Section 12

106 LEAVES OF GRASS
Upper-arm, arm-pit, elbow-socket, lower-arm, arm-sinews, arm- bones, 140
Wrist and wrist-joints, hand, palm, knuckles, thumb, fore-finger, finger-balls, finger-joints, finger- nails,
Broad breast-front, curling hair of the breast, breast-bone, breast- side,
Ribs, belly, back-bone, joints of the back-bone,
Hips, hip-sockets, hip-strength, inward and outward round, man-balls, 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 belongings of my or your body, or of any one’s body, male or female,
The lung-sponges, the stomach-sac, the bowels sweet and clean,
The brain in its folds inside the skull-frame, 150
Sympathies, heart-valves, palate-valves, sexuality, maternity,
Womanhood, and all that is a woman—and the man that comes from woman,
The womb, the teats, nipples, breast-milk, tears, laughter, weep- ing, love-looks, love-perturbations and risings,
The 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 sun-burnt shade, freckles, hair,
The curious sympathy one feels, when feeling with the hand the naked meat of! the body,
The circling rivers, the breath, and breathing it in and out, 160
The beauty of the waist, and thence of the hips, and thence downward toward the knees,
The thin red jellies within you, or within me—the bones, and the marrow in the bones,
The exquisite realization of health ;
O I say, these are not the parts and poems of the Body only, but of the Soul,
O I say now these are the Soul !?
1 1856 ’60 read ‘ meat of his own body or another person’s body.?? 2 3856 reads ‘O I think these are the soul! If these are not the soul what is the soul ?”
CHILDREN OF ADAM 107
A WOMAN WAITS FOR ME.
First published in 1856 under title of ‘‘ Poem of Procreation.’”
A WOMAN waits for me—she contains all, nothing is lacking, Yet all were lacking, if sex were lacking, or if the moisture of the right man were lacking.
Sex contains all,
Bodies, Souls, meanings, proofs, purities, delicacies, results, promulgations,
Songs, commands, health, pride, the maternal mystery, the seminal 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, and justifications of itself.
Without shame the man I like knows and avows the delicious- ness of his sex, be) Without shame the woman I like knows and avows hers.?
Now’ I will dismiss myself from impassive women,
I will go stay with her who waits for me, and with those women that are warm-blooded and sufficient for me ;
I see that they understand me, and do not deny me;
I see that they are worthy of me—I will be the robust husband of those women.
They are not one jot less than I am,
They are tann’d in the face by shining suns and blowing winds,
Their flesh has the old divine suppleness and strength,
They know how to swim, row, ride, wrestle, shoot, run, strike, retreat, advance, resist, defend themselves,
They are ultimate in their own right—they are calm, clear, well- possess’d of themselves. 20
1 1856’60. After line 11 read **OI will fetch bully breeds of children et !?? 1856 adds ‘‘ They cannot be fetched, I say, on less terms than mine, Electric growth from the male, and rich ripe fibre from the female, are the terms.’’ 2 «‘ Now’? added in 1867. -
108 LEAVES OF GRASS
I draw you close to me, you women !
I cannot let you go, I would do you good,
Iam for you, and you are for me, not only for our own sake, but for others’ sakes ;
Envelop’d in you sleep greater heroes and bards,
They refuse to awake at the touch of any man but me.
It is I, you women—I make my way,
I am stern, acrid, large, undissuadable—but I love you,
I do not hurt you any more than is necessary for you,
I pour the stuff to start sons and daughters fit for These States— I press. with slow rude muscle,
I brace myself effectually—I listen to no entreaties, 30 I dare not withdraw till I deposit what has so long accumulated within me.
Through you I drain the pent-up rivers of myself,
In you I wrap a thousand onward years,
On you I graft the grafts of the best-beloved of me and America,
The drops I distil upon you shall grow’ fierce and athletic girls, new artists, musicians, and singers,
The babes I beget upon you are to beget babes in their turn,
I shall demand perfect men and women out of my love-spend- ings,
I shall expect them to interpenetrate with others, as I and you interpenetrate now,
I shall count on the fruits of the gushing showers of them, as I count on the fruits of the gushing showers I give
now, T shall look for loving crops from the birth, life, death, immor- tality, I plant so lovingly now. 40
& SPONTANEOUS ME.
First published in 1856 under the title of ‘* Bunch Poem,”’ SPONTANEOUS me, Nature,’ The ties day,° the mounting sun,* the friend I am happy with,
1855. For ‘shall grow’? reads ‘¢ are drops of.’? Line 1 added in 1860.
«
‘the mounting sun’’ added in 1867.
