

wife and the young husband

these tend inward to me, and

And such And

and the country

tend outward to them,

weave

or less

am,

the song of myself.

16 I

of old

and young, of the

foolish as

much

Regardless of others, ever regardful of others, [52]

as the wise,

Song

Maternal as well as paternal, a child as well as a man, Stuff d with the stuff that

coarse and stuff d with the stuff that

is fine,

One

of the Nation of

many

nations, the smallest the

same and

the largest the same,

Southerner soon as a Northerner, a planter nonchalant and

down by the Oconee A Yankee bound my own way ready hospitable

live,

for trade,

joints the

limberest joints on earth and the sternest joints on earth,

Kentuckian walking the vale 01 the Elkhorn

deer-skin

leggings, a Louisianian or Georgian,

A boatman

over lakes or bays or along coasts, a Hoosier, Badger,

Buckeye;

At home on Kanadian snow-shoes or up

in the bush, or

with

fishermen off Newfoundland,

At home

in the fleet of ice-boats, sailing

with the

rest

and tack-

ing,

At home on the the

hills

Texan

Comrade of

Vermont

or in the

woods

of Maine, or

ranch,

Californians,

comrade of

North- Westerners,

free

(loving their big proportions,)

Comrade

of raftsmen and coalmen, comrade of

all

who

shake

hands and welcome to drink and meat,

A A

learner with the simplest, a teacher of the

Of every hue and

though tfullest,

novice beginning yet experient of myriads of seasons, caste

farmer, mechanic,

Prisoner, fancy-man,

artist,

of every rank and religion,

gentleman,

sailor,

quaker,

rowdy, lawyer, physician, [53]

priest.

leaves of (Brass I

resist

any thing better than

Breathe the

And am

my own

but leave plenty after me,

air

not stuck up, and

bright suns

(The moth and the fish-eggs are

The

diversity,

place.

in their place,

see and the dark suns

cannot see are

in their

place,

The

palpable

is in its

place

and the impalpable

in its place.)

These are

really the

thoughts of

all

men

ages and lands,

in all

they are not original with me, If

they are not yours as

much

mine they are nothing, or next

to nothing, If

they are not the riddle and the untying of the riddle they are nothing,

they are not just as close as they are distant they are nothing.

This

the grass that

This the

common

grows wherever the land is and the water

air that

is,

bathes the globe. 18

With music strong I

come, with

cornets and

play not marches for accepted victors only,

drums,

play marches

for

conquer'd and slain persons.

Have you heard I

also say

it is

that

good

which they

was good

are

fall,

to gain the

day

battles are lost in the

won. [54]

same

spirit in

Song I

beat and

blow through

for the dead,

pound

my embouchures my loudest and gayest for them. who

Vivas to those

have

to those

And

to those themselves

And

all

fail'd

whose war-vessels sank

And

And to

who

in the sea

sank in the sea

generals that lost engagements, and

the numberless

known

unknown

all

overcome heroes

heroes equal to the greatest heroes

This It is

the meal equally

for the

the meat for natural hunger,

wicked just the same as the righteous,

ments with I

set, this

The kept-woman,

There This

shall

make appoint-

all,

will not have a single person slighted or

The heavy-lipp'd

left

away,

sponger, thief, are hereby invited,

slave

invited, the venerealee is invited;

be no difference between them and the

rest.

the press of a bashful hand, this the float and odor of

hair,

the

murmur

of yearning,

This the far-off depth and height reflecting

my own

face,

This the touch of

lips to yours, this

This the thoughtful merge of myself, and the outlet again.

Do you Well

guess

have some

have, for the

intricate

take

it I

Fourth-month showers have, and the mica

on the side of a rock

Do you

purpose

has.

would astonish

[55]

Xeaves of <5raes Does the daylight astonish through the woods

This hour I

does the early redstart twittering

more than they

astonish

tell

things in confidence,

tell

everybody, but

might not

will

tell

you.

Who goes How is it

What All

extract strength

my own you

were time

do not

hankering, gross, mystical, nude;

from the beef

man anyhow ? what am

mark

Else

there

what

shall offset

are

you ?

with your own,

me.

lost listening to

snivel that snivel the

eat ?

world over,

That months are vacuums and the ground but wallow and

Whimpering and

truckling fold with

powders

filth.

for invalids,

con-

formity goes to the fourth-remov'd, I

wear

Why

hat as

should

pray

please indoors or out. ?

why should

Having pried through the

strata,

venerate and be ceremonious

analyzed to a

hair,

counsel'd with

doctors and calculated close, I

find

all

no sweeter people

fat

than sticks to

see myself, none

my own

bones.

more and not one

less,

And

the

good or bad

say of myself [56]

say of them.

a barley-corn

SottQ of

know am

To me

the converging objects of the universe perpetually flow,

All are written to

know am know

me, and

must get what the writing means.

deathless,

and sound,

solid

this orbit of

mine cannot be swept by a carpenter's

compass,

know

not pass like a child's carlacue cut with a burnt

shall

stick at night.

know am

do not trouble

see that the elementary laws never apologize,

august,

reckon

be understood,

spirit to vindicate itself or

behave no prouder than the

level

plant

my house by,

after all.)

exist as

no other

And

am, that in the

each and

One world

enough,

world be aware

all

be aware

aware and by

sit

content,

content.

far the largest to

me, and that

myself,

And whether

come

my own

to-day or in ten thousand or

ten million years, I

can cheerfully take

now, or with equal cheerfulness

wait.

My I

foothold

tenon'd and mortis'd in granite,

laugh at what you

And

know

call

dissolution,

the amplitude of time. [57]

can

Heaves of (Braes 21

The

the poet of the

Body and

pleasures of heaven are with

the poet of the Soul,

me and

the pains of hell are

with me,

The

first

into a

new

say

And

say there

woman

the

as great to be a is

translate

same

as the

woman

man,

as to be a

man,

nothing greater than the mother of men.

chant the chant of dilation or pride,

We have I

it is

latter

tongue.

the poet of the

And

and increase upon myself, the

graft

show

had ducking and deprecating about enough,

that size

Have you It is

only development.

outstript the rest ? are

trifle,

you the President ?

they will more than arrive there every one, and

still

pass on. I

he that walks with the tender and growing night,

call

to the earth and sea half-held

Press close bare-bosom'd night

night

nodding night

Smile

night.

press close magnetic nourishing

Night of south winds Still

by the

night of the large

mad naked summer

voluptuous cool-breath'd earth

Earth of the slumbering and liquid trees Earth of departed sunset

few

stars

night.

earth of the mountains misty-topt [58]

Earth of the vitreous pour of the

moon

full

just tinged

with

blue!

Earth of shine and dark mottling the tide of the river

Earth of the limpid gray of clouds brighter and clearer for

sake

Far-swooping elbow'd earth

rich

apple-blossom'd earth

Smile, for your lover comes.

you have given me love

Prodigal,

therefore

you give love

unspeakable passionate love.

You

sea

resign myself to

you

also

guess what you mean,

behold from the beach your crooked inviting fingers,

believe

refuse to

you

must have

go back without

a turn together,

feeling of me,

undress, hurry

out of sight

of the land, '

Cushion

soft,

rock

Dash me with amorous wet,

billowy drowse, I

can repay you.

Sea of stretch'd ground-swells, Sea breathing broad and convulsive breaths,

Sea of the brine of

life

and of unshovelPd yet always-ready

graves,

Howler and scooper of storms, capricious and dainty I

integral

with you,

too

Partaker of influx and efflux Extoller of amies

am of I,

one phase and of

extoller of hate

and those that sleep [59]

sea,

and

all

phases.

conciliation,

each others' arms.

leaves of (Brass I

he attesting sympathy,

(Shall

make my

list

that supports

of things in the house and skip the house

them

not the poet of goodness only,

do not decline

to be the

poet of wickedness also.

What

blurt

is this

me and reform

Evil propels

My I

gait is

about virtue and about vice

of evil propels me,

stand indifferent,

fault-finder's or rejecter's gait,

moisten the roots of

all

that has

grown.

Did you fear some scrofula out of the unflagging pregnancy

Did you guess the

celestial

laws are yet to be work'd over and

rectified ?

find

one side a balance and the antipodal side a balance,

Soft doctrine as steady help as stable doctrine,

Thoughts and deeds of the present our rouse and This minute that comes to

There

no better than

What behaved

early start.

over the past decillions,

and now.

well in the past or behaves well to-day

not such

a wonder,

The wonder

always and always

how

there can be a

or an infidel.

23 Endless unfolding of words of ages!

And mine

word

of the modern, the [60]

word En-Masse.

mean man

Song A word

of the faith that never balks,

Here or henceforward

it is all

same

the

me,

Time ab-

solutely.

alone

without flaw,

alone rounds and completes

That mystic baffling wonder alone completes

accept Reality and dare not question

Materialism

Hurrah

first

and

last

all.

it,

imbuing.

for positive science!

long

live

exact demonstration!

Fetch stonecrop mixt with cedar and branches of

This

the lexicographer, this the chemist, this

all,

lilac,

made

grammar

of the old cartouches,

These mariners put the ship through dangerous unknown This

the geologist, this

works with the

scalpel,

and

seas,

this is a

mathematician.

Gentlemen, to you the

Your I

facts are useful,

first

honors always!

and yet they are not

but enter by them to an area of

dwelling,

dwelling.

Less the reminders of properties told

And more

untold, and of freedom

the reminders they of

life

words,

and

extrication,

And make and

And

short account of neuters and geldings, and favor

women

men

fully equipt,

beat the gong of revolt, and stop with fugitives and them that plot

and conspire. [61]

Heaves of (Brass 24

,*..:

Walt Whitman,

a kosmos, of

Manhattan the son,

Turbulent, fleshy, sensual, eating, drinking and breeding,

sentimentalist,

no stander above men and

women

or apart

from them,

No more modest Unscrew the

than immodest.

locks from the doors!

Unscrew the doors themselves from

their

jambs!

Whoever degrades another degrades me, And whatever is done or said returns at last Through me the

afflatus

me.

surging and surging, through

the

current and index.

speak the pass-word primeval,

By God

will accept nothing

terpart of

give the sign of democracy,

which

all

cannot have their coun-

on the same terms.

Through me many long dumb

voices,

Voices of the interminable generations of prisoneis and slaves,

Voices of the diseas'd and despairing and of thieves and dwarfs, Voices of cycles of preparation and accretion,

And

of the threads that connect the stars, and of

wombs

the father-stuff,

And Of

of the rights of

the deform'd,

Fog

them the

others are

trivial, flat, foolish,

in the air, beetles rolling balls of [62]

down

despised,

dung.

upon,

and of

Song me

Through

forbidden voices,

Voices of sexes and

do not press

lusts,

by me

Voices indecent

of flfepself

voices veil'd and

and

clarified

veil,

mouth,

bowels

keep as delicate around the

remove the

transfigur'd.

fingers across

around the head and

heart, is

Copulation

no more rank to

and the

believe in the flesh

than death

appetites,

and each part and tag of

Seeing, hearing, feeling, are miracles,

me Divine

a miracle.

inside

and

out,

and

make

holy whatever

worship one thing more than another of

my own

body, or any part of

Translucent mould of

Shaded ledges and

Whatever goes

rests

Firm masculine colter

You my

shall

to the tilth of

rich blood!

brain

shall

all

the creeds.

shall

be the spread

it,

be you!

be you

be you!

shall

be you

your milky stream pale strippings of

Breast that presses against other breasts

touch or

than prayer,

finer

This head more than churches, bibles, and

touch'd from,

The scent of these arm-pits aroma

is.

shall

my life!

be you!

be your occult convolutions!

Root of wash'd sweet-flag! timorous pond-snipe! nest of guarded duplicate eggs

shall

be you [63]

Xeaves of (Brass Mix'd tussled hay of head, beard, brawn,

shall

Trickling sap of maple, fibre of manly wheat,

Sun so generous

shall

be you!

shall

face

shall

be you

You sweaty brooks and dews it shall be you! Winds whose soft-tickling genitals rub against me branches of

fields,

winding paths,

Hands

live oak, loving

be you

have

that lot of

moment and whatever happens

cannot

tell

how my

shall

be you!

lounger in

kiss'd,

mortal

me and

all

have ever

be you.

shall

dote on myself, there

Each

shall

have taken, face

touch'd,

be you!

Vapors lighting and shading

Broad muscular

be you

thrills

ankles bend, nor

whence

so luscious,

with joy, the cause of

faintest wish,

Nor the cause of the friendship ship

That

emit, nor the cause of the friend-

take again.

walk up

morning-glory

stoop,

pause to consider

if it really

my window satisfies me more

be,

than the meta-

physics of books.

To behold

the day-break!

The

little

The

air tastes

light fades the

Hefts of the

good

immense and diaphanous shadows,

palate.

moving world

innocent gambols silently

freshly exuding,

Scooting obliquely high and low. [64]

rising,

of fll>$0elf

Song Something

cannot see puts upward libidinous prongs,

Seas of bright juice suffuse heaven.

The

earth

by the sky

staid with, the daily close of their junction,

The heav'd challenge from the

east that

moment

The mocking taunt, See then whether you

shall

over

be master

head, !

Dazzling and tremendous If

could not

now

how

quick the sun-rise would

kill

me,

and always send sun-rise out of me.

We also ascend dazzling and tremendous as the sun, We found our own O my soul in the calm and cool of the

day-

break.

voice goes after

With the

twirl of

what

tongue

eyes cannot reach, I

encompass worlds and volumes

of worlds.

Speech It

the twin of

provokes

forever,

vision,

it is

unequal to measure

says sarcastically,

Walt you contain enough, why don't you

Come now

will not

itself,

let it

out then ?

be tantalized, you conceive too

much

articulation,

Do you

not

know O speech how the buds beneath you are

Waiting

The

receding before

dirt

gloom, protected by

knowledge of

all

things,

frost,

prophetical screams,

underlying causes to balance them at

folded

live parts,

last,

keeping

tally

with the meaning

leaves of Grass Happiness, (which whoever hears

him or her

let

set out in

search of this day.)

final

merit

really

refuse you,

crowd your

Writing and I

carry the

refuse putting from

me what

am,

Encompass worlds, but never I

try to

encompass me,

and best by simply looking toward you.

sleekest

do not prove me,

talk

plenum of proof and every thing

With the hush

lips

else in

face,

wholly confound the skeptic. 26

Now To

do nothing but

will

accrue

what

toward I

listen,

hear into this song, to

let

sounds contribute

it.

hear bravuras of birds, bustle of growing wheat, gossip of flames, clack of sticks cooking

hear the sound

hear

all

love, the

meals,

sound of the human

voice,

sounds running together, combined, fused or following,

Sounds of the

city

and sounds out of the

city,

sounds of the day

and night, Talkative

young ones

work-people

The angry base

to those that like them, the loud laugh of

at their meals,

of disjointed friendship, the faint tones of the

sick,

The judge with hands

tight to the desk, his pallid lips

cing a death-sentence, [66]

pronoun-

Sons The heave'e'yo

of stevedores unlading ships

by the wharves, the

refrain of the anchor-lifters,

The

ring of alarm-bells, the cry of

fire,

the whirr of swift-streak-

ing engines and hose-carts with premonitory tinkles and color' d lights,

The steam-whistle, the

solid roll of the train

of approaching

cars,

The slow march

play'd at the head of the association marching

two and two, (They go to guard some corpse, the flag-tops are draped with black muslin.)

hear the violoncello,

hear the key'd cornet,

hear the chorus,

this

indeed

it is

music

orbic flex of his

orchestra whirls

belly

and

ears,

breast.

grand opera, this suits

mouth

heart's complaint,)

glides quickly in through

me.

me,

fills

pouring and

filling

work with

hear the train'd soprano (what

The It

young man's

tenor large and fresh as the creation

The

the

shakes mad-sweet pangs through

('tis

wider than Uranus

wrenches such ardors from

hers

me is

full.

this ?)

flies,

did not

know

possess'd

them, It

sails

me,

dab with bare

feet,

they are lick'd by the indolent

waves, I

cut

bitter

and angry

hail,

[673

lose

breath,

leaves of (Brass Steep'd amid honey'd morphine,

in fakes

windpipe throttled

of death,

At length

And

that

let

up again call

to feel the puzzle of puzzles,

Being.

To be

any form, what

(Round and round If

go,

that ?

all

come back

of us, and ever

nothing lay more develop'd the quahaug

thither,)

in its callous shell

were enough. Mine I

callous shell,

have instant conductors

They I

seize every object

merely

stir,

press, feel

To touch my person

all

over

and lead

whether

pass or stop,

harmlessly through me.

fingers,

and

some one

else's is

about as

with

happy,

much

can

stand.

28 Is this

then a touch

quivering

Flames and ether making a rush Treacherous

flesh

tip of

all

for

new

to a

identity,

veins,

reaching and crowding

and blood playing out lightning to

different

to help them,

strike

what

from myself,

sides prurient provokers stiffening

Straining the udder of

heart for

its

my limbs,

withheld drip,

Behaving licentious toward me, taking no denial, Depriving

Unbuttoning

best as for a purpose,

clothes, holding

me by

[68]

the bare waist,

hardly

Sons Deluding

confusion with the calm of the sunlight and pasture-

fields,

Immodestly sliding the fellow-senses away,

They bribed to swap

off

with touch and go and graze

at the

edges

of me,

no regard for

consideration,

draining strength or

anger,

Fetching the rest of the herd around to enjoy them a while,

Then

The

all

uniting to stand on a headland and

sentries desert every other part of

worry me.

me,

They have left me helpless to a red marauder, They all come to the headland to witness and I

given up by

talk wildly,

lost

wits,

and nobody

else

greatest traitor, I

went myself

You

villain

first

touch

me.

traitors,

have

assist against

the

[there.

to the headland,

what

are

my own

you doing

hands carried

my breath

tight in its

throat,

Unclench your floodgates, you are too much

for

me.

29 Blind

loving wrestling touch,

touch

Did

sheath'd hooded sharp-tooth'd

make you ache

Parting track'd

Rich showering

so, leaving

arriving, perpetual

rain,

payment of perpetual

and recompense richer afterward. [69]

loan,

leaves of (Brass Sprouts take and accumulate, stand by the curb

prolific

and

vital,

Landscapes projected masculine, full-sized and golden.

All truths wait in all things,

They do not need the

The

own

neither hasten their

They

insignificant

(What

is less

delivery nor resist

it,

obstetric forceps of the surgeon,

as big to

more than

as any,

a touch ?

)

Logic and sermons never convince,

The damp of the night (Only what proves

drives deeper into

itself

to every

Only what nobody denies

A I

minute and a drop of

believe the

And

soggy clods

soul.

man and woman

so,

so.)

settle

shall

become

compend of compends is summit and flower there

brain,

lovers

and lamps,

the meat of a is

man

woman,

the feeling they have for each

other,

And

they are to branch boundlessly out of that lesson until

becomes omnific,

And

until

one and

all shall

believe a leaf of grass

delight us,

less

and

them.

than the journey-work of the

stars,

And

the pismire

equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and the

egg of the wren,

Sons

And

the tree-toad

And

the running blackberry

would adorn the

And

the narrowest hinge in

my hand

And

the

And

cow

mouse

find

a chef-d'oeuvre for the highest,

puts to scorn

all

machinery,

crunching with depress'd head surpasses any statue, is

miracle

enough

to stagger sextillions of infidels.

long-threaded moss,

incorporate gneiss, coal,

parlors of heaven,

fruits,

grains, esculent roots,

And am

stucco'd with quadrupeds and birds

And have But

distanced

what

behind

any thing back again when

call

In vain the

good

desire

reasons,

it.

mastodon

send their old heat against

retreats

beneath

In vain objects stand leagues off In vain the

over,

speeding or shyness,

In vain the plutonic rocks

In vain the

for

all

ocean

settling in

its

my approach,

own powder'd

bones,

and assume manifold shapes,

hollows and the great monsters lying

low, In vain the buzzard In vain the

houses herself with the sky,

snake slides through the creepers and

In vain the elk takes to the inner passes of the In vain the razor-bill'd I

follow quickly,

auk

sails far

logs,

woods,

north to Labrador,

ascend to the nest in the fissure of the

cliff.

32 I

think

could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and

self-contain' d, I

stand and look at them long and long.

leaves of (Braes They do not sweat and whine about their condition, They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their They do not make Not one

sick discussing their duty to

dissatisfied, not one

owning

sins,

God,

demented with the mania of

things,

Not one kneels

to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands

of years ago,

Not one

respectable or

So they show

unhappy over the whole

their relations to

They bring me tokens of

me and

earth.

accept them,

myself, they evince

them

plainly in

their possession.

wonder where they

Did

pass that

get those tokens,

times ago and negligently drop them

way huge

Myself moving forward then and

now and

forever,

Gathering and showing more always and with velocity, Infinite

and omnigenous, and the

like of these

Not too exclusive toward the reachers of Picking out here one that

love,

and

among them,

remembrancers,

now go with him on brotherly

terms.

A gigantic beauty of a stallion, Head high

in the forehead,

Limbs glossy and supple, Eyes

full

fresh

and responsive to

wide between the

tail

my caresses,

ears,

dusting the ground,

of sparkling wickedness, ears finely cut, flexibly moving.

His nostrils dilate as

heels embrace him,

His well-built limbs tremble with pleasure as [72]

["return

race around

and

Song I

but use you a minute, then

Why

Even

need your paces

stand or

sit

of flD?aelf

resign you, stallion,

when

myself out-gallop them

passing faster than you.

Space and Time

now

see

it is

true,

what

What

guess'd

when

loaf d on the grass,

What

guess'd while

lay alone in

And

again as

guess'd

at,

bed,

walk'd the beach under the paling stars of the

morning.

My I

ties

and

ballasts leave

me,

my palms cover with my vision.

skirt sierras,

afoot

elbows

rest in sea-gaps,

continents,

the city's quadrangular houses

in log huts,

camping with

lumbermen, Along the

ruts of the turnpike, along the dry gulch

and

rivulet

bed,

Weeding

my onion-patch

or hoeing

rows of

carrots

and parsnips,

crossing savannas, trailing in forests, Prospecting, gold-digging, girdling the trees of a

Scorch'd ankle-deep

shallow

Where

the hot sand, hauling

new boat

purchase,

down

the

river,

the panther walks to and fro on a limb overhead, where

the buck turns furiously at the hunter,

Where

the rattlesnake suns his flabby length on a rock, otter is feeding

fish,

[73]

where the

leaves of (Brass Where

the alligator in his tough pimples sleeps

Where

the black bear

searching for roots or honey, where the

beaver pats the

by the bayou,

mud

with

his

paddle-shaped

tail

;

Over the growing sugar, over the yellow-flower' d cotton over the

rice in its

low moist

plant,

field,

Over the sharp-peak'd farm house, with

its

scallop'd

scum and

slender shoots from the gutters,

Over the western persimmon, over the long-leav'd

corn, over the

delicate blue-flower flax,

Over the white and brown buckwheat, a hummer and buzzer there with the rest,

Over the dusky green of the rye as breeze

ripples

and shades

in the

;

Scaling mountains, pulling myself cautiously up, holding on

low scragged

limbs,

Walking the path worn

in the grass

and beat through the leaves

of the brush,

Where

the

quail

betwixt

whistling

the

woods and

the

wheat-lot,

Where

the bat

flies in

the Seventh-month eve,

where the great

gold-bug drops through the dark,

Where

the brook puts out of the roots of the old tree and flows to the

Where

cattle

meadow, stand and shake

away

flies

with the tremulous

shuddering of their hides,

Where

the cheese-cloth hangs in the kitchen, straddle the hearth-slab,

from the

rafters

where cobwebs

;

[741

where andirons fall

in festoons

Song Where trip-hammers

crash,

where the press

whirling

its

under

its

cylinders,

Where

the

human

heart beats

with

terrible throes

ribs,

Where

the pear-shaped balloon

floating aloft,

(floating in

myself and looking composedly down,)

Where

the life-car

drawn on the

slip-noose,

where the heat

hatches pale-green eggs in the dented sand,

Where

swims with her

the she-whale

Where

the steam-ship

trails

calf

hind-ways

and never forsakes its

it,

long pennant of

smoke,

Where

the fin of the shark cuts like a black chip out of the water,

Where

the half-burn'd brig

Where

shells

grow

on unknown currents,

riding

to her slimy deck,

rupting below

Where

where the dead

;

the dense-starr'd flag

borne

at the

head of the regiments,

Approaching Manhattan up by the long-stretching

Under Niagara, the

are cor-

island,

cataract falling like a veil over

coun-

tenance,

upon the horse-block of hard wood

Upon

a door-step,

Upon

the race-course, or enjoying picnics or jigs or a

outside,

good game

of base-ball,

he-festivals,

with blackguard gibes,

ironical license,

bull-

dances, drinking, laughter,

At the cider-mill tasting the sweets

of.

the

brown mash, sucking

the juice through a straw,

At apple-peelings wanting kisses At musters, beach-parties,

for all the red fruit

find,

friendly bees, huskings, house-raisings; [75]

%eat>e$ of (Braes

Where

the mocking-bird sounds his delicious gurgles, cackles,

screams, weeps,

Where

the hay-rick stands in the barn-yard, are scatter'd,

Where

where the

where the brood-cow waits

the bull advances to do his masculine work,

stud to the mare, where the cock

Where

the heifers browse,

dry-stalks

the hovel,

where the

treading the hen,

where geese nip

their

food with short

jerks,

Where sun-down shadows some

Where

lengthen over the limitless and lone-

prairie,

herds of buffalo

make

a crawling spread of the square

miles far and near,

Where

the humming-bird shimmers, where the neck of the long-lived

Where

swan

curving and winding,

the laughing-gull scoots

by the

shore,

where she laughs

her near-human laugh,

Where

bee-hives range on a gray bench in the garden half hid by the high weeds,

Where band-neck'd their

Where

partridges roost in a ring on the ground with

heads out,

burial coaches enter the arch'd gates of a cemetery,

Where winter wolves bark amid wastes

snow and

icicled

trees,

Where

the yellow-crown'd heron comes to the edge of the marsh at night

and feeds upon small

Where

the splash of

Where

the katy-did

swimmers and

crabs,

divers cools the

warm

noon,

works her chromatic reed on the walnut-tree

over the well, [76]

Song Through patches of

citrons

of flD?eelf and cucumbers with silver-wired

leaves,

Through the the

Through

salt-lick or

orange glade, or under conical

gymnasium,

the office or public hall Pleas'd with the native

the

new and

Pleas'd with the

firs,

through the curtain'd saloon, through

and

;

pleas'd with the foreign, pleas'd with

old,

homely

woman

as well as the

handsome,

Pleas'd with the Quakeress as she puts off her

bonnet and talks

melodiously, Pleas'd with the tune of the choir of the

with the

Pleas'd

earnest

whitewash'd church,

words of the sweating

preacher, impress'd seriously at the

Looking

in at the

shop-windows

noon, flatting the flesh of

Wandering

the

right

and

left

the middle

down

camp-meeting

Broadway

;

the whole fore-

nose on the thick plate

same afternoon with

clouds, or

Methodist

face turn'd

glass,

to the

a lane or along the beach,

arms round the sides of two

friends,

and

;

Coming home with the silent and dark-cheek'd bush-boy, hind me he rides at the drape of the day,) Far from the settlements studying the print of animals'

(be-

feet,

the moccasin print,

By the

cot in the hospital reaching

Nigh the

coffin'd corpse

candle

Voyaging

when

lemonade all

to a feverish patient,

still,

examining with a

;

to every port to dicker and adventure,

Hurrying with the modern crowd as eager and [77]

fickle as any,

leaves of (Brass Hot toward one

my madness to knife him, my back yard, my thoughts gone from me

hate, ready in

Solitary at midnight in

a long while,

Walking the old

hills

of Judaea with the beautiful gentle

God by

side,

Speeding through space, speeding through heaven and the Speeding amid the seven

satellites

and the broad

ring,

stars,

and the

diameter of eighty thousand miles,

Speeding with

tail'd

meteors, throwing fire-balls like the

Carrying the crescent child that carries

its

own

full

rest,

mother

in its

belly,

Storming, enjoying, planning, loving, cautioning,

Backing and I

tread day

visit

filling,

appearing and disappearing,

and night such roads.

the orchards of spheres and look at the product,

And

look at quintillions ripen'd and look at quintillions green.

those flights of a fluid and swallowing soul,

fly

My I

help myself to material and immaterial,

No I

course runs below the soundings of plummets.

guard can shut

anchor

ship for a

off,

no law prevent me.

little

while only,

messengers continually cruise away or bring their returns to

me.

go hunting

polar furs

pointed

staff,

and the

seal,

leaping chasms with a pike

clinging to topples of brittle and blue. [78]

Song I

ascend to the foretruck,

take

place late at night in the crow's nest,

sail

the arctic sea,

Through the

clear

it is

plenty light enough,

atmosphere

stretch

around on the wonderful

beauty,

The enormous masses is

plain in

all

of ice pass

me and

pass them, the scenery

directions,

The white-topt mountains show fancies

in the distance,

fling out

toward them,

We are approaching some great battle-field

which

are soon

to be engaged,

pass the colossal outposts of the encampment, feet

still

Or we

pass with

and caution,

are entering

The blocks and

by the suburbs some

fallen architecture

vast

more than

and ruin'd all

city,

the living cities

of the globe.

turn the bridegroom out of bed and stay with the bride myself,

tighten her

voice

They

a free companion,

fetch

all

night to

bivouac by invading watchfires,

thighs and

lips.

the wife's voice, the screech

by the

rail

of the

stairs,

man's body up dripping and drown'd.

understand the large hearts of heroes,

The courage

How

of present times and

the skipper

saw

the

all

times,

crowded and rudderless wreck of the

steam-ship, and Death chasing [79]

up and down the storm,

Xeavea of (Brass

How

he knuckled tight and gave not back an inch, and was of days and faithful of nights,

ful

And

faith-

chalk' d in large letters

on a board, Be of good cheer, we will

not desert you ;

How

he follow'd with them and tack'd with them three days and

would not give

up,

How he saved the drifting company at last, How the lank loose-gown'd women look'd when side of their prepared graves,

How

the silent old-faced infants and the lifted sick, and the sharp-lipp'd unshaved

All this I

boated from the

The

swallow,

the man,

men

tastes good,

suffer'd,

was

;

well,

becomes mine,

there.

disdain and calmness of martyrs,

The mother of old, condemn'd

for a witch,

burnt with dry wood,

her children gazing on,

The hounded

slave that flags in the race, leans

by the

fence,

blowing, cover'd with sweat,

The twinges

that sting like needles his legs

derous buckshot and the All these

the

feel or

hounded

and neck, the mur-

bullets,

am.

slave,

wince

at the bite of the dogs,

me n,

Hell and despair are upon me, crack and again crack the marksI

clutch the rails of the fence,

fall

ooze of

skin,

on the weeds and stones, [80]

gore dribs, thinn'd with the

Walt Whitman, 1849 This

the earliest portrait

of Whitman

Sona

riders spur their unwilling horses, haul close,

The

Taunt

dizzy ears and beat

violently over the head with

whip-stocks.

Agonies are one of I

changes of garments,

how

do not ask the wounded person the

My I

wounded

hurts turn livid

feels,

myself become

person,

upon me

lean

on a cane and observe.

the mash'd fireman with breast-bone broken,

Tumbling walls buried me Heat and smoke

in their debris,

inspired,

heard the yelling shouts of

comrades, I

heard the distant click of their picks and shovels,

They have I

lie in

beams away, they tenderly

clear'd the

the night

air in

lift

red shirt, the pervading hush

forth.

for

sake, Painless after

White and

all

exhausted but not so unhappy,

lie

beautiful are the faces around me, the heads are bared

of their fire-caps,

The kneeling crowd

fades with the light of the torches.

