Whitman, as Printed

‹ Leaves of Grass, 1891–92

The lines with “i”

i 3,017 Back to I

  1. p. 9, line 1ONE'S-SELF I sing, a simple separate person,
  2. p. 9, line 3Of physiology from top to toe I sing,
  3. p. 9, line 4Not physiognomy alone nor brain alone is worthy for the Muse, I say the Form complete is worthier far,
  4. p. 9, line 5The Female equally with the Male I sing.
  5. p. 9, line 8The Modern Man I sing.
  6. p. 9, line 9As I ponder'd in silence,
  7. p. 9, line 20Be it so, then I answer'd,
  8. p. 9, line 21I too haughty Shade also sing war, and a longer and greater one than any,
  9. p. 10, line 3Lo, I too am come, chanting the chant of battles,
  10. p. 10, line 4I above all promote brave soldiers.
  11. p. 10, line 11By sailors young and old haply will I, a reminiscence of the land, be read,
  12. p. 10, line 23You too as a lone bark cleaving the ether, purpos'd I know not whither, yet ever full of faith,
  13. p. 10, line 25Bear forth to them folded my love, (dear mariners, for you I fold it here in every leaf;)
  14. p. 11, line 1I HEARD that you ask'd for something to prove this puzzle the New World,
  15. p. 11, line 3Therefore I send you my poems that you behold in them what you wanted.
  16. p. 11, line 7I, habitan of the Alleghanies, treating of him as he is in himself in his own rights,
  17. p. 11, line 10I project the history of the future.
  18. p. 11, line 16(I think all war through time was really fought, and ever will be really fought, for thee,)
  19. p. 11, line 26Merged in its spirit I and mine, as the contest hinged on thee,
  20. p. 12, line 1I MET a seer,
  21. p. 12, line 17Lo, I or you,
  22. p. 14, line 7The only purport of the form thou art, the real I myself,
  23. p. 14, line 13FOR him I sing,
  24. p. 14, line 14I raise the present on the past,
  25. p. 14, line 16With time and space I him dilate and fuse the immortal laws,
  26. p. 14, line 18WHEN I read the book, the biography famous,
  27. p. 14, line 19And is this then (said I) what the author calls a man's life?
  28. p. 14, line 20And so will some one when I am dead and gone write my life?
  29. p. 14, line 22Why even I myself I often think know little or nothing of my real life,
  30. p. 14, line 24I seek for my own use to trace out here.)
  31. p. 14, line 28The first step I say awed me and pleas'd me so much,
  32. p. 14, line 29I have hardly gone and hardly wish'd to go any farther,
  33. p. 16, line 2I was reserving it for some hero, speaker, or general,
  34. p. 16, line 5But I see that what I was reserving belongs to you just as much as to any.
  35. p. 16, line 9Finding my occupation, poverty, notoriety, foibles, crimes, less important than I thought,
  36. p. 16, line 14THITHER as I look I see each result and glory retracing itself and nestling close, always obligated,
  37. p. 16, line 17Thither we also, I with my leaves and songs, trustful, admirant,
  38. p. 17, line 1I HEAR America singing, the varied carols I hear,
  39. p. 17, line 13Lo, I send to that place a commander, swift, brave, immortal,
  40. p. 17, line 16STILL though the one I sing,
  41. p. 17, line 17(One, yet of contradictions made,) I dedicate to Nationality,
  42. p. 17, line 18I leave in him revolt, (O latent right of insurrection! O quenchless, indispensable fire!)
  43. p. 17, line 20For that which was lacking on all your well-fill'd shelves, yet needed most, I bring,
  44. p. 17, line 21Forth from the war emerging, a book I have made,
  45. p. 18, line 2Not to-day is to justify me and answer what I am for,
  46. p. 18, line 5I myself but write one or two indicative words for the future,
  47. p. 18, line 6I but advance a moment only to wheel and hurry back in the darkness.
  48. p. 18, line 7I am a man who, sauntering along without fully stopping, turns a casual look upon you and then averts his face,
  49. p. 18, line 11And why should I not speak to you?
  50. p. 18, line 12THOU reader throbbest life and pride and love the same as I,
  51. p. 18, line 14STARTING from fish-shape Paumanok where I was born,
  52. p. 19, line 6Solitary, singing in the West, I strike up for a New World.
  53. p. 20, line 13I conn'd old times,
  54. p. 20, line 14I sat studying at the feet of the great masters,
  55. p. 20, line 16In the name of these States shall I scorn the antique?
  56. p. 20, line 22I dare not proceed till I respectfully credit what you have left wafted hither,
  57. p. 20, line 23I have perused it, own it is admirable, (moving awhile among it,)
  58. p. 20, line 26I stand in my place with my own day here.
  59. p. 21, line 7I will make the poems of materials, for I think they are to be the most spiritual poems,
  60. p. 21, line 8And I will make the poems of my body and of mortality,
  61. p. 21, line 9For I think I shall then supply myself with the poems of my soul and of immortality.
  62. p. 21, line 10I will make a song for these States that no one State may under any circumstances be subjected to another State,
  63. p. 21, line 11And I will make a song that there shall be comity by day and by night between all the States, and between any two of them,
  64. p. 21, line 12And I will make a song for the ears of the President, full of weapons with menacing points,
  65. p. 21, line 14And a song make I of the One form'd out of all,
  66. p. 21, line 18I will acknowledge contemporary lands,
  67. p. 21, line 19I will trail the whole geography of the globe and salute courteously every city large and small,
  68. p. 21, line 20And employments! I will put in my poems that with you is heroism upon land and sea,
  69. p. 21, line 21And I will report all heroism from an American point of view.
  70. p. 21, line 22I will sing the song of companionship,
  71. p. 21, line 23I will show what alone must finally compact these,
  72. p. 21, line 24I believe these are to found their own ideal of manly love, indicating it in me,
  73. p. 21, line 25I will therefore let flame from me the burning fires that were threatening to consume me,
  74. p. 21, line 26I will lift what has too long kept down those smouldering fires,
  75. p. 21, line 27I will give them complete abandonment,
  76. p. 21, line 28I will write the evangel-poem of comrades and of love,
  77. p. 21, line 29For who but I should understand love with all its sorrow and joy?
  78. p. 21, line 30And who but I should be the poet of comrades?
  79. p. 22, line 1I am the credulous man of qualities, ages, races,
  80. p. 22, line 2I advance from the people in their own spirit,
  81. p. 22, line 5I make the poem of evil also, I commemorate that part also,
  82. p. 22, line 6I am myself just as much evil as good, and my nation is—and I say there is in fact no evil,
  83. p. 22, line 7(Or if there is I say it is just as important to you, to the land or to me, as any thing else.)
  84. p. 22, line 8I too, following many and follow'd by many, inaugurate a religion, I descend into the arena,
  85. p. 22, line 9(It may be I am destin'd to utter the loudest cries there, the winner's pealing shouts,
  86. p. 22, line 12I say the whole earth and all the stars in the sky are for religion's sake.
  87. p. 22, line 13I say no man has ever yet been half devout enough,
  88. p. 22, line 16I say that the real and permanent grandeur of these States must be their religion,
  89. p. 22, line 24It is well—against such I say not a word, I am their poet also,
  90. p. 23, line 9The following chants each for its kind I sing.
  91. p. 23, line 21Any more than I am held to the heavens and all the spiritual world,
  92. p. 23, line 26I take to your reckless and composite chords, add to them, and cheerfully pass them forward.
  93. p. 24, line 1As I have walk'd in Alabama my morning walk,
  94. p. 24, line 2I have seen where the she-bird the mocking-bird sat on her nest in the briers hatching her brood.
  95. p. 24, line 3I have seen the he-bird also,
  96. p. 24, line 4I have paus'd to hear him near at hand inflating his throat and joyfully singing.
  97. p. 24, line 5And while I paus'd it came to me that what he really sang for was not there only,
  98. p. 24, line 12I exultant to be ready for them will now shake out carols stronger and haughtier than have ever yet been heard upon earth.
  99. p. 24, line 13I will make the songs of passion to give them their way,
  100. p. 24, line 14And your songs outlaw'd offenders, for I scan you with kindred eyes, and carry you with me the same as any.
  101. p. 24, line 15I will make the true poem of riches,
  102. p. 24, line 17I will effuse egotism and show it underlying all, and I will be the bard of personality,
  103. p. 24, line 18And I will show of male and female that either is but the equal of the other,
  104. p. 24, line 19And 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,
  105. p. 24, line 20And I will show that there is no imperfection in the present, and can be none in the future,
  106. p. 24, line 21And I will show that whatever happens to anybody it may be turn'd to beautiful results,
  107. p. 24, line 22And I will show that nothing can happen more beautiful than death,
  108. p. 25, line 1And I will thread a thread through my poems that time and events are compact,
  109. p. 25, line 3I will not make poems with reference to parts,
  110. p. 25, line 4But I will make poems, songs, thoughts, with reference to ensemble,
  111. p. 25, line 5And I will not sing with reference to a day, but with reference to all days,
  112. p. 25, line 6And I will not make a poem nor the least part of a poem but has reference to the soul,
  113. p. 25, line 7Because 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.
  114. p. 26, line 19O all and each well-loved by me! my intrepid nations! O I at any rate include you all with perfect love!
  115. p. 26, line 20I cannot be discharged from you! not from one any sooner than another!
  116. p. 26, line 21O death! O for all that, I am yet of you unseen this hour with irrepressible love,
  117. p. 26, line 28The Louisianian, the Georgian, as near to me, and I as near to him and her,
  118. p. 26, line 29The Mississippian and Arkansian yet with me, and I yet with any of them,
  119. p. 27, line 11(I may have to be persuaded many times before I consent to give myself really to you, but what of that?
  120. p. 27, line 13No dainty dolce affettuoso I,
  121. p. 27, line 14Bearded, sun-burnt, gray-neck'd, forbidding, I have arrived,
  122. p. 27, line 15To be wrestled with as I pass for the solid prizes of the universe,
  123. p. 27, line 16For such I afford whoever can persevere to win them.
  124. p. 27, line 17On my way a moment I pause,
  125. p. 27, line 19Still the present I raise aloft, still the future of the States I harbinge glad and sublime,
  126. p. 27, line 20And for the past I pronounce what the air holds of the red aborigines.
  127. p. 28, line 6These, my voice announcing—I will sleep no more but arise,
  128. p. 28, line 7You oceans that have been calm within me! how I feel you, fathomless, stirring, preparing unprecedented waves and storms.
  129. p. 29, line 3O now I triumph—and you shall also;
  130. p. 29, line 6I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself,
  131. p. 29, line 7And what I assume you shall assume,
  132. p. 29, line 9I loafe and invite my soul,
  133. p. 29, line 10I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
  134. p. 29, line 13I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,
  135. p. 29, line 17I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard,
  136. p. 29, line 20I breathe the fragrance myself and know it and like it,
  137. p. 29, line 21The distillation would intoxicate me also, but I shall not let it.
  138. p. 29, line 23It is for my mouth forever, I am in love with it,
  139. p. 29, line 24I will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised and naked,
  140. p. 29, line 25I am mad for it to be in contact with me.
  141. p. 30, line 18I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the beginning and the end,
  142. p. 30, line 19But I do not talk of the beginning or the end.
  143. p. 31, line 6I and this mystery here we stand.
  144. p. 31, line 11Knowing the perfect fitness and equanimity of things, while they discuss I am silent, and go bathe and admire myself.
  145. p. 31, line 14I am satisfied—I see, dance, laugh, sing;
  146. p. 31, line 17Shall I postpone my acceptation and realization and scream at my eyes,
  147. p. 31, line 22People I meet, the effect upon me of my early life or the ward and city I live in, or the nation,
  148. p. 32, line 2The real or fancied indifference of some man or woman I love,
  149. p. 32, line 7Apart from the pulling and hauling stands what I am,
  150. p. 32, line 12Backward I see in my own days where I sweated through fog with linguists and contenders,
  151. p. 32, line 13I have no mockings or arguments, I witness and wait.
  152. p. 32, line 14I believe in you my soul, the other I am must not abase itself to you,
  153. p. 32, line 17Not words, not music or rhyme I want, not custom or lecture, not even the best,
  154. p. 32, line 18Only the lull I like, the hum of your valvèd voice.
  155. p. 32, line 19I mind how once we lay such a transparent summer morning,
  156. p. 32, line 24And I know that the hand of God is the promise of my own,
  157. p. 32, line 25And I know that the spirit of God is the brother of my own,
  158. p. 33, line 4How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he.
  159. p. 33, line 5I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven.
  160. p. 33, line 6Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,
  161. p. 33, line 9Or I guess the grass is itself a child, the produced babe of the vegetation.
  162. p. 33, line 10Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,
  163. p. 33, line 13Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the same, I receive them the same.
  164. p. 33, line 15Tenderly will I use you curling grass,
  165. p. 33, line 17It may be if I had known them I would have loved them,
  166. p. 33, line 23O I perceive after all so many uttering tongues,
  167. p. 33, line 24And I perceive they do not come from the roofs of mouths for nothing.
  168. p. 33, line 25I wish I could translate the hints about the dead young men and women,
  169. p. 34, line 11I hasten to inform him or her it is just as lucky to die, and I know it.
  170. p. 34, line 12I pass death with the dying and birth with the new-wash'd babe, and am not contain'd between my hat and boots,
  171. p. 34, line 15I am not an earth nor an adjunct of an earth,
  172. p. 34, line 16I am the mate and companion of people, all just as immortal and fathomless as myself,
  173. p. 34, line 17(They do not know how immortal, but I know.)
  174. p. 34, line 25I see through the broadcloth and gingham whether or no,
  175. p. 35, line 2I lift the gauze and look a long time, and silently brush away flies with my hand.
  176. p. 35, line 4I peeringly view them from the top.
  177. p. 35, line 6I witness the corpse with its dabbled hair, I note where the pistol has fallen.
  178. p. 35, line 19I mind them or the show or resonance of them—I come and I depart.
  179. p. 35, line 24I am there, I help, I came stretch'd atop of the load,
  180. p. 35, line 25I felt its soft jolts, one leg reclined on the other,
  181. p. 35, line 26I jump from the cross-beams and seize the clover and timothy,
  182. p. 36, line 1Alone far in the wilds and mountains I hunt,
  183. p. 36, line 7My eyes settle the land, I bend at her prow or shout joyously from the deck.
  184. p. 36, line 9I tuck'd my trowser-ends in my boots and went and had a good time;
  185. p. 36, line 11I saw the marriage of the trapper in the open air in the far west, the bride was a red girl,
  186. p. 36, line 16I heard his motions crackling the twigs of the woodpile,
  187. p. 36, line 17Through the swung half-door of the kitchen I saw him limpsy and weak,
  188. p. 36, line 24I had him sit next me at table, my fire-lock lean'd in the corner.
  189. p. 37, line 8Where are you off to, lady? for I see you,
  190. p. 37, line 20I loiter enjoying his repartee and his shuffle and break-down.
  191. p. 37, line 23From the cinder-strew'd threshold I follow their movements,
  192. p. 38, line 6I behold the picturesque giant and love him, and I do not stop there,
  193. p. 38, line 7I go with the team also.
  194. p. 38, line 12It seems to me more than all the print I have read in my life.
  195. p. 38, line 15I believe in those wing'd purposes,
  196. p. 38, line 23The pert may suppose it meaningless, but I listening close,
  197. p. 39, line 4I see in them and myself the same old law.
  198. p. 39, line 6They scorn the best I can do to relate them.
  199. p. 39, line 7I am enamour'd of growing out-doors,
  200. p. 39, line 10I can eat and sleep with them week in and week out.
  201. p. 40, line 3The young fellow drives the express-wagon, (I love him, though I do not know him;)
  202. p. 41, line 5(Miserable! I do not laugh at your oaths nor jeer you;)
  203. p. 41, line 25And these tend inward to me, and I tend outward to them,
  204. p. 42, line 1And such as it is to be of these more or less I am,
  205. p. 42, line 2And of these one and all I weave the song of myself.
  206. p. 42, line 3I am of old and young, of the foolish as much as the wise,
  207. p. 42, line 8A Southerner soon as a Northerner, a planter nonchalant and hospitable down by the Oconee I live,
  208. p. 42, line 19Of every hue and caste am I, of every rank and religion,
  209. p. 42, line 22I resist any thing better than my own diversity,
  210. p. 42, line 26The bright suns I see and the dark suns I cannot see are in their place,
  211. p. 43, line 7With music strong I come, with my cornets and my drums,
  212. p. 43, line 8I play not marches for accepted victors only, I play marches for conquer'd and slain persons.
  213. p. 43, line 10I also say it is good to fall, battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won.
  214. p. 43, line 11I beat and pound for the dead,
  215. p. 43, line 12I blow through my embouchures my loudest and gayest for them.
  216. p. 43, line 19It is for the wicked just the same as the righteous, I make appointments with all,
  217. p. 43, line 20I will not have a single person slighted or left away,
  218. p. 44, line 1Do you guess I have some intricate purpose?
  219. p. 44, line 2Well I have, for the Fourth-month showers have, and the mica on the side of a rock has.
  220. p. 44, line 3Do you take it I would astonish?
  221. p. 44, line 5Do I astonish more than they?
  222. p. 44, line 6This hour I tell things in confidence,
  223. p. 44, line 7I might not tell everybody, but I will tell you.
  224. p. 44, line 9How is it I extract strength from the beef I eat?
  225. p. 44, line 10What is a man anyhow? what am I? what are you?
  226. p. 44, line 11All I mark as my own you shall offset it with your own,
  227. p. 44, line 13I do not snivel that snivel the world over,
  228. p. 44, line 16I wear my hat as I please indoors or out.
  229. p. 44, line 17Why should I pray? why should I venerate and be ceremonious?
  230. p. 44, line 19I find no sweeter fat than sticks to my own bones.
  231. p. 44, line 20In all people I see myself, none more and not one a barley-corn less,
  232. p. 44, line 21And the good or bad I say of myself I say of them.
  233. p. 44, line 22I know I am solid and sound,
  234. p. 44, line 24All are written to me, and I must get what the writing means.
  235. p. 44, line 25I know I am deathless,
  236. p. 44, line 26I know this orbit of mine cannot be swept by a carpenter's compass,
  237. p. 45, line 1I know I shall not pass like a child's carlacue cut with a burnt stick at night.
  238. p. 45, line 2I know I am august,
  239. p. 45, line 3I do not trouble my spirit to vindicate itself or be understood,
  240. p. 45, line 4I see that the elementary laws never apologize,
  241. p. 45, line 5(I reckon I behave no prouder than the level I plant my house by, after all.)
  242. p. 45, line 6I exist as I am, that is enough,
  243. p. 45, line 7If no other in the world be aware I sit content,
  244. p. 45, line 8And if each and all be aware I sit content.
  245. p. 45, line 10And whether I come to my own to-day or in ten thousand or ten million years,
  246. p. 45, line 11I can cheerfully take it now, or with equal cheerfulness I can wait.
  247. p. 45, line 13I laugh at what you call dissolution,
  248. p. 45, line 14And I know the amplitude of time.
  249. p. 45, line 15I am the poet of the Body and I am the poet of the Soul,
  250. p. 45, line 17The first I graft and increase upon myself, the latter I translate into a new tongue.
  251. p. 45, line 18I am the poet of the woman the same as the man,
  252. p. 45, line 19And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man,
  253. p. 45, line 20And I say there is nothing greater than the mother of men.
  254. p. 45, line 21I chant the chant of dilation or pride,
  255. p. 45, line 23I show that size is only development.
  256. p. 45, line 26I am he that walks with the tender and growing night,
  257. p. 45, line 27I call to the earth and sea half-held by the night.
  258. p. 46, line 12Prodigal, you have given me love—therefore I to you give love!
  259. p. 46, line 14You sea! I resign myself to you also—I guess what you mean,
  260. p. 46, line 15I behold from the beach your crooked inviting fingers,
  261. p. 46, line 16I believe you refuse to go back without feeling of me,
  262. p. 46, line 17We must have a turn together, I undress, hurry me out of sight of the land,
  263. p. 46, line 19Dash me with amorous wet, I can repay you.
  264. p. 46, line 24I am integral with you, I too am of one phase and of all phases.
  265. p. 46, line 25Partaker of influx and efflux I, extoller of hate and conciliation,
  266. p. 46, line 27I am he attesting sympathy,
  267. p. 46, line 28(Shall I make my list of things in the house and skip the house that supports them?)
  268. p. 46, line 29I am not the poet of goodness only, I do not decline to be the poet of wickedness also.
  269. p. 46, line 31Evil propels me and reform of evil propels me, I stand indifferent,
  270. p. 47, line 2I moisten the roots of all that has grown.
  271. p. 47, line 5I find one side a balance and the antipodal side a balance,
  272. p. 47, line 15Here or henceforward it is all the same to me, I accept Time absolutely.
  273. p. 47, line 18I accept Reality and dare not question it,
  274. p. 47, line 27I but enter by them to an area of my dwelling.
  275. p. 48, line 14I speak the pass-word primeval, I give the sign of democracy,
  276. p. 48, line 15By God! I will accept nothing which all cannot have their counterpart of on the same terms.
  277. p. 48, line 25Voices of sexes and lusts, voices veil'd and I remove the veil,
  278. p. 48, line 27I do not press my fingers across my mouth,
  279. p. 48, line 28I keep as delicate around the bowels as around the head and heart,
  280. p. 49, line 1I believe in the flesh and the appetites,
  281. p. 49, line 3Divine am I inside and out, and I make holy whatever I touch or am touch'd from,
  282. p. 49, line 6If I worship one thing more than another it shall be the spread of my own body, or any part of it,
  283. p. 49, line 22Hands I have taken, face I have kiss'd, mortal I have ever touch'd, it shall be you.
  284. p. 49, line 23I dote on myself, there is that lot of me and all so luscious,
  285. p. 49, line 25I cannot tell how my ankles bend, nor whence the cause of my faintest wish,
  286. p. 49, line 26Nor the cause of the friendship I emit, nor the cause of the friendship I take again.
  287. p. 49, line 27That I walk up my stoop, I pause to consider if it really be,
  288. p. 50, line 3Something I cannot see puts upward libidinous prongs,
  289. p. 50, line 9If I could not now and always send sun-rise out of me.
  290. p. 50, line 13With the twirl of my tongue I encompass worlds and volumes of worlds.
  291. p. 50, line 17Come now I will not be tantalized, you conceive too much of articulation,
  292. p. 50, line 21I underlying causes to balance them at last,
  293. p. 50, line 24My final merit I refuse you, I refuse putting from me what I really am,
  294. p. 50, line 26I crowd your sleekest and best by simply looking toward you.
  295. p. 50, line 28I carry the plenum of proof and every thing else in my face,
  296. p. 50, line 29With the hush of my lips I wholly confound the skeptic.
  297. p. 51, line 1Now I will do nothing but listen,
  298. p. 51, line 2To accrue what I hear into this song, to let sounds contribute toward it.
  299. p. 51, line 3I hear bravuras of birds, bustle of growing wheat, gossip of flames, clack of sticks cooking my meals,
  300. p. 51, line 4I hear the sound I love, the sound of the human voice,
  301. p. 51, line 5I hear all sounds running together, combined, fused or following,
  302. p. 51, line 15I hear the violoncello, ('tis the young man's heart's complaint,)
  303. p. 51, line 16I hear the key'd cornet, it glides quickly in through my ears,
  304. p. 51, line 18I hear the chorus, it is a grand opera,
  305. p. 51, line 22I hear the train'd soprano (what work with hers is this?)
  306. p. 51, line 24It wrenches such ardors from me I did not know I possess'd them,
  307. p. 51, line 25It sails me, I dab with bare feet, they are lick'd by the indolent waves,
  308. p. 51, line 26I am cut by bitter and angry hail, I lose my breath,
  309. p. 52, line 8I have instant conductors all over me whether I pass or stop,
  310. p. 52, line 10I merely stir, press, feel with my fingers, and am happy,
  311. p. 52, line 11To touch my person to some one else's is about as much as I can stand.
  312. p. 52, line 30I am given up by traitors,
  313. p. 52, line 31I talk wildly, I have lost my wits, I and nobody else am the greatest traitor,
  314. p. 53, line 1I went myself first to the headland, my own hands carried me there.
  315. p. 53, line 20I believe the soggy clods shall become lovers and lamps,
  316. p. 53, line 25I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars,
  317. p. 54, line 6I find I incorporate gneiss, coal, long-threaded moss, fruits, grains, esculent roots,
  318. p. 54, line 9But call any thing back again when I desire it.
  319. p. 54, line 19I follow quickly, I ascend to the nest in the fissure of the cliff.
  320. p. 54, line 20I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contain'd,
  321. p. 54, line 21I stand and look at them long and long.
  322. p. 54, line 28So they show their relations to me and I accept them,
  323. p. 54, line 30I wonder where they get those tokens,
  324. p. 54, line 31Did I pass that way huge times ago and negligently drop them?
  325. p. 55, line 5Picking out here one that I love, and now go with him on brotherly terms.
  326. p. 55, line 12I but use you a minute, then I resign you, stallion,
  327. p. 55, line 13Why do I need your paces when I myself out-gallop them?
  328. p. 55, line 14Even as I stand or sit passing faster than you.
  329. p. 55, line 15Space and Time! now I see it is true, what I guess'd at,
  330. p. 55, line 16What I guess'd when I loaf'd on the grass,
  331. p. 55, line 17What I guess'd while I lay alone in my bed,
  332. p. 55, line 18And again as I walk'd the beach under the paling stars of the morning.
  333. p. 55, line 20I skirt sierras, my palms cover continents,
  334. p. 55, line 21I am afoot with my vision.
  335. p. 57, line 3At apple-peelings wanting kisses for all the red fruit I find,
  336. p. 58, line 3My right and left arms round the sides of two friends, and I in the middle;
  337. p. 58, line 10Hot toward one I hate, ready in my madness to knife him,
  338. p. 58, line 19I tread day and night such roads.
