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Leaves of Grass (1881-82)
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STARTING FROM PAUMANOK.
1
STARTING from fish-shape Paumanok where I was born, |
Well-begotten, and rais'd by a perfect mother, |
After roaming many lands, lover of populous pavements, |
Dweller in Mannahatta my city, or on southern savannas, |
Or a soldier camp'd or carrying my knapsack and gun, or a miner
in California,
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Or rude in my home in Dakota's woods, my diet meat, my drink
from the spring,
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Or withdrawn to muse and meditate in some deep recess, |
Far from the clank of crowds intervals passing rapt and happy, |
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Aware of the fresh free giver the flowing Missouri, aware of mighty
Niagara,
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Aware of the buffalo herds grazing the plains, the hirsute and
strong-breasted bull,
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Of earth, rocks, Fifth-month flowers experienced, stars, rain, snow,
my amaze,
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Having studied the mocking-bird's tones and the flight of the
mountain-hawk,
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And heard at dawn the unrivall'd one, the hermit thrush from the
swamp-cedars,
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Solitary, singing in the West, I strike up for a New World. |
2
Victory, union, faith, identity, time, |
The indissoluble compacts, riches, mystery, |
Eternal progress, the kosmos, and the modern reports. |
Here is what has come to the surface after so many throes and
convulsions.
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Underfoot the divine soil, overhead the sun. |
The ancestor-continents away group'd together, |
The present and future continents north and south, with the
isthmus between.
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See, vast trackless spaces, |
As in a dream they change, they swiftly fill, |
Countless masses debouch upon them, |
They are now cover'd with the foremost people, arts, institutions,
known.
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See, projected through time, |
For me an audience interminable. |
With firm and regular step they wend, they never stop, |
Successions of men, Americanos, a hundred millions, |
One generation playing its part and passing on, |
Another generation playing its part and passing on in its turn, |
With faces turn'd sideways or backward towards me to listen, |
With eyes retrospective towards me. |
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3
Americanos! conquerors! marches humanitarian! |
Foremost! century marches! Libertad! masses! |
For you a programme of chants. |
Chants of the long-running Mississippi, and down to the Mexican
sea,
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Chants of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota, |
Chants going forth from the centre from Kansas, and thence equi-
distant,
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Shooting in pulses of fire ceaseless to vivify all. |
4
Take my leaves America, take them South and take them North, |
Make welcome for them everywhere, for they are your own off-
spring,
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Surround them East and West, for they would surround you, |
And you precedents, connect lovingly with them, for they connect
lovingly with you.
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I sat studying at the feet of the great masters, |
Now if eligible O that the great masters might return and study me. |
In the name of these States shall I scorn the antique? |
Why these are the children of the antique to justify it. |
5
Dead poets, philosophs, priests, |
Martyrs, artists, inventors, governments long since, |
Language-shapers on other shores, |
Nations once powerful, now reduced, withdrawn, or desolate, |
I dare not proceed till I respectfully credit what you have left
wafted hither,
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I have perused it, own it is admirable, (moving awhile among it,) |
Think nothing can ever be greater, nothing can ever deserve more
than it deserves,
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Regarding it all intently a long while, then dismissing it, |
I stand in my place with my own day here. |
Here lands female and male, |
Here the heir-ship and heiress-ship of the world, here the flame of
materials,
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Here spirituality the translatress, the openly-avow'd, |
The ever-tending, the finale of visible forms, |
The satisfier, after due long-waiting now advancing, |
Yes here comes my mistress the soul. |
6
Forever and forever—longer than soil is brown and solid—longer
than water ebbs and flows.
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I will make the poems of materials, for I think they are to be the
most spiritual poems,
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And I will make the poems of my body and of mortality, |
For I think I shall then supply myself with the poems of my soul
and of immortality.