Distant and dead resuscitate,

They show

as the dial or

move

as the hands of me,

clock myself.

an old

there again.

artillerist,

tell

fort's

[81]

bombardment,

the

Xeaves of (Brass Again the long

of the

roll

drummers,

Again the attacking cannon, mortars,

Again to I

take part,

The

listening ears the

cannon responsive.

see and hear the whole,

cries, curses, roar,

the plaudits for well-aim'd shots,

The ambulanza slowly passing

trailing its red drip,

Workmen searching after damages, making indispensable The

fall

repairs,

of grenades through the rent roof, the fan-shaped ex-

plosion,

The whizz

of limbs, heads, stone,

Again gurgles the mouth of

waves with

He gasps through

wood,

iron,

high

in the air.

dying general, he furiously

his hand,

Mind

the clot

not

mind

the entrench-

ments.

Now (I tell

tell

what

not the

fall

Not one escaped

The hundred and Tis the

tale of

knew

Texas

early youth,

of Alamo, to

tell

the

fifty are

fall

of Alamo,

dumb

yet at Alamo,)

the murder in cold blood of four hundred and

twelve young men. Retreating they had form'd in a hollow square with their baggage for

breastworks,

Nine hundred their

lives

out of the surrounding enemies, nine times

number, was the price they took

Their colonel

was wounded and

their

[82]

advance,

ammunition gone,

Song They

treated for an honorable capitulation, receiv'd writing seal,

They were

and

gave up their arms and march'd back prisoners of war. the glory of the race of rangers,

Matchless with horse,

rifle,

song, supper, courtship,

Large, turbulent, generous, handsome, proud, and affectionate,

Bearded, sunburnt, drest in the free costume of hunters, a single

one over

thirty years of age.

The second

First-day

morning they were brought out

Not

and massacred,

was

beautiful early

squads

summer,

The work commenced about five o'clock and was over by eight.

None obey'd Some made

the a

command

mad and

to kneel,

helpless rush,

some stood

stark

and

straight,

few

at once, shot in the

fell

dead

lay together,

The maim'd and mangled dug them

Some

temple or heart, the living and

in the dirt, the

new-comers saw

there,

half-kill'd

attempted to crawl away,

These were despatch'd with bayonets or

batter' d

with the blunts

of muskets,

youth not seventeen years old seiz'd his assassin

came The

three

two more

to release him,

were

all

torn and cover'd with the boy's blood.

At eleven o'clock began the burning of the bodies That

till

;

the tale of the murder of the four hundred and twelve

young men. [83]

leaves of (Brass 35

Would you Would you

hear of an old-time sea-fight

who won by

learn

List to the yarn, as

the light of the

moon and

grandmother's father the

stars ?

sailor told

me.

Our

foe

His

was

was no skulk

in his ship

the surly English

truer,

tell

you, (said he,)

pluck, and there

and never was, and never

Along the lower'd eve he

came

will

no tougher or

;

horribly raking us.

closed with him, the yards entangled, the cannon touch'd,

captain lash'd fast with his

had receiv'd some eighteen pound shots under the water,

our lower-gun-deck two large pieces had burst at the fire,

killing all

own

hands.

first

around and blowing up overhead.

Fighting at sundown, fighting at dark,

Ten

o'clock at night, the full gain,

and

five feet of

The master-at-arms

moon

well up, our leaks on the

water reported,

loosing the prisoners confined in the after-

hold to give them a chance for themselves.

The transit to and from the magazine is now stopt by the sentinels, They see so many strange faces they do not know whom to trust. Our

frigate takes fire,

The other asks If

we demand

quarter

our colors are struck and the fighting done [84]

Song

Now laugh content, for hear the voice of my little captain, We have not struck, he composedly cries, we have just begun our I

part of the fighting.

Only three guns are

One

in use,

[mast,

by the captain himself against the enemy's main-

directed

Two well serv'd

with grape and canister silence

his

musketry and

clear his decks.

The tops

alone second the

of this

fire

battery, especially the

little

main-top,

They hold out bravely during the whole Not

The

moment's

of the action.

cease,

leaks gain

on the pumps, the

fast

fire

eats

toward the

powder-magazine.

One

of the

pumps has been

it is

generally thought

are sinking.

Serene stands the

shot away,

little

captain,

not hurried, his voice

neither high nor low,

His eyes give more light to us than our battle-lanterns.

Toward twelve

there in the

beams of the moon they surrender

to us.

36 Stretch'd and

Two Our

still lies

the midnight,

great hulls motionless on the breast of the darkness, vessel riddled

the one

and slowly sinking, preparations to pass to have conquered, [85]

leaves of (Brass The

captain on the quarter-deck coldly giving his orders through a

countenance white as a sheet,

Near by the corpse of the child that serv'd

The dead

face of an old salt

in the cabin,

with long white hair and carefully

curl'd whiskers,

The flames

spite of

all

that can

be done flickering

aloft

and

below,

The husky voices of the two

or three officers yet

fit

for duty,

Formless stacks of bodies and bodies by themselves, dabs of flesh

upon the masts and

spars,

Cut of cordage, dangle of rigging,

slight

shock of the soothe of

waves, Black and

impassive

litter

guns,

powder-parcels,

strong

scent,

A few

large stars overhead, silent

and mournful shining,

Delicate sniffs of sea-breeze, smells of sedgy grass

and

fields

the shore, death-messages given in charge to survivors,

The

hiss of the surgeon's knife, the

Wheeze,

cluck,

swash of

teeth of his saw,

gnawing

falling blood, short

wild scream, and

long, dull, tapering groan,

These

so, these irretrievable.

You

laggards there on guard

In at the conquer'd doors they

Embody

all

See myself

And

look to your arms

crowd

possessed

presences outlaw'd or suffering, in prison

shaped

another man,

feel the dull unintermitted pain. [86]

Sons For

of flD?0eIf

the keepers of convicts shoulder their carbines and keep

watch, out in the morning and barr'd at night.

let

It is

Not

a mutineer walks handcuff' d to

him and walk by (I

less the jolly

Not

but

handcuff d to

his side,

there,

twitching

a youngster tried

one

jail

and more the

silent

one with sweat

lips.)

taken for larceny but

go up

and

too,

and sentenced.

Not a cholera

patient lies at the last gasp but

also

lie

at the last

gasp,

face

ash-color'd,

sinews gnarl, away from

people

retreat.

Askers I

embody themselves

project

Enough

enough

Somehow Give

hat, sit

me and am embodied I

them,

shame-faced, and beg.

enough

have been stunn'd.

little

time beyond

Stand back

cufT'd head, slumbers, dreams,

gaping, I

discover myself on the verge of a usual mistake.

That

could forget the mockers and insults

could forget the trickling tears and the blows of the

bludgeons and hammers

* !

[87]

leaves of (Brass That

could look with a separate look on

my own

crucifixion

and bloody crowning! I

remember now,

resume the overstaid

The grave of rock

fraction,

multiplies

what has been confided

it,

or to

any graves, Corpses I

rise,

heal, fastenings roll

gashes

from me.

troop forth replenished with supreme power, one of an average

unending procession,

Inland and sea-coast

go, and pass

Our swift ordinances on

their

The blossoms we wear

way

all

boundary

lines,

over the whole earth,

our hats the growth of thousands of

years.

Eleves,

salute

you

come forward

Continue your annotations, continue your questionings.

The

friendly

who

and flowing savage,

he waiting for

he some Southwesterner

he from the Mississippi country

The mountains

civilization, or past

rais'd

? prairie-life,

and mastering

out-doors ?

he Kanadian

? is

Iowa, Oregon, California

from the sea

bush-life ? or sailor

Wherever he goes men and women accept and

They

desire him,

desire he should like them, touch them, speak to them,

stay with them. [88]

Song

Behavior lawless as snow-flakes, words simple as grass, un-

comb'd head, Slow-stepping

feet,

laughter,

common

and

naivete,

common modes and ema-

features,

nations,

They descend They

new forms from

the tips of his fingers,

are wafted with the odor of his

or breath, they fly

body

out of the glance of his eyes.

40 Flaunt of the sunshine

You

light surfaces only,

Earth

you seem

Say, old top-knot,

Man

need not your bask

woman,

And might And might

what do you want might it is

tell

that pining

tell

over

and depths

force surfaces

to look for something at

what

tell

lie

also.

hands,

how like you, but cannot, me and what it is in you, but cannot, I

have, that pulse of

nights and

days.

do not give

Behold,

When

give

You

lectures or a

give myself.

scarf d chops

Spread your palms and

not to be denied,

And any I

thing

do not ask

You

charity,

there, impotent, loose in the knees,

Open your

little

have

who you

till I

lift

blow

grit

within you,

the flaps of your pockets,

compel,

have stores plenty and to spare,

bestow.

are, that is

not important to me,

can do nothing and be nothing but what [89]

will infold you.

leaves of (Braea To

cotton-field

his right

And

On women (This day

To any one

drudge or cleaner of privies

cheek

soul

fit

put the family

swear

lean,

kiss,

never will deny him.

for conception

bigger and nimbler babes,

start

more arrogant

jetting the stuff of far

dying, thither

republics.)

speed and twist the knob of the door,

Turn the bed-clothes toward the foot of the bed, Let the physician and the priest go home. I

man and

seize the descending

despairer, here

dilate

him with

resistless will,

neck,

By God, you shall not go down 1

raise

you with tremendous

Every room of the house do

hang your whole weight upon me.

breath, fill

buoy you up,

with an arm'd

force,

Lovers of me, bafflers of graves. Sleep

and they keep guard

Not doubt, not disease I

all

night,

shall dare to lay finger

upon you,

have embraced you, and henceforth possess you to myself,

And when you is

rise in

the morning

you

will find

what

tell

you

so.

4i I

And I

he bringing help for the sick as they pant on their backs, for strong upright

heard what

Heard It is

was

bring yet

more needed

said of the universe,

and heard

middlmg well

men

of several thousand years;

as far as

goes [90]

but

that

all ?

help.

Sons of Magnifying and applying come

Outbidding

at the start

flD?0eIf

the old cautious hucksters,

Taking myself the exact dimensions of Jehovah, Lithographing Kronos, Zeus his son, and Hercules his grandson,

Buying drafts of In

Osiris, Isis, Belus,

portfolio placing

Brahma, Buddha,

Manito loose, Allah on a

the crucifix

leaf,

engraved,

With Odin and

and every

the hideous-faced Mexitli

and

idol

image,

Taking them

all

for

what they

are

worth and not a cent more,

Admitting they were alive and did the work of their days,

(They bore mites as

and

fly

for unfledg'd birds

who

now

to rise

and sing for themselves,)

Accepting the rough

deific

sketches to

fill

out better in myself,

bestowing them freely on each man and Discovering as

have

much

Putting higher claims for

in a

woman

see,

framer framing a house,

him there with

his roll'd-up sleeves

driving the mallet and chisel,

Not objecting to

special revelations, considering a curl of

or a hair on the back of

hand

smoke

just as curious as

any

revelation ;

Lads ahold of fire-engines and hook-and-ladder ropes no

me Minding Their

less to

than the gods of the antique wars,

their voices peal

through the crash of destruction,

brawny limbs passing safe over foreheads whole and unhurt out

charr'd laths, their white

of the flames

;

the mechanic's wife with her babe at her nipple interceding for every person born, [91]

leaves of (Brass Three scythes

at harvest

row from

whizzing

three lusty

angels with shirts bagg'd out at their waists,

The snag-tooth'd

redeeming sins past and

hostler with red hair

to come, all

Selling

he possesses, traveling on foot to fee lawyers for

brother and

sit

What was strewn

in the

me, and not

The

bull

by him while he

dirt

;

amplest strewing the square rod about

filling

the square rod then,

and the bug never worshipp'd

Dung and

tried for forgery

his

half enough,

more admirable than was dream'd,

The supernatural of no account, myself waiting

time to be

one of the supremes,

The day

getting ready for

me when

the best, and be as prodigious

life-lumps

shall

now

much good

;

becoming already

Putting myself here and

a creator,

to the

ambush'd

womb

of the

shadows. 42

call in

My own

the midst of the crowd, voice,

Come my Come my

Now

orotund sweeping and

final.

children,

boys and

girls,

my women,

household and intimates,

the performer launches his nerve, he has pass'd his prelude

on the reeds within. Easily written loose-finger'd chords

climax and close. [92]

feel

the thrum of your

Song My

head slues round on

Music

rolls,

ID\>eeIf

neck,

but not from the organ,

Folks are around me, but they are no household of mine.

Ever the hard unsunk ground,

Ever the eaters and drinkers, ever the upward and sun, ever the air

Ever myself and

and the ceaseless

downward

tides,

neighbors, refreshing, wicked,

real,

Ever the old inexplicable query, ever that thorn'd thumb, that breath of itches and thirsts,

Ever the vexer's hoot!^ hoot! hides and bring

him

till

find

where the

sly

one

forth,

Ever love, ever the sobbing liquid of

life,

Ever the bandage under the chin, ever the

trestles of death.

Here and there with dimes on the eyes walking,

feed the greed of the belly the brains liberally spooning,

Tickets buying, taking, selling, but in to the feast never once going,

Many

sweating, ploughing, thrashing, and then the chaff for pay-

ment

receiving,

A few

idly

This

the city and

Whatever

owning, and they the wheat continually claiming.

one of the

citizens,

interests the rest interests

me,

politics,

wars, markets,

newspapers, schools,

The mayor and

councils,

banks,

stocks, stores, real estate

tariffs,

steamships, factories,

and personal

[93]

estate.

leaves of (Brass The

little

plentiful

manikins skipping around

and

in collars

tail'd

coats, I

am aware who

they

(they are positively not

are,

worms

fleas,) I

acknowledge the duplicates of myself, the weakest and lowest

What

shal-

deathless with me,

do and say the same waits

Every thought that flounders

for them,

the

same flounders

them.

know

perfectly well

Know my

my own

omnivorous

And would

fetch

lines

egotism,

and must not write any

you whoever you

Not words of routine

* less,

are flush with myself.

song of mine,

this

But abruptly to question, to leap beyond yet nearer bring This printed and bound book office

;

but the printer and the printing-

boy ?

The well-taken photographs solid in

The black ship

your arms

but your wife or friend close and

mail'd with iron, her

mighty guns

but the pluck of the captain and engineers In the houses the dishes

and

fare

in her turrets ?

and furniture

and hostess, and the look out of

but the host

their eyes ?

The sky up there yet here or next door, or across the way The saints and sages in history but you yourself? Sermons, creeds, theology

And what

reason

but the fathomless

and what

[94]

love

human

and what

brain,

is life ?

Sena

43 I

do not despise you

world over,

priests, all time, the

faith is the greatest of faiths

and the

least of faiths,

Enclosing worship ancient and modern and

all

between ancient

and modern, shall

Believing

come again upon

the earth after five thousand

years,

Waiting responses from

oracles,

honoring the gods, saluting the

sun,

Making

powowing with

a fetich of the first rock or stump,

sticks

in the circle of obis,

Helping the llama or brahmin as he trims the lamps of the idols,

Dancing yet through the austere in the

streets in a phallic procession, rapt

woods

and

a gymnosophist,

Drinking mead from the skull-cup, to Shastas and Vedas admirant, minding the Koran,

Walking the

teokallis,

spotted with gore from the stone and

knife, beating the serpent-skin

drum,

Accepting the Gospels, accepting him that ing assuredly that he

was

crucified,

know-

divine,

the mass kneeling or the puritan's prayer rising, or sitting patiently in a

pew,

Ranting and frothing till

Looking

spirit

forth

and

insane

crisis,

or waiting dead-like

arouses me,

on pavement and

land, or outside of

land,

Belonging to the winders of the circuit of [951

circuits.

pavement

leaves of <5ras$ One

of that centripetal and centrifugal

man

gang

turn and talk like a

leaving charges before a journey.

Down-hearted doubters Frivolous,

and excluded,

dull

moping,

sullen,

affected,

angry,

dishearten'd,

atheistical, I

know

every one of you,

know

the sea of torment, doubt,

despair and unbelief.

How How

the flukes splash

they contort rapid as lightning, with spasms and spouts of

blood

Be I

peace bloody flukes of doubters and sullen mopers,

take

The

place

past

among you

much

the push of you, me,

And what

all,

among

any,

precisely the same,

yet untried and afterward

for you,

me,

all,

precisely the same.

do not

But

Each

know what

know

who

will in

passes

its

cannot

fail

the

turn prove sufficient, and cannot

consider'd, each

a single one can It

untried and afterward,

who

stops

fail.

consider' d, not

it fail.

young man who died and was buried,

young woman who died and was put by his side, Nor the little child that peep'd in at the door, and then drew

Nor

the

back and was never seen again,

Nor the

old

man who

has lived without purpose, and feels

with bitterness worse than [96]

gall,

Song of Nor him

in the

poor house tubercled by rum and the bad dis-

order,

Nor the numberless koboo

Nor the

call'd

slaughter'd and wreck'd, nor the brutish

the ordure of humanity,

open mouths

sacs merely floating with

Nor any thing

in the earth, or

down

for food to slip in,

in the oldest

graves of the

earth,

Nor any thing

in the

myriads of spheres, nor the myriads of

myriads that inhabit them,

Nor the

present, nor the least

wisp that

known.

44 It is

time to explain myself

What I

known

launch- all

The clock

strip

away,

indicates the

far

trillions

moment

exhausted

but what does eternity indicate?

trillions

of winters and summers,

ahead, and trillioqs ahead of them.

Births have brought us richness

And

us stand up.

men and women forward with me into the Unknown.

We have thus There are

let

and

variety,

other births will bring us richness and variety.

do not

call

That which

one greater and one smaller, fills its

period and place

Were mankind murderous

or jealous

equal to any.

upon you,

brother,

sister ? I

sorry for you, they are not murderous or jealous [97]

upon me,

Xeaves of (Brass been gentle with me,

All has

(What have I

keep no account with lamentation,

do with lamentation

an acme of things accomplished, and

an encloser of things

to be.

My feet strike an apex of the apices of the stairs, On every step bunches of ages, and larger bunches

between the

steps,

All

below duly

down

and

still

bow the phantoms

Rise after rise Afar

travel'd,

see the

huge

first

mount and mount.

behind me,

Nothing,

know was even there, I

waited unseen and always, and slept through the lethargic mist,

And took my Long

time,

was hugg'd

Immense have been Faithful

and took no hurt from the

fetid carbon.

long and long.

the preparations for me,

and friendly the arms that have help'd me.

Cycles ferried

cradle,

rowing and rowing

like cheerful boat-

men, For room to

They

stars

kept aside in their

sent influences to look after

Before

was born out

embryo has never been

For

rings,

to hold

me.

mother generations guided me,

torpid, nothing could overlay

the nebula cohered to an orb,

The long slow

own

what was

strata piled to rest [98]

on,

it.

Song Vast vegetables gave

sustenance,

Monstrous sauroids transported it

with

All forces

in their

mouths and deposited

care.

have been steadily employ'd to complete and delight

me,

Now

this spot

stand with

robust soul.

O O

span of youth! ever-push'd

manhood, balanced,

florid

elasticity!

and

full.

lovers suffocate me,

Crowding

Jostling

lips,

thick in the pores of

through streets and public

halls,

skin,

coming naked

at night,

Crying by day Ahoy ! from the rocks of the chirping over Calling

my name

swinging and

head,

from flower-beds, vines, tangled underbrush,

moment

Lighting on every

Bussing

river,

my body

my life,

with soft balsamic busses,

Noiselessly passing handfuls out of their hearts and giving

them

to be mine.

Old age superbly

rising!

O welcome,

ineffable grace of

dying

days!

Every condition promulges not only

grows

And

after

and out of

itself,

the dark hush promulges as

much

[99]

as any.

promulges what

leaves of (Brass I

open

And

all

scuttle at night

and see the far-sprinkled systems,

see multiplied as high as

can cipher edge but the rim

of the farther systems.

Wider and wider they

spread, expanding, always expanding,

Outward and outward and

sun has

And

sun and round him obediently wheels,

his

He joins with

forever outward.

his partners a

greater sets follow,

group of superior

circuit,

specks of the greatest inside

making

them.

There If

no stoppage and never can be stoppage,

you, and the worlds, and

were

this

all

beneath or upon their surfaces,

moment reduced back

to a pallid float,

would

not avail in the long run,

We should

surely bring

And

surely

few

much

up again where farther,

quadrillions of eras, a

not hazard the span or

They

are but parts,

See ever so

far,

any thing

there

rendezvous

The Lord The

will

farther

stand,

and

farther.

octillions of cubic leagues,

make

impatient,

but a part.

limitless space outside of that,

Count ever so much, there

and then

few

we now

is limitless

appointed,

it is

be there and wait

time around

that.

certain,

till

come on

great Camerado, the lover true for there. [100]

perfect terms,

whom

pine will be

Song

know have I

the best of time and space, and

was never meas-

ured and never will be measured.

tramp a perpetual journey, (come

signs are a rain-proof coat,

listen all

good

shoes,

and a

staff cut

from

the woods,

friend of

mine takes

chair,

no church, no philosophy,

have no

lead no man to a dinner-table,

But each

his ease in

chair,

man and

each

woman

exchange,

library,

you

lead

a knoll,

upon

My left hand hooking you round the waist, My right hand pointing to landscapes of continents

and the public

road.

Not

not any one else can travel that road for you,

You must It is

not

travel

far, it is

for yourself.

within reach,

Perhaps you have been on

you were born and did not

since

know, Perhaps

it is

everywhere on water and on land.

Shoulder your duds dear son, and

will mine,

and

let

us hasten

forth,

Wonderful If

you

tire,

cities

give

and

free nations

me both

shall fetch as

go.

burdens, and rest the chuff of your hand

hip,

[101]

leaves of <5ras0 And

due time you

For after

start

This day before

dawn

shall

repay the same service to me,

never

lie

ascended a

again.

and look'd

hill

at the

crowded

heaven,

And

said to

orbs,

and

spirit

When we

the pleasure

them, shall we be fill'd

And my

spirit said

No, we but

become the enfolders of those

and knowledge of and satisfied then ? level that lift to

every thing in

pass and continue

beyond. y

You I

are also asking

answer that

Sit

questions and

hear you,

cannot answer, you must find out for yourself.

a while dear son,

Here are biscuits to eat and here

milk to drink,

But as soon as you sleep and renew yourself

you with a good-by

kiss

sweet

and open the gate

clothes, for

your

egress hence.

Long enough have you dream'd contemptible dreams, Now wash the gum from your eyes, I

You must

habit yourself to the dazzle of the light

moment

of your

life

Long have you timidly waded holding

Now

will

To jump

you

to be a bold

off in the

and of every

a plank

by the

shore,

nod

me, shout,

swimmer,

midst of the

sea, rise again,

and laughingly dash with your [102]

hair.

Song

47 I

the teacher of athletes,

that

spreads a wider breast than

my own

proves the

width of

He most

my own, honors my style who

learns under

to destroy the

teacher.

The boy

love, the

power, but

same becomes

in his

own

man

not through derived

right,

Wicked

rather than virtuous out of conformity or fear,

Fond of

his sweetheart, relishing well his steak,

Unrequited love or a slight cutting him worse than sharp

steel

cuts,

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, Preferring scars and the beard and faces pitted with small-pox

over

And

all

latherers,

those well-tann'd to those that keep out of the sun.

who

me ?

teach straying from me, yet

follow you whoever you are from the present hour,

My words I

itch at

your ears

till

do not say these things for

can stray from

you understand them.

a dollar or to

fill

up the time while

wait for a boat, (It is

you talking

Tied

just as

much

as myself,

act as the tongue of

you,

your mouth,

mine

begins to be loosen'd.)

[103]

Xeaves of (Brass I

swear

And

swear

who If

will never translate myself at

nearest gnat

waves

The maul,

privately stays with

you would understand

The

mention love or death inside a house,

will never again

me go

in the

open

air.

to the heights or water-shore,

an explanation, and a drop or motion of

a key,

the oar, the hand-saw, second

shutter'd

only to him or her

all,

room

But roughs and

or school can

little

words.

commune with me,

children better than they.

The young mechanic is closest to me, he knows me well, The woodman that takes his axe and jug with him shall take me with him

all

day,

The farm-boy ploughing

men and

soldier

words

sail,

that

sound of

go with fishermen and

camp'd or upon the march

sea-

mine,

many

do not

those that

know

seek me, and

them,

solemn night

at the

love them.

the night ere the pending battle fail

good

voice,

In vessels that sail

The

in the field feels

(it

may be

their last)

seek me.

face rubs to the hunter's face

when he

lies

down

alone in his

blanket,

driver thinking of

The young mother and

old

The

does not mind the

jolt

of his

mother comprehend me, [104]

wagon,

Song The

girl

and the wife

moment and forget where

rest the needle a

are,

they

They and

all

would resume what

have told them.

48 I

have said that the soul

And have I

And

said that the

nothing, not God,

And whoever walks

not more than the body,

body is

not more than the soul,

greater to one than one's self

a furlong

is,

without sympathy walks to his

own

funeral drest in his shroud,

And

you pocketless of a dime may purchase the pick of the

earth,

And

to glance with an eye or

the learning of

And

vAnd

all

show

a bean in

its

pod confounds

times,

there

no trade or employment but the young man follow-

ing

may become

a hero,

there

no object so

soft but

makes

hub

for the wheel'd

universe,

And

say to any

man

composed before

And For

woman,

Let your soul stand cool and

a million universes.

say to mankind, Be not curious about God,

who am

curious about each

(No array of terms can say

not curious about God,

how much

peace about

God

and about death.) I

hear and behold

God

every object, yet understand

God

not

in the least,

Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself. [105]

leaves of (Brass

Why I

should

wish to see God better than

God

see something of

moment In the faces of

this

day

each hour of the twenty-four, and each

then,

men and women

see God, and in

my own

face in

the glass, I

find letters

from God dropt

in the street,

and every one

sign'd

by God's name,

And

leave

them where they are,

for

know that wheresoe'er

go,

Others will punctually come for ever and ever.

And

you Death, and you

as to

bitter

hug of

mortality,

it is

idle to

try to alarm me.

his

work without flinching

the accoucheur comes,

see the elder-hand pressing receiving supporting,

recline

by the

sills

of the exquisite flexible doors,

And mark

the outlet, and

And

you Corpse

as to

mark the

relief

and escape.

think you are good manure, but that does

not offend me, I

smell the white roses sweet-scented and growing,

reach to the leafy

And

as to

you

(No doubt I

Life

lips,

reach to the polish'd breasts of melons.

reckon you are the leavings of

hear you whispering there

O If

suns

many

deaths,

have died myself ten thousand times before.)

grass

of graves

stars of heaven,

you do not say any thing how can [106]

[motions

perpetual transfers and proI

say any thing

Sons Of the

turbid pool that

Of the moon

lies in

the

autumn

that descends the steeps of the soughing twilight,

Toss, sparkles of day and dusk

decay

forest,

in the

toss

on the black stems that

muck,

Toss to the moaning gibberish of the dry limbs. I

ascend from the moon,

ascend from the night,

perceive that the ghastly glimmer

noonday sunbeams

re-

flected,

And debouch

to the steady

and

central

from the offspring great

or small.

There

that in

Wrench'd and sweaty 1

sleep

do not know

It is

calm and cool then

body becomes,

it is

without name

it is

word unsaid

not in any dictionary, utterance, symbol.

swings on more than the earth

the creation

Perhaps

and

Do you It is

know

sleep long.

Something

but

it is

me.

is in

do not know what

might

more.

on,

Outlines

brothers and sisters

plead for

brothers

sisters.

see

O my

not chaos or death life

swing

whose embracing awakes me.

the friend

tell

form, union, plan

Happiness. [107]

eternal

leaves of (Brass

The

past and present wilt

And

proceed to

fill

Listener

up there

Look

have

next fold of the future.

what have you

face while

them, emptied them,

fill'd

to confide to

me ?

snuff the sidle of evening,

(Talk honestly, no one else hears you, and

stay only a minute

longer.)

contradict myself ?

Very well then (I

large,

contradict myself,

contain multitudes.)

them

concentrate toward

Who Who

work

has done his day's

with

his

supper

that are nigh,

wait on the door-slab.

will soonest

be through

me ?

wishes to walk with

Will you speak before

who

am gone ?

will

you prove already too

late ?

The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains of

my am

too

sound

The

gab and

loitering.

not a bit tamed,

barbaric

yawp

too

untranslatable,

over the roofs of the world.

scud of day holds back for me,

last

my likeness

flings

coaxes

after the rest

to the vapor

and true

and the dusk. [108]

[wilds as

any on the shadow'd

Song depart as

air,

shake

effuse

bequeath myself to the

and

flesh in eddies,

But

And

will hardly shall

filter

stop

for

know who

at the

grow from

runaway

and

fibre

me one

the grass

what

mean,

keep encouraged,

place search another,

somewhere waiting

for you.

[109]

love,

under your boot-soles.

your blood. at first

sun,

in lacy jags.

be good health to you nevertheless,

Failing to fetch

Missing

drift

dirt to

you want me again look

You

white locks

Hbam

Cbilbrenof Uo To

tbe (3arfcen tbe

the garden the world

anew

World.

ascending,

Potent mates, daughters, sons, preluding,

The

love, the

life

of their bodies,

Curious here behold

The revolving

meaning and being,

resurrection after slumber,

wide sweep having brought me

cycles in their

again,

Amorous, mature,

beautiful to

and the quivering

My limbs

reasons,

Existing

all

fire

me,

all

wondrous,

that ever plays through them, for

most wondrous,

peer and penetrate

still,

Content with the present, content with the

By Or

side or back of

in front,

and

me Eve

following,

following her just the same.

Jfrom pent-up Hcbina

FROM pent-up aching rivers, From that of myself without which

From what sole

past,

determin'd to

make

among men, [no]

1Rit>ers.

were nothing, illustrious,

even

stand

H&am

Cbilbren of From

my own

voice resonant, singing the phallus,

Singing the song of procreation, Singing the need of superb children and therein superb

grown

people,

Singing the muscular urge and the blending, Singing the bedfellow's song, (O resistless yearning

O for any and each the body correlative attracting O for you whoever you* are your correlative body O !

than

all else,

From

the hungry

From

native

you delighting

gnaw

that eats

moments, from bashful

many

night and day, pains, singing them,

fitful at

Renascent with grossest Nature or that, of them and

the smell of

the

random,

among

animals,

what goes with them my poems informing, apples and lemons, of the pairing of birds,

have diligently sought

a long year,

Singing the true song of the soul

Of the wet

Seeking something yet unfound though it

it,

of woods, of the lapping of waves,

mad pushes

waves upon the

land,

them chanting,

The overture lightly sounding, the strain anticipating, The welcome nearness, the sight of the perfect body, The swimmer swimming naked his

back lying and

in the bath,

or motionless on

floating,

The female form approaching,

pensive, love-flesh tremulous

aching,

The

divine

The

face,

list

for myself or

you or

for

any one making,

the limbs, the index from head to foot, and

arouses,

[in]

what

Heaves of (Brass The mystic

the madness

deliria,

amorous, the utter abandon-

ment,

(Hark close and I

love you,

that

what

still

you

you and

now

whisper to you, me,

entirely possess

escape from the rest and go utterly

off, free

and

lawless,

Two hawks

two

in the air,

lawless than

fishes

;)

The furious storm through me careering, The oath of the inseparableness of two

me and whom

that loves

in the sea not

swimming

love

passionately trembling,

together, of the

more than

woman

life,

that

oath swearing,

O O

willingly stake

let

you and

What

is all

lost

if it

what

you,

must be so! is it

to us

what the

else to us ? only that

each other

From

for

all

must be

the master, the pilot

rest

do or think

we enjoy each

other and exhaust

soj)

yield the vessel to,

The general commanding me, commanding

all,

from him per-

mission taking,

From time

the

programme

hastening,

have

loiter'd

too long as

it is,)

From

sex,

From

privacy, from frequent repinings alone,

from the warp and from the woof,

From

plenty of persons near and yet the right person not near,

From

the soft sliding of hands over

through

From

hair

me and

thrusting of fingers

and beard,

the long sustain'd kiss

upon the mouth [112]

or bosom,

Hbam

Cbitoren of From the

close pressure that

makes me or any man drunk,

ing with excess,

From what From

faint-

[ hood>

work

the divine husband knows, from the

and

exultation, victory

relief,

of father-

from the bedfellow's embrace

in the night,

From

the act-poems of eyes, hands, hips and bosoms,

From

the cling of the trembling arm,

From

the bending curve and the clinch,

From

side

by side the

pliant coverlet off-throwing,

From the one so unwilling

to have

leave,

and

just as

unwilling to leave,

moment O

(Yet a

From

tender waiter, and

return,)

the hour of shining stars and dropping dews,

From the night

moment emerging

flitting out,

Celebrate you act divine and you children prepared

And you

for,

stalwart loins.

tbe J30&2 Electric i

SING the

body

electric,

The armies of those

They

And

will not let

love engirth

off

till I

me and

engirth them,

go with them, respond

discorrupt them, and charge

them

full

to them,

with the charge of the

soul.