  339. p. 58, line 20I visit the orchards of spheres and look at the product,
  340. p. 58, line 22I fly those flights of a fluid and swallowing soul,
  341. p. 58, line 24I help myself to material and immaterial,
  342. p. 58, line 26I anchor my ship for a little while only,
  343. p. 58, line 28I go hunting polar furs and the seal, leaping chasms with a pike-pointed staff, clinging to topples of brittle and blue.
  344. p. 58, line 29I ascend to the foretruck,
  345. p. 59, line 1I take my place late at night in the crow's-nest,
  346. p. 59, line 3Through the clear atmosphere I stretch around on the wonderful beauty,
  347. p. 59, line 4The enormous masses of ice pass me and I pass them, the scenery is plain in all directions,
  348. p. 59, line 5The white-topt mountains show in the distance, I fling out my fancies toward them,
  349. p. 59, line 10I am a free companion, I bivouac by invading watchfires,
  350. p. 59, line 11I turn the bridegroom out of bed and stay with the bride myself,
  351. p. 59, line 12I tighten her all night to my thighs and lips.
  352. p. 59, line 15I understand the large hearts of heroes,
  353. p. 59, line 24All this I swallow, it tastes good, I like it well, it becomes mine,
  354. p. 59, line 25I am the man, I suffer'd, I was there.
  355. p. 60, line 2All these I feel or am.
  356. p. 60, line 3I am the hounded slave, I wince at the bite of the dogs,
  357. p. 60, line 5I clutch the rails of the fence, my gore dribs, thinn'd with the ooze of my skin,
  358. p. 60, line 6I fall on the weeds and stones,
  359. p. 60, line 10I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person,
  360. p. 60, line 11My hurts turn livid upon me as I lean on a cane and observe.
  361. p. 60, line 12I am the mash'd fireman with breast-bone broken,
  362. p. 60, line 14Heat and smoke I inspired, I heard the yelling shouts of my comrades,
  363. p. 60, line 15I heard the distant click of their picks and shovels,
  364. p. 60, line 17I lie in the night air in my red shirt, the pervading hush is for my sake,
  365. p. 60, line 18Painless after all I lie exhausted but not so unhappy,
  366. p. 60, line 22They show as the dial or move as the hands of me, I am the clock myself.
  367. p. 60, line 23I am an old artillerist, I tell of my fort's bombardment,
  368. p. 60, line 24I am there again.
  369. p. 60, line 28I take part, I see and hear the whole,
  370. p. 61, line 8Now I tell what I knew in Texas in my early youth,
  371. p. 61, line 9(I tell not the fall of Alamo,
  372. p. 62, line 10Our foe was no skulk in his ship I tell you, (said he,)
  373. p. 62, line 25Now I laugh content, for I hear the voice of my little captain,
  374. p. 64, line 4In at the conquer'd doors they crowd! I am possess'd!
  375. p. 64, line 9It is I let out in the morning and barr'd at night.
  376. p. 64, line 10Not a mutineer walks handcuff'd to jail but I am handcuff'd to him and walk by his side,
  377. p. 64, line 11(I am less the jolly one there, and more the silent one with sweat on my twitching lips.)
  378. p. 64, line 12Not a youngster is taken for larceny but I go up too, and am tried and sentenced.
  379. p. 64, line 13Not a cholera patient lies at the last gasp but I also lie at the last gasp,
  380. p. 64, line 15Askers embody themselves in me and I am embodied in them,
  381. p. 64, line 16I project my hat, sit shame-faced, and beg.
  382. p. 64, line 18Somehow I have been stunn'd. Stand back!
  383. p. 64, line 20I discover myself on the verge of a usual mistake.
  384. p. 64, line 21That I could forget the mockers and insults!
  385. p. 64, line 22That I could forget the trickling tears and the blows of the bludgeons and hammers!
  386. p. 64, line 23That I could look with a separate look on my own crucifixion and bloody crowning.
  387. p. 65, line 1I remember now,
  388. p. 65, line 2I resume the overstaid fraction,
  389. p. 65, line 5I troop forth replenish'd with supreme power, one of an average unending procession,
  390. p. 65, line 9Eleves, I salute you! come forward!
  391. p. 65, line 22Flaunt of the sunshine I need not your bask—lie over!
  392. p. 65, line 23You light surfaces only, I force surfaces and depths also.
  393. p. 65, line 26Man or woman, I might tell how I like you, but cannot,
  394. p. 66, line 2And might tell that pining I have, that pulse of my nights and days.
  395. p. 66, line 3Behold, I do not give lectures or a little charity,
  396. p. 66, line 4When I give I give myself.
  397. p. 66, line 6Open your scarf'd chops till I blow grit within you,
  398. p. 66, line 8I am not to be denied, I compel, I have stores plenty and to spare,
  399. p. 66, line 9And any thing I have I bestow.
  400. p. 66, line 10I do not ask who you are, that is not important to me,
  401. p. 66, line 11You can do nothing and be nothing but what I will infold you.
  402. p. 66, line 12To cotton-field drudge or cleaner of privies I lean,
  403. p. 66, line 13On his right cheek I put the family kiss,
  404. p. 66, line 14And in my soul I swear I never will deny him.
  405. p. 66, line 15On women fit for conception I start bigger and nimbler babes,
  406. p. 66, line 16(This day I am jetting the stuff of far more arrogant republics.)
  407. p. 66, line 17To any one dying, thither I speed and twist the knob of the door,
  408. p. 66, line 20I seize the descending man and raise him with resistless will,
  409. p. 66, line 23I dilate you with tremendous breath, I buoy you up,
  410. p. 66, line 24Every room of the house do I fill with an arm'd force,
  411. p. 66, line 26Sleep—I and they keep guard all night,
  412. p. 66, line 28I have embraced you, and henceforth possess you to myself,
  413. p. 66, line 29And when you rise in the morning you will find what I tell you is so.
  414. p. 66, line 30I am he bringing help for the sick as they pant on their backs,
  415. p. 66, line 31And for strong upright men I bring yet more needed help.
  416. p. 67, line 1I heard what was said of the universe,
  417. p. 67, line 4Magnifying and applying come I,
  418. p. 67, line 14Accepting the rough deific sketches to fill out better in myself, bestowing them freely on each man and woman I see,
  419. p. 67, line 29The day getting ready for me when I shall do as much good as the best, and be as prodigious;
  420. p. 68, line 8Easily written loose-finger'd chords—I feel the thrum of your climax and close.
  421. p. 68, line 24This is the city and I am one of the citizens,
  422. p. 69, line 1I am aware who they are, (they are positively not worms or fleas,)
  423. p. 69, line 2I acknowledge the duplicates of myself, the weakest and shallowest is deathless with me,
  424. p. 69, line 3What I do and say the same waits for them,
  425. p. 69, line 5I know perfectly well my own egotism,
  426. p. 69, line 18I do not despise you priests, all time, the world over,
  427. p. 69, line 21Believing I shall come again upon the earth after five thousand years,
  428. p. 70, line 5One of that centripetal and centrifugal gang I turn and talk like a man leaving charges before a journey.
  429. p. 70, line 8I know every one of you, I know the sea of torment, doubt, despair and unbelief.
  430. p. 70, line 12I take my place among you as much as among any,
  431. p. 70, line 15I do not know what is untried and afterward,
  432. p. 70, line 16But I know it will in its turn prove sufficient, and cannot fail.
  433. p. 71, line 4What is known I strip away,
  434. p. 71, line 5I launch all men and women forward with me into the Unknown.
  435. p. 71, line 11I do not call one greater and one smaller,
  436. p. 71, line 14I am sorry for you, they are not murderous or jealous upon me,
  437. p. 71, line 15All has been gentle with me, I keep no account with lamentation,
  438. p. 71, line 16(What have I to do with lamentation?)
  439. p. 71, line 17I am an acme of things accomplish'd, and I an encloser of things to be.
  440. p. 71, line 20All below duly travel'd, and still I mount and mount.
  441. p. 71, line 22Afar down I see the huge first Nothing, I know I was even there,
  442. p. 71, line 23I waited unseen and always, and slept through the lethargic mist,
  443. p. 71, line 25Long I was hugg'd close—long and long.
  444. p. 72, line 4Before I was born out of my mother generations guided me,
  445. p. 72, line 11Now on this spot I stand with my robust soul.
  446. p. 72, line 25I open my scuttle at night and see the far-sprinkled systems,
  447. p. 72, line 26And all I see multiplied as high as I can cipher edge but the rim of the farther systems.
  448. p. 73, line 5If 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,
  449. p. 73, line 13The Lord will be there and wait till I come on perfect terms,
  450. p. 73, line 14The great Camerado, the lover true for whom I pine will be there.
  451. p. 73, line 15I know I have the best of time and space, and was never measured and never will be measured.
  452. p. 73, line 16I tramp a perpetual journey, (come listen all!)
  453. p. 73, line 19I have no chair, no church, no philosophy,
  454. p. 73, line 20I lead no man to a dinner-table, library, exchange,
  455. p. 73, line 21But each man and each woman of you I lead upon a knoll,
  456. p. 73, line 24Not I, not any one else can travel that road for you,
  457. p. 74, line 1Shoulder your duds dear son, and I will mine, and let us hasten forth,
  458. p. 74, line 6This day before dawn I ascended a hill and look'd at the crowded heaven,
  459. p. 74, line 7And I said to my spirit When we become the enfolders of those orbs, and the pleasure and knowledge of every thing in them, shall we be fill'd and satisfied then?
  460. p. 74, line 9You are also asking me questions and I hear you,
  461. p. 74, line 10I answer that I cannot answer, you must find out for yourself.
  462. p. 74, line 13But as soon as you sleep and renew yourself in sweet clothes, I kiss you with a good-by kiss and open the gate for your egress hence.
  463. p. 74, line 15Now I wash the gum from your eyes,
  464. p. 74, line 18Now I will you to be a bold swimmer,
  465. p. 74, line 20I am the teacher of athletes,
  466. p. 74, line 23The boy I love, the same becomes a man not through derived power, but in his own right,
  467. p. 75, line 7I teach straying from me, yet who can stray from me?
  468. p. 75, line 8I follow you whoever you are from the present hour,
  469. p. 75, line 10I do not say these things for a dollar or to fill up the time while I wait for a boat,
  470. p. 75, line 11(It is you talking just as much as myself, I act as the tongue of you,
  471. p. 75, line 13I swear I will never again mention love or death inside a house,
  472. p. 75, line 14And I swear I will never translate myself at all, only to him or her who privately stays with me in the open air.
  473. p. 75, line 23In vessels that sail my words sail, I go with fishermen and seamen and love them.
  474. p. 75, line 25On the night ere the pending battle many seek me, and I do not fail them,
  475. p. 76, line 5They and all would resume what I have told them.
  476. p. 76, line 6I have said that the soul is not more than the body,
  477. p. 76, line 7And I have said that the body is not more than the soul,
  478. p. 76, line 10And I or you pocketless of a dime may purchase the pick of the earth,
  479. p. 76, line 14And I say to any man or woman, Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes.
  480. p. 76, line 15And I say to mankind, Be not curious about God,
  481. p. 76, line 16For I who am curious about each am not curious about God,
  482. p. 76, line 17(No array of terms can say how much I am at peace about God and about death.)
  483. p. 76, line 18I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least,
  484. p. 76, line 19Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself.
  485. p. 76, line 20Why should I wish to see God better than this day?
  486. p. 76, line 21I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, and each moment then,
  487. p. 76, line 22In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass,
  488. p. 76, line 23I find letters from God dropt in the street, and every one is sign'd by God's name,
  489. p. 76, line 24And I leave them where they are, for I know that wheresoe'er I go,
  490. p. 77, line 3I see the elder-hand pressing receiving supporting,
  491. p. 77, line 4I recline by the sills of the exquisite flexible doors,
  492. p. 77, line 6And as to you Corpse I think you are good manure, but that does not offend me,
  493. p. 77, line 7I smell the white roses sweet-scented and growing,
  494. p. 77, line 8I reach to the leafy lips, I reach to the polish'd breasts of melons.
  495. p. 77, line 9And as to you Life I reckon you are the leavings of many deaths,
  496. p. 77, line 10(No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before.)
  497. p. 77, line 11I hear you whispering there O stars of heaven,
  498. p. 77, line 13If you do not say any thing how can I say any thing?
  499. p. 77, line 18I ascend from the moon, I ascend from the night,
  500. p. 77, line 19I perceive that the ghastly glimmer is noonday sunbeams reflected,
  501. p. 77, line 21There is that in me—I do not know what it is—but I know it is in me.
  502. p. 77, line 23I sleep—I sleep long.
  503. p. 77, line 24I do not know it—it is without name—it is a word unsaid,
  504. p. 77, line 26Something it swings on more than the earth I swing on,
  505. p. 78, line 1Perhaps I might tell more. Outlines! I plead for my brothers and sisters.
  506. p. 78, line 4The past and present wilt—I have fill'd them, emptied them.
  507. p. 78, line 7Look in my face while I snuff the sidle of evening,
  508. p. 78, line 8(Talk honestly, no one else hears you, and I stay only a minute longer.)
  509. p. 78, line 9Do I contradict myself?
  510. p. 78, line 10Very well then I contradict myself,
  511. p. 78, line 11(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
  512. p. 78, line 12I concentrate toward them that are nigh, I wait on the door-slab.
  513. p. 78, line 15Will you speak before I am gone? will you prove already too late?
  514. p. 78, line 17I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,
  515. p. 78, line 18I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.
  516. p. 78, line 22I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun,
  517. p. 78, line 23I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.
  518. p. 78, line 24I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
  519. p. 79, line 1You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
  520. p. 79, line 2But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
  521. p. 79, line 6I stop somewhere waiting for you.
  522. p. 79, line 14Existing I peer and penetrate still,
  523. p. 79, line 17Or in front, and I following her just the same.
  524. p. 79, line 19From that of myself without which I were nothing,
  525. p. 79, line 20From what I am determin'd to make illustrious, even if I stand sole among men,
  526. p. 80, line 4Seeking something yet unfound though I have diligently sought it many a long year,
  527. p. 80, line 10Of the mad pushes of waves upon the land, I them chanting,
  528. p. 80, line 14The female form approaching, I pensive, love-flesh tremulous aching,
  529. p. 80, line 18(Hark close and still what I now whisper to you,
  530. p. 80, line 19I love you, O you entirely possess me,
  531. p. 80, line 20O that you and I escape from the rest and go utterly off, free and lawless,
  532. p. 80, line 22The furious storm through me careering, I passionately trembling.
  533. p. 80, line 23The oath of the inseparableness of two together, of the woman that loves me and whom I love more than my life, that oath swearing,
  534. p. 80, line 24(O I willingly stake all for you,
  535. p. 80, line 26O you and I! what is it to us what the rest do or think?
  536. p. 80, line 28From the master, the pilot I yield the vessel to,
  537. p. 80, line 30From time the programme hastening, (I have loiter'd too long as it is,)
  538. p. 81, line 11(Yet a moment O tender waiter, and I return,)
  539. p. 81, line 13From the night a moment I emerging flitting out,
  540. p. 81, line 16I SING the body electric,
  541. p. 81, line 17The armies of those I love engirth me and I engirth them,
  542. p. 81, line 18They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them,
  543. p. 82, line 19Such-like I love—I loosen myself, pass freely, am at the mother's breast with the little child,
  544. p. 82, line 21I knew a man, a common farmer, the father of five sons,
  545. p. 83, line 3These I used to go and visit him to see, he was wise also,
  546. p. 83, line 11I have perceiv'd that to be with those I like is enough,
  547. p. 83, line 15I do not ask any more delight, I swim in it as in a sea.
  548. p. 83, line 21I am drawn by its breath as if I were no more than a helpless vapor, all falls aside but myself and it,
  549. p. 84, line 16As I see my soul reflected in Nature,
  550. p. 84, line 17As I see through a mist, One with inexpressible completeness, sanity, beauty,
  551. p. 84, line 18See the bent head and arms folded over the breast, the Female I see.
  552. p. 85, line 15(For before the war I often go to the slave-mart and watch the sale,)
  553. p. 85, line 16I help the auctioneer, the sloven does not half know his business.
  554. p. 86, line 21O my body! I dare not desert the likes of you in other men and women, nor the likes of the parts of you,
  555. p. 86, line 22I believe the likes of you are to stand or fall with the likes of the soul, (and that they are the soul,)
  556. p. 87, line 1I believe the likes of you shall stand or fall with my poems, and that they are my poems,
  557. p. 88, line 4O I say these are not the parts and poems of the body only, but of the soul,
  558. p. 88, line 5O I say now these are the soul!
  559. p. 88, line 14Without shame the man I like knows and avows the deliciousness of his sex,
  560. p. 88, line 15Without shame the woman I like knows and avows hers.
  561. p. 88, line 16Now I will dismiss myself from impassive women,
  562. p. 88, line 17I will go stay with her who waits for me, and with those women that are warm-blooded and sufficient for me,
  563. p. 88, line 18I see that they understand me and do not deny me,
  564. p. 88, line 19I see that they are worthy of me, I will be the robust husband of those women.
  565. p. 88, line 20They are not one jot less than I am,
  566. p. 89, line 1I draw you close to me, you women,
  567. p. 89, line 2I cannot let you go, I would do you good,
  568. p. 89, line 3I am for you, and you are for me, not only for our own sake, but for others' sakes,
  569. p. 89, line 6It is I, you women, I make my way,
  570. p. 89, line 7I am stern, acrid, large, undissuadable, but I love you,
  571. p. 89, line 8I do not hurt you any more than is necessary for you,
  572. p. 89, line 9I pour the stuff to start sons and daughters fit for these States, I press with slow rude muscle,
  573. p. 89, line 10I brace myself effectually, I listen to no entreaties,
  574. p. 89, line 11I dare not withdraw till I deposit what has so long accumulated within me.
  575. p. 89, line 12Through you I drain the pent-up rivers of myself,
  576. p. 89, line 13In you I wrap a thousand onward years,
  577. p. 89, line 14On you I graft the grafts of the best-beloved of me and America,
  578. p. 89, line 15The drops I distil upon you shall grow fierce and athletic girls, new artists, musicians, and singers,
  579. p. 89, line 16The babes I beget upon you are to beget babes in their turn,
  580. p. 89, line 17I shall demand perfect men and women out of my love-spendings,
  581. p. 89, line 18I shall expect them to interpenetrate with others, as I and you interpenetrate now,
  582. p. 89, line 19I shall count on the fruits of the gushing showers of them, as I count on the fruits of the gushing showers I give now,
  583. p. 89, line 20I shall look for loving crops from the birth, life, death, immortality, I plant so lovingly now.
  584. p. 89, line 22The loving day, the mounting sun, the friend I am happy with,
  585. p. 89, line 27Beautiful dripping fragments, the negligent list of one after another as I happen to call them to me or think of them,
  586. p. 90, line 1This poem drooping shy and unseen that I always carry, and that all men carry,
  587. p. 90, line 6The body of my love, the body of the woman I love, the body of the man, the body of the earth,
  588. p. 90, line 21The like of the same I feel, the like of the same in others,
  589. p. 91, line 1The souse upon me of my lover the sea, as I lie willing and naked,
  590. p. 91, line 5The consequent meanness of me should I skulk or find myself indecent, while birds and animals never once skulk or find themselves indecent,
  591. p. 91, line 7The oath of procreation I have sworn, my Adamic and fresh daughters,
  592. p. 91, line 8The greed that eats me day and night with hungry gnaw, till I saturate what shall produce boys to fill my place when I am through,
  593. p. 91, line 11It has done its work—I toss it carelessly to fall where it may.
  594. p. 91, line 16O savage and tender achings! (I bequeath them to you my children,
  595. p. 91, line 17I tell them to you, for reasons, O bridegroom and bride.)
  596. p. 91, line 23To be absolv'd from previous ties and conventions, I from mine and you from yours!
  597. p. 92, line 2To have the feeling to-day or any day I am sufficient as I am.
  598. p. 92, line 13Whispering I love you, before long I die,
  599. p. 92, line 14I have travel'd a long way merely to look on you to touch you,
  600. p. 92, line 15For I could not die till I once look'd on you,
  601. p. 92, line 16For I fear'd I might afterward lose you.
  602. p. 92, line 19I too am part of that ocean my love, we are not so much separated,
  603. p. 92, line 23Be not impatient—a little space—know you I salute the air, the ocean and the land,
  604. p. 92, line 28I, chanter of Adamic songs,
  605. p. 93, line 24I AM he that aches with amorous love;
  606. p. 93, line 26So the body of me to all I meet or know.
  607. p. 94, line 4To-day I go consort with Nature's darlings, to-night too,
  608. p. 94, line 5I am for those who believe in loose delights, I share the midnight orgies of young men,
  609. p. 94, line 6I dance with the dancers and drink with the drinkers,
  610. p. 94, line 7The echoes ring with our indecent calls, I pick out some low person for my dearest friend,
  611. p. 94, line 9I will play a part no longer, why should I exile myself from my companions?
  612. p. 94, line 10O you shunn'd persons, I at least do not shun you,
  613. p. 94, line 11I come forthwith in your midst, I will be your poet,
  614. p. 94, line 12I will be more to you than to any of the rest.
  615. p. 94, line 13ONCE I pass'd through a populous city imprinting my brain for future use with its shows, architecture, customs, traditions,
  616. p. 94, line 14Yet now of all that city I remember only a woman I casually met there who detain'd me for love of me,
  617. p. 94, line 16I remember I say only that woman who passionately clung to me,
  618. p. 94, line 18Again she holds me by the hand, I must not go,
  619. p. 94, line 19I see her close beside me with silent lips sad and tremulous.
  620. p. 94, line 20I HEARD you solemn-sweet pipes of the organ as last Sunday morn I pass'd the church,
  621. p. 94, line 21Winds of autumn, as I walk'd the woods at dusk I heard your long-stretch'd sighs up above so mournful,
  622. p. 94, line 22I heard the perfect Italian tenor singing at the opera, I heard the soprano in the midst of the quartet singing;
  623. p. 94, line 23Heart of my love! you too I heard murmuring low through one of the wrists around my head,
  624. p. 95, line 3I, a child, very old, over waves, towards the house of maternity, the land of migrations, look afar,
  625. p. 95, line 9Now I face home again, very pleas'd and joyous,
  626. p. 95, line 10(But where is what I started for so long ago?
  627. p. 95, line 14Behold me where I pass, hear my voice, approach,
  628. p. 95, line 15Touch me, touch the palm of your hand to my body as I pass,
  629. p. 95, line 21Which too long I was offering to feed my soul,
  630. p. 95, line 23That the soul of the man I speak for rejoices in comrades,
  631. p. 96, line 1No longer abash'd, (for in this secluded spot I can respond as I would not dare elsewhere,)
  632. p. 96, line 7I proceed for all who are or have been young men,
  633. p. 96, line 11Leaves from you I glean, I write, to be perused best afterwards,
  634. p. 96, line 15O I do not know whether many passing by will discover you or inhale your faint odor, but I believe a few will;
  635. p. 96, line 16O slender leaves! O blossoms of my blood! I permit you to tell in your own way of the heart that is under you,
  636. p. 96, line 17O I do not know what you mean there underneath yourselves, you are not happiness,
  637. p. 96, line 18You are often more bitter than I can bear, you burn and sting me,
  638. p. 96, line 21O I think it is not for life I am chanting here my chant of lovers, I think it must be for death,
  639. p. 96, line 23Death or life I am then indifferent, my soul declines to prefer,
  640. p. 96, line 24(I am not sure but the high soul of lovers welcomes death most,)
  641. p. 96, line 25Indeed O death, I think now these leaves mean precisely the same as you mean,
  642. p. 96, line 26Grow up taller sweet leaves that I may see! grow up out of my breast!
  643. p. 97, line 2Come I am determin'd to unbare this broad breast of mine, I have long enough stifled and choked;
  644. p. 97, line 3Emblematic and capricious blades I leave you, now you serve me not,
  645. p. 97, line 4I will say what I have to say by itself,
  646. p. 97, line 5I will sound myself and comrades only, I will never again utter a call only their call,
  647. p. 97, line 6I will raise with it immortal reverberations through the States,
  648. p. 97, line 7I will give an example to lovers to take permanent shape and will through the States,
  649. p. 97, line 9Give me your tone therefore O death, that I may accord with it,
  650. p. 97, line 10Give me yourself, for I see that you belong to me now above all, and are folded inseparably together, you love and death are,
  651. p. 97, line 11Nor will I allow you to balk me any more with what I was calling life,
  652. p. 97, line 22I give you fair warning before you attempt me further,
  653. p. 97, line 23I am not what you supposed, but far different.
  654. p. 97, line 27You would have to give up all else, I alone would expect to be your sole and exclusive standard,
  655. p. 98, line 5(For in any roof'd room of a house I emerge not, nor in company,
  656. p. 98, line 6And in libraries I lie as one dumb, a gawk, or unborn, or dead,)
  657. p. 98, line 9Here to put your lips upon mine I permit you,
  658. p. 98, line 11For I am the new husband and I am the comrade.
  659. p. 98, line 13Where I may feel the throbs of your heart or rest upon your hip,
  660. p. 98, line 16And thus touching you would I silently sleep and be carried eternally.
  661. p. 98, line 19They will elude you at first and still more afterward, I will certainly elude you,
  662. p. 98, line 21Already you see I have escaped from you.
  663. p. 98, line 22For it is not for what I have put into it that I have written this book,
  664. p. 98, line 27For all is useless without that which you may guess at many times and not hit, that which I hinted at;
  665. p. 99, line 1COME, I will make the continent indissoluble,
  666. p. 99, line 2I will make the most splendid race the sun ever shone upon,
  667. p. 99, line 3I will make divine magnetic lands,
  668. p. 99, line 6I will plant companionship thick as trees along all the rivers of America, and along the shores of the great lakes, and all over the prairies,
  669. p. 99, line 7I will make inseparable cities with their arms about each other's necks,
  670. p. 99, line 11For you, for you I am trilling these songs.