«
or, we
CHILDREN OF ADAM 109
The arm of my friend hanging idly over my shoulder,
The hill-side whiten’d with blossoms of the mountain ash,
The same, late in autumn—the’ hues of red, yellow, drab, pur- ple, and light and dark green,
The rich coverlid of the grass—animals and birds—the private untrimm’d bank—the primitive apples—the pebble- stones,
Beautiful dripping fragments—the negligent list of one after another, as I happen to call them to me, or think of them,
The real poems, (what we call poems being merely pictures, )
The poems of the privacy of the night, and of men like me,
This poem, drooping shy and unseen, that I always carry, and that all men carry, IO
(Know, once for all, avow’d on purpose, wherever are men like me, are our lusty, lurking, masculine poems ;)
Love-thoughts, love-juice, love-odor, love-yielding, love-climb- ers, 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—tlife that is only life after love,
The body of my love—the body of the woman I love—the body of the man—the body of the earth,
Soft forenoon airs that blow from the south-west,
The hairy wild-bee that murmurs and hankers up and down— that gripes the full-grown lady-flower, curves upon her with amorous firm legs, takes his will of her, and holds himself tremulous and tight till he is satisfied,
The wet of woods through the early hours,
Two 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, 20
’ The boy’s longings, the glow and pressure as he confides to me what he was dreaming,
The dead leaf whirling its spiral whirl, and falling still and con- tent to the ground,
The no-form’d stings that sights, people, objects, sting me with,
The hubb’d sting of myself, stinging me as much as it ever can any one,
1 1856-60 read “‘ the gorgeous hues,’? etc.
110. LEAVES OF GRASS
The sensitive, orbic, underlapp’d brothers, that only privileged feelers may be intimate where they are,
The curious roamer, the hand, roaming 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 vexed corrosion, so pensive and so painful,
The torment—the irritable tide that will not be at rest,
The like of the same I feel—the like of the same in others, 30
The young man that flushes and flushes, and the young woman that flushes and flushes,
The young man that wakes, deep at night, the hot hand seeking to repress what would master him ;
The mystic amorous night’—the strange half-welcome pangs, visions, sweats,
The pulse pounding through palms and trembling encircling fingers—the young man all color’d, red, ashamed, angry ;
The souse upon me of my lover the sea, as I lie willing and naked,
The merriment of the twin-babes that crawl over the grass in the sun, the mother never turning her vigilant eyes from them,
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 I skulk or find myself in- decent, while birds and animals never once skulk or find themselves indecent ;
The great chastity of paternity, to match the great chastity of maternity, 40
The oath of procreation I have sworn—my Adamic and fresh daughters,?
The greed that eats me day and night with hungry gnaw, till I saturate what shall produce boys to fill my place when I am through,
The wholesome relief, repose, content ;
And this bunch, pluck’d at random from myself ;
It has done its work—I tossed it carelessly to fall where it may.
1 « The mystic amorous night’? added in 1867. 2
ommmpny™ OF ADAM 111
‘ONE HOUR 72 MADNESS AND JOY. pret published in 1460.
‘ve hour to madness 24 Joy” © furious ! O confine ™e HOt! ‘Yhat is this that f©S Me SO In storms ? “hat do my shov® amid lightnings and raging winds mean?)
to drink thre “YStic deliria deeper than any other man ! savage ap tender achings !
_ bequeat™ them to you, my children,
ell the to you, for reasons, O bridegroom and bride.)
to be Yielded to you, whoever you are, and you to be yielded . to me, in defiance of the world !” to return to Paradise! O bashful and feminine !? 10 - t2 draw you to me—to plant on you for the first time the lips of a determin’d man !* -. the puzzle—the thrice-tied knot—the deep and dark pool! O all untied and illumin’d! , + to speed where there is space enough and air enough at last! ‘+ to be absolv’d from previous ties and conventions’—I from mine, and you from yours ! ‘) to find a new unthought-of nonchalance with the best of nature ! \) to have the gag remov’d from one’s mouth ! ') to have the feeling, to-day or any day, I am sufficient as Il am!
‘) something unprov’d! something in a trance!
) madness amorous ! O trembling !
.) to escape utterly from others’ anchors and holds ! 20 fo drive free! to love free! to dash reckless and dangerous! To court destruction with taunts—with invitations !
Co ascend—to leap to the heavens of the love indicated to me!
1 Line 1 added in 1867. 2 1860. After line g reads ‘‘(Know I am a man, attracting at any time her I but look upon, or touch with the tips of my fingers, Or that touches my face, or leans against me. )’’
3 «*Q bashful and feminine !’’ added in 1467.
4 1860. After line 11 reads “‘O rich and feminine! O to show you how to realize the blood of life for yourself, whoever you are—and no matter when and where you live.’’
5 1860 reads ‘ from previous follies and degradations.’’
To rise thither with my inebriate S..4 1
-. To be lost, if it must be so!
To feed the remainder of life with on, jour of fulness and fre dom | With one brief hour of madness and joy.