Was

doubted that those themselves

who

corrupt their

own

bodies conceal

Xeavee of (Brass And

those

who

the dead if

the

body does not do

And

the

body were not the

much

fully as

The love of the body of man

soul,

what

woman

as the soul ?

the soul

balks account, the

body

baUfs account,

That of the male

perfect,

The expression of the

and that of the female

and

in his limbs

perfect.

face balks account,

But the expression of a well-made It is

defile

And

itself

who

bad as they

defile the living are as

joints also,

it is

man

rface

appears not only in his

curiously in the joints of his

hips and wrists, It

is in

his walk, the carriage of his neck, the flex of his waist

and knees, dress does not hide him,

The strong sweet

quality he has strikes through the cotton

and

broadcloth,

see

him pass conveys as much

as the best

poem, perhaps

[der-side.

You

linger to see his back,

The sprawl and men, the street,

and the back of

fulness of babes, the

neck and shoul-

bosoms and heads

folds of their dress, their style as

the contour of their shape

The swimmer naked

swims through his face

his

up and

the water,

the

pass in the

downwards,

swimming-bath,

seen

the transparent green-shine, or rolls silently

wo-

lies

with

to and fro in the heave of

Cbil&ren of The bending forward and backward horseman

The group

of rowers in row-boats, the

in his saddle,

mothers, house-keepers, in

Girls,

Hbam

all

their performances,

of laborers seated at noon-time with their open dinner-

kettles,

and

their

The female soothing

wives waiting,

a child, the farmer's daughter in the garden

or cow-yard,

The young fellow hoeing

corn, the sleigh-driver driving his six

horses through the crowd,

The wrestle lusty,

apprentice-boys, quite grown,

good-natured, native-born, out on the vacant

sundown The

two

of wrestlers,

after

coats and caps

lot at

work,

thrown down, the embrace of love and

resistance,

The upper-hold and under-hold, the ing the eyes

The march line

hair

rumpled over and blind-

;

of firemen in their

own costumes,

the play of mascu-

muscle through clean-setting trowsers and waist-

straps,

The slow

return

from the

fire,

the pause

when

suddenly again, and the listening on the

The

natural, perfect, varied attitudes, the

the bell strikes

alert,

bent head, the curv'd

neck and the counting; Such-like

love

loosen myself, pass freely,

breast with the

Swim

little

at the

mother's

child,

with the swimmers, wrestle with wrestlers, march

with the firemqn, and pause,

C5]

listen, count.

in line

leaves of (Brass 3 I

knew

And

a man, a

common

them the

farmer, the father of five sons,

fathers of sons,

and

them the

fathers Of

sons.

This

man was

The shape

of wonderful vigor, calmness, beauty of person,

of his head, the pale yellow and white of his hair and

beard, the immeasurable richness

These

He was

and breadth of

used to go and six feet

tall,

visit

meaning of

his

him

manners,

to see, he

was over

his black eyes, the

was wise

also,

eighty years old, his sons were

massive, clean, bearded, tan-faced, handsome,

They and

daughters loved him,

his

all

who saw him

loved

him,

They

did not love

him by allowance, they loved him with

per-

sonal love,

He drank water

only, the blood

show'd

like scarlet

through the

clear-brown skin of his face,

He was

a frequent

he had a

gunner and

fisher,

sail'd his

boat himself,

one presented to him by a ship-joiner, he

fine

had fowling-pieces presented to him by men that loved him,

When

he went with or

fish,

his five

sons and

you would pick him out

many grand-sons as the

to hunt

most beautiful and

vigorous of the gang,

You would wish long and to

sit

by him

in the

long to be with him, you would wish boat that you and he might touch each

other.

[n6]

Cbil&ren of

Hbam

have perceiv'd that to be with those

stop in

company with

To be surrounded by is

then

enough,

round

or touch any one, or rest

neck

his or her

for a

my arm

ever so

moment, what

this

do not ask any more is

enough,

lightly

There

the rest at evening

enough,

beautiful, curious, breathing, laughing flesh

To pass among them

like is

something

delight,

swim

in staying close to

as in a sea.

men and women and

look-

ing on them, and in the contact and odor of them, that pleases the soul well, All things please the soul, but these please the soul well.

9 Thisjs the female form,

divine

attracts

nimbus exhales from with

am drawn by vapor,

Books,

fierce its

art, religion,

from head to

were no more than

aside but myself and

time, the visible

and

expected of heaven or fear'd of

Mad

foot,

undeniable attraction,

breath as

all falls

a helpless

it,

solid earth, hell,

are

filaments, ungovernable shoots play out of

and what was

now consumed, it,

the response

likewise ungovernable, Hair,

bosom, fused,

hips,

bend of

mine too

legs, negligent falling

hands

all

dif-

diffused,

Ebb stung by the flow and flow stung by the ebb, swelling and deliciously aching,

love-flesh

of (Brass Limitless limpid jets of love hot and enormous, quivering jelly of love,

white-blow and

delirious juice,

Bridegroom night of love working surely and prostrate

softly into the

dawn,

Undulating into the willing

and yielding day,

Lost in the cleave of the clasping and sweet-flesh'd day.

This the nucleus of

after the child is

born of woman,

man

born

woman,

This the bath of birth, this the merge of small and large, and the outlet again.

Be not ashamed women, your

privilege encloses the rest,

and

the exit of the rest4

You

are the gates of the body, and

The female She

She

is all

She

contains

in her place

all

qualities

you

are the gates of the soul.

and tempers them,

and moves with perfect balance,

things duly veil'd, she

both passive and active,

to conceive daughters as well as sons,

and sons as well as

daughters.

see

see through a mist,

soul reflected in Nature,

One with

inexpressible completeness,

sanity, beauty,

Seethe bent head and arms folded over the breast, the Female

The male

too

not less the soul nor more, he too

is all qualities,

action [1*18]

and power,

is in

see.

his place,

Hbam

Cbilbren of The

flush of the

known

universe

him,

Scorn becomes him well, and appetite and defiance become him well,

The wildest

largest passions, bliss that

utmost become him well, pride

The

full-spread pride of

man

is is

utmost, sorrow that

for him,

calming and excellent to the

soul,

Knowledge becomes him, he

likes

always, he brings every

thing to the test of himself,

Whatever the survey, whatever the sea and the soundings

(Where

else

matter

who

laborers' Is

is it

sacred and the is,

gang

sacred

Each has

is it

sacred,

the meanest one in the

immigrants just

landed on

the

Each belongs here or anywhere as

woman's body

one of the dull-faced

wharf

he strikes

only here,

does he strike soundings except here

The man's body

at last

sail

much

just as

much

as the well-off, just

as you,

his or her place in the procession.

(All is a procession,

The universe

Do you know

a procession with measured and perfect motion.)

much

yourself that

you

call

the meanest ignor-

ant?

Do you suppose you have

a right to a

has no right to a sight

good

sight,

and he or she

Xeaves of <5ra$$ Do you

think matter has cohered together from

and the

soil is

its

diffuse float,

on the surface, and water runs and vegeta-

tion sprouts,

For you only, and not for him and her

man's body

at auction,

(For before the

war

often

to the slave-mart

and watch the

sale,) I

help the auctioneer, the sloven does not half

Gentlemen look on

know

his business.

wonder,

this

Whatever the bids of the bidders they cannot be high enough for

For

it,

the globe lay preparing quintillions of years without one

animal or plant,

For

the revolving cycles truly and steadily

In this

head the

and below

Examine these

roll'd.

all-baffling brain, it

the

makings of heroes.

limbs, red, black, or white, they are cunning in

tendon and nerve,

They

shall

stript that

Exquisite senses,

life-lit

you may

see them.

eyes, pluck, volition,

Flakes of breast-muscle, pliant backbone and neck, flesh not flabby, good-sized

And wonders

arms and

within there yet. [120]

legs,

Cbil&ren of Hfcam Within there runs blood,

The same

old blood! the

There swells and jets a

same red-running blood!

heart, there

all

passions, desires, Teachings,

aspirations,

(Do you think they are not there because they are not express'd

and lecture-rooms

in parlors

This

not only one man, this the father of those

who

shall

fathers in their turns, In

him the

Of him

start of

populous states and rich republics,

countless immortal lives with countless

embodiments

and enjoyments.

How

do you know

who

shall

come from

spring through the centuries

(Who might you trace

find

the offspring of his off-

you have come from

back through the centuries

yourself,

you could

A woman's body She too

at auction,

not only herself,

she

the teeming

mother of

mothers,

She

the bearer of

them

that shall

grow and be mates

to the

mothers.

Have you ever loved the body of a woman Have you ever loved the body of a man ?

Do you

not see that these are exactly the same to

and times

all

over the earth

[121]

all in all

nations

Xeaves of (Brass If

any thing

And

human body is and sweet of a man is

sacred the

the glory

sacred,

manhood

the token of

untainted,

And

man

woman

a clean, strong, firm-fibred body,

most beautiful

beautiful than the

Have you seen the

own

live

face.

fool that corrupted his

fool that corrupted her

own

body

live

body

or the

For they do not conceal themselves, and cannot conceal themselves.

body

dare not desert the likes of you in other the likes of the parts of you,

women, nor 1

believe the likes of

you

soul, (and that I

believe the likes of that they are

are to stand or

with the

fall

likes of the

they are the soul,)

you

shall stand or

fall

with

poems, and

poems,

Man's, woman's, child's, youth's, wife's, husband's, father's,

Head, neck,

mother's,

young man's, young woman's poems,

hair, ears,

Eyes, eye-fringes,

iris

sleeping of the

Mouth, tongue,

men and

drop and tympan of the

ears,

of the eye, eyebrows, and the

waking or

lids,

lips, teeth,

roof of the mouth, jaws, and the jaw-

hinges,

Nose,

nostrils of the nose,

Cheeks,

and the

partition,

temples, forehead, chin, throat,

[slue,

back of the neck, neck-

Strong shoulders, manly beard, scapula, hind-shoulders, and the

ample side-round of the

chest,

[122]

Cbil&ren of

H&am

Upper-arm, armpit, elbow-socket, lower-arm, arm-sinews, armbones,

Wrist and wrist-joints, handL. palm, knuckles, thumb, forefinger, finger-joints, finger-nails,

Broad breast-front, curling hair of the breast, breast-bone, breastside,

Ribs, belly, backbone, joints of the backbone,

Hips, hip-sockets, hip-strength, inward and b|jls,

outward round, man-

man-root,

Strong set of thighs, well carrying the trunk above, Leg-fibres, knee, knee-pan, upper-leg, under-leg,

Ankles, instep, foot-ball, toes, toe-joints, the heel All attitudes, all the shapeliness, all the

body

or of

;

belongings of

or your

any one's body, male or female,

The lung-sponges, the stomach-sac, the bowels sweet and

The

brain in

its

clean,

folds inside the skull-frame,

Sympathies, heart-valves, palate-valves, sexuality, maternity,

Womanhood and

man

that

comes

teats, nipples, breast-milk, tears, laughter,

weep-

all

that

woman, and

the

from woman,

The womb, the

ing, love-looks, love- perturbations

The

and

risings,

voice, articulation, language, whispering, shouting aloud,

Food, drink, pulse, digestion, sweat, sleep, walking, swimming, Poise on the hips, leaping, reclining, embracing, arm-curving and tightening,

The

continual changes of the flex of the mouth, and around the eyes,

The

skin, the

sunburnt shade, freckles,

hair,

leaves of (Brass The curious sympathy one

feels

when

feeling with the

hand the

naked meat of the body,

The

The beauty

thin red jellies within

marrow The

and thence of the

of the waist,

downward toward The

and breathing

circling rivers the breath,

and

hips,

out,

and thence

the knees,

you or within me, the bones and the

in the bones,

exquisite realization of health

;

say these are not the parts and

poems

of the

body^only,

but

of the soul,

say

now

these are the soul

H Woman A WOMAN Yet

all

Malts

waits for me, she contains

were lacking right

man were

Sex contains

all,

for

all,

nothing

sex were lacking, or

lacking,

the moisture of the

lacking.

bodies, souls,

Meanings, proofs,

purities, delicacies, results,

Songs, commands, health,

pricle,

promulgations,

the maternal mystery, the semi-

nal milk, All hopes, benefactions, bestowals,

all

the passions, loves, beauties,

delights of the earth, All the

governments, judges, gods, follow'd persons of the earth,

These are contain'd

in sex as parts of itself

itself.

[124]

and

justifications of

H&am

Cbilbren of Without shame the man

knows and avows

the deliciousness

of his sex,

Without shame the

woman

Now

myself from impassive women,

will

will dismiss

go stay with her

who

see that they understand

see that they are

of those

hers.

waits for me, and with those

warm-blooded and

that are

knows and avows

sufficient for

me and do

worthy of me,

women

me,

not deny me,

will

be the robust husband

women.

one jot

than

They

are not

They

are tann'd in the face

less

am.

by shining suns and blowing winds,

Their flesh has the old divine suppleness and strength,

They know how

swim, row,

advance,

retreat,

resist,

are ultimate in their

They

ride, wrestle, shoot, run, strike,

defend themselves,

own

right

they are calm,

clear,

well-

possess'd of themselves.

draw you

close to me,

cannot

you go,

let

for you,

you women,

would do you good,

and you are for me, not only for our

own

for others' sakes,

Envelop'd

you sleep greater heroes and bards,

refuse to

They

It is

awake

you women,

at the

touch of any

man

but me.

make my way,

do not hurt you any more than

stern, acrid, large, undissuadable, but is

love you,

necessary for you,

sake, but

Xeaves of <5ra$0 the stuff to start sons and daughters

for these States,

fit

press with slow rude muscle, I

brace myself effectually,

dare not

withdraw

till I

listen to

entreaties,

what has so long accumulated

deposit

within me.

Through you In

you

On you

The babes

shall

distil

upon you

artists, I

shall

grow

fierce

me and and

athletic girls,

beget upon you are to beget babes in their turn,

demand

perfect

men and women

out of

my love-spendings,

expect them to interpenetrate with others, as

and you

now,

count on the

fruits of the

count on the

fruits of

gushing showers of them, as

the gushing showers

shall look for loving crops from the birth, I

America,

musicians, and singers,

interpenetrate I

years,

graft the grafts of the best-beloved of

new

shall

drain the pent-up rivers of myself,

wrap a thousand onward

The drops

plant so lovingly

life,

give now,

death, immortality,

now.

Spontaneous

/IDe,

SPONTANEOUS me, Nature,

The loving day, the mounting sun, the friend I am happy The arm of my friend hanging idly over my shoulder,

The

hillside

The same and

with,

whiten'd with blossoms of the mountain ash,

late in

light

autumn, the hues of

and dark green, [126]

red, yellow, drab, purple,

Cbilfcren of Hfcam

The

and

rich coverlet of the grass, animals

birds, the private

untrimm'd bank, the primitive apples, the pebble-stones, Beautiful dripping fragments, the negligent

other as

The

real

happen to

call

them

call

poems being merely

poems, (what

The poems This

or think of them,

men

of the privacy of the night, and of

poem drooping shy and unseen that all men carry,

(Know once

for

of one after an-

list

all,

that

pictures,) like

always

avow'd on purpose, wherever

me,

carry,

and

men

are

me, are our lusty lurking masculine poems,) Love-thoughts, love-juice, love-odor, love-yielding, love-climbers,

and the climbing sap,

Arms and hands of love,

lips

of love, phallic

thumb

of love, breasts

of love, bellies press'd and glued together with love,

Earth of chaste love,

The body

life

that

love, the

body

only

life

of the

after love,

woman

love, the

body

of the man, the body of the earth, Soft forenoon airs that

The

blow from the south-west,

hairy wild-bee that

murmurs and hankers up and down,

that gripes the full-grown lady-flower, curves

with amorous firm

legs, takes his will of her,

himself tremulous and tight

The wet

Two

woods through

till

satisfied

upon her and holds r

;

the early hours,

sleepers at night lying close together as they sleep, one

with an arm slanting

down

across and

below the waist of

the other,

The smell

of apples, aromas from crush'd sage-plant, mint, birch-

bark,

Xeavee of <5ras0 The boy's longings, the glow and pressure what he was dreaming,

The dead leaf whirling

its spiral

as he confides to

whirl and falling

still

and content

to the ground,

The no-form'd The hubb'd

stings that sights, people, objects, sting

sting of myself, stinging

much

with,

ever can

any one,

The

feelers

underlapp'd brothers, that only privileged

orbic,

sensitive,

may be

where they

intimate

The curious roamer the hand roaming

are,

all

over the body, the

bashful withdrawing of flesh where the fingers soothingly

pause and edge themselves,

The limpid liquid within the young man, The vex'd corrosion so pensive and so painful, The torment,

The

the irritable tide that will not be at rest,

like of the

same

The young man

feel,

the like of the same in others,

young woman

that flushes and flushes, and the

that flushes

The young man

and

that

to repress

flushes,

wakes deep

at night, the hot

hand seeking

what would master him,

The mystic amorous

night, the strange half-welcome pangs,

visions, sweats,

The pulse pounding through palms and trembling fingers, the

young man

The souse upon me of

all

color'd, red,

encircling

ashamed, angry

lover the sea, as

lie

;

willing and

naked,

The merriment

of the twin babies that crawl over the grass in the

sun, the mother never turning her vigilant eyes from them, [128]

Cbil&ren of HJ>am The walnut-trunk, the walnut-husks, and the ripening

or ripen'd

long-round walnuts,

The continence

of vegetables, birds, animals,

The consequent meanness of me should

skulk or find myself

and animals never once skulk or

indecent, while birds

find

themselves indecent,

The

great chastity of paternity, to match the great chastity of

maternity,

The oath of procreation

have sworn,

my Adamic

and fresh

daughters,

The greed

that eats

what

saturate

this

shall

relief,

its

work

O to

fill

place

fall

where

may.

furious

so in storms

confine

shouts amid lightnings and raging winds

drink the mystic deliria deeper than any other !

them

to you, for reasons,

mean

man

bequeath them to you,

bridegroom and bride.)

[129]

not

children, tell

when

to flDatmess an&

savage and tender achings

myself,

carelessly to

madness and joy

this that frees

What do my

random from

toss

Dour

(What

produce boys to

till

repose, content,

bunch pluck'd

has done

ONE hour

night with hungry gnaw,

through,

The wholesome

And

me day and

leases of (Brass

O to

be yielded to you whoever you to

O to O to

in defiance of the

return to Paradise

draw you

are,

world

and you to be yielded

bashful and feminine

to me, to plant

on you

time the

for the first

lips

of a determin'd man.

the puzzle, the thrice-tied knot, the deep and dark pool,

untied and illumin'd

to speed

where

there

all

space enough and

air

enough

last!

To be

absolv'd from previous ties and conventions,

and you from yours

To find

new

from mine

unthought-of nonchalance with the best of Nature

To have

the gag remov'd from one's

To have

the feeling to-day or any day

O something

unprov'd

something

mouth I

sufficient as

in a trance

am.

To escape utterly from others' anchors and holds To drive free to love free to dash reckless and dangerous To court destruction with taunts, with invitations !

ascend, to leap to the heavens of the love indicated to

rise thither

To be

lost if

with

inebriate soul

must be so

feed the remainder of

freedom

With one

brief

life

with one hour of fulness and

hour of madness and joy.

[130]

Cbil&ren of

cean tbe

ut of tbe IRolltna

OUT

crowd came

of the rolling ocean the

Whispering

/ love you, before

long I

have traveled a long way merely

For

I fear' d I

could not die

Now we

till

a drop gently to me,

die,

on you

to look

touch you,

/ once look' djm you,

might afterward

have met,

Hbam

lose you.

have look'd,

are safe,

Return in peace to the ocean I

too

my love, my love, we

part of that ocean

[rated,

are not so

Behold the great rondure, the cohesion of

But as

me, for you, the

for

all,

how

much

perfect

sepa!

irresistible sea is to separate us,

hour carrying us diverse, yet cannot carry us diverse

for an

forever

Every day

[ocean and the land, I salute the air, the

Be not impatient

little

sundown

space

know you

for your dear sake

love.

an& E0es Returning at Intervals* AGES and ages returning

at intervals,

Undestroy'd, wandering immortal, Lusty, phallic, with the potent original loins, perfectly sweet, I,

chanter of

Adamic songs,

Through the new garden the West, the great Deliriate,

thus prelude

what

generated, offering these, offering

myself,

Bathing myself, bathing Offspring of

cities calling,

songs

loins.

[131]

in Sex,

Heaves of (Prass

Uwo

WE two, how

t>ow Xona

were

jfool'fc,

we were fool'd, Now transmuted, we swiftly escape as Nature escapes, We are Nature, long have we been absent, but now we long

return,

We become plants, trunks, foliage, roots, bark, We are bedded in the ground, we are rocks, We are oaks, we grow in the openings side by side, We browse, we are two among the wild herds spontaneous

any,

We are two fishes swimming in the sea together, We are what locust blossoms are, we drop scent

around lanes

mornings and evenings,

We are also the coarse smut of beasts, vegetables, minerals, We are two predatory hawks, we soar above and look down, We are two resplendent suns, we is who balance ourselves it

orbic

and

stellar,

are as

two comets,

prowl fang'd and four-footed

in the

woods,

spring on

prey,

We are two clouds forenoons and afternoons driving overhead, We are seas mingling, we are two of those cheerful waves rolling over each other and interwetting each other,

We are

what the atmosphere

is,

transparent, receptive, pervious,

impervious,

are

snow,

rain,

cold,

darkness,

influence of the globe,

are each product r

and

two

We have circled and circled we have arrived home again, we We have voided all but freedom and all but our own joy. till

[132]

H&am

Cbilbren of

O HYMEN O hymenee why do you tantalize me thus ? O why sting me for a swift moment only ? Why can you not continue ? O why do you now cease ? !

because

you continued beyond the

would soon

AM he

certainly

tbe ZTbat

that aches with

Does the earth matter

kill

gravitate

moment you

Scbes witb

amorous love does not

swift

;

all

matter, aching, attract

all

So the body of

all

meet or know.

IRattve

when you come upon me

NATIVE moments

ah you are here

now, Give

me now

Give

To-day I

libidinous joys only,

the drench of

passions, give

go consort with Nature's

for those

who

orgies of I

life

coarse and rank,

darlings, to-night too,

believe in loose delights,

share the midnight

young men,

dance with the dancers and drink with the drinkers,

The echoes

ring with our indecent

person for

dearest friend, [i33]

calls,

pick out

some low

leaves of (Brass He

be lawless, rude,

shall

illiterate,

he shall be one condemned by

others for deeds done, I

will play a part

no longer,

companions

come

will

exile

myself from

will

be your poet,

lpass'& tbrousb a

rest.

populous

pass'd through a populous city imprinting

now

its

of all that city

there

who

do not shun you,

be more to you than to any of the

future use with

Yet

at least

forthwith in your midst,

nee

ONCE

should

you shunn'd persons, 1

why

shows, architecture, customs,

remember only

detain'd

for love of

Day by day and night by night

woman

brain for

traditions,

casually

met

me,

we were

all

together

else has

long been forgotten by me, I

remember

say only that

woman who

passionately clung to

me,

we love, we separate again, Again she holds me by the hand, must not go, see her close beside me with silent lips sad and Again

wander,

tremulous.

1bear& J8ou Solemn*sweet pipes of tbe

HEARD you solemn-sweet pipes of the organ as I

pass'd the church, [i34]

last

Sunday morn

Cbilbren of Hfcam Winds

of autumn, as

walk'd the woods

long-stretch'd sighs I

heard the perfect

soprano Heart of

Italian

in the

love

tenor singing at the opera,

midst of the quartet singing

of the wrists around

Heard the pulse of you night under

heard your

heard the

;

heard murmuring low through one

head,

all

was

still

ringing

little

bells last

ear.

from California's Sbores,

California's shores,

what

Inquiring, tireless,, seeking I,

when

Jfacing TBdtest

FACING west from

up above so mournful,

you too

dusk

yet unfound,

a child, very old, over waves, towards the house of maternity,

the land of migrations, look

Look

off

the shores of

circled

afar,

Western

the circle

sea,

almost

;

For starting westward from Hindustan, from the vales of Kashmere,

From

Asia,

from the north, from the God, the

sage,

and the

hero,

From

the south, from the flowery peninsulas and the spice islands,

Long having wander'd

Now (But

face

where

And why

home is

is it

since,

round the earth having wander'd,

again, very pleas'd

what

and joyous,

started for so long

yet unfound

[i35]

ago

Heaves of (Brass

Hs Bfcam Earls As Adam Walking Behold

in tbe

early in the morning, forth

from the bower refresh'd with sleep,

me where

pass, hear

voice, approach,

Touch me, touch the palm of your hand Be not

afraid of

body.

[136]

my body

pass,

Calamus 1fn IN paths

untrodden,

growth by margins of pond-waters,

In the

Escaped from the

From

all

that exhibits

life

itself,

the standards hitherto publish'd, from the pleasures,

profits, conformities,

Which

too long

Clear to

was

offering to feed

me now standards

That the soul of the man

soul,

not yet publish'd, clear to

sou j

that

speak for rejoices in comrades,

Here by myself away from the clank of the world, Tallying and talk'd to here by tongues aromatic,

longer abash'd, (for in this secluded spot

can respond as

would not dare elsewhere,) Strong

upon me

the

life

all

that does not exhibit

itself,

the

rest>

yet contains

Resolv'd to sing no songs to-day but those of manly attachment, Projecting

them along

that substantial

Bequeathing hence types of Afternoon I

this delicious

proceed for

all

who

Ninth-month

are or have been

tell

celebrate the need of comrades.

the secret of

life,

athletic love, in

forty-first year,

young men,

nights and days,

[1371

Heaves of (Brass ScenteO t>erba0e of SCENTED herbage of Leaves from you

/IDE

Breast

breast,

glean,

write, to be perused best afterwards,

Tomb-leaves, body-leaves growing up above Perennial roots,

tall

leaves,

above death,

the winter shall not freeze you

delicate leaves,

you

you bloom

shall

Every year

shall

again, out

emerge again

slender leaves

retired

;

do not know whether many passing by

inhale your faint odor, but

from where you

blossoms of

will discover

few

believe a

blood

will

you or

;

permit you to

tell

your own way of the heart that is under you, do not know what you mean there underneath yourselves, in

you

You

are not happiness,

are often

bitter

Yet you are beautiful to

than

can bear, you burn and sting me,

me you

faint-tinged roots,

you make me

think of death,

Death

beautiful

from you, (what indeed

except death and love

think I

not for

it is

think

life

must be

finally beautiful

chant of lovers,

chanting here

for death,

of i overs

how calm, how solemn it grows to ascend to the atmosphere Death or life am then indifferent, my soul declines to prefer, (I am not sure but the high soul of lovers welcomes death most,) For

Indeed

death,

same

Grow up

taller

think

now

mean

these leaves

you mean,

precisely the [breast

sweet leaves that

may

see

Spring away from the conceal'd heart there [138]

grow

up out of

Calamus Do

not fold yourself so in your pink-tinged roots timid leaves

not remain

Come

down

there so ashamed, herbage of

stifled

and choked

Emblematic and capricious blades will say

will

what

with

will raise

will give

;

leave you,

now you

not

serve

itself, I

will never again utter a

immortal reverberations through the

States,

shall the

States,

words be

said to

make death

exhilarating,

me your tone therefore O death, that may accord with it, me yourself, for see that you belong to me now above all, I

and are folded inseparably together, you love and death will

ing

For

call,

through the

Through me

Nor

an example to lovers to take permanent shape and

will

Give

have to say by

only their

Give

sound myself and comrades only, call

breast

determin'd to unbare this broad breast of mine,

have long enough

now

allow you to balk

me any more

with what

was

are, call-

life,

it is

convey'd to

That you hide

that

in these shifting

you

are the purports essential,

forms of

life,

for reasons,

and

that they are mainly for you,

That you beyond them come forth to remain, the

real reality,

That behind the mask of materials you patiently wait, no matter

how

long,

That you will one day perhaps take control of That you will perhaps dissipate

That may-be you are what

this entire

it is all

for,

long,

But you will

last

very long. [139]

but

all,

show it

of appearance,

does not

last

so very

leaves of (Brass Wboet>er U>ou Hre Dotting

WHOEVER you

are holding

Without one thing I

give you

Who Who

fair

all

will

me now

in 1ban&.

hand,

warning before you attempt

further,

but far different.

he that would become

How

be useless,

what you supposed,

not

/IDe

follower

would sign himseli a candidate

for

affections ?

The way is suspicious, the result uncertain, perhaps destructive, You would have to give up all else, alone would expect to be I

your sole and exclusive standard,

Your

novitiate

The whole

would even then be long and exhausting,

past theory of your

life

and

all

conformity to the lives

around you would have to be abandon'd, Therefore release let

else

Or back

before troubling yourself any further,

go your hand from

me down

Put

me now

shoulders,

and depart on your way.

stealth in

some wood

of a rock in the

(For in any roof d

open

room of

for trial,

air,

a house

emerge

not,

nor in com-

pany,

And

in libraries

lie

one dumb, a gawk, or unborn, or dead,)

But just possibly with you on a high

hill, first

watching

lest

any

person for miles around approach unawares,

possibly with

some

you

sailing at sea, or

on the beach of the sea or

quiet island,

Here to put your

lips

upon mine

[140]

permit you,

Calamus With the comrade's long-dwelling For

am you

Where Carry

the

new husband and

will,

thrusting

new

husband's

kiss,

the comrade.

beneath your clothing,

may feel the throbs of your heart or rest upon your me when you go forth over land or sea I

hip,

;

For thus merely touching you

And

kiss or the

enough,

thus touching you would

best,

silently sleep

and be carried

eternally.

But these leaves conning you con

me you

For these leaves and

They

will elude

at first

you

at peril,

will not understand,

and

more afterward,

still

will cer-

tainly elude you,

Even while you should think you had unquestionably caught me, behold

Already you see

For

have escaped from you.

not for what

it is

have put into

that

have written

this

book,

Nor

is it

by reading

you

will acquire

it,

Nor do those know me best who admire me and vauntingly

praise

me,

Nor

will the candidates for

love (unless at most a very few)

prove victorious,

Nor

will

For

all *

my poems

[perhaps more;

do good only, they

useless without that

times and not

Therefore release

hit,

me and

that

will

just as

much

which you may guess

which

hinted at;

depart on your way.

[Mi]

evil,

many

leaves of (Brass jpor

COME,

make

will

Kou

S)emocracs,

the continent indissoluble,

will

make

the most splendid race the sun ever shone upon,

will

make

divine magnetic lands,

With

the love of comrades,

With I

the life-long love of comrades.

companionship thick as

will plant

trees along

all

the rivers of

America, and along the shores of the great lakes, and over the I

will

make

all

prairies,

inseparable cities with their arms about each other's

necks,

By the

love of comrades,

By the manly For you these from me, For you, for you

;

love of comrades.

Democracy, to serve you

trilling

ma femme

these songs.

vK-^ TTbese

THESE (For

Sinsino in Sprfna*

singing in spring collect for lovers,

who

but

should understand lovers and

should be the poet of comrades

all

their

sorrow and

joy?