  671. p. 99, line 12THESE I singing in spring collect for lovers,
  672. p. 99, line 13(For who but I should understand lovers and all their sorrow and joy?
  673. p. 99, line 14And who but I should be the poet of comrades?)
  674. p. 99, line 15Collecting I traverse the garden the world, but soon I pass the gates,
  675. p. 99, line 18(Wild-flowers and vines and weeds come up through the stones and partly cover them, beyond these I pass,)
  676. p. 99, line 19Far, far in the forest, or sauntering later in summer, before I think where I go,
  677. p. 99, line 21Alone I had thought, yet soon a troop gathers around me,
  678. p. 99, line 23They the spirits of dear friends dead or alive, thicker they come, a great crowd, and I in the middle,
  679. p. 99, line 24Collecting, dispensing, singing, there I wander with them,
  680. p. 100, line 1Here, out of my pocket, some moss which I pull'd off a live-oak in Florida as it hung trailing down,
  681. p. 100, line 3And here what I now draw from the water, wading in the pond-side,
  682. p. 100, line 4(O here I last saw him that tenderly loves me, and returns again never to separate from me,
  683. p. 100, line 9These I compass'd around by a thick cloud of spirits,
  684. p. 100, line 10Wandering, point to or touch as I pass, or throw them loosely from me,
  685. p. 100, line 12But what I drew from the water by the pond-side, that I reserve,
  686. p. 100, line 13I will give of it, but only to them that love as I myself am capable of loving.
  687. p. 100, line 26Not in the murmurs of my dreams while I sleep,
  688. p. 100, line 30Need I that you exist and show yourself any more than in these songs.
  689. p. 101, line 5May-be the things I perceive, the animals, plants, men, hills, shining and flowing waters,
  690. p. 101, line 8How often I think neither I know, nor any man knows, aught of them,)
  691. p. 101, line 11When he whom I love travels with me or sits a long while holding me by the hand,
  692. p. 101, line 13Then I am charged with untold and untellable wisdom, I am silent, I require nothing further,
  693. p. 101, line 14I cannot answer the question of appearances or that of identity beyond the grave,
  694. p. 101, line 15But I walk or sit indifferent, I am satisfied,
  695. p. 101, line 18A word I give to remain in your memories and minds,
  696. p. 102, line 3I see reminiscent to-day those Greek and Germanic systems,
  697. p. 102, line 5Yet underneath Socrates clearly see, and underneath Christ the divine I see,
  698. p. 102, line 10Come, I will take you down underneath this impassive exterior, I will tell you what to say of me,
  699. p. 102, line 19WHEN I heard at the close of the day how my name had been receiv'd with plaudits in the capitol, still it was not a happy night for me that follow'd,
  700. p. 102, line 20And else when I carous'd, or when my plans were accomplish'd, still I was not happy,
  701. p. 103, line 1But the day when I rose at dawn from the bed of perfect health, refresh'd, singing, inhaling the ripe breath of autumn,
  702. p. 103, line 2When I saw the full moon in the west grow pale and disappear in the morning light,
  703. p. 103, line 3When I wander'd alone over the beach, and undressing bathed, laughing with the cool waters, and saw the sun rise,
  704. p. 103, line 4And when I thought how my dear friend my lover was on his way coming, O then I was happy,
  705. p. 103, line 7And that night while all was still I heard the waters roll slowly continually up the shores,
  706. p. 103, line 8I heard the hissing rustle of the liquid and sands as directed to me whispering to congratulate me,
  707. p. 103, line 9For the one I love most lay sleeping by me under the same cover in the cool night,
  708. p. 103, line 11And his arm lay lightly around my breast—and that night I was happy.
  709. p. 103, line 13To begin with take warning, I am surely far different from what you suppose;
  710. p. 103, line 17Do you think I am trusty and faithful?
  711. p. 104, line 13Not these, O none of these more than the flames of me, consuming, burning for his love whom I love,
  712. p. 104, line 14O none more than I hurrying in and out;
  713. p. 104, line 15Does the tide hurry, seeking something, and never give up? O I the same,
  714. p. 104, line 24From my breast, from within where I was conceal'd, press forth red drops, confession drops,
  715. p. 104, line 25Stain every page, stain every song I sing, every word I say, bloody drops,
  716. p. 105, line 3Glow upon all I have written or shall write, bleeding drops,
  717. p. 105, line 6City whom that I have lived and sung in your midst will one day make you illustrious,
  718. p. 105, line 11Not those, but as I pass O Manhattan, your frequent and swift flash of eyes offering me love,
  719. p. 105, line 18And I on the crossing of the street or on the ship's deck give a kiss in return,
  720. p. 105, line 21I SAW in Louisiana a live-oak growing,
  721. p. 105, line 25But I wonder'd how it could utter joyous leaves standing alone there without its friend near, for I knew I could not,
  722. p. 106, line 1And I broke off a twig with a certain number of leaves upon it, and twined around it a little moss,
  723. p. 106, line 2And brought it away, and I have placed it in sight in my room,
  724. p. 106, line 4(For I believe lately I think of little else than of them,)
  725. p. 106, line 8I know very well I could not.
  726. p. 106, line 9PASSING stranger! you do not know how longingly I look upon you,
  727. p. 106, line 10You must be he I was seeking, or she I was seeking, (it comes to me as of a dream,)
  728. p. 106, line 11I have somewhere surely lived a life of joy with you,
  729. p. 106, line 14I ate with you and slept with you, your body has become not yours only nor left my body mine only,
  730. p. 106, line 16I am not to speak to you, I am to think of you when I sit alone or wake at night alone,
  731. p. 106, line 17I am to wait, I do not doubt I am to meet you again,
  732. p. 106, line 18I am to see to it that I do not lose you.
  733. p. 106, line 21It seems to me I can look over and behold them in Germany, Italy, France, Spain,
  734. p. 106, line 23And it seems to me if I could know those men I should become attached to them as I do to men in my own lands,
  735. p. 106, line 24O I know we should be brethren and lovers,
  736. p. 106, line 25I know I should be happy with them.
  737. p. 107, line 1I HEAR it was charged against me that I sought to destroy institutions,
  738. p. 107, line 2But really I am neither for nor against institutions,
  739. p. 107, line 3(What indeed have I in common with them? or what with the destruction of them?)
  740. p. 107, line 4Only I will establish in the Mannahatta and in every city of these States inland and seaboard,
  741. p. 107, line 9I demand of it the spiritual corresponding,
  742. p. 107, line 18WHEN I peruse the conquer'd fame of heroes and the victories of mighty generals, I do not envy the generals,
  743. p. 107, line 20But when I hear of the brotherhood of lovers, how it was with them,
  744. p. 107, line 23Then I am pensive—I hastily walk away fill'd with the bitterest envy.
  745. p. 108, line 12Sojourning east a while longer, soon I travel toward you, to remain, to teach robust American love,
  746. p. 108, line 13For I know very well that I and robust love belong among you, inland, and along the Western sea;
  747. p. 108, line 14For these States tend inland and toward the Western sea, and I will also.
  748. p. 108, line 16Here I shade and hide my thoughts, I myself do not expose them,
  749. p. 108, line 19Nor discovery have I made,
  750. p. 108, line 20Nor will I be able to leave behind me any wealthy bequest to found a hospital or library,
  751. p. 108, line 23But a few carols vibrating through the air I leave,
  752. p. 109, line 2Of a crowd of workmen and drivers in a bar-room around the stove late of a winter night, and I unremark'd seated in a corner,
  753. p. 109, line 3Of a youth who loves me and whom I love, silently approaching and seating himself near, that he may hold me by the hand,
  754. p. 109, line 11I wish to infuse myself among you till I see it common for you to walk hand in hand.
  755. p. 109, line 14I now suspect that is not all;
  756. p. 109, line 15I now suspect there is something fierce in you eligible to burst forth,
  757. p. 109, line 16For an athlete is enamour'd of me, and I of him,
  758. p. 109, line 18I dare not tell it in words, not even in these songs.
  759. p. 109, line 19I DREAM'D in a dream I saw a city invincible to the attacks of the whole of the rest of the earth,
  760. p. 109, line 20I dream'd that was the new city of Friends,
  761. p. 110, line 1WHAT think you I take my pen in hand to record?
  762. p. 110, line 2The battle-ship, perfect-model'd, majestic, that I saw pass the offing to-day under full sail?
  763. p. 110, line 5But merely of two simple men I saw to-day on the pier in the midst of the crowd, parting the parting of dear friends,
  764. p. 110, line 10To the Kanadian of the north, to the Southerner I love,
  765. p. 110, line 12I believe the main purport of these States is to found a superb friendship, exaltè, previously unknown,
  766. p. 110, line 13Because I perceive it waits, and has been always waiting, latent in all men.
  767. p. 110, line 14SOMETIMES with one I love I fill myself with rage for fear I effuse unreturn'd love,
  768. p. 110, line 15But now I think there is no unreturn'd love, the pay is certain one way or another,
  769. p. 110, line 16(I loved a certain person ardently and my love was not return'd,
  770. p. 110, line 17Yet out of that I have written these songs.)
  771. p. 110, line 18MANY things to absorb I teach to help you become eleve of mine;
  772. p. 111, line 1FAST-ANCHOR'D eternal O love! O woman I love!
  773. p. 111, line 2O bride! O wife! more resistless than I can tell, the thought of you!
  774. p. 111, line 5I ascend, I float in the regions of your love O man,
  775. p. 111, line 8I perceive one picking me out by secret and divine signs,
  776. p. 111, line 9Acknowledging none else, not parent, wife, husband, brother, child, any nearer than I am,
  777. p. 111, line 12I meant that you should discover me so by faint indirections,
  778. p. 111, line 13And I when I meet you mean to discover you by the like in you.
  779. p. 111, line 14O YOU whom I often and silently come where you are that I may be with you,
  780. p. 111, line 15As I walk by your side or sit near, or remain in the same room with you,
  781. p. 111, line 18How often I find myself standing and looking at it where it flits,
  782. p. 111, line 19How often I question and doubt whether that is really me;
  783. p. 111, line 21O I never doubt whether that is really me.
  784. p. 111, line 23I, forty years old the eighty-third year of the States,
  785. p. 112, line 3When you read these I that was visible am become invisible,
  786. p. 112, line 5Fancying how happy you were if I could be with you and become your comrade;
  787. p. 112, line 6Be it as if I were with you. (Be not too certain but I am now with you.)
  788. p. 113, line 2I hear the workman singing and the farmer's wife singing,
  789. p. 113, line 3I hear in the distance the sounds of children and of animals early in the day,
  790. p. 113, line 4I hear emulous shouts of Australians pursuing the wild horse,
  791. p. 113, line 5I hear the Spanish dance with castanets in the chestnut shade, to the rebeck and guitar,
  792. p. 113, line 6I hear continual echoes from the Thames,
  793. p. 113, line 7I hear fierce French liberty songs,
  794. p. 113, line 8I hear of the Italian boat-sculler the musical recitative of old poems,
  795. p. 113, line 9I hear the locusts in Syria as they strike the grain and grass with the showers of their terrible clouds,
  796. p. 113, line 10I hear the Coptic refrain toward sundown, pensively falling on the breast of the black venerable vast mother the Nile,
  797. p. 113, line 11I hear the chirp of the Mexican muleteer, and the bells of the mule,
  798. p. 113, line 12I hear the Arab muezzin calling from the top of the mosque,
  799. p. 113, line 13I hear the Christian priests at the altars of their churches, I hear the responsive base and soprano,
  800. p. 113, line 14I hear the cry of the Cossack, and the sailor's voice putting to sea at Okotsk,
  801. p. 113, line 15I 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,
  802. p. 113, line 16I hear the Hebrew reading his records and psalms,
  803. p. 113, line 17I hear the rhythmic myths of the Greeks, and the strong legends of the Romans,
  804. p. 113, line 18I hear the tale of the divine life and bloody death of the beautiful God the Christ,
  805. p. 113, line 19I hear the Hindoo teaching his favorite pupil the loves, wars, adages, transmitted safely to this day from poets who wrote three thousand years ago.
  806. p. 113, line 22I see a great round wonder rolling through space,
  807. p. 113, line 23I see diminute farms, hamlets, ruins, graveyards, jails, factories, palaces, hovels, huts of barbarians, tents of nomads upon the surface,
  808. p. 114, line 1I see the shaded part on one side where the sleepers are sleeping, and the sunlit part on the other side,
  809. p. 114, line 2I see the curious rapid change of the light and shade,
  810. p. 114, line 3I see distant lands, as real and near to the inhabitants of them as my land is to me.
  811. p. 114, line 4I see plenteous waters,
  812. p. 114, line 5I see mountain peaks, I see the sierras of Andes where they range,
  813. p. 114, line 6I see plainly the Himalayas, Chian Shahs, Altays, Ghauts,
  814. p. 114, line 7I see the giant pinnacles of Elbruz, Kazbek, Bazardjusi,
  815. p. 114, line 8I see the Styrian Alps, and the Karnac Alps,
  816. p. 114, line 9I see the Pyrenees, Balks, Carpathians, and to the north the Dofrafields, and off at sea mount Hecla,
  817. p. 114, line 10I see Vesuvius and Etna, the mountains of the Moon, and the Red mountains of Madagascar,
  818. p. 114, line 11I see the Lybian, Arabian, and Asiatic deserts,
  819. p. 114, line 12I see huge dreadful Arctic and Antarctic icebergs,
  820. p. 114, line 13I see the superior oceans and the inferior ones, the Atlantic and Pacific, the sea of Mexico, the Brazilian sea, and the sea of Peru,
  821. p. 114, line 19I behold the mariners of the world,
  822. p. 114, line 22I behold the sail and steamships of the world, some in clusters in port, some on their voyages,
  823. p. 115, line 9I see the tracks of the railroads of the earth,
  824. p. 115, line 10I see them in Great Britain, I see them in Europe,
  825. p. 115, line 11I see them in Asia and in Africa.
  826. p. 115, line 12I see the electric telegraphs of the earth,
  827. p. 115, line 13I see the filaments of the news of the wars, deaths, losses, gains, passions, of my race.
  828. p. 115, line 14I see the long river-stripes of the earth,
  829. p. 115, line 15I see the Amazon and the Paraguay,
  830. p. 115, line 16I see the four great rivers of China, the Amour, the Yellow River, the Yiang-tse, and the Pearl,
  831. p. 115, line 17I see where the Seine flows, and where the Danube, the Loire, the Rhone, and the Guadalquiver flow,
  832. p. 115, line 18I see the windings of the Volga, the Dnieper, the Oder,
  833. p. 115, line 19I see the Tuscan going down the Arno, and the Venetian along the Po,
  834. p. 115, line 20I see the Greek seaman sailing out of Egina bay.
  835. p. 115, line 21I see the site of the old empire of Assyria, and that of Persia, and that of India,
  836. p. 115, line 22I see the falling of the Ganges over the high rim of Saukara.
  837. p. 115, line 23I see the place of the idea of the Deity incarnated by avatars in human forms,
  838. p. 115, line 24I see the spots of the successions of priests on the earth, oracles, sacrificers, brahmins, sabians, llamas, monks, muftis, exhorters,
  839. p. 115, line 25I see where druids walk'd the groves of Mona, I see the mistletoe and vervain,
  840. p. 115, line 26I see the temples of the deaths of the bodies of Gods, I see the old signifiers.
  841. p. 116, line 1I see Christ eating the bread of his last supper in the midst of youths and old persons,
  842. p. 116, line 2I see where the strong divine young man the Hercules toil'd faithfully and long and then died,
  843. p. 116, line 3I see the place of the innocent rich life and hapless fate of the beautiful nocturnal son, the full-limb'd Bacchus,
  844. p. 116, line 4I see Kneph, blooming, drest in blue, with the crown of feathers on his head,
  845. p. 116, line 5I see Hermes, unsuspected, dying, well-belov'd, saying to the people Do not weep for me,
  846. p. 116, line 6This is not my true country, I have lived banish'd from my true country, I now go back there,
  847. p. 116, line 7I return to the celestial sphere where every one goes in his turn.
  848. p. 116, line 8I see the battle-fields of the earth, grass grows upon them and blossoms and corn,
  849. p. 116, line 9I see the tracks of ancient and modern expeditions.
  850. p. 116, line 10I see the nameless masonries, venerable messages of the unknown events, heroes, records of the earth.
  851. p. 116, line 11I see the places of the sagas,
  852. p. 116, line 12I see pine-trees and fir-trees torn by northern blasts,
  853. p. 116, line 13I see granite bowlders and cliffs, I see green meadows and lakes,
  854. p. 116, line 14I see the burial-cairns of Scandinavian warriors,
  855. p. 116, line 15I 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.
  856. p. 116, line 16I see the steppes of Asia,
  857. p. 116, line 17I see the tumuli of Mongolia, I see the tents of Kalmucks and Baskirs,
  858. p. 116, line 18I see the nomadic tribes with herds of oxen and cows,
  859. p. 116, line 19I see the table-lands notch'd with ravines, I see the jungles and deserts,
  860. p. 116, line 20I see the camel, the wild steed, the bustard, the fat-tail'd sheep, the antelope, and the burrowing wolf.
  861. p. 116, line 21I see the highlands of Abyssinia,
  862. p. 116, line 22I see flocks of goats feeding, and see the fig-tree, tamarind, date,
  863. p. 117, line 1I see the Brazilian vaquero,
  864. p. 117, line 2I see the Bolivian ascending mount Sorata,
  865. p. 117, line 3I see the Wacho crossing the plains, I see the incomparable rider of horses with his lasso on his arm,
  866. p. 117, line 4I see over the pampas the pursuit of wild cattle for their hides.
  867. p. 117, line 5I see the regions of snow and ice,
  868. p. 117, line 6I see the sharp-eyed Samoiede and the Finn,
  869. p. 117, line 7I see the seal-seeker in his boat poising his lance,
  870. p. 117, line 8I see the Siberian on his slight-built sledge drawn by dogs,
  871. p. 117, line 9I see the porpoise-hunters, I see the whale-crews of the south Pacific and the north Atlantic,
  872. p. 117, line 10I see the cliffs, glaciers, torrents, valleys, of Switzerland—I mark the long winters and the isolation.
  873. p. 117, line 11I see the cities of the earth and make myself at random a part of them,
  874. p. 117, line 12I am a real Parisian,
  875. p. 117, line 13I am a habitan of Vienna, St. Petersburg, Berlin, Constantinople,
  876. p. 117, line 14I am of Adelaide, Sidney, Melbourne,
  877. p. 117, line 15I am of London, Manchester, Bristol, Edinburgh, Limerick,
  878. p. 117, line 16I am of Madrid, Cadiz, Barcelona, Oporto, Lyons, Brussels, Berne, Frankfort, Stuttgart, Turin, Florence,
  879. p. 117, line 17I belong in Moscow, Cracow, Warsaw, or northward in Christiania or Stockholm, or in Siberian Irkutsk, or in some street in Iceland,
  880. p. 117, line 18I descend upon all those cities, and rise from them again.
  881. p. 117, line 19I see vapors exhaling from unexplored countries,
  882. p. 117, line 20I see the savage types, the bow and arrow, the poison'd splint, the fetich, and the obi.
  883. p. 117, line 21I see African and Asiatic towns,
  884. p. 117, line 22I see Algiers, Tripoli, Derne, Mogadore, Timbuctoo, Monrovia,
  885. p. 117, line 23I see the swarms of Pekin, Canton, Benares, Delhi, Calcutta, Tokio,
  886. p. 117, line 24I see the Kruman in his hut, and the Dahoman and Ashantee-man in their huts,
  887. p. 117, line 25I see the Turk smoking opium in Aleppo,
  888. p. 117, line 26I see the picturesque crowds at the fairs of Khiva and those of Herat,
  889. p. 117, line 27I see Teheran, I see Muscat and Medina and the intervening sands, I see the caravans toiling onward,
  890. p. 118, line 1I see Egypt and the Egyptians, I see the pyramids and obelisks,
  891. p. 118, line 2I look on chisell'd histories, records of conquering kings, dynasties, cut in slabs of sand-stone, or on granite-blocks,
  892. p. 118, line 3I see at Memphis mummy-pits containing mummies embalm'd, swathed in linen cloth, lying there many centuries,
  893. p. 118, line 4I look on the fall'n Theban, the large-ball'd eyes, the side-drooping neck, the hands folded across the breast.
  894. p. 118, line 5I see all the menials of the earth, laboring,
  895. p. 118, line 6I see all the prisoners in the prisons,
  896. p. 118, line 7I see the defective human bodies of the earth,
  897. p. 118, line 11I see male and female everywhere,
  898. p. 118, line 12I see the serene brotherhood of philosophs,
  899. p. 118, line 13I see the constructiveness of my race,
  900. p. 118, line 14I see the results of the perseverance and industry of my race,
  901. p. 118, line 15I see ranks, colors, barbarisms, civilizations, I go among them, I mix indiscriminately,
  902. p. 118, line 16And I salute all the inhabitants of the earth.
  903. p. 118, line 24You Belge! you liberty-lover of the Netherlands! (you stock whence I myself have descended;)
  904. p. 119, line 16And you each and everywhere whom I specify not, but include just the same!
  905. p. 120, line 5I do not prefer others so very much before you either,
  906. p. 120, line 6I do not say one word against you, away back there where you stand,
  907. p. 120, line 9I have look'd for equals and lovers and found them ready for me in all lands,
  908. p. 120, line 10I think some divine rapport has equalized me with them.
  909. p. 120, line 11You vapors, I think I have risen with you, moved away to distant continents, and fallen down there, for reasons,
  910. p. 120, line 12I think I have blown with you you winds;
  911. p. 120, line 13You waters I have finger'd every shore with you,
  912. p. 120, line 14I have run through what any river or strait of the globe has run through,
  913. p. 120, line 15I have taken my stand on the bases of peninsulas and on the high embedded rocks, to cry thence:
  914. p. 120, line 17What cities the light or warmth penetrates I penetrate those cities myself,
  915. p. 120, line 18All islands to which birds wing their way I wing my way myself.
  916. p. 120, line 20I raise high the perpendicular hand, I make the signal,
  917. p. 120, line 23AFOOT and light-hearted I take to the open road,
  918. p. 120, line 25The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.
  919. p. 121, line 1Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune,
  920. p. 121, line 2Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
  921. p. 121, line 4Strong and content I travel the open road.
  922. p. 121, line 6I do not want the constellations any nearer,
  923. p. 121, line 7I know they are very well where they are,
  924. p. 121, line 8I know they suffice for those who belong to them.
  925. p. 121, line 9(Still here I carry my old delicious burdens,
  926. p. 121, line 10I carry them, men and women, I carry them with me wherever I go,
  927. p. 121, line 11I swear it is impossible for me to get rid of them,
  928. p. 121, line 12I am fill'd with them, and I will fill them in return.)
  929. p. 121, line 13You road I enter upon and look around, I believe you are not all that is here,
  930. p. 121, line 14I believe that much unseen is also here.
  931. p. 121, line 20They pass, I also pass, any thing passes, none can be interdicted,
  932. p. 121, line 26I believe you are latent with unseen existences, you are so dear to me.
  933. p. 122, line 6From all that has touch'd you I believe you have imparted to yourselves, and now would impart the same secretly to me,
  934. p. 122, line 12O highway I travel, do you say to me Do not leave me?
  935. p. 122, line 14Do you say I am already prepared, I am well-beaten and undenied, adhere to me?
  936. p. 122, line 15O public road, I say back I am not afraid to leave you, yet I love you,
  937. p. 122, line 16You express me better than I can express myself,
  938. p. 122, line 18I think heroic deeds were all conceiv'd in the open air, and all free poems also,
  939. p. 122, line 19I think I could stop here myself and do miracles,
  940. p. 122, line 20I think whatever I shall meet on the road I shall like, and whoever beholds me shall like me,
  941. p. 122, line 21I think whoever I see must be happy.
  942. p. 122, line 22From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of limits and imaginary lines,
  943. p. 122, line 23Going where I list, my own master total and absolute,
  944. p. 123, line 1I inhale great draughts of space,
  945. p. 123, line 3I am larger, better than I thought,
  946. p. 123, line 4I did not know I held so much goodness.
  947. p. 123, line 6I can repeat over to men and women You have done such good to me I would do the same to you,
  948. p. 123, line 7I will recruit for myself and you as I go,
  949. p. 123, line 8I will scatter myself among men and women as I go,
  950. p. 123, line 9I will toss a new gladness and roughness among them,
  951. p. 123, line 14Now I see the secret of the making of the best persons,
  952. p. 123, line 26Now I re-examine philosophies and religions,
  953. p. 124, line 15Why are there trees I never walk under but large and melodious thoughts descend upon me?
  954. p. 124, line 16(I think they hang there winter and summer on those trees and always drop fruit as I pass;)
  955. p. 124, line 17What is it I interchange so suddenly with strangers?
  956. p. 124, line 18What with some driver as I ride on the seat by his side?
  957. p. 124, line 19What with some fisherman drawing his seine by the shore as I walk by and pause?
  958. p. 124, line 22I think it pervades the open air, waiting at all times,
  959. p. 125, line 9I swear to you there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell.
  960. p. 126, line 1(I and mine do not convince by arguments, similes, rhymes,
  961. p. 126, line 3Listen! I will be honest with you,
  962. p. 126, line 4I do not offer the old smooth prizes, but offer rough new prizes,
  963. p. 127, line 22They go! they go! I know that they go, but I know not where they go,
  964. p. 127, line 23But I know that they go toward the best—toward something great.
  965. p. 128, line 4It is useless to protest, I know all and expose it.
