The Walt Whitman Archive
Published Works
Books by Whitman
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [begin page 16] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
ME IMPERTURBE.
ME imperturbe, standing at ease in Nature,
Master of all or mistress of all, aplomb in the midst of irrational
things,
things,
Imbued as they, passive, receptive, silent as they,
Finding my occupation, poverty, notoriety, foibles, crimes, less im-
portant than I thought,
portant than I thought,
Me toward the Mexican sea, or in the Mannahatta or the Tennes-
see, or far north or inland,
see, or far north or inland,
A river man, or a man of the woods or of any farm-life of these
States or of the coast, or the lakes or Kanada,
States or of the coast, or the lakes or Kanada,
Me wherever my life is lived, O to be self-balanced for contingen-
cies,
cies,
To confront night, storms, hunger, ridicule, accidents, rebuffs, as
the trees and animals do.
the trees and animals do.