Section 9

Man or woman! I might tell how I like you, but cannot ; And might tell what it is in me, and what it is in you, but
cannot ; And might tell that pining I have—that pulse of my nights and days. 990
Behold ! I do not give lectures, or a little charity ; When I give, I give myself.’
You there, impotent, loose in the knees! ;
Open your scarf’d chops till I blow grit within you ;
Spread your palms, and lift the flaps of your pockets ;
I am not to be denied—I compel—lI have stores plenty and to spare ;
And anything I have I bestow.
1 1855 ’56 60 ’67 read ‘¢ What I give I give out of myself.”
78 LEAVES OF GRASS
I do not ask who you are—that is not so important to me 5 You can do nothing, and be nothing, but what I will infold you.
To cotton-field drudge or cleaner of privies I lean ; 1000 On his right cheek I put the family kiss, And in my soul I swear, I never will deny him.
On women fit for conception I start bigger and nimbler babes ; (This day I am jetting the stuff of far more arrogant republics. )
To any one dying—thither I speed, and twist the knob of the door ;
Turn the bed-clothes toward the foot of the bed ;
Let the physician and the priest go home.
I seize the descending man, and raise him with resistless will.
O despairer, here is my neck ; By God! you shall not go down! Hang your whole weight upon me. IOIO
I dilate you with tremendous breath—I buoy you up ; Every room of the house do I fill with an arm’d force, Lovers of me, bafflers of graves.
Sleep! I and they keep guard all night ; Not doubt—not decease shall dare to lay finger upon you ; I have embraced you, and henceforth possess you to myself ; And when you rise in the morning you will find what I tell you
is SO.
41
I am he bringing help for the sick as they pant on their backs ; And for strong upright men I bring yet more needed help.
I heard what was said of the universe ; 1020 Heard it and heard it of several thousand years : It is middling well as far as it goes,—But is that all?
Magnifying and applying come I, Outbidding at the start the old cautious hucksters,?
18555660, After line 1023 read ‘¢ The most they offer for mankind and eternity, less than a spirt of my own seminal wet.’’
WALT WHITMAN 79
Taking myself the exact dimensions of Jehovah,!
Lithographing Kronos, Zeus his son, and Hercules his grandson ;
Buying drafts of Osiris, Isis, Belus, Brahma, Buddha,’
In my portfolio placing Manito loose, Allah on a leaf, the cru- cifix engraved,
With Odin, and the hideous-faced Mexitli, and every idol and
image ; Taking® them all for what they are worth, and not a cent more ; 1030
Admitting they were alive and did the work of their days ;
(They bore mites, as for unfledg’d birds, who have now to rise and fly and sing for themselves ; )
Accepting the rough deific sketches to fill out better in myself— bestowing them freely on each man and woman I see ;
Discovering as much, or more, in a framer framing a house ;
Putting higher claims for him there with his roll’d-up sleeves, driving the mallet and chisel ;
Not objecting to special revelations—considering a curl of smoke, or a hair on the back of my hand, just as curious as any revelation ;
Lads ahold of fire-engines and hook-and-ladder ropes no less‘ to me than the Gods of the antique wars ;
Minding their voices peal through the crash of destruction,
Their brawny limbs passing safe over charr’d laths—their white foreheads whole and unhurt out of the flames :
By the mechanic’s wife with her babe at her nipple interceding for every person born ; 1040
Three scythes at harvest whizzing in a row from three lusty angels with shirts bagg’d out at their waists ;
The snag-tooth’d hostler with red hair redeeming sins past and to come,
Selling all he possesses, traveling on foot to fee lawyers for his brother, and sit by him while he is tried for forgery ;
What was strewn in the amplest strewing the square rod about me, and not filling the square rod then ;
The bull and the bug never worship’d half enough ;
Dung and dirt more admirable than was dream’d ;
The supernatural of no account—myself waiting my time to be one of the Supremes ;
1 1855 adds ‘‘and laying them away.”’
