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On the white shore dripping, dripping, suck'd in by the sand; Tears-not a star shining-all dark and desolate ;

Moist tears from the eyes of a muffled head:

-O who is that ghost?—that form in the dark, with tears? What shapeless lump is that, bent, crouch'd there on the sand? Streaming tears-sobbing tears-throes, choked with wild cries; O storm, embodied, rising, careering, with swift steps along the beach;

O wild and dismal night storm, with wind! O belching and desperate !

ΙΩ

O shade, so sedate and decorous by day, with calm countenance and regulated pace;

But away, at night, as you fly, none looking--O then the unloosen'd ocean,

Of tears! tears! tears!

ABOARD, AT A SHIP'S HELM.

First published in 1867.

ABOARD, at a ship's helm,

A young steersman, steering with care.

A bell through fog on a sea-coast dolefully ringing,
An ocean-bell-O a warning bell, rock'd by the waves.

O you give good notice indeed, you bell by the sea-reefs ringing, Ringing, ringing, to warn the ship from its wreck-place.

For, as on the alert, O steersman, you mind the bell's admonition,

The bows turn,-the freighted ship, tacking, speeds away under her gray sails,

The beautiful and noble ship, with all her precious wealth, speeds away gaily and safe.

But O the ship, the immortal ship! O ship aboard the ship! 10 O ship of the body-ship of the soul-voyaging, voyaging,

voyaging.

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While ravening clouds, the burial clouds, in black masses spread

ing,

Lower, sullen and fast, athwart and down the sky,

Amid a transparent clear belt of ether yet left in the east,
Ascends, large and calm, the lord-star Jupiter;

And nigh at hand, only a very little above,

Swim the delicate brothers, the Pleiades.

ΙΟ

2

From the beach, the child, holding the hand of her father, Those burial-clouds that lower, victorious, soon to devour all, Watching, silently weeps.

Weep not, child,

Weep not, my darling,

With these kisses let me remove your tears;

The ravening clouds shall not long be victorious,

They shall not long possess the sky-shall devour the stars only in apparition:

Jupiter shall emerge-be patient-watch again another nightthe Pleiades shall emerge,

They are immortal-all those stars, both silvery and golden, shall shine out again,

20

The great stars and the little ones shall shine out again—they

endure ;

The vast immortal suns, and the long-enduring pensive moons, shall again shine.

3

Then, dearest child, mournest thou only for Jupiter?
Considerest thou alone the burial of the stars?

Something there is,

(With my lips soothing thee, adding, I whisper,

I give thee the first suggestion, the problem and indirection,)
Something there is more immortal even than the stars,

(Many the burials, many the days and nights, passing away,)
Something that shall endure longer even than lustrous Jupiter, 30
Longer than sun, or any revolving satellite,
Or the radiant brothers, the Pleiades.

THE WORLD BELOW THE BRINE.

First published in 1867.

THE world below the brine;

Forests at the bottom of the sea-the branches and leaves, Sea-lettuce, vast lichens, strange flowers and seeds—the thick tangle, the openings, and the pink turf,

Different colors, pale gray and green, purple, white, and gold— the play of light through the water,

Dumb swimmers there among the rocks-coral, gluten, grass, rushes and the aliment of the swimmers,

Sluggish existences grazing there, suspended, or slowly crawling close to the bottom,

The sperm-whale at the surface, blowing air and spray, or disporting with his flukes,

The leaden-eyed shark, the walrus, the turtle, the hairy sealeopard, and the sting-ray;

Passions there-wars, pursuits, tribes-sight in those ocean-depths -breathing that thick-breathing air, as so many do; The change thence to the sight here, and to the subtle air breathed by beings like us, who walk this sphere;

ΙΟ

The change onward from ours, to that of beings who walk other spheres.

ON THE BEACH AT NIGHT ALONE.

First published in 1856, under title of "Clef Poem."

ON the beach at night arone,'

As the old mother sways her to and fro, singing her husky song,' As I watch the bright stars shining-I think a thought of the clef of the universes, and of the future.3

1 1856 '60 begin the poem "This Night I am happy." Line I added in 1867.

2 Line 2 added in 1860, which reads "As I walk the beach where the old mother sways to and fro, singing her savage and husky song."

3 After line 3, 1856 '60 add:

A VAST SIMILITDUE interlocks all,

All spheres, grown, ungrown, small, large, suns, moons, planets, comets, asteroids,

All the substances of the same, and all that is spiritual upon the

same,

All distances of place, however wide,

All distances of time-all inanimate forms,

All Souls-all living bodies, though they be ever so different, or in different worlds,

All gaseous, watery, vegetable, mineral processes—the fishes, the brutes,

All men and women-me also;

All nations, colors, barbarisms, civilizations, languages ;

ΙΟ

All identities that have existed, or may exist, on this globe, or

any globe;

All lives and deaths-all of the past, present, future;

This vast similitude spans them, and always has spann'd, and shall forever span them, and compactly hold them, and enclose them.1

"What can the future bring me more than I have? Do you suppose I wish to enjoy life in other spheres?

I say distinctly I comprehend no better sphere than this earth,

I comprehend no better life than the life of my body.

I do not know what follows the death of my body,

But I know well that whatever it is, it is best for me,

And I know well that whatever is really Me shall live just as much as before

I am not uneasy but I shall have good housing to myself,

But this is my first-how can I like the rest any better?

Here I grew up-the studs and rafters are grown parts of me.

I am not uneasy but I am to be beloved by young and old men, and to love them the same,

I suppose the pink nipples of the breasts of women with whom I shall sleep will taste the same to my lips,*

But this is the nipple of a breast of my mother, always near and always divine to me, her true child and son, whatever comes.†

I

suppose I am to be eligible to visit the stars, in my time,

I suppose I shall have myriads of new experiences-and that the experience of

this earth will prove only one out of myriads;

But I believe my body and my Soul already indicate those experiences,

And I believe I shall find nothing in the stars more majestic and beautiful than

I have already found on the earth,

And I believe I have this night a clew through the universes,

And I believe I have this night thought a thought of the clef of eternity."

1" and enclose them" added in 1870.

* 1860 reads "wili touch the side of my face the same."

"Whatever comes" added in 1860.

LEAVES OF GRASS.

A CAROL OF HARVEST, FOR 1867.

First published in 1870.

I

A SONG of the good green grass!

A song no more of the city streets;

A song of farms-a song of the soil of fields.

A song with the smell of sun-dried hay, where the nimble pitchers handle the pitch-fork;

A song tasting of new wheat, and of fresh-husk'd maize.

2

For the lands, and for these passionate days, and for myself,
Now I awhile return to thee, O soil of Autumn fields,
Reclining on thy breast, giving myself to thee,
Answering the pulses of thy sane and equable heart,
Tuning a verse for thee.

O Earth, that hast no voice, confide to me a voice!

O harvest of my lands! O boundless summer growths!

O lavish, brown, parturient earth! O infinite, teeming womb! A verse to seek, to see, to narrate thee.

Ever upon this stage,

3

Is acted God's calm, annual drama,

Gorgeous processions, songs of birds,

Sunrise, that fullest feeds and freshens most the soul,

ΙΟ

The heaving sea, the waves upon the shore, the musical, strong

waves,

The woods, the stalwart trees, the slender, tapering trees,

20

The flowers, the grass, the lilliput, countless armies of the grass,

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