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Leaves of Grass (1891-92)
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ONE HOUR TO MADNESS AND JOY.
ONE hour to madness and joy! O furious! O confine me not! |
(What is this that frees me so in storms? |
What do my shouts amid lightnings and raging winds mean?) |
O to drink the mystic deliria deeper than any other man! |
O savage and tender achings! (I bequeath them to you my
children,
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I tell them to you, for reasons, O bridegroom and bride.) |
O to be yielded to you whoever you are, and you to be yielded to
me in defiance of the world!
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O to return to Paradise! O bashful and feminine! |
O to draw you to me, to plant on you for the first time the lips of
a determin'd man.
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O the puzzle, the thrice-tied knot, the deep and dark pool, all
untied and illumin'd!
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O to speed where there is space enough and air enough at last! |
To be absolv'd from previous ties and conventions, I from mine
and you from yours!
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To find a new unthought-of nonchalance with the best of Nature! |
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To have the gag remov'd from one's mouth! |
To have the feeling to-day or any day I am sufficient as I am. |
O something unprov'd! something in a trance! |
To escape utterly from others' anchors and holds! |
To drive free! to love free! to dash reckless and dangerous! |
To court destruction with taunts, with invitations! |
To ascend, to leap to the heavens of the love indicated to me! |
To rise thither with my inebriate soul! |
To be lost if it must be so! |
To feed the remainder of life with one hour of fulness and freedom! |
With one brief hour of madness and joy. |
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