Section 3

I say’ that the real and permanent grandeur of These States must be their Religion ;
Otherwise there is no real and permanent grandeur : 120
(Nor character, nor life worthy the name, without Religion ;°
Nor land, nor man or woman, without Religion.)
LS)
What are you dcing, young man?
Are you so earnest—so given up to literature, science, art, amours P
These ostensible realities, politics,’ points ?
Your ambition or business, whatever it may be?
It is well—Against such I say not a word—I am their poet also ;
But behold ! such swiftly subside—burnt up, for Religion’s sake ;
For not all matter is fuel to heat, impalpable flame, the essential life of the earth,
Any more than such are to Religion. 130
1860767. For ‘‘I descend into the arena’’ read ‘‘I too go to the wars.” 186067. For ‘‘there’’ read ‘‘ thereof.’’
1860 reads ‘‘ the conqueror’s shouts.”’
‘¢ Who knows 2?’ added in 1867.
1860. For ‘I say’’ reads ‘‘I specifically announce.’?
Lines 121-2 added in 1867.
1860. For “‘ politics’? reads ‘‘ materials.”
Nino, wo we
Ze LEAVES OF GRASS
Io
What do you seek, so pensive and silent ? What do you need, Camerado? Dear son !! do you think it is love?
Listen, dear son—listen, America, daughter or son !?
It is a painful thing to love a man or woman to excess—and yet it satisfies—it is great ;
But there is something else very great—it makes the whole coin- cide ;
It, magnificent, beyond materials, with continuous hands, sweeps and provides for all.
a Bei
Know you! solely to drop in the earth the germs of a greater Religion, The following chants, each for its kind, I sing.®
My comrade ! ' 140
For you, to share with me, two greatnesses—and a third one, rising inclusive and more resplendent,
The greatness 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, now doubtless near us, in the air, that we know not of ;°
Contact daily and hourly that will not release me ;
These selecting—these, in hints, demanded of me.
Not he, with a daily kiss, onward from childhood kissing me,®
1 1860 reads ‘* Mon cher!”
2 1860. For line 134 reads ‘‘ Proceed, comrade.”
* 1860. Lines 138-139 read ‘‘O I see the following poems are indeed to drop in the earth the germ of a great religion.’’
4 1860, Line 143 reads ‘* Melange mine!’’ ‘‘Own,” etc., added in 1867.
5 1860. After line 145 reads ‘‘ Wondrous interplay between the seen and unseen.’’
6 1860. After line 146 reads ‘‘ Extasy everywhere touching and thrilling mie.-1
§ 1860 reads ‘‘ Not he, adhesive, kissing me so long with his daily kiss.??
STARTING FROM PAUMANOK 23
Has winded and twisted around me that which holds me to
him, 150 Any more than I am held to the heavens, to the spiritual world, And to the identities of the Gods, my lovers,! faithful and true, After what they have done to me, suggesting” themes.
O such themes! Equalities!
O amazement of things! O divine.average !
O warblings under thé sun—usher’d, as now, or at noon, or set- ting!
O strain, musical, flowing through ages—now reaching hither !
I take to your reckless and composite chords—I add to them, and cheerfully pass them forward.
12
As I have walk’d in Alabama my morning walk, I have seen where the she-bird, the mocking-bird, sat on her nest in the briers, hatching her brood. 160
I have seen the he-bird also ; I have paused to hear him, near at hand, inflating his throat, and joyfully singing.
And while I paused, it came to me that what he really sang for was not there only, Nor for his mate, nor himself only, nor all sent back by the , echoes ; But subtle, clandestine, away beyond, A charge transmitted, and gift occult, for those being born.
13 Democracy ! Near at hand to you a throat is now inflating itself and joyfully singing. Ma femme ! For the brood beyond us and of us, 170
For those who belong here, and those to come,
I, exultant, to be ready for them, will now shake out carols stronger and haughtier than have ever yet been heard upon earth.