And who

but

Collecting

traverse the garden the world, but soon

pass the

gates,

Now along the

pond-side,

now wading

wet, [142]

in a

little,

fearing not the

Calamus Now

by the post-and-rail fences where the old stones thrown there, pick'd from the fields, have accumulated,

(Wild-flowers and vines and weeds

come up through

and partly cover them, beyond these

pass,)

summer, before

far in the forest, or sauntering later in

Far,

think where

the stones

go,

Solitary, smelling the earthy smell,

stopping

now and

then in the

silence,

Alone

had thought, yet soon a troop gathers around me,

Some walk by my

side

and some behind, and some embrace

arms or neck,

They the

spirits of

dear friends dead or alive, thicker they come,

a great crowd, and

in the middle,

Collecting, dispensing, singing, there

wander with them,

Plucking something for tokens, tossing toward whoever

near

me, Here,

with a branch of pine,

lilac,

Here, out of

pocket,

in Florida as

some moss which

hung

trailing

pull'd off a live-oak

down,

some pinks and laurel leaves, and a handful of sage, And here what now draw from the water, wading in the pondHere,

side,

(O here

last

saw him

that tenderly loves me,

and returns again

never to separate from me,

And

this,

this shall henceforth

calamus-root Interchange

And twigs

be the token of comrades,

this

shall,

youths with each other

let

none render

back

of maple and a bunch of wild orange and chestnut, [143]

leaves of (Brass And stems These

of currants and plum-blows, and the aromatic cedar,

compass'd around by a thick cloud of

Wandering,

point to or touch as

spirits,

throw them loosely

pass, or

from me,

what he

Indicating to each one

giving something to

shall have,

each;

But what I

will

drew from the water by the pond-side, that reserve, give of it, but only to them that love as myself am capaI

ble of loving.

-/Hot

-';

1beat>in0

NOT heaving from my

v -gr- //: from

.-'"'

/IDs IRfbb'fc

ey^;**^

Breast Onl$,

ribb'd breast only,

Not

in sighs at night in rage dissatisfied

Not

in those

Not

many an

Not

in the subtle

Not

in this beating

Not

in the curious systole

Not

with myself,

long-drawn, ill-supprest sighs, oath and promise broken,

wilful

and savage

soul's volition,

nourishment of the

and pounding

air,

temples and wrists,

and diastole within which

will

one

day cease, ,

Not

many cries,

far in

hungry wish told to the skies only, laughter, defiances,

thrown from me when alone

the wilds,

Not

husky pantrngs through

Not

sounded and resounded words, chattering words, echoes, dead words,

in the

murmurs

clinch'd teeth,

dreams while [i44]

sleep,

Calamus Nor the other murmurs of these

Nor

in the limbs

and senses of

miss you continually

Not

Need

any or that

all

you

them

exist

incredible

my body

dreams of every day, that take

you and

dis-

not there,

adhesiveness

pulse of

and show yourself any more than

life

in these

songs.

E*iljp

91 tbe Uerrfble Doubt

the terrible doubt of appearances,

the uncertainty after

all,

that

Hppeararum

we may

be deluded,

That may-be reliance and hope are but speculations That may-be identity beyond the grave

May-be the things

after

all,

a beautiful fable only,

perceive, the animals,

plants,

men,

hills,

shining and flowing waters,

The

skies of day

and night,

may-be these only apparitions, and the real

colors, densities, forms,

are (as doubtless they are)

something has yet to be known,

How

[mock me

often they dart out of themselves as

(How

often

think neither

confound

me and

know, nor any man knows, aught of

them,)

May-be seeming

me what

but seem) as from

prove

(as of

To me

present point of view, and might

course they would) nought of

appear, or nought

of view

they are (as doubtless they indeed

anyhow, from

entirely

what they

changed points

;

these and the like of these are curiously answer'd lovers, 10

dear friends, [145]

leaves of (Brass When

he ing

When

whom

love travels with

me by

or sits a long while hold-

the hand,

the subtle

air,

the impalpable, the sense that

words and

reason hold not, surround us and pervade us,

Then

charged with untold and untellable wisdom,

silent, I

require nothing further,

cannot answer the question of appearances or that of identity

beyond the grave, But

walk or

ahold of

sit indifferent,

satisfied,

hand has completely

satisfied

me.

;.'"/.^/^ Ube Base AND now gentlemen, A word give to remain I

As base and

of nil 4Detapb$6ics.

your memories and minds,

finale too for all

metaphysics.

(So to the students the old professor,

At the

close of his

crowded

Having studied the

course.)

new and

antique, the

Greek and Germanic

systems,

Kant having studied and

stated, Fichte

and Schelling and Hegel,

Stated the lore of Plato, and Socrates greater than Plato,

And greater

than Socrates sought and stated, Christ divine having

studied long, I

see reminiscent to-day those

See the philosophies

all,

Greek and Germanic systems,

Christian churches and tenets see [146]

Calamus Yet underneath Socrates divine

The dear

clearly see,

and underneath Christ the

see,

love of

man

for his comrade, the attraction of friend to

friend,

the well-married husband and wife, of children and parents,

city for city

and land for

land.

IRecorfcers

Hoes

Ibence,

RECORDERS ages hence,

Come,

Publish

will take

you down underneath

this

you what to say of me, name and hang up my picture

impassive exterior,

will tell

as that of the tender-

est lover,

The

friend the lover's portrait, of

whom

his friend his lover

was

fondest,

Who

was not proud

of his songs, but of the measureless ocean

of love within him, and freely pour'd

Who

often walk'd

forth,

lonesome walks thinking of

his dear friends,

his lovers,

Who

pensive

away from one he

lov'd often lay sleepless

and

dis-

satisfied at night,

Who knew

too well the sick, sick dread

might secretly be

Whose

the one he lov'd

indifferent to him,

happiest days were far

hills,

lest

away through

he and another wandering hand

apart from other men,

[M7]

fields, in

woods, on

hand, they twain

TLeaves of (Braes

Who

with

oft as he saunter'd the streets curv'd

arm the

his

shoulder of his friend, while the arm of his friend rested

upon him

also.

;-;>;.-/

;

Wben WHEN

--^

Ibearfc at tbe

^mf^

Close of tbe 2>as*

heard at the close of the day

how my name

ceiv'd with plaudits in the capitol,

night for

And

was not

re-

happy

that follow'd,

when my

plans were accomplish'd,

was not happy, day when rose at dawn from

the bed of perfect health,

else

when

still

But the

still it

had been

carous'd, or

refresh'd, singing, inhaling the ripe breath of

When saw

the

moon

full

in the

autumn,

west grow pale and disappear

in the

When

morning light, wander'd alone over the beach, and undressing bathed,

laughing with the cool waters, and

saw

And when thought how my dear friend my coming, O then was happy, I

the sun

lover

rise,

was on

his

way

then each breath tasted sweeter, and nourish'd

And

the next

came

And

day

food

joy,

and with the next

evening

friend,

that night while

continually 1

that

more, and the beautiful day pass'd well,

came with equal

all

up the

was

still

heard the waters

roll

slowly

shores,

heard the hissing rustle of the liquid and sands as directed to

whispering to congratulate me,

For the one

love most lay sleeping [148]

[in the cool night>

by me under the same cover

Calamus In the stillness in the

autumn moonbeams

his face

toward me,

And

his

arm

Hre

lay lightly

around

tbe 1*ew person

JJJou

was

inclined

breast

[happy and that night I was

Drawn

TTowarfc

ARE you the new person drawn toward me ? To begin with take warning, am surely far different from what I

you suppose

;

Do you suppose you Do you think it is so Do you

me your ideal ? have me become your

will find in

easy to

think the friendship of

me would

lover ?

be unalloy'd sat-

isfaction ?

Do you Do you

think see

trusty

and

no further than

faithful ?

this facade, this

smooth and

tolerant

manner of me?

Do you suppose

[heroic man ? yourself advancing on real ground toward a real

Have you no thought

O dreamer that may be all maya, illusion ? it

IRoots anfc 3Lea\>es ZTbemseives Blone,

ROOTS and

leaves themselves alone are these,

Scents brought to

men and women from

the wild

woods and

pond-side, Breast-sorrel

and pinks of

love, fingers that

wind around

tighter

than vines,

Gushes from the throats of birds hid sun

risen,

[149]

in the foliage of trees as the

leaves of (Braes Breezes of land and love set from living shores to you on the ing sea, to you

sailors

liv-

Frost-mellow'd berries and Third-month twigs

young persons wandering out

in the fields

offer' d fresh to

when

the win-

ter breaks up,

Love-buds put before you and within you whoever you

Buds If

are,

be unfolded on the old terms,

you bring the warmth of the sun

them they

open and

will

bring form, color, perfume, to you, If

you become the aliment and the wet they fruits, tall

branches and

IRot ibeat

NOT

heat flames

air

up and Consumes.

and

out,

and dry, the

air

of ripe

ing,

Does the

O none of these I

tide hurry,

may

;

more than the flames of me, consum-

burning for his love

none more than

summer, bears

white down-balls of myriads of seeds,

Wafted, sailing gracefully, to drop where they these,

flowers,

trees.

ff lames

delicious

lightly along

Not

become

up and consumes,

Not sea-waves hurry

Not the

will

hurrying

whom

love,

and out;

e same rj and never give up ? O seeking something,

nor down-balls nor perfumes, nor the high rain-emitting clouds, are borne through the

Any more Wafted

than

soul

in all directions

open

air,

borne through the open

air,

love, for friendship, for you. ['So]

Calamus Uricfcle

TRICKLE drops!

drops of

Candid from

blue veins leaving!

trickle,

slow drops,

falling, drip,

to free

From my From my

from

bleeding drops,

you whence you were forehead and lips,

From wounds made face,

Drops.

from within where

breast,

was

prison'd,

conceal' d, press forth

red drops, confession drops, Stain every page, stain every

song

sing,

every word

say,

bloody drops, Let

them know your

Saturate

them with yourself

Glow upon Let

it all

scarlet heat, let

all

be seen

your

light,

glisten,

ashamed and wet,

all

have written or

them

shall write,

bleeding drops,

blushing drops.

Gits of CITY of orgies, walks and joys, City

whom

that

make you

have lived and sung

your midst

will

one day

illustrious,

Not the pageants of you, not your cles,

shifting tableaus,

repay me,

your specta[wharves,

Not the interminable rows of your houses, nor the ships at the Nor the processions in the streets, nor the bright windows with goods

Nor

them,

to converse with learn'd persons, or bear soiree or feast

;

[151]

share in the

leaves of (Brass Not

those, but as

pass

Manhattan, your frequent and swift

flash of eyes offering

Offering response to

love,

my own

these repay me,

Lovers, continual lovers, only repay me.

Beboifc tbfs

Swartbs

fface*

BEHOLD

this

swarthy

face, these

gray eyes,

This beard, the white wool unclipt upon

My brown

hands and the

silent

my neck,

manner of me without charm

Yet comes one a Manhattanese and ever lightly

And

on the

with robust

lips

on the crossing of the

at parting kisses

love,

SAW

Saw

in ^Louisiana a %ft>e*0afc

in Louisiana a live-oak

All alone stood

[kiss in return>

on the ship's deck give a

street or

We observe that salute of American comrades land We are those two natural and nonchalant persons.

;

and

sea,

Growing,

growing,

and the moss hung down from the branches,

Without any companion

grew

there uttering joyous leaves of

dark green,

And But

its

look, rude, unbending, lusty,

wonder'd

how

there without

And broke I

off a

its

made me

think of myself,

could utter joyous leaves standing alone friend near, for

twig with a

and twined around

certain little

[152]

knew

number of

moss,

could not, leaves

upon

it,

Calamus And brought

away, and

not needed to remind

It is

(For

believe lately

Yet

For

all

that,

little

wide

very well

flat

room,

dear friends,

else than of them,)

a curious token,

Uttering joyous leaves

know

my own

as of

in sight in

[love*

makes me think of manly

and though the live-oak glistens there

solitary in a

think of

remains to

have placed

in Louisiana

space,

all its life

without a friend a lover near,

could not.

a Stranger, PASSING stranger

you do not know

how

longingly

look upon

you,

You must be he

me I

was

seeking, or she

was

seeking,

(it

comes

as of a dream,)

have somewhere surely lived a

All is recall' d as

flit

by each

life

of joy with you,

other, fluid, affectionate, chaste,

matured,

You grew up with me, were I

ate

give

am am

body mine

only,

wake

to wait, to see to

to think of

you when

at night alone,

do not doubt it

that

pass,

sit

alone

beard, breast, hands, in return,

not to speak to you, or

left

the pleasure of your eyes, face, flesh, as

you take of I

a girl with me,

with you and slept with you, your body has become not yours only nor

You

boy with me or

do not

meet you

lose you. [iS3]

again,

leaves of (Braes /IDoment l^earntnG anfc Ubougbtful, THIS

moment

yearning and thoughtful sitting alone,

seems

seems to

there are other

men

in other lands

yearning and

thoughtful,

Italy,

far, far

can look over and behold them

Germany,

France, Spain, in China, or in Russia or Japan, talking other

away,

dialects,

And it seems

attached to I

know we

know

them

HEAR

those

do to men

men

should become

my own

lands,

should be happy with them.

know

should be brethren and lovers,

was CbargeD

U Ibear ft I

could

was charged

against

that

against I

sought to destroy

insti-

tutions,

But

really

neither for nor against institutions,

(What indeed have

destruction of

Only

common

them

with them

what with the

? )

will establish in the

Mannahatta and

every city of these

States inland and seaboard,

And

in the fields

and woods, and above every keel

little

that dents the water,

Without

The

edifices or rules or trustees or

any argument,

institution of the dear love of comrades. [i54]

or large

Calamus Ube iprairie^rass THE I

prairie-grass dividing,

demand

its

2)tx>f&in0,

special odor breathing,

the spiritual corresponding,

Demand

the most copious and close companionship of men,

Demand

the blades to rise of words, acts, beings,

Those of the open atmosphere, coarse,

Those that go

own

their

gait, erect,

command, leading not Those with

sunlit, fresh, nutritious,

stepping with freedom and

following,

a never-quell'd audacity, those with

sweet and lusty

flesh clear of taint,

Those

that look carelessly in the face of Presidents as to say

Who

and governors,

are you ?

Those of earth-born passion, simple, never constraint, never obedient,

Those of inland America.

r Wben WHEN

peruse tbe Gonquer'fc ffame.

peruse the conquer' d fame of heroes and the victories

of mighty generals,

Nor the President house

do not envy the generals,

in his Presidency,

nor the rich in his great

[them,

But

when

How

hear of the brotherhood of lovers,

together through

life,

how

was with

through dangers, odium, unchanging,

long and long,

Through youth and through middle and ing,

Then

how

affectionate

pensive

and

hastily

faithful

walk away

old age,

how

they were, fill'd

unfalter-

[envy with the bitterest

leaves of (Brass TOle

Uwo Bops

ftoaetber Clinging.

WE two boys together clinging,' One

the other never leaving,

Up and down Power

[making

roads going, North and South excursions

the

enjoying, elbows stretching, fingers clutching,

Arm'd and

No law

fearless, eating, drinking, sleeping, loving,

less

than ourselves owning, sailing, soldiering, thieving,

threatening, Misers, menials, priests alarming, air breathing, water drinking,

on the

turf or the sea-beach dancing,

Fulfilling

IS:

our foray.

'-.-..

H A

[chasing

wrenching, ease scorning, statutes mocking, feebleness

Cities

; .

-vt|

to California,

promise

PROMISE to California,

Or inland

.'-

to the great pastoral Plains,

Sojourning east a while longer, soon

[Oregonand on to Puget sound and travel

toward you, to

re-

main, to teach robust American love,

For

know

very well that

inland,

and robust love belong among you,

and along the Western sea

;

wi jj also sea, and I |-

For these States tend inland and toward the Western

1bere tbe ffrailest %eat>es of fl&e,

HERE the Here

And

frailest leaves

shade and hide

yet they expose

me and

yet

thoughts,

me more

than

[156]

strongest lasting,

myself do not expose them,

all

other poems.

Calamus IRo Xa&or-Savtng flDacbine,

labor-saving machine,

Nor discovery have

Nor

will

made,

me any

be able to leave behind

wealthy bequest

to found a hospital or library,

Nor reminiscence of any deed of courage

Nor

literary success

nor

intellect,

for America,

nor book for the book-shelf,

But a few carols vibrating through the

air

leave,

For comrades and lovers.

H A

Glimpse.

GLIMPSE through an interstice caught,

crowd

workmen and

drivers in a

stove late of a winter night, and

bar-room around the

unremark'd seated

in a

corner,

a youth

who

loves

and seating himself

and

whom

near, that

love, silently

may

hold

hand,

long while amid the noises of coming and going, of drinking

and oath and smutty There

jest,

two, content, happy

being together, speaking

perhaps not a word.

H A

approaching

me by the

%eaf for 1ban&

LEAF for hand in hand

You

natural persons old

;

and young! [157]

in Ibanfc,

little,

Heaves of (Brass You on

the Mississippi and on

all

the branches and bayous of the

Mississippi!

You

friendly

You twain I

boatmen and mechanics! you roughs! and all processions moving along the streets!

wish to infuse myself among you

walk hand

till

see

common

for

you

in hand.

Eartb, flDs OLifeeness.

EARTH,

likeness,

so impassive, ample and spheric there,

Though you look I

now

suspect that

now

suspect there

not

all

;

something

fierce in

you

eligible to burst

forth,'

For an athlete

enamour'd of me, and

But toward him there

something

fierce

of him,

and

terrible in

eligi-

ble to burst forth, I

dare not

tell it in

words, not even

in these songs.

.^''^ Bream^

f I

DREAM'D

in a

dream

whole of the I

saw

in a

Bream*

a city invincible to the attacks of the

rest of the earth,

dream'd that was the

new

city of Friends,

Nothing was greater there than the quality of robust the It

all

rest,

was seen every hour

And

love,

their looks

in the actions of the

and words. [158]

men

of that city,

led

Calamus TRUbat ZTbinfc HJou

WHAT The

think you

take

Uafee flDg

pen

Pen

hand to record

battle-ship, perfect-model'd, majestic, that

? I

saw pass

the

offing to-day under full sail ?

The splendors

of the past day

envelops

or the splendor of the night that

me ?

Or the vaunted glory and growth of the great

me?

city spread

around

;

But merely of two simple

men

saw to-day on

the pier in the

midst of the crowd, parting the parting of dear friends,

The one

to remain

hung on the

other's neck

and passionately

kiss'd him,

While the one to depart

one to remain

tightly prest the

in his

arms.

TTo tbe

Bast

anfc to

tbe

West,

the East and to the West,

the

the Kanadian of the north, to the Southerner

man

of the Seaside State and of Pennsylvania,

These with perfect in all I

trust to depict

you

perceive all

as myself, the

main purport of these States

friendship, exalte, previously I

love,

germs

are

men,

believe the

Because

waits,

to found a superb

unknown,

and has been always waiting,

men.

[159]

latent

leaves of (Braes Sometimes witb SOMETIMES with one

love

fill

Xox>e.

myself with rage for fear

effuse

unreturn'd love,

But

now

think there

way (I

no unreturn'd

Yet out of that

certain

one

MANY

things to absorb

Yet

blood

mine

you be not

love

was not

return' d,

have written these songs.)

TTo

pay

or another,

loved a certain person ardently and

love, the

a Western teach to help you

circle

become

eleve of mine

;

not in your veins,

silently selected

by lovers and do not

silently select

lovers,

Of what use

is it

that

you seek

become

eleve of

bride

Then

wife

you

love

O woman

resistless

separate, as

ascend,

love

can

tell,

disembodied or another born,

float in the regions of

sharer of

Ethereal, the last athletic reality, 1

than

roving

consolation,

your love

life.

[160]

Xove!

?ast*Bnebor'ft Eternal FAST-ANCHOR'D eternal

mine

man,

the thought

Calamus

Hm :na AMONG I

the

men and women

perceive one picking

Acknowledging none

Ah I

lover

out by secret and divine signs,

else,

are baffled, but that

flD u 1 1 1 1 u

the multitude,

not parent, wife, husband, brother,

any nearer than

child,

Some

one

am, not

that

one knows me.

and perfect equal,

meant that you should discover

And I when

faint indirections,

meet you mean to discover you by the

Son TObom f Often

O YOU whom

often and silently

anfc Silently

come where you

tike in

you.

Come. are that

may

be with you,

walk by your

side or sit near, or remain in the

same room

with you, Little

you know the

subtle electric fire that for

ing within me.

my likeness

Ufcenese.

that goes to

and

fro seeking a liveli-

hood, chattering, chaffering,

How often How often

But among

find myself standing

rg^ and looking at

question and doubt whether that lovers

play-

Vbat Statow THAT shadow

your sake

is really

and caroling these songs,

never doubt whether that

is really

[161]

me.

where

;

leaves of (Braes full ot xtfe FULL of I,

now, compact,

life

mow,

visible,

forty years old the eighty-third year of the States,

any number of centuries hence,

To one

a century hence or

To you

yet unborn these, seeking you.

When you

Now

it is

Fancying

read these

that

visible

am become

you, compact, visible, realizing

how happy you were

come your comrade Be

was

invisible,

poems, seeking me,

could be with you and be-

;

were with you.

(Be not too certain but

with you.)

[162]

am now

Salut au flfeonbe!

O TAKE my hand Walt Whitman Such gliding wonders

Such

join'd

unended

Each answering

What widens

all,

What

such sights and sounds!

links,

each hook'd to the next,

each sharing the earth with

within you Walt

What waves and

soils

exuding

Whitman

all.

what persons and cities are here ? the infants, some playing, some slumbering ?

climes

Who are Who are the girls ? who are the married women ? Who are the groups of old men going slowly with about each other's necks rivers are these ?

What

are the

What

myriads of dwellings are they

mountains

arms

What

what

their

forests

and

call'd that rise

fruits are

these

so high in the mists

fill'd

with dwellers

Within

latitude widens, longitude lengthens,

Asia, Africa, Europe, are to the east in the west, [163]

America

provided for

Xeaves of (Brass Banding the bulge of the earth winds the hot equator, Curiously north and south turn the axis-ends,

Within

the longest day, the sun wheels in slanting rings,

does not set for months, Stretch'd in due time within

the midnight sun just rises above

the horizon and sinks again,

Within

zones, seas, cataracts, forests, volcanoes, groups,

Malaysia, Polynesia, and the great

West

Indian islands.

What do you

hear Walt

workman

Whitman

singing and the farmer's wife singing,

hear the

hear in the distance the sounds of children and of animals early in the day,

hear emulous shouts of Australians pursuing the wild horse,

hear the Spanish dance with castanets in the chestnut shade, to

the rebeck and guitar, I

hear continual echoes from the Thames,

hear fierce French liberty songs,

hear of the Italian boat-sculler the

musical recitative of old

poems, I

hear the locusts in Syria as they strike the grain and grass with the showers of their terrible clouds,

hear the Coptic refrain toward sundown, pensively falling on the breast of the black venerable vast

mother the

Nile,

hear the chirp of the Mexican muleteer, and the bells of the

hear the Arab muezzin calling from the top of the mosque,

mule,

[164]

Salut au

hear the Christian priests at the altars of their churches,

hear

the responsive base and soprano, I

hear the cry of the Cossack, and the sailor's voice putting to sea at

Okotsk,

hear the

wheeze of the

march

slave-coffle as the slaves

the husky gangs pass

on by twos and

on, as

threes, fasten'd

together with wrist-chains and ankle-chains,

Hebrew reading

and psalms,

hear the

hear the rhythmic myths of the Greeks, and the strong legends

his records

of the Romans, I

hear the tale of the divine

God I

life

and bloody death of the beautiful

the Christ,

hear the Hindoo teaching his favorite pupil the loves, wars, adages, transmitted safely to this day from

poets

who

wrote three thousand years ago. 4

What do you

see

Who are they

you

Walt Whitman salute,

and that one

wonder

after another salute

see a great round

see diminute farms, hamlets, ruins, graveyards,

rolling

you

through space,

palaces, hovels, huts of barbarians, tents of

jails, factories,

nomads upon

the surface, I

see the shaded part on one side

and the

sunlit part

where the

on the other

sleepers are sleeping,

side,

see the curious rapid change of the light and shade,

see distant lands, as real and near to the inhabitants of

land

to me. [165]

them

Heaves of (Brass I

see plenteous waters,

see mouptain peaks,

see the

sierras of

Andes where they

range, I

see plainly the Himalayas, Chian Shahs, Altays, Ghauts,

see the giant pinnacles of Elbruz, Kazbek, Bazardjusi,

see the Styrian Alps,

see the Pyrenees, Balks, Carpathians, and to the Dofrafields,

and the Karnac Alps,

and

off at sea

mount

north the

Hecla,

see Vesuvius and Etna, the mountains of the Moon, and the

Red mountains of Madagascar, I

see the Lybian, Arabian, and Asiatic deserts,

see

see the superior oceans and the inferior ones, the Atlantic and

huge dreadful Arctic and Antarctic

Pacific, the sea of

icebergs,

Mexico, the Brazilian sea, and the sea

of Peru,

The waters

of Hindustan, the China sea, and the gulf of Guinea,

The Japan

waters, the beautiful bay of Nagasaki land-lock'd in

its

mountains,

The spread

of the Baltic, Caspian, Bothnia, the British shores,

and the bay of Biscay,

The

clear-sunn'd Mediterranean, and from one to another of

its

islands,

The White

sea,

and the sea around Greenland.

behold the mariners of the world,

Some

are in storms,

some

in the night

with the watch on the

lookout,

Some

drifting helplessly,

some with contagious [166]

diseases.

Salut au fIDon&e!

behold the

sail

in port,

Some double

and steamships of the world, some

some on

in clusters

their voyages,

the cape of Storms,

some cape Verde,

others capes

Guardafui, Bon, or Bajadore,

Others Dondra head, others pass the Lopatka, others Behring's

Others cape Horn, others

straits of

Sunda, others cape

straits,

the gulf of Mexico or along

sail

Cuba

or Hayti, others Hudson's bay or Baffin's bay,

Others pass the the

firth

straits of

Dover, others enter the Wash, others

of Solway, others round cape Clear, others the

Land's End,

Others traverse the Zuyder Zee or the Scheld,

Others as comers and goers at Gibraltar or the Dardanelles, Others sternly push their

the northern winter-packs,

way through

Others descend or ascend the Obi or the Lena,

Others the Niger or the Congo, others the Indus, the Burampooter

and Cambodia,

Others wait steam'd up ready to

Wait

at Liverpool,

start in the ports of Australia,

Glasgow, Dublin,

Marseilles, Lisbon, Naples,

Hamburg, Bremen, Bordeaux, the Hague, Copenhagen, Wait

at Valparaiso,

Rio Janeiro, Panama. 5

see the tracks of the railroads of the earth,

see

them

see

them

in Asia

see the electric telegraphs of the earth,

see the filaments of the

Great Britain,

and

see

them

in Europe,

in Africa.

news

[passionSj of my race of the wars, deaths, losses, gains,

[167]

leaves of (Brass I

see the long river-stripes of the earth,

see the

see the four great rivers of China, the

Amazon and

the Paraguay,

Amour, the Yellow

River,

the Yiang-tse, and the Pearl, I

see

where the Seine flows, and where the Danube, the

Loire, the

Rhone, and the Guadalquiver flow, I

see the windings of the Volga, the Dnieper, the Oder,

see the Tuscan going

down

the Arno, and the Venetian along

the Po, 1

see the

Greek seaman

sailing out of

Egina bay.

6 I

see the site of the old empire of Assyria, and that of Persia, and that of India,

Ganges over the high rim of Saukara.

see the falling of the

see the place of the idea of the Deity incarnated

human I

avatars in

forms,

see the spots of the successions of priests on the earth, oracles, sacrifices,

brahmins, sabians, llamas, monks, muftis, ex-

horters, I

see

where druids walked the groves of Mona,

see the mistletoe

and vervain,

[old signifiers see the temples of the deaths of the bodies of Gods, 1 see the .

see Christ eating the bread of his last supper in the midst of

youths and old persons, I

see

where the strong divine young man the Hercules fully and long and then died, [168]

toil'd faith-

Salut au

see the place of the innocent rich

life

and hapless

fate of the

beautiful nocturnal son, the full-limb'd Bacchus, I

see Kneph, blooming, drest in blue, with the

on I

crown of

feathers

his head,

see Hermes, unsuspected, dying, well-belov'd, saying to the

people This

not

not weep for me,

true country, I have lived banish 'd

country, I

now go back

I return to the celestial sphere

from my

true

there,

where every one goes in his turn. 1

see the battle-fields of the earth, grass

grows upon them and

blossoms and corn, I

see the tracks of ancient and

see the nameless

known

modern expeditions.

masonries, venerable messages of the un-

events, heroes, records of the earth.

see the places of the sagas,

see pine-trees and fir-trees torn

see granite bowlders

see the burial-cairns of Scandinavian warriors,

see

them

raised high

that the dead

graves might

and

cliffs,

by northern I

see green

blasts,

meadows and

with stones by the marge of

men's rise

spirits

when

lakes,

restless oceans,

they wearied of their quiet

up through the mounds and gaze on the

tossing billows, and be refresh'd

by storms, immensity,

liberty, action.

see the steppes of Asia,

[Baskirs,

see the tumuli of Mongolia,

see the tents of

[169]

Kalmucks and

leaves of (Brass I

see the nomadic tribes with herds of oxen and cows,

see the table-lands notch'd with ravines,

see the jungles and

deserts, I

see the camel, the wild steed, the bustard, the fat-tail'd sheep,

the antelope, and the burrowing wolf.

see the highlands of Abyssinia,

see flocks of goats feeding, and see the fig-tree, tamarind, date,

And

see fields of tefT- wheat

see the Brazilian vaquero,

see the Bolivian ascending

see the

Wacho

and places of verdure and gold.

mount

Sorata,

crossing the plains,

see the incomparable rider

of horses with his lasso on his arm, I

see over the

pampas the

pursuit of wild cattle for their hides.

snow and

see the regions of

see the sharp-eyed

see the seal-seeker in his boat poising his lance,

see the Siberian

see the porpoise-hunters, Pacific

see the

Samoiede and the Finn,

his slight-built sledge I

and the north

cliffs,

ice,

drawn by dogs,

see the whale-crews of the south

Atlantic,

glaciers, torrents, valleys, of

the long winters and the isolation.

Switzerland

mark

9 I

see the cities of the earth

and make myself

them, [170]

random

a part of

Saint au flDonbe!

a real Parisian,

a habitan of Vienna, St. Petersburg, Berlin, Constantinople,

of Adelaide, Sidney, Melbourne,

of London, Manchester, Bristol, Edinburgh, Limerick,

of Madrid, Cadiz, Barcelona, Oporto, Lyons, Brussels, Berne, Frankfort, Stuttgart, Turin, Florence,

belong in Moscow, Cracow, Warsaw, or northward ania or Stockholm,

or in Siberian Irkutsk,

in Christi-

or in

some

street in Iceland, I

descend upon

all

those

cities,

and

rise

from them again.

10 I

see vapors exhaling from unexplored countries,

see the savage types, the

bow

and arrow, the poison'd

splint,

the fetich, and the obi. I

see African and Asiatic towns,

see Algiers, Tripoli, Derne, Mogadore, Timbuctoo, Monrovia,

see the

swarms

of Pekin, Canton, Benares, Delhi, Calcutta,

Tokio,

Kruman

man

in their huts,

Turk smoking opium

see the

see the picturesque

see Teheran, I

and the Dahoman and Ashantee-

in his hut,

crowds

Aleppo,

at the fairs of

[Herat

Khiva and those of

see Muscat and Medina and the intervening sands,

see the caravans toiling onward,

Egypt and the Egyptians,

see

look on chisell'd histories, records of conquering kings, dynasties,

see the pyramids and obelisks,

cut in slabs of sand-stone, or on granite-blocks,

Xeaves of (Braes I

see at

Memphis mummy-pits containing mummies embalm'd,

swathed I

look on the

in linen cloth, lying there fall'n

Theban,

many

centuries,

the large-ball'd eyes,

the side-

drooping neck, the hands folded across the breast. I

see

all

the menials of the earth, laboring,

see

all

the prisoners in the prisons,

see the defective

human

The

blind, the deaf

The

pirates, thieves,

bodies of the earth,

and dumb,

idiots,

hunchbacks, lunatics,

betrayers, murderers, slave-makers of the

earth,

The

helpless infants,

and the helpless old men and women.

see male and female everywhere,

see the serene brotherhood of philosophs,

see the constructiveness of

see the results of the perseverance and industry of

see ranks, colors, barbarisms, civilizations,

mix

And

race,

go among them,

indiscriminately,

salute

all

the inhabitants of the earth. II

You whoever you are! You daughter or son of England! You of the mighty Slavic tribes and empires! you Russ in Russia You dim-descended, black, divine-soul'd African, large, fine-

headed, nobly-form'd, superbly destin'd, on equal terms

with me!

