21. 1. As I walk, solitary, unattended, Around me I hear that éclat of the world-politics, produce, The announcements of recognized things— science, The approved growth of cities, and the spread of inventions. 2. I see the ships (they will last a few years,) The vast factories with their foremen and workmen, And hear the indorsement of all, and do not object to it. 3. But we too announce solid things, Science, ships, politics, cities, factories, are not nothing they serve, They stand for realities - all is as it should be. 4. Then my realities, What else is so real as mine? Libertad, and the divine average · Freedom to every slave on the face of the earth, The rapt promises and lumine of seers the spiritual world these centuries-lasting songs, And our visions, the visions of poets, the most solid announcements of any. 5. For we support all, After the rest is done and gone, we remain, Democracy rests finally upon us, (I, my brethren, begin it,) And our visions sweep through eternity. LEAVES OF GRASS. 1. ELEMENTAL drifts! 1. OI wish I could impress others as you and the waves have just been impressing me. 2. As I ebbed with an ebb of the ocean of life, As I wended the shores I know, L As I walked where the sea-ripples wash you, Paumanok, Where they rustle up, hoarse and sibilant, Where the fierce old mother endlessly cries for her castaways, I, musing, late in the autumn day, gazing off southward, Alone, held by the eternal self of me that threatens to get the better of me, and stifle me, Was seized by the spirit that trails in the lines underfoot, In the rim, the sediment, that stands for all the water and all the land of the globe. 3. Fascinated, my eyes, reverting from the south, dropped, to follow those slender winrows, Chaff, straw, splinters of wood, weeds, and the seagluten, Scum, scales from shining rocks, leaves of saltlettuce, left by the tide; Miles walking, the sound of breaking waves the other side of me, Paumanok, there and then, as I thought the old These you presented to me, you fish-shaped island, As I walked with that eternal self of me, seeking types. 4. As I wend the shores I know not, As I listen to the dirge, the voices of men and women wrecked, As I inhale the impalpable breezes that set in upon me, As the ocean so mysterious rolls toward me closer and closer, At once I find, the least thing that belongs to me, or that I see or touch, I know not; I, too, but signify, at the utmost, a little washed-up drift, A few sands and dead leaves to gather, Gather, and merge myself as part of the sands and drift. 5. O baffled, balked, Bent to the very earth, here preceding what follows, Oppressed with myself that I have dared to open my mouth, Aware now, that, amid all the blab whose echoes recoil upon me, I have not once had the least idea who or what I am, But that before all my insolent poems the real ME still stands untouched, untold, altogether unreached, Withdrawn far, mocking me with mock-congratu- With peals of distant ironical laughter at every word Striking me with insults till I fall helpless upon the 6. OI perceive I have not understood anything - not a single object — and that no man ever can. 7. I perceive Nature here, in sight of the sea, is taking advantage of me, to dart upon me, and sting me, Because I was assuming so much, And because I have dared to open my mouth to sing at all. 8. You oceans both! You tangible land! Nature! Be not too rough with me you, -I submit- I close with These little shreds shall, indeed, stand for all. 9. You friable shore, with trails of débris! You fish-shaped island! I take what is underfoot; 10. I too Paumanok, I too have bubbled up, floated the measureless float, and been washed on your shores;. I too am but a trail of drift and débris, I too leave little wrecks upon you, you fish-shaped island. 11. I throw myself upon your breast, my father, I cling to you so that you cannot unloose me, I hold you so firm, till you answer me something. 12. Kiss me, my father, Touch me with your lips, as I touch those I love, Breathe to me, while I hold you close, the secret of the wondrous murmuring I envy, For I fear I shall become crazed, if I cannot emulate it, and utter myself as well as it. 13. Sea-raff! Crook-tongued waves! O, I will yet sing, some day, what you have said to me. 14. Ebb, ocean of life, (the flow will return,) Cease not your moaning, you fierce old mother, Endlessly cry for your castaways - but fear not, deny not me, Rustle not up so hoarse and angry against my feet, as I touch you, or gather from you. 15. I mean tenderly by you, I gather for myself, and for this phantom, looking down where we lead, and following me and mine. 16. Me and mine! We, loose winrows, little corpses, Froth, snowy white, and bubbles, (See! from my dead lips the ooze exuding at last! See the prismatic colors, glistening and rolling!) Tufts of straw, sands, fragments, Buoyed hither from many moods, one contradicting another, From the storm, the long calm, the darkness, the swell, Musing, pondering, a breath, a briny tear, a dab of liquid or soil, Up just as much out of fathomless workings fermented and thrown, A limp blossom or two, torn, just as much over waves floating, drifted at random, Just as much for us that sobbing dirge of Nature, Just as much, whence we come, that blare of the cloud-trumpets; We, capricious, brought hither, we know not whence, spread out before You, up there, walking or sitting, Whoever you are we too lie in drifts at your feet. 2. 1. GREAT are the myths-I too delight in them, Great are Adam and Eve I too look back and accept them, Great the risen and fallen nations, and their poets, women, sages, inventors, rulers, warriors, and priests. 2. Great is Liberty! great is Equality! I am their follower, Helmsmen of nations, choose your craft! where you sail, I sail, Yours is the muscle of life or death -yours is the perfect science-in you I have absolute faith. 3. Great is To-day, and beautiful, It is good to live in this age-there never was any better. |