1 1860 reads ‘*my unknown lovers,’’ “‘ faithful and true,’’? added in 1867. 2 1860 reads ‘‘ such themes.”
24 LEAVES OF GRASS
I will make the songs of passion, to give them their way, And your songs, outlaw’ d! offenders—for I scan you with kin- dred eyes, and carry you with me the same as any.
I will make the true poem of riches, To earn? for the body and the mind whatever adheres, and goes forward, and is not dropt by death.
I will effuse egotism, and show it underlying all—and I will be the bard of personality ;
And I will show of male and female that either is but the equal of the other ;
And sexual organs and acts! do you concentrate in me—for I
’ am determin’d to tell you with courageous clear voice, to
prove you illustrious ;
And I will show that there is no imperfection’ in the present— and can be none in the future ; 180
And I will show that whatever happens. to anybody, it may be turn’d to beautiful results—and I will show that nothing can happen more beautiful than death ;
And I 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.
I will not make poems with reference to parts ;
But I will make leaves, poems, poemets, songs, says, thoughts, with reference to ensemble :
And I will not sing with reference to a day, but with reference to all days ;
And I will not make a poem, nor the least part of a poem, but has reference to the Soul ;
(Because, having look’d at the objects of the universe, I find there is no one, nor any particle of one, but has reference to the Soul. )
1
2 1860 reads ‘‘ Namely to earn,’? etc.
* 1860 reads ‘‘no imperfection in male or female, or in the earth, or in the present,’’ etc.
* 1860. For ‘that time,’’ etc., reads ‘that no one thing in the universe is inferior to another thing.”’
STARTING FROM PAUMANOK 25
14
Was somebody asking to see the Soul ? 190 See! your own shape and countenance—persons, substances, beasts, the trees, the running rivers, the rocks and sands.
All hold spiritual joys, and afterwards' loosen them : How can the real body ever die, and be buried ?
Of your real body, and any man’s or woman’s real body,
Item for item, it will elude the hands of the corpse-cleaners, and pass to fitting spheres,
Carrying what has accrued to it from the moment of birth to the moment of death.
Not the types set up by the printer return their impression, the meaning, the main concern,
Any more than a man’s substance and life, or a woman’s sub- stance and life, return in the body and the Soul,
Indifferently before death and after death.
Behold! the body includes and is the meaning, the main con- cern—and includes and is the Soul ; 200
Whoever you are! how superb and how divine is your body, or any part of it.
15
Whoever you are! to you endless announcements.
Daughter of the lands, did you wait for your poet? Did you wait for one with a flowing mouth and indicative
hand ?
Toward the male of The States, and toward the female of The
States,” Live words—words to the lands.
O the lands !* interlink’d, food-yielding lands !
1 1860, ‘‘ afterward.” 2 1860. After line 205 reads ‘‘ Toward the President, the Congress, the
diverse Governors, the new Judiciary.’’ Lae 3 1860 reads “‘O the lands!’’ next line, ‘‘ Lands scorning invaders! Inter-
linked,’’ etc.
26 LEAVES OF GRASS
Land of coal and iron! Land of gold! Lands of cotton, sugar, rice !"
Land of wheat, beef, pork! Land of wool and hemp! Land of the apple and grape !*
Land of the pastoral plains, the grass-fields of the world! Land of those sweet-air’d interminable plateaus ! 210
Land of the herd, the garden, the healthy house of adobie !*
Lands where the northwest Columbia winds, and where the southwest Colorado winds !
Land of the eastern Chesapeake! Land of the Delaware!
Land of Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan !
Land of the Old Thirteen! Massachusetts land! Land of Ver- mont and Connecticut !
Land‘ of the ocean shores! Land of sierras and peaks!
Land of boatmen and sailors! Fishermen’s land !
Inextricable lands! the clutch’d together! the passionate
ones !°
The side by side! the elder and younger brothers! the bony- limb’d !
The great women’s land! the feminine! the experienced sisters and the inexperienced sisters ! 220
Far breath’d land! Arctic braced! Mexican breez’d! the diverse ! the compact !
