Section 15

& TO THE EAST AND TO THE WEST
First published in 1860.
To the East and to the West ;?
To the man of the Seaside State, and of Pennsylvania,
To the Kanadian of the North—to the Southerner I love ;
These, with perfect trust, to depict you as myself—the germs are in all men ;
1 1860 adds ‘‘ You on the eastern sea and you on the western !”’ 2 1860 reads ‘‘ To you of New England,”’
136 LEAVES OF GRASS
I believe the main purport of These States 1s to found a superb friendship, exalté, previously unknown,
Because I perceive it waits, and has been always waiting, latent in all men.
&*
EARTH! MY LIKENESS ! First published in 1860.
EartH! my likeness !
Though you look so impassive, ample and spheric there,
T now suspect that is not all ;
I now suspect there is something fierce in you, eligible to burst forth ;
For an athlete is enamour’d of me—and I of him ;
But toward him there is something fierce and teirible in me, eligible to burst forth,
I dare not tell it in words—not even in these songs.
&
] DREAM’D IN A DREAM.
First published in 1860.
I DREAM’D in a dream, I saw a city invincible to the attacks of the whole of the rest of the earth ;
I dream’d that was the new City of Friends ;
Nothing was greater there than the quality of robust love—it led the rest ;
It was seen every hour in the actions of the men of that city,
And in all their looks and words.
wo
FAST ANCHOR’D, ETERNAL, O LOVE! First published in 1867. FAasT-ANCHOR’D, eternal, O love! O woman I love! O bride! O wife! more resistless than I can tell, the thought of you! —Then separate, as disembodied, or another born, Ethereal, the last athletic reality, my consolation ;
I ascend—I float in the regions of your love, O man, O sharer of my roving life.
CALAMUS 137
SOMETIMES WITH ONE I LOVE.
First published in 1860.
SOMETIMES with one I love, I fill myself with rage, for fear I effuse unreturn’d love ;
But now I think there is no unreturn’d love—the pay is certain, one way or another ;?
(I loved a certain person ardently, and my love was not re- turn’d ;
Yet out of that, I have written these songs. )
&*
THAT SHADOW, MY LIKENESS. First published in 1860.
TuaT shadow, my likeness, that goes to and fro, seeking a live- lihood, chattering, chaffering ;
How often I find myself standing and looking at it where it flits ;
How often I question and doubt whether that is really me ;
—But in these, and among my lovers, and caroling my songs,
O I never doubt whether that is really me.
&
AMONG THE MULTITUDE. First published in 1860.
AMONG the men and women, the multitude,
I perceive one picking me out by secret and divine signs,
Acknowledging none else—not parent, wife, husband, brother, child, any nearer than I am ;
Some are baffled—But that one is not—that one knows me.
Ah, lover and perfect equal !
I meant that you should discover me so, by my faint indirec- tions ;
And I, when I meet you, mean to discover you by the like in you.
1 For lines 3 and 4, 1860 reads ‘‘ Doubtless I could not have perceived the universe, or written one of the poems, if I had not freely given myself to comrades, to love.”’
138 LEAVES OF GRASS
TO A WESTERN BOY. First published in 1860. O soy of the West !* To you many things to absorb, I teach, to help you become eleve of mine :? Vet’ if blood like mine circle not in your veins ; If you‘ be not silently selected by lovers, and do not silently se- lect lovers, Of what use is it that you® seek to become eleve of mine?
& O YOU WHOM I OFTEN AND SILENTLY COME.
First published in 1860.
O you whom I often and silently come where you are, that I may be with you ;
As I walk by your side, or sit near, or remain in the same room with you,
Little you know the subtle electric fire that for your sake is play- ing within me.
&*
FULL OF LIFE, NOW. First published in 1860. Futt of life, now,® compact, visible, I, forty years old the Eighty-third Year of The States, To one a century hence, or any number of centuries hence, To you, yet unborn, these, seeking you.
When you read these, I, that was visible, am become invisible ;
Now it is you, compact, visible, realizing my poems, seeking me ;
Fancying how happy you were, if I could be with you, and be- come your comrade ;
Be it as if I were with you. (Be not too certain but I am now with you. )
-_
Line 1. Added in 1867.
1860 reads ‘‘ To the young many many things to absorb, to engraft, to de- velop, I teach, to help him become éléve of mine.’’
1860. For ‘‘ Yet’’ reads “ But.’?
1860. For “‘ you’’ reads “he.’?
1860. For ‘‘you’? reads “ he.”’
1860. For ‘‘now”’ reads ‘sweet-blooded.”’
»
aon fw
SALUT AU MONDE 139
SALUT AU MONDE!
First publishec in 1856.
I
O TAKE my hand, Walt Whitman!
Such gliding wonders! such sights and sounds ! Such join’d unended links, each hook’d to the next! Each answering all—each sharing the earth with all.
What widens within you, Walt Whitman?
What waves and soils exuding ?
What climes ? what persons and lands are here ?
Who are the infants? some playing, some slumbering ?
Who are the girls? who are the married women ?
Who are the groups of* old men going slowly with their arms about each other’s necks ? Ke)
What rivers are these? what forests and fruits are these?