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I will make a song for these States that no one State may under
any circumstances be subjected to another State,
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And 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,
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And I will make a song for the ears of the President, full of weap-
ons with menacing points,
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And behind the weapons countless dissatisfied faces; |
And a song make I of the One form'd out of all, |
The fang'd and glittering One whose head is over all, |
Resolute warlike One including and over all, |
(However high the head of any else that head is over all.) |
I will acknowledge contemporary lands, |
I will trail the whole geography of the globe and salute courte-
ously every city large and small,
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And employments! I will put in my poems that with you is hero-
ism upon land and sea,
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And I will report all heroism from an American point of view. |
I will sing the song of companionship, |
I will show what alone must finally compact these, |
I believe these are to found their own ideal of manly love, indi-
cating it in me,
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I will therefore let flame from me the burning fires that were
threatening to consume me,
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I will lift what has too long kept down those smouldering fires, |
I will give them complete abandonment, |
I will write the evangel-poem of comrades and of love, |
For who but I should understand love with all its sorrow and joy? |
And who but I should be the poet of comrades? |
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I am the credulous man of qualities, ages, races, |
I advance from the people in their own spirit, |
Here is what sings unrestricted faith. |
Omnes! omnes! let others ignore what they may, |
I make the poem of evil also, I commemorate that part also, |
I am myself just as much evil as good, and my nation is—and I
say there is in fact no evil,
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(Or if there is I say it is just as important to you, to the land or
to me, as any thing else.)
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I too, following many and follow'd by many, inaugurate a religion,
I descend into the arena,
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(It may be I am destin'd to utter the loudest cries there, the win
ner's pealing shouts,
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Who knows? they may rise from me yet, and soar above every thing.) |
Each is not for its own sake, |
I say the whole earth and all the stars in the sky are for religion's
sake.
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I say no man has ever yet been half devout enough, |
None has ever yet adored or worship'd half enough, |
None has begun to think how divine he himself is, and how cer-
tain the future is.
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I say that the real and permanent grandeur of these States must
be their religion,
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Otherwise there is no real and permanent grandeur; |
(Nor character nor life worthy the name without religion, |
Nor land nor man or woman without religion.) |
8
What are you doing young man? |
Are you so earnest, so given up to literature, science, art, amours? |
These ostensible realities, politics, points? |
Your ambition or business whatever it may be? |
It is well—against such I say not a word, I am their poet also, |
But behold! such swiftly subside, burnt up for religion's sake, |
For not all matter is fuel to heat, impalpable flame, the essential
life of the earth,
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Any more than such are to religion. |
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9
What do you seek so pensive and silent? |
What do you need camerado? |
Dear son do you think it is love? |
Listen dear son—listen America, daughter or son, |
It is a painful thing to love a man or woman to excess, and yet it
satisfies, it is great,
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But there is something else very great, it makes the whole coin-
cide,
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It, magnificent, beyond materials, with continuous hands sweeps
and provides for all.
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10
Know you, solely to drop in the earth the germs of a greater
religion,
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The following chants each for its kind I sing. |
For you to share with me two greatnesses, and a third one rising
inclusive and more resplendent,
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The greatness of Love and Democracy, and the greatness of Reli-
gion.
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Melange mine own, the unseen and the seen, |
Mysterious ocean where the streams empty, |
Prophetic spirit of materials shifting and flickering around me, |
Living beings, identities now doubtless near us in the air that we
know not of,
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Contact daily and hourly that will not release me, |
These selecting, these in hints demanded of me. |
Not he with a daily kiss onward from childhood kissing me, |
Has winded and twisted around me that which holds me to him, |
Any more than I am held to the heavens and all the spiritual
world,
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After what they have done to me, suggesting themes. |
O such themes—equalities! O divine average! |
Warblings under the sun, usher'd as now, or at noon, or setting, |
Strains musical flowing through ages, now reaching hither, |
I take to your reckless and composite chords, add to them, and
cheerfully pass them forward.
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11
As I have walk'd in Alabama my morning walk, |
I have seen where the she-bird the mocking-bird sat on her nest
in the briers hatching her brood.
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I have seen the he-bird also, |
I have paus'd to hear him near at hand inflating his throat and
joyfully singing.