The Pennsylvanian! the Virginian! the double Carolinian !
6O all and each well-loved by me! my intrepid nations! O I at any rate include you all with perfect love!
I cannot be discharged from you! not from one, any sooner than another !
O Death! O for all that, Iam yet. of you, unseen, this hour, with irrepressible love,
Walking New England, a friend. a traveler,
Splashing my bare feet in the edge of the summer ripples, on Paumanok’s sands,
1 1860. After line 208, reads ‘* Odorous and sunny land! Floridian land ! Land . the spinal river, the Mississippi! Land of the Alleghanies! Ohio’s and !?? 2 1860 reads ‘‘ Land of the potato, the apple, and the grape!’ $1860. After line 211 reads ‘‘ Land there of rapt thought, and of the reali- zation of the stars! Land of simple, holy, untamed lives !’’ * 1860 reads ‘‘ Land of many oceans.’’ 5 1860. For ‘‘ones’? reads ¢¢lovers.”’ § 1860. For lines 223-4 reads ‘*O all and each well-loved by me! my intrepid nations ! O I cannot be discharged from you!”’
STARTING FROM PAUMANOK 27,
Crossing the prairies—dwelling again in Chicago—dwelling in every town,’
Observing shows, births, improvements, structures, arts,
Listening to the orators and the oratresses in public halls, 230
Of and through The States, as during life—each man and woman my neighbor,
The Louisianian, the Georgian, as near to me, and I as near to him and her,
The Mississippian and Arkansian? yet with me—and I yet with any of them ;
Yet upon the plains west of the spinal river—yet in my house of adobie,
Yet returning eastward—yet in the Sea-Side State, or in Mary- land,
Yet Kanadian,* cheerily braving the winter—the snow and ice welcome to me,
Yet a true son either of Maine, or of the Granite State, or of the Narragansett Bay State, or of the Empire State ;
Yet sailing to other shores to annex the same—yet welcoming every new brother ;
Hereby applying these leaves to the new ones, from the hour they unite with the old ones ;
Coming among the new ones myself, to be their companion and equal—coming personally to you now ; 240
Enjoining you to acts, characters, spectacles, with me.
16
With me, with firm holding—yet haste, haste on.
For your life, adhere to me !
Of all the men of the earth, I only can unloose you and toughen you;
I may have to be persuaded many times before I consent to give myself really to you—but what of that?
Must not Nature be persuaded many times ?
No dainty dolce affettuoso I ; Bearded, sun-burnt, gray-neck’d, forbidding, I have arrived,
11860. For ‘‘in every town ’’ reads ‘‘in many towns.”’
2 7860. After ‘* Arkansian’’ reads ‘‘the woman and the man of Utah, Da- kotah, Nebraska, yet with me,’’ etc.
3 1860 reads ‘‘ Yet a child of the North—yet Kanadian,”’ etc.
28 LEAVES OF GRASS
To be wrestled with as I pass, for the solid prizes of the uni- verse ; For such I afford whoever can persevere to win them. 250
17 On my way a moment I pause ; Here for you! and here for America! Still the Present I raise aloft—Still the Future of The States I harbinge, glad and sublime ; And for the Past, I pronounce what the air holds of the red aborigines.
The red aborigines !
- Leaving natural breaths, sounds of rain and winds, calls as of birds and animals in the woods, syllabled to us for names ;
Okonee, Koosa, Ottawa, Monongahela, Sauk, Natchez, Chatta- hoochee, 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.
18
O expanding and swift! O henceforth, 260
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, new literatures and religions, new inventions and arts.
These ! my voice announcing—lI will sleep no more, but arise ;
You oceans that have been calm within me! how I feel you, fathomless, stirring, preparing unprecedented waves and storms.
