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Leaves of Grass (1881-82)
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A SONG OF THE ROLLING EARTH.
1
A SONG of the rolling earth, and of words according, |
Were you thinking that those were the words, those upright lines?
those curves, angles, dots?
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No, those are not the words, the substantial words are in the
ground and sea,
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They are in the air, they are in you. |
Were you thinking that those were the words, those delicious sounds
out of your friends' mouths?
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No, the real words are more delicious than they. |
Human bodies are words, myriads of words, |
(In the best poems re-appears the body, man's or woman's, well-
shaped, natural, gay,
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Every part able, active, receptive, without shame or the need of
shame.)
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Air, soil, water, fire—those are words, |
I myself am a word with them—my qualities interpenetrate with
theirs—my name is nothing to them,
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Though it were told in the three thousand languages, what would
air, soil, water, fire, know of my name?
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A healthy presence, a friendly or commanding gesture, are words,
sayings, meanings,
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The charms that go with the mere looks of some men and women,
are sayings and meanings also.
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The workmanship of souls is by those inaudible words of the earth, |
The masters know the earth's words and use them more than
audible words.
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Amelioration is one of the earth's words, |
The earth neither lags nor hastens, |
It has all attributes, growths, effects, latent in itself from the jump, |
It is not half beautiful only, defects and excrescences show just as
much as perfections show.
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The earth does not withhold, it is generous enough, |
The truths of the earth continually wait, they are not so conceal'd
either,
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They are calm, subtle, untransmissible by print, |
They are imbued through all things conveying themselves willingly, |
Conveying a sentiment and invitation, I utter and utter, |
I speak not, yet if you hear me not of what avail am I to you? |
To bear, to better, lacking these of what avail am I? |
Will you rot your own fruit in yourself there? |
Will you squat and stifle there?) |
The earth does not argue, |
Is not pathetic, has no arrangements, |
Does not scream, haste, persuade, threaten, promise, |
Makes no discriminations, has no conceivable failures, |
Closes nothing, refuses nothing, shuts none out, |
Of all the powers, objects, states, it notifies, shuts none out. |
The earth does not exhibit itself nor refuse to exhibit itself, pos-
sesses still underneath,
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Underneath the ostensible sounds, the august chorus of heroes, the
wail of slaves,
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Persuasions of lovers, curses, gasps of the dying, laughter of young
people, accents of bargainers,
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Underneath these possessing words that never fail. |
To her children the words of the eloquent dumb great mother
never fail,
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The true words do not fail, for motion does not fail and reflection
does not fail,
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Also the day and night do not fail, and the voyage we pursue does
not fail.
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Of the interminable sisters, |
Of the ceaseless cotillons of sisters, |
Of the centripetal and centrifugal sisters, the elder and younger
sisters,
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The beautiful sister we know dances on with the rest. |
With her ample back towards every beholder, |
With the fascinations of youth and the equal fascinations of age, |
Sits she whom I too love like the rest, sits undisturb'd, |
Holding up in her hand what has the character of a mirror, while
her eyes glance back from it,
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Glance as she sits, inviting none, denying none, |
Holding a mirror day and night tirelessly before her own face. |
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Seen at hand or seen at a distance, |
Duly the twenty-four appear in public every day, |
Duly approach and pass with their companions or a companion, |
Looking from no countenances of their own, but from the counte-
nances of those who are with them,
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From the countenances of children or women or the manly coun-
tenance,
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From the open countenances of animals or from inanimate things, |
From the landscape or waters or from the exquisite apparition of
the sky,
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From our countenances, mine and yours, faithfully returning them, |
Every day in public appearing without fail, but never twice with
the same companions.
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Embracing man, embracing all, proceed the three hundred and
sixty-five resistlessly round the sun;
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Embracing all, soothing, supporting, follow close three hundred
and sixty-five offsets of the first, sure and necessary as they.
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Tumbling on steadily, nothing dreading, |
Sunshine, storm, cold, heat, forever withstanding, passing, carrying, |
The soul's realization and determination still inheriting, |
The fluid vacuum around and ahead still entering and dividing, |
No balk retarding, no anchor anchoring, on no rock striking, |
Swift, glad, content, unbereav'd, nothing losing, |
Of all able and ready at any time to give strict account, |
The divine ship sails the divine sea. |
2
Whoever you are! motion and reflection are especially for you, |
The divine ship sails the divine sea for you. |
Whoever you are! you are he or she for whom the earth is solid
and liquid,
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You are he or she for whom the sun and moon hang in the sky, |
For none more than you are the present and the past, |
For none more than you is immortality. |
Each man to himself and each woman to herself, is the word of
the past and present, and the true word of immortality;
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No one can acquire for another—not one, |
Not one can grow for another—not one. |
The song is to the singer, and comes back most to him, |
The teaching is to the teacher, and comes back most to him, |
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The murder is to the murderer, and comes back most to him, |
The theft is to the thief, and comes back most to him, |
The love is to the lover, and comes back most to him, |
The gift is to the giver, and comes back most to him—it cannot
fail,
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The oration is to the orator, the acting is to the actor and actress
not to the audience,
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And no man understands any greatness or goodness but his own,
or the indication of his own.
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3
I swear the earth shall surely be complete to him or her who shall
be complete,
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The earth remains jagged and broken only to him or her who
remains jagged and broken.
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I swear there is no greatness or power that does not emulate
those of the earth,
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There can be no theory of any account unless it corroborate the
theory of the earth,
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No politics, song, religion, behavior, or what not, is of account,
unless it compare with the amplitude of the earth,
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Unless it face the exactness, vitality, impartiality, rectitude of the
earth.
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I swear I begin to see love with sweeter spasms than that which
responds love,
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It is that which contains itself, which never invites and never
refuses.
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I swear I begin to see little or nothing in audible words, |
All merges toward the presentation of the unspoken meanings
of the earth,
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Toward him who sings the songs of the body and of the truths
of the earth,
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Toward him who makes the dictionaries of words that print can-
not touch.
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I swear I see what is better than to tell the best, |
It is always to leave the best untold. |
When I undertake to tell the best I find I cannot, |
My tongue is ineffectual on its pivots, |
My breath will not be obedient to its organs, |
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The best of the earth cannot be told anyhow, all or any is best, |
It is not what you anticipated, it is cheaper, easier, nearer, |
Things are not dismiss'd from the places they held before, |
The earth is just as positive and direct as it was before, |
Facts, religions, improvements, politics, trades, are as real as before, |
But the soul is also real, it too is positive and direct, |
No reasoning, no proof has establish'd it, |
Undeniable growth has establish'd it. |
4
These to echo the tones of souls and the phrases of souls, |
(If they did not echo the phrases of souls what were they then? |
If they had not reference to you in especial what were they then?) |
I swear I will never henceforth have to do with the faith that tells
the best,
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I will have to do only with that faith that leaves the best untold. |
Say on, sayers! sing on, singers! |
Delve! mould! pile the words of the earth! |
Work on, age after age, nothing is to be lost, |
It may have to wait long, but it will certainly come in use, |
When the materials are all prepared and ready, the architects shall
appear.
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I swear to you the architects shall appear without fail, |
I swear to you they will understand you and justify you, |
The greatest among them shall be he who best knows you, and
encloses all and is faithful to all,
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He and the
rest shall not forget you, they shall perceive that you
are not an iota less than they,
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You shall be fully glorified in them. |
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