  966. p. 128, line 23My call is the call of battle, I nourish active rebellion,
  967. p. 128, line 27It is safe—I have tried it—my own feet have tried it well—be not detain'd!
  968. p. 129, line 5Camerado, I give you my hand!
  969. p. 129, line 6I give you my love more precious than money,
  970. p. 129, line 7I give you myself before preaching or law;
  971. p. 129, line 10FLOOD-TIDE below me! I see you face to face!
  972. p. 129, line 11Clouds of the west—sun there half an hour high—I see you also face to face.
  973. p. 130, line 8I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so many generations hence,
  974. p. 130, line 9Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky, so I felt,
  975. p. 130, line 10Just as any of you is one of a living crowd, I was one of a crowd,
  976. p. 130, line 11Just as you are refresh'd by the gladness of the river and the bright flow, I was refresh'd,
  977. p. 130, line 12Just as you stand and lean on the rail, yet hurry with the swift current, I stood yet was hurried,
  978. p. 130, line 13Just as you look on the numberless masts of ships and the thick-stemm'd pipes of steamboats, I look'd.
  979. p. 130, line 14I too many and many a time cross'd the river of old,
  980. p. 131, line 9I loved well those cities, loved well the stately and rapid river,
  981. p. 131, line 10The men and women I saw were all near to me,
  982. p. 131, line 11Others the same—others who look back on me because I look'd forward to them,
  983. p. 131, line 12(The time will come, though I stop here to-day and to-night.)
  984. p. 131, line 16I too lived, Brooklyn of ample hills was mine,
  985. p. 131, line 17I too walk'd the streets of Manhattan island, and bathed in the waters around it,
  986. p. 131, line 18I too felt the curious abrupt questionings stir within me,
  987. p. 131, line 20In my walks home late at night or as I lay in my bed they came upon me,
  988. p. 131, line 21I too had been struck from the float forever held in solution,
  989. p. 131, line 22I too had receiv'd identity by my body,
  990. p. 131, line 23That I was I knew was of my body, and what I should be I knew I should be of my body.
  991. p. 132, line 1The best I had done seem'd to me blank and suspicious,
  992. p. 132, line 2My great thoughts as I supposed them, were they not in reality meagre?
  993. p. 132, line 4I am he who knew what it was to be evil,
  994. p. 132, line 5I too knitted the old knot of contrariety,
  995. p. 132, line 7Had guile, anger, lust, hot wishes I dared not speak,
  996. p. 132, line 14Felt their arms on my neck as I stood, or the negligent leaning of their flesh against me as I sat,
  997. p. 132, line 15Saw many I loved in the street or ferry-boat or public assembly, yet never told them a word,
  998. p. 132, line 20Closer yet I approach you,
  999. p. 132, line 21What thought you have of me now, I had as much of you—I laid in my stores in advance,
  1000. p. 132, line 22I consider'd long and seriously of you before you were born.
  1001. p. 132, line 24Who knows but I am enjoying this?
  1002. p. 132, line 25Who knows, for all the distance, but I am as good as looking at you now, for all you cannot see me?
  1003. p. 133, line 1What gods can exceed these that clasp me by the hand, and with voices I love call me promptly and loudly by my nighest name as I approach?
  1004. p. 133, line 5What I promis'd without mentioning it, have you not accepted?
  1005. p. 133, line 18Consider, you who peruse me, whether I may not in unknown ways be looking upon you;
  1006. p. 134, line 14NOW list to my morning's romanza, I tell the signs of the Answerer,
  1007. p. 134, line 15To the cities and farms I sing as they spread in the sunshine before me.
  1008. p. 134, line 19And I stand before the young man face to face, and take his right hand in my left hand and his left hand in my right hand,
  1009. p. 134, line 20And I answer for his brother and for men, and I answer for him that answers for all, and send these signs.
  1010. p. 135, line 2The profound earth and its attributes and the unquiet ocean, (so tell I my morning's romanza,)
  1011. p. 138, line 20Through Mannahatta's streets I walking, these things gathering,
  1012. p. 141, line 13O lands! all so dear to me—what you are, (whatever it is,) I putting it at random in these songs, become a part of that, whatever it is,
  1013. p. 141, line 14Southward there, I screaming, with wings slow flapping, with the myriads of gulls wintering along the coasts of Florida,
  1014. p. 141, line 15Otherways there atwixt the banks of the Arkansaw, the Rio Grande, the Nueces, the Brazos, the Tombigbee, the Red River, the Saskatchawan or the Osage, I with the spring waters laughing and skipping and running,
  1015. p. 141, line 16Northward, on the sands, on some shallow bay of Paumanok, I with parties of snowy herons wading in the wet to seek worms and aquatic plants,
  1016. p. 141, line 17Retreating, triumphantly twittering, the king-bird, from piercing the crow with its bill, for amusement—and I triumphantly twittering,
  1017. p. 141, line 18The migrating flock of wild geese alighting in autumn to refresh themselves, the body of the flock feed, the sentinels outside move around with erect heads watching, and are from time to time reliev'd by other sentinels—and I feeding and taking turns with the rest,
  1018. p. 142, line 1In Kanadian forests the moose, large as an ox, corner'd by hunters, rising desperately on his hind-feet, and plunging with his fore-feet, the hoofs as sharp as knives—and I, plunging at the hunters, corner'd and desperate,
  1019. p. 142, line 3And I too of the Mannahatta, singing thereof—and no less in myself than the whole of the Mannahatta in itself,
  1020. p. 142, line 7These affording, in all their particulars, the old feuillage to me and to America, how can I do less than pass the clew of the union of them, to afford the like to you?
  1021. p. 142, line 8Whoever you are! how can I but offer you divine leaves, that you also be eligible as I am?
  1022. p. 142, line 9How can I but as here chanting, invite you for yourself to collect bouquets of the incomparable feuillage of these States?
  1023. p. 142, line 18I will have thousands of globes and all time.
  1024. p. 143, line 7I hear the alarm at dead of night,
  1025. p. 143, line 8I hear bells, shouts! I pass the crowd, I run!
  1026. p. 143, line 16O to go back to the place where I was born,
  1027. p. 143, line 24I come with my clam-rake and spade, I come with my eel-spear,
  1028. p. 143, line 25Is the tide out? I join the group of clam-diggers on the flats,
  1029. p. 143, line 26I laugh and work with them, I joke at my work like a mettlesome young man;
  1030. p. 144, line 1In winter I take my eel-basket and eel-spear and travel out on foot on the ice—I have a small axe to cut holes in the ice,
  1031. p. 144, line 5Another time in warm weather out in a boat, to lift the lobster-pots where they are sunk with heavy stones, (I know the buoys,)
  1032. p. 144, line 6O the sweetness of the Fifth-month morning upon the water as I row just before sunrise toward the buoys,
  1033. p. 144, line 7I pull the wicker pots up slantingly, the dark green lobsters are desperate with their claws as I take them out, I insert wooden pegs in the joints of their pincers,
  1034. p. 144, line 8I go to all the places one after another, and then row back to the shore,
  1035. p. 144, line 12Another time fishing for rock-fish in Chesapeake bay, I one of the brown-faced crew;
  1036. p. 144, line 13Another time trailing for blue-fish off Paumanok, I stand with braced body,
  1037. p. 145, line 12O the whaleman's joys! O I cruise my old cruise again!
  1038. p. 145, line 13I feel the ship's motion under me, I feel the Atlantic breezes fanning me,
  1039. p. 145, line 14I hear the cry again sent down from the mast-head, There—she blows!
  1040. p. 145, line 15Again I spring up the rigging to look with the rest—we descend, wild with excitement,
  1041. p. 145, line 16I leap in the lower'd boat, we row toward our prey where he lies,
  1042. p. 145, line 17We approach stealthy and silent, I see the mountainous mass, lethargic, basking,
  1043. p. 145, line 18I see the harpooneer standing up, I see the weapon dart from his vigorous arm;
  1044. p. 145, line 20Again I see him rise to breathe, we row close again,
  1045. p. 145, line 21I see a lance driven through his side, press'd deep, turn'd in the wound,
  1046. p. 145, line 22Again we back off, I see him settle again, the life is leaving him fast,
  1047. p. 145, line 23As he rises he spouts blood, I see him swim in circles narrower and narrower, swiftly cutting the water—I see him die,
  1048. p. 146, line 1I am more than eighty years of age, I am the most venerable mother,
  1049. p. 147, line 18O while I live to be the ruler of life, not a slave,
  1050. p. 147, line 23For not life's joys alone I sing, repeating—the joy of death!
  1051. p. 147, line 29How it is I know not—yet behold! the something which obeys none of the rest,
  1052. p. 148, line 14A ship itself, (see indeed these sails I spread to the sun and air,)
  1053. p. 154, line 16I see the European headsman,
  1054. p. 154, line 21I see the clear sunsets of the martyrs,
  1055. p. 154, line 22I see from the scaffolds the descending ghosts,
  1056. p. 154, line 25I see those who in any land have died for the good cause,
  1057. p. 154, line 28I see the blood wash'd entirely away from the axe,
  1058. p. 155, line 2I see the headsman withdraw and become useless,
  1059. p. 155, line 3I see the scaffold untrodden and mouldy, I see no longer any axe upon it,
  1060. p. 155, line 4I see the mighty and friendly emblem of the power of my own race, the newest, largest race.
  1061. p. 155, line 5(America! I do not vaunt my love for you,
  1062. p. 155, line 6I have what I have.)
  1063. p. 158, line 21She comes! I hear the rustling of her gown,
  1064. p. 158, line 22I scent the odor of her breath's delicious fragrance,
  1065. p. 158, line 23I mark her step divine, her curious eyes a-turning, rolling,
  1066. p. 158, line 25The dame of dames! can I believe then,
  1067. p. 158, line 30I, my friends, if you do not, can plainly see her,
  1068. p. 159, line 20I say I see, my friends, if you do not, the illustrious emigré, (having it is true in her day, although the same, changed, journey'd considerable,)
  1069. p. 159, line 26But hold—don't I forget my manners?
  1070. p. 159, line 27To introduce the stranger, (what else indeed do I live to chant for?) to thee Columbia;
  1071. p. 160, line 4I candidly confess a queer, queer race, of novel fashion,
  1072. p. 160, line 20E'en while I chant I see it rise, I scan and prophesy outside and in,
  1073. p. 162, line 17I raise a voice for far superber themes for poets and for art,
  1074. p. 162, line 29I say I bring thee Muse to-day and here,
  1075. p. 163, line 12Our own rondure, the current globe I bring.
  1076. p. 163, line 17Thee, ever thee, I sing.
  1077. p. 163, line 23I here personify and call my themes, to make them pass before ye.
  1078. p. 165, line 1In other scenes than these have I observ'd thee flag,
  1079. p. 165, line 3But I have seen thee bunting, to tatters torn upon thy splinter'd staff,
  1080. p. 165, line 10Many a good man have I seen go under.
  1081. p. 166, line 10I heard the mighty tree its death-chant chanting.
  1082. p. 166, line 14But in my soul I plainly heard.
  1083. p. 166, line 24(For know I bear the soul befitting me, I too have consciousness, identity,
  1084. p. 168, line 16In the Mendocino woods I caught.
  1085. p. 169, line 3I see in you, certain to come, the promise of thousands of years, till now deferr'd,
  1086. p. 169, line 9I see the genius of the modern, child of the real and ideal,
  1087. p. 169, line 13In the labor of engines and trades and the labor of fields I find the developments,
  1088. p. 169, line 17Were I as the head teacher, charitable proprietor, wise statesman, what would it amount to?
  1089. p. 169, line 18Were I to you as the boss employing and paying you, would that satisfy you?
  1090. p. 169, line 21Neither a servant nor a master I,
  1091. p. 169, line 22I take no sooner a large price than a small price, I will have my own whoever enjoys me,
  1092. p. 169, line 23I will be even with you and you shall be even with me.
  1093. p. 170, line 1If you stand at work in a shop I stand as nigh as the nighest in the same shop,
  1094. p. 170, line 2If you bestow gifts on your brother or dearest friend I demand as good as your brother or dearest friend,
  1095. p. 170, line 3If your lover, husband, wife, is welcome by day or night, I must be personally as welcome,
  1096. p. 170, line 4If you become degraded, criminal, ill, then I become so for your sake,
  1097. p. 170, line 5If you remember your foolish and outlaw'd deeds, do you think I cannot remember my own foolish and outlaw'd deeds?
  1098. p. 170, line 6If you carouse at the table I carouse at the opposite side of the table,
  1099. p. 170, line 7If you meet some stranger in the streets and love him or her, why I often meet strangers in the street and love them.
  1100. p. 170, line 16Souls of men and women! it is not you I call unseen, unheard, untouchable and untouching,
  1101. p. 170, line 17It is not you I go argue pro and con about, and to settle whether you are alive or no,
  1102. p. 170, line 18I own publicly who you are, if nobody else owns.
  1103. p. 170, line 19Grown, half-grown and babe, of this country and every country, indoors and out-doors, one just as much as the other, I see,
  1104. p. 171, line 1All these I see, but nigher and farther the same I see,
  1105. p. 171, line 3I bring what you much need yet always have,
  1106. p. 171, line 5I send no agent or medium, offer no representative of value, but offer the value itself.
  1107. p. 171, line 17I do not know what it is except that it is grand, and that it is happiness,
  1108. p. 172, line 10Will we rate our cash and business high? I have no objection,
  1109. p. 172, line 11I rate them as high as the highest—then a child born of a woman and man I rate beyond all rate.
  1110. p. 172, line 13I do not say they are not grand and good, for they are,
  1111. p. 172, line 14I am this day just as much in love with them as you,
  1112. p. 172, line 15Then I am in love with You, and with all my fellows upon the earth.
  1113. p. 172, line 16We consider bibles and religions divine—I do not say they are not divine,
  1114. p. 172, line 17I say they have all grown out of you, and may grow out of you still,
  1115. p. 172, line 20The sum of all known reverence I add up in you whoever you are,
  1116. p. 173, line 15Strange and hard that paradox true I give,
  1117. p. 175, line 6I do not affirm that what you see beyond is futile, I do not advise you to stop,
  1118. p. 175, line 7I do not say leadings you thought great are not great,
  1119. p. 175, line 8But I say that none lead to greater than these lead to.
  1120. p. 175, line 20When I can touch the body of books by night or by day, and when they touch my body back again,
  1121. p. 175, line 24I intend to reach them my hand, and make as much of them as I do of men and women like you.
  1122. p. 176, line 11I myself am a word with them—my qualities interpenetrate with theirs—my name is nothing to them,
  1123. p. 177, line 3Conveying a sentiment and invitation, I utter and utter,
  1124. p. 177, line 4I speak not, yet if you hear me not of what avail am I to you?
  1125. p. 177, line 5To bear, to better, lacking these of what avail am I?
  1126. p. 177, line 28Sits she whom I too love like the rest, sits undisturb'd,
  1127. p. 179, line 7I swear the earth shall surely be complete to him or her who shall be complete,
  1128. p. 179, line 9I swear there is no greatness or power that does not emulate those of the earth,
  1129. p. 179, line 13I swear I begin to see love with sweeter spasms than that which responds love,
  1130. p. 179, line 15I swear I begin to see little or nothing in audible words,
  1131. p. 179, line 19I swear I see what is better than to tell the best,
  1132. p. 179, line 21When I undertake to tell the best I find I cannot,
  1133. p. 179, line 24I become a dumb man.
  1134. p. 180, line 12I swear I will never henceforth have to do with the faith that tells the best,
  1135. p. 180, line 13I will have to do only with that faith that leaves the best untold.
  1136. p. 180, line 19I swear to you the architects shall appear without fail,
  1137. p. 180, line 20I swear to you they will understand you and justify you,
  1138. p. 182, line 30Give me, give him or her I love this quenchless faith,
  1139. p. 183, line 15Plain I see you Western youths, see you tramping with the foremost,
  1140. p. 184, line 11O I mourn and yet exult, I am rapt with love for all,
  1141. p. 185, line 9I too with my soul and body,
  1142. p. 185, line 27Soon I hear you coming warbling, soon you rise and tramp amid us,
  1143. p. 186, line 3Yet a passing hour I yield you in your tracks to pause oblivious,
  1144. p. 186, line 6Far, far off the daybreak call—hark! how loud and clear I hear it wind,
  1145. p. 186, line 9WHOEVER you are, I fear you are walking the walks of dreams,
  1146. p. 186, line 10I fear these supposed realities are to melt from under your feet and hands,
  1147. p. 186, line 14Whoever you are, now I place my hand upon you, that you be my poem,
  1148. p. 186, line 15I whisper with my lips close to your ear,
  1149. p. 186, line 16I have loved many women and men, but I love none better than you.
  1150. p. 186, line 17O I have been dilatory and dumb,
  1151. p. 186, line 18I should have made my way straight to you long ago,
  1152. p. 186, line 19I should have blabb'd nothing but you, I should have chanted nothing but you.
  1153. p. 186, line 20I will leave all and come and make the hymns of you,
  1154. p. 186, line 21None has understood you, but I understand you,
  1155. p. 186, line 23None but has found you imperfect, I only find no imperfection in you,
  1156. p. 186, line 24None but would subordinate you, I only am he who will never consent to subordinate you,
  1157. p. 186, line 25I only am he who places over you no master, owner, better, God, beyond what waits intrinsically in yourself,
  1158. p. 187, line 3But I paint myriads of heads, but paint no head without its nimbus of gold-color'd light,
  1159. p. 187, line 5O I could sing such grandeurs and glories about you!
  1160. p. 187, line 11Underneath them and within them I see you lurk,
  1161. p. 187, line 12I pursue you where none else has pursued you,
  1162. p. 187, line 15The pert apparel, the deform'd attitude, drunkenness, greed, premature death, all these I part aside.
  1163. p. 187, line 20As for me, I give nothing to any one except I give the like carefully to you,
  1164. p. 187, line 21I sing the songs of the glory of none, not God, sooner than I sing the songs of the glory of you.
  1165. p. 188, line 9I walk'd the shores of my Eastern sea,
  1166. p. 188, line 14Pale, silent, stern, what could I say to that long-accrued retribution?
  1167. p. 188, line 15Could I wish humanity different?
  1168. p. 188, line 16Could I wish the people made of wood and stone?
  1169. p. 188, line 23Hence I sign this salute over the sea,
  1170. p. 188, line 24And I do not deny that terrible red birth and baptism,
  1171. p. 189, line 1But remember the little voice that I heard wailing, and wait with perfect trust, no matter how long,
  1172. p. 189, line 2And from to-day sad and cogent I maintain the bequeath'd cause, as for all lands,
  1173. p. 189, line 3And I send these words to Paris with my love,
  1174. p. 189, line 4And I guess some chansonniers there will understand them,
  1175. p. 189, line 5For I guess there is latent music yet in France, floods of it,
  1176. p. 189, line 6O I hear already the bustle of instruments, they will soon be drowning all that would interrupt them,
  1177. p. 189, line 7O I think the east wind brings a triumphal and free march,
  1178. p. 189, line 9I will run transpose it in words, to justify it,
  1179. p. 189, line 10I will yet sing a song for you ma femme.
  1180. p. 189, line 16(There will always be plenty of embroiderers, I welcome them also,)
  1181. p. 189, line 21Let others promulge the laws, I will make no account of the laws,
  1182. p. 189, line 22Let others praise eminent men and hold up peace, I hold up agitation and conflict,
  1183. p. 189, line 23I praise no eminent man, I rebuke to his face the one that was thought most worthy.
  1184. p. 190, line 2Let others finish specimens, I never finish specimens,
  1185. p. 190, line 3I start them by exhaustless laws as Nature does, fresh and modern continually.
  1186. p. 190, line 4I give nothing as duties,
  1187. p. 190, line 5What others give as duties I give as living impulses,
  1188. p. 190, line 6(Shall I give the heart's action as a duty?)
  1189. p. 190, line 7Let others dispose of questions, I dispose of nothing, I arouse unanswerable questions,
  1190. p. 190, line 8Who are they I see and touch, and what about them?
  1191. p. 190, line 10I call to the world to distrust the accounts of my friends, but listen to my enemies, as I myself do,
  1192. p. 190, line 11I charge you forever reject those who would expound me, for I cannot expound myself,
  1193. p. 190, line 12I charge that there be no theory or school founded out of me,
  1194. p. 190, line 13I charge you to leave all free, as I have left all free.
  1195. p. 190, line 15O I see life is not short, but immeasurably long,
  1196. p. 190, line 16I henceforth tread the world chaste, temperate, an early riser, a steady grower,
  1197. p. 190, line 18I must follow up these continual lessons of the air, water, earth,
  1198. p. 190, line 19I perceive I have no time to lose.
  1199. p. 190, line 21I would bind in words retrospective some of your deeds and signs,
  1200. p. 190, line 22I would sing your contest for the 19th Presidentiad,
  1201. p. 190, line 23I would sing how an old man, tall, with white hair, mounted the scaffold in Virginia,
  1202. p. 190, line 24(I was at hand, silent I stood with teeth shut close, I watch'd,
  1203. p. 190, line 25I stood very near you old man when cool and indifferent, but trembling with age and your unheal'd wounds you mounted the scaffold;)
  1204. p. 191, line 1I would sing in my copious song your census returns of the States,
  1205. p. 191, line 2The tables of population and products, I would sing of your ships and their cargoes,
  1206. p. 191, line 4Songs thereof would I sing, to all that hitherward comes would I welcome give,
  1207. p. 191, line 5And you would I sing, fair stripling! welcome to you from me, young prince of England!
  1208. p. 191, line 7There in the crowds stood I, and singled you out with attachment;)
  1209. p. 191, line 8Nor forget I to sing of the wonder, the ship as she swam up my bay,
  1210. p. 191, line 10Her moving swiftly surrounded by myriads of small craft I forget not to sing;
  1211. p. 191, line 15Of such, and fitful as they, I sing—with gleams from them would I gleam and patch these chants,
  1212. p. 191, line 18As I flit through you hastily, soon to fall and be gone, what is this chant,
  1213. p. 191, line 19What am I myself but one of your meteors?
  1214. p. 191, line 22With all which, had it not been, I would not now be here, as I am,
  1215. p. 192, line 11O but it is not the years—it is I, it is You,
  1216. p. 192, line 19I have the idea of all, and am all and believe in all,
  1217. p. 192, line 20I believe materialism is true and spiritualism is true, I reject no part.
  1218. p. 192, line 21(Have I forgotten any part? any thing in the past?
  1219. p. 192, line 22Come to me whoever and whatever, till I give you recognition.)
  1220. p. 192, line 23I respect Assyria, China, Teutonia, and the Hebrews,
  1221. p. 192, line 24I adopt each theory, myth, god, and demi-god,
  1222. p. 192, line 25I see that the old accounts, bibles, genealogies, are true, without exception,
  1223. p. 192, line 26I assert that all past days were what they must have been,
  1224. p. 193, line 3I know that the past was great and the future will be great,
  1225. p. 193, line 4And I know that both curiously conjoint in the present time,
  1226. p. 193, line 5(For the sake of him I typify, for the common average man's sake, your sake if you are he,)
  1227. p. 193, line 6And that where I am or you are this present day, there is the centre of all days, all races,
  1228. p. 193, line 12Libertad! I do not know whether others behold what I behold,
  1229. p. 193, line 15But I will sing you a song of what I behold Libertad.
  1230. p. 193, line 17When the thunder-cracking guns arouse me with the proud roar I love,
  1231. p. 193, line 18When the round-mouth'd guns out of the smoke and smell I love spit their salutes,
  1232. p. 194, line 5I too arising, answering, descend to the pavements, merge with the crowd, and gaze with them.
  1233. p. 195, line 10And I am seiz'd by them, and friendlily held by them,
  1234. p. 195, line 11Till as here them all I chant, Libertad! for themselves and for you.
  1235. p. 195, line 12For I too raising my voice join the ranks of this pageant,
  1236. p. 195, line 13I am the chanter, I chant aloud over the pageant,
  1237. p. 195, line 14I chant the world on my Western sea,
  1238. p. 195, line 15I chant copious the islands beyond, thick as stars in the sky,
  1239. p. 195, line 16I chant the new empire grander than any before, as in a vision it comes to me,
  1240. p. 195, line 17I chant America the mistress, I chant a greater supremacy,
  1241. p. 195, line 18I chant projected a thousand blooming cities yet in time on those groups of sea-islands,
  1242. p. 195, line 22Lives, works resumed—the object I know not—but the old, the Asiatic renew'd as it must be,
  1243. p. 196, line 21From your memories sad brother, from the fitful risings and fallings I heard,
  1244. p. 197, line 10I, chanter of pains and joys, uniter of here and hereafter,
  1245. p. 197, line 20And every day I, a curious boy, never too close, never disturbing them,
  1246. p. 198, line 3I saw, I heard at intervals the remaining one, the he-bird,
  1247. p. 198, line 7I wait and I wait till you blow my mate to me.
  1248. p. 198, line 13He pour'd forth the meanings which I of all men know.
  1249. p. 198, line 14Yes my brother I know,
  1250. p. 198, line 15The rest might not, but I have treasur'd every note,
  1251. p. 198, line 20I, with bare feet, a child, the wind wafting my hair,
  1252. p. 198, line 29It is lagging—O I think it is heavy with love, with love.
  1253. p. 198, line 32O night! do I not see my love fluttering out among the breakers?
  1254. p. 198, line 33What is that little black thing I see there in the white?
  1255. p. 198, line 35Loud I call to you, my love!
  1256. p. 199, line 1High and clear I shoot my voice over the waves,
  1257. p. 199, line 3You must know who I am, my love.
  1258. p. 199, line 9Whichever way I turn, O I think you could give me my mate back again if you only would,
  1259. p. 199, line 10For I am almost sure I see her dimly whichever way I look.
  1260. p. 199, line 12Perhaps the one I want so much will rise, will rise with some of you.
  1261. p. 199, line 16Somewhere listening to catch you must be the one I want.
