Section 6

1 1855 95660 767 read ‘pleasantly set.”’ 2 1855 ’56’60 read *‘ meat and drink.”’ 3 1855 756 read ‘¢ for the ae rain has. 4 1855 reads ‘‘ Or the early,”’
4
7)
50 LEAVES OF GRASS
I do not snivel that snivel the world over,
That months are vacuums, and the ground but wallow and filth ;
That life is a suck anda sell, and nothing remains at the end but threadbare crape, and tears.
Whimpering and truckling fold with powders for invalids—con- formity goes to the fourth-remov’d ; I wear! my hat as I please, indoors or out. 390
Why should I pray? Why should I venerate and be ceremo-
nious 2”
Having’ pried through the strata, analyzed to a hair, counsell’d with doctors, and calculated close, I find no sweeter fat than sticks to my own bones.
In all people I see myself—none more, and not one a barley- corn less ; And the good or bad I say of myself, I say of them.
And I know I am solid and sound ; To me the converging objects of the universe perpetually flow ; ‘All are written to me, and I must get what the writing means. .
\ h
I know‘ I am deathless ; \ I know this orbit of mine cannot be swept by the carpenter’s
| compass ; 400 ._ I know I shall not pass like a child’s carlacue cut with a burnt stick at night.
I know I am august ;
I do not trouble my spirit to vindicate itself or be understood ;
I see that the elementary laws never apologize ;
(I reckon I behave no prouder than the level I plant my house by, after all.)
I exist as I am—that is enough ; If no other in the world be aware, I sit content ; And if each and all be aware, I sit content.
1 1855 756 ’60 read ‘*I cock my hat,” etc. 2 1855 56 read ‘‘Shall I pray? Shall I venerate and be ceremonious ?”” ® 1855 reads ‘‘I have pried through the strata and* analyzed to a hair, And* counselled with doctors and* calculated close and* found no sweeter fat than sticks to my own bones.’’ 4 1855 reads ‘‘ And I know,”? etc. * and’? omitted in 1856.
WALT WHITMAN I
One world is aware, and by far the largest to me, and that is myself ;
And whether I come to my own to-day, or in ten thousand or ten million years, 4Io
I can cheerfully take it now, or with equal cheerfulness I can wait.
My foothold is tenon’d and mortis’d in granite ; I laugh at what you call dissolution ; And I know the amplitude of time.
(ax } I am the poet of the Body ; And I am the poet of the Soul.
The pleasures of heaven are with me, and the pains of hell are with me;
The first I graft and increase upon myself—the latter I translate into a new tongue.
I am the poet of the woman the same as the man ; And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man; 420 And I say there is nothing greater than the mother of men.
I chant the’ chant of dilation or pride ; We have had ducking and deprecating about enough ; I show that size is only development.
Have you outstript the rest? Are you the President ? It is a trifle—they will more than arrive there, every one, and still pass on.
I am he that walks with the tender and growing night ; I call to the earth and sea, half-held by the night.
Press close, bare-bosom’d night! Press close, magnetic, nour- ishing night !
Night of south winds ! night of the large few stars ! 430
Still, nodding night ! mad, naked, summer night.
Smile, O voluptuous, cool-breath’d earth ! Earth of the slumbering and liquid trees ; Earth of departed sunset ! earth of the mountains, misty-topt !
1 1855 reads ‘I chant a new chant,”’ etc.
E000 *B80
52 LEAVES OF GRASS
Earth of the vitreous pour of the full moon, just tinged with blue!
Earth of shine and dark, mottling the tide of the river !
Earth of the limpid gray of clouds, brighter and clearer for my sake !
Far-swooping elbow’d earth ! rich, apple-blossom’d earth !
Smile, for your lover comes !