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And while I paus'd it came to me that what he really sang for was
not there only,
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Nor for his mate nor himself only, nor all sent back by the echoes, |
But subtle, clandestine, away beyond, |
A charge transmitted and gift occult for those being born. |
12
Democracy! near at hand to you a throat is now inflating itself
and joyfully singing.
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Ma femme! for the brood beyond us and of us, |
For those who belong here and those to come, |
I exultant to be ready for them will now shake out carols stronger
and haughtier than have ever yet been heard upon earth.
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I will make the songs of passion to give them their way, |
And your songs outlaw'd offenders, for I scan you with kindred
eyes, and carry you with me the same as any.
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I will make the true poem of riches, |
To earn for the body and the mind whatever adheres and goes
forward and is not dropt by death;
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I will effuse egotism and show it underlying all, and I will be the
bard of personality,
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And I will show of male and female that either is but the equal
of the other,
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And 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,
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And I will show that there is no imperfection in the present, and
can be none in the future,
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And I will show that whatever happens to anybody it may be
turn'd to beautiful results,
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And I will show that nothing can happen more beautiful than
death,
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And I will thread a thread through my poems that time and events
are compact,
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And that all the things of the universe are perfect miracles, each
as profound as any.
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I will not make poems with reference to parts, |
But I will make poems, songs, thoughts, with
reference to ensemble, |
And I will not sing with reference to a day, but with reference to
all days,
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And I will not make a poem nor the least part of a poem but has
reference to the soul,
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Because 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.
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13
Was somebody asking to see the soul? |
See, your own shape and countenance, persons, substances, beasts,
the trees, the running rivers, the rocks and sands.
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All hold spiritual joys and afterwards loosen them; |
How can the real body ever die and be buried? |
Of your real body and any man's or woman's real body, |
Item for item it will elude the hands of the corpse-cleaners and
pass to fitting spheres,
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Carrying what has accrued to it from the moment of birth to the
moment of death.
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Not the types set up by the printer return their impression,
the meaning, the main concern,
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Any more than a man's substance and life or a woman's substance
and life return in the body and the soul,
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Indifferently before death and after death. |
Behold, the body includes and is the meaning, the main concern,
and includes and is the soul;
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Whoever you are, how superb and how divine is your body, or any
part of it!
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Whoever you are, to you endless announcements! |
Daughter of the lands did you wait for your poet? |
Did you wait for one with a flowing mouth and indicative hand? |
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Toward the male of the States, and toward the female of the States, |
Exulting words, words to Democracy's lands. |
Interlink'd, food-yielding lands! |
Land of coal and iron! land of gold! land of cotton, sugar, rice! |
Land of wheat, beef, pork! land of wool and hemp! land of the
apple and the grape!
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Land of the pastoral plains, the grass-fields of the world! land of
those sweet-air'd interminable plateaus!
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Land of the herd, the garden, the healthy house of adobie! |
Lands where the north-west Columbia winds, and where the south-
west Colorado winds!
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Land of the eastern Chesapeake! land of the Delaware! |
Land of Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan! |
Land of the Old Thirteen! Massachusetts land! land of Vermont
and Connecticut!
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Land of the ocean shores! land of sierras and peaks! |
Land of boatmen and sailors! fishermen's land! |
Inextricable lands! the clutch'd together! the passionate ones! |
The side by side! the elder and younger brothers! the bony-
limb'd!
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The great women's land! the feminine! the experienced sisters
and the inexperienced sisters!
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Far breath'd land! Arctic braced! Mexican breez'd! the diverse!
the compact!
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The Pennsylvanian! the Virginian! the double Carolinian! |
O all and each well-loved by me! my intrepid nations! O I at
any rate include you all with perfect love!
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I cannot be discharged from you! not from one any sooner than
another!
