Section 44

LEAVES OF GRASS 429
Every foot of the interior swarms with the same ;
Every spear of grass—the frames, limbs, organs, of men and women, and all that concerns them,
All these to me are unspeakably perfect miracles.
To me the sea is a continual miracle ; 30
The fishes that swim—the rocks—the motion of the waves—the ships, with men in them,
What stranger miracles are there ?
& SPARKLES FROM THE WHEEL.
First published in 1870. I
WueErE the city’s ceaseless crowd moves on, the live-long day, Withdrawn, I join a group of children watching—lI pause aside with them.
By the curb, toward the edge of the flagging,
A knife-grinder works at his wheel, sharpening a great knife ;
Bending over, he carefully holds it to the stone—by foot and knee,
With measur’d tread, he turns rapidly—aAs he presses with light but firm hand,
Forth issue, then, in copious golden jets,
Sparkles from the wheel.
2
The scene, and all its belongings—how they seize and affect me!
The sad, sharp-chinn’d old man, with worn clothes, and broad shoulder-band of leather ; 10
Myself, effusing and fluid—a phantom curiously floating—now here absorb’d and arrested ;
The group, (an unminded point, set in a vast surrounding ;)
The attentive, quiet children—the loud, proud, restive base of ‘the streets ;
The low, hoarse purr of the whirling stone—the light-press’d blade,
Diffusing, dropping, sideways-darting, in tiny showers of gold,
Sparkles from the wheel.
430 LEAVES OF GRASS
EXCELSIOR.
First published in 1867 under title of ‘‘ Poem of the Heart of The Son ot Manhattan Island.”
Wuo has gone farthest? For lo! have not I gone farther ??
And who has been just? For I would be the most just person of the earth ;
And who most cautious? For I would be more cautious ;
_ And who has been happiest? O I think it is I! I think no one was ever happier than I;
And who has lavish’d all? For I lavish constantly the best I have ;
And who has been firmest? For I would be firmer ;
And who proudest? For I think I have reason to be the proud- est son alive—for I am the son of the brawny and tall- topt city ; 2
And who has been bold and true? For I would be the boldest and truest being of the universe ;
And who benevolent? For I would show more benevolence than all the rest ;
And who has projected beautiful words through the longest time ? Have I not outvied him ? have I not said the words that shall stretch through longer time ?” 10
And who has receiv’d the love of the most friends? For I know what it is to receive the passionate love of many friends ;*
And who possesses a perfect and enamour’d body? For I do not believe any one possesses a more perfect or enamour’d body than mine ; :
And who thinks the amplest thoughts? For I will surround those thoughts ;
And who has made hymns fit for the earth? For I am mad with devouring extasy to make joyous hymns for the whole earth !
1 1856 ’60 ’67 read ‘*Who has gone farthest? For I swear I will go farther.’’ 2 18566067. For ‘* Have I not outvied him?” etc., read ‘* By God! I will outvie him! I will say such words they shall stretch through longer time !”” * After line 11, 18566067 add ‘‘ And to whom has been given the sweet- est from women and paid them in kind? For I will take the like sweets, and pay them in kind.’’
LEAVES OF GRASS A3t
MEDIUMS. First published in 1860,
THEY shall arise in the States,?
They shall report Nature, laws, physiology, and happiness ;
They shall illustrate Democracy and the kosmos ;
They shall be alimentive, amative, perceptive ;
They shall be complete women and men—their pose brawny and
' supple, their drink water, their blood clean and clear ;
They shall enjoy materialism and the sight of products—they shall enjoy the sight of the beef, lumber, bread-stuffs, of Chicago, the great city ;
They shall train themselves to go in public to become’? orators and oratresses ;
Strong and sweet shall their tongues be—poems and materials of poems shall come from their lives—they shall be makers and finders ;
Of them, and of their works, shall emerge divine conveyers, to convey gospels ;
Characters, events, retrospections, shall be convey’d in gospels —Trees, animals, waters, shall be convey’d, Io
Death, the future, the invisible faith, shall all be convey’d.