2 1855 for ‘‘ Buddha”? reads ‘‘ Adonia.”? 5 1855 reads “ Honestly taking.”’
4 1855 reads “‘ more to me,”’
80 LEAVES OF GRASS
The day getting ready for me when I shall do as much good as the best, and be as prodigious :*
By my life-lumps ! becoming already a creator ;
Putting myself here and now to the ambush’d womb of the shadows. 1050
A call in the midst of the crowd ; My own voice, orotund, sweeping, and final.
Come my children ;
Come my boys and girls, my women, household, and intimates ;
Now the performer launches his nerve—he has pass’d his prelude on the reeds within.
Easily written, loose-finger’d chords! I feel the thrum of your? climax and close.
My head slues round® on my neck ; Music rolls, but not from the organ ; Folks are around me, but they are no household of mine.
Ever the hard, unsunk ground ; 1060
Ever the eaters and drinkers—ever the upward and downward sun—ever the air and the ceaseless tides ;
Ever myself and my neighbors, refreshing, wicked, real ;
Ever the old inexplicable query—ever that thorn’d thumb—that breath of itches and thirsts ;
Ever the vexer’s hoot / hoot / till we find where the sly one hides, and bring him forth ;
Ever love—ever the sobbing liquid of life ;
Ever the bandage under the chin—ever the tressels of death.
Here and there, with dimes on the eyes, walking ; To feed the greed of the belly, the brains liberally spooning ; Tickets buying, taking, selling, but in to the feast never once
going ; Many sweating, ploughing, thrashing, and then the chaff for payment receiving ; 1070
A few idly owning, and they the wheat continually claiming.
1 1855 56’60. After line 1048 read ‘‘ Guessing when I am it will not tickle me much to receive puffs out of pulpit or print.”
2 1855 ’56’60 read ‘* their climax and close.’’
5 1855 reads ‘‘ evolves on my neck.’’
WALT WHITMAN 81
This is the city, and I am one of the citizens ;
Whatever interests the rest interests me—politics, wars, markets, newspapers, schools,
Benevolent societies, improvements, banks, tariffs, steamships, factories,” stocks, stores, real estate, and personal estate.
The little plentiful mannikins, skipping around in collars and tail’d coats, *
I am aware who they are—(they are pcsitively* not worms or fleas. )
I acknowledge the duplicates of myself*—the weakest and shal- lowest is deathless with me ;
What I do and say, the same waits for them ;
Every thought that flounders in me, the same flounders in them.
I know perfectly well my own egotism ; 1080 I know my omnivorous lines,® and will not’ write any less ; And would fetch you, whoever you are, flush with myself.
No words of routine are mine,®
But abruptly to question, to leap beyond, yet nearer bring:
This printed and bound book—but the printer, and the pris, office boy ?°
The well-taken photographs—but your wife or friend close and solid in your arms?
The black ship, mail’d with iron, her mighty guns in her tur- rets—but the pluck of the captain and engineers ?”°
1 1855 reads ‘‘ politics, churches, newspapers, schools,’’ 1856760 ’67 read ‘¢ politics, markets, newspapers, schools.’’ 2 1866 reads ‘‘markets,’’ 3 1855 ’56’60 read “‘ They who piddle and patter here in collars and tailed coats, I am aware who they are, they are not WOMBS Ot fleas.’? * 1867. For ‘ positively” reads ‘‘ actually.’’ 5 1855 adds ‘under all the scrape-lipped and pipe-legged concealments.”’ 6 1855 ’56’60 read “‘I know my omnivorous words, and I cannot say any less; 77 T 1867 reads ‘‘ cannot write any less.”’ 8 1855 756 read ‘‘ My words are words.of a questioning, and to indicate reality.’? 1860 adds to above “‘ and motive power.” 9 1855756, After line 1085 read ‘‘ The marriage estate and settlement, but the body and mind of the bridegroom ? also those of the bride ? The Panorama of the sea, but the sea itself?”’ 10 1855756 ’60 read ‘‘ The fleet of ships of the line and all the modern im- provements—but the craft and pluck a the admiral ?”?
