Section 10

My rendezvous is appointed*—it is certain ;*
The Lord will be there, and wait till I come, on perfect terms ;
(The great Camerado, the lover true for whom I pine, will be there. )°
1 «QO welcome” added in 1860.
? 1855 756 ’60 read ‘¢ and all the palpable life, were this moment,”’ etc.
5 1855 reads ‘‘ Our rendezvous is fitly appointed, God will be there and wait till we come.”’
4
5 Line 1197 added in 1867,
WALT WHITMAN 87
‘46 I know I have the best of time-and space, and was never meas- ured, and never will be measured.
I tramp a perpetual journey—(come listen all !)!
My signs are a rain-proof coat, good shoes, and a staff cut from the woods ; 1200
No friend of mine takes his ease in my chair ;
I have no chair, no church, no philosophy ;
I lead no man to a dinner-table, library, or exchange ;
But each man and each woman of you I lead upon a knoll,
My left hand hooking you round the waist,
My right hand pointing to landscapes of continents, and a plain public road.
Not I—not any one else, can travel that road for you, You must travel it for yourself.
It is not far—it is within reach ;
Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know ; 1210
Perhaps it is every where on water and on land.
Shoulder your duds, dear son,’ and I will mine, and let us hasten
forth, Wonderful cities and free nations we shall fetch as we go.
If you tire, give me both burdens, and rest the chuff of your hand on my hip,
And in due time you shall repay the same service to me ;
‘ For after we start, we never lie by again.
This day before dawn I ascended a hill, and look’d at the crowded heaven,
And I said to my Spirit, When we become the enfolders of those orbs, and the pleasure and knowledge of everything in them, shall we be fill’d and satisfied then ?
And my Spirit said, Vo, we but* level that lift, te pass and con- tinue beyond.
1 «(come listen all! )’’ added in 1867. 2 «dear son’’ added in 1867. 3 but’? added in 1867.
88 LEAVES OF GRASS
You are also asking me questions, and I hear you ; 1220 I answer that I cannot answer—you must find out for yourself,
Sit a while, dear son ;*
Here are biscuits to eat, and here is milk to drink ;
But as soon as you sleep, and renew yourself in sweet clothes, I? kiss you with a good-bye kiss, and open the gate for your egress hence.
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 I will you to be a bold swimmer,
To jump off in the midst of the sea, rise again, nod to me, shout, and laughingly dash with your hair. 1230
47
J am the teacher of athletes ;
He that by me spreads a wider breast than my own, proves the width of my own ;
He most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher.
The boy I love, the same becomes a man, not through derived power, but in his own 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 all latherers,
And those well tann’d to those that keep out of the sun.4 1240
1 1855 756 ’6o for ‘‘ dear son’’ read ‘¢ wayfarer.””
2 1855 756 60 read «I will certainly kiss you,’’ etc.
31855 ’56 ’60 read “* worse than a wound cuts.”’
* 185556760. For lines 1239-40 read “ Preferring scars and faces pitted with small-pox over all latherers and those that keep out of the sun.”
WALT WHITMAN 89
I teach straying from me—yet who can stray from me? I follow you, whoever you are, from the present hour ; My words itch at your ears till you understand them.
I do not say these things for a dollar, or to fill up the time while I wait for a boat ;
It is you talking just as much as myself—I act as the tongue of you ;
Tied’ in your mouth, in mine it begins to be loosen’d.
I swear I will never again? mention love or death inside a house,
And I swear I will never translate myself at all, only to him or her who privately stays with me in the open air.
If you would understand me, go to the heights or water-shore ; The nearest gnat is an explanation, and a drop or motion of
waves a key ; 1250 The maul, the oar, the hand-saw, second my words.
No shutter’d room or school can commune with me, But roughs and little 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 in the field, feels good at the fact of my voice ;
In vessels that sail, my words’ sail—I go with fishermen and seamen, and love them.
The soldier camp’d, or upon the march, is mine ;
On the night ere the pending battle, many seek me, and I do not fail them ;
On the solemn night (it may be their last,) those that know me, seek me.* 1260
My face rubs to the hunter’s face, when he lies down alone in his blanket ;
11855 756 read ‘It was tied,”’ etc 2 «¢ again’? added in 1860. 3 1855 reads ‘‘ words must sail,’’ etc,
4 Lines 1258-59-60 added in 1867.
90 LEAVES OF GRASS
The driver, thinking of me, does not mind the jolt of his wagon ; ¢>
The young mother and old mother comprehend me ;
The girl and the wife rest the needle a moment, and forget where they are ;
They and all would resume what I have told them.