You Norwegian! Swede! Dane!

Icelander!

you Prussian!

Salut au fIDonbe

You Spaniard of Spain! you Portuguese! You Frenchwoman and Frenchman of France! You

you

Beige!

whence

You

liberty-lover

of the Netherlands! (you stock

myself have descended;)

sturdy Austrian! you Lombard! Hun! Bohemian! farmer ofStyria!

You neighbor of the Danube! You working-man of the Rhine, too!

working-woman

You

You Roman You

you Bavarian! Swabian! Saxon! Wallachian!

Sardinian!

Bulgarian

lithe

Neapolitan

matador

You mountaineer You Bokh

You

in the

you Greek

arena at Seville

living lawlessly

on the Taurus or Caucasus

horse-herd watching your mares and stallions feeding!

beautiful-bodied Persian at

arrows to the mark

full

Tartary

You women

speed

in the saddle

shooting

You Chinaman and Chinawoman

China! you Tartar of

of the earth subordinated at your tasks

You Jew journeying

your old age through every

once on Syrian ground

You

Weser! you

the Elbe, or the

risk to stand

other

Jews waiting in all lands for your Messiah You thoughtful Armenian pondering by some stream of the Euphrates!

you peering amid the

ruins of

Nineveh! you

ascending mount Ararat!

You foot-worn

pilgrim

welcoming the far-away sparkle of the

minarets of Mecca! [i73]

leaves of (Brass You

sheiks along the stretch from Suez to Bab-el-mandeb ruling

your families and

You

tribes

olive-grower tending your fruit on cus, or lake Tiberias

You Thibet

trader

fields of

Nazareth,

Damas-

on the wide inland or bargaining

in the

shops

of Lassa!

You Japanese man

woman! you

liver in

Madagascar, Ceylon,

Sumatra, Borneo! All

you

continentals of Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, indifferent

of place All

you on the numberless

And you And you

islands of the archipelagoes of the sea!

of centuries hence

when you

each and everywhere

just the

whom

listen to I

me!

specify not, but include

same!

Health to you! good will to you

Each of us

inevitable,

Each of us

limitless

all,

from

me and America

sent!

[earth,

each of us with his or her right upon the

Each of us allow' d the eternal purports of the Each of us here as divinely as any

earth,

here.

You

Hottentot with clicking palate! you woolly-hair'd hordes!

You own'd

persons dropping sweat-drops or blood-drops!

You human forms with

the fathomless ever-impressive counte-

nances of brutes!

You poor koboo whom for all

the meanest of the rest look

your glimmering language and

down upon

spirituality!

Saiut au fIDon&e You dwarf d Kamtschatkan, You Austral negro, naked,

Greenlander, Lapp!

with protrusive

red, sooty,

ing, seeking your food

lip,

grovel-

You

Caffre, Berber,

You

haggard, uncouth, untutor'd Bedowee!

Soudanese!

You plague-swarms in Madras, Nankin, Kaubul, Cairo! You benighted roamer of Amazonia you Patagonian you !

Fee-

jeeman! I

do not prefer others so very much before you

do not say one word against you, away back there where you

either,

stand,

(You

will

come forward

due time to

side.)

spirit

has pass'd in compassion and determination around the

whole I

have look'd

earth, for equals

and lovers and found them ready

for

in all lands, I

think

some

You vapors,

divine rapport has equalized

think

continents, I

think

with them.

have risen with you, moved away to distant

and

fallen

down

there, for reasons,

have blown with you you winds

You waters I

;

have finger'd every shore with you,

have run through what any river or

of the globe has run

strait

through, I

have taken

stand on the bases of peninsulas and on the

high embedded rocks, to cry thence [i75]

Heaves of (Brass Salut au monde!

What

cities

the light or

cities

myself,

warmth

All islands to

which birds wing

Toward you

all,

raise

all

their

after

way

wing

penetrate those

my way myself.

America's name,

high the perpendicular hand,

To remain For

penetrates

in sight forever,

the haunts and

homes

of men.

[176]

make

the signal,

AFOOT and

pen IRoab

of the

Song

light-hearted

take to the open road,

Healthy, free, the world before me,

The long brown path before me leading wherever Henceforth

ask not good-fortune,

whimper

^Henceforth

more,

myself

postpone

choose.

good-fortune,

no more,

need

nothing,

Done with indoor

complaints, libraries, 'querulous criticisms,

Strong and content

open road.

travel the

The

earth, that

sufficient,

do not want the constellations any

know

(Still I

they are very well

suffice for those

they

here

carry

carry them, I

swear

nearer,

where they

who

are,

belong to them.

old delicious burdens,

men and women,

carry

them with me wherever

go, it is

fill'd

impossible for

with them, and

me I

to get rid of them,

will

fill

them

in return.)

leaves of (Brass

You road

that I

upon and look around,

enter is

believe that

believe

you

are not

here,

much unseen

also here.

Here the profound lesson of reception, nor preference nor

The black with

woolly head, the

his

literate person, are

The

all

denial,

felon, the diseas'd, the

il-

not denied ;

the hasting after the physician, the beggar's tramp,

birth,

the drunkard's stagger, the laughing party of mechanics,

The escaped youth, the

rich

person's carriage, the fop,

the

eloping couple,

The

market-man, the hearse, the moving of furniture into

early

the town, the return back from the town,

They pass, also pass, any thing passes, none can be None but are accepted, none but shall be dear to me. I

interdicted,

You

air that

You

objects that call

You

serves

light that

with breath to speak

from

diffusion

wraps me

and

all

[shape

meanings and give them

things in delicate equable

showers!

You I

paths

believe to

worn

in the irregular

you are

latent

hollows by the roadsides

with unseen existences, you are so dear

me.

You

flagg'd

You

ferries

sides!

walks of the

cities!

you strong curbs

you planks and posts of wharves you

distant ships! [178]

at the edges!

you timber-lined

Song You rows

of houses

of tbe

pen

IRoafc

you window-pierc'd facades

you

roofs

You porches and entrances! you copings and iron guards! You windows whose transparent shells might expose so much! You doors and ascending steps! you arches! You gray stones of interminable pavements you trodden !

cross-

ings!

From

you have imparted to yourselves, and now would impart the same secretly to me,

all

that has touch'd

you

believe

you have peopled your impassive and the spirits thereof would be evident and

the living and the dead surfaces,

amicable with me.

The

earth expanding right

The

picture alive, every part in

The music

falling in

hand and

where

it is

its

left

hand,

best light,

wanted, and stopping where

it is

not wanted,

The

cheerful voice of the public road, the

gay fresh sentiment of

the road.

highway

travel,

do you say to

Do you say Venture not Do you say / am already dented, adhere to

public road,

me Do

if you leave

prepared,

not leave

me you

are lost?

well-beaten

express

You

shall

say back

better than

be more to

and un-

me ?

not afraid to leave you, yet

you,

You

me ?

than

can express myself,

my [i79]

poem.

love

leaves of (Brass I

think heroic deeds were free

poems

think

think whatever

air,

and

all

also,

think whoever

see

meet on the road

shall

ever beholds I

conceiv'd in the open

could stop here myself and do miracles,

all

shall like

and who-

shall like,

me,

must be happy. 5

From

this

hour

ordain myself loos'd of limits and imaginary

lines,

Going where

my own

list,

master total and absolute,

Listening to others, considering well

what they

say,

Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating, Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that

would hold me.

inhale great draughts of space,

The

east

and the west are mine, and the north and the south are

mine. i0 ^

did not

All I

larger, better

know

than

held so

thought,

much goodness.

seems beautiful to me,

can repeat over to to

men and women You have done

me would I

will recruit for

will scatter

will toss a

new

do the same to you,

myself and you as

myself

such good

go,

among men and women

go,

gladness and roughness among them, [180]

Whoever

denies

not trouble me,

shall

Whoever accepts me he

Now

or she shall be blessed and shall bless me.

a thousand perfect

pen IRoab

of tbe

Sona

men were

to appear

would not

amaze me,

Now

thousand beautiful forms of

women

appear'd

would

not astonish me.

Now It is

making of the

see the secret of the

grow

in the

open

air

and to

eat

best persons,

and sleep with the

earth.

Here a great personal deed has room, (Such a deed seizes upon the hearts of the whole race of men, Its

effusion of strength

authority and

Here

all

and

will

overwhelms law and mocks

argument against

all

it.)

the test of wisdom,

Wisdom Wisdom

not finally tested in schools,

cannot be pass'd from one having

having

Wisdom

to another not

it,

of the soul,

not susceptible of proof,

is its

own

proof,

Applies to Is

all

stages and objects and qualities and

content,

the certainty of the reality and immortality of things, and the

excellence of things;

Something there it

Now

is in

the float of the sight of things that provokes

out of the soul.

re-examine philosophies and religions, [181]

leaves of (Brass They may prove well

in lecture-rooms, yet

not prove at

all

under

the spacious clouds and along the landscape and flowing currents.

Here

realization,

Here

The

man

he realizes here what he has in him,

tallied

past, the future, majesty, love

they are vacant of you,

are vacant of them.

you

Only the kernel of every object nourishes

Where

who

;

husks for you and

tears off the

me ?

Where is he that undoes stratagems and envelopes for'you and me? Here

adhesiveness,

it is

not previously fashion'd,

Do you know what it is as you pass to be loved by Do you know the talk of those turning eye-balls ?

Here

The

apropos;

strangers ?

the efflux of the soul,

efflux of the soul

gates, ever

These yearnings

why

Why

it is

comes from within through embower'd

provoking questions,

why

are they

these thoughts in the darkness

are they ?

are there

men and women

sunlight expands

Why when

they leave

that while they are nigh

blood

the

me do my

pennants of joy sink

flat

and

lank?

Why

are there trees

never walk under but large and melodious

thoughts descend upon

me ? [182]

Song (I

of tbe

pen

summer on

think they hang there winter and

always drop

What

is it

fruit as

pass

IRoafc

those trees and

;)

interchange so suddenly with strangers

What with some

driver as

What with some

fisherman drawing his seine by the shore as

walk by and pause

What

gives

his side ? I

woman's and man's good-will ?

to be free to a

what gives them

on the seat by

ride

to be free to

mine

The I

efflux of the soul

think

Here

rises the fluid

flows unto us,

fluid

happiness, here

pervades the open

Now

The

air,

waiting

happiness,

all

times,

are rightly charged.

and attaching character,

and attaching character

the freshness and sweetness

man and woman,

(The herbs of the morning sprout no fresher and sweeter every

day out of the roots of themselves, than and sweet continually out of

Toward

From it falls

itself.)

young and

distill'd

old,

the charm that

mocks beauty and attainments,

heaves the shuddering longing ache of contact.

9 Allons

sprouts fresh

the fluid and attaching character exudes the sweat of the

love of

Toward

whoever you

Traveling with

are

me you

come

find

travel

with me!

what never [183]

tires.

Heaves of (Brass The

earth never tires,

The

earth

rude, sjlent, incomprehensible at

and incomprehensible

first,

Nature

rude

at first,

Be not discouraged, keep on, there are divine things well envelop'd, I

swear to you there are divine things more beautiful than words can

Aliens

tell.

must not stop

However sweet dwelling

However

here,

these laid-up stores,

this

cannot remain here,

shelter'd this port

must not anchor

However welcome

however convenient

and however calm these waters

here,

the hospitality that surrounds us

mitted to receive

but a

little

are per-

while.

10 Allons! the inducements shall be greater,

We will sail We will go

pathless and wild seas,

where winds blow, waves dash, and the Yankee

clipper speeds

Allons

with power,

by under

full sail.

liberty, the earth, the elements,

Health, defiance, gayety, self-esteem, curiosity;

Allons! from

From your

The

stale

all

formules!

formules,

bat-eyed and materialistic priests.

cadaver blocks up the passage

longer. [184]

the burial waits no

Song

of tbe

pen

IRoafc

Allons! yet take warning!

traveling with

None may come

needs the best blood, thews, endurance,

to the trial

till

he or she bring courage and

health,

Come

not here

you have already spent the best of

may come who come

Only those

yourself,

sweet and determin'd

bodies,

diseas'd person,

no rum-drinker or venereal

taint is permitted

here. (I

and mine do not convince by arguments,

similes,

rhymes,

convince by our presence.) ii

Listen I

will

do not

be honest with you,

offer the old

smooth

prizes,

but offer rough

new

prizes,

These are the days that must happen to you

You

shall not

You

shall scatter

You but

heap up what

is call'd

with lavish

arrive at the city to

hand

riches,

all

that

you earn or

which you were

settle yourself to satisfaction

destin'd,

achieve,

you hardly

before you are call'd by an

irresistible call to depart,

You

shall

be treated to the ironical smiles and mockings of those

who What

remain behind you,

beckonings of love you receive you

shall

only answer with

passionate kisses of parting,

You

shall

not allow the hold of those

hands toward you. [185]

who

spread their reach'd

leaves of (Braes 12

Aliens

after the great

They too

are

Companions, and to belong to them

on the road

they are the swift and majestic

men

women,

they are the greatest

Enjoyers of calms of seas and storms of seas, Sailors of

many

Habitues of

a ship, walkers of

many

distant

many

countries,

a mile of land,

habitues of

far-distant

dwellings,

Trusters of

men and women,

observers of

Pausers and contemplators of

tufts,

cities, solitary toilers,

shells

blossoms,

of the

shore,

Dancers

wedding-dances, kissers of brides, tender helpers of

children, bearers of children,

Soldiers of revolts, standers

by gaping graves, lowerers-down of

coffins,

Journeyers over consecutive seasons, over the years, the curious years each emerging from that which preceded

Journeyers as with companions, Forth-steppers from the

namely

their

own

it,

diverse phases,

latent unrealized baby-days,

Journeyers gayly with their

own

youth, Journeyers with their

bearded and well-grain'd manhood, Journeyers with their

womanhood, ample,

Journeyers with their

own

unsurpass'd, content,

sublime old age of

manhood

womanhood, Old age, calm, expanded, broad with the haughty breadth of the universe,

Old age, flowing

free

with the delicious near-by freedom of death. [186]

Song

of tbe

pen IRoab

Allans

to that

which

endless as

was

beginningless,

To undergo much, tramps of days, rests of nights, To merge all in the travel they tend to, and the days and they tend

Again

to,

merge them

in the start of superior journeys,

see nothing

conceive no time, however distant, but what you it

anywhere but what you may reach

and pass

look up or

nights

and pass

may

it,

reach

it,

down no

road but

however long but

stretches

and waits

for you,

and waits for you,

see no being, not God's or any, but

see no possession but

you

you may possess

also it,

thither,

enjoying

all

with-

out labor or purchase, abstracting the feast yet not abstracting one particle of

villa,

and the chaste blessings of the well-married couple,

and the

To To

it,

take the best of the farmer's farm and the rich man's elegant

fruits

of orchards and flowers of gardens,

take to your use out of the compact cities as carry buildings and

streets

you pass through,

with you afterward wherever

you go,

gather the minds of

men

out of their brains as you encounter

them, to gather the love out of their hearts,

take your lovers on the road with you, for

all

that

you

leave

them behind you,

To know

the universe

itself as a road, as

traveling souls. [187]

many

roads, as roads for

TLeaves of (Brass

All parts

away

All religion,

all

for the progress of souls, solid things, arts,

all

governments

apparent upon this globe or any globe,

that

was

into niches and

falls

corners before the procession of souls along the grand roads of the universe.

Of the

men and women

progress of the souls of roads of the universe,

emblem and

all

along the grand

other progress

the needed

sustenance.

Forever

alive, forever

Stately,

solemn, sad, withdrawn, baffled, mad, turbulent, feeble,

forward,

dissatisfied,

Desperate, proud, fond, sick, accepted

They go

they go

know

by men,

that they go, but

rejected

know

by men,

not where

they go,

But

know

[great

that they

go toward the best

toward something

Whoever you are, come forth! or man or woman come forth! You must not stay sleeping and dallying there in the house, though you

built

it,

or though

has been built for you.

Out of the dark confinement! out from behind the screen! It is

useless to protest,

know

all

Behold through you as bad as the

Through the Inside of

and expose

it.

rest,

laughter, dancing, dining, supping, of people,

dresses

trimm'd Behold a secret

and ornaments, inside of those wash'd and

faces, silent loathing

and despair. [188]

Song No

of tbe

husband, no wife, no

Another

pen

TRoafc

friend, trusted to hear the confession,

a duplicate of every one, skulking

self,

and hiding

goes,

Formless and wordless through the streets of the chies, polite and bland in the parlors, In the cars of railroads, in steamboats, in the public assembly,

Home

to the houses of

men and women,

at the table, in the

bed-

room, everywhere, Smartly

attired,

countenance smiling, form upright, death under

the breast-bones, hell under the skull-bones,

Under the broadcloth and

gloves, under the ribbons

and

artificial

flowers,

Keeping

fair

with the customs, speaking not a syllable of

Speaking of any thing

else but

never of

itself,

itself.

Allons! through struggles and wars!

The goal

that

was named cannot be countermanded.

Have the past struggles succeeded

What

Now

has succeeded

understand that

call is

forth

the

call

yourself

well

from any

come

it is

your nation

Nature

provided in the essence of things

fruition of success,

no matter what,

shall

something to make a greater struggle necessary. of battle,

nourish active rebellion,

He going with me must go well arm'd, He going with me goes often with spare enemies, desertions. [189]

diet,

poverty, angry

Xeat>e0 of (Braes

Aliens! the road It is

safe

have

before us!

tried

my own feet

have

tried

well

be not

detain'd!

Let the paper remain on the desk unwritten, and the

book on the

shelf unopen'd!

Let the tools remain in the workshop!

unearn'd

mind not the cry of the

Let the preacher preach in his pulpit!

Camerado,

let

teacher!

and the judge expound the law. give you

love

hand

more precious than money,

give you

give you myself before preaching or law

Will you give

money remain

the lawyer plead in the

Shall

the

Let the school stand!

court,

let

stick

yourself ? will

by each other

you come

as long as

[190]

;

travel live ?

with

me ?

Crossing Brooklyn

FLOOD-TIDE below

Clouds of the west

see

3ferr\>

face to face !

you

sun there half an hour high

see

you

also

costumes,

how

face to face.

Crowds

men and women

curious

you

are to

attired in the usual

the ferry-boats the hundreds and hundreds that cross, return-

ing home, are more curious to

And you

that shall cross

to me,

than you suppose,

from shore to shore years hence are

and more

my meditations,

than you might

suppose.

The impalpable sustenance of me from

all

things at

all

hours of

the day,

The

simple, compact, well-join'd scheme, myself disintegrated,

every one disintegrated yet part of the scheme,

The The

similitudes of the past glories strung

on the walk

The

and those of the

beads on

in the street

future,

smallest sights and hearings,

and the passage over the

current rushing so swiftly and [191]

swimming with

far

river,

away,

leaves of <5ra0$ The

others that are to follow me, the ties between

The

certainty of others, the

life,

me and

them,

love, sight, hearing of others.

Others will enter the gates of the ferry and cross from shore to shore,

Others will watch the run of the flood-tide,

Others will see the shipping of Manhattan north and west, and the heights of Brooklyn to the south and east,

Others will see the islands large and small Fifty years hence, others will see

them

;

as they cross, the sun half

an hour high,

hundred years hence, or ever so many hundred years hence, others will see them,

Will enjoy the sunset, the pouring-in of the flood-tide, the

fall-

ing-back to the sea of the ebb-tide. 3 It I

avails not,

time nor place

with you, you

many Just as

you

Just as

distance avails not,

men and women

of a generation, or ever so

generations hence,

feel

when you

any of you

look on the river and sky, so

one of a living crowd,

felt,

was one

of a

crowd, Just as

you

are refresh'd

bright flow, Just as

was

you stand and

current,

by the gladness of the

river

and the

refresh'd,

lean

stood yet

on the

was

rail,

yet hurry with the swift

hurried,

you look on the numberless masts of ships and the stemm'd pipes of steamboats, I look'd.

Just as

[192]

thick-

Creasing Brooklyn 3fern> I

too

many and many

Watched

the Twelfth-month sea-gulls,

saw them high

in the air

with motionless wings, oscillating their bodies,

floating

Saw how

a time cross'd the river of old,

the glistening yellow

lit

up parts of

their bodies

and

left

the rest in strong shadow,

Saw

[south the slow-wheeling circles and the gradual edging toward the

Saw

the reflection of the

Had my eyes Look'd

summer sky

dazzled by the shimmering track of beams,

at the fine centrifugal

in the water,

head

spokes of light round the shape of

in the sunlit water,

Look'd on the haze on the

Look'd on the vapor as

hills

southward and south-westward,

flew in fleeces tinged with

violet,

Look'd toward the lower bay to notice the vessels arriving,

Saw

their approach,

saw aboard

Saw

the white

of schooners and sloops,

The

sailors at

sails

those that were near me,

saw

the ships at

anchor,

The round

work

in the rigging or out astride the spars,

masts, the swinging motion of the hulls, the slender

serpentine pennants,

The

large

and small steamers

motion, the pilots in their pilot-

houses,

The white wake

left

by the passage, the quick tremulous whirl of

the wheels,

The

flags of

all

nations, the falling of

The scallop-edged waves

them

in the twilight,

at sunset,

the ladled cups, the

frolicsome crests and glistening,

The

stretch afar

growing dimmer and dimmer, the gray walls of

the granite storehouses by the docks, [193]

Heaves of (Brass On the

river the

shadowy group,

the big steam-tug closely flank'd

on each side by the barges, the hay-boat, the belated lighter,

the neighboring shore the fires from the foundry chimneys

burning high and glaringly into the night, Casting their flicker of black contrasted with wild red and yellow light

over the tops of houses, and

down

into the clefts of

streets.

These and I

all

else

loved well those

were to me the same cities,

The men and women Others the same

loved well the stately and rapid

saw were

others

as they are to you,

who

all

river,

near to me,

look back on

because

look'd

forward to them,

(The time will come, though

stop here to-day and to-night.)

What

then between us

is it

What is the count of Whatever

it is, it

the scores or hundreds of years between us

avails not

distance avails not, and place avails

not,

was mine,

too lived, Brooklyn of ample

too walk'd the streets of Manhattan island, and bathed in the

waters around I

too

felt

In the

hills

it,

the curious abrupt questionings

stir

within me.

day among crowds of people sometimes they came upon me, [194]

Crossing Brooklyn ferrp In

walks home

night or as

late at

lay in

bed they came

upon me, I

too had been struck from the float forever held in solution,

too had receiv'd identity by

That

was I

knew was

should be of

body,

body, and what

The dark The

best

knew

fall,

supposed them, were they not

in reality

you alone who know what

who knew what

it is

too knitted the old knot of contrariety,

meagre is it

should be

threw its patches down upon me also, had done seem'd to me blank and suspicious,

great thoughts as

Nor

body.

not upon you alone the dark patches

It is

was

to be evil,

Blabb'd, blush'd, resented, lied, stole, grudg'd,

Had

guile, anger, lust, hot

Was wayward, The

wishes

dared not speak,

vain, greedy, shallow, sly, cowardly, malignant,

wolf, the snake, the hog, not

The cheating

look, the frivolous

wanting

me,

[wanting,

word, the adulterous wish, not

Refusals, hates, postponements, meanness, laziness,

none of these

wanting,

Was one with the rest, the days and haps of the rest, Was call'd by my nighest name by clear loud voices of young men as they saw me approaching or passing, Felt their

arms on

my neck

their flesh against

stood, or the negligent leaning of I

sat,

Heaves of (Brass Saw many

loved in the street or ferry-boat or public assembly,

yet never told

Lived the same

life

them a word,

with the

rest,

the

same old laughing, gnaw-

ing, sleeping,

Play'd the part that

The same

we Or

looks back on the actor or actress,

still

old role, the role that

what we make

it,

as great as

like,

as small as

or both great

like,

and small.

Closer yet

approach you,

What thought you have laid in I

me now,

had as much of you

stores in advance,

consider'd long and seriously of

you before you were born.

Who was to know what should come home to me ? Who knows but am enjoying this ? Who knows, for all the distance, but am as good as I

you now,

for

you cannot see me

all

looking

Ah, what can ever be more stately and admirable to

mast-hemm'd Manhattan

than

River and sunset and scallop-edg'd waves of flood-tide

The

me ?

sea-gulls oscillating their bodies, the hay-boat in the twilight,

and the belated

What gods can exceed voices

name

love I

lighter ?

these that clasp

call

approach

me by the

hand, and with

promptly and loudly by

[196]

nighest

Crossing Brooklyn Jferrp What

man Which

that looks in

fuses

which

subtle than this

into

ties

to the

woman

face ?

you now, and pours

meaning

into

you?

understand then do

What

not

promis'd without mentioning

what

the study could not teach

accomplish

it,

accomplish'd,

is it

have you not accepted

the preaching could not

not

Flow

on, river

flow with the flood-tide, and ebb with the ebb-

tide! Frolic on, crested

and scallop-edg'd waves

Gorgeous clouds of the sunset

men and women

or the

drench with your splendor me,

generations after

Cross from shore to shore, countless crowds of passengers

Stand up,

tall

masts of Mannahatta

Brooklyn

stand up, beautiful

hills

Throb, baffled and curious brain! throw out

answers

questions and

Suspend here and everywhere, eternal

float of solution

Gaze, loving and thirsting eyes, in the house or street or public

assembly

Sound

young men nighest name

out, voices of

my Live, old

life

Play the old

loudly and musically

call

me by

play the part that looks back on the actor or actress

role,

makes

the role that

great or small according as one

[197]

Xcavee of (Brass Consider,

you who peruse me, whether

ways be looking upon you Be

firm,

rail

over the

support those

river, to

the

air

fly

who

;

sky,

you water, and to take

faithfully hold

from you

Diverge, fine spokes of light, from the shape of one's head, in the sunlit water on, ships from the lower sail'd

bay

be duly lower'd

Burn high your

foundry chimneys

nightfall

Appearances,

You

fires,

cast red

and yellow

head, or any

all

pass up or down, white-

Flaunt away, flags of

nations

it till all

schooners, sloops, lighters

houses

lean idly, yet

sideways, or wheel in large circles high in

downcast eyes have time

Come

unknown

;

summer

Receive the

not in

;

haste with the hasting current Fly on, sea-birds

may

at sunset

shadows

cast black

over the tops of the

light

now

or henceforth, indicate

what you

are,

necessary film, continue to envelop the soul,

About

body

for

me, and your body for you, be hung our

divinest aromas,

Thrive, cities

bring your freight, bring your shows, ample and

sufficient rivers,

Expand, being than which none

Keep your

places, objects than

else is

perhaps more

which none

else

You have waited, you always wait, you dumb,

receive

you with

free sense at last,

forward, [198]

spiritual,

lasting.

beautiful ministers,

and are

insatiate hence-

Crossing Brooklyn jferr? Not you any more from

be able to

shall

foil

us, or

withhold yourselves

us,

use you, and do not cast you aside

plant

you perma-

nently within us,

fathom you not

love

you

there

perfection in

also,

You

furnish your parts toward eternity,

Great or small, you furnish your parts toward the soul.

[i99]

you

Hnswerer

of tbe

Now

list

morning's romanza,

tell

the signs of the

Answerer,

the cities and farms

sing as they spread in the sunshine

before me.

A young man comes to me bearing a message from his brother, How shall the young man know the whether and when of his brother Tell

And

him

to send

the signs.

stand before the young right

hand

left

man

face to face, and take his

hand and

his left

hand

right

hand,

And

answer

that

Him

all

for his brother

answers for

wait

for,

him

all,

all

and

for

men, and

and send these

signs.

to, his

word

yield

answer

for

him

decisive and

final,

Him

they accept, in him lave, in him perceive themselves as

amid

light,

Him they immerse and he immerses them. [200]

of tbe Hnewerer

Song women,

Beautiful

the haughtiest nations, laws, the landscape,

people, animals,

The profound tell

All

earth and

its

attributes

and the unquiet ocean,

(so

morning's romanza,)

enjoyments and properties and money, and whatever money will buy,

The best farms, others

toiling

and planting and he unavoidably

reaps,

The noblest and

costliest cities, others

grading and building and

he domiciles there,

Nothing for any one but what

for him, near

and

far are for

him, the ships in the offing,

The perpetual shows and marches on land for

are for

him

they are

anybody.

puts things in their attitudes,

puts to-day out of himself with plasticity and love,

places his

own

times, reminiscences, parents, brothers

sisters, associations,

employment,

and

politics, so that the rest

never shame them afterward, nor assume to

command

them.

What

the Answerer,

can be answer'd he answers, and what cannot be answer'd

he shows

A man (It is

how

cannot be answer'd.

summons and

vain to skulk

you hear the

challenge,

do you hear that mocking and laughter ? do ironical

echoes [201]

Xeaves of (Brass Books, friendships, philosophers, beat up and

pride,

seeking to give satisfaction,

and indicates them that beat up and

indicates the satisfaction,

down

also.

Whichever the freshly

down

priests, action, pleasure,

sex,

whatever the season or

and gently and

place,

may go

safely by day or by night,

has the pass-key of hearts, to him the response of the prying of hands on the knobs.

welcome

His

come

universal, the flow of beauty

or universal than he

The person he

favors

Every existence has

by day its

not more wel-

is,

or sleeps with at night

blessed.

idiom, every thing has an idiom and

tongue,

resolves

all

tongues into his

and any man

One

and any

how

upon men,

man translates himself also,

part does not counteract another part, he

sees

translates,

own and bestows

the joiner, he

they join.

says indifferently and alike

How

are

you friend?

to the

President at his levee,

And

he says Good-day

brother, to

Cudge

that hoes in the

sugar-field,

And

both understand him and

He walks with

know

that his speech

is right.

perfect ease in the capitol,

He walks among

the Congress, and one Representative says to

another, Here is our equal appearing [202]

and new.

Walt Whitman, 1877 From

a sketch by G.

Waters.

Owned by

Brooklyn, N. V.

H. Johns ton Esq. ^

3c4 \- i,

-y^rw

' '

, .

Song

Then the mechanics take him

And

answerer

of tbe

for a mechanic,

the soldiers suppose him to be a soldier, and the sailors that

he has follow'd the

And

the authors take

sea,

him

and the

for an author,

artists for

artist,

And

the laborers perceive he could labor with

them and love

them,

matter what the has follow'd

work

that he

is,

the one to follow

it,

matter what the nation, that he might find his brothers and sisters there.

The English

A Jew

believe he

comes of

Jew he seems,

to the

their English stock,

Russ to the Russ, usual and

near,

removed from none.

Whoever he The Italian iard

The

looks at in the traveler's coffee-house claims him,

Frenchman

or is

sure,

sure, the

German

and the island Cuban

sure, the

Span-

sure,

engineer, the deck-hand on the great lakes, or on the Mississippi or St.

manok

Lawrence or Sacramento, or Hudson or Pau-

sound, claims him.

The gentleman of The insulter, the

perfect blood

acknowledges

prostitute, the

themselves in the

ways

his perfect blood,

angry person, the beggar, see

of him, he strangely transmutes

them,

They

are not vile are so

any more, they hardly

grown. [203]

know

themselves they

leaves of (Brass

The

and

indications

Perfect sanity

tally of time,

shows the master among

Time, always without break, indicates

What always

indicates the poet

philosophs, itself in parts,

the

crowd

of the pleasant

company of singers, and their words, The words of the singers are the hours or minutes dark, but the light

The maker

are the general

and dark, of

poems

His insight and

words of the maker of poems

of the light or

settles justice, reality, immortality,

power

encircle things

and the human

race,

the glory and extract thus far of things and of the

human

race.