om
KOSMOS. First published in 1860,
Wuo includes diversity, and is Nature,
Who is the amplitude of the earth, and the coarseness and sexu- ality of the earth, and the great charity of the earth, and the equilibrium also,
Who has not look’d forth from the windows, the eyes, for noth- ing, or whose brain held audience with messengers for nothing ;
Who contains believers and disbelievers—Who is the most ma- jestic lover ;
Who holds duly his or her triune proportion of realism, spirit- ualism, and of the esthetic, or intellectual,
Who, having consider’d the Body, finds all its organs and parts good ;
1 1860 adds ‘‘ —mediums shall.” 2 1860 reads ‘to become oratists,’’ etc.
432 LEAVES OF GRASS
Who, out of the theory of the earth, and of his or her body, understands by subtle analogies all other theories, *
The theory of a city, a poem, and of the large politics of These States ;
Who believes not only in our globe, with its sun and moon, but in other globes, with their suns and moons ;
Who, constructing the house of himself or herself, not for a day, but for all time, sees races, eras, dates, generations, 10
The past, the future, dwelling there, like space, inseparable to- gether.
a»
TOPASPUPIL:
First published in 1860.
Is reform needed ? Is it through you? The greater the reform needed, the greater the personality you need to accomplish it.
You! do you not see how it would serve to have eyes, blood, complexion, clean and sweet ?
Do you not see how it would serve to have such a Body and Soul, that when you enter the crowd, an atmosphere of desire and command enters with you, and every one is impress’d with your personality P
O the magnet ! the flesh over and over!
Go, dear friend!’ if need be, give up all else, and commence to-day to inure yourself to pluck, reality, self-esteem, definiteness, elevatedness ;
Rest not, till you rivet and publish yourself of your own person- ality.
om
WHAT AM I, AFTER ALL.
First published in 1860.
Wuat am I, after all, but a child, pleas’d with the sound of my own name? repeating it over and over ;* I stand apart to hear—it never tires me.
1 ¢¢all other theories ’?’ added in 1867.
2 1860. For ‘ dear friend !’’ reads ‘*mon cher !”?
3 After line 1, 1860 adds ‘‘T cannot tell why it affects me so much, when I hear it from women’s voices, and from men’s voices, or from my own voice.’?
LEAVES OF GRASS 433
To you, your name also ; Did you think there was nothing but two or three pronuncia- tions in the sound of your name?
&*
OTHERS MAY PRAISE WHAT THEY LIKE. First published in “‘ Drum-Taps,”’ 1865. OTHERS may praise what they like ; But I, from the banks of the running Missouri, praise nothing, in art, or aught else, Till it has well inhaled’ the atmosphere of this river—also the western prairie-scent, And fully exudes it again.
&
BROTHER OF ALL, WITH GENEROUS HAND.
(G. P., Burirep Fresruary, 1870.)
First published in 1870. I
BROTHER of all, with generous hand,
Of thee, pondering on thee, as o’er thy tomb, I and my Soul, A thought to launch in memory of thee,
A burial verse for thee.
What may we chant, O thou within this tomb ?
What tablets, pictures, hang for thee, O millionaire?
—The life thou lived’st we know not,
But that thou walk’dst thy years in barter, ’mid the haunts of brokers ;
Nor heroism thine, nor war, nor glory.
Yet lingering, yearning, joining soul with thine, Io If not thy past we chant, we chant the future, Select, adorn the future.
2
Lo, Soul, the graves of heroes! The pride of lands—the gratitudes of men, The statues of the manifold famous dead, Old World and New,
1 Drum-Taps reads ‘‘ Till it has breathed well,”’ etc. 28
434 LEAVES OF GRASS
The kings, inventors, generals, poets, (stretch wide thy vision, Soul, )
The excellent rulers of the races, great discoverers, sailors,
Marble and brass select from them, with pictures, scenes,
(The histories of the lands, the races, bodied there,
In what they’ve built for, graced and graved, 20
Monuments to their heroes. )
3 Silent, my Soul, With drooping lids, as waiting, ponder’d, Turning from all the samples, all the monuments of heroes.
While through the interior vistas,
Noiseless uprose, phantasmic (as, by night, Auroras of the North, ) Lambent tableaux, prophetic, bodiless scenes,
Spiritual projections.