Prodigal, you have given me love! Therefore I to you give love ! 440
‘O unspeakable, passionate love !*
vic’ tU(Rtue ( 22\ You sea! I resign myself to you-dlso—I guess what you mean ; I behold from the beach your crooked inviting fingers ; I believe you refuse to go back without feeling of me ; We must have a turn together—I undress—hurry me out of sight of the land ; Cushion me soft, rock me in billowy drowse ; Dash me with amorous wet—I can repay you.
Sea of stretch’d ground-swells !
Sea breathing broad and convulsive breaths !
Sea of the brine of life! sea of unshovell’d yet always-ready graves ! 450
Howler and scooper of storms! capricious and dainty sea !
I am integral with you—I too am of one phase, and of all phases.
Partaker of influx and efflux I—extoller of hate and conciliation ; Extoller of amies, and those that sleep in each others’ arms.
Iam he attesting sympathy ; (Shall I make my list of things in the house, and skip the house that supports them ?)?
I am not the poet of goodness only—I do not decline to be the poet of wickedness also.
Washes and razors for foofoos—for me freckles and a bristling beard.
1 1855 °56 ’60 read, after line 441, ‘‘ Thruster holding me tight and that I hold tight ! We hurt each other as the bridegroom and the bride hurt each other.” 2 1855 ’56’60 read, after line 456, ‘‘I am the poet of common sense and of the demonstrable and of immortality.”
WALT WHITMAN 83
What blurt is this about virtue and about vice?
Evil propels me, and reform of evil propels me—I stand indif- ferent ; 460
My gait is no fault-finder’s or rejecter’s gait ;
I moisten the roots of all that has grown.
Did you fear some scrofula out of the unflagging pregnancy ? Did you guess the celestial laws are yet to be work’d over and rectified ?
I find one side a balance,’ and the antipodal side a balance ; Soft doctrine as steady help as stable doctrine ; Thoughts and deeds of the present, our rouse and early start.
This minute that comes to me over the past decillions, There is no better than it and now.
What behaved well in the past, or behaves well to-day, is not such a wonder ; 470
The wonder is, always and always, how there can be a mean man or an infidel.
23
Endless unfolding of words of ages! And mine a word of the modern—the? word En-Masse.
A word of the faith that never balks ; Here or henceforward, it is all the same to me—I accept Time,
absolutely.®
It alone is without flaw—it rounds and completes all ;* That mystic, baffling wonder I love, alone completes all.
I accept reality,® and dare not question it ; Materialism first and last imbuing.
1 18c% ’56 60 read ‘‘I step up to say that what we do is right and what we affirm is right—and some is only the ore of right. Witness of us, one side a balance,”? etc.
2 1855 75660 read ‘*a word.”’
8 78ce5 756 ’60 read “One time as good as another, here or henceforward it is all the same to me.”’
4 Lines 476-7 added in 1867.
5 1855 56760 read ‘a word for reality, materialism first and last imbu-
”?
ing. >
54 LEAVES OF GRASS
Hurrah for positive science ! long live exact demonstration! 480
Fetch stonecrop, mixt with cedar and branches of lilac ;
This is the lexicographer—this the! chemist—this made a gram- mar of the old cartouches ;
These mariners put the ship through dangerous unknown seas ;
This is the geologist—this works with the scalpel—and this is a mathematician,
Gentlemen !? to you the first honors always :
Your facts are useful and real—and yet they are not my dwell- ing ;
(1 but enter by them to an area of my dwelling. )
Less the reminders of properties* told, my words ;
And more the reminders, they, of life untold, and of freedom and extrication,
And make short account of neuters and geldings, and favor men and women fully equipt, 490
And beat the gong of revolt, and stop with fugitives, and them that plot and conspire.
tee &
Walt Whitman am I, a Kosmos, of mighty Manhattan the son,‘
Turbulent,® fleshy and sensual, eating, drinking and breeding ;
No sentimentalist—no stander above men and women, or apart from them ;
No more modest than immodest.
Unscrew the locks from the doors! Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs !
