Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman

Leaves of Grass (1881-82)

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ASSURANCES.

I NEED no assurances, I am a man who is pre-occupied of his
own soul;

I 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,

I do not doubt but the majesty and beauty of the world are latent
in any iota of the world,

I do not doubt I am limitless, and that the universes are limitless,
in vain I try to think how limitless,

I 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,

I do not doubt that temporary affairs keep on and on millions of
years,

I 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,

I 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,

(Did you think Life was so well provided for, and Death, the pur-
port of all Life, is not well provided for?)

I 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,

I do not doubt that whatever can possibly happen anywhere at
any time, is provided for in the inherences of things,

I do not think Life provides for all and for Time and Space, but I
believe Heavenly Death provides for all.

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