The

singers do not beget, only the Poet begets,

The

singers are welcom'd, understood, appear often enough, but rare has the

day been, likewise the spot, of the birth of the

maker of poems, the Answerer, (Not every century nor every five centuries has contain'd such a day, for

The

all its

names.)

singers of successive hours of centuries

names, but the name of each of them

The name

of each

singer,

time and

The words of

something at all

true

ostensible

one of the singers,

eye-singer, ear-singer, head-singer, sweet-

night-singer,

singer, or

All this

is,

may have

parlor-singer,

love-singer,

weird-

else.

times wait the words of true poems,

poems do not merely [204]

please,

Song The

Hnewerer

true poets are not followers of beauty but the august masters

of beauty

The

of tbe

;

greatness of sons

and

The words

the exuding of the greatness of mothers

fathers,

of true

poems are

the tuft and final applause of science.

Divine instinct, breadth of vision, the law of reason, health, rudeness of body, withdrawnness,

[poems

Gayety, sun-tan, air-sweetness, such are some of the words of

The sailor and The

traveler underlie the

maker of poems, the Answerer,

builder, geometer, chemist, anatomist, phrenologist, artist, all

these underlie the

The words of the

They give you

true

form

maker of poems, the Answerer.

poems give you more than poems, for yourself

poems,

religions, politics, war,

peace, behavior, histories, essays, daily

life,

and every thing

else,

They balance

ranks, colors, races, creeds,

They do not seek

and the sexes,

beauty, they are sought,

Forever touching them or close upon them follows beauty, longing, fain, love-sick.

They prepare

for death, yet they are not the finish, but rather

the outset,

They bring none

Whom

to his or her terminus or to

full,

they take they take into space to behold the birth of

stars, to learn

be content and

one of the meanings,

launch off with absolute rings

faith, to

sweep through

and never be quiet again. [205]

the ceaseless

ALWAYS our Always

old feuillage

always the priceless delta

Florida's green peninsula

always the cotton-fields of Alabama and

of Louisiana

Texas,

Always

California's

mountains of

Always the

golden

New

and hollows, and the

hills

Mexico

vast slope drain'd

always soft-breath'd Cuba,

by the Southern

sea, inseparable

with the slopes drain'd by the Eastern and Western

The

silver

seas,

area the eighty-third year of these States, the three and a half millions of square miles,

The eighteen thousand

miles of sea-coast and bay-coast on the

main, the thirty thousand miles of river navigation,

The seven

millions of distinct families and the

dwellings

same number

always these, and more, branching forth into

numberless branches,

Always the

free

range and diversity

Democracy; Always the prairies,

pastures,

always the continent of

forests,

vast

cities,

travelers,

Kanada, the snows;

Always these compact lands

tied at the hips

ing the huge oval lakes; [206]

with the belt string-

K> jfeuillage

Always the West with strong

native

persons, the increasing

density there, the habitans, friendly, threatening, ironical,

scorning invaders

;

All sights, South, North, East

all

deeds promiscuously done at

* U times > All characters,

movements, growths, a few

Through Mannahatta's

interior rivers

wooding

streets

by night

[noticed, noticed, myriads un-

walking, these things gathering,

in the glare of pine knots,

steamboats

up,

Sunlight by day on the valley of the Susquehanna, and on the valleys of the

of the

Potomac and Rappahannock, and the

Roanoke and Delaware,

In their northerly wilds beasts of prey

the In a

valleys

hills,

lonesome

or lapping the

water rocking

Afar on arctic

to drink,

silently,

oxen

rest standing,

Saginaw waters

sheldrake lost from the flock, sitting on the

inlet a

In farmers' barns

haunting the Adirondacks

in the stable, their harvest labor done, they

they are too

ice the

tired,

she-walrus lying drowsily while her cubs

play around,

The hawk

sailing

where men have not yet

sea, ripply, crystalline,

White

drift

open, beyond the

spooning ahead where the ship

solid land

what

done

sail'd,

the farthest polar floes,

the tempest dashes,

in cities as the bells strike

midnight

together, In primitive

woods the sounds there also sounding,

wolf, the scream of the panther,

the elk, [207]

the

howl of the

and the hoarse bellow of

leaves of (Braes In winter

beneath the hard blue

visible

Moosehead

ice of

summer

lake, in

through the clear waters, the great trout swimming,

lower latitudes

warmer

Carolinas the large black

air in the

buzzard floating slowly high beyond the tree tops, Below, the red cedar festoon'd with tylandria, the pines and cypresses growing out of the white sand that spreads far

and

flat,

Rude boats descending the big Pedee, climbing

plants, parasites

with color'd flowers and berries enveloping huge

The waving drapery on the live-oak lessly waved by the wind, The camp

of Georgia

wagoners

trailing

trees,

long and low, noise-

just after dark, the supper-fires

and the cooking and eating by whites and negroes, Thirty or forty great wagons, the mules,

cattle, horses,

feeding

from troughs,

The shadows, gleams, up under the trees, the

leaves of the old sycamore-

flames with the black

curling and rising

smoke from

;

Southern fishermen fishing, the sounds and lina's coast,

inlets of

North Caro-

the shad-fishery and the herring-fishery, the

large sweep-seines, the windlasses

horses, the clearing, curing,

Deep

the pitch-pine

in the forest in

piney woods

on shore work'd by

and packing-houses

;

turpentine dropping from the

incisions in the trees, there are the turpentine works,

There are the negroes at work directions In

good

health, the

cover'd with pine straw

Tennessee and Kentucky slaves busy forge,

by the furnace-blaze, or [208]

ground

in all

;

in the coalings, at the

at the corn-shucking,

son returning after a long absence, joy-

In Virginia, the planter's fully

welcom'd and

boatmen

rivers

kiss'd

by the aged mulatto

safely moor'd

nurse,

at nightfall in their boats

under

shelter of high banks,

Some

of the younger

men dance

fiddle, others sit

sound of the banjo or

to the

on the gunwale smoking and talking

;

Late in the afternoon the mocking-bird, the American mimic, singing in the Great Dismal

Swamp,

There are the greenish waters, the resinous odor, the plenteous moss, the cypress-tree, and the juniper-tree

Northward, young men

an excursion returning home zles all bear

company from evening, the musket-muz-

bunches of flowers presented by

Children at play, or on his father's lap a

(how The scout

sippi,

California

his lips

riding

young boy

move! how he smiles

Down

on horseback over the plains west of the Missis;

the miner, bearded, dress'd in his rude costume,

in passing

Texas the

meets

air,

the graves

solitary just aside the horse-path

;

cotton-field, the negro-cabins, drivers driving

mules or oxen before rude

banks and wharves all,

;

fallen asleep,

he ascends a knoll and sweeps his eyes around

life,

Encircling

women

in his sleep!)

the stanch California friendship, the sweet

one

;

of Mannahatta, the target

vast-darting

carts,

cotton bales piled on

;

up and wide, the American

Soul, with

equal hemispheres, one Love, one Dilation or Pride In arriere the peace-talk

;

with the Iroquois the aborigines, the

calumet, the pipe of good-will, arbitration, and indorse-

ment, [209]

leaves of (Brass The sachem blowing toward the

smoke

the

first

toward the sun and then

earth,

[guttural exclamations, of the scalp-dance enacted with painted faces and

The drama The

setting out of the war-party, the long

The

single

the swinging hatchets, the surprise and slaughter

file,

of enemies All the

and stealthy march,

;

scenes, ways, persons, attitudes of these States,

acts,

reminiscences, institutions,

compact, every square mile of these States without

All these States

excepting a particle

Me pleas'd,

rambling

Observing the

spiral flight of

between each

The

;

in lanes

and country fields, Paumanok's

two

little

yellow butterflies shuffling

other, ascending high in the

air,

darting swallow, the destroyer of insects, the

southward but returning northward

The country boy

at the close of the

fields,

fall

traveler

early in the spring,

day driving the herd of cows

and shouting to them as they

loiter to

browse by the

roadside,

The

city wharf, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston,

New

Orleans, San Francisco,

The departing

Evening

The

setting

the

ships in

when

room

summer sun

swarm

the sailors heave at the capstan

shining in

flies,

;

the setting sun,

open window, showing

suspended, balancing

in the air in the

centre of the room, darting athwart, up and

down,

cast-

ing swift shadows in specks on the opposite wall where the shine

The

athletic

;

[listeners,

American matron speaking [210]

in public to

crowds of

R> jfeuillage

Males, females, immigrants, combinations, the copiousness, the

the

individuality of the States, each for itself

money-

makers, Factories, machinery, the mechanical forces, the windlass, lever, all

pulley,

The

certainties,

certainty of space, increase, freedom, futurity,

on the

In space the sporades, the scatter'd islands, the stars

firm earth, the lands,

lands!

all

so dear to

putting

whatever

random

lands,

what you

in these songs,

(whatever

are,

become a

it is,)

part of that,

it is,

Southward there, I screaming, with wings slow flapping, with the myriads of gulls wintering along the coasts of Florida,

Otherways there atwixt the banks of the Arkansaw, the Rio Grande, the Nueces, the Brazos, the Tombigbee, the Red River, the

Saskatchawan or the Osage,

with the spring

waters laughing and skipping and running,

Northward, on the sands, on some shallow bay of Paumanok, with parties of snowy herons wading

worms and

in the

to seek

aquatic plants,

from piercing

Retreating, triumphantly twittering, the king-bird,

the

wet

crow with

its bill,

for

amusement

and

triumphantly

twittering,

The migrating

flock of wild geese alighting in

autumn

to refresh

themselves, the body of the flock feed, the sentinels outside

move around with

erect heads watching,

time to time reliev'd by other sentinels taking turns with the

rest,

[211]

and

and are from I

feeding and

leaves of (Brass In

Kanadian

forests

the moose, large as an

corner'd

ox,

hunters, rising desperately on his hind-feet, and plunging

with his

fore-feet, the hoofs as sharp as knives

plunging

at the hunters, corner'd

And

workmen working

and no

myself than the whole of the Mannahatta

in itself,

inevitable united, part to part,

and made out of a

identity,

any more than

made ONE

lands are inevitably united and

less in

my body

ever-united lands

thousand diverse contributions one

and the

in the shops,

too of the Mannahatta, singing thereof

Singing the song of These,

and desperate,

In the Mannahatta, streets, piers, shipping, store-houses,

countless

and

IDENTITY

;

Nativities, climates, the grass of the great pastoral Plains, Cities,

labors,

death, animals, products, war,

good and

evil

these me,

These affording,

and to America,

how

can

less

than pass the clew of

the union of them, to afford the like to you

how can but offer you am ? eligible as

Whoever you are also

How

can

in all their particulars, the old feuillage to

divine leaves, that

you

but as here chanting, invite you for yourself to collect

bouquets of the incomparable feuillage of these States

[212]

E O TO

make

Song

the most jubilant song!

Full of

music

Full of

common employments

full

manhood, womanhood, infancy!

for the voices of animals fishes

full

of grain and trees.

for the swiftness

O for the dropping of raindrops in a song! O for the sunshine and motion of waves in

O the joy \

It is

spirit

it is

uncaged

O the

have thousands of globes and

engineer's joys

darts like lightning!

all

time.

go with a locomotive

hear the hiss of steam, the merry shriek, the steam-whistle, the laughing locomotive

To push with

a song!

not enough to have this globe or a certain time,

will

and balance of

resistless

way and

speed off in the distance.

the gleesome saunter over fields and hillsides

The

leaves and flowers of the stillness

The

commonest weeds,

the moist fresh

of the woods,

[forenoon.

exquisite smell of the earth at daybreak, [213]

and

all

through the

Xeaves of Grass

O the The

horseman's and horsewoman's joys!

saddle, the gallop, the pressure

by the

gling

ears

and

upon the

seat, the cool

gur-

hair.

the fireman's joys! 1

hear the alarm at dead of night,

hear

The

shouts!

bells,

pass the crowd,

sight of the flames

run!

maddens me with

pleasure.

the joy of the strong-brawn'd fighter, towering in the arena in perfect condition, conscious of

power, thirsting to meet

his

opponent.

sympathy which only the human capable of generating and emitting in steady and

the joy of that vast elemental soul

limitless floods.

the mother's joys

The watching, the endurance, the precious patiently yielded

love, the anguish, the

life.

the joy of increase, growth, recuperation,

The joy of soothing and

pacifying,

the joy of concord and

harmony.

go back to the place where

was

born,

hear the birds sing once more,

To ramble about

the house and barn and over the fields once

more,

And through

the orchard and along the old lanes once more. [214]

a Sons to have been brought

up on bays, lagoons,

creeks, or along the

coast,

continue and be employ'd there

The briny and damp low water, The work 1

of fishermen, the

the tide out ?

life,

smell, the shore, the salt

work

come with my clam-rake and

all

weeds exposed

of the eel-fisher and clam-fisher;

spade,

come with

my eel-spear,

join the group of clam-diggers on the

laugh and work with them,

joke at

my work

like a

flats,

mettlesome

young man; In winter

on the

Behold

ice

have a small axe to cut holes

well-clothed going gayly or returning in the afternoon,

brood of grown and part-grown boys,

no one

By day

else so well as

who

night to sleep with me.

warm weather out in a boat,

where they are sunk with heavy stones, the sweetness of the Fifth-month morning

row pull the

just before sunrise

There

know the buoys, )

upon the water

take

them

in a

huge

kettle of boiling

their color

out,

in the joints of their pincers,

the places one after another, and then

all

till

wicker pots up slantingly, the dark green lobsters are

wooden pegs to

the lobster-pots

lift

toward the buoys,

desperate with their .claws as

love to be with

they love to be with me,

work with me, and by

Another time in

in the ice,

brood of tough boys accompanying me,

my eel-basket and eel-spear and travel out on foot

take

becomes

[215]

insert

[shore, to the

row back

water the lobsters

scarlet.

shall

boil'd

leaves of (Braaa Another time mackerel-taking, Voracious,

mad

seem

for the hook, near the surface, they

the water for miles

fill

;

Another time fishing for rock-fish

Chesapeake Bay,

one of the

brown-faced crew; Another time

trailing for blue-fish off

Paumanok,

stand with

braced body,

left

foot

on the gunwale,

right

arm throws

far out the

coils of slender rope,

In sight

around

the quick veering and darting of fifty skiffs,

companions.

boating on the rivers,

The voyage down

the St. Lawrence, the superb

scenery, the

steamers,

The ships sailing, the Thousand

Islands, the occasional timber-raft

and the raftsmen with long-reaching sweep-oars,

The

little

huts on the

cook supper

and the stream of smoke when they

rafts,

at evening.

(O something pernicious and dread! Something

far

away from

puny and pious

Something unproved! something

life!

in a trance!

Something escaped from the anchorage and driving

work

Foundry

in mines, or forging iron,

casting, the

foundry

itself,

the rude high roof, the ample

and shadow'd space,

The

free.)

furnace, the hot liquid pour'd out [216]

and running.

a Song O

resume the joys of the

soldier!

the presence of a brave

feel

sympathy

To behold smile

his

calmness

to feel his

officer

be warm'd in the rays of his

and musket-barrels

see

taste the

gloat so over the

fall

and

die

bugles play and the drums beat! to see the glittering of the bayonets

in the sun!

and not compfein

wounds and deaths

feel the ship's

cruise

motion under me,

to be so devilish

savage taste of blood

the whaleman's joys! 1

commanding

To go to battle to hear the To hear the crash of artillery

men

of 3o?0

of the enemy.

old cruise again!

feel the Atlantic breezes fan-

ning me, I

hear the cry again sent

blows

Again

down from

the mast-head, There

she

we descend,

spring up the rigging to look with the rest

wild with excitement, leap in the lower'd boat,

we row

toward our prey where he

lies,

app, oach stealthy and

silent,

see the mountainous mass,

lethargic, basking, I

see the harpooner standing up,

vigorous arm

see the

weapon

dart

wounded whale,

running to windward, tows me, I

see

him

his

;

swift again far out in the ocean the

Again

from

rise to breathe,

we row

[217]

close again,

settling,

Xeaves of <5rae0 see a lance driven through his side, press'd deep, turn'd in the

wound, Again

As he

rises

[fast>

back

off,

see

him

he spouts blood,

settle again, the life is leaving

him swim

see

in circles

and narrower, swiftly cutting the water

gives one convulsive leap falls flat

and

manhood

the old

still

see

narrower

him

in the centre of the circle,

die,

and then

bloody foam.

in the

of me,

him

noblest joy of

all!

My children and grand-children, my white hair and beard, My largeness, calmness, majesty, out of the long stretch of my life. ripen'd joy of 1

am more

womanhood!

happiness at

than eighty years of age,

last!

the most ve

nether,

How

clear

mind

how

all

people draw nigh to me!

What attractions are these beyond any before ? what bloom more than the bloom of youth?

What

beauty

that descends

upon me and

rises out of

me?

the orator's joys!

inflate the chest, to roll the

ribs

To make To

is this

lead

and

thunder of the voice out from the

throat,

the people rage, weep, hate, desire, with yourself,

America

the joy of

to quell

America with a great tongue.

soul leaning pois'd on

itself,

receiving identity

through materials and loving them, observing characters

and absorbing them, [218]

H Song

My soul vibrated back to me from them,

from

reason, articulation, comparison,

The

real life of

sight, hearing, touch,

memory, and the

senses and flesh transcending

like,

senses and

flesh,

My body done with materials, my sight done with my material eyes, Proved to me this day beyond cavil that it is not my material

eyes which finally see,

Nor

my material

body which

finally loves,

walks, laughs, shouts,

embraces, procreates.

the farmer's joys

Ohioan's, Illinoisian's, Wisconsinese', {Canadian's, lowan's, sian's, Missourian's,

land in the

fall

for

winter-sown crops,

land in the spring for maize,

train orchards, to graft the trees, to gather apples in the

O to bathe To

peep of day and pass forth nimbly to work,

rise at

To plough To plough To

Oregonese' joys

Kan-

in the

fall.

swimming-bath, or in a good place along shore,

splash the water! to walk ankle-deep, or race naked along the shore.

to realize space

The plenteousness of

To emerge and be

all,

that there are

no bounds,

of the sky, of the sun and

moon and

flying

clouds, as one with them.

O the joy To be

of a manly self-hood

servile to none, to defer to none, not to

unknown, [219]

any tyrant known

leaves of Grass To walk with To

erect carriage, a step springy

and

elastic,

look with calm gaze or with a flashing eye,

To speak with a full and sonorous voice out of a broad chest, To confront with your personality all the other personalities of the earth.

Know'st thou the excellent joys of youth

Joys of the dear companions and of the merry ing face

word and laugh-

Joy of the glad light-beaming day, joy of the wide-breath'd ?

games

Joy of sweet music, joy of the lighted ball-room and the dancers Joy of the plenteous dinner, strong carouse and drinking

Yet

O my

soul

supreme

Know'st thou the joys of pensive thought

Joys of the free and lonesome heart, the tender, gloomy heart?

Joys of the solitary walk, the ing and the struggle

The

spirit

bow'd yet proud, the

suffer-

agonistic throes, the ecstasies, joys of the solemn musings

day or night

Joys of the thought of Death, the great spheres Time and

Space

Prophetic joys of better, loftier love's ideals, the divine wife, the sweet, eternal, perfect comrade

Joys

all

while

To meet

thine

own undying

live to

life

one, joys

be the ruler of

life,

worthy thee

not a slave,

as a powerful conqueror, [220]

soul.

a Song No

fumes, no ennui, no more complaints or scornful

criti-

cisms,

these proud laws of the

ing

And

the water and the ground, prov-

interior soul impregnable,

command

nothing exterior shall ever take

For not

The

air,

life's

joys alone

sing, repeating

beautiful touch of Death, soothing

moments,

of me.

the joy of death

and benumbing

few

for reasons,

Myself discharging

excrementitious body to be burn'd, or

render'd to powder, or buried,

My My

real

body doubtless

left

for other spheres,

voided body nothing more to me, returning to the purifications, further offices, eternal uses of the earth.

O to attract by more than attraction How is know not yet behold it

none of the

O to

the something which obeys

rest,

offensive, never defensive

It is

yet

how

entirely alone

To look

with them, to find

strife, torture, prison,

To mount

draws.

one can stand!

the scaffold, to advance to the muzzles of guns with

To be indeed sail

how much

popular odium, face to face!

perfect nonchalance!

struggle against great odds, to meet enemies undaunted!

To be

O to

magnetic

God!

to sea in a ship!

leave this steady unendurable land, [221]

Xeavee of <5rae0 To

leave the tiresome sameness of the streets, the sidewalks and

the houses,

leave

sail

and

to have

sail

life

solid motionless land,

you and

sail

and entering a

henceforth a

ship

a sailor of the itself,

ship,

poem

new

joys

dance, clap hands, exult, shout, skip, leap,

To be

A A

you

world bound for

(see indeed these sails

swift and swelling ship

full

all

on, float on!

ports,

spread to the sun and

of rich words,

[222]

roll

full

of joys.

air,)

of tbe

WEAPON

shapely, naked,

Broab^Hye

wan,

Head from the mother's bowels drawn,

Wooded

flesh

Gray-blue

and metal bone, limb only one and

leaf

lip

only one,

by red-heat grown, helve produced from a

little

seed sown,

Resting the grass amid and upon,

To be

lean'd

and to lean on.

Strong shapes and attributes of strong shapes, masculine trades, sights

Long

and sounds,

varied train of an

emblem, dabs of music,

Fingers of the organist skipping staccato over the keys of the great organ.

Welcome

are

Welcome

are lands of pine

and oak,

Welcome

are lands of the

lemon and

Welcome

are lands of gold,

Welcome

are lands of

all

earth's lands, each for its kind,

fig,

wheat and maize, welcome those of the

grape, [223]

leaves of (Brass Welcome

are lands of sugar and rice,

Welcome

the cotton-lands,

welcome those of the white potato

and sweet potato,

Welcome

are mountains, flats, sands, forests, prairies,

Welcome

the rich borders of rivers, table-lands, openings,

Welcome

the measureless grazing-lands, of orchards, flax, honey,

soil

Welcome Lands

just as

much

rich as lands of

the other

gold or

welcome

hemp;

more hard-faced

wheat and

coal,

The

make

lands of the

of the axe.

log at the wood-pile, the axe supported by

The sylvan

ores,

tin, zinc,

copper, lead,

Lands of iron

lands,

fruit lands,

Lands of mines, lands of the manly and rugged Lands of

the teeming

hut, the vine over the

it,

doorway, the space

clear'd for

a garden,

The

irregular tapping of rain

down on

the leaves after the storm

is lull'd,

The wailing and moaning The thought

at intervals, the

The sentiment

of the

The remember'd

away

of masts,

print or narrative, the

families,

beam

[barns,

huge timbers of old-fashion'd houses and voyage

at a

venture of

goods,

The disembarkation, the founding

The voyage

sea,

of ships struck in the storm and put on their

ends, and the cutting

men,

thought of the

of those

who

of a

sought a

the outset anywhere, [224]

new

New

city,

England and found

it,

Song

of the Broab^Bye

The settlements of the Arkansas, Colorado, Ottawa, Willamette, The slow

progress, the scant fare, the axe,

The beauty of The beauty

all

saddle-bags

rifle,

adventurous and daring persons,

wood-boys and wood-men with

their clear

trimm'd faces,

The beauty

The

un-

[themselves,

of independence, departure, actions

The American contempt less

;

for statutes

that

rely

and ceremonies, the bound-

impatience of restraint,

random

loose drift of character, the inkling through

the solidification

The butcher

types,

;

in the slaughter-house, the

hands aboard schooners

and sloops, the raftsman, the pioneer,

Lumbermen of

The

snow on

life

own

voice, the

the sweet taste of supper, the talk, the

work

in cities or

;

anywhere,

The preparatory jointing, squaring, sawing, mortising, The hoist-up of beams, the push of them in their places, them

stripes

merry song, the

bed of hemlock-boughs and the bear-skin

The house-builder

woods,

of the woods, the strong day's work,

fire at night,

blazing

in the

the limbs of trees, the occasional snapping,

glad clear sound of one's natural

The

winter camp, daybreak

in their

laying

regular,

Setting the studs

their

tenons in the mortises according as

they were prepared,

The blows

of mallets and

hammers, the

attitudes of the

men,

their curv'd limbs,

Bending, standing, astride the beams, driving in pins, holding on

by posts and '5

braces, [225]

Xeaves of (Brass The hook'd arm over

The floor-men

the plate, the other

arm wielding the

forcing the planks close to be

Their postures bringing their weapons

axe,

nail'd,

downward on

the bearers,

The echoes resounding through the vacant building; The huge storehouse carried up in the city well under way, The six framing-men, two in the middle and two at each carefully bearing on

their shoulders a

heavy

end,

stick for a

cross-beam,

The crowded

masons with trowels

line of

rapidly laying the long side-wall,

in their right

two hundred

hands

feet

from

front to rear,

The

flexible rise

and

fall

of backs, the continual click of the

trowels striking the bricks,

The

bricks one after another each laid so place,

The

and

set

workmanlike

in its

with a knock of the trowel-handle,

piles of materials, the

mortar on the mortar-boards, and the

steady replenishing by the hod-men;

Spar-makers

in the spar-yard, the

swarming row of well-grown

apprentices,

The swing of

their axes

on the square-hew'd log shaping

toward the shape of a mast,

The

brisk short crackle of the steel driven slantingly into the pine,

The

butter-color'd chips flying off in great flakes

The limber motion

brawny young arms and

and

slivers,

hips in easy cos-

tumes,

The

constructor of wharves, bridges, piers, bulk-heads, stays against the sea; [226]

floats,

of tbe

Song The

city fireman, the fire that

suddenly bursts forth

in the close-

pack'd square,

The

arriving engines, the hoarse shouts, the nimble stepping

and

daring,

The strong command through line,

The

the rise and

of the

fall

arms forcing the water,

slender, spasmic, blue-white jets, the bringing to bear of the

hooks and ladders and

The crash and floors

cut

the

The crowd with shadows

The

the fire-trumpets, the falling in

away fire

their

their execution,

of connecting

wood-work,

or through

smoulders under them, lit

faces watching, the glare and dense

;

forger at his forge-furnace

The maker of the axe

and the user of

and

large

small,

iron after him,

and the welder and tem-

perer,

The chooser breathing edge with

his

his breath

steel

the handle and sets

far-off Assyrian edifice

The Roman

firmly in the

;

The shadowy processions of the portraits of the The primal patient mechanics, the architects and The

and trying the

thumb,

The one who clean-shapes socket

on the cold

lictors

and Mizra

past users also, engineers,

edifice,

preceding the consuls,

The antique European warrior with his axe in combat, The uplifted arm, the clatter of blows on the helmeted head,

The death-howl, and foe

The

the limpsy tumbling body, the rush of friend

thither,

siege of revolted lieges determin'd for liberty, [227]

Xeaves of (Brass The summons to and

The sack

surrender, the battering at castle gates, the truce

parley,

of an old city in

The bursting

time.

its

and bigots tumultuously and dis-

in of mercenaries

orderly,

Roar, flames, blood, drunkenness, madness,

Goods

freely rifled

from houses and temples, screams of

women

in the gripe of brigands,

Craft and thievery of camp-followers,

men

running, old persons

despairing,

The

hell of

The

list

The power

war, the cruelties of creeds, all

executive deeds and words just or unjust,

of personality just or unjust.

Muscle and pluck forever!

What

invigorates

life

invigorates death,

And

the dead advance as

And

the future

much

as the living advance,

no more uncertain than the present,

For the roughness of the earth and of

man

encloses as

much

the delicatesse of the earth and of man,

And nothing endures

What do you Do you think Or

but personal qualities.

think endures

a great city endures ?

a teeming manufacturing state ? or a prepared constitution ?

or the best built steamships

and iron

armaments

hotels of granite ing, forts,

or any chef-d'oeuvres of engineer-

[228]

Sons

of tbe

these are not to be cherish'd for themselves,

Away!

They fill their hour, the dancers dance, the musicians The show passes, all does well enough of course, All

does very well

great city

If it

that

till

one

play for them,

flash of defiance.

which has the greatest men and women,

be a few ragged huts

it is still

the greatest city in the whole

world. 5

The

place

where

a great city stands

not the place of stretch'd

wharves, docks, manufactures, deposits of produce merely,

Nor the

place of ceaseless salutes of

lifters

Nor the

of the departing,

place of the tallest and costliest buildings or shops selling

goods from the

Nor the

Where

rest of the earth,

place of the best libraries and schools, nor the place

money Nor the

new-comers or the anchor-

where

plentiest,

place of the

most numerous population.

the city stands with the brawniest breed of orators and

^bards,

Where

the city stands that in return

belov'd by these, and loves them

and understands them,

Where no monuments

exist to heroes but in the

common words

and deeds,

Where

thrift is in its place,

Where

the

Where

the slave ceases, and the master of slaves ceases,

and prudence

men and women

in its place,

think lightly of the laws,

[229]

Xeaves of (Brass Where the populace

rise at

once against the never-ending audacity

of elected persons,

Where

fierce

men and women pour

of death pours

Where

its

forth as the sea to the whistle

sweeping and unript waves,

outside authority enters always after the precedence of inside authority,

Where

the citizen

always the head and

ideal,

and President,

Mayor, Governor and what not, are agents for pay,

Where

children are taught to be laws to themselves, and to

depend

on themselves,

Where equanimity is illustrated Where speculations on the soul Where women walk as the

in affairs,

are encouraged,

in public processions in the streets the

same

[as the

men;

men,

Where they enter the Where the city of the

public assembly and take places the same faithfulest friends stands,

Where

the city of the cleanliness of the sexes stands,

Where

the city of the healthiest fathers stands,

Where

the city of the best-bodied mothers stands,

There the great

How How

city stands.

beggarly appear arguments before a defiant deed! the floridness of the materials of cities shrivels before a

man's or woman's look! All waits or goes

default

till

a strong being appears;

A strong being is the proof of the race and of [230]

r verse

the ability of the uni-

Son<j of tbe

When

he or she appears materials are overaw'd,

The dispute on the soul stops, The old customs and phrases are confronted,

turn'd back, or laid

away.

What

now ? what now ?

your money-making

can

now ?

What

your respectability

What are your theology,

tuition, society, traditions, statute-books,

now? now ?

Where

are

Where

are your cavils about the soul

all

jibes of being

as the best for

good

the forbidding appearance,

the mine, there are the miners,

The forge-furnace mers-men

What always Than

now ?

landscape covers the ore, there

sterile

There

your

this

there, the melt

are at

hand with

accomplished, the

their tongs

served and always serves

nothing has better served,

ham-

and hammers,

hand.

has served

all,

Served the fluent-tongued and subtle-sensed Greek, and long ere the Greek,

Served

in building the buildings that last longer

than any,

Served the Hebrew, the Persian, the most ancient Hindustanee, Served the mound-raiser on the Mississippi, served those whose relics

remain

in Central

Served Albic temples

and the

America,

woods

or on plains, with

druids, [231]

unhewn

pillars

leaves of (Brass Served the hills

artificial clefts, vast,

high, silent,

on the snow-cover'd

of Scandinavia,

Served those

who

time out of mind made on the granite walls

rough sketches of the sun, moon,

stars, ships,

ocean waves,

Served the paths of the irruptions of the Goths, served the pastoral tribes

and nomads,

Served the long distant Kelt, served the hardy pirates of the

Baltic,

men

Served before any of those the venerable and harmless

Ethiopia,

Served the making of helms foV the galleys of pleasure and the

making of those Served

all

great

for war,

works on land and

all

great

works on the

sea,

For the mediaeval ages and before the mediaeval ages, Served not the living only then as now, but served the dead.

8 I

see the European headsman,

stands mask'd, clothed in red, with huge legs and strong

naked arms,

And

leans on a ponderous axe.

(Whom Whose

have you slaughter'd is

that blood

lately

European headsman

upon you so wet and

sticky

see the clear sunsets of the martyrs,

see from the scaffolds the descending ghosts,

Ghosts of dead

lords,

uncrown'd

ladies,

impeach' d ministers, re-

jected kings, Rivals, traitors, poisoners, disgraced chieftains [232]

and the

rest.

