To take the best of the farmer's farm and the rich man's elegant villa, and the chaste blessings of the well-married couple, and the fruits of orchards and flowers of gardens, To take to your use out of the compact cities as you pass through, To carry buildings and streets with you afterward wherever you go, 180 To gather the minds of men out of their brains as you encounter them to gather the love out of their hearts, To take your lovers on the road with you, for all that you leave them behind you, To know the universe itself as a road—as many roads-as roads for traveling souls. The Soul travels; 14 The body does not travel as much as the soul; The body has just as great a work as the soul, and parts away at last for the journeys of the soul. All parts away for the progress of souls; All religion, all solid things, arts, governments,-all that was or is apparent upon this globe or any globe, falls into niches and corners before the procession of Souls along the grand roads of the universe. Of the progress of the souls of men and women along the grand roads of the universe, all other progress is the needed emblem and sustenance. Forever alive, forever forward, 190 Stately, solemn, sad, withdrawn, baffled, mad, turbulent, feeble, dissatisfied, Desperate, proud, fond, sick, accepted by men, rejected by men, They go they go! I know that they go, but I know not where they go ; But I know that they go toward the best-toward something great. 15 Allons! whoever you are! come forth! You must not stay sleeping and dallying there in the house,' though you built it, or though it has been built for you. 1 1856 reads "You must not stay in your house, though you built it," etc. Allons! out of the dark confinement ! It is useless to protest-I know all, and expose it. Behold, through you as bad as the rest, Through the laughter, dancing, dining, supping, of people, 200 Inside of dresses and ornaments, inside of those wash'd and trimm'd faces, Behold a secret silent loathing and despair. No husband, no wife, no friend, trusted to hear the confession ;' Another self, a duplicate of every one, skulking and hiding it 2 goes, Formless and wordless through the streets of the cities, polite and bland in the parlors, In the cars of rail-roads, in steamboats, in the public assembly, Home to the houses of men and women,' at the table, in the bed-room, everywhere, Smartly attired, countenance smiling, form upright, death under the breast-bones, hell under the skull-bones, Under the broadcloth and gloves, under the ribbons and artificial flowers, Keeping fair with the customs, speaking not a syllable of it self, Speaking of anything else, but never of itself. 16 Allons through struggles and wars! The goal that was named cannot be countermanded. Have the past struggles succeeded? What has succeeded? yourself? your nation? nature? 210 Now understand me well-It is provided in the essence of things, that from any fruition of success, no matter what, shall come forth something to make a greater struggle necessary. My call is the call of battle-I nourish active rebellion; 1 1856 '60 read " No husband, no wife, no friend, no lover, so trusted as to hear the confession." He going with me goes often with spare diet, poverty, angry enemies, desertions.1 17 Allons! the road is before us! It is safe-I have tried it—my own feet have tried it well. Allons! be not detain'd! 220 Let the paper remain on the desk unwritten, and the book on the shelf unopen'd! Let the tools remain in the workshop! let the money remain unearn'd! Let the school stand! mind not the cry of the teacher! Let the preacher preach in his pulpit! let the lawyer plead in the court, and the judge expound the law. Mon enfant! I give you my hand! I give you my love, more precious than money, I give you myself, before preaching or law; Will you give me yourself? will you come travel with me? 230 Shall we stick by each other as long as we live ? I SIT AND LOOK OUT. First published in 1860. I SIT and look out upon all the sorrows of the world, and upon all oppression and shame; I hear secret convulsive sobs from young men, at anguish with themselves, remorseful after deeds done; I see, in low life, the mother misused by her children, dying, neglected, gaunt, desperate; I see the wife misused by her husband-I see the treacherous seducer of young women; I mark the ranklings of jealousy and unrequited love, attempted to be hid-I see these sights on the earth; I see the workings of battle, pestilence, tyranny-I see martyrs and prisoners; 1 1856. For "desertions" reads "contentions." I observe a famine at sea-I observe the sailors casting lots who shall be kill'd, to preserve the lives of the rest; I observe the slights and degradations cast by arrogant persons upon laborers, the poor, and upon negroes, and the like; All these-All the meanness and agony without end, I sitting, look out upon, See, hear, and am silent. ΙΟ ME IMPERTURBE. First published in 1860. ME imperturbe, standing at ease in Nature, Master of all, or mistress of all-aplomb in the midst of irrational things, Imbued as they-passive, receptive, silent as they, Finding my occupation, poverty, notoriety, foibles, crimes, less important than I thought; Me private, or public, or menial, or solitary-all these subordinate, (I am eternally equal with the best-I am not subordinate ;) Me toward the Mexican Sea, or in the Mannahatta, or the Tennessee, or far north, or inland, A river man, or a man of the woods, or of any farm-life in These States, or of the coast, or the lakes, or Kanada, Me, wherever my life is' lived, O to be self-balanced for contingencies! O to confront night, storms, hunger, ridicule, accidents, rebuffs, as the trees and animals do. AS I LAY WITH MY HEAD IN YOUR LAP, CAMERADO. As I lay with my head in your lap, Camerado, The confession I made I resume-what I said to you in the open air I resume : I know I am restless, and make others so; I know my words are weapons, full of danger, full of death; (Indeed I am myself the real soldier ; It is not he, there, with his bayonet, and not the red-striped artilleryman ;) 1 1860 reads "to be lived," etc. For I confront peace, security, and all the settled laws, to unsettle them; I am more resolute because all have denied me, than I could ever have been had all accepted me; I heed not, and have never heeded, either experience, cautions, majorities, nor ridicule; And the threat of what is call'd hell is little or nothing to me; ΙΟ And the lure of what is call'd heaven is little or nothing to me; Dear camerado! I confess I have urged you onward with me, and still urge you, without the least idea what is our destination, Or whether we shall be victorious, or utterly quell'd and defeated. CROSSING BROOKLYN FERRY. First published in 1856 under title of "Sun-Down Poem." I FLOOD-TIDE below me !1 I watch you face to face; Clouds of the west! sun there half an hour high! I see you also face to face. Crowds of men and women attired in the usual costumes! how curious you are to me! On the ferry-boats, the hundreds and hundreds that cross, returning home,' are more curious to me than you suppose; And you that shall cross from shore to shore years hence, are more to me, and more in my meditations, than you might suppose. 2 The impalpable sustenance of me from all things, at all hours of the day; The simple, compact, well-join'd scheme-myself disintegrated, 1 1856 reads "Flood-tide of the river, flow on!" etc. |