(48% I have said that the soul is not.more than the body,_ And I have said that the body is ot more than the soul ; And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one’s self ‘is, And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy, walks to his own funeral, drest in his shroud, And I or you, pocketless of a dime, may purchase the pick of the earth, 1270
(Ou fclr ty
And to glance with an eye, or show a bean in its pod, confounds the learning of all times, And there is no trade or employment but the young man fol- c lowing it may become a hero, y ~ And there is no object so soft but it makes a hub for the wheel’d « & universe, ) : * And I say to any man or woman,’ Let your soul stand cool and
composed before a million universes.
oe
And I say’ to mankind, Be not curious about God, For I, who am curious about each, am not curious about God ; + (No array of terms can say how much I am at peace about God, and about death. )
I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least,
¥ Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself. Why should I wish to see God better than this day ? 1280
I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, and each moment then ;
In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass ;
I find letters from God dropt in the street—and every one is sign’d by God’s name,
1 1855 °56 ’60 read ‘¢ And any man or woman shall stand cool and super- cilious before a million universes.’ 21855756760, For ‘‘say”’ an tecalli?
WALT WHITMAN gI
And I leave them where they are, for I know that wheresoe’er I go," Others will punctually come forever and ever.
(49) And as to you Death, and yotbitter hug of mortality, it is idle to try to alarm me.
To his work without flinching the accoucheur comes ;
I see the elder-hand, pressing, receiving, supporting ;
I recline by the sills of the exquisite flexible doors,
And mark the outlet, and mark the relief and escape. 1290
And as to you, Corpse, I think you are good manure—but that does not offend me; ——
I smell the white roses sweet-scented and growing,
I reach to the leafy lips—I reach to the polish’d breasts of melons.
And as to you Life, I reckon you are the leavings of many deaths ; (No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before. )
I hear you whispering there, O stars of heaven ;
O suns! O grass of graves! O perpetual transfers and promo- tions !
If you do not say anything, how can I say anything?
Of the turbid pool that lies in the autumn forest,
Of the moon that descends the steeps of the soughing twi- light, 1300
Toss, sparkles of day and dusk! toss on the black stems that decay in the muck!
Toss to the moaning gibberish of the dry limbs.
I ascend from the moon, I ascend from the night ;
I perceive that the ghastly glimmer is noonday sunbeams re- flected ;?
And debouch to the steady and central from the offspring great or small.
1 ««wheresoe’er I go’”’ added in 1867.
2 1855 reads ‘¢ And perceive of the ghastly glitter the sunbeams reflected.” 1856 reads ‘‘ And perceive of the ghastly glimmer the sunbeams reflected,”’ 1860 reads ‘‘I perceive of the ghastly glimmer the sunbeams reflected,”’
92 LEAVES OF GRASS By s | | 50
i There is that in me—I do not’know what it is—but I know it is in me.
Wrench’d and sweaty—calm and cool then my body becomes ; I sleep—lI sleep long.
I do not know it—it is without name— it is a word unsaid ; It is not in any dictionary, utterance, symbol. 1310
Something it swings on more than the earth I swing on ; To it the creation is the friend whose embracing awakes me.
Perhaps I might tell more. Outlines! I plead for my brothers and sisters.
Do you see, O my brothers and sisters ? It is not chaos or death—it is form, union, plan—it is eternal life—it is HAPPINESS.
The past and present wilt—I have fill’d them, emptied them, And proceed to fill my next fold of the future.
Listener up there! Here, you! What have you to confide to Mery Ui
Look in my face, while I snuff the sidle of evening ;
Talk honestly—no one else hears you, and I stay only a minute longer. 1320
Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself; (1 am large—I contain multitudes. )
I concentrate toward them that are nigh—I wait on the door- slab.
Who has done his day’s work? Who will soonest be through with his supper? Who wishes to walk with me?
Will you speak before [am gone? Will you prove already too late ?
*
WALT WHITMAN 93
(52) The spotted hawk swoops by aid accuses me—he complains of my gab and my loitering.
I too am not a bit tamed—I too am untranslatable ; I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world. 1330
The last scud of day holds back for me ;
It flings my likeness after the rest, and true as any, on the shadow’d wilds ;
It coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk.
I depart as air—I shake my white locks at the runaway sun ; I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.