  1262. p. 199, line 26For somewhere I believe I heard my mate responding to me,
  1263. p. 199, line 27So faint, I must be still, be still to listen,
  1264. p. 199, line 30Here I am! here!
  1265. p. 199, line 31With this just-sustain'd note I announce myself to you,
  1266. p. 200, line 4O I am very sick and sorrowful.
  1267. p. 200, line 8And I singing uselessly, uselessly all the night.
  1268. p. 200, line 30For I, that was a child, my tongue's use sleeping, now I have heard you,
  1269. p. 200, line 31Now in a moment I know what I am for, I awake,
  1270. p. 201, line 2O solitary me listening, never more shall I cease perpetuating you,
  1271. p. 201, line 3Never more shall I escape, never more the reverberations,
  1272. p. 201, line 5Never again leave me to be the peaceful child I was before what there in the night,
  1273. p. 201, line 10O if I am to have so much, let me have more!
  1274. p. 201, line 11A word then, (for I will conquer it,)
  1275. p. 201, line 13Subtle, sent up—what is it?—I listen;
  1276. p. 201, line 25Which I do not forget,
  1277. p. 202, line 1AS I ebb'd with the ocean of life,
  1278. p. 202, line 2As I wended the shores I know,
  1279. p. 202, line 3As I walk'd where the ripples continually wash you Paumanok,
  1280. p. 202, line 6I musing late in the autumn day, gazing off southward,
  1281. p. 202, line 7Held by this electric self out of the pride of which I utter poems,
  1282. p. 202, line 14Paumanok there and then as I thought the old thought of likenesses,
  1283. p. 202, line 16As I wended the shores I know,
  1284. p. 202, line 17As I walk'd with that electric self seeking types.
  1285. p. 202, line 18As I wend to the shores I know not,
  1286. p. 202, line 19As I list to the dirge, the voices of men and women wreck'd,
  1287. p. 202, line 20As I inhale the impalpable breezes that set in upon me,
  1288. p. 202, line 22I too but signify at the utmost a little wash'd-up drift,
  1289. p. 202, line 26Oppress'd with myself that I have dared to open my mouth,
  1290. p. 202, line 27Aware now that amid all that blab whose echoes recoil upon me I have not once had the least idea who or what I am,
  1291. p. 202, line 30With peals of distant ironical laughter at every word I have written,
  1292. p. 203, line 1I perceive I have not really understood any thing, not a single object, and that no man ever can,
  1293. p. 203, line 3Because I have dared to open my mouth to sing at all.
  1294. p. 203, line 4You oceans both, I close with you,
  1295. p. 203, line 8You fish-shaped island, I take what is underfoot,
  1296. p. 203, line 10I too Paumanok,
  1297. p. 203, line 11I too have bubbled up, floated the measureless float, and been wash'd on your shores,
  1298. p. 203, line 12I too am but a trail of drift and debris,
  1299. p. 203, line 13I too leave little wrecks upon you, you fish-shaped island.
  1300. p. 203, line 14I throw myself upon your breast my father,
  1301. p. 203, line 15I cling to you so that you cannot unloose me,
  1302. p. 203, line 16I hold you so firm till you answer me something.
  1303. p. 203, line 18Touch me with your lips as I touch those I love,
  1304. p. 203, line 19Breathe to me while I hold you close the secret of the murmuring I envy.
  1305. p. 203, line 23Rustle not up so hoarse and angry against my feet as I touch you or gather from you.
  1306. p. 203, line 24I mean tenderly by you and all,
  1307. p. 203, line 25I gather for myself and for this phantom looking down where we lead, and following me and mine.
  1308. p. 204, line 31As to the light emerging here on deck I watch thee,
  1309. p. 206, line 22(With my lips soothing thee, adding I whisper,
  1310. p. 206, line 23I give thee the first suggestion, the problem and indirection,)
  1311. p. 207, line 11As I watch the bright stars shining, I think a thought of the clef of the universes and of the future.
  1312. p. 209, line 18TO get betimes in Boston town I rose this morning early,
  1313. p. 209, line 19Here's a good place at the corner, I must stand and see the show.
  1314. p. 209, line 23I love to look on the Stars and Stripes, I hope the fifes will play Yankee Doodle.
  1315. p. 210, line 21I do not think you belong here anyhow.
  1316. p. 210, line 22But there is one thing that belongs here—shall I tell you what it is, gentlemen of Boston?
  1317. p. 210, line 23I will whisper it to the Mayor, he shall send a committee to England,
  1318. p. 212, line 24Liberty, let others despair of you—I never despair of you.
  1319. p. 213, line 23Aught, aught of mightiest, best I see, conceive, or know,
  1320. p. 213, line 31Or some fair shape I viewing, worship,
  1321. p. 214, line 6Such-like, and as good as such-like, visible here or anywhere, stand provided for in a handful of space, which I extend my arm and half enclose with my hand,
  1322. p. 214, line 10(But I see the road continued, and the journey ever continued;)
  1323. p. 214, line 12Because all I see and know I believe to have its main purport in what will yet be supplied.
  1324. p. 214, line 13WHEN I heard the learn'd astronomer,
  1325. p. 214, line 15When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
  1326. p. 214, line 16When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
  1327. p. 214, line 17How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
  1328. p. 214, line 18Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself,
  1329. p. 215, line 3Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
  1330. p. 215, line 5Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,
  1331. p. 215, line 14I SIT and look out upon all the sorrows of the world, and upon all oppression and shame,
  1332. p. 215, line 15I hear secret convulsive sobs from young men at anguish with themselves, remorseful after deeds done,
  1333. p. 215, line 16I see in low life the mother misused by her children, dying, neglected, gaunt, desperate,
  1334. p. 215, line 17I see the wife misused by her husband, I see the treacherous seducer of young women,
  1335. p. 215, line 18I mark the ranklings of jealousy and unrequited love attempted to be hid, I see these sights on the earth,
  1336. p. 215, line 19I see the workings of battle, pestilence, tyranny, I see martyrs and prisoners,
  1337. p. 215, line 20I observe a famine at sea, I observe the sailors casting lots who shall be kill'd to preserve the lives of the rest,
  1338. p. 216, line 1I observe the slights and degradations cast by arrogant persons upon laborers, the poor, and upon negroes, and the like;
  1339. p. 216, line 2All these—all the meanness and agony without end I sitting look out upon,
  1340. p. 216, line 4WHAT you give me I cheerfully accept,
  1341. p. 216, line 5A little sustenance, a hut and garden, a little money, as I rendezvous with my poems,
  1342. p. 216, line 6A traveler's lodging and breakfast as I journey through the States,—why should I be ashamed to own such gifts? why to advertise for them?
  1343. p. 216, line 7For I myself am not one who bestows nothing upon man and woman,
  1344. p. 216, line 8For I bestow upon any man or woman the entrance to all the gifts of the universe.
  1345. p. 216, line 19Roaming in thought over the Universe, I saw the little that is Good steadily hastening towards immortality,
  1346. p. 216, line 20And the vast all that is call'd Evil I saw hastening to merge itself and become lost and dead.
  1347. p. 217, line 2I remember I heard the preacher every Sunday put God in his statements,
  1348. p. 217, line 10I SEE the sleeping babe nestling the breast of its mother,
  1349. p. 217, line 11The sleeping mother and babe—hush'd, I study them long and long.
  1350. p. 217, line 13As I stand aloof and look there is to me something profoundly affecting in large masses of men following the lead of those who do not believe in men.
  1351. p. 218, line 11I SEE in you the estuary that enlarges and spreads itself grandly as it pours in the great sea.
  1352. p. 219, line 4Then I will sleep awhile yet, for I see that these States sleep, for reasons;
  1353. p. 219, line 17Forty years had I in my city seen soldiers parading,
  1354. p. 220, line 15How I love them! how I could hug them, with their brown faces and their clothes and knapsacks cover'd with dust!)
  1355. p. 221, line 18As I heard you shouting loud, your sonorous voice ringing across the continent,
  1356. p. 221, line 20Amid the men of Manhattan I saw you as one of the workmen, the dwellers in Manhattan,
  1357. p. 221, line 25Saw I your gait and saw I your sinewy limbs clothed in blue, bearing weapons, robust year,
  1358. p. 222, line 3I repeat you, hurrying, crashing, sad, distracted year.
  1359. p. 222, line 25FROM Paumanok starting I fly like a bird,
  1360. p. 223, line 1To Kanada till I absorb Kanada in myself, to Michigan then,
  1361. p. 223, line 19My song is there in the open air, and I must sing,
  1362. p. 224, line 16But I am not the sea nor the red sun,
  1363. p. 224, line 17I am not the wind with girlish laughter,
  1364. p. 224, line 20But I am that which unseen comes and sings, sings, sings,
  1365. p. 224, line 27I hear it—it talks to me—O it is wonderful!
  1366. p. 225, line 3Behold with the rest again I say, behold not banners and pennants aloft,
  1367. p. 225, line 10I hear and see not strips of cloth alone,
  1368. p. 225, line 11I hear the tramp of armies, I hear the challenging sentry,
  1369. p. 225, line 12I hear the jubilant shouts of millions of men, I hear Liberty!
  1370. p. 225, line 13I hear the drums beat and the trumpets blowing,
  1371. p. 225, line 14I myself move abroad swift-rising flying then,
  1372. p. 225, line 15I use the wings of the land-bird and use the wings of the sea-bird, and look down as from a height,
  1373. p. 225, line 16I do not deny the precious results of peace, I see populous cities with wealth incalculable,
  1374. p. 225, line 17I see numberless farms, I see the farmers working in their fields or barns,
  1375. p. 225, line 18I see mechanics working, I see buildings everywhere founded, going up, or finish'd,
  1376. p. 225, line 19I see trains of cars swiftly speeding along railroad tracks drawn by the locomotives,
  1377. p. 225, line 20I see the stores, depots, of Boston, Baltimore, Charleston, New Orleans,
  1378. p. 225, line 21I see far in the West the immense area of grain, I dwell awhile hovering,
  1379. p. 225, line 22I pass to the lumber forests of the North, and again to the Southern plantation, and again to California;
  1380. p. 225, line 23Sweeping the whole I see the countless profit, the busy gatherings, earn'd wages,
  1381. p. 226, line 18O my father I like not the houses,
  1382. p. 226, line 19They will never to me be any thing, nor do I like money,
  1383. p. 226, line 20But to mount up there I would like, O father dear, that banner I like,
  1384. p. 226, line 21That pennant I would be and must be.
  1385. p. 226, line 28Demons and death then I sing,
  1386. p. 226, line 29Put in all, aye all will I, sword-shaped pennant for war,
  1387. p. 227, line 16Banner so broad advancing out of the night, I sing you haughty and resolute,
  1388. p. 227, line 17I burst through where I waited long, too long, deafen'd and blinded,
  1389. p. 227, line 19I hear from above O pennant of war your ironical call and demand,
  1390. p. 227, line 20Insensate! insensate! (yet I at any rate chant you,) O banner!
  1391. p. 228, line 2Nor machinery, vehicles, trade, nor revenues—but you as henceforth I see you,
  1392. p. 228, line 11I too leave the rest—great as it is, it is nothing—houses, machines are nothing—I see them not,
  1393. p. 228, line 12I see but you, O warlike pennant! O banner so broad, with stripes, I sing you only,
  1394. p. 228, line 15Long for my soul hungering gymnastic I devour'd what the earth gave me,
  1395. p. 228, line 16Long I roam'd the woods of the north, long I watch'd Niagara pouring,
  1396. p. 228, line 17I travel'd the prairies over and slept on their breast, I cross'd the Nevadas, I cross'd the plateaus,
  1397. p. 228, line 18I ascended the towering rocks along the Pacific, I sail'd out to sea,
  1398. p. 228, line 19I sail'd through the storm, I was refresh'd by the storm,
  1399. p. 228, line 20I watch'd with joy the threatening maws of the waves,
  1400. p. 228, line 21I mark'd the white combs where they career'd so high, curling over,
  1401. p. 228, line 22I heard the wind piping, I saw the black clouds,
  1402. p. 229, line 4These, and such as these, I, elate, saw—saw with wonder, yet pensive and masterful,
  1403. p. 229, line 6Yet there with my soul I fed, I fed content, supercilious.
  1404. p. 229, line 14What, to passions I witness around me to-day? was the sea risen?
  1405. p. 229, line 18What was that swell I saw on the ocean? behold what comes here,
  1406. p. 229, line 22(Yet a mournful wail and low sob I fancied I heard through the dark,
  1407. p. 230, line 1Long had I walk'd my cities, my country roads through farms, only half satisfied,
  1408. p. 230, line 4The cities I loved so well I abandon'd and left, I sped to the certainties suitable to me,
  1409. p. 230, line 6I refresh'd myself with it only, I could relish it only,
  1410. p. 230, line 7I waited the bursting forth of the pent fire—on the water and air I waited long;
  1411. p. 230, line 8But now I no longer wait, I am fully satisfied, I am glutted,
  1412. p. 230, line 9I have witness'd the true lightning, I have witness'd my cities electric,
  1413. p. 230, line 10I have lived to behold man burst forth and warlike America rise,
  1414. p. 230, line 11Hence I will seek no more the food of the northern solitary wilds,
  1415. p. 230, line 14I saw with hand uplifted, menacing, brandishing,
  1416. p. 230, line 18I saw, out of the land of prairies, land of Ohio's waters and of Indiana,
  1417. p. 230, line 22As to you Rebellious, (I seemed to hear her say,) why strive against me, and why seek my life?
  1418. p. 231, line 9Behold me—incarnate me as I have incarnated you!
  1419. p. 231, line 10I have rejected nothing you offer'd me—whom you adopted I have adopted,
  1420. p. 231, line 11Good or bad I never question you—I love all—I do not condemn any thing,
  1421. p. 231, line 12I chant and celebrate all that is yours—yet peace no more,
  1422. p. 231, line 13In peace I chanted peace, but now the drum of war is mine,
  1423. p. 231, line 19Your faculties serve you, and presently I must have them serve me.
  1424. p. 231, line 20Rest, while I tell what the crowd around us means,
  1425. p. 232, line 4Not for nothing have I brought you hither—we must remain,
  1426. p. 232, line 5You to speak in your turn, and I to listen and tell.
  1427. p. 232, line 6When I clutch'd your hand it was not with terror,
  1428. p. 232, line 13But a battle which I took part in myself—aye, long ago as it is, I took part in it,
  1429. p. 232, line 16My blind eyes even as I speak behold it re-peopled from graves,
  1430. p. 232, line 19I see the lines of rais'd earth stretching from river to bay,
  1431. p. 232, line 20I mark the vista of waters, I mark the uplands and slopes;
  1432. p. 232, line 22As I talk I remember all, I remember the Declaration,
  1433. p. 233, line 1I tell not now the whole of the battle,
  1434. p. 233, line 3Of that brigade I tell, and how steadily it march'd,
  1435. p. 233, line 17I saw the moisture gather in drops on the face of the General.
  1436. p. 233, line 18I saw how he wrung his hands in anguish.
  1437. p. 234, line 11I saw him at the river-side,
  1438. p. 234, line 19I saw something different from capitulation.
  1439. p. 234, line 22I myself as connecter, as chansonnier of a great future, am now speaking.
  1440. p. 234, line 24And these waters I listlessly daily cross, are these the waters he cross'd,
  1441. p. 234, line 26I must copy the story, and send it eastward and westward,
  1442. p. 234, line 27I must preserve that look as it beam'd on you rivers of Brooklyn.
  1443. p. 235, line 7Ah, hills and slopes of Brooklyn! I perceive you are more valuable than your owners supposed;
  1444. p. 235, line 17I SEE before me now a traveling army halting,
  1445. p. 236, line 9A procession winding around me, solemn and sweet and slow—but first I note,
  1446. p. 236, line 13The shrubs and trees, (as I lift my eyes they seem to be stealthily watching me,)
  1447. p. 236, line 16A solemn and slow procession there as I sit on the ground,
  1448. p. 238, line 1VIGIL strange I kept on the field one night;
  1449. p. 238, line 3One look I but gave which your dear eyes return'd with a look I shall never forget,
  1450. p. 238, line 5Then onward I sped in the battle, the even-contested battle,
  1451. p. 238, line 6Till late in the night reliev'd to the place at last again I made my way,
  1452. p. 238, line 9Long there and then in vigil I stood, dimly around me the battle-field spreading,
  1453. p. 238, line 11But not a tear fell, not even a long-drawn sigh, long, long I gazed,
  1454. p. 238, line 16Vigil final for you brave boy, (I could not save you, swift was your death,
  1455. p. 238, line 17I faithfully loved you and cared for you living, I think we shall surely meet again,)
  1456. p. 238, line 19My comrade I wrapt in his blanket, envelop'd well his form,
  1457. p. 238, line 21And there and then and bathed by the rising sun, my son in his grave, in his rude-dug grave I deposited,
  1458. p. 238, line 24Vigil for comrade swiftly slain, vigil I never forget, how as day brighten'd,
  1459. p. 238, line 25I rose from the chill ground and folded my soldier well in his blanket,
  1460. p. 239, line 7Entering but for a minute I see a sight beyond all the pictures and poems ever made,
  1461. p. 239, line 10By these, crowds, groups of forms vaguely I see on the floor, some in the pews laid down,
  1462. p. 239, line 12I stanch the blood temporarily, (the youngster's face is white as a lily,)
  1463. p. 239, line 13Then before I depart I sweep my eyes o'er the scene fain to absorb it all,
  1464. p. 239, line 20These I resume as I chant, I see again the forms, I smell the odor,
  1465. p. 239, line 22But first I bend to the dying lad, his eyes open, a half-smile gives he me,
  1466. p. 239, line 23Then the eyes close, calmly close, and I speed forth to the darkness,
  1467. p. 240, line 2As from my tent I emerge so early sleepless,
  1468. p. 240, line 3As slow I walk in the cool fresh air the path near by the hospital tent,
  1469. p. 240, line 4Three forms I see on stretchers lying, brought out there untended lying,
  1470. p. 240, line 7Curious I halt and silent stand,
  1471. p. 240, line 8Then with light fingers I from the face of the nearest the first just lift the blanket;
  1472. p. 240, line 11Then to the second I step—and who are you my child and darling?
  1473. p. 240, line 14Young man I think I know you—I think this face is the face of the Christ himself,
  1474. p. 240, line 16AS toilsome I wander'd Virginia's woods,
  1475. p. 240, line 18I mark'd at the foot of a tree the grave of a soldier;
  1476. p. 240, line 19Mortally wounded he and buried on the retreat, (easily all could I understand,)
  1477. p. 240, line 23Long, long I muse, then on my way go wandering,
  1478. p. 241, line 7More than I have charged myself, heeded or unheeded, to compose a march for these States,
  1479. p. 241, line 10Your summer wind was warm enough, yet the air I breathed froze me,
  1480. p. 241, line 12Must I change my triumphant songs? said I to myself,
  1481. p. 241, line 13Must I indeed learn to chant the cold dirges of the baffled?
  1482. p. 241, line 15AN old man bending I come among new faces,
  1483. p. 241, line 19But soon my fingers fail'd me, my face droop'd and I resign'd myself,
  1484. p. 242, line 6O maidens and young men I love and that love me,
  1485. p. 242, line 8Soldier alert I arrive after a long march cover'd with sweat and dust,
  1486. p. 242, line 9In the nick of time I come, plunge in the fight, loudly shout in the rush of successful charge,
  1487. p. 242, line 11Pass and are gone they fade—I dwell not on soldiers' perils or soldiers' joys,
  1488. p. 242, line 12(Both I remember well—many the hardships, few the joys, yet I was content.)
  1489. p. 242, line 16With hinged knees returning I enter the doors, (while for you up there,
  1490. p. 242, line 19Straight and swift to my wounded I go,
  1491. p. 242, line 23To the long rows of cots up and down each side I return,
  1492. p. 242, line 24To each and all one after another I draw near, not one do I miss,
  1493. p. 242, line 27I onward go, I stop,
  1494. p. 242, line 29I am firm with each, the pangs are sharp yet unavoidable,
  1495. p. 243, line 1One turns to me his appealing eyes—poor boy! I never knew you,
  1496. p. 243, line 2Yet I think I could not refuse this moment to die for you, if that would save you.
  1497. p. 243, line 3On, on I go, (open doors of time! open hospital doors!)
  1498. p. 243, line 4The crush'd head I dress, (poor crazed hand tear not the bandage away,)
  1499. p. 243, line 5The neck of the cavalry-man with the bullet through and through I examine,
  1500. p. 243, line 10I undo the clotted lint, remove the slough, wash off the matter and blood,
  1501. p. 243, line 14I dress a wound in the side, deep, deep,
  1502. p. 243, line 17I dress the perforated shoulder, the foot with the bullet-wound,
  1503. p. 243, line 20I am faithful, I do not give out,
  1504. p. 243, line 22These and more I dress with impassive hand, (yet deep in my breast a fire, a burning flame.)
  1505. p. 243, line 24Returning, resuming, I thread my way through the hospitals,
  1506. p. 243, line 25The hurt and wounded I pacify with soothing hand,
  1507. p. 243, line 26I sit by the restless all the dark night, some are so young,
  1508. p. 244, line 1Some suffer so much, I recall the experience sweet and sad,
  1509. p. 244, line 14Give me nights perfectly quiet as on high plateaus west of the Mississippi, and I looking up at the stars,
  1510. p. 244, line 15Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers where I can walk undisturb'd,
  1511. p. 244, line 16Give me for marriage a sweet-breath'd woman of whom I should never tire,
  1512. p. 244, line 22While yet incessantly asking still I adhere to my city,
  1513. p. 245, line 4(O I see what I sought to escape, confronting, reversing my cries,
  1514. p. 245, line 5I see my own soul trampling down what it ask'd for.)
  1515. p. 246, line 9I see a sad procession,
  1516. p. 246, line 10And I hear the sound of coming full-key'd bugles,
  1517. p. 246, line 13I hear the great drums pounding,
  1518. p. 246, line 32What I have I also give you.
  1519. p. 247, line 19I, ecstatic, O partners! O lands! with the love of lovers tie you.
  1520. p. 247, line 23I SAW old General at bay,
  1521. p. 247, line 27I saw a hundred and more step forth from the ranks, but two or three were selected,
  1522. p. 248, line 1I saw them receive their orders aside, they listen'd with care, the adjutant was very grave,
  1523. p. 248, line 2I saw them depart with cheerfulness, freely risking their lives.
  1524. p. 248, line 5And through the stillness, through the dark, I hear, just hear, the breath of my infant,
  1525. p. 248, line 6There in the room as I wake from sleep this vision presses upon me;
  1526. p. 248, line 8The skirmishers begin, they crawl cautiously ahead, I hear the irregular snap! snap!
  1527. p. 248, line 9I hear the sounds of the different missiles, the short t-h-t! t-h-t! of the rifle-balls,
  1528. p. 248, line 10I see the shells exploding leaving small white clouds, I hear the great shells shrieking as they pass,
  1529. p. 248, line 15After firing I see him lean aside and look eagerly off to note the effect;
  1530. p. 248, line 16Elsewhere I hear the cry of a regiment charging, (the young colonel leads himself this time with brandish'd sword,)
  1531. p. 248, line 17I see the gaps cut by the enemy's volleys, (quickly fill'd up, no delay,)
  1532. p. 248, line 18I breathe the suffocating smoke, then the flat clouds hover low concealing all;
  1533. p. 249, line 1(The falling, dying, I heed not, the wounded dripping and red I heed not, some to the rear are hobbling,)
  1534. p. 249, line 3With the patter of small arms, the warning s-s-t of the rifles, (these in my vision I hear or see,)
  1535. p. 249, line 10As under doughty Sherman I march toward the sea.)
  1536. p. 249, line 21Nor delicatesse, I cannot beguile the time with talk,
  1537. p. 249, line 25I have nourish'd the wounded and sooth'd many a dying soldier,
  1538. p. 251, line 2I look where he lies white-faced and still in the coffin—I draw near,
  1539. p. 251, line 5As the ranks returning worn and sweaty, as the men file by where I stand,
  1540. p. 251, line 6As the faces the masks appear, as I glance at the faces studying the masks,
  1541. p. 251, line 7(As I glance upward out of this page studying you, dear friend, whoever you are,)
  1542. p. 251, line 9I see behind each mask that wonder a kindred soul,
  1543. p. 251, line 12The soul! yourself I see, great as any, good as the best,
  1544. p. 251, line 15AS I lay with my head in your lap camerado,
  1545. p. 251, line 16The confession I made I resume, what I said to you and the open air I resume,
  1546. p. 251, line 17I know I am restless and make others so,
  1547. p. 251, line 18I know my words are weapons full of danger, full of death,
  1548. p. 251, line 19For I confront peace, security, and all the settled laws, to unsettle them,
  1549. p. 251, line 20I am more resolute because all have denied me than I could ever have been had all accepted me,
  1550. p. 251, line 21I heed not and have never heeded either experience, cautions, majorities, nor ridicule,
  1551. p. 251, line 24Dear camerado! I confess I have urged you onward with me, and still urge you, without the least idea what is our destination,
  1552. p. 252, line 3Flag of death! (how I watch'd you through the smoke of battle pressing!
  1553. p. 252, line 4How I heard you flap and rustle, cloth defiant!)
  1554. p. 252, line 11Did you find what I sang erewhile so hard to follow?
  1555. p. 252, line 12Why I was not singing erewhile for you to follow, to understand—nor am I now;
  1556. p. 252, line 13(I have been born of the same as the war was born,
  1557. p. 252, line 14The drum-corps' rattle is ever to me sweet music, I love well the martial dirge,
  1558. p. 252, line 16What to such as you anyhow such a poet as I? therefore leave my works,
  1559. p. 252, line 18For I lull nobody, and you will never understand me.