In one, among the city streets, a laborer’s home appear’d,
After his day’s work done, cleanly, sweet-air’d, the gaslight burning, 30
The carpet swept, and a fire in the cheerful stove.
In one, the sacred parturition scene, A happy, painless mother birth’d a perfect child.
In one, at a bounteous morning meal, Sat peaceful parents, with contented sons.
In one, by twos and threes, young people, Hundreds concentering, walk’d the paths and streets and roads, Toward a tall-domed school.
In one a trio, beautiful, Grandmother, loving daughter, loving daughter’s daughter,
sat, 40 Chatting and sewing.
In one, along a suite of noble rooms,
Mid plenteous books and journals, paintings on the walls, fine statuettes,
Were groups of friendly journeymen, mechanics, young and old,
Reading, conversing.
LEAVES OF GRASS 435
All, all the shows of laboring life, City and country, women’s, men’s and children’s, Their wants provided for, hued in the sun, and tinged for once
with joy,
Marriage, the street, the factory, farm, the house-room, lodging- room,
Labor and toil, the bath, gymnasium, play-ground, library, college, 50
The student, boy or girl, led forward to be taught ;
The sick cared for, the shoeless shod—the orphan father’d and mother’d,
The hungry fed, the houseless housed ;
(The intentions perfect and divine,
The workings, details, haply human. )
4 O thou within this tomb, From thee, such scenes—thou stintless, lavish Giver, Tallying the gifts of Earth—large as the Earth, Thy name an Earth, with mountains, fields and rivers.
Nor by your streams alone, you rivers, 60 By you, your banks, Connecticut, By you, and all your teeming life, Old Thames, By you, Potomac, laving the ground Washington trod—by you Patapsco, | - You, Hudson—you, endless Mississippi—not by you alone, But to the high seas launch, my thought, his memory.
5 Lo, Soul, by this tomb’s lambency, The darkness of the arrogant standards of the world, With all its flaunting aims, ambitions, pleasures.
(Old, commonplace, and rusty saws,
The rich, the gay, the supercilious, smiled at long, Jo Now, piercing to the marrow in my bones,
Fused with each drop my heart’s blood jets,
Swim in ineffable meaning. )
Lo, Soul, the sphere requireth, portioneth, To each his share, his measure, The moderate to the moderate, the ample to the ample.
436 LEAVES OF GRASS
Lo, Soul, see’st thou not, plain as the sun, The only real wealth of wealth in generosity, The only life of life in goodness ?
&
NIGHT ON THE PRAIRIES. First published in 1860. NicuT on the prairies ; The supper is over—the fire on the ground burns low ; The wearied emigrants sleep, wrapt in their blankets :* I walk by myself—I stand and look at the stars, which I think now I never realized before.
Now I absorb immortality and peace, I admire death, and test propositions.
How plenteous ! How spiritual! How resumé ! The same Old Man and Soul—the same old aspirations, and the same content.
I was thinking the day most splendid, till I saw what the not-day
exhibited, I was thinking this globe enough, till there sprang’ out so noise- less around me myriads of other globes. ne)
Now, while the great thoughts of space and eternity fill me, I will measure myself by them ;
And now, touch’d with the lives of other globes, arrived as far along as those of the earth,
Or waiting to arrive, or pass’d on farther than those of the earth,
I henceforth no more ignore them, than I ignore my own life,
Or the lives of* the earth arrived as far as mine, or waiting to arrive.
O I see now* that life cannot exhibit all to me—as the day cannot, I see that I am to wait for what will be exhibited by death.
1 Lines 2-3 added in 1867.
2 1860 for ‘* sprang’’ reads *‘ tumbled.’’
3 1860 for ‘* of’? reads ‘*on.”’
4 1860 reads ‘‘O how plainly I see now,”’ etc.
LEAVES OF GRASS 437
ON JOURNEYS THROUGH THE STATES.
First published in ‘* Passage to India,’’ 1870.
