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Books by Whitman

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15 — Clef Poem.

THIS night I am happy,

As I watch the stars shining, I think a
thought of the clef of the universes, and
of the future.

What can the future bring me more than I have?

Do you suppose I wish to enjoy life in other
spheres?

I say distinctly I comprehend no better sphere
than this earth,

I comprehend no better life than the life of my
body.

I do not know what follows the death of my body,

But I know well that whatever it is, it is best for
me,

And I know well that what is really Me shall live
just as much as before.

I am not uneasy but I shall have good housing to
myself,

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But this is my first—how can I like the rest any
better?

Here I grew up—the studs and rafters are grown
parts of me.

I am not uneasy but I am to be beloved by young
and old men, and to love them the same,

I suppose the pink nipples of the breasts of women
with whom I shall sleep will taste the same
to my lips,

But this is the nipple of a breast of my mother,
always near and always divine to me, her
true child and son.

I suppose I am to be eligible to visit the stars, in
my time,

I suppose I shall have myriads of new experiences
—and that the experience of this earth will
prove only one out of myriads;

But I believe my body and my soul already
indicate those experiences,

And I believe I shall find nothing in the stars
more majestic and beautiful than I have
already found on the earth,

And I believe I have this night a clue through
the universes,

And I believe I have this night thought a thought
of the clef of eternity.

A vast similitude interlocks all,

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All spheres, grown, ungrown, small, large, suns,
moons, planets, comets, asteroids,

All the substances of the same, and all that is
spiritual upon the same,

All distances of place, however wide,

All distances of time—all inanimate forms,

All souls—all living bodies, though they be in
different worlds,

All gaseous, watery, vegetable, mineral processes,
the fishes, the brutes,

All men and women—me also,

All nations, colors, barbarisms, civilizations, lan-
guages,

All identities that have existed or may exist on
this globe or any globe,

All lives and deaths—all of past, present, future,

This vast similitude spans them, and always has
spanned, and shall forever span them.

Distributed under a Creative Commons License. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price, editors.