  1560. p. 252, line 25No poem proud, I chanting bring to thee, nor mastery's rapturous verse,
  1561. p. 253, line 10As I look on the bayonets bristling over their shoulders,
  1562. p. 253, line 14Spirit of hours I knew, all hectic red one day, but pale as death next day,
  1563. p. 253, line 27Your mission is fulfill'd—but I, more warlike,
  1564. p. 254, line 19TO the leaven'd soil they trod calling I sing for the last,
  1565. p. 254, line 25To the rocks I calling sing, and all the trees in the woods,
  1566. p. 255, line 9I mourn'd, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.
  1567. p. 255, line 12And thought of him I love.
  1568. p. 255, line 20With many a pointed blossom rising delicate, with the perfume strong I love,
  1569. p. 256, line 3A sprig with its flower I break.
  1570. p. 256, line 10Death's outlet song of life, (for well dear brother I know,
  1571. p. 257, line 3I give you my sprig of lilac.
  1572. p. 257, line 5Blossoms and branches green to coffins all I bring,
  1573. p. 257, line 6For fresh as the morning, thus would I chant a song for you O sane and sacred death.
  1574. p. 257, line 8O death, I cover you over with roses and early lilies,
  1575. p. 257, line 10Copious I break, I break the sprigs from the bushes,
  1576. p. 257, line 11With loaded arms I come, pouring for you,
  1577. p. 257, line 14Now I know what you must have meant as a month since I walk'd,
  1578. p. 257, line 15As I walk'd in silence the transparent shadowy night,
  1579. p. 257, line 16As I saw you had something to tell as you bent to me night after night,
  1580. p. 257, line 18As we wander'd together the solemn night, (for something I know not what kept me from sleep,)
  1581. p. 257, line 19As the night advanced, and I saw on the rim of the west how full you were of woe,
  1582. p. 257, line 20As I stood on the rising ground in the breeze in the cool transparent night,
  1583. p. 257, line 21As I watch'd where you pass'd and was lost in the netherward black of the night,
  1584. p. 257, line 25O singer bashful and tender, I hear your notes, I hear your call,
  1585. p. 257, line 26I hear, I come presently, I understand you,
  1586. p. 257, line 27But a moment I linger, for the lustrous star has detain'd me,
  1587. p. 258, line 1O how shall I warble myself for the dead one there I loved?
  1588. p. 258, line 2And how shall I deck my song for the large sweet soul that has gone?
  1589. p. 258, line 3And what shall my perfume be for the grave of him I love?
  1590. p. 258, line 7I'll perfume the grave of him I love.
  1591. p. 258, line 8O what shall I hang on the chamber walls?
  1592. p. 258, line 9And what shall the pictures be that I hang on the walls,
  1593. p. 258, line 10To adorn the burial-house of him I love?
  1594. p. 259, line 11You only I hear—yet the star holds me, (but will soon depart,)
  1595. p. 259, line 13Now while I sat in the day and look'd forth,
  1596. p. 259, line 18The many-moving sea-tides, and I saw the ships how they sail'd,
  1597. p. 259, line 24And I knew death, its thought, and the sacred knowledge of death.
  1598. p. 260, line 1And I in the middle as with companions, and as holding the hands of companions,
  1599. p. 260, line 2I fled forth to the hiding receiving night that talks not,
  1600. p. 260, line 6The gray-brown bird I know receiv'd us comrades three,
  1601. p. 260, line 7And he sang the carol of death, and a verse for him I love.
  1602. p. 260, line 12As I held as if by their hands my comrades in the night,
  1603. p. 260, line 24Then I chant it for thee, I glorify thee above all,
  1604. p. 260, line 25I bring thee a song that when thou must indeed come, come unfalteringly.
  1605. p. 260, line 27When it is so, when thou hast taken them I joyously sing the dead,
  1606. p. 260, line 31Dances for thee I propose saluting thee, adornments and feastings for thee,
  1607. p. 261, line 2The ocean shore and the husky whispering wave whose voice I know,
  1608. p. 261, line 5Over the tree-tops I float thee a song,
  1609. p. 261, line 8I float this carol with joy, with joy to thee O death.
  1610. p. 261, line 14And I with my comrades there in the night.
  1611. p. 261, line 17And I saw askant the armies,
  1612. p. 261, line 18I saw as in noiseless dreams hundreds of battle-flags,
  1613. p. 261, line 19Borne through the smoke of the battles and pierc'd with missiles I saw them,
  1614. p. 261, line 23I saw battle-corpses, myriads of them,
  1615. p. 261, line 24And the white skeletons of young men, I saw them,
  1616. p. 261, line 25I saw the debris and debris of all the slain soldiers of the war,
  1617. p. 261, line 26But I saw they were not as was thought,
  1618. p. 262, line 6As that powerful psalm in the night I heard from recesses,
  1619. p. 262, line 7Passing, I leave thee lilac with heart-shaped leaves,
  1620. p. 262, line 8I leave thee there in the door-yard, blooming, returning with spring.
  1621. p. 262, line 9I cease from my song for thee,
  1622. p. 262, line 17Comrades mine and I in the midst, and their memory ever to keep, for the dead I loved so well,
  1623. p. 262, line 23The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
  1624. p. 263, line 12But I with mournful tread,
  1625. p. 264, line 2As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd, and the dead that return no more,
  1626. p. 264, line 10I myself make the only growth by which I can be appreciated,
  1627. p. 264, line 11I reject none, accept all, then reproduce all in my own forms.
  1628. p. 265, line 8I am he who tauntingly compels men, women, nations,
  1629. p. 265, line 10I am he who walks the States with a barb'd tongue, questioning every one I meet,
  1630. p. 265, line 14These clamors wild to a race of pride I give.)
  1631. p. 268, line 7I mark the new aureola around your head,
  1632. p. 268, line 18Others adorn the past, but you O days of the present, I adorn you,
  1633. p. 268, line 19O days of the future I believe in you—I isolate myself for your sake,
  1634. p. 268, line 20O America because you build for mankind I build for you,
  1635. p. 268, line 21O well-beloved stone-cutters, I lead them who plan with decision and science,
  1636. p. 268, line 25I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
  1637. p. 268, line 26I heard the voice arising demanding bards,
  1638. p. 270, line 15(Angry cloth I saw there leaping!
  1639. p. 270, line 16I stand again in leaden rain your flapping folds saluting,
  1640. p. 270, line 17I sing you over all, flying beckoning through the fight—O the hard-contested fight!
  1641. p. 270, line 23Angry cloth I saw there leaping.)
  1642. p. 271, line 25Will it absorb into me as I absorb food, air, to appear again in my strength, gait, face?
  1643. p. 272, line 20There will shortly be no more priests, I say their work is done,
  1644. p. 273, line 3Give me the pay I have served for,
  1645. p. 273, line 5I have loved the earth, sun, animals, I have despised riches,
  1646. p. 273, line 6I have given alms to every one that ask'd, stood up for the stupid and crazy, devoted my income and labor to others,
  1647. p. 273, line 11Claim'd nothing to myself which I have not carefully claim'd for others on the same terms,
  1648. p. 273, line 16I am willing to wait to be understood by the growth of the taste of myself,
  1649. p. 273, line 18(Say O Mother, have I not to your thought been faithful?
  1650. p. 273, line 19Have I not through life kept you and yours before me?)
  1651. p. 273, line 20I swear I begin to see the meaning of these things,
  1652. p. 273, line 22It is I who am great or to be great, it is You up there, or any one,
  1653. p. 273, line 26I swear nothing is good to me now that ignores individuals,
  1654. p. 274, line 2I saw you at last refuse to treat but directly with individuals.)
  1655. p. 274, line 4I swear I will stand by my own nativity, pious or impious so be it;
  1656. p. 274, line 5I swear I am charm'd with nothing except nativity,
  1657. p. 274, line 8(I swear I have seen enough of mean and impotent modes of expressing love for men and women,
  1658. p. 274, line 9After this day I take my own modes of expressing love for men and women.)
  1659. p. 274, line 10I swear I will have each quality of my race in myself,
  1660. p. 274, line 12Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownerships, I swear I perceive other lessons,
  1661. p. 274, line 14O I see flashing that this America is only you and me,
  1662. p. 274, line 19The war, (that war so bloody and grim, the war I will henceforth forget), was you and me,
  1663. p. 274, line 23I dare not shirk any part of myself,
  1664. p. 275, line 1I am for those that have never been master'd,
  1665. p. 275, line 4I am for those who walk abreast with the whole earth,
  1666. p. 275, line 6I will not be outfaced by irrational things,
  1667. p. 275, line 7I will penetrate what it is in them that is sarcastic upon me,
  1668. p. 275, line 8I will make cities and civilizations defer to me,
  1669. p. 275, line 9This is what I have learnt from America—it is the amount, and it I teach again.
  1670. p. 275, line 11I saw you serenely give birth to immortal children, saw in dreams your dilating form,
  1671. p. 275, line 13I will confront these shows of the day and night,
  1672. p. 275, line 14I will know if I am to be less than they,
  1673. p. 275, line 15I will see if I am not as majestic as they,
  1674. p. 275, line 16I will see if I am not as subtle and real as they,
  1675. p. 275, line 17I will see if I am to be less generous than they,
  1676. p. 275, line 18I will see if I have no meaning, while the houses and ships have meaning,
  1677. p. 275, line 19I will see if the fishes and birds are to be enough for themselves, and I am not to be enough for myself.
  1678. p. 275, line 20I match my spirit against yours you orbs, growths, mountains, brutes,
  1679. p. 275, line 21Copious as you are I absorb you all in myself, and become the master myself,
  1680. p. 275, line 24I know now why the earth is gross, tantalizing, wicked, it is for my sake,
  1681. p. 275, line 25I take you specially to be mine, you terrible, rude forms.
  1682. p. 275, line 27I know not what these plots and wars and deferments are for,
  1683. p. 275, line 28I know not fruition's success, but I know that through war and crime your work goes on, and must yet go on.)
  1684. p. 276, line 3I thrill'd with the power's pulsations, and the charm of my theme was upon me,
  1685. p. 276, line 5And I saw the free souls of poets,
  1686. p. 276, line 9Not for the bards of the past, not to invoke them have I launch'd you forth,
  1687. p. 276, line 11Have I sung so capricious and loud my savage song.
  1688. p. 276, line 12Bards for my own land only I invoke,
  1689. p. 276, line 20You by my charm I invoke.
  1690. p. 277, line 5Songs of continued years I sing.
  1691. p. 277, line 14In I myself, in all the world, these currents flowing,
  1692. p. 277, line 22Or from the sea of Time, collecting vasting all, I bring,
  1693. p. 278, line 1(For not my life and years alone I give—all, all I give,)
  1694. p. 278, line 5Now I awhile retire to thee O soil of autumn fields,
  1695. p. 279, line 9When late I sang sad was my voice,
  1696. p. 279, line 11In the midst of the conflict, the heroes, I stood,
  1697. p. 279, line 13But now I sing not war,
  1698. p. 279, line 21How elate I stood and watch'd you, where starting off you march'd.
  1699. p. 280, line 7Nor do I forget you Departed,
  1700. p. 280, line 11I saw the day the return of the heroes,
  1701. p. 280, line 13Them that day I saw not.)
  1702. p. 280, line 14I saw the interminable corps, I saw the processions of armies,
  1703. p. 280, line 15I saw them approaching, defiling by with divisions,
  1704. p. 281, line 5I see the true arenas of my race, or first or last,
  1705. p. 281, line 7I see the heroes at other toils,
  1706. p. 281, line 8I see well-wielded in their hands the better weapons.
  1707. p. 281, line 9I see where the Mother of All,
  1708. p. 284, line 27I curious pause, for lo, an outcast form, a poor dead prostitute brought,
  1709. p. 285, line 2The divine woman, her body, I see the body, I look on it alone,
  1710. p. 285, line 3That house once full of passion and beauty, all else I notice not,
  1711. p. 285, line 11Take one tear dropt aside as I go for thought of you,
  1712. p. 285, line 15SOMETHING startles me where I thought I was safest,
  1713. p. 285, line 16I withdraw from the still woods I loved,
  1714. p. 285, line 17I will not go now on the pastures to walk,
  1715. p. 285, line 18I will not strip the clothes from my body to meet my lover the sea,
  1716. p. 285, line 19I will not touch my flesh to the earth as to other flesh to renew me.
  1717. p. 286, line 2I do not see any of it upon you to-day, or perhaps I am deceiv'd,
  1718. p. 286, line 3I will run a furrow with my plough, I will press my spade through the sod and turn it up underneath,
  1719. p. 286, line 4I am sure I shall expose some of the foul meat.
  1720. p. 286, line 28That when I recline on the grass I do not catch any disease,
  1721. p. 287, line 1Now I am terrified at the Earth, it is that calm and patient,
  1722. p. 287, line 17For I am the sworn poet of every dauntless rebel the world over,
  1723. p. 288, line 9I do not know what you are for, (I do not know what I am for myself, nor what any thing is for,)
  1724. p. 288, line 10But I will search carefully for it even in being foil'd,
  1725. p. 288, line 24O I know that those men and women were not for nothing, any more than we are for nothing,
  1726. p. 289, line 1I know that they belong to the scheme of the world every bit as much as we now belong to it.
  1727. p. 289, line 12I believe of all those men and women that fill'd the unnamed lands, every one exists this hour here or elsewhere, invisible to us,
  1728. p. 289, line 14I believe that was not the end of those nations or any person of them, any more than this shall be the end of my nation, or of me;
  1729. p. 289, line 16I suspect their results curiously await in the yet unseen world, counterparts of what accrued to them in the seen world,
  1730. p. 289, line 17I suspect I shall meet them there,
  1731. p. 289, line 18I suspect I shall there find each old particular of those unnamed lands.
  1732. p. 289, line 19MANHATTAN'S streets I saunter'd pondering,
  1733. p. 291, line 14Now I breathe the word of the prudence that walks abreast with time, space, reality,
  1734. p. 292, line 25It was not I that sinn'd the sin,
  1735. p. 292, line 27Though long I strove courageously,
  1736. p. 294, line 11Thou, soul, unloosen'd—the restlessness after I know not what;
  1737. p. 294, line 20To grace the bush I love—to sing with the birds,
  1738. p. 296, line 28Lingering a moment here and now, to you I opposite turn,
  1739. p. 297, line 2Pausing, inclining, baring my head, you specially I greet,
  1740. p. 297, line 18Surely whoever speaks to me in the right voice, him or her I shall follow,
  1741. p. 297, line 22For I see every word utter'd thence has deeper, sweeter, new sounds, impossible on less terms.
  1742. p. 298, line 1I see brains and lips closed, tympans and temples unstruck,
  1743. p. 298, line 6I do not sound your name, but I understand you,
  1744. p. 298, line 7I specify you with joy O my comrade to salute you, and to salute those who are with you, before and since, and those to come also,
  1745. p. 298, line 19Who am I too that I am not on trial or in prison?
  1746. p. 298, line 22Who am I that I should call you more obscene than myself?
  1747. p. 299, line 1O culpable! I acknowledge—I exposé!
  1748. p. 299, line 3I see what you do not—I know what you do not.)
  1749. p. 299, line 4Inside these breast-bones I lie smutch'd and choked,
  1750. p. 299, line 7I walk with delinquents with passionate love,
  1751. p. 299, line 8I feel I am of them—I belong to those convicts and prostitutes myself,
  1752. p. 299, line 9And henceforth I will not deny them—for how can I deny myself?
  1753. p. 299, line 17What do you suppose I would intimate to you in a hundred ways, but that man or woman is as good as God?
  1754. p. 299, line 21BE composed—be at ease with me—I am Walt Whitman, liberal and lusty as Nature,
  1755. p. 299, line 22Not till the sun excludes you do I exclude you,
  1756. p. 300, line 1My girl I appoint with you an appointment, and I charge you that you make preparation to be worthy to meet me,
  1757. p. 300, line 2And I charge you that you be patient and perfect till I come.
  1758. p. 300, line 3Till then I salute you with a significant look that you do not forget me.
  1759. p. 300, line 4I WAS looking a long while for Intentions,
  1760. p. 300, line 5For a clew to the history of the past for myself, and for these chants—and now I have found it,
  1761. p. 300, line 6It is not in those paged fables in the libraries, (them I neither accept nor reject,)
  1762. p. 301, line 2As to me I know of nothing else but miracles,
  1763. p. 301, line 3Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,
  1764. p. 301, line 7Or talk by day with any one I love, or sleep in the bed at night with any one I love,
  1765. p. 301, line 25Withdrawn I join a group of children watching, I pause aside with them.
  1766. p. 303, line 2Unfolded out of the strong and arrogant woman I love, only thence can appear the strong and arrogant man I love,
  1767. p. 303, line 3Unfolded by brawny embraces from the well-muscled woman I love, only thence come the brawny embraces of the man,
  1768. p. 303, line 9WHAT am I after all but a child, pleas'd with the sound of my own name? repeating it over and over;
  1769. p. 303, line 10I stand apart to hear—it never tires me.
  1770. p. 304, line 5But I, from the banks of the running Missouri, praise nothing in art or aught else,
  1771. p. 304, line 15I am of the same style, for I am their friend,
  1772. p. 304, line 16I love them quits and quits, I do not halt and make salaams.
  1773. p. 304, line 17I lie abstracted and hear beautiful tales of things and the reasons of things,
  1774. p. 304, line 18They are so beautiful I nudge myself to listen.
  1775. p. 304, line 19I cannot say to any person what I hear—I cannot say it to myself—it is very wonderful.
  1776. p. 304, line 21I do not think it was made in six days, nor in ten thousand years, nor ten billions of years,
  1777. p. 305, line 1I do not think seventy years is the time of a man or woman,
  1778. p. 305, line 4Is it wonderful that I should be immortal? as every one is immortal;
  1779. p. 305, line 5I know it is wonderful, but my eyesight is equally wonderful, and how I was conceived in my mother's womb is equally wonderful,
  1780. p. 305, line 8And that I can think such thoughts as these is just as wonderful,
  1781. p. 305, line 9And that I can remind you, and you think them and know them to be true, is just as wonderful.
  1782. p. 306, line 15Miserable! yet for thy errors, vanities, sins, I will not now rebuke thee,
  1783. p. 307, line 24Now I marvel what it can be he appears to them, (books, politics, poems, depart—all else departs,)
  1784. p. 307, line 25I confess I envy only his fascination—my silent, illiterate friend,
  1785. p. 308, line 3Now only do I know you,
  1786. p. 308, line 5And these I see, these sparkling eyes,
  1787. p. 308, line 24This common marvel I beheld—the parent thrush I watch'd feeding its young,
  1788. p. 309, line 1There ponder'd, felt I,
  1789. p. 309, line 4Then may I trust in you, your fortunes, days, my country;
  1790. p. 310, line 1IN a little house keep I pictures suspended, it is not a fix'd house,
  1791. p. 311, line 13I see and hear old harpers with their harps at Welsh festivals,
  1792. p. 311, line 14I hear the minnesingers singing their lays of love,
  1793. p. 311, line 15I hear the minstrels, gleemen, troubadours, of the middle ages.
  1794. p. 312, line 6(I think O tongues ye tell this heart, that cannot tell itself,
  1795. p. 312, line 27I see poor crazed Lucia's eyes' unnatural gleam,
  1796. p. 312, line 29I see where Ernani walking the bridal garden,
  1797. p. 313, line 9Sister of loftiest gods, Alboni's self I hear.)
  1798. p. 313, line 10I hear those odes, symphonies, operas,
  1799. p. 313, line 11I hear in the William Tell the music of an arous'd and angry people,
  1800. p. 313, line 12I hear Meyerbeer's Huguenots, the Prophet, or Robert,
  1801. p. 313, line 14I hear the dance-music of all nations,
  1802. p. 313, line 17I see religious dances old and new,
  1803. p. 313, line 18I hear the sound of the Hebrew lyre,
  1804. p. 313, line 19I see the crusaders marching bearing the cross on high, to the martial clang of cymbals,
  1805. p. 313, line 20I hear dervishes monotonously chanting, interspers'd with frantic shouts, as they spin around turning always towards Mecca,
  1806. p. 313, line 21I see the rapt religious dances of the Persians and the Arabs,
  1807. p. 313, line 22Again, at Eleusis, home of Ceres, I see the modern Greeks dancing,
  1808. p. 313, line 23I hear them clapping their hands as they bend their bodies,
  1809. p. 313, line 24I hear the metrical shuffling of their feet.
  1810. p. 313, line 25I see again the wild old Corybantian dance, the performers wounding each other,
  1811. p. 313, line 26I see the Roman youth to the shrill sound of flageolets throwing and catching their weapons,
  1812. p. 313, line 28I hear from the Mussulman mosque the muezzin calling,
  1813. p. 313, line 29I see the worshippers within, nor form nor sermon, argument nor word,
  1814. p. 314, line 1I hear the Egyptian harp of many strings,
  1815. p. 314, line 8To organs huge and bands I hear as from vast concourses of voices,
  1816. p. 314, line 20I hear the annual singing of the children in St. Paul's cathedral,
  1817. p. 314, line 23Give me to hold all sounds, (I madly struggling cry,)
  1818. p. 314, line 27Utter, pour in, for I would take them all!
  1819. p. 314, line 28Then I woke softly,
  1820. p. 315, line 3I said to my silent curious soul out of the bed of the slumber-chamber,
  1821. p. 315, line 4Come, for I have found the clew I sought so long,
  1822. p. 315, line 8And I said, moreover,
  1823. p. 316, line 15You too I welcome and fully the same as the rest!
  1824. p. 316, line 16You too with joy I sing.
  1825. p. 316, line 23A worship new I sing,
  1826. p. 316, line 30I see in one the Suez canal initiated, open'd,
  1827. p. 316, line 31I see the procession of steamships, the Empress Eugenie's leading the van,
  1828. p. 316, line 32I mark from on deck the strange landscape, the pure sky, the level sand in the distance,
  1829. p. 316, line 33I pass swiftly the picturesque groups, the workmen gather'd,
  1830. p. 317, line 2I see over my own continent the Pacific railroad surmounting every barrier,
  1831. p. 317, line 3I see continual trains of cars winding along the Platte carrying freight and passengers,
  1832. p. 317, line 4I hear the locomotives rushing and roaring, and the shrill steam-whistle,
  1833. p. 317, line 5I hear the echoes reverberate through the grandest scenery in the world,
  1834. p. 317, line 6I cross the Laramie plains, I note the rocks in grotesque shapes, the buttes,
  1835. p. 317, line 7I see the plentiful larkspur and wild onions, the barren, colorless, sage-deserts,
  1836. p. 317, line 8I see in glimpses afar or towering immediately above me the great mountains, I see the Wind river and the Wahsatch mountains,
  1837. p. 317, line 9I see the Monument mountain and the Eagle's Nest, I pass the Promontory, I ascend the Nevadas,
  1838. p. 317, line 10I scan the noble Elk mountain and wind around its base,
  1839. p. 317, line 11I see the Humboldt range, I thread the valley and cross the river,
  1840. p. 317, line 12I see the clear waters of lake Tahoe, I see forests of majestic pines,
  1841. p. 317, line 13Or crossing the great desert, the alkaline plains, I behold enchanting mirages of waters and meadows,
  1842. p. 319, line 10Year at whose wide-flung door I sing!
  1843. p. 319, line 14I see O year in you the vast terraqueous globe given and giving all,
  1844. p. 319, line 24(I my shores of America walking to-day behold, resuming all,)
  1845. p. 320, line 16Dominating the rest I see the Admiral himself,
  1846. p. 320, line 22(Curious in time I stand, noting the efforts of heroes,
  1847. p. 320, line 31O soul, repressless, I with thee and thou with me,
  1848. p. 321, line 5Amid the wafting winds, (thou pressing me to thee, I thee to me, O soul,)
  1849. p. 321, line 10O soul thou pleasest me, I thee.
  1850. p. 321, line 13O soul thou pleasest me, I thee,
  1851. p. 321, line 17Whose air I breathe, whose ripples hear, lave me all over,
  1852. p. 321, line 19I and my soul to range in range of thee.
  1853. p. 321, line 30How should I think, how breathe a single breath, how speak, if, out of myself,
  1854. p. 321, line 31I could not launch, to those, superior universes?
  1855. p. 321, line 32Swiftly I shrivel at the thought of God,
  1856. p. 321, line 34But that I, turning, call to thee O soul, thou actual Me,
  1857. p. 323, line 6Reckless O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me,
  1858. p. 323, line 17I take my way along the island's edge,
  1859. p. 323, line 19I am too full of woe!
  1860. p. 323, line 20Haply I may not live another day;
  1861. p. 323, line 21I cannot rest O God, I cannot eat or drink or sleep,
  1862. p. 323, line 22Till I put forth myself, my prayer, once more to Thee,
  1863. p. 323, line 29Thou knowest how before I commenced I devoted all to come to Thee,
  1864. p. 323, line 30Thou knowest I have in age ratified all those vows and strictly kept them,
  1865. p. 323, line 31Thou knowest I have not once lost nor faith nor ecstasy in Thee,
  1866. p. 324, line 7O I am sure they really came from Thee,
  1867. p. 324, line 15The end I know not, it is all in Thee,
  1868. p. 324, line 16Or small or great I know not—haply what broad fields, what lands,
  1869. p. 324, line 17Haply the brutish measureless human undergrowth I know,
  1870. p. 324, line 19Haply the swords I know may there indeed be turn'd to reaping-tools,
  1871. p. 324, line 20Haply the lifeless cross I know, Europe's dead cross, may bud and blossom there.
  1872. p. 324, line 27Old, poor, and paralyzed, I thank Thee.
  1873. p. 324, line 31I yield my ships to Thee.
  1874. p. 324, line 34Let the old timbers part, I will not part,
  1875. p. 324, line 35I will cling fast to Thee, O God, though the waves buffet me,
  1876. p. 324, line 36Thee, Thee at least I know.
  1877. p. 325, line 1Is it the prophet's thought I speak, or am I raving?