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O death! O for all that, I am yet of you unseen this hour with
irrepressible love,
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Walking New England, a friend, a traveler, |
Splashing my bare feet in the edge of the summer ripples on Pau-
manok's sands,
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Crossing the prairies, dwelling again in Chicago, dwelling in every
town,
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Observing shows, births, improvements, structures, arts, |
Listening to orators and oratresses in public halls, |
Of and through the States as during life, each man and woman
my neighbor,
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The Louisianian, the Georgian, as near to me, and I as near to
him and her,
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The Mississippian and Arkansian yet with me, and I yet with any
of them,
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Yet upon the plains west of the spinal river, yet in my house of
adobie,
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Yet returning eastward, yet in the Seaside State or in Maryland, |
Yet Kanadian cheerily braving the winter, the snow and ice wel-
come to me,
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Yet a true son either of Maine or of the Granite State, or the
Narragansett Bay State, or the Empire State,
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Yet sailing to other shores to annex the same, yet welcoming every
new brother,
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Hereby applying these leaves to the new ones from the hour they
unite with the old ones,
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Coming among the new ones myself to be their companion and
equal, coming personally to you now,
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Enjoining you to acts, characters, spectacles, with me. |
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With me with firm holding, yet haste, haste on. |
For your life adhere to me, |
(I may have to be persuaded many times before I consent to give
myself really to you, but what of that?
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Must not Nature be persuaded many times?) |
No dainty dolce affettuoso I, |
Bearded, sun-burnt, gray-neck'd, forbidding, I have arrived, |
To be wrestled with as I pass for the solid prizes of the universe, |
For such I afford whoever can persevere to win them. |
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On my way a moment I pause, |
Here for you! and here for America! |
Still the present I raise aloft, still the future of the States I
harbinge glad and sublime,
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And for the past I pronounce what the air holds of the red
aborigines.
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Leaving natural breaths, sounds of rain and winds, calls as of birds
and animals in the woods, syllabled to us for names,
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Okonee, Koosa, Ottawa, Monongahela, Sauk, Natchez, Chatta-
hoochee, Kaqueta, Oronoco,
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Wabash, Miami, Saginaw, Chippewa, Oshkosh, Walla-Walla, |
Leaving such to the States they melt, they depart, charging the
water and the land with names.
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Expanding and swift, henceforth, |
Elements, breeds, adjustments, turbulent, quick and audacious, |
A world primal again, vistas of glory incessant and branching, |
A new race dominating previous ones and grander far, with new
contests,
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New politics, new literatures and religions, new inventions and arts. |
These, my voice announcing—I will sleep no more but arise, |
You oceans that have been calm within me! how I feel you, fathom-
less, stirring, preparing unprecedented waves and storms.
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See, steamers steaming through my poems, |
See, in my poems immigrants continually coming and landing, |
See, in arriere, the wigwam, the trail, the hunter's hut, the flat-boat,
the maize-leaf, the claim, the rude fence, and the backwoods
village,
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See, on the one side the Western Sea and on the other the Eastern
Sea, how they advance and retreat upon my poems as upon
their own shores,
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See, pastures and forests in my poems—see, animals wild and
tame—see, beyond the Kaw, countless herds of buffalo
feeding on short curly grass,
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See, in my poems, cities, solid, vast, inland, with paved streets,
with iron and stone edifices, ceaseless vehicles, and com-
merce,
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See, the many-cylinder'd steam printing-press—see, the electric
telegraph stretching across the continent,
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See, through Atlantica's depths pulses American Europe reaching,
pulses of Europe duly return'd,
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See, the strong and quick locomotive as it departs, panting, blowing
the steam-whistle,
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See, ploughmen ploughing farms—see, miners digging mines—
see, the numberless factories,
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See, mechanics busy at their benches with tools—see from among
them superior judges, philosophs, Presidents, emerge, drest
in working dresses,
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See, lounging through the shops and fields of the States, me well-
belov'd, close-held by day and night,
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Hear the loud echoes of my songs there—read the hints come at
last.
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O camerado close! O you and me at last, and us two only. |
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O a word to clear one's path ahead endlessly! |
O something ecstatic and undemonstrable! O music wild! |
O now I triumph—and you shall also; |
O hand in hand—O wholesome pleasure—O one more desirer
and lover!
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O to haste firm holding—to haste, haste on with me. |
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