&
WE TWO—HOW LONG WE WERE FOty p,
First published in 1860. a
1WeE two—how long we were fool’d! Now transmuted, we swiftly escape, as Nature escapes ;? We are Nature—long have we been absent, but now we reiy;n We become plants, leaves, foliage, roots, bark ; ok 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 4 any 5 We are two fishes swimming in the sea together; __ We are what the locust blossoms are—we drop scent around the lanes, mornings and evenings ; We are also the coarse smut of beasts, vegetables, miner- alsin. Io We are two predatory hawks—we soar above, and look down; We are two resplendent suns—we it is who balance ourselves, orbic and stellar—we are as two comets ; We prowl fang’d and four-footed in the woods—we spring on prey ; We are two clouds, forenoons and afternoons, driving over- head ; We are seas mingling—we are two of those cheerful waves, roll- ing over each other, and interwetting each other ; We are what the atmosphere is, transparent, receptive, pervious, impervious : We are snow, rain, cold, darkness—we are each product and influence of the globe ;
\ }
1 1860 begins ‘‘ You and I—what the earth is, we are, We two,”? etc.
* 1860 reads ‘‘ Now delicious, transmuted, swiftly we escape, as Nature escapes.’?
3 1860. After line 10 reads ‘* We are what the owing wet of the Ten- nessee is—we are two peaks of the Blue Mountains, rising up in Virginia.’’
CHILDREN OF ADAM I13
We have circled and circled till we have arrived home again— we two have; We have voided all but freedom, and all but our own joy.
x OUT OF THE ROLLING OCEAN, THE CROWD.
First published in “Drum Taps,” 1865. ag
Out of the rolling ocean, the crowd, came a drop gently to me, Whispering, J love you, before long I die,
L have travel d a long way, merely to look on you, to touch you, For I coula not die till I ence look’ d on you,
for I fear d I might afterward lose you.
2
(Now we have met, we have look’d, we are safe ;
Return in peace to the ocean, my love;
I too am part of that ocean, my love—we are not so much sep- arated ;
Behold the great rondure—the cohesion of all, how perfect !
But as for me, for you, the irresistible sea is to separate us, 10
As for an hour, carrying us diverse—yet cannot carry us diverse for ever ;
Be not impatient—a little space—Know you, I salute the air, the ocean and the land,
Every day, at sundown, for your dear sake, my love.)
&*
NATIVE MOMENTS.
First published in 1860.
NATIVE moments! when you come upon me—Ah you are here now !
Give me now libidinous joys only!
Give me the drench of my passions! Give me life coarse and rank !
To-day, I go consort with nature’s darlings—to-night too ;
I am for those who believe in loose delights—I share the mid- night orgies of young men ;
I dance with the dancers. and drink with the drinkers ;
8
114 LEAVES OF GRASS
The echoes ring with our indecent calls ;
I take for my love some prostitute—I pick out some low person for my dearest friend,
He shall be lawless, rude, illiterate—he shall be one condemn’d by others for deeds done ;
I will play a part no longer—Why should I exile myself from my companions ? Io
O you shunn’d persons! I at least do not shun you,
I come forthwith in your midst—I will be your poet,
I will be more to you than to any of the rest.
& ONCE I PASS’D THROUGH A POPULOUS CITY.
First published in 1860.
Once I pass’d through a populous city, imprinting my brain, for future use, with its shows, architecture, customs, and tra- ditions ;
Yet now, of all that city, I remember only a woman I casually met there, who detain’d me for love of me ;
Day by day and night by night we were together,—All else has long been forgotten by me ;
I remember, I say, only that woman who passionately clung to me ;
Again we wander—we love—we separate again ;
Again she holds me by the hand—I must not go!
I see her close beside me, with silent lips, sad and tremulous.
&*
FACING WEST FROM CALIFORNIA’S SHORES. First published in 1860.
Facinc west, from California’s shores,
Inquiring, tireless, seeking what is yet unfound,?
I, a child, very old, over waves, towards the house of maternity, the land of migrations, look afar,
Look off the shores of my Western Sea*—the circle almost circled ;
For, starting* westward from Hindustan, from the vales of Kash- mere,
Liner. Added in 1867.
1860 reads ‘‘ seeking that yet unfound.’’
1860 reads ‘‘ having arrived at last where I am—the circle,” etc, 1860 reads ‘‘ For, coming,”’
eo we
CHILDREN OF ADAM 115
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 since—round the earth having wander’d,! Now I face home again—very pleas’d and joyous ;? (But where is what I started for, so long ago? Io And why is it yet unfound ?) 5d
AGES AND AGES, RETURNING AT INTERVALS. First published in 1860, 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 cities calling, Deliriate, thus prelude what is generated, offering these, offering myself, Bathing myself, bathing my songs in Sex, Offspring of my loins. &