82 LEAVES OF GRASS
In the houses,! the dishes and fare and furniture—but the host and hostess, and the look out of their eyes ?
The sky up there—yet here, or next door, or across the way ?
The saints and sages in history—but you yourself? 1090
Sermons, creeds, theology—but the fathomless human brain,
And what is’ reason ? and what is love ? and what is life?
43)
I do not despise you, priests;
My faith is the greatest of faiths, and the least of faiths,
Enclosing worship ancient and modern, and all between ancient and modern,
Believing I shall come again upon the earth after five thousand years,
Waiting responses from oracles, honoring the Gods, saluting the sun,
Making a fetish of the first rock or stump, powwowing with sticks in the circle of obis,
Helping the lama or brahmin as he trims the lamps of the idols,
Dancing yet through the streets ina phallic procession—rapt and austere in the woods, a gymnosophist, 1100
Drinking mead from the skull-cup—to Shastas and Vedas admi- rant—minding the Koran,
Walking the teokallis, spotted with gore from the stone and knife, beating the serpent-skin drum,
Accepting the Gospels—accepting him that was crucified, know- ing assuredly that he is divine,
To the mass kneeling, or the puritan’s prayer rising, or sitting patiently in a pew,
Ranting and frothing in my insane crisis, or waiting dead-like till my spirit arouses me,
Looking forth on pavement and land, or outside of pavement and land,
Belonging to the winders of the circuit of circuits.
One of that centripetal and centrifugal gang, I turn and talk, like a man leaving charges before a journey.
Down-hearted doubters, dull and excluded,
1 «¢ Tn the houses’? added in 1867. 2 1855 ’56 read ‘* And what is called reason? and what is called love? and what is called life ?”’
WALT WHITMAN 83
Frivolous, sullen, moping, angry, affected, dishearten’d, athe- istical ; IIIO
I know every one of you’—I know the sea of torment, doubt, despair and unbelief.
How the flukes splash ! How they contort, rapid as lightning, with spasms, and spouts of blood!
Be at peace, bloody flukes of doubters and sullen mopers ;
I take my place among you as much as among any ;
The past is the push of you, me, all, precisely the same,’
And what is yet untried and afterward is for you, me, all, pre- cisely the same.*
I do not know what is untried and afterward ; But I know it will in its turn prove sufficient, and cannot fail.‘
Each who passes is consider’d—each who stops is consider’ d— not a single one can it fail. 1120
It cannot fail the young man who died and was buried,
Nor the young woman who died and was put by his side,
Nor the little child that peep’d in at the door, and then drew back, and was never seen again,
Nor the old man who has lived without purpose, and feels it with bitterness worse than gall,
Nor him in the poor house, tubercled by rum and the bad dis- order,
Nor the numberless slaughter’d and wreck’d—nor the brutish koboo call’d the ordure of humanity,
Nor the sacs merely floating with open mouths for food to slip in,
Nor sapien in the earth, or down in the oldest graves of the earth,
Nor anything in the myriads of spheres—nor one of the myriads of myriads that inhabit them,
Nor the present—nor the least wisp that is known. 1130
1 1855 756 ’60 read ‘¢ I know every one of you—I know the unspoken in- terrogatories,
By experience I know them.’’ t 2 1855. After line 1117 reads ‘‘ And the day and night are for youand me
and all.” 1856 60 read ‘‘ Day and night are for you, me, all.’’ 3 41855 reads ‘‘ But I knowit is sure and alive and sufficient.”” 1856 ’60
read ‘‘ But I know it is sure alive sufficient.”’
84 LEAVES OF GRASS oN ( 44 It is time to explain myself—Let us stand up.
What is known I strip away ; T launch all men and women forward with me into THE UN- KNOWN.
