306. Long I was hugged close-long and long.

307. Immense have been the preparations for me,

Faithful and friendly the arms that have helped me.

308. Cycles ferried my cradle, rowing and rowing like cheerful boatmen,

For room to me stars kept aside in their own rings,
They sent influences to look after what was to hold

me.

309. Before I was born out of my mother, generations

guided me,

My embryo has never been torpid-nothing could overlay it.

310. For it the nebula cohered to an orb,

The long slow strata piled to rest it on,
Vast vegetables gave it sustenance,

Monstrous sauroids transported it in their mouths,
and deposited it with care.

311. All forces have been steadily employed to complete and delight me,

Now I stand on this spot with my Soul.

312. O span of youth! Ever-pushed elasticity! O manhood, balanced, florid, and full.

313. My lovers suffocate me!

Crowding my lips, thick in the pores of my skin, Jostling me through streets and public halls-coming naked to me at night,

Crying by day Ahoy! from the rocks of the riverswinging and chirping over my head,

Calling my name from flower-beds, vines, tangled under-brush,

Or while I swim in the bath, or drink from the pump at the corner or the curtain is down at

the opera, or I glimpse at a woman's face in the railroad car,

Lighting on every moment of my life,

Bussing my body with soft balsamic busses,

Noiselessly passing handfuls out of their hearts, and giving them to be mine.

314. Old age superbly rising! O welcome, ineffable grace of dying days!

315. Every condition promulges not only itself—it promulges what grows after and out of itself,

And the dark hush promulges as much as any.

316. I open my scuttle at night and see the far-sprinkled systems,

And all I see, multiplied as high as I can cipher, edge but the rim of the farther systems.

317. Wider and wider they spread, expanding, always expanding,

Outward, outward, and forever outward.

318. My sun has his sun, and round him obediently wheels,

He joins with his partners a group of superior circuit,

And greater sets follow, making specks of the greatest inside them.

319. There is no stoppage, and never can be stoppage, If I, you, the worlds, all beneath or upon their surfaces, and all the palpable life, were this moment reduced back to a pallid float, it would not avail in the long run,

We should surely bring up again where we now stand,

And as surely go as much farther

ther and farther.

and then far

320. A few quadrillions of eras, a few octillions of cubic leagues, do not hazard the span, or make it impatient,

They are but parts-anything is but a part.

321. See ever so far, there is limitless space outside of that,

Count ever so much, there is limitless time around that.

322. My rendezvous is appointed,

The Lord will be there, and wait till I come on perfect terms.

323. I know I have the best of time and space, and was never measured, and never will be measured.

324. I tramp a perpetual journey,

My signs are a rain-proof coat, good shoes, and a staff cut from the woods,

No friend of mine takes his ease in my chair,

I have no chair, no church, no philosophy,

I lead no man to a dinner-table, library, or exchange, But each man and each woman of you I lead upon a knoll,

My left hand hooking you round the waist,

My right hand pointing to landscapes of continents, and a plain public road.

325. Not I-not any one else, can travel that road for

you,

You must travel it for yourself.

326. It is not far - it is within reach,

Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know,

Perhaps it is everywhere on water and on land.

327. Shoulder your duds, and I will mine, and let us hasten forth,

Wonderful cities and free nations we shall fetch as we go.

328. If you tire, give me both burdens, and rest the chuff of your hand on my hip,

And in due time you shall repay the same service

to me,

For after we start we never lie by again.

329. This day before dawn I ascended a hill, and looked at the crowded heaven,

And I said to my Spirit, When we become the enfolders of those orbs, and the pleasure and knowledge of everything in them, shall we be filled and satisfied then?

And my Spirit said, No, we level that lift, to pass and continue beyond.

330. You are also asking me questions, and I hear you, I answer that I cannot answer -you must find out for yourself.

331. Sit a while, wayfarer,

Here are biscuits to eat, and here is milk to drink, But as soon as you sleep, and renew yourself in sweet clothes, I will certainly kiss you with my good-bye kiss, and open the gate for your egress hence.

332. Long enough have you dreamed contemptible dreams, Now I wash the gum from your eyes,

You must habit yourself to the dazzle of the light, and of every moment of your life.

333. Long have you timidly waded, holding a plank by the shore,

Now I will you to be a bold swimmer,

To jump off in the midst of the sea, rise again, nod to me, shout, and laughingly dash with your hair.

334. I am the teacher of athletes,

He that by me spreads a wider breast than my own, proves the width of my own,

He most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher.

335. The boy I love, the same becomes a man, not through derived power, but in his own right,

Wicked, rather than virtuous out of conformity or fear,

Fond of his sweetheart, relishing well his steak, Unrequited love, or a slight, cutting him worse than a wound cuts,

First rate to ride, to fight, to hit the bull's-eye, to sail a skiff, to sing a song, or play on the banjo, Preferring scars, and faces pitted with small-pox, over all latherers, and those that keep out of the sun.

336. I teach straying from me- yet who can stray from me?

I follow you, whoever you are, from the present hour,

My words itch at your ears till you understand them.

337. I do not say these things for a dollar, or to fill up the time while I wait for a boat,

It is you talking just as much as myself -I act as the tongue of you,

Tied in your mouth, in mine it begins to be loosened.

338. I swear I will never again mention love or death inside a house,

And I swear I will never translate myself at all, only to him or her who privately stays with me in the open air.

339. If you would understand me, go to the heights or water-shore,

The nearest gnat is an explanation, and a drop or motion of waves a key,

The maul, the oar, the hand-saw, second my words.

340. No shuttered room or school can commune with me, But roughs and little children better than they.

341. The young mechanic is closest to me - he knows me pretty well,

The woodman, that takes his axe and jug with him, shall take me with him all day,

The farm-boy, ploughing in the field, feels good at the sound of my voice,

In vessels that sail, my words sail

-I go with fishermen and seamen, and love them.

342. My face rubs to the hunter's face, when he lies down

alone in his blanket,