What are the mountains call’d that rise so high in the mists?
What myriads of dwellings are they, fill’d with dwellers?
2
Within me latitude widens, longitude lengthens ;
Asia, Africa, Europe, are to the east—-America is provided for in the west ;
Banding the bulge of the earth winds the hot equator,
Curiously north and south turn the axis-ends ;
Within me is the longest day—the sun wheels in slanting rings —it does not set for months ;
Stretch’d in due time within me the midnight sun just rises above the horizon, and sinks again ;
Within me zones, seas, cataracts, plants,” volcanoes, groups, 20
Malaysia,* Polynesia, and the great West Indian islands,
1 1856 ’60 67 read ‘‘ Who are the three old men,”’’ etc.
2 1856 ’60 for ‘‘plants””’ read ‘‘plains.”’ 3 1856 ’60 for ‘¢ Malaysia’’ read ‘‘ Oceanica, Australasia,”’
140 LEAVES OF GRASS
3 What do you hear, Walt Whitman?
I hear the workman singing, and the farmer’s wife singing ;
I hear in the distance the sounds of children, and of animals early in the day ;*
I hear quick rifle-cracks from the riflemen of East Tennessee and Kentucky, hunting on hills ;
I hear emulous shouts of Australians, pursuing the wild horse ;
I hear the Spanish dance, with castanets, in the chestnut shade, to the rebeck and guitar ;
I hear continual echoes from thé Thames ;
T hear fierce French liberty songs ;
I hear of the Italian boat-sculler the musical recitative of old poems ; 30
I hear the Virginia plantation- -chorus of negroes, of a harvest night, in the glare of pine-knots ;
I hear the strong baritone of the ’long- -shore- -men of Mannahatta ;
I hear the stevedores unlading the cargoes, and singing ;
I hear the screams of the water-fowl of solitary north-west lakes ;
I hear the rustling pattering of locusts, as they strike the grain and grass with the showers of their terrible clouds ;
I hear the Coptic refrain, toward sundown, pensively falling on the breast of the black venerable vast mother, the Nile ;
I hear the bugles of raft-tenders on the streams of Kanada ;
I hear the chirp of the Mexican muleteer, and the bells of the mule ;
I hear the Arab muezzin, calling from the top of the mosque ;
I hear the Christian priests at the altars of their Nie aes hear the responsive bass and soprano ;
I hear the wail of utter despair of the white-hair’d Irish ite parents, when they learn the death of their grandson ;
I hear the cry of the Cossack, and the sailor’s voice, putting to sea at Okotsk ;
I hear the wheeze of the slave-coffle, as the slaves march on—as the husky gangs pass on by twos and threes, fasten’d together with wrist-chains and ankle-chains ;
1 1856 after line 24 reads ‘I hear the inimitable music of the voices of mothers, I hear the persuasions of lovers.”’
SALUT AU MONDE 141
I hear the entreaties of women tied up for punishment—I hear the sibilant whisk of thongs through the air ;}
I hear the Hebrew reading his records and psalms ;
I hear the rhythmic myths of the Greeks, and the strong legends of the Romans ;
I hear the tale of the divine life and bloody death of the beau- tiful God—the Christ ;
I 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, Walt Whitman ? Who are they you salute, and that one after another salute you? 50
I see a great round wonaer rolling through the air ;
I see diminute farms, hamlets, ruins, grave-yards, jails, facto- ries, palaces, hovels, huts of barbarians, tents of nomads, upon the surface ;
I see the shaded part on one side, where the sleepers are sleeping —and the sun-lit part on the other side,
I see the curious silent change of the light and shade,
I see distant lands, as real and near to the inhabitants of them, as my land is to me.
I see plenteous waters ;
I see mountain peaks—I see the sierras of Andes and Allegha- nies, where they range ;
I see plainly the Himalayas, Chian Shahs, Altays, Ghauts ;
I see the giant pinnacles of Elbruz, Kazbek, Bazardjusi,?
I see the Rocky Mountains, and the Peak of Winds ; 60
I see the Styrian Alps, and the Karnac Alps ;
I see the Pyrenees, Balks, Carpathians—and to the north the Dofrafields, and off at sea Mount Hecla ;
I see Vesuvius and Etna—I see the Anahuacs ;
I see the Mountains of the Moon, and the Snow Mountains, and the Red Mountains of Madagascar ;
I see the Vermont hills, and the long string of Cordilleras ;
1 After line 44, 1856 reads ‘‘I hear the appeal of the greatest orator, he that turns states by the tip of his tongue.’’ 2 Line 59 added in 1870.
142 LEAVES OF GRASS
I see the vast deserts of Western America ;
I see the Lybian, Arabian, and Asiatic deserts ;
I see huge dreadful Arctic and Antarctic icebergs ;
I see the superior oceans and the inferior ones—the Atlantic and Pacific, the sea of Mexico, the Brazilian sea, and the sea
of Peru, The Japan waters, those of Hindostan, the China Sea, and the Gulf of Guinea, 70
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 inland fresh-tasted seas of North America,
The White Sea, and the sea around Greenland.