Whoever degrades another degrades me ; And whatever is done or said returns at last to me.®
1 1855 reads ‘‘lexicographer or chemist.’ ? 1855 ’56 ’60 read ‘*Gentlemen! I receive you and attach and clasp hands with you, The facts are useful and real—they are not my dwelling—I enter by them to an area of the dwelling.” 3 1855 ’56’60 read ‘*I am less the reminder of property or qualities, and more the reminder of life, And go on the square for my own sake and for others’ sakes.’’ * 185556 ’60 read ‘Walt Whitman, an American, one of the roughs, a Kosmos,’? 1867 reads ‘‘ Walt Whitman am I, of mighty Manhattan the son.’? 5 1855 756 ’60 read ‘‘ Disorderly.’? 6 1855 ’56 60, After line 499 read ‘‘ And whatever I do or say I also re- turn.
WALT WHITMAN 55
Through me the afflatus surging and surging—through me the current and index. 500
I speak the pass-word primeval—I give the sign of democracy ; By God! I will accept nothing which all cannot have their coun- terpart of on the same terms.
Through me many long dumb voices ;
Voices of the interminable generations of slaves ;
Voices of prostitutes, and of deform’d persons ;
Voices of the diseas’d and despairing, and of thieves and dwarfs ;
Voices of cycles of preparation and accretion,
And of the threads that connect the stars—and of wombs, and of the father-stuff,
And of the rights of them the others are down upon ;
Of the trivial, flat, foolish, despised, 510
Fog in the air, beetles rolling balls of dung.
Through me forbidden voices ; Voice of sexes and lusts—voices veil’d, and I remove the veil ; Voices indecent, by me clarified and transfigur’d. \
I do not press my fingers across my mouth ;
I keep as delicate around the bowels as around the head and heart ;
Copulation is no more rank to me than death is.
I believe in the flesh and the appetites ; Seeing, hearing, feeling, are miracles, and each part and tag of me is a miracle.
Divine am I inside and out, and I make holy whatever I touch or am touch’d from ; 520
The scent of these arm-pits, aroma finer than prayer ;
This head more than churches, bibles, and all the creeds.’
If I worship one thing more than another, it shall be the spread of my own body, or any part of it.’
1 78e5 reads ‘‘ This head is more than churches or bibles or creeds.’’ 1866 reads ‘‘ This head is more than churches, bibles, creeds. ”’
2 1855 5660 read ‘If I worship any particular thing, it shall be some of the spread of my own body.”
56 LEAVES OF GRASS
Translucent mould of me, it shall be you! Shaded ledges and rests, it shall be you !* Firm masculine colter, it shall be you.
Whatever goes to the tilth of me, it shall be you! You my rich blood! Your milky stream, pale strippings of my life.
Breast that presses against other breasts, it shall be you! My brain, it shall be your occult convolutions. 530
Root of wash’d sweet flag! timorous. pond-snipe! nest of guarded duplicate eggs! it shall be you!
Mix’d tussled hay of head, beard, brawn, it shall be you!
Trickling sap of maple! fibre of manly wheat! it shall be you!
Sun so generous, it shall be you!
Vapors lighting and shading my face, it shall be you!
You sweaty brooks and dews, it shall be you!
Winds whose soft-tickling genitals rub against me, it shall be
ou !
Broad, muscular fields! branches of live oak! loving lounger in my winding paths! it shall be you!
Hands I have taken—face I have kiss’d—mortal I have ever touch’d ! it shall be you.
I dote on myself—there is that lot of me, and all so lus- C10US ; 540 Each moment, and whatever happens, thrills me with joy.
O I am wonderful !?
I cannot tell how my ankles bend, nor whence the cause of my faintest wish ;
Nor the cause of the friendship I emit, nor the cause of the friendship I take again.
That I walk up my stoop !* I pause to consider if it really be ;* A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.
1 «¢it shall be you ”’ added in 1860.
2 Line 542 added in 1860, which reads, ‘*O I am so wonderful.’?
° 1855 ’56 read ‘* To walk up my stoop is unaccountable,’? etc.
