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Consider, you who peruse me, whether I may not in unknown ways be looking upon you;

Be firm, rail over the river, to support those who lean idly, yet haste with the hasting current ;

Fly on, sea-birds! fly sideways, or wheel in large circles high in the air;

Receive the summer sky, you water! and faithfully hold it, till all downcast eyes have time to take it from you; Diverge, fine spokes of light, from the shape of my head, or any one's head, in the sun-lit water;

Come on, ships from the lower bay! pass up or down, whitesail'd schooners, sloops, lighters!

Flaunt away, flags of all nations! be duly lower'd at sunset; Burn high your fires, foundry chimneys! cast black shadows at nightfall! cast red and yellow light over the tops of the houses;

Appearances, now or henceforth, indicate what you are; 130 You necessary film, continue to envelop the soul;

About my body for me, and your body for you, be hung our

divinest aromas ;

Thrive, cities! bring your freight, bring your shows, ample and sufficient rivers;

Expand, being than which none else is perhaps more spiritual; Keep your places, objects than which none else is more lasting.

12

We descend upon you and all things-we arrest you all ;
We realize the soul only by you, you faithful solids and fluids;
Through you color, form, location, sublimity, ideality;
Through you every proof, comparison, and all the suggestions
and determinations of ourselves.

You have waited, you always wait, you dumb, beautiful ministers ! you novices!

140

We receive you with free sense at last, and are insatiate hence

forward;

Not you any more shall be able to foil us, or withhold yourselves

from us ;

We use you, and do not cast you aside-we plant you permanently within us;

We fathom you not-we love you—there is perfection in you

also ;

You furnish your parts toward eternity;

Great or small, you furnish your parts toward the soul.

WITH ANTECEDENTS.

First published in 1860.

I

WITH antecedents;

With my fathers and mothers, and the accumulations of past

ages;

With all which, had it not been, I would not now be here, as I

am:

With Egypt, India, Phenicia, Greece and Rome;

With the Kelt, the Scandinavian, the Alb, and the Saxon; With antique maritime ventures, with laws, artizanship, wars and journeys;

With the poet, the skald, the saga, the myth, and the oracle; With the sale of slaves-with enthusiasts-with the troubadour, the crusader, and the monk;

With those old continents whence we have come to this new

continent;

With the fading kingdoms and kings over there;
With the fading religions and priests;

ΙΟ

With the small shores we look back to from our own large and

present shores ;

With countless years drawing themselves onward, and arrived at

these years;

You and Me arrived-America arrived, and making this year; This year! sending itself ahead countless years to come.

2

O but it is not the years-it is I-it is You;

We touch all laws, and tally all antecedents;

We are the skald, the oracle, the monk, and the knight-we easily include them, and more ;

We stand amid time, beginningless and endless-we stand amid

evil and good;

All swings around us-there is as much darkness as light;

20

The very sun swings itself and its system of planets around us ; Its sun, ard its again, all swing around us.

As for me, (torn, stormy, even as I, amid these vehement

days,)'

I have the idea of all, and am all, and believe in all;

I believe materialism is true, and spiritualism is true—I reject no

part.

Have I forgotten any part?

Come to me, whoever and whatever, till I give you recognition.

I respect Assyria, China, Teutonia, and the Hebrews;
I adopt each theory, myth, god, and demi-god;

I see that the old accounts, bibles, genealogies, are true, without exception;

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I assert that all past days were what they should have been ;
And that they could no-how have been better than they were,
And that to-day is what it should be-and that America is,
And that to-day and America could no-how be better than they

are.

3

In the name of These States, and in your and my name, the

Past,

And in the name of These States, and in your and my name, the Present time.

I know that the past was great, and the future will be great, And I know that both curiously conjoint in the present time, (For the sake of him I typify-for the common average man's

sake your sake, if you are he ;)

And that where I am, or you are, this present day, there is the centre of all days, all races,

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And there is the meaning, to us, of all that has ever come of races and days, or ever will come.

1 1860 reads "as for me." 1867 adds " (torn, stormy,”) etc.

THE ANSWERER.

NOW LIST TO MY MORNING'S ROMANZA.

First published in 1855. In edition of 1856 under title of "Poem of the Poet."

I

Now list to my morning's romanza-I tell the signs of the An

swerer;

To the cities and farms I sing, as they spread in the sunshine before me.1

A young man comes to me bearing a message from his brother; How shall the young man know the whether and when of his brother?

Tell him to send me the signs.

And I stand before the young man face to face, and take his right hand in my left hand, and his left hand in my right hand,

And I answer for his brother, and for men, and I answer for him that answers for all, and send these signs.*

2

Him all wait for-him all yield up to-his word is decisive and

final,

Him they accept, in him lave, in him perceive themselves, as

amid light,

Him they immerse, and he immerses them.

ΙΟ

Beautiful women, the haughtiest nations, laws, the landscape, people, animals,

1 Lines 1 and 2 added in 1867. "I tell the signs of the Answerer'' added

in 1870.

2 1855 '56 '60 '67.

1855 '56'60 '67. 1855'56 '60'67.

For "stand" read "stood."

For "take" read "to k."

Line 7 reads "And I answered for his brother, and for men, and I answered for the Poet, and sent these signs."

The profound earth and its attributes, and the unquiet ocean, (so tell I my morning's romanza ;)'

All enjoyments and properties, and money, and whatever money will buy,

The best farms-others toiling and planting, and he unavoidably reaps,

The noblest and costliest cities-others grading and building, and he domiciles there;

Nothing for any one, but what is for him—near and far are for him, the ships in the offing,

The perpetual shows and marches on land, are for him, if they are for any body.

He puts things in their attitudes;

He puts to-day out of himself, with plasticity and love; He places his own city, times, reminiscences, parents, brothers and sisters, associations, employment, politics, so that the rest never shame them afterward, nor assume to command them.

He is the answerer;

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What can be answer'd he answers-and what cannot be answer'd, he shows how it cannot be answer'd.

3

A man is a summons and challenge;

(It is vain to skulk-Do you hear that mocking and laughter? Do you hear the ironical echoes?)

Books, friendships, philosophers, priests, action, pleasure, pride, beat up and down, seeking to give satisfaction;

He indicates the satisfaction, and indicates them that beat up and down also.

Whichever the sex, whatever the season or place, he may go freshly and gently and safely, by day or by night; He has the pass-key of hearts—to him the response of the prying of hands on the knobs.

His welcome is universal-the flow of beauty is not more welcome or universal than he is;

The person he favors by day, or sleeps with at night, is blessed. 30

1 "(so tell I my morning's romanza;)" added in 1867.

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