I behold the mariners of the world ;
Some are in storms—some in the night, with the watch on the look-out ;
Some drifting helplessly—some with contagious diseases.
I behold the sail and steamships of the world, some in clusters in port, some on their voyages ;*
Some double the Cape of Storms—some Cape Verde, —others Cape Guardafui, Bon, or Bajadore ;
Others Dondra Head—others pass the Straits of Sunda—others Cape Lopatka—others Behring’s Straits ; 80
Others Cape Horn—others sail’ the Gulf of Mexico, or along Cuba or Hayti—others Hudson’s Bay or Baffin’s Bay ;
Others pass the Straits of Dover—others enter the Wash—others the Firth of Solway—others round Cape Clear—others the Land’s End ;
Others traverse the Zuyder Zee, or the Scheld ;
Others add to the exits and entrances at Sandy Hook ;
Others to the comers and goers at Gibraltar, or the Dardanelles ;
Others sternly push their way through the northern winter- packs ;
Others descend or ascend the Obi or the Lena ;
Others the Niger or the Congo*—others the Indus, the Buram- pooter and Cambodia ;
1 1856 ’60, For line 78 read ‘‘I behold the steam-ships of the world,” 2 % 1856 reads ‘‘ Others the Hoangho and Amoor, others the Indus,”’ etc.
SALUT AU MONDE 143
Others wait at the wharves of Manhattan, steam’d up, ready to start ;
Wait, swift and swarthy, in the ports of Australia ; go
Wait. at Liverpool, Glasgow, Dublin, Marseilles, Lisbon, Naples, Hamburg, Bremen, Bordeaux, the Hague, Copenhagen :
Wait at Valparaiso, Rio Janeiro, Panama ;
Wait at their moorings at Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, New Orleans, Galveston, San Francisco.
5 I see the tracks of the rail-roads of the earth ; Isee them welding State to State,’ city to city, through North America ; I see them in Great Britain, I see them in Europe ; I see them in Asia and in Africa.
I see the electric telegraphs of the earth ; I see the filaments of the news of the wars, deaths, losses, gains, passions, of my race.
I see the long’ river-stripes of the earth ; 100 I see where the Mississippi flows—I see where the Columbia flows ;
I see the Great River’ and the Falls of Niagara ;
I see the Amazon and the Paraguay ;
I see the four great rivers of China, the 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 ;
I see the Tuscan going down the Arno, and the Venetian along the Po ;
I 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 ; I see the falling of the Ganges over the high rim of Saukara. 110
1856 reads ‘‘ State to State, county to county,’’ etc 1856. For ‘‘long’’ reads ‘‘ thick.”
1856, For ‘‘ Great River” reads “‘ St. Lawrence.’’ Line 104 added in 1860.
“(the Danube’’ added in 1870.
1856 reads ‘the great old Empire.’’
an er Oo NW
144 LEAVES OF GRASS
I see the place of the idea of the Deity incarnated by avatars in human forms ;
I see the spots of the successions of priests on the earth—oracles, sacrificers, brahmins, sabians, lamas, monks, muftis, ex- horters ;
I see where druids walked the groves of Mona—I see the mistle- toe and vervain ;
1 see the temples of the deaths of the bodies of Gods—lI see the old signifiers.
I see Christ once more 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, toil’d faithfully and long, and then died ;
I 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 crown of feathers on his head ;
I see Hermes, unsuspected, dying, well-beloved, saying to the people, Do not weep for me,
This ts not my true country, I have lived banish’ d from my true country—TI now go back there, 120
L return to the celestial sphere, where every one goes in his turn.
7
I see the battle-fields of the earth—grass grows upon them, and blossoms and corn ; I see the tracks of ancient and modern expeditions.
I see the nameless masonries, venerable messages of the unknown events, heroes, records of the earth.
I see the places of the sagas ;
I see pine-trees and fir-trees torn by northern blasts ;
I see granite boulders and cliffs—I see green meadows and lakes ;
I see the burial-cairns of Scandinavian warriors ;
I see them raised high with stones, by the marge of restless oceans, that the dead men’s spirits, when they wearied of their quiet graves, might rise up through the mounds, and gaze on the tossing billows, and be refresh’d by storms, immensity, liberty, action.
SALUT AU MONDE 145
I see the steppes of Asia ; 130 I see the tumuli of Mongolia—I see the tents of Kalmucks and Baskirs ;
I see the nomadic tribes, with herds of oxen and cows ;
I see the table-lands notch’d with ravines—I 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.
I see the high-lands of Abyssinia ;
I see flocks of goats feeding, and see the fig-tree, tamarind, date,
And see fields of teff-wheat, and see the places of verdure and gold.
I see the Brazilian vaquero ;
I see the Bolivian ascending Mount Sorata ;
Isee the Wacho’ crossing the plains—I see the incomparable rider of horses with his lasso on his arm ; 140
I see over the pampas the pursuit of wild cattle for their hides.
8
I see little and large sea-dots, some inhabited, some uninhab- ited ;
I see two boats with nets, lying off the shore of Paumanok, quite still ;