4185556 ’60. After line 545 read “That I eat and drink is spectacle enough for the great authors and schools.’’
WALT WHITMAN 57
To behold the day-break ! The little light fades the immense and diaphanous shadows ; The air tastes good to my palate.
Hefts of the moving world, at innocent gambols, silently rising, freshly exuding, 550 Scooting obliquely high and low.
Something I cannot see puts upward libidinous prongs ; Seas of bright juice suffuse heaven.
The earth by the sky staid with—the daily close of their junc- tion ;
The heav’d ‘challenge from the east that moment over my head ;
The mocking taunt, See then whether you shall be master!
25 Dazzling and tremendous, how quick the sun-rise would kill me, If I could not now and always send sun-rise out of me.
We also ascend, dazzling and tremendous as the sun ; We found our own, O' my Soul, in the calm and cool of the daybreak. 560
My voice goes after what my eyes cannot reach ; With the twirl of my tongue I encompass worlds, and volumes of worlds.
Speech is the twin of my vision—it is unequal to measure itself ;
It provokes me forever ;
It says sarcastically, Walt, you contain enough’—why don’t you let tt out, then ?
Come now, I will not be tantalized—you conceive too much of articulation.
Do you not know, O speech,*® how the buds beneath you are folded ? Waiting in gloom, protected by frost ; The dirt receding before my prophetical screams ; 1 2 7855 ’56 60 read ‘‘ Walt, you understand enough,”’ etc. 8 «©O speech’’ added in 1867.
58 LEAVES OF GRASS
I underlying causes, to balance them at last ; 570 My knowledge my live parts—it keeping tally with the meaning of things,
Happiness—which, whoever hears me, let him or her set out in search of this day.
My final merit I refuse you—I refuse putting from me what I really am ;*
Encompass worlds, but never try to encompass me ;
I crowd your sleekest and best by simply looking toward you.”
Writing and talk do not prove me ; I carry the plenum of proof, and everything else, in my face ; With the hush of my lips I wholly® confound the skeptic.
26
I think I will do nothing now but listen, * To accrue what I hear into myself—to let sounds contribute toward me.° 580
I hear bravuras of birds, bustle of growing wheat, gossip of flames, clack of sticks cooking my meals ; I hear the sound I love, the sound of the human voice ;® I hear all sounds running together, combined, fused or follow- ing ;" Sounds of the city, and sounds out of the city—sounds of the day and night ; Talkative young ones to those that like them*—the loud laugh of work-people at their meals ; The angry base of disjointed friendship—the faint tones of the sick ; The judge with hands tight to the desk, his pallid lips pronoun- cing a death-sentence ; The heave’e’yo of stevedores unlading ships by the wharves— the refrain of the anchor-lifters ; 11855 ’56 60 read ‘I refuse putting from me the best I am.’’ 2 1855 756 read ‘I crowd your noisiest talk by looking toward you.’’? 1860 seads ‘*I crowd your sleekest talk,’’ etc. ° «¢ wholly’? added in 1867. 1855 56 ’60 read ‘*I confound the topmost skeptic.” #1855 756 ’60 read “I think I will do nothing for a long time but listen.?? 5 1855 reads ‘‘ and accrue”? ‘and let sounds,”’ 6 1855 reads ‘I hear the sound of the human voice—a sound I love.’? 7 1855 756 read “TI hear all sounds as they are turned to their uses.?’ 8 1855 756 ’60 add ‘‘the recitative of fish-pedlars and fruit pedlars.’?
WALT WHITMAN 59
The ring of alarm-bells—the cry of fire—the whirr of swift- streaking engines and hose-carts, with premonitory tink- les, and color’d lights ;
The steam-whistle—the solid roll of the train of approaching cars ; 590
The slow-march play’d at the head of the association, marching two and two,?
(They go to guard some corpse—the flag-tops are draped with black muslin. )