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SOMETIMES WITH ONE I LOVE.

First published in 1860.

SOMETIMES With one I love, I fill myself with rage, for fear I effuse unreturn'd love;

But now I think there is no unreturn'd love-the pay is certain, one way or another ;1

(I loved a certain person ardently, and my love was not return'd;

Yet out of that, I have written these songs.)

THAT SHADOW, MY LIKENESS.

First published in 1860.

THAT shadow, my likeness, that goes to and fro, seeking a livelihood, chattering, chaffering;

How often I find myself standing and looking at it where it

flits;

How often I question and doubt whether that is really me; -But in these, and among my lovers, and caroling my songs, O I never doubt whether that is really me.

AMONG THE MULTITUDE.

First published in 1860.

AMONG the men and women, the multitude,

I perceive one picking me out by secret and divine signs, Acknowledging none else—not parent, wife, husband, brother, child, any nearer than I am;

Some are baffled-But that one is not-that one knows me.

Ah, lover and perfect equal!

I meant that you should discover me so, by my faint indirec

tions;

And I, when I meet you, mean to discover you by the like in

you.

1 For lines 3 and 4, 1860 reads "Doubtless I could not have perceived the universe, or written one of the poems, if I had not freely given myself to comrades, to love."

O BOY of the West !1

TO A WESTERN BOY.

First published in 1860.

To you many things to absorb, I teach, to help you become eleve of mine:2

Yet if blood like mine circle not in your veins ;

If you be not silently selected by lovers, and do not silently se

lect lovers,

Of what use is it that you seek to become eleve of mine?

O YOU WHOM I OFTEN AND SILENTLY COME.
First published in 1860.

O YOU whom I often and silently come where you are, that I may be with you ;

As I walk by your side, or sit near, or remain in the same room

with you,

Little you know the subtle electric fire that for your sake is playing within me.

FULL OF LIFE, NOW.

First published in 1860.

FULL of life, now, compact, visible,

I, forty years old the Eighty-third Year of The States,
To one a century hence, or any number of centuries hence,
To you, yet unborn, these, seeking you.

When you read these, I, that was visible, am become invisible;
Now it is you, compact, visible, realizing my poems, seeking

me;

Fancying how happy you were, if I could be with you, and become your comrade;

Be it as if I were with you. (Be not too certain but I am now with you.)

1 Line I. Added in 1867.

2 1860 reads "To the young many many things to absorb, to engraft, to de velop, I teach, to help him become élève of mine."

[blocks in formation]

SALUT AU MONDE!

First published in 1856.

I

O TAKE my hand, Walt Whitman!

Such gliding wonders! such sights and sounds!
Such join'd unended links, each hook'd to the next!
Each answering all-each sharing the earth with all.

What widens within you, Walt Whitman?
What waves and soils exuding?

What climes? what persons and lands are here?

Who are the infants? some playing, some slumbering?

Who are the girls? who are the married women?

Who are the groups of1 old men going slowly with their arms

about each other's necks?

What rivers are these? what forests and fruits are these? What are the mountains call'd that rise so high in the mists? What myriads of dwellings are they, fill'd with dwellers?

2

Within me latitude widens, longitude lengthens;

ΙΟ

Asia, Africa, Europe, are to the east-America is provided for

in the west;

Banding the bulge of the earth winds the hot equator,
Curiously north and south turn the axis-ends;

Within me is the longest day-the sun wheels in slanting rings -it does not set for months;

Stretch'd in due time within me the midnight sun just rises above the horizon, and sinks again;

Within me zones, seas, cataracts, plants,' volcanoes, groups, 20 Malaysia. Polynesia, and the great West Indian islands.

1 1856 '60 '67 read "Who are the three old men," etc.

1856 '60 for "plants" read “ plains."

1856 '60 for "" Malaysia" read "Oceanica, Australasia."

3

What do you hear, Walt Whitman?

I hear the workman singing, and the farmer's wife singing; I hear in the distance the sounds of children, and of animals early in the day;'

I hear quick rifle-cracks from the riflemen of East Tennessee and Kentucky, hunting on hills;

I hear emulous shouts of Australians, pursuing the wild horse; I hear the Spanish dance, with castanets, in the chestnut shade, to the rebeck and guitar;

I hear continual echoes from the Thames ;

I hear fierce French liberty songs;

poems;

I hear of the Italian boat-sculler the musical recitative of old 30 I hear the Virginia plantation-chorus of negroes, of a harvest night, in the glare of pine-knots;

I hear the strong baritone of the 'long-shore-men of Mannahatta; I hear the stevedores unlading the cargoes, and singing;

I hear the screams of the water-fowl of solitary north-west lakes ;

I hear the rustling pattering of locusts, as they strike the grain and grass with the showers of their terrible clouds ;

I hear the Coptic refrain, toward sundown, pensively falling on the breast of the black venerable vast mother, the Nile;

I hear the bugles of raft-tenders on the streams of Kanada; I hear the chirp of the Mexican muleteer, and the bells of the mule;

I hear the Arab muezzin, calling from the top of the mosque ; I hear the Christian priests at the altars of their churches-I hear the responsive bass and soprano ;

40

I hear the wail of utter despair of the white-hair'd Irish grandparents, when they learn the death of their grandson;

I hear the cry of the Cossack, and the sailor's voice, putting to sea at Okotsk ;

I hear the wheeze of the slave-coffle, as the slaves march on-as the husky gangs pass on by twos and threes, fasten'd together with wrist-chains and ankle-chains;

1 1856 after line 24 reads "I hear the inimitable music of the voices of mothers,

I hear the persuasions of lovers."

I hear the entreaties of women tied up for punishment-I hear the sibilant whisk of thongs through the air ;1

I hear the Hebrew reading his records and psalms;

I hear the rhythmic myths of the Greeks, and the strong legends of the Romans;

I hear the tale of the divine life and bloody death of the beautiful God—the Christ;

I hear the Hindoo teaching his favorite pupil the loves, wars, adages, transmitted safely to this day, from poets who wrote three thousand years ago.

4

What do you see, Walt Whitman?

Who are they you salute, and that one after another salute you?

I see a great round wonaer rolling through the air;

50

I see diminute farms, hamlets, ruins, grave-yards, jails, factories, palaces, hovels, huts of barbarians, tents of nomads, upon the surface ;

I see the shaded part on one side, where the sleepers are sleeping -and the sun-lit part on the other side,

I see the curious silent change of the light and shade,

I see distant lands, as real and near to the inhabitants of them, as my land is to me.

I see plenteous waters;

I see mountain peaks-I see the sierras of Andes and Alleghanies, where they range;

I see plainly the Himalayas, Chian Shahs, Altays, Ghauts;
I see the giant pinnacles of Elbruz, Kazbek, Bazardjusi,"

I see the Rocky Mountains, and the Peak of Winds;

I see the Styrian Alps, and the Karnac Alps;

60

I see the Pyrenees, Balks, Carpathians-and to the north the Dofrafields, and off at sea Mount Hecla ;

I see Vesuvius and Etna-I see the Anahuacs;

I see the Mountains of the Moon, and the Snow Mountains, and the Red Mountains of Madagascar ;

I see the Vermont hills, and the long string of Cordilleras;

1 After line 44, 1856 reads "I hear the appeal of the greatest orator, he that turns states by the tip of his tongue."

Line 59 added in 1870.

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