The Walt Whitman Archive
Published Works
Books by Whitman
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [begin page 113] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
ONE HOUR TO MADNESS AND JOY.
1ONE 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?)
mean?)
2O to drink the mystic deliria deeper than any other
man;
man;
O savage and tender achings!
(I bequeath them to you, my children,
I tell them to you, for reasons, O bridegroom and bride.)
3O to be yielded to you, whoever you are, and you to
be yielded to me, in defiance of the world!
be yielded to me, in defiance of the world!
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!
the lips of a determin'd man!
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4O the puzzle—the thrice-tied knot—the deep and dark
pool! O all untied and illumin'd!
pool! O all untied and illumin'd!
O to speed where there is space enough and air enough
at last!
at last!
O to be absolv'd from previous ties and conventions—I
from mine, and you from yours!
from mine, and you from yours!
O to find a new unthought-of nonchalance with the best
of nature?
of nature?
O to have the gag remov'd from one's mouth!
O to have the feeling, to-day or any day, I am sufficient
as I am!
as I am!
5O something unprov'd! something in a trance!
O madness amorous! O trembling!
O to escape utterly from others' anchors and holds!
To drive free! to love free! to dash reckless and dan-
gerous!
gerous!
To court destruction with taunts—with invitations!
To ascend—to leap to the heavens of the love indicated
to me!
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!
and freedom!
With one brief hour of madness and joy.