Song I

The seed

any land have died

for the

good

cause,

spare, nevertheless the crop shall never run out,

(Mind you 1

who

see those

of tbe

O foreign kings, O priests, the crop shall never run

see the blood wash'd entirely

away from

out.)

the axe,

Both blade and helve are clean,

They

spirt

no more the blood of European nobles, they clasp no

more the necks

of queens.

headsman withdraw and become

see the

see the scaffold untrodden and mouldy,

see the

upon

useless,

see no longer any axe

it,

mighty and

race, the

emblem

friendly

of the

power

my own

newest, largest race.

9 (America I

do not vaunt

have what

The axe The

love for you,

have.)

leaps!

solid forest gives fluid utterances,

They tumble

forth,

they

rise

and form,

Hut, tent, landing, survey, Flail,

plough, pick, crowbar, spade, prop, wainscot, jamb, lath, panel, gable,

Shingle,

rail,

Citadel,

ceiling,

saloon, academy,

organ,

exhibition-house,

li-

brary,

Cornice,

trellis, pilaster,

balcony,

window,

Hoe, rake, pitchfork, pencil, wagon, let,

wedge, rounce, [233]

staff,

turret, porch,

saw, jack-plane, mal-

leaves of (Brass Chair, tub, hoop, table, wicket, vane, sash, floor,

Work-box,

instrument, boat,

chest, string'd

frame, and what

not,

Capitols of States, and capitol of the nation of States,

Long

stately

rows

poor or

avenues, hospitals for orphans or for the

sick,

Manhattan steamboats and clippers taking the measure of

The shapes

arise

all

seas.

Shapes of the using of axes anyhow, and the users and

all

that

neighbors them, Cutters

down

wood and

haulers of

to the

Penobscot or

Kennebec, Dwellers

in cabins

little

among

the Californian mountains or by the

lakes, or on the Columbia,

Dwellers south on the banks of the Gila or Rio Grande, friendly gatherings, the characters and fun,

Dwellers along the

St.

Lawrence, or north

Kanada, or

down

by the Yellowstone, dwellers on coasts and off coasts, Seal-fishers, whalers, arctic

seamen breaking passages through the

ice.

The shapes Shapes of

arise!

factories, arsenals, foundries, markets,

Shapes of the two-threaded tracks of

railroads,

[arches

Shapes of the sleepers of bridges, vast frameworks, girders, Shapes of the

fleets of barges,

tows, lake and canal

craft, river craft,

Ship-yards and dry-docks along the Eastern and Western seas,

and

many

bay and by-place, [234]

Song The

of tbe

live-oak kelsons, the pine planks, the spars, the hackmatackroots for knees,

The

ships themselves on their ways, the tiers of scaffolds, the

workmen busy The

outside and inside,

tools lying around, the great auger bolt, line, square,

and

little

auger, the adze,

gouge, and bead-plane. 10

The shapes arise The shape measur'd, saw'd, 1

The

jack'd, join'd, stain'd,

coffin-shape for the dead to

The shape got out

within in his shroud,

lie

in posts, in the

bedstead posts, in the posts of

the bride's bed,

The shape

of the

little

trough, the shape of the rockers beneath,

the shape of the babe's cradle,

The shape of the

The shape

floor-planks, the floor-planks for dancers' feet,

of the planks of the family home, the

home

of the

friendly parents and children,

The shape

of the roof of the

woman,

home

of the

happy young man and

the roof over the well-married

young man and

woman, The roof over

the supper joyously cook'd

by the chaste

wife,

and

joyously eaten by the chaste husband, content after his day's work.

The shapes arise! The shape of the

prisoner's place in the court-room,

or her seated in the place, [235]

and of him

of (Brass

The shape

of the liquor-bar lean'd against

by the young rum-

drinker and the old rum-drinker,

The shape of the shamed and angry

stairs trod

by sneaking

foot-

steps,

The shape

of the sly settee, and the adulterous

cou P Ie

unwholesome

[losings,

The shape of the gambling-board with its devilish winnings and The shape of the step-ladder for the convicted and sentenced murderer, the murderer with haggard face and pinion'd arms,

The

sheriff at

hand with

his deputies, the silent

and white-lipp'd

crowd, the dangling of the rope.

The shapes

arise

Shapes of doors giving many

exits

and entrances,

The door passing the dissever'd friend flush'd and in haste, The door that admits good news and bad news, The door whence the son left home confident and puff'd up, The door he

enter'd again

diseas'd,

from a long and scandalous absence,

broken down, without innocence, without means.

Her shape She

less

arises,

guarded than ever, yet more guarded than ever,

The gross and and

soil'd

she moves

among do

not

make

her gross

soil'd,

She knows the thoughts as she passes, nothing her,

[236]

conceal'd from

of tbe ffiroa^Hye

Song She

none the

She

the best belov'd,

less considerate or friendly therefor, it is

without exception, she has no reason

and she does not

to fear

fear,

Oaths, quarrels, hiccupp'd songs, smutty expressions, are idle to

her as she passes,

She

is silent,

she

possess'd of herself, they do not offend her,

She receives them as the laws of Nature receive them, she

strong,

She too

law of Nature

there

no law stronger than she

The main shapes

arise!

Shapes of Democracy

total, result

of centuries,

Shapes ever projecting other shapes, Shapes of turbulent manly

cities,

Shapes of the friends and home-givers of the whole earth, Shapes bracing the earth and braced with the whole earth.

[237]

is.

of tbe Exposition

(AH

little

How

recks the laborer,

near his

work

holding him to God.

The loving Laborer through space and After

all

not to create only, or found only,

But to bring perhaps from afar what

give

fill

Not

our

own

the gross the torpid bulk with vital religious

To obey While

already founded,

identity, average, limitless, free,

to repel or destroy so

These

time.)

as well as

much

command,

how

little

the

New

as accept, fuse, rehabilitate,

to follow

also are the lessons of our

fire,

more than

New World

after

all,

to lead,

;

how much

World

the Old, Old

Long and long has the grass been growing, Long and long has the

rain

been

falling,

Long has the globe been rolling round.

Come Muse

migrate from Greece and Ionia,

Cross out please those immensely overpaid accounts,

That matter of Troy and Achilles' wrath, and Eneas', Odysseus' wanderings, [238]

Song Placard

" Removed

of tbe ^position

and " To Let" on the rocks of your snowy

Parnassus, at

Repeat

Jerusalem, place the notice high on Jaffa's gate and on

Mount Moriah,

The same on

and

castles,

For

know a

French and Spanish

the walls of your German, Italian collections,

better, fresher, busier sphere, a

wide, untried domain

demands you.

awaits,

Responsive to our summons,

rather to her long-nurs'd inclination,

Join'd with an irresistible, natural gravitation,

She comes

hear the rustling of her

gown,

scent the odor of her breath's delicious fragrance,

mark her

Upon

this

The dame

step divine, her curious eyes a-turning, rolling,

very scene. of

dames

can

believe then,

Those ancient temples, sculptures

classic,

could none of them

retain her ?

Nor shades of

Virgil

and Dante, nor myriad memories, poems,

old associations, magnetize and hold on to her ?

But that she's Yes, I,

you

left

them

will allow

friends,

you do

The same undying

all

and here?

to say so,

not, can plainly see her,

soul of earth's, activity's, beauty's, heroism's

expression, [239]

Xeavea of (Brass evolutions hither come, ended the strata of her

Out from her

former themes,

Hidden and cover'd by

to-day's, foundation of to-day's,

Ended, deceas'd through time, her voice by Castaly's fountain, Silent the broken-lipp'd

for

Egypt, silent

those century-

aye the epics of Asia's, Europe's helmeted warriors,

ended the primitive

call

of the muses,

Melpomene, Thalia dead,

Calliope's call forever closed, Clio,

Ended the

all

tombs,

baffling

Ended

Sphynx

stately

rhythmus of Una and Oriana, ended the quest

of the Holy Graal,

Jerusalem a handful of ashes blown by the wind, extinct,

The Crusaders' streams of shadowy midnight troops sped with the sunrise,

Amadis, Tancred, utterly gone, Charlemagne, Roland, Oliver gone, Palmerin, ogre, departed, vanish'd the turrets that

Usk from

its

waters reflected, Arthur vanish'd with Galahad, Pass'd

pass'd

now

all

his knights,

gone, dissolv'd utterly like an exhalation

for us, forever pass'd, that

void, inanimate,

Embroider'd,

Merlin and Lancelot and

dazzling,

;

once so mighty world,

phantom world,

foreign world,

with

all

its

gorgeous

legends, myths, Its

kings and castles proud,

its

priests

and warlike lords and

courtly dames,

Pass'd to

its

charnel vault, coffin'd with

crown and armor

Blazon'd with Shakspere's purple page,

And

dirged by Tennyson's sweet sad rhyme. [240]

on,

of tbe JEiposition

Sons I

say

see,

(having

friends,

you do

not, the illustrious emigre,

true in her day, although the same, changed,

it is

journey'd considerable,) directly for this rendezvous, vigorously clearing a path

Making

for herself, striding through the confusion,

By thud

of machinery and

Bluff 'd not a bit

shrill

steam-whistle undismay'd,

drain-pipe, gasometers, artificial fertilizers,

Smiling and pleas'd with palpable intent to stay,

She

here, install'd

But hold

don't

amid the kitchen ware!

forget

introduce the stranger,

manners

(what

else

indeed do

live to

chant

for?) to thee Columbia;

name welcome immortal!

In liberty's

And

clasp hands,

ever henceforth sisters dear be both.

Fear not

Muse!

truly

new ways and

days receive, surround

you, I

candidly confess a queer, queer race, of novel fashion,

And

yet the

same

old

human

race, the

same within, without,

Faces and hearts the same, feelings the same, yearnings the

same,

The same

We do

old love, beauty

and use the same.

not blame thee elder World, nor really separate ourselves

from

(Would

thee.

the son separate himself from the father?)

[2 4 I]

Xeaves of (Braes Looking back on thee, seeing thee to thy

duties,

grandeurs,

through past ages bending, building,

build to ours to-day.

Mightier than Egypt's tombs, Fairer than Grecia's,

Roma's temples,

Prouder than Milan's statued, spired cathedral,

More picturesque than Rhenish

castle-keeps,

plan even

Thy

great cathedral sacred industry,

keep

in a

for

life

and

to raise,

beyond them

all,

no tomb,

for practical invention.

waking

E'en while

Its

now

vision,

chant

see

rise,

scan and prophesy outside

in,

manifold ensemble.

Around

modern wonder,

Earth's

High

a palace, loftier, fairer, ampler than

rising tier

tier

any

yet,

history's seven outstripping,

with glass and iron facades,

Gladdening the sun and sky, enhued in cheerfulest hues, Bronze,

lilac,

robin's-egg, marine and crimson,

Over whose golden roof shall flaunt, beneath thy banner Freedom, The banners of the States and flags of every land,

brood of

lofty, fair,

Somewhere within

human

life

but lesser palaces shall

their walls shall

all

started,

Tried, taught, advanced, visibly exhibited. [242]

cluster.

that forwards perfect

Song Not only But

all

Here

all

shall

the world of works, trade, products,

workmen

the

of tbe Exposition

you

of the world here to be represented.

trace in flowing operation,

In every state of practical,

busy movement, the

rills

of civiliza-

tion,

Materials here under your eye shall change their shape as

magic,

The cotton Shall

be pick'd almost

shall

in the

very

field,

be dried, clean'd, ginn'd, baled, spun into thread and cloth before you,

You

shall see

new You

hands at work

at all the old processes

and

all

the

ones,

and

shall see the various grains

how

flour

made and then

bread baked by the bakers,

You

shall see the

and on

You

till

watch

shall

crude ores of California and Nevada passing on

they become bullion,

how

composing-stick

You

shall

mark

ders,

the printer sets type, and learn

what

is,

amazement

the

Hoe

press whirling

shedding the printed leaves steady and

The photograph, model, watch,

pin, nail, shall

its

cylin-

fast,

be created before

you.

In large

calm

halls, a stately

museum

shall teach

you the

infinite

lessons of minerals, In another,

woods,

plants,

vegetation shall

another animals, animal

life

[243]

be illustrated

and development.

!Heave0 of (Brass One

house

stately

Others

None

shall

learning, the sciences, shall

for other arts

shall

be the music house,

be slighted, none but

shall here

all

be here,

be honor'd, help'd,

exam pled. 6 (This,

and these, America,

this

shall

be your pyramids and

obelisks,

Your Alexandrian Pharos, gardens of Babylon, Your temple

Olympia.)

The male and female many laboring

not,

Shall ever here confront the laboring

With precious

benefits to both, glory to

all,

thee America, and thee eternal Muse.

And In

many,

here shall ye inhabit powerful Matrons!

your vast

state vaster than

Echoed through

To sound

the old,

long, long centuries to come,

of different, prouder songs, with stronger themes,

Practical, peaceful

Lifted, illumin'd,

Away

all

life,

the people's

bathed

peace

life,

the People themselves,

elate,

secure in peace.

with themes of war! away with war

Hence from

my shuddering sight

to never

itself!

return that

show

of blacken'd, mutilated corpses!

That

hell

unpent and

raid of blood,

fit

for wild tigers or for lop-

tongued wolves, not reasoning men, [244]

Song And

in its stead

speed industry's campaigns,

With thy undaunted

Thy pennants Thy

of tbe Exposition

armies, engineering,

labor, loosen'd to the breeze,

bugles sounding loud and

Away Away

with old romance!

Away

with love-verses sugar' d

clear.

with novels, plots and plays of foreign courts, in

rhyme, the

intrigues,

amours

of idlers,

[slide>

Fitted for only banquets of the night

where dancers

to late music

The unhealthy pleasures, extravagant dissipations of the few, With perfumes, heat and wine, beneath the dazzling chandeliers.

To you ye I

reverent sane sisters,

raise a voice for far

superber themes for poets and for

To exalt the present and the

teach the average

sing in songs

man

how

art,

real,

the glory of his daily walk and trade,

exercise and chemical

life

are never to be

baffled,

To manual work

for each

To plant and tend the For every

man

woman

tree,

to see to

too

and

all,

to plough, hoe, dig,

the berry, vegetables, flowers, that he really

do something,

for every

;

use the

cultivate a turn for carpentering, plastering, painting,

To work

To invent

hammer and

the saw,

(rip,

or cross-cut,)

as tailor, tailoress, nurse, hostler, porter, a

little,

something ingenious, to aid the washing, cook-

ing, cleaning,

And

hold

no disgrace to take a hand [2453

them themselves.

leaves of (Braes I

say

All

bring thee

Muse to-day and

occupations, duties broad and

Toil, healthy toil

here,

close,

and sweat, endless, without

cessation,

The

old, old practical burdens, interests, joys,

The

family, parentage, childhood,

The house-comforts, Food and

its

the house

husband and wife,

itself

and

all its

preservation, chemistry applied to

belongings, it,

Whatever forms the average, strong, complete, sweet-blooded

man And

its

helps

woman,

present

For the eternal

With

the perfect longeve personality, to health

life

real life to

latest connections,

[ SO ul,

and happiness, and shapes

its

come.

works, the inter-transportation of the

world,

Steam-power, the great express

lines, gas,

These triumphs of our time, the

Atlantic's delicate cable,

The

Pacific railroad, the

petroleum,

Suez canal, the Mont Cenis and Gothard

and Hoosac tunnels, the Brooklyn bridge, This earth

all

spann'd with iron

threading every

rails,

with

lines of

steamships

sea,

Our own rondure, the current globe

bring.

And thou Thy

America,

[towering,

offspring towering e'er so high, yet higher

With Victory on thy Thou Union holding Thee, ever thee,

left, all,

and

thy right hand

Thee above

Law;

fusing, absorbing, tolerating

sing, [246]

all,

all

of tbe Exposition

Song also thou, a

Thou,

With

World,

thy wide geographies, manifold,

all

Rounded by thee in one one common One common indivisible destiny for All.

And by

the spells

which ye vouchsafe

different, distant,

orbic language,

to those

your ministers

earnest, I

here personify and

call

my themes,

make them

pass before ye.

Behold, America! (and thou, ineffable guest and sister!)

For thee come trooping up thy waters and thy lands; Behold

thy fields and farms, thy far-off

in procession

Behold, the sea

And on

coming.

itself,

its limitless,

where

See,

woods and mountains,

heaving breast, the ships

white

their

sails, bellying in the

;

wind, speckle the

green and blue, See, the steamers See,

coming and going, steaming

out of port,

dusky and undulating, the long pennants of smoke.

Behold, in Oregon,

in or

far in

the north and west,

Maine, far in the north and east, thy cheerful axemen,

Wielding

all

day

their axes.

Behold, on the lakes, thy pilots at their wheels, thy oarsmen,

How

the ash writhes under those muscular arms!

There by the furnace, and there by the

anvil,

Behold thy sturdy blacksmiths swinging their sledges, [247]

Heaves of (Brass Overhand so steady, overhand they turn and

with joyous

fall

clank,

Like a tumult of laughter.

Mark the

invention everywhere, thy rapid patents,

spirit of

Thy

continual workshops, foundries, risen or rising,

See,

from

their

chimneys

how

the

tall

flame-fires stream.

Mark, thy interminable farms, North, South,

Thy wealthy The

daughter-states, Eastern

and Western,

varied products of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Georgia,

Texas, and the

Thy

limitless crops,

Thy

barns

rest,

grass,

wheat, sugar,

oil,

corn, rice,

hemp,

hops, all

fill'd,

the endless freight-train and the bulging

storehouse,

The grapes

Thy

on thy

vines, the apples in thy orchards,

incalculable lumber, beef, pork, potatoes, thy coal, thy gold

and

The

that ripen

silver,

inexhaustible iron in thy mines.

All thine,

sacred Union!

Ships, farms, shops, barns, factories, mines,

City and State, North, South, item and aggregate,

dedicate, dread Mother,

Protectress absolute, thou!

For well

we know

all

to thee!

bulwark of

all!

that while thou givest each

and

as God,)

Without thee neither

all

nor each, nor land, home, [248]

all,

(generous

of tbe Exposition

Song Nor

ship,

nor mine, nor any here this day secure,

Nor aught, nor any day

secure.

And

Emblem waving over all! beauty, a word to thee, (it may be

thou, the

Delicate

Remember thou

salutary,)

hast not always been as here to-day so comfor-

tably ensovereign'd, In other scenes than these

Not

quite so trim

have

observ'd thee

flag,

and whole and freshly blooming

in folds of

stainless silk,

But

have seen thee bunting, to

tatters torn

upon thy

splinter'd

staff,

clutch'd to

some young

color-bearer's breast with desperate

hands,

Savagely struggled

'Mid cannons' thunder-crash and

and

yell,

many

risk

surging, and lives as nothing

[blood,

For thy mere remnant grimed with For sake of

that,

and

a curse and groan

rifle-volleys cracking sharp,

And moving masses as wild demons '

fought over long,

for, for life or death,

dirt

and smoke and sopp'd

beauty, and that thou might'st dally as

now

secure up there,

Many

good man have

Now here And

seen go under.

and these and hence

here and hence for thee,

in peace,

all

universal

them! [249]

thine,

Flag!

Muse! and thou

for

%eave$ of (Brass And

here and hence

None

blood of the

maternal

all

henceforth children,

One

what

only, is

it,

we and

thine!

thou,

only the blood

and death

to faith

work and workmen

the

and works, what are they

lives

While

Union,

separate from thee

(For the

And

all

at last,

except the roads

rehearse our measureless wealth,

for thee, dear

Mother,

We own

and several to-day indissoluble

it all

Think not our chant, our show, merely it is

Our

in thee;

for products gross or lucre

for thee, the soul in thee, electric, spiritual!

farms, inventions, crops,

we own

in thee! cities

in thee!

Our freedom

all

in thee

our very

lives in thee

[250]

and States

of tbe IRebwoob

A A

Uree

CALIFORNIA song,

prophecy and indirection, a thought impalpable to breathe as air,

A A

chorus of dryads, fading, departing, or hamadryads departing,

murmuring,

fateful, giant voice,

Voice of a mighty dying tree

Farewell

my brethren,

Farewell

O earth

and

time has ended,

Along the northern

in the

out of the earth and sky,

redwood

sky, farewell ye neighboring waters,

term has come.

coast,

Just back from the rock-bound shore In the saline air

forest dense.

from the sea

in the

and the caves,

Mendocino country,

With the surge for base and accompaniment low and hoarse, With crackling blows of axes sounding musically driven by strong arms,

Riven deep by the sharp tongues of the axes, there

wood I

forest dense,

heard the mighty tree

its

death-chant chanting. [251]

in the red-

of tbe IReJwoofc Gree

Song The choppers heard

not, the

camp

shanties echoed not,

The quick-ear'd teamsters and chain and jack-screw men heard not,

As the wood-spirits came from

their haunts of a

thousand years

to join the refrain,

But

soul

plainly heard.

Murmuring out of

Down Out of

from

its

its lofty

myriad

leaves,

top rising

two hundred

stalwart trunk and limbs, out of

its

feet high, its

foot-thick bark,

That chant of the seasons and time, chant not of the past only but the future.

You untold

And

life

of me,

all you -venerable

Perennial hardy

summer

And the

life

and innocent joys, of

with joys 'mid rain and

many a

sun,

white snows

and

night

and

O the great patient rugged joys, my

the wild winds;

soul's strong joys unreck'd by

man, (For know

I bear the soul befitting me, I too have consciousness,

identity,

And

all the

Joys of the

Our

time,

rocks

and mountains

life befitting

me and

have,

and

all the earth,)

brothers mine,

our term has come.

Nor yield we mournfully majestic brothers, We who have grandly fill'd our time; With Nature's calm

content, with tacit huge delight, [252]

leaves of (Brass

We welcome what we wrought for And leave the field for them.

through the past,

For them predicted long,

For a superber race, they

too to

grandly fill their time,

For them we abdicate, in them ourselves ye forest kings! In them these shies

and

airs,

these

mountain peaks, Shasta,

Nevadas, These huge precipitous

cliffs, this

amplitude, these valleys, far

Yosemite,

To be in them absorb' d, assimilated.

Then Still

to a loftier strain,

prouder,

ecstatic rose the chant,

the heirs, the deities of the West,

Joining with master-tongue bore part. \

Not wan from Asia's fetiches,

Nor red from Europe's

old dynastic slaughter-house,

(Area of murder-plots of thrones, with scent

left yet oj

wars and

scaffolds everywhere,)

But come from Nature's long and harmless

throes, peacefully

builded thence,

These virgin lands, lands of the Western shore,

To the new culminating man,

to you, the

You promts' d long, we pledge, we You

empire new,

dedicate.

occult deep volitions,-

You average spiritual manhood, purpose of all, pois'd on yourself, giving not taking law, [253]

Heaves of (Brass You womanhood

and

love

and source of all, whence and aught that comes from life and love, divine, mistress

You unseen moral

life

essence of all the vast materials of America,

(age upon age working in death the same as life,)

You

that,

sometimes known, oftener unknown, really shape and

mould

the

New World,

You hidden national will

adjusting

it to

Time and Space,

lying in your abysms, conceal' d but ever

alert,

You past and present purposes tenaciously pursued, may -be unconscious ofyourselves,

Unswerv'd by

all the

passing errors, perturbations of the sur-

face ;

You

vital, universal, deathless

germs, beneath all creeds,

arts,

statutes, literatures,

Here build your homes for good, establish here, these areas

entire,

lands of the Western shore,

We pledge, For

man

we dedicate

to you.

of you, your characteristic race,

Here may he hardy, sweet, gigantic grow, here tower proportionate to

Nature,

Here climb the vast pure spaces unconfin'd, uncheck'd by wall or roof,

Here laugh with storm or sun, here joy, here patiently inure, 1

Here heed himself, unfold himself, (not others formulas heed,) here

fill

To duly fall,

To disappear,

his time,

to aid,

unreck'd at

last,

to serve.

[254]

Song Thus on the northern In the

of tbe IRebwoot) Eree

coast,

echo of teamsters'

calls

and the clinking

chains,

and the

music of choppers' axes,

The

falling

trunk and limbs, the crash, the muffled shriek, the

groan,

Such words combined from the redwood-tree,

voices

ecstatic, ancient and rustling,

The

century-lasting, unseen dryads, singing, withdrawing,

All their recesses of forests

and mountains leaving,

From the Cascade range to the Wahsatch, or Idaho To the deities of the modern henceforth yielding,

The chorus and

indications, the vistas of

settlements, features In the

Mendocino woods

far,

or Utah,

coming humanity, the

all,

caught.

The

flashing

and golden pageant of

California,

The sudden and gorgeous drama, the sunny and ample lands, The long and varied stretch from Puget sound to Colorado south,

Lands bathed

sweeter, rarer, healthier

air,

valleys

and moun-

tain cliffs,

The

fields of

Nature long prepared and fallow, the

silent, cyclic

chemistry,

The slow and steady ages plodding, the unoccupied

surface

ripening, the rich ores forming beneath;

last the

New

arriving,

assuming, taking possession,

swarming and busy race

settling [255]

and organizing everywhere,

leaves of (Brass Ships coming in from the whole round world, and going out to the whole world,

India

and China and Australia and the thousand

island para-

dises of the Pacific,

Populous

the latest inventions, the steamers on the rivers,

cities,

the railroads, with

And wool and wheat and

many

a thrifty farm, with machinery,

the grape, and diggings of yellow gold.

3 But more

you than

these, lands of the

Western

shore,

(These but the means, the implements, the standing-ground,) I

see in you, certain to come, the promise of thousands of years, till

now

Promis'd to be

The new In

man

deferr'd, fulfill'd,

society at

of you,

our

last,

common

kind, the race.

proportionate to Nature,

more than your mountain peaks or

stalwart trees

imperial, In

woman

more, far more, than

all

your gold or vines, or even

vital air.

Fresh come, to a I

new world

indeed, yet long prepared,

see the genius of the modern, child of the real and ideal,

*>*..

Clearing the ground for broad humanity, the true America, heir of the past so grand,

build a grander future.

[256]

Song

for Occupations

SONG for occupations

In the labor of engines

and trades and the labor of fields

find the

developments,

And

find the eternal meanings.

Workmen Were

all

and

educations practical and ornamental well display'd out

of me,

Were

Workwomen!

as the

what would

you

satisfy

The

amount

as the boss

you

employing and paying you, would that

me and

take no sooner a large price than a small price,

own whoever I

and the usual terms,

never the usual terms.

Neither a servant nor a master I

learn'd, virtuous, benevolent,

A man

head teacher, charitable proprietor, wise statesman,

what would

Were

will

the

will

have

enjoys me,

be even with you and you

you stand

work

in a

shop

shall

be even with me.

stand as nigh as the nighest in

same shop,

[257]

leaves or (Brass If

you bestow as

good

lover,

your

gifts

on your brother or dearest friend

demand

your brother or dearest friend,

husband, wife,

welcome by day

or night,

must

be personally as welcome, If

you become degraded,

criminal,

ill,

then

become so

for

your

sake, If

you remember your

cannot remember

and outlaw'd deeds, do you think

foolish

my own

at the table

and outlaw'd deeds

carouse at the opposite side of the

you carouse

you meet some stranger in the

foolish'

table,

what have you thought

Is it

you then

Is it

you

and love him or

her,

why

often meet strangers in the street and love them.

Why

streets

of yourself ?

that thought yourself less ?

that thought the President greater than

the rich better off than

you

or the educated wiser than

you

(Because you are greasy or pimpled, or were once drunk, or a thief,

that

you are

Or from

diseas'd, or rheumatic, or a prostitute,

frivolity or

impotence, or that you are no scholar and

never saw your

Do you

Souls of

name

in print,

give in that you are any less immortal

men and women

it is

not you

untouchable and untouching, [258]

call

unseen, unheard,

H Song It is

not you

you I

own

for Occupations

go argue pro and con about, and

who you

nobody

are, if

Grown, half-grown and babe,

The

wife,

else

owns.

else

of this country and every country,

in-doors and out-doors, one just as all

whether

are alive or no,

publicly

And

to settle

much

as the other,

see,

behind or through them.

and she

not one

The daughter, and she

The mother, and she

jot less

just as

than the husband,

good

as the son,

much

every bit as

as the father.

Offspring of ignorant and poor, boys apprenticed to trades, fellows working on farms and old fellows working on

Young

farms,

Sailor-men, merchant-men, coasters, immigrants, All these

None I

shall

see,

but nigher and farther the same

escape

bring what you

"Not I

me and none much need

money, amours,

shall

see,

wish to escape me.

yet always have,

dress, eating, erudition, but as good,

send no agent or medium, offer no representative of value, but offer the value itself.

There It is

something that comes to one

not what

and

now

and perpetually,

printed, preach'd, discussed,

eludes discussion

print,

It is

not to be put in a book,

It is

for

you whoever you

it is

are,

not in this book,

it is

no farther from you than your

hearing and sight are from you, |-

It is

hinted

nearest,

commonest, [259]

readiest,

by them

ever provoked

leaves of (Brass You may You may

read in

many

languages, yet read nothing about

it,

read the President's message and read nothing about

there,

department, or

from the State department or Treasury

in the reports

Nothing

in the daily

papers or weekly papers,

census or revenue returns,

in the

prices current,

any

accounts of stock.

The sun and

stars that float in the

The apple-shaped is I

do not

And

earth

and

open

we upon

air,

it,

surely the drift of

something grand,

know what

except that

that the enclosing purport of us here

them

happiness, grand, and that it is

not a speculation or

bon-mot or reconnoissance,

And

that

for us,

And

not something which by luck

and without luck must be a

not something which

may

turn out well

failure for us,

yet be retracted in a certain

contingency.

The

light

and shade, the curious sense of body and

the greed that with

perfect

complaisance

identity,

devours

all

things,

The endless

pride and outstretching of man, unspeakable joys

and sorrows,

The wonder every one sees in every one else he sees, and wonders that fill each minute of time forever,

What have you

reckon'd them

for,

[260]

camerado

the

a Song Have you reckon'd them

for

your store

profits of

for Occupations your trade or farm-work

to achieve yourself a position ? or to

or a lady's leisure

Have you reckon'd that

a gentleman's leisure,

fill

and form

that the landscape took substance

might be painted

or for the

Or men and women

in a picture ?

that they

might be written

of,

and songs

sung?

Or the

attraction of gravity,

and the great laws and harmonious

combinations and the

fluids of the air, as subjects for the

savans

Or the brown Or the Or

stars to

that the

maps and charts ? and named fancy names

land and the blue sea for

be put

in constellations

growth of seeds

agricultural tables, or agricul-

is for

ture itself?

Old

institutions, these

arts,

libraries,

legends, collections, and

the practice handed along in manufactures, will

them so high Will I

rate

them

We thought

rate

beyond

all

day

woman

our Union grand, and our Constitution grand,

do not say they are not grand and good,

Then

have no objection,

rate.

this

then a child born of a

as high as the highest

and man

rate

our cash and business high

rate

just as

in love

much

in love

for

they are,

with them as you,

with You, and with

earth. [261]

all

fellows upon the

leaves of Crass

consider bibles and religions divine

do not say they are

not divine, I

say they have

all

grown out

of you,

and may grow out of you

still,

It is

not they

who

give the

life,

it is

Leaves are not more shed from the

you who give the

trees, or trees

life,

from the earth,

than they are shed out of you.

The sum

known

all

reverence

add up

you whoever you

are,

The

President

you

The

there in the

who

White House

it is

not

you here

for

for you,

are here for him,

Secretaries act in their bureaus for you, not

them,

The Congress convenes every Twelfth-month Laws, courts, the forming of

for you,

States, the charters of cities, the

going and coming of commerce and mails, are List close

civilization

exurge from you,

you

and

statistics as far

this hour,

anywhere

are

back as the records reach

and myths and

you were not breathing and walking all

inscribed

you,

gist of histories is

and

monuments and any thing

tallied in

The

for you.

scholars dear,

Doctrines, politics

Sculpture and

all

tales the

here,

same,

where would they

The most renown'd poems would be would be vacuums. [262]

ashes, orations

and plays

Song All architecture

(Did you think

is it

for Occupations

what you do

was

in the

music

when you

look upon

white or gray stone

the arches and cornices All

it,

or the lines of

what awakes from you when you

are reminded

the instruments, not the violins and the cornets,

It is

not the oboe nor the

beating drums, nor the score of the baritone singer singing his

sweet romanza, nor that of the men's chorus, nor that

of the It is

women's

chorus,

nearer and farther than they. 5

Will the whole

Can each

come back then

see signs of the best

there nothing greater or

Does

all sit

a look in the looking-glass ?

there with you, with the mystic unseen soul ?