I bequeathe myself to the dirt, to grow from the grass I love ;
You will hardly know who I am, or what I mean ; But I shall be good health to you nevertheless, And filter and fibre your blood. 1340
Failing to fetch me at first, keep encouraged ; Missing me one place, search another ; I stop somewhere, waiting for you.
& — LAWS FOR CREATIONS.
First published in 1860 as No. 13 *‘ Chants Democratic.””
Laws for Creations,
For strong artists and leaders—for fresh broods of teachers, and
perfect literats for America, For noble savans, and coming musicians.
All must have reference to the ensemble of the world, and the compact truth of the world ;
There shall be no subject too pronounced—All works shall illus- trate the divine law of indirections.*
1 1860. For lines 4 and 5 reads: « There shall be no subject but it shall be treated with reference to the en- semble of the world, and the compact truth of the world—And no
coward or copyist shall be allowed; ,
94 LEAVES OF GRASS
What do you suppose Creation is?
What do you suppose will satisfy the Soul, except to walk free, and own no superior?
What do you suppose I would intimate to you in a hundred ways, but that man or woman is as good as God?
And that there is no God any more divine than Yourself?
And that that is what the oldest and newest myths finally
mean P : se) And that you or any one must approach Creations through such laws P * VISOR’D.
First published in 1860.
A MASK—a perpetual natural disguiser of herself, Concealing her face, concealing her form,
Changes and transformations every hour, every moment, Falling upon her even when she sleeps.
‘There shall be no subject too pronounced—All works shall illustrate the divine law of indirections ;
There they stand—I see them already, each poised and in its place,
Statements, models, censuses, poems, dictionaries, biographies, essays, theories —How complete! How relative andinterfused! No one supersedes another ;
They do not seem to me like the old specimens,
They seem to me like Nature at last, (America has given birth to them, and I have also ;)
They seem to me at last as perfect as the animals, and as the rocks and weeds —fitted to them,
Fitted to the sky, to float with floating clouds—to rustle among the trees with rustling leaves,
To stretch with stretched and level waters, where ships silently sail in the dis- tance,”’
CHILDREN OF ADAM 95
CHILDREN OF ADAM.
TO THE GARDEN, THE WORLD. First published in 1860.
To THE garden, the world, anew ascending,
Potent mates, daughters, sons, preluding,
' The love, the life of their bodies, meaning and being,
Curious, here behold my resurrection, after slumber ;
The revolving cycles, in their wide sweep, have brought me again,
Amorous, mature—all beautiful to me—all wondrous ;
My limbs, and the quivering fire that ever plays through them, for reasons, most wondrous ;
Existing, I peer and penetrate still,
Content with the present—content with the past,
By my side, or back of me, Eve following,
Or in front, and I following her just the same.
om
FROM PENT-UP ACHING RIVERS.
First published in 1860.
From pent-up, aching rivers ;*
From that of myself, without which I were nothing ;
From what I am determin’d to make illustrious, even if I stand sole among men ;
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 !
1 «‘Fyom pent-up, aching rivers’? added in 1867. See also note at line 10.
27E73/
96 | LEAVES OF GRASS
O for you, whoever you are, your correlative body ! O it, more than all else, you delighting !)* 10
—From the hungry gnaw that eats me night and day ;
From native moments—from bashful pains—singing them ;
Singing something yet unfound, though I have diligently sought
. it, many a long year ;”
Singing the true song of the Soul, fitful, at random ;
Singing what, to the Soul, entirely redeem’d her, the faithful one, even’ the prostitute, who detain’d me when I went to the city ;
Singing the song of prostitutes ;
Renascent with grossest Nature, or among animals ;
Of that—of them, and what goes with them, my poems informing ;
Of the smell of apples and lemons—of the pairing of birds,
Of the wet of woods—of the lapping of waves, 20
Of the mad pushes of waves upon the land—I them chanting ;
The overture lightly sounding—the strain anticipating ;
The welcome nearness—the sight of the perfect body ;
The swimmer swimming naked in the bath, or motionless on his back lying and floating ;
The female form approaching—lI, pensive, love-flesh tremulous, aching ;*
The divine list, for myself or you, or for any one, making ;
The face—the limbs—the index from head to foot, and what it
arouses ;
The mystic deliria—the madness amorous—the utter abandon- ment 5
(Hark close, an still, what I now whisper to you,
I love you—O you entirely possess me, 30
O I wish that you and I escape from the rest, and go utterly off —O free and lawless, :
Two hawks in the air—two fishes swimming in tne sea not more lawless than we ;)