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Books by Whitman

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39.

SOMETIMES with one I love, I fill myself with rage, for
fear I effuse unreturned love;

But now I think there is no unreturned love—the
pay is certain, one way or another,

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Doubtless I could not have perceived the universe,
or written one of my poems, if I had not freely
given myself to comrades, to love.

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