  1878. p. 325, line 2What do I know of life? what of myself?
  1879. p. 325, line 3I know not even my own work past or present,
  1880. p. 325, line 7And these things I see suddenly, what mean they?
  1881. p. 325, line 11And anthems in new tongues I hear saluting me.
  1882. p. 325, line 12I WANDER all night in my vision,
  1883. p. 326, line 9I stand in the dark with drooping eyes by the worst-suffering and the most restless,
  1884. p. 326, line 10I pass my hands soothingly to and fro a few inches from them,
  1885. p. 326, line 12Now I pierce the darkness, new beings appear,
  1886. p. 326, line 14I saw that it was beautiful, and I see that what is not the earth is beautiful.
  1887. p. 326, line 15I go from bedside to bedside, I sleep close with the other sleepers each in turn,
  1888. p. 326, line 16I dream in my dream all the dreams of the other dreamers,
  1889. p. 326, line 17And I become the other dreamers.
  1890. p. 326, line 18I am a dance—play up there! the fit is whirling me fast!
  1891. p. 326, line 19I am the ever-laughing—it is new moon and twilight,
  1892. p. 326, line 20I see the hiding of douceurs, I see nimble ghosts whichever way I look,
  1893. p. 326, line 24I reckon I am their boss and they make me a pet besides,
  1894. p. 326, line 25And surround me and lead me and run ahead when I walk,
  1895. p. 326, line 28I am the actor, the actress, the voter, the politician,
  1896. p. 327, line 1I am she who adorn'd herself and folded her hair expectantly,
  1897. p. 327, line 5I roll myself upon you as upon a bed, I resign myself to the dusk.
  1898. p. 327, line 6He whom I call answers me and takes the place of my lover,
  1899. p. 327, line 9I feel the hot moisture yet that he left me.
  1900. p. 327, line 10My hands are spread forth, I pass them in all directions,
  1901. p. 327, line 11I would sound up the shadowy shore to which you are journeying.
  1902. p. 327, line 13I thought my lover had gone, else darkness and he are one,
  1903. p. 327, line 14I hear the heart-beat, I follow, I fade away.
  1904. p. 327, line 15I descend my western course, my sinews are flaccid,
  1905. p. 327, line 16Perfume and youth course through me and I am their wake.
  1906. p. 327, line 18I sit low in a straw-bottom chair and carefully darn my grandson's stockings.
  1907. p. 327, line 19It is I too, the sleepless widow looking out on the winter midnight,
  1908. p. 327, line 20I see the sparkles of starshine on the icy and pallid earth.
  1909. p. 327, line 21A shroud I see and I am the shroud, I wrap a body and lie in the coffin,
  1910. p. 328, line 1I see a beautiful gigantic swimmer swimming naked through the eddies of the sea,
  1911. p. 328, line 3I see his white body, I see his undaunted eyes,
  1912. p. 328, line 4I hate the swift-running eddies that would dash him head-foremost on the rocks.
  1913. p. 328, line 12I turn but do not extricate myself,
  1914. p. 328, line 16I look where the ship helplessly heads end on, I hear the burst as she strikes, I hear the howls of dismay, they grow fainter and fainter.
  1915. p. 328, line 17I cannot aid with my wringing fingers,
  1916. p. 328, line 18I can but rush to the surf and let it drench me and freeze upon me.
  1917. p. 328, line 19I search with the crowd, not one of the company is wash'd to us alive,
  1918. p. 328, line 20In the morning I help pick up the dead and lay them in rows in a barn.
  1919. p. 330, line 2I am jealous and overwhelm'd with friendliness,
  1920. p. 330, line 26I swear they are averaged now—one is no better than the other,
  1921. p. 331, line 1I swear they are all beautiful,
  1922. p. 332, line 11I too pass from the night,
  1923. p. 332, line 12I stay a while away O night, but I return to you again and love you.
  1924. p. 332, line 13Why should I be afraid to trust myself to you?
  1925. p. 332, line 14I am not afraid, I have been well brought forward by you,
  1926. p. 332, line 15I love the rich running day, but I do not desert her in whom I lay so long,
  1927. p. 332, line 16I know not how I came of you and I know not where I go with you, but I know I came well and shall go well.
  1928. p. 332, line 17I will stop only a time with the night, and rise betimes,
  1929. p. 332, line 18I will duly pass the day O my mother, and duly return to you.
  1930. p. 333, line 9To think that you and I did not see, feel, think, nor bear our part,
  1931. p. 334, line 3(I see one building the house that serves him a few years, or seventy or eighty years at most,
  1932. p. 334, line 4I see one building the house that serves him longer than that.)
  1933. p. 335, line 9These also flow onward to others, you and I flow onward,
  1934. p. 335, line 10But in due time you and I shall take less interest in them.
  1935. p. 336, line 25I have dream'd that we are not to be changed so much, nor the law of us changed,
  1936. p. 337, line 1I have dream'd that heroes and good-doers shall be under the present and past law,
  1937. p. 337, line 3For I have dream'd that the law they are under now is enough.
  1938. p. 337, line 4And I have dream'd that the purpose and essence of the known life, the transient,
  1939. p. 337, line 9Do you suspect death? if I were to suspect death I should die now,
  1940. p. 337, line 10Do you think I could walk pleasantly and well-suited toward annihilation?
  1941. p. 337, line 11Pleasantly and well-suited I walk,
  1942. p. 337, line 12Whither I walk I cannot define, but I know it is good,
  1943. p. 337, line 20I swear I think now that every thing without exception has an eternal soul!
  1944. p. 337, line 22I swear I think there is nothing but immortality!
  1945. p. 338, line 7I know it not O soul,
  1946. p. 338, line 16WHISPERS of heavenly death murmur'd I hear,
  1947. p. 338, line 21I see, just see skyward, great cloud-masses,
  1948. p. 339, line 3Solid, four-sided, (all the sides needed,) from this side Jehovah am I,
  1949. p. 339, line 4Old Brahm I, and I Saturnius am;
  1950. p. 339, line 5Not Time affects me—I am Time, old, modern as any,
  1951. p. 339, line 9Relentless I forgive no man—whoever sins dies—I will have that man's life;
  1952. p. 339, line 10Therefore let none expect mercy—have the seasons, gravitation, the appointed days, mercy? no more have I,
  1953. p. 339, line 12I dispense from this side judgments inexorable without the least remorse.
  1954. p. 339, line 14With gentle hand extended, the mightier God am I,
  1955. p. 339, line 16From this side, lo! the Lord Christ gazes—lo! Hermes I—lo! mine is Hercules' face,
  1956. p. 339, line 17All sorrow, labor, suffering, I, tallying it, absorb in myself,
  1957. p. 339, line 18Many times have I been rejected, taunted, put in prison, and crucified, and many times shall be again,
  1958. p. 339, line 19All the world have I given up for my dear brothers' and sisters' sake, for the soul's sake,
  1959. p. 339, line 21For I am affection, I am the cheer-bringing God, with hope and all-enclosing charity,
  1960. p. 339, line 23Young and strong I pass knowing well I am destin'd myself to an early death;
  1961. p. 340, line 7(Though it was thought I was baffled and dispel'd, and my wiles done, but that will never be,)
  1962. p. 340, line 8Defiant, I, Satan, still live, still utter words, in new lands duly appearing, (and old ones also,)
  1963. p. 340, line 18Life of the great round world, the sun and stars, and of man, I, the general soul,
  1964. p. 340, line 19Here the square finishing, the solid, I the most solid,
  1965. p. 340, line 21OF him I love day and night I dream'd I heard he was dead,
  1966. p. 340, line 22And I dream'd I went where they had buried him I love, but he was not in that place,
  1967. p. 340, line 23And I dream'd I wander'd searching among burial-places to find him,
  1968. p. 340, line 24And I found that every place was a burial-place;
  1969. p. 341, line 2And what I dream'd I will henceforth tell to every person and age,
  1970. p. 341, line 3And I stand henceforth bound to what I dream'd,
  1971. p. 341, line 4And now I am willing to disregard burial-places and dispense with them,
  1972. p. 341, line 5And if the memorials of the dead were put up indifferently everywhere, even in the room where I eat or sleep, I should be satisfied,
  1973. p. 341, line 6And if the corpse of any one I love, or if my own corpse, be duly render'd to powder and pour'd in the sea, I shall be satisfied,
  1974. p. 341, line 7Or if it be distributed to the winds I shall be satisfied.
  1975. p. 341, line 8YET, yet, ye downcast hours, I know ye also,
  1976. p. 341, line 10Earth to a chamber of mourning turns—I hear the o'erweening, mocking voice,
  1977. p. 341, line 14The sea I am quickly to sail, come tell me,
  1978. p. 341, line 15Come tell me where I am speeding, tell me my destination.
  1979. p. 341, line 16I understand your anguish, but I cannot help you,
  1980. p. 341, line 17I approach, hear, behold, the sad mouth, the look out of the eyes, your mute inquiry,
  1981. p. 341, line 18Whither I go from the bed I recline on, come tell me;
  1982. p. 341, line 20A young man's voice, Shall I not escape?
  1983. p. 341, line 22I thought I was not alone walking here by the shore;
  1984. p. 341, line 23But the one I thought was with me as now I walk by the shore, the one I loved that caress'd me,
  1985. p. 341, line 24As I lean and look through the glimmering light, that one has utterly disappear'd,
  1986. p. 342, line 1I NEED no assurances, I am a man who is pre-occupied of his own soul;
  1987. p. 342, line 2I do not doubt that from under the feet and beside the hands and face I am cognizant of, are now looking faces I am not cognizant of, calm and actual faces,
  1988. p. 342, line 3I do not doubt but the majesty and beauty of the world are latent in any iota of the world,
  1989. p. 342, line 4I do not doubt I am limitless, and that the universes are limitless, in vain I try to think how limitless,
  1990. p. 342, line 5I do not doubt that the orbs and the systems of orbs play their swift sports through the air on purpose, and that I shall one day be eligible to do as much as they, and more than they,
  1991. p. 342, line 6I do not doubt that temporary affairs keep on and on millions of years,
  1992. p. 342, line 7I do not doubt interiors have their interiors, and exteriors have their exteriors, and that the eyesight has another eyesight, and the hearing another hearing, and the voice another voice,
  1993. p. 342, line 8I do not doubt that the passionately-wept deaths of young men are provided for, and that the deaths of young women and the deaths of little children are provided for,
  1994. p. 342, line 10I do not doubt that wrecks at sea, no matter what the horrors of them, no matter whose wife, child, husband, father, lover, has gone down, are provided for, to the minutest points,
  1995. p. 342, line 11I do not doubt that whatever can possibly happen anywhere at any time, is provided for in the inherences of things,
  1996. p. 342, line 12I do not think Life provides for all and for Time and Space, but I believe Heavenly Death provides for all.
  1997. p. 342, line 13QUICKSAND years that whirl me I know not whither,
  1998. p. 342, line 15Only the theme I sing, the great and strong-possess'd soul, eludes not,
  1999. p. 343, line 1THAT music always round me, unceasing, unbeginning, yet long untaught I did not hear,
  2000. p. 343, line 2But now the chorus I hear and am elated,
  2001. p. 343, line 3A tenor, strong, ascending with power and health, with glad notes of daybreak I hear,
  2002. p. 343, line 6The triumphant tutti, the funeral wailings with sweet flutes and violins, all these I fill myself with,
  2003. p. 343, line 7I hear not the volumes of sound merely, I am moved by the exquisite meanings,
  2004. p. 343, line 8I listen to the different voices winding in and out, striving, contending with fiery vehemence to excel each other in emotion;
  2005. p. 343, line 9I do not think the performers know themselves—but now I think I begin to know them.
  2006. p. 343, line 13Whom, in a little boat, putting off and rowing, I hailing you offer.
  2007. p. 343, line 15I mark'd where on a little promontory it stood isolated,
  2008. p. 344, line 3O me while I stride ahead, material, visible, imperious as ever;
  2009. p. 344, line 4O me, what I was for years, now dead, (I lament not, I am content;)
  2010. p. 344, line 5O to disengage myself from those corpses of me, which I turn and look at where I cast them,
  2011. p. 344, line 7FROM all the rest I single out you, having a message for you,
  2012. p. 344, line 8You are to die—let others tell you what they please, I cannot prevaricate,
  2013. p. 344, line 9I am exact and merciless, but I love you—there is no escape for you.
  2014. p. 344, line 10Softly I lay my right hand upon you, you just feel it,
  2015. p. 344, line 11I do not argue, I bend my head close and half envelop it,
  2016. p. 344, line 12I sit quietly by, I remain faithful,
  2017. p. 344, line 13I am more than nurse, more than parent or neighbor,
  2018. p. 344, line 14I absolve you from all except yourself spiritual bodily, that is eternal, you yourself will surely escape,
  2019. p. 344, line 18You forget you are sick, as I forget you are sick,
  2020. p. 344, line 19You do not see the medicines, you do not mind the weeping friends, I am with you,
  2021. p. 344, line 20I exclude others from you, there is nothing to be commiserated,
  2022. p. 344, line 21I do not commiserate, I congratulate you.
  2023. p. 344, line 25I walk by myself—I stand and look at the stars, which I think now I never realized before.
  2024. p. 345, line 1Now I absorb immortality and peace,
  2025. p. 345, line 2I admire death and test propositions.
  2026. p. 345, line 5I was thinking the day most splendid till I saw what the not-day exhibited,
  2027. p. 345, line 6I was thinking this globe enough till there sprang out so noiseless around me myriads of other globes.
  2028. p. 345, line 7Now while the great thoughts of space and eternity fill me I will measure myself by them,
  2029. p. 345, line 10I henceforth no more ignore them than I ignore my own life,
  2030. p. 345, line 12O I see now that life cannot exhibit all to me, as the day cannot,
  2031. p. 345, line 13I see that I am to wait for what will be exhibited by death.
  2032. p. 345, line 14AS I sit with others at a great feast, suddenly while the music is playing,
  2033. p. 345, line 15To my mind, (whence it comes I know not,) spectral in mist of a wreck at sea,
  2034. p. 345, line 21Sinking there while the passionless wet flows on—and I now pondering, Are those women indeed gone?
  2035. p. 346, line 11AS I watch'd the ploughman ploughing,
  2036. p. 346, line 13I saw there too, O life and death, your analogies;
  2037. p. 346, line 16The words the Dead I write,
  2038. p. 346, line 19And I the apparition, I the spectre.)
  2039. p. 346, line 22A special song before I go I'd sing o'er all the rest,
  2040. p. 347, line 4The paths to the house I seek to make,
  2041. p. 347, line 6Belief I sing, and preparation;
  2042. p. 347, line 9Out of that formula for thee I sing.
  2043. p. 349, line 11Thou wonder world yet undefined, unform'd, neither do I define thee,
  2044. p. 349, line 12How can I pierce the impenetrable blank of the future?
  2045. p. 349, line 13I feel thy ominous greatness evil as well as good,
  2046. p. 349, line 14I watch thee advancing, absorbing the present, transcending the past,
  2047. p. 349, line 15I see thy light lighting, and thy shadow shadowing, as if the entire globe,
  2048. p. 349, line 16But I do not undertake to define thee, hardly to comprehend thee,
  2049. p. 349, line 17I but thee name, thee prophesy, as now,
  2050. p. 349, line 18I merely thee ejaculate!
  2051. p. 350, line 11These! these in thee, (certain to come,) to-day I prophesy.
  2052. p. 352, line 7Thy lover me, for always I have loved thee,
  2053. p. 352, line 9Or man matured, or young or old, as now to thee I launch my invocation.
  2054. p. 352, line 11I know before the fitting man all Nature yields,
  2055. p. 352, line 14I understand them, I know those flames, those perturbations well.)
  2056. p. 353, line 15I see them and complain not, and am content with all.
  2057. p. 353, line 16Do you suppose I could be content with all if I thought them their own finalè?
  2058. p. 353, line 21Snakes nest in that mouth, I hear the sibilant threat.
  2059. p. 354, line 11I see your rounded never-erased flow,
  2060. p. 354, line 12I see 'neath the rims of your haggard and mean disguises.
  2061. p. 354, line 15I saw the face of the most smear'd and slobbering idiot they had at the asylum,
  2062. p. 354, line 16And I knew for my consolation what they knew not,
  2063. p. 354, line 17I knew of the agents that emptied and broke my brother,
  2064. p. 354, line 19And I shall look again in a score or two of ages,
  2065. p. 354, line 20And I shall meet the real landlord perfect and unharm'd, every inch as good as myself.
  2066. p. 354, line 23Out of this face emerge banners and horses—O superb! I see what is coming,
  2067. p. 354, line 24I see the high pioneer-caps, see staves of runners clearing the way,
  2068. p. 354, line 25I hear victorious drums.
  2069. p. 355, line 7Off the word I have spoken I except not one—red, white, black, are all deific,
  2070. p. 355, line 11I read the promise and patiently wait.
  2071. p. 355, line 15Stand at my side till I lean as high as I can upon you,
  2072. p. 355, line 19Whist! I am fully content.
  2073. p. 355, line 23I saw the rich ladies in full dress at the soiree,
  2074. p. 355, line 24I heard what the singers were singing so long,
  2075. p. 356, line 8I hear thee trumpeter, listening alert I catch thy notes,
  2076. p. 356, line 17That I may thee translate.
  2077. p. 356, line 18Blow trumpeter free and clear, I follow thee,
  2078. p. 356, line 22I walk in cool refreshing night the walks of Paradise,
  2079. p. 356, line 23I scent the grass, the moist air and the roses;
  2080. p. 357, line 4I see the tournament, I see the contestants incased in heavy armor seated on stately champing horses,
  2081. p. 357, line 5I hear the shouts, the sounds of blows and smiting steel;
  2082. p. 357, line 6I see the Crusaders' tumultuous armies—hark, how the cymbals clang,
  2083. p. 357, line 14I see the vast alembic ever working, I see and know the flames that heat the world,
  2084. p. 357, line 24I see the grime-faced cannoneers, I mark the rosy flash amid the smoke, I hear the cracking of the guns;
  2085. p. 357, line 26The deeds of ruthless brigands, rapine, murder—I hear the cries for help!
  2086. p. 357, line 27I see ships foundering at sea, I behold on deck and below deck the terrible tableaus.
  2087. p. 358, line 1O trumpeter, methinks I am myself the instrument thou playest,
  2088. p. 358, line 5I see the enslaved, the overthrown, the hurt, the opprest of the whole earth,
  2089. p. 358, line 6I feel the measureless shame and humiliation of my race, it becomes all mine,
  2090. p. 359, line 11For once come serve the Muse and merge in verse, even as here I see thee,
  2091. p. 359, line 25O dear to me my birth-things—all moving things and the trees where I was born—the grains, plants, rivers,
  2092. p. 360, line 1O pensive, far away wandering, I return with my soul to haunt their banks again,
  2093. p. 360, line 2Again in Florida I float on transparent lakes, I float on the Okeechobee, I cross the hummock-land or through pleasant openings or dense forests,
  2094. p. 360, line 3I see the parrots in the woods, I see the papaw-tree and the blossoming titi;
  2095. p. 360, line 4Again, sailing in my coaster on deck, I coast off Georgia, I coast up the Carolinas,
  2096. p. 360, line 5I see where the live-oak is growing, I see where the yellow-pine, the scented bay-tree, the lemon and orange, the cypress, the graceful palmetto,
  2097. p. 360, line 6I pass rude sea-headlands and enter Pamlico sound through an inlet, and dart my vision inland;
  2098. p. 360, line 15O my heart! O tender and fierce pangs, I can stand them not, I will depart;
  2099. p. 360, line 16O to be a Virginian where I grew up! O to be a Carolinian!
  2100. p. 360, line 17O longings irrepressible! O I will go back to old Tennessee and never wander more.
  2101. p. 360, line 18I WAS asking for something specific and perfect for my city,
  2102. p. 360, line 20Now I see what there is in a name, a word, liquid, sane, unruly, musical, self-sufficient,
  2103. p. 361, line 1I see that the word of my city is that word from of old,
  2104. p. 361, line 2Because I see that word nested in nests of water-bays, superb,
  2105. p. 361, line 24I feel in myself that I represent falsehoods equally with the rest,
  2106. p. 362, line 3Meditating among liars and retreating sternly into myself, I see that there are really no liars or lies after all,
  2107. p. 362, line 8And henceforth I will go celebrate any thing I see or am,
  2108. p. 362, line 14Which you and I and all pursuing ever ever miss,
  2109. p. 362, line 20Invoking here and now I challenge for my song.
  2110. p. 363, line 15WHO has gone farthest? for I would go farther,
  2111. p. 363, line 16And who has been just? for I would be the most just person of the earth,
  2112. p. 363, line 17And who most cautious? for I would be more cautious,
  2113. p. 363, line 18And who has been happiest? O I think it is I—I think no one was ever happier than I,
  2114. p. 363, line 19And who has lavish'd all? for I lavish constantly the best I have,
  2115. p. 363, line 20And who proudest? for I think I have reason to be the proudest son alive—for I am the son of the brawny and tall-topt city,
  2116. p. 363, line 21And who has been bold and true? for I would be the boldest and truest being of the universe,
  2117. p. 363, line 22And who benevolent? for I would show more benevolence than all the rest,
  2118. p. 363, line 23And who has receiv'd the love of the most friends? for I know what it is to receive the passionate love of many friends,
  2119. p. 363, line 24And 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,
  2120. p. 363, line 25And who thinks the amplest thoughts? for I would surround those thoughts,
  2121. p. 363, line 26And who has made hymns fit for the earth? for I am mad with devouring ecstasy to make joyous hymns for the whole earth.
  2122. p. 366, line 15Give me of you O spring, before I close, to put between its pages!
  2123. p. 366, line 16O forenoon purple of the hills, before I close, of you!
  2124. p. 366, line 29O lesson opportune, O how I welcome thee!
  2125. p. 367, line 8I erewhile saw, with erect head, pressing ever in front, bearing a bright sword in thy hand,
  2126. p. 367, line 10(I bring no dirge for it or thee, I bring a glad triumphal sonnet,)
  2127. p. 367, line 18I dream, I dream, I dream.
  2128. p. 367, line 22I dream, I dream, I dream.
  2129. p. 367, line 24Where through the carnage I moved with a callous composure, or away from the fallen,
  2130. p. 367, line 25Onward I sped at the time—but now of their forms at night,
  2131. p. 367, line 26I dream, I dream, I dream.
  2132. p. 368, line 1For the prize I see at issue at last is the world,
  2133. p. 368, line 2All its ships and shores I see interwoven with your threads greedy banner;
  2134. p. 368, line 7WHAT best I see in thee,
  2135. p. 368, line 23I know thee, savage spirit—we have communed together,
  2136. p. 369, line 1AS I walk these broad majestic days of peace,
  2137. p. 369, line 7Around me I hear that eclat of the world, politics, produce,
  2138. p. 369, line 10I see the ships, (they will last a few years,)
  2139. p. 369, line 13But I too announce solid things,
  2140. p. 370, line 2A dread beyond of I know not what darkens me.
  2141. p. 370, line 3I shall go forth,
  2142. p. 370, line 4I shall traverse the States awhile, but I cannot tell whither or how long,
  2143. p. 370, line 5Perhaps soon some day or night while I am singing my voice will suddenly cease.
  2144. p. 370, line 10Your horizon rises, I see it parting away for more august dramas,
  2145. p. 370, line 11I see not America only, not only Liberty's nation but other nations preparing,
  2146. p. 370, line 12I see tremendous entrances and exits, new combinations, the solidarity of races,
  2147. p. 370, line 13I see that force advancing with irresistible power on the world's stage,
  2148. p. 370, line 15I see Freedom, completely arm'd and victorious and very haughty, with Law on one side and Peace on the other,
  2149. p. 370, line 18I see men marching and countermarching by swift millions,
  2150. p. 370, line 19I see the frontiers and boundaries of the old aristocracies broken,
  2151. p. 370, line 20I see the landmarks of European kings removed,
  2152. p. 370, line 21I see this day the People beginning their landmarks, (all others give way;)
  2153. p. 371, line 10Years prophetical! the space ahead as I walk, as I vainly try to pierce it, is full of phantoms,
  2154. p. 371, line 13Your dreams O years, how they penetrate through me! (I know not whether I sleep or wake;)
  2155. p. 371, line 17As I muse retrospective murmuring a chant in thought,
  2156. p. 372, line 10I chant this chant of my silent soul in the name of all dead soldiers.
  2157. p. 372, line 15Follow me ever—desert me not while I live.
  2158. p. 372, line 28That I exhale love from me wherever I go like a moist perennial dew,
  2159. p. 373, line 1OF these years I sing,
  2160. p. 373, line 7(But I see the athletes, and I see the results of the war glorious and inevitable, and they again leading to other results.)
  2161. p. 373, line 8How the great cities appear—how the Democratic masses, turbulent, wilful, as I love them,
  2162. p. 374, line 17You earth and life till the last ray gleams I sing.
  2163. p. 374, line 27Illustrious whatever I see or hear or touch, to the last.
  2164. p. 375, line 13To be this incredible God I am!
  2165. p. 375, line 14To have gone forth among other Gods, these men and women I love.
  2166. p. 375, line 15Wonderful how I celebrate you and myself!
  2167. p. 375, line 25I take your strong chords, intersperse them, and cheerfully pass them forward.
  2168. p. 375, line 26I too carol the sun, usher'd or at noon, or as now, setting,
  2169. p. 375, line 27I too throb to the brain and beauty of the earth and of all the growths of the earth,
  2170. p. 375, line 28I too have felt the resistless call of myself.