) See ! steamers steaming through my poems! See, in my poems immigrants continually coming and landing ; See, in arriere, the wigwam, the trail, the hunter’s hut, the flat-
boat, the maize-leaf, the claim, the rude fence, and the backwoods village ;
STARTING FROM PAUMANOK 290
See, on the one side the Western Sea, and on the other the Eastern Sea, how they advance and retreat upon my poems, as upon their own shores. 270
See, pastures and forests in my poems—See, animals, wild and tame—See, beyond the Kanzas, countless herds of buf- falo, feeding on short curly grass ;
See, in my poems, cities,’ solid, vast, inland, with paved streets, with iron and stone edifices, ceaseless vehicles, and com- merce ;*
See, the many-cylinder’d steam printing-press—See, the electric telegraph,* stretching across the Continent, from the Western Sea to Manhattan ;
See, through Atlantica’s depths, pulses American, Europe reach- ing—pulses of Europe, duly return’d ;
See, the strong and quick locomotive, as it departs, panting, blowing the steam-whistle ;
See, ploughmen, ploughing farms—See, miners, digging mines —See, the numberless factories ;
See, mechanics, busy at their benches, with tools—See from among them, superior judges, philosophs, Presidents, emerge, drest in working dresses ;
See, lounging through the shops and fields of The States, me, well-belov’d, close-held by day and night ;
Hear the loud echoes of my songs there! Read the hints come at last.
20
O Camerado close ! 280 O you and me at last—and us two only.*
O a word to clear one’s path ahead endlessly ! O something extatic and undemonstrable !_ O music wild!
1 1860 reads ‘* Old and new cities.’’
21860. After line 272 reads ‘‘See the populace, millions upon millions, handsome, tall, muscular, both sexes, clothed in easy and dignified clothes—teaching, commanding, marrying, generating, equally electing and elective.”’
3 “stretching across,’”’ etc., and line 274, added in 1867.
41860. After line 281 reads ‘‘O power, liberty, eternity at last !
O to be relieved ot distinctions! to make as much of vices as'virtues !
O to level occupations and the sexes! O to bring all to common ground! O adhesiveness !
O the pensive aching to be together—you know not why, and I know not
why.”’
30 LEAVES OF GRASS
O now I 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.
5d
THE SHIP STARTING.
First published in ‘‘ Drum Taps,’ 1865.
Lo! THE unbounded sea !
On its breast a Ship starting,’ spreading all her sails—an ample Ship, carrying even her moonsails ;.
The pennant is flying aloft, as she speeds, she speeds so stately —below, emulous waves press forward,
They surround the Ship, with shining curving motions, and foam.
&
UNFOLDED OUT OF THE FOLDS:
First published in 1856, under title of “‘ Poem of Women.’’ In 1860 as No. 14, ‘‘ Leaves of Grass.”
‘UNFOLDED out of the folds of the woman, man comes unfolded, and is always to come unfolded ;
Unfolded only out of the superbest woman of the earth, is to come the superbest man of the earth ;
Unfolded out of the friendliest woman, is to come the friendliest man ;
Unfolded only out of the perfect body of a woman, can a man
be form’d of perfect body ;
Unfolded only out of the inimitable poem of the woman, can
come the poems of man—(only thence have my poems
come ; )
Unfolded out of the strong and arrogant woman I love, only
thence can appear the strong and arrogant man I love ;
Unfolded by brawny embraces from the well-muscled woman I
love, only thence come the brawny embraces of the man ;
Unfolded out of the folds of the woman’s brain, come all the
folds of the man’s brain, duly obedient ;
Unfolded out of the justice of the woman, all justice is un- folded ;
1 « starting ’’ added in 1870.
WALT WHITMAN 31
Unfolded out of the sympathy of the woman is all sympathy: 10 A man is a great thing upon the earth, and through eternity— but every jot of the greatness of man is unfolded out of
woman, First the man is shaped in the woman, he can then be shaped in himself. x TO YOU:
First published in 1860.
STRANGER ! if you, passing, meet me, and desire to speak to me, why should you not speak to me? And why should I not speak to you?