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Leaves of Grass (1891-92)
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I SAW IN LOUISIANA A LIVE-OAK GROWING.
I SAW in Louisiana a live-oak growing, |
All alone stood it and the moss hung down from the branches, |
Without any companion it grew there uttering joyous leaves of
dark green,
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And its look, rude, unbending, lusty, made me think of myself, |
But I wonder'd how it could utter joyous leaves standing alone
there without its friend near, for I knew I could not,
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And I broke off a twig with a certain number of leaves upon it,
and twined around it a little moss,
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And brought it away, and I have placed it in sight in my room, |
It is not needed to remind me as of my own dear friends, |
(For I believe lately I think of little else than of them,) |
Yet it remains to me a curious token, it makes me think of manly
love;
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For all that, and though the live-oak glistens there in Louisiana
solitary in a wide flat space,
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Uttering joyous leaves all its life without a friend a lover near, |
I know very well I could not. |
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