The clock indicates the moment—but what does eternity indi- cate ?!
We have thus far exhausted trillions of winters and summers ; There are trillions ahead, and trillions ahead of them.
Births have brought us richness and variety, And other births will bring us richness and variety.
I do not call one greater and one smaller ; That which fills its period and. place is equal to any. I140
Were mankind murderous or jealous upon you, my brother, my sister ?
I am sorry for you—they are not murderous or jealous upon me ;
All has been gentle with me—I keep no account with lamenta- tion ;
(What have I to do with lamentation ?)
I am an acme of things accomplish’d, and I an encloser of things to be.
My feet strike an apex of the apices of the stairs ;
On every step bunches of ages, and larger bunches between the steps ;
All below duly travel’d, and still I mount and mount.
Rise after rise bow the phantoms behind me ; Afar down I see the huge first Nothing?—I know I was even
there ; I150 I waited unseen and always, and slept® through the lethargic mist,
And took my time, and took no hurt from the fetid carbon.
1 1855 ’56 read, after line 1134, ‘‘ Eternity lies in bottomless reservoirs, its buckets are rising forever and ever, ‘They pour and they pour and they exhale away.’’ 21855. After ‘‘ Nothing’’ reads “the vapor from the nostrils of death.” ® 1855 reads “and slept while God carried me through the lethargic mist.’?
WALT WHITMAN 85 Long I was hugg’d close—long and long.
Immense ‘1ave been the preparations for me, Faithful and friendly the arms that have help’d me.
Cycles ferried my cradle, rowing and rowing like cheerful boat- men ;
For room to me stars kept aside in their own rings ;
They sent influences to look after what was to hold me.
Before I was born out of my mother, generations guided me ; My embryo has never been torpid—nething could overlay it. 1160
For it the nebula cohered to an orb,
The long slow strata piled to rest it on,
Vast vegetables gave it sustenance,
Monstrous sauroids transported it in their mouths, and deposited it with care.
All forces have been steadily employ’d to complete and delight me ; Now on this spot I stand’ with my robust Soul.
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O span of youth! Ever-push’d elasticity ! O manhood, balanced, florid, and full.
My lovers suffocate me !
Crowding my lips, thick in the pores of my skin, I170
Jostling me through streets and public halls—coming naked to me at night, .
Crying by day Ahoy/ from the rocks of the river—swinging and chirping over my head,
Calling my name from flower-beds, vines, tangled underbrush,’
Lighting on every moment of my life,
Bussing my body with soft balsamic busses,
Noiselessly passing handfuls out of their hearts, and giving them to be mine.
1 1855 ’56 ’60 read *¢ Now I stand on this spot,” etc.
2 1855 56760. After line 1173 read ‘‘ Or while I swim in the bath, or drink from the pump at the corner—or the curtain is down at the opera, or I glimpse at a woman’s face in the railroad car.”
86 LEAVES OF GRASS
Old age superbly rising! O welcome,’ ineffable grace of dying days !
Every condition promulges not only itself—it promulges what grows after and out of itself, And the dark hush promulges as much as any.
I open my scuttle at night and see the far-sprinkled sys- tems, I180
And all I see, multiplied as high as I can cipher, edge but the rim of the farther systems.
Wider and wider they spread, expanding, always expanding, Outward and outward, and forever outward.
My sun has his sun, and rout.d him obediently wheels,
He joins with his partners a group of superior circuit,
And greater sets follow, making specks of the greatest inside them.
There is no stoppage, and never can be stoppage ;
If I, you, and the worlds, and all beneath or upon their surfaces,’ were this moment reduced back to a pallid float, it would not avail in the long run ;
We should surely bring up again where we now stand,
And as surely go as much farther— and then farther and farther. I1go
A few quadrillions of eras, a few octillions of cubic leagues, do not hazard the span, or make it impatient ; They are but parts—anything is but a part.
See ever so far, there is limitless space outside of that ; Count ever so much, there is limitless time around that.