  2171. p. 375, line 29As I steam'd down the Mississippi,
  2172. p. 375, line 30As I wander'd over the prairies,
  2173. p. 375, line 31As I have lived, as I have look'd through my windows my eyes,
  2174. p. 375, line 32As I went forth in the morning, as I beheld the light breaking in the east,
  2175. p. 376, line 1As I bathed on the beach of the Eastern Sea, and again on the beach of the Western Sea,
  2176. p. 376, line 2As I roam'd the streets of inland Chicago, whatever streets I have roam'd,
  2177. p. 376, line 4Wherever I have been I have charged myself with contentment and triumph.
  2178. p. 376, line 5I sing to the last the equalities modern or old,
  2179. p. 376, line 6I sing the endless finalés of things,
  2180. p. 376, line 7I say Nature continues, glory continues,
  2181. p. 376, line 8I praise with electric voice,
  2182. p. 376, line 9For I do not see one imperfection in the universe,
  2183. p. 376, line 10And I do not see one cause or result lamentable at last in the universe.
  2184. p. 376, line 12I still warble under you, if none else does, unmitigated adoration.
  2185. p. 376, line 17(I see again the calm benignant face fresh and beautiful still,
  2186. p. 376, line 18I sit by the form in the coffin,
  2187. p. 376, line 19I kiss and kiss convulsively again the sweet old lips, the cheeks, the closed eyes in the coffin;)
  2188. p. 376, line 21I grave a monumental line, before I go, amid these songs,
  2189. p. 376, line 27But I, my life surveying, closing,
  2190. p. 377, line 5I bind together and bequeath in this bundle of songs.
  2191. p. 377, line 6PENSIVE on her dead gazing I heard the Mother of All,
  2192. p. 377, line 10Absorb them well O my earth, she cried, I charge you lose not my sons, lose not an atom,
  2193. p. 379, line 3Of the seed I have sought to plant in them,
  2194. p. 379, line 5(For them, for them have I lived, in them my work is done,)
  2195. p. 379, line 16(Pleas'd to my soul at death I cry,)
  2196. p. 379, line 26THESE carols sung to cheer my passage through the world I see,
  2197. p. 379, line 27For completion I dedicate to the Invisible World.
  2198. p. 380, line 11TO conclude, I announce what comes after me.
  2199. p. 380, line 12I remember I said before my leaves sprang at all,
  2200. p. 380, line 13I would raise my voice jocund and strong with reference to consummations.
  2201. p. 380, line 19I have press'd through in my own right,
  2202. p. 380, line 20I have sung the body and the soul, war and peace have I sung, and the songs of life and death,
  2203. p. 380, line 22I have offer'd my style to every one, I have journey'd with confident step;
  2204. p. 380, line 23While my pleasure is yet at the full I whisper So long!
  2205. p. 380, line 25I announce natural persons to arise,
  2206. p. 380, line 26I announce justice triumphant,
  2207. p. 380, line 27I announce uncompromising liberty and equality,
  2208. p. 380, line 28I announce the justification of candor and the justification of pride.
  2209. p. 381, line 1I announce that the identity of these States is a single identity only,
  2210. p. 381, line 2I announce the Union more and more compact, indissoluble,
  2211. p. 381, line 3I announce splendors and majesties to make all the previous politics of the earth insignificant.
  2212. p. 381, line 4I announce adhesiveness, I say it shall be limitless, unloosen'd,
  2213. p. 381, line 5I say you shall yet find the friend you were looking for.
  2214. p. 381, line 6I announce a man or woman coming, perhaps you are the one, (So long!)
  2215. p. 381, line 7I announce the great individual, fluid as Nature, chaste, affectionate, compassionate, fully arm'd.
  2216. p. 381, line 8I announce a life that shall be copious, vehement, spiritual, bold,
  2217. p. 381, line 9I announce an end that shall lightly and joyfully meet its translation.
  2218. p. 381, line 10I announce myriads of youths, beautiful, gigantic, sweet-blooded,
  2219. p. 381, line 11I announce a race of splendid and savage old men.
  2220. p. 381, line 14I foresee too much, it means more than I thought,
  2221. p. 381, line 15It appears to me I am dying.
  2222. p. 381, line 19At random glancing, each as I notice absorbing,
  2223. p. 381, line 25To troops out of the war arising, they the tasks I have set promulging,
  2224. p. 381, line 27To young men my problems offering—no dallier I—I the muscle of their brains trying,
  2225. p. 381, line 28So I pass, a little time vocal, visible, contrary,
  2226. p. 382, line 2The best of me then when no longer visible, for toward that I have been incessantly preparing.
  2227. p. 382, line 3What is there more, that I lag and pause and crouch extended with unshut mouth?
  2228. p. 382, line 5My songs cease, I abandon them,
  2229. p. 382, line 6From behind the screen where I hid I advance personally solely to you.
  2230. p. 382, line 10It is I you hold and who holds you,
  2231. p. 382, line 11I spring from the pages into your arms—decease calls me forth.
  2232. p. 382, line 14I feel immerged from head to foot,
  2233. p. 382, line 19I give it especially to you, do not forget me,
  2234. p. 382, line 20I feel like one who has done work for the day to retire awhile,
  2235. p. 382, line 21I receive now again of my many translations, from my avataras ascending, while others doubtless await me,
  2236. p. 382, line 22An unknown sphere more real than I dream'd, more direct, darts awakening rays about me, So long!
  2237. p. 382, line 23Remember my words, I may again return,
  2238. p. 382, line 24I love you, I depart from materials,
  2239. p. 382, line 25I am as one disembodied, triumphant, dead.
  2240. p. 384, line 9[…] The Bravest Soldiers, 386 A Font of Type, 386 As I Sit Writing Here, 386 My Canary Bird, 386 Queries to My Seventieth […]
  2241. p. 384, line 23[…] at Navesink, 389 (The Pilot in the Mist—Had I the Choice—You Tides With Ceaseless Swell—Last of Ebb […]
  2242. p. 385, line 9I stand as on some mighty eagle's beak,
  2243. p. 386, line 4Of you, my Land—your rivers, prairies, States—you, mottled Flag I love,
  2244. p. 386, line 18As I sit writing here, sick and grown old,
  2245. p. 389, line 2A sudden memory-flash comes back, I know not why,
  2246. p. 389, line 5Again the trembling, laboring vessel veers me—I press through foam-dash'd rocks that almost touch me,
  2247. p. 389, line 6Again I mark where aft the small thin Indian helmsman
  2248. p. 389, line 8Had I the choice to tally greatest bards,
  2249. p. 390, line 15I know, divine deceitful ones, your glamour's seeming;
  2250. p. 390, line 25Flaunting from many a spar the flag I love.
  2251. p. 391, line 12If I should need to name, O Western World, your powerfulest scene and show,
  2252. p. 392, line 2Where day and night I wend thy surf-beat shore,
  2253. p. 392, line 4(I see and plainly list thy talk and conference here,)
  2254. p. 394, line 6For them thy faith, thy rule I take, and grave it to the last;
  2255. p. 394, line 9These with gay heart I also sing.
  2256. p. 395, line 22I fold thenceforth, or seek to fold, within my chants transmuting,
  2257. p. 396, line 14Yonnondio—I see, far in the west or north, a limitless ravine, with plains and mountains dark,
  2258. p. 396, line 15I see swarms of stalwart chieftains, medicine-men, and warriors,
  2259. p. 397, line 9Small the theme of my Chant, yet the greatest—namely, One's- Self—a simple, separate person. That, for the use of the New World, I sing.
  2260. p. 397, line 10Man's physiology complete, from top to toe, I sing. Not physiognomy alone, nor brain alone, is worthy for the Muse;—I say the Form complete is worthier far. The Female equally with the Male, I sing.
  2261. p. 397, line 11Nor cease at the theme of One's-Self. I speak the word of the modern, the word En-Masse.
  2262. p. 397, line 12My Days I sing, and the Lands—with interstice I knew of hapless War.
  2263. p. 397, line 13(O friend, whoe'er you are, at last arriving hither to commence, I feel through every leaf the pressure of your hand, which I return.
  2264. p. 398, line 10Thanks in old age—thanks ere I go,
  2265. p. 398, line 20For braver, stronger, more devoted men—(a special laurel ere I go, to life's war's chosen ones,
  2266. p. 399, line 1And who art thou? said I to the soft-falling shower,
  2267. p. 399, line 3I am the Poem of Earth, said the voice of the rain,
  2268. p. 399, line 4Eternal I rise impalpable out of the land and the bottomless sea,
  2269. p. 399, line 6I descend to lave the drouths, atomies, dust-layers of the globe,
  2270. p. 399, line 8And forever, by day and night, I give back life to my own origin, and make pure and beautify it;
  2271. p. 400, line 3I cast a reminiscence—(likely 'twill offend you,
  2272. p. 400, line 4I heard it in my boyhood;)—More than a generation since,
  2273. p. 401, line 1Down on the ancient wharf, the sand, I sit, with a new-comer chatting:
  2274. p. 401, line 7The little boat that scull'd him from the sloop, now held in leash I see,
  2275. p. 401, line 8I hear the slapping waves, the restless keel, the rocking in the sand,
  2276. p. 401, line 9I see the sailor kit, the canvas bag, the great box bound with brass,
  2277. p. 401, line 10I scan the face all berry-brown and bearded—the stout-strong frame,
  2278. p. 401, line 21The sun just gone, the eager light dispell'd—(I too will soon be gone, dispell'd,)
  2279. p. 402, line 2And I some well-shorn tree of field or orchard-row;
  2280. p. 402, line 20So I aloft from Mannahatta's ship-fringed shore,
  2281. p. 404, line 6So much i' the atmosphere, the points of view, the situations whence we scan,
  2282. p. 407, line 3HAD I not better withhold (in this old age and paralysis of […]
  2283. p. 407, line 5[…] a long dusty journey, and witness it afterward? I have probably not been enough afraid of careless touches, from […]
  2284. p. 407, line 8[…] parrot-like repetitions—nor platitudes and the commonplace. Perhaps I am too democratic for such avoidances. Besides, is not the […]
  2285. p. 407, line 16[…] as here collated, it is worth printing (certainly I have nothing fresh to write)—I while away the hours […]
  2286. p. 407, line 17[…] printing (certainly I have nothing fresh to write)—I while away the hours of my 72d year—hours of […]
  2287. p. 407, line 25However that may be, I feel like improving to-day's opportunity and wind up. During the […]
  2288. p. 407, line 26[…] and wind up. During the last two years I have sent out, in the lulls of illness and exhaustion […]
  2289. p. 407, line 28[…] certain chirps—lingering-dying ones probably (undoubtedly)—which now I may as well gather and put in fair type while […]
  2290. p. 407, line 33In fact, here I am these current years 1890 and '91, (each successive fortnight getting stiffer […]
  2291. p. 408, line 9[…] hours (July 5, 1890) are so sunny-fine. And old as I am I feel to-day almost a part of some frolicsome wave, or […]
  2292. p. 408, line 12[…] of physical adjustment and perfection here and now. I believe I have it in me perennially anyhow […]
  2293. p. 408, line 15[…] deep-down consolation (it is a glum one, but I dare not be sorry for the fact of it in […]
  2294. p. 409, line 4(I will not call it our concluding voyage,
  2295. p. 409, line 15GOOD-BYE* my fancy—(I had a word to say,
  2296. p. 409, line 18I keep mine till the last.)
  2297. p. 410, line 5I chant my nation's crucial stage, (America's, haply humanity's)—the trial great, the victory great,
  2298. p. 410, line 9I chant from it the common bulk, the general average horde, (the best no sooner than the worst)—And now I chant old age,
  2299. p. 410, line 11I pass to snow-white hairs the same, and give to pulses winter-cool'd the same;)
  2300. p. 410, line 12As here in careless trill, I and my recitatives, with faith and love,
  2301. p. 411, line 1SOMEHOW I cannot let it go yet, funeral though it is,
  2302. p. 411, line 5But I do not forget thee. Hast thou then faded?
  2303. p. 411, line 8For but last night I woke, and in that spectral ring saw thee,
  2304. p. 411, line 31[…] the tide and the sunset," was a phrase I heard from a surgeon describing an old sailor's death under […]
  2305. p. 411, line 34[…] War, 1863 and '4, visiting the Army Hospitals around Washington, I form'd the habit, and continued it to the end, whenever […]
  2306. p. 411, line 36[…] time populous wards of suffering men. Somehow (or I thought so) the effect of the hour was palpable. The […]
  2307. p. 411, line 43[…] after great battles, even with all their horrors. I had more than once the same experience on the fields […]
  2308. p. 412, line 9HAVE I no weapon-word for thee—some message brief and fierce?
  2309. p. 412, line 10(Have I fought out and done indeed the battle?) Is there no shot left,
  2310. p. 412, line 16I DOUBT it not—then more, far more;
  2311. p. 414, line 10I feel the sky, the prairies vast—I feel the mighty northern lakes,
  2312. p. 414, line 11I feel the ocean and the forest—somehow I feel the globe itself swift-swimming in space;
  2313. p. 414, line 16Hast thou no soul? Can I not know, identify thee?
  2314. p. 416, line 1AS I sit in twilight late alone by the flickering oak-flame,
  2315. p. 416, line 9Again I see the stalwart ranks on-filing, rising—I hear the rhythmic tramp of the armies;)
  2316. p. 417, line 17Although I come and unannounc'd, in horror and in pang,
  2317. p. 417, line 19I too a minister of Deity.
  2318. p. 418, line 10E'en as I chant, lo! out of death, and out of ooze and slime,
  2319. p. 418, line 23For I too have forgotten,
  2320. p. 419, line 12THE commonplace I sing;
  2321. p. 419, line 15The open air I sing, freedom, toleration,
  2322. p. 420, line 14(I could pick them out this moment if I saw them again,)
  2323. p. 420, line 25I end it here in sickness, poverty, and old age.
  2324. p. 420, line 26I sing of life, yet mind me well of death:
  2325. p. 422, line 3I'm going away, I know not where,
  2326. p. 422, line 4Or to what fortune, or whether I may ever see you again,
  2327. p. 425, line 10So here I sit gossiping in the early candle-light of old age—I and my book—casting backward glances over our travel'd road […]
  2328. p. 425, line 17[…] all discomfitures at last)—After completing my poems, I am curious to review them in the light of their […]
  2329. p. 425, line 24[…] and struggles extending through nearly thirty years, (as I nigh my three-score-and-ten I live largely on memory,) I look upon "Leaves of Grass […]
  2330. p. 425, line 25[…] nigh my three-score-and-ten I live largely on memory,) I look upon "Leaves of Grass," now finish'd to the end […]
  2331. p. 425, line 27[…] the coming generations of the New World,* if I may assume to say so. That I have not gain'd […]
  2332. p. 425, line 28[…] if I may assume to say so. That I have not gain'd the acceptance of my own time, but […]
  2333. p. 425, line 34[…] mark'd anger and contempt more than anything else—("I find a solid line of enemies to you everywhere,"—letter […]
  2334. p. 426, line 2[…] Boston, May 28,1884)—And that solely for publishing it I have been the object of two or three pretty serious […]
  2335. p. 426, line 4[…] official buffetings—is all probably no more than I ought to have expected. I had my choice when I commenc'd. I bid neither for […]
  2336. p. 426, line 5[…] to have expected. I had my choice when I commenc'd. I bid neither for soft eulogies, big money returns, nor the […]
  2337. p. 426, line 12[…] by any influence outside the soul within me, I have had my say entirely my own way, and put […]
  2338. p. 426, line 15[…] and Dr. Bucke are far more peremptory than I am. Behind all else that can be said, I consider "Leaves of Grass" and its theory experimental—as, in […]
  2339. p. 426, line 16[…] its theory experimental—as, in the deepest sense, I consider our American republic itself to be, with its theory […]
  2340. p. 426, line 17[…] American republic itself to be, with its theory. (I think I have at least enough philosophy not to be too absolutely […]
  2341. p. 426, line 22[…] a hundred years from now can fully answer. I consider the point that I have positively gain'd a hearing, to far more than make […]
  2342. p. 426, line 26[…] main object. Now it seems to be achiev'd, I am certainly contented to waive any otherwise momentous drawbacks, as […]
  2343. p. 426, line 28[…] account. Candidly and dispassionately reviewing all my intentions, I feel that they were creditable—and I accept the result […]
  2344. p. 426, line 29[…] intentions, I feel that they were creditable—and I accept the result, whatever it may be […]
  2345. p. 426, line 34[…] good—After years of those aims and pursuits, I found myself remaining possess'd, at the age of thirty-one to […]
  2346. p. 427, line 3Perhaps this is in brief, or suggests, all I have sought to do. Given the Nineteenth Century, with the […]
  2347. p. 427, line 12[…] these—another spirit and stage of evolution; but I would sing, and leave out or put in, quite solely […]
  2348. p. 427, line 16[…] the songs and myths of the past. As I see it now (perhaps too late,) I have unwittingly taken up that challenge and made an attempt […]
  2349. p. 427, line 18[…] and made an attempt at such statements—which I certainly would not assume to do now, knowing more clearly […]
  2350. p. 427, line 20[…] grounds for " Leaves of Grass," as a poem, I abandon'd the conventional themes, which do not appear in it […]
  2351. p. 427, line 23[…] high, exceptional personages of Old-World song; nothing, as I may say, for beauty's sake—no legend, or myth, or […]
  2352. p. 427, line 36[…] of verse; for everything else has changed. As I write, I see in an article on Wordsworth, in one […]
  2353. p. 427, line 37[…] for everything else has changed. As I write, I see in an article on Wordsworth, in one of the […]
  2354. p. 427, line 41[…] cease to be read in fifty years." But I anticipate the very contrary. Only a firmer, vastly broader, new […]
  2355. p. 428, line 19My Book and I—what a period we have presumed to span! those thirty […]
  2356. p. 428, line 37[…] lunar and relative at the best. There are, I know, certain controling themes that seem endlessly appropriated to the […]
  2357. p. 429, line 2[…] But, strange as it may sound at first, I will say there is something striking far deeper and towering […]
  2358. p. 429, line 11[…] it stands, is the result of such presupposition. I should say, indeed, it were useless to attempt reading the […]
  2359. p. 429, line 34[…] poets and each poet, and forming their birth-marks. I know very well that my "Leaves" could not possibly have […]
  2360. p. 429, line 40[…] my friends claim it for me or not, I know well enough, too, that in respect to pictorial talent […]
  2361. p. 429, line 45[…] more, transcend (some of them immeasurably transcend) all I have done, or could do. But it seem'd to me […]
  2362. p. 430, line 29[…] nature of Poetry? The question is important, and I may turn the argument over and repeat it: Does not […]
  2363. p. 431, line 8[…] or New, are from them—and though if I were ask'd to name the most precious bequest to current […]
  2364. p. 431, line 10[…] current American civilization from all the hitherto ages, I am not sure but I would name those old and less old songs ferried hither […]
  2365. p. 431, line 38[…] of incalculable value as pictures of the past. I willingly make those admissions, and to their fullest extent; then […]
  2366. p. 431, line 41I have indeed put on record elsewhere my reverence and eulogy […]
  2367. p. 431, line 44[…] separate point must now be candidly stated. If I had not stood before those poems with uncover'd head, fully […]
  2368. p. 432, line 2[…] colossal grandeur and beauty of form and spirit, I could not have written "Leaves of Grass." My verdict and […]
  2369. p. 432, line 8[…] result and evolutionary outcome of the past, so I would dare to claim for my verse. Without stopping to […]
  2370. p. 432, line 21[…] facts of "Leaves of Grass," and especially how I enter'd upon them. Dr. Bucke has, in his volume, already […]
  2371. p. 432, line 26[…] or bad. Not till after all this, did I attempt any serious acquaintance with poetic literature. Along in my […]
  2372. p. 432, line 27[…] with poetic literature. Along in my sixteenth year I had become possessor of a stout, well-cramm'd one thousand page […]
  2373. p. 432, line 29[…] a stout, well-cramm'd one thousand page octavo volume (I have it yet,) containing Walter Scott's poetry entire—an inexhaustible […]
  2374. p. 432, line 33Later, at intervals, summers and falls, I used to go off, sometimes for a week at a […]
  2375. p. 433, line 1[…] seashores—there, in the presence of outdoor influences, I went over thoroughly the Old and New Testaments, and absorb'd […]
  2376. p. 433, line 4[…] you read,) Shakspere, Ossian, the best translated versions I could get of Homer, Eschylus, Sophocles, the old German Nibelungen […]
  2377. p. 433, line 7[…] other masterpieces, Dante's among them. As it happen'd, I read the latter mostly in an old wood. The Iliad […]
  2378. p. 433, line 8[…] an old wood. The Iliad (Buckley's prose version,) I read first thoroughly on the peninsula of Orient, northeast end […]
  2379. p. 433, line 11[…] and sand, with the sea on each side. (I have wonder'd since why I was not overwhelm'd by those mighty masters. Likely because I […]
  2380. p. 433, line 13[…] not overwhelm'd by those mighty masters. Likely because I read them, as described, in the full presence of Nature […]
  2381. p. 433, line 15Toward the last I had among much else look'd over Edgar Poe's poems—of […]
  2382. p. 433, line 16[…] else look'd over Edgar Poe's poems—of which I was not an admirer, tho' I always saw that beyond their limited range of melody (like […]
  2383. p. 433, line 22[…] room for all—has so many mansions!) But I was repaid in Poe's prose by the idea that (at […]
  2384. p. 433, line 28[…] had an early settlement, clearing the ground greatly. I saw, from the time my enterprise and questionings positively shaped […]
  2385. p. 433, line 29[…] and questionings positively shaped themselves (how best can I express my own distinctive era and surroundings, America, Democracy?) that […]
  2386. p. 433, line 34[…] personality—which personality, after many considerations and ponderings I deliberately settled should be myself—indeed could not be any […]
  2387. p. 433, line 35[…] be myself—indeed could not be any other. I also felt strongly (whether I have shown it or not […]
  2388. p. 433, line 36[…] be any other. I also felt strongly (whether I have shown it or not) that to the true and […]
  2389. p. 433, line 43[…] not been given to me. It is certain, I say, that, although I had made a start before, only from the occurrence of […]
  2390. p. 434, line 1[…] emotional depths it sounded and arous'd (of course, I don't mean in my own heart only, I saw it just as plainly in others, in millions)—that […]
  2391. p. 434, line 6I went down to the war fields in Virginia (end of […]
  2392. p. 434, line 15But I set out with the intention also of indicating or hinting […]
  2393. p. 434, line 16[…] also of indicating or hinting some point-characteristics which I since see (though I did not then, at least not definitely) were bases and […]
  2394. p. 434, line 18[…] toward those "Leaves" from the first. The word I myself put primarily for the description of them as they […]
  2395. p. 434, line 20[…] they stand at last, is the word Suggestiveness. I round and finish little, if anything; and could not, consistently […]
  2396. p. 434, line 22[…] her part to do, just as much as I have had mine. I seek less to state or display any theme or thought […]
  2397. p. 434, line 37[…] Carlyle, Emerson—is certainly involv'd in such questions. I say the profoundest service that poems or any other writings […]
  2398. p. 435, line 10[…] of European feudalism) it has not yet appear'd. I have allow'd the stress of my poems from beginning to […]
  2399. p. 435, line 15[…] reasons. Defiant of ostensible literary and other conventions, I avowedly chant "the great pride of man in himself," and […]
  2400. p. 435, line 17[…] less a motif of nearly all my verse. I think this pride indispensable to an American. I think it […]
  2401. p. 435, line 18[…] I think this pride indispensable to an American. I think it not inconsistent with obedience, humility, deference, and self-questioning […]
  2402. p. 435, line 45[…] better based and with fuller ranges than those—I was to endow the democratic averages of America. I was […]
  2403. p. 436, line 1[…] was to endow the democratic averages of America. I was to show that we, here and to-day, are eligible […]
  2404. p. 436, line 3[…] eligible now than any times of old were. I will also want my utterances (I said to myself before […]
  2405. p. 436, line 4[…] old were. I will also want my utterances (I said to myself before beginning) to be in spirit the […]
  2406. p. 436, line 6[…] sunny forenoon and early midday of my life.) I will want them to be the poems of women entirely […]
  2407. p. 436, line 7[…] poems of women entirely as much as men. I have wish'd to put the complete Union of the States […]
  2408. p. 436, line 17[…] this feature, intentionally palpable in a few lines, I shall only say the espousing principle of those lines so […]
  2409. p. 436, line 24[…] personality, the emotions, and a theme in literature. I am not going to argue the question by itself; it […]
  2410. p. 436, line 27[…] of a symphony. At last analogy the lines I allude to, and the spirit in which they are spoken […]
  2411. p. 436, line 38[…] time to come (if there should be such) I take occasion now to confirm those lines with the settled […]
  2412. p. 437, line 3[…] of thought, fairly began in my youthful mind, I had had a desire to attempt some worthy record of […]
  2413. p. 437, line 7[…] phrase) which is the foundation of moral America. I felt it all as positively then in my young days as I do now in my old ones; to formulate a poem […]
  2414. p. 437, line 13While I can not understand it or argue it out, I fully believe in a clue and purpose in Nature, entire […]
  2415. p. 437, line 32[…] no foundation for its fitting verse. Establish'd poems, I know, have the very great advantage of chanting the already […]
  2416. p. 437, line 41[…] mainly an attempt at personal statement or illustration, I will allow myself as further help to extract the following […]
  2417. p. 438, line 3[…] to what school the work implied or belong'd,) "I do not believe the artist, unknown and perhaps no longer […]
  2418. p. 438, line 8[…] Leaves of Grass" indeed (I cannot too often reiterate) has mainly been the outcropping of […]
  2419. p. 438, line 12[…] in America,) freely, fully and truly on record. I could not find any similar personal record in current literature […]
  2420. p. 438, line 15[…] distinctively as literature, or a specimen thereof, that I feel to dwell, or advance claims. No one will get […]
  2421. p. 438, line 19I say no land or people or circumstances ever existed so […]
  2422. p. 438, line 29In the free evening of my day I give to you, reader, the foregoing garrulous talk, thoughts, reminiscences […]