On journeys through the States we start,
(Ay, through the world—urged by these songs,
Sailing henceforth to every land—to every sea ;)
We, willing learners of all, teachers of all, and lovers of all.
We have watch’d the seasons dispensing themselves, and _pass- ing on,
. We have said, Why should not a man or woman do as much as
the seasons, and effuse as much?
We dwell a while in every city and town ;
We 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 ; Io
We say to ourselves, Remember, fear not, be candid, promulge the body and the Soul ;
Dwell a while and pass on—Be copious, temperate, chaste, magnetic,
And what you effuse may then return as the seasons return,
- And may be just as much as the seasons.
&*
SAVANTISM.
First published in 1870,
TuITHER, as I look, I see each result and glory retracing itself and nestling close, always obligated ;
Thither hours, months, years—thither trades, compacts, estab- lishments, even the most minute ;
Thither every-day life, speech, utensils, politics, persons, estates ;
Thither we also, I with my leaves and songs, trustful, admirant,
As a father, to his father going, takes his children along with him,
438 LEAVES OF GRASS
LOCATIONS AND TIMES. First published in 1860. Locations and times—what is it in me that meets them all, whenever and wherever, and makes me at home ? Forms, colors, densities, odors—what is it in me that corresponds with them ?]
&
THOUGHT.
First published in 1860 as part of ‘‘ Thought 4.”
Or Equality—As if it harm’d me, giving others the same chances and rights as myself—As if it were not indispensable to my own rights that others possess-the same.
&
OFFERINGS. First published in 1860. A THOUSAND perfect men and women appear, Around each gathers a cluster of friends, and gay children and youths, with offerings.
&*
TESTs. First published in x860. ALL submit to them, where they sit, inner, secure, unapproach- able to analysis, in the Soul ; Not traditions—not the outer authorities are the judges—they are the judges of outer authorities, and of all tradi‘ions; They corroborate as they go, only whatever corroborates them- selves, and touches themselves ; » For all that, they have it forever in themselves to corroborate far and near, without one exception.
1 1860 adds ‘* What is the relation between me and them ?”’
LEAVES OF GRASS 439
THE TORCH. First published in “ Drum-Taps,’’ 186s. ON my northwest coast in the midst of the night, a fishermen’s group stands watching ; Out on the lake, that expands before them, others are spearing salmon ; The canoe, a dim shadowy thing, moves across the black water, Bearing a Torch a-blaze at the prow.
om
GODS.
First published in “ Passage to India,’’ 1870, ne
TuHoucut of the Infinite—-the Ali! Be thou my God.
2
Lover Divine, and Perfect Comrade! Waiting, content, invisible yet, but certain, Be thou my God.
3 Thou—thou, the Ideal Man! Fair, able, beautiful, content, and loving, Complete in Body, and dilate in Spirit, Be thou my God:
4
O Death—(for Life has served its turn ;) 10 Opener and usher to the heavenly mansion ! Be thou my God. 5 Aught, aught, of mightiest, best, I see, conceive, or know, (To break the stagnant tie—thee, thee to free, O Soul, )
Be thou my God. 6
Or thee, Old Cause, when’ er advancing ;
All great Ideas, the races’ aspirations,
All that exalts, releases thee, my Soul!
All heroisms, deeds of rapt enthusiasts,
Be ye my Gods! 20
440 LEAVES OF GRASS
7
Or Time and Space ! Or shape of Earth, divine and wondrous ! Or shape in I myself—or some fair shape, I, viewing, worship, Or lustrous orb of Sun, or star by night : Be ye my Gods. a
TO ONE SHORTLY TO DIE.
First published in 1860. I
From all the rest I single out you, having a message for you:
You are to die—Let others tell you what they please, I cannot prevaricate,
Iam exact and merciless, but I love you—There is no escape for you.
Softly I lay my right hand upon you—you just feel it,
I do not argue—I bend my head close, and half envelope it,
I sit quietly by—I remain faithful,
I am more than nurse, more than parent or neighbor,
I absolve you from all except yourself, spiritual, bodily—that is eternal—you yourself will surely escape,*
The corpse you will leave will be but excrementitious.