Strange and hard that paradox true

give,

Objects gross and the unseen soul are one.

House-building, measuring, sawing the boards, Blacksmithing, glass-blowing, nail-making, coopering, tin-roofing, shingle-dressing,

Ship-joining, dock-building, fish-curing, flagging of sidewalks fla

gg ers

The pump, the Coal-mines and

[brick-kiln, pile-driver, the great derrick, the coal-kiln all

that

echoes, songs,

down

there, the

lamps

what meditations, what vast

looking through smutch'd faces, [263]

and

in the darkness,

native thoughts

leaves of (Brass men

Iron-works, forge-fires in the mountains or by river-banks,

around feeling the melt with huge crowbars, lumps of ore, the due combining of ore, limestone, coal,

The

blast-furnace

and the puddling-furnace, the loup-lump

bottom of the melt

at the

the rolling-mill, the stumpy

at last,

bars of pig-iron, the strong clean-shaped T-rail for

rail-

roads,

Oil-works,

silk-works,

white-lead-works,

steam-saws, the great mills and

the

sugar-house,

factories,

Stone-cutting, shapely trimmings for fagades or

window

or door-

the mallet, the tooth-chisel, the jib to protect the

lintels,

thumb,

The

calking-iron, the kettle of boiling vault-cement,

under the

The

and the

fire

kettle,

cotton-bale, the stevedore's hook, the

saw and buck

of the

sawyer, the mould of the moulder, the working-knife of the butcher, the ice-saw, and

The work and

all

the

work with

ice,

tools of the rigger, grappler, sail-maker, block-

maker,

Goods

of gutta-percha, papier-mache,

making,

glazier's

The veneer and

colors,

brushes, brush-

implements,

glue-pot,

the

confectioner's

ornaments, the

decanter and glasses, the shears and flat-iron,

The awl and

knee-strap, the pint measure and quart measure, the

counter and stool, the writing-pen of

making

all

sorts of

The brewery, brewing, the

edged malt,

quill or metal, the

tools,

the vats, everything that

done by brewers, wine-makers, vinegar-makers, [264]

a Song

for Occupations

Leather-dressing, coach-making, boiler-making, sign-painting,

distilling,

lime-burning,

rope-twisting,

cotton-picking,

electroplating, electrotyping, stereotyping,

Stave-machines, planing-machines, reaping-machines, ploughingmachines, thrashing-machines, steam wagons,

The

carman, the omnibus, the ponderous dray,

cart of the

Pyrotechny, letting off color' d fireworks at night, fancy figures

and

jets

;

Beef on the butcher's

the slaughter-house of the butcher,

stall,

the butcher in his killing-clothes,

The pens

of live pork, the killing-hammer, the hog-hook, the

scalder's tub,

gutting, the cutter's cleaver,

the packer's

maul, and the plenteous winterwork of pork-packing,

Flour-works, grinding of wheat, rye, maize,

rice,

the barrels and

the half and quarter barrels, the loaded barges, the high

on wharves and

piles

The men and

the

work

fish-boats, canals

The hourly

levees,

men on

of the

ferries, railroads, coasters,

;

routine of your

own

or any man's

the shop,

life,

yard, store, or factory,

These shows

you In that

all

are,

near you by day and night

your daily

and them the

workman whoever !

life!

heft of the heaviest

in that

and them

far

more than you estimated, (and far less also,) them realities for you and me, in them poems for you and me,

them, not yourself

you and your soul enclose

gardless of estimation, In

all

things, re[sibilities.

them the development good

[265]

them

all

themes, hints, pos-

leaves of (Brass I

do not

affirm that

see

beyond

is futile,

do not say leadings you thought great are not

But

do not advise

to stop,

you I

what you

great,

say that none lead to greater than these lead

Will you seek afar off ? you surely In things best

known

come back

you finding the

to.

at last,

best, or as

good as the

best,

you finding the sweetest,

In folks nearest to

strongest, lovingest,

Happiness, knowledge, not in another place but this place, not for another hour but this hour,

Man

in the first

you see or touch, always

woman

nighest neighbor

The popular

tastes

mother,

in friend,

brother,

sister, wife,

and employments taking precedence

poems

or anywhere,

You workwomen and workmen

own And

else giving place to

all

When When When

divine and strong

of these States having your

life,

men and women

you.

the psalm sings instead of the singer, <

the script preaches instead of the preacher,

the pulpit descends and goes instead of the carver that

carved the supporting desk,

When

can touch the body of books by night or by day, and

when

When

they touch

body back

again,

a university course convinces like a slumbering

and

child convince, [266]

woman

H Song When

for Occupations

the minted gold in the vault smiles like the night-watch-

man's daughter,

When warrantee

deeds

and are

loafe in chairs opposite

my friendly

companions, I

do of

them

my hand, and make men and women like you.

intend to reach

[267]

much

them

H A

of tbe IRollino J6artb

Sono

SONG of the

Were you

rolling earth,

and of words according,

thinking that those were the words, those upright

lines ? those curves, angles, dots ?

No, those are not the words, the substantial words are

ground and

They

are in the

Were you

in the

sea,

they are in you.

air,

thinking that those were the words, those delicious

sounds out of your

words

friends'

mouths

delicious than they.

No, the

real

Human

bodies are words, myriads of words,

(In the best

are

poems re-appears the body, man's

or woman's, well-

shaped, natural, gay,

Every part

able, active, receptive,

without shame or the need of

shame.) Air, soil, water, fire I

myself

theirs

Though

those are words,

word with them

my name

were

air, soil,

fire,

qualities interpenetrate

with

nothing to them,

told in the three

water,

thousand languages, what would

know

[268]

my name ?

a Song A healthy presence,

of tbe IRoUing jgartb

a friendly or

commanding gesture,

are words,

sayings, meanings,

The charms that go with the mere looks are sayings

and meanings

some men and women,

also. S

The workmanship of souls is by those inaudible words of the earth, The masters know the

earth's

words and use them more than

audible words.

Amelioration

The

It is

one of the earth's words,

earth neither lags nor hastens,

has

all

attributes,

growths,

effects, latent in itself from

show

not half beautiful only, defects and excrescences as

much

as perfections

the jump, just

show.

The

earth does not withhold,

The

truths of the earth continually wait, they are not so conceal' d

it is

generous enough,

either,

They They

are calm, subtle, untransmissible

are

imbued through

Conveying a sentiment and I

speak not, yet

all

utter

you hear me not of what

bear, to better, lacking these of

what

and

avail

(Accouche! accouchez! Will you rot your

own

Will you squat and

The Is

fruit in

stifle

there

yourself there ? ?)

earth does not argue,

not pathetic, has no arrangements, [269]

[willingly,

conveying themselves

things

invitation,

print,

utter,

you

leaves of (Brass Does not scream,

Makes no

haste, persuade, threaten, promise,

discriminations, has

no conceivable

failures,

Closes nothing, refuses nothing, shuts none out,

all

The

the powers, objects, states,

notifies,

shuts none out.

earth does not exhibit itself nor refuse to exhibit

sesses

still

itself,

pos-

underneath,

Underneath the ostensible sounds, the august chorus of heroes, the wail of slaves,

Persuasions of lovers, curses, gasps of the dying, laughter of people, accents of bargainers,

young

Underneath these possessing words that never

her children the words of the eloquent

never

The

true

fail.

dumb

great mother

fail,

words do not

does not

fail,

for

motion does not

and

reflection

fail,

Also the day and night do not

does not

fail

fail,

and the voyage

pursue

fail.

the interminable sisters,

the ceaseless cotillons of sisters,

the centripetal and centrifugal sisters, the elder and younger sisters,

The

beautiful sister

we know

dances on with the

rest.

With her ample back towards every beholder, With the fascinations of youth and the equal fascinations Sits

she

whom

too love like the

rest, sits

[270]

undisturb'd,

of age,

a Song Holding up

in her

of tbe IRolling lEartb

hand what has the character of a mirror, while

her eyes glance back from

Glance as she

sits,

Holding a mirror Seen

it,

inviting none, denying none,

day and night

hand or seen

tirelessly before

own

face.

at a distance,

Duly the twenty-four appear

in public

Duly approach and pass with

their

Looking from no countenances of tenances of those

From

her

who

every day,

companions or a companion,

their

own, but from the coun-

are with them,

the countenances of children or

women

or the

manly coun-

tenance,

From

the open countenances of animals or from inanimate things,

From

the landscape or waters or from the exquisite apparition of the sky,

From our countenances, mine and

yours,

faithfully

returning

them,

the

appearing without

in public

Every day

but never twice with

same companions.

Embracing man, embracing sixty-five resistlessly

Embracing

all,

Tumbling on

all,

proceed the three hundred and

round the sun;

soothing, supporting, follow close three hundred

and sixty-five

Sunshine,

fail,

offsets of the first, sure

steadily,

storm,

and necessary as they.

nothing dreading,

cold,

heat,

forever

withstanding,

carrying,

The

soul's realization

and determination

still

inheriting,

passing,

leaves of (Brass The

vacuum around and ahead

fluid

still

entering and dividing,

balk retarding, no anchor anchoring, on no rock striking,

Swift, glad, content, unbereav'd, nothing losing,

all

The

able and ready at

strict

account,

divine ship sails the divine sea.

Whoever you

are

'The divine ship

Whoever you and

You

any time to give

motion and

sails

are !

reflection are especially for you,

the divine sea for you.

you

are he or she for

whom

the earth

solid

liquid,

are he or she for

whom

the sun and

moon hang

in the sky,

For none more than you are the present and the past,

For none more than you

Each

man

to himself

immortality.

and each

woman

to herself,

the past and present, and the true

No one

can acquire for another

Not one can grow

for

another

word

the

word

of immortality;

not one,

not one.

The song is to the singer, and comes back most to him, The teaching is to the teacher, and comes back most to him, The murder

to the murderer,

and comes back most

to him,

The

theft is to the thief,

and comes back most to him,

The

love

and comes back most

The

gift is

to the lover,

to the giver, and

comes back most

to him,

him

cannot

and

actress

fail,

The

oration

to the orator, the acting

not to the audience, [272]

to the actor

H Sons

of tbe IRollina iSartb

And no man understands any greatness or the indication of his

swear the earth

shall surely

or goodness but his

own,

own.

be complete to him or her

who shall

be complete,

The

and broken only to him or her

earth remains jagged

who

remains jagged and broken.

swear there

no greatness or power that does not emulate

those of the earth,

There can be no theory of any account unless

corroborate the

theory of the earth,

politics,

song, religion, behavior, or

unless

Unless

what

not,

compare with the amplitude of the

of account,

earth,

face the exactness, vitality, impartiality, rectitude of the

earth.

swear

begin to see love with sweeter spasms than that which

responds love, It

that

swear

All

[refuses.

which contains begin to see

itself,

little

which never

invites

and never

or nothing in audible words,

merges toward the presentation of the unspoken meanings of the earth,

Toward him who

sings the songs of the

body and of the

truths

of the earth,

Toward him who makes

the dictionaries of

not touch. [273]

words

that print can-

TLeaws of (Brass swear

It is

better than to

undertake to

tongue

tell

ineffectual

the best

its

become

find

cannot,

pivots,

breath will not be obedient to

its

organs,

dumb man.

The best of the It is

the best,

tell

always to leave the best untold.

When

My My

what

see

earth cannot be told

not what you anticipated,

it is

anyhow,

all

or any

best,

cheaper, easier, nearer,

Things are not dismiss'd from the places they held before,

The

earth

Facts,

and

direct as

improvements,

politics,

just as positive

religions,

was

before,

trades,

are as real as

before,

But the soul

also real,

too

positive

reasoning, no proof has 'established

Undeniable growth has established

and

direct,

it,

it.

These to echo the tones of souls and the phrases of (If

they did not echo the phrases of souls what were they then

they had not reference to you in especial what were they then

souls,

swear

have to do with the

will never henceforth

faith that tells

the best, I

will

have to do only with that

faith that leaves the best untold.

Say on, sayers! sing on, singers! Delve! mould!

Work

pile

the words of the earth!

on, age after age, nothing

[274]

to be lost,

H Song It

may have

of tbe "Rolling iBartb

to wait long, but

When the materials are all

will certainly

come

in use,

prepared and ready, the architects shall

appear. I

swear to you the architects

swear to you they

The

greatest

all

and

appear without

fail,

understand you and justify you,

among them

encloses

He and

will

shall

be he

is faithful

who

best

knows

you, and

all,

the rest shall not forget you, they shall perceive that you

are not an iota less than they,

You

shall

;-;?':

fully glorified in

-,^ ffioutb,

YOUTH,

them.

2>a, OU> B0e

large, lusty, loving

youth

full

ant> of grace, force, fascination,

Do you know that Old Age may come after you

with equal grace,

force, fascination ?

Day

full-blown and splendid

day of the immense sun,

action,

ambition, laughter,

The Night follows

close with millions of suns,

restoring darkness.

[275]

and sleep and

Birbs of passage Sons

COME

said the

Muse,

Sing

a song

Sing

the universal.

In this

Amid

of tbe Universal,

no poet yet has chanted,

broad earth of ours,

the measureless grossness and the slag,

Enclosed and safe within

its

central heart,

Nestles the seed perfection.

By every life a share or more or less, None born but it is born, conceal'd or unconceal'd the seed waiting.

2 Lo! keen-eyed towering science,

As from

tall

peaks the modern overlooking,

Successive absolute

Yet again,

lo!

fiats issuing.

the soul, above

all

science,

For

has history gather'd like husks around the globe,

For

the entire star-myriads

roll

through the sky.

[276]

of passage

In spiral routes

by long

detours,

(As a much-tacking ship upon the sea,) For

the partial to the permanent flowing,

For

the real to the ideal tends.

For

the mystic evolution,

Not the

right only justified,

what we

call evil also justified.

Forth from their masks, no matter what,

From

the huge festering trunk, from craft and guile and tears,

Health to emerge and joy, joy universal.

Out of the

bulk, the

Out of the bad

morbid and the shallow,

majority, the varied countless frauds of

states,

Electric, antiseptic yet, cleaving, suffusing

Only the good

all,

universal.

Over the mountain-growths disease and sorrow,

An uncaught bird

ever hovering, hovering,

High

in the purer, happier air.

From

imperfection's murkiest cloud,

Darts always forth one ray of perfect light,

One

flash of heaven's glory.

fashion's,

To the mad

custom's discord,

Babel-din, the deafening orgies,

Soothing each

From some

far

lull

a strain

shore the

heard, just heard,

final

chorus sounding. [277]

men and

leaves of (Brass

the blest eyes, the happy hearts,

That

know

see, that

Along the mighty

the guiding thread so fine,

labyrinth.

And thou America, For the scheme's culmination,

its

thought and

its reality,

For these (not for thyself) thou hast arrived.

Thou too surroundest

all,

Embracing carrying welcoming

all,

thou too by pathways broad

and new,

To the

ideal tendest.

The measur'd Are not

and amplitudes, absorbing, comprehending

All eligible to

All, all for

immortality,

like the light silently

The blossoms,

wrapping

fruits of ages,

all,

orchards divine and certain,

Forms, objects, growths, humanities, to

me O God

Thy ensemble, whatever

Belief in plan of

spiritual

images ripening.

to sing that thought,

Give me, give him or her In

all,

all.

Nature's amelioration blessing

Give

grandeurs of the past,

but grandeurs of thine own,

for thee,

Deific faiths

Love

faiths of other lands, the

love this quenchless else

Thee enclosed

faith,

withheld withhold not from us

Time and

Health, peace, salvation universal. [278]

Space,

lr&0 of

Is it

dream

Nay but the lack of it the dream, And failing it life's lore and wealth

And

all

a dream,

the world a dream.

pioneers COME Follow well

pistols ?

Pioneers

For

tan-iaced children,

in order, get

Have you your

pf oncers

your weapons ready,

have you your sharp-edged axes

pioneers

cannot tarry here,

We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger We the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend, Pioneers

O you So impatient, Plain

see

pioneers

youths, Western youths, of action,

full

manly pride and

friendship,

you Western youths, see you tramping with the

fore-

most, Pioneers

Have the

pioneers

elder races halted ?

they droop and end the seas

We take

their lesson,

wearied over there beyond

up the task Pioneers

eternal,

and the burden and the lesson,

pioneers

[279]

leaves of (Brass All the past

leave behind,

debouch upon a newer mightier world, varied world,

Fresh and strong the world Pioneers!

we seize,

world of labor and the march,

pioneers!

We detachments steady throwing, Down

the edges, through the passes, up the mountains steep,

Conquering, holding, daring, venturing as

we go

the

unknown

ways, Pioneers!

We We the

rivers

pioneers!

primeval forests

felling,

stemming, vexing

we and piercing deep the mines

within,

We the surface broad

From

surveying,

Pioneers!

Colorado

men

the virgin soil upheaving,

pioneers!

are

we,

the peaks gigantic, from the great sierras and the high plateaus,

From the mine and from the gully, from Pioneers!

the hunting trail

we come,

pioneers!

From Nebraska, from Arkansas, Central inland race are we, from Missouri, with the continental

blood intervein'd, All

the hands of comrades clasping,

Northern, Pioneers!

pioneers! [280]

all

the Southern,

all

the

Birfcs of

O O

passage

resistless restless race

beloved race in

all

O my

breast aches with tender love for

all!

mourn and

yet exult,

Pioneers

rapt with love for

pioneers

all,

Raise the mighty mother mistress,

Waving high

the delicate mistress, over

(bend your heads

all

the starry mistress,

all,)

Raise the fang'd and warlike mistress, stern, impassive, weapon'd mistress,

Pioneers!

See

pioneers!

children, resolute children,

By those swarms upon our Ages back

in ghostly millions

Pioneers

On and on With

rear

pioneers

we must

never yield or

falter,

frowning there behind us urging, !

the compact ranks,

accessions ever waiting, with the places of the dead quickly fill'd,

Through the

battle,

Pioneers!

through

defeat,

moving yet and never stop-

O pioneers!

to die advancing

Are there some of us to droop and die

Then upon

the march

fittest die,

fill'd,

Pioneers!

pioneers! [281]

has the hour

come

soon and sure the gap

Heaves of (Brass All the pulses of the world,

Western movement

Falling in they beat for us, with the

Holding single or together, steady

Pioneers!

All the

all

the

seamen and the landsmen,

for us,

and varied pageants,

forms and shows,

Pioneers!

beat,

all

pioneers!

Life's involv'd

All the

moving

to the front,

workmen all

at their

work,

the masters with their slaves,

pioneers!

All the hapless silent lovers, All the prisoners in the prisons, All the joyous,

all

the sorrowing,

Pioneers! I

We,

too with

the righteous and the wicked,

all

the living,

all

the dying,

pioneers!

soul and body,

a curious trio, picking,

wandering on our way,

Through these shores amid the shadows, with the apparitions pressing,

Pioneers!

pioneers!

Lo, the darting

bowling orb!

Lo, the brother orbs around, All the dazzling days,

Pioneers!

These are of All for primal

all

the clustering suns and planets,

the mystic nights with dreams,

pioneers! us, they are

with

us,

needed work, while the followers there

embryo

wait behind,

We to-day's

procession heading,

Pioneers!

pioneers! [282]

the route for travel clearing,

Birfcs of

you daughters

you young and wives

passage West!

of the

elder daughters

you mothers and you

Never must you be divided,

Pioneers!

our ranks you

move

united,

pioneers!

Minstrels latent on the prairies!

(Shrouded bards of other lands, you

may

rest,

you have done

your work,)

Soon

hear you coming warbling, soon you rise and tramp amid us,

Pioneers!

pioneers!

Not for delectations sweet,

Not the cushion and the

slipper,

not the peaceful and the

studious

Not the

riches safe

Pioneers!

Do Do

and

palling, not for us the

tame enjoyment,

pioneers!

the feasters gluttonous feast

the corpulent sleepers sleep? have they lock'd and bolted

doors Still

be ours the diet hard, and the blanket on the ground, Pioneers!

pioneers!

Has the night descended

Was

the road of late so toilsome

ding on our

Yet a passing hour Pioneers!

way

yield

did

stop discouraged nod-

you

your tracks to pause oblivious,

pioneers! [283]

leaves of (Brass with sound of trumpet,

Till

Far, far off the

daybreak

hark

call

Swift! to the head of the army!

Pioneers!

WHOEVER you fear these

how

loud and clear

hear

wind,

are,

pioneers!

fear

supposed

swift! spring to your places,

you

are walking the walks of dreams,

realities are to

melt from under your feet

and hands,

Even

now

your

troubles,

joys, speech, house, trade, manners,

features,

costume,

follies,

crimes,

dissipate

away from

you,

Your

true soul and

They stand

body appear before me,

forth out of affairs, out of

farms,

clothes,

commerce, shops, work,

the house, buying, selling, eating, drink-

ing, suffering, dying.

Whoever you

are,

place

hand upon you,

that

you be

poem,

whisper with

have loved

now

lips close to

many women

your

ear,

and men, but

love none better than

have been dilatory and dumb,

made my way

should have

should have blabb'd nothing but you,

straight to

nothing but you. [284]

you long ago, I

should have chanted

Bir&s of passage I

will leave

None

and come and make the hymns of you,

all

has understood you, but

understand you,

None has done justice to you, you have not done justice to yourself, None but has found you imperfect, only find no imperfection in I

you,

None but would subordinate you,

only

who

will never

consent to subordinate you, I

only

who

places over

God, beyond what waits Painters have painted their figure of

From the head

you no master, owner,

better,

intrinsically in yourself.

swarming groups and the

centre-

all,

of the centre-figure spreading a

nimbus of gold-

color'd light,

But

paint myriads of heads, but paint no head without

bus of gold-color'd

From

its

nim-

light,

hand from the brain of every man and

woman

streams, effulgently flowing forever.

could sing such grandeurs and glories about you!

You have

not

yourself

Your

known what you all

your

(Your

thrift,

eries,

same

as closed

The mockeries

most of the time,

returns already in mockeries,

knowledge, prayers,

what

you have slumber'd upon

life,

eyelids have been the

What you have done

are,

they do not return

their return ?)

are not you,

Underneath them and within them [285]

see

you

lurk,

mock-

Xeaves of (Brass I

pursue you where none else has pursued you,

I";;

Silence, the desk, the flippant expression, the night, the accus-

tomed

routine,

yourself, they

The shaved

these conceal

do not conceal you from me,

the unsteady eye, the impure complexion,

face,

these balk others they

The

you from others or from

pert apparel, the

premature death,

There

no endowment

There

do not balk me,

deform'd all

these

men

attitude, I

drunkenness, greed,

part aside.

women

that

not

tallied in

[in

virtue,

no beauty

man

woman, but

pluck, no endurance in others, but as

No pleasure waiting for others, for

me,

good

is in

you,

good

you,

but an equal pleasure waits for you.

give nothing to any one except

give the like care-

fully to you, I

sing the songs of the glory of none, not God, sooner than

sing

the songs of the glory of you.

Whoever you are claim your own at any hazard These shows of the East and West are tame compared !

These immense meadows, these interminable

immense and interminable These

furies,

elements,

to you,

rivers,

you

are

as they,

storms, motions of Nature, throes of

apparent dissolution, you are he or she

who

master or

mistress over them,

Master or mistress in your

own

pain, passion, dissolution. [286]

right over Nature, elements,

The hopples

passage

from your ankles, you find an unfailing

suf-

Old or young, male or female, rude, low, rejected by the

rest,

fall

ficiency,

whatever you are promulges

Through

birth,

ing

life,

itself,

death, burial, the

means

are provided, noth-

scanted,

Through angers, are picks

losses,

its

ambition, ignorance, ennui,

what you

way.

ffrance,

The iSth Year of these States.

A A

GREAT year and harsh

place,

discordant natal scream out-sounding, to

touch the

mother's heart closer than any yet.

walk'd the shores of

Heard over the waves the

Saw

the divine infant

Eastern sea, little

voice,

where she woke mournfully wailing, amid

the roar of cannon, curses, shouts, crash of falling buildings,

Was

not so sick from the blood in the gutters running, nor from the single corpses, nor those in heaps, nor those borne

away

in the tumbrils,

Was not so desperate at the battues

of death

at the repeated fusillades of the guns. [287]

was not

so shock'd

leaves of (Brass what could

Pale, silent, stern,

say to that long-accrued retribu-

tion ?

wish humanity

Could

different ?

wish the people made of wood and stone no justice

that there be

Liberty

in destiny or

mate for

time ?

Here too the blaze, the grape-shot and the axe, fetch

Here

too,

them out

And

be destroy'd,

represt, can never

murdering and

rise at last

Here too demanding

Hence

in case of need,

though long

Here too could

in reserve, to

full

ecstatic,

arrears of vengeance.

sign this salute over the sea,

do not deny that

But remember the

little

perfect trust,

And from

terrible red birth

voice that

no matter

as for

all

heard wailing, and wait with

how

to-day sad and cogent

and baptism,

long,

maintain the bequeath'd cause,

lands,

And

send these words to Paris with

And

guess some chansonniers there will understand them,

For I

guess there

music yet

latent

love,

in France, floods of

it,

hear already the bustle of instruments, they will soon be

drowning

reaches hither,

all

think the east

that

would

interrupt them,

wind brings a triumphal and it

will run transpose

will yet sing a

swells it

song

for

free

to joyful madness,

words, to

justify

you ma femme. [288]

it,

march,

Bir&0 of passage an& /Bine* MYSELF and mine gymnastic

ever,

stand the cold or heat, to take good aim with a gun, to boat, to

To speak

manage

readily

and

sail

horses, to beget superb children,

home among common

clearly, to feel at

people,

And Not

to hold our

own

in terrible positions

on land and

sea.

an embroiderer,

for

(There will always be plenty of embroiderers,

welcome them

also,)

But for the fibre of things and for inherent

Not

men and women.

to chisel ornaments,

But to chisel with free stroke the heads and limbs of plenteous

supreme Gods, and Let

that the States

have

my own

them walking

way,

agitation

and

will

make no account of

men and

Let others praise eminent

praise

realize

talking.

Let others promulge the laws,

may

hold up peace,

the laws, I

hold up

conflict,

no eminent man,

rebuke to his face the one that was

thought most worthy.

(Who

are

you

and what are you secretly guilty of

Will you turn aside

your

And who

all

your

life ?

will

all

your

life ?

you grub and chatter

all

life ?

are you,

blabbing by rote, years, pages, languages,

reminiscences,

leaves of (Brass Unwitting to-day that you do not single

word

never finish specimens,

them by exhaustless laws

start

to speak properly a

Let others finish specimens, I

know how

as Nature does, fresh

and modern

continually.

give nothing as duties,

What

others give as duties I

(Shall

give as living impulses,

give the heart's action as a duty

Let others dispose of questions,

dispose of nothing,

arouse

unanswerable questions,

Who What

are they

see and touch, and

about these

likes of

what about them

myself that draw

der directions and indirections

call to

enemies, as

charge you forever reject those

so close by ten-

the world to distrust the accounts of

listen to 1

friends,

but

myself do,

who would expound

me,

for

cannot expound myself, I

charge that there be no theory or school founded out of me,

charge you to leave

all free,

have

left all free.

After me, vista! I

see

life is

not short, but immeasurably long,

stea d y grower, riser, a

henceforth tread the world chaste, temperate, an early

Every hour the semen of centuries, and

still

of centuries.

must follow up these continual lessons of the

perceive

have no time to

lose.

[290]

air,

water, earth,

Birfcs of

passage

Bear of ^Detects. (1859-60.)

YEAR I

of meteors

would bind

brooding year

words

retrospective

would sing your contest

would sing how

some

of your deeds and signs,

for the i9th Presidentiad,

an old man,

tall,

with white

hair,

mounted the

scaffold in Virginia, (I I

was

at hand, silent

stood with teeth shut close,

man when

stood very near you old

trembling with age

mounted the I

would sing

The

and

watch'd,

indifferent,

but

and your unheard wounds, you

scaffold;)

my copious song your census returns

tables of population

and

cool

and products,

of the States,

would sing of your ships

their cargoes,

The proud biack

ships of Manhattan arriving,

some

fill'd

with

immigrants, some from the isthmus with cargoes of gold,

Songs thereof would

welcome

sing, to

all

that hitherward

sing, fair stripling!

prince of England

welcome

your cortege of nobles

Nor

in the

forget

crowds stood to sing of the

you from me,

(Remember you surging Manhattan's crowds There

comes would

give,

And you would young

you pass'd with

and singled you out with attachment;)

wonder, the ship as she

swam up my

bay,

Well-shaped and

was 600

stately the Great Eastern

feet long,

swam up my

bay, she

leaves of (Brass Her moving swiftly surrounded by myriads of small

craft

forget

not to sing;

Nor the comet

that

came unannounced out of the north

flaring in

heaven,

Nor the strange huge meteor-procession dazzling and

clear shoot-

ing over our heads,

(A moment, a

moment

long

sail'd its balls

of unearthly light

over our heads,

Then departed, dropt in the night, and was gone;) Of such, and fitful as they, I sing with gleams from them would I

Your

gleam and patch these chants,

chants,

all

year

forebodings

mottled with

evil

and good

Year of comets and meteors transient and strange here one equally transient and strange

flit

year of

through you

hastily,

soon to

fall

lo!

even

and be gone, what

this chant,

What am

myself but one of your meteors?

TOUtb Bntecebents* i

WITH

antecedents,

With

fathers

and mothers and the accumulations of past

ages,

With

all

which, had

not been,

am, [292]

would not now be

here, as

of passage With Egypt, India, Phenicia, Greece and Rome, With the Kelt, the Scandinavian, the Alb and the Saxon, With antique maritime ventures, laws, artisanship, wars and journeys,

With

the poet, the skald, the saga, the myth, and the oracle,

With the

With

sale of slaves,

with enthusiasts, with the troubadour,

the crusader, and the

monk,

those old continents

whence we have come

to this

new

continent,

With the

fading

kingdoms and kings over

With

the fading religions and priests,

With

the small shores

there,

look back to from our

own

large

and

present shores,

With

countless years drawing themselves

onward and

arrived at

these years,

You and me

This year! sending

O but

it is

America arrived and making

arrived

itself

not the years

this year,

ahead countless years to come.

it is I,

it is

You,

We touch all laws and tally all antecedents, We are the skald, the oracle, the monk and the knight, we easily include

We stand evil

All

them and more,

amid time beginningless and endless,

stand amid

and good,

swings around

us, there is as

The very sun swings Its

sun, and

its

again,

itself all

and

much darkness

its

system of planets around

swing around [293]

as light,

us.

us,

leaves of (Brass As

for

me,

stormy, amid these vehement days,)

(torn,

have the idea of

believe materialism

and

all,

and believe

all

and spiritualism

true

all,

is true,

reject

part.

(Have

Come

forgotten any part

any thing

me whoever and

in the past ?

whatever,

till

give you recogni-

respect Assyria, China, Teutonia, and the Hebrews,

adopt each theory, myth, god, and demi-god,

see that the old accounts, bibles, genealogies, are true, with-

out exception, I

assert that

And

all

past days

nohow have been

that they could

And

that to-day

And

that to-day

what

were what they must have been,

must

be,

better than they were,

and that America

is,

are

and America could nohow be better than they 3

In the

And

name

in the

of these States and in your and

name

name, uie

of these States and in your and

Past,

name, the

Present time. I

know

And

that the past

know

was

that both curiously conjoint in the present time,

(For the sake of him sake, your sake

And

that

where

centre of

And

there

great and the future will be great,

the

all

typify, for the

you

days,

are he,

you all

average man's

)

are this present day, there

the

races,

meaning to us of

and days, or ever

common

will

all

come. [294]

that has ever

come

of races

SORT