ΙΟ What do you seek, so pensive and silent? What do you need, Camerado? Dear son!' do you think it is love? Listen, dear son-listen, America, daughter or son !" It is a painful thing to love a man or woman to excess-and yet it satisfies-it is great; But there is something else very great-it makes the whole coincide; It, magnificent, beyond materials, with continuous hands, sweeps and provides for all. II Know you! solely to drop in the earth the germs of a greater Religion, The following chants, each for its kind, I sing.3 My comrade! 140 For you, to share with me, two greatnesses-and a third one, rising inclusive and more resplendent, The greatness of Love and Democracy—and the greatness of Religion. Melange mine own! the unseen and the seen ;* Mysterious ocean where the streams empty; Prophetic spirit of materials shifting and flickering around me ;3 Living beings, identities, now doubtless near us, in the air, that we know not of ;6 Contact daily and hourly that will not release me; Not he, with a daily kiss, onward from childhood kissing me," 1 1860 reads "Mon cher !" 2 1860. 3 1860. For line 134 reads "Proceed, comrade." Lines 138-139 read "O I see the following poems are indeed to drop in the earth the germ of a great religion." 4 1860. 5 1860. unseen. Line 143 reads "Melange mine!" "Own," etc., added in 1867. 6 1860. After line 146 reads " Extasy everywhere touching and thrilling me." • 1860 reads "Not he, adhesive, kissing me so long with his daily kiss." Has winded and twisted around me that which holds me to him, 150 Any more than I am held to the heavens, to the spiritual world, And to the identities of the Gods, my lovers,' faithful and true, After what they have done to me, suggesting themes. O such themes! Equalities! O amazement of things! O divine average ! O warblings under the sun-usher'd, as now, or at noon, or setting! O strain, musical, flowing through ages-now reaching hither! I take to your reckless and composite chords—I add to them, and cheerfully pass them forward. 12 As I have walk'd in Alabama my morning walk, I have seen where the she-bird, the mocking-bird, sat on her nest in the briers, hatching her brood. I have seen the he-bird also; 160 I have paused to hear him, near at hand, inflating his throat, and joyfully singing. And while I paused, it came to me that what he really sang for was not there only, Nor for his mate, nor himself only, nor all sent back by the echoes ; But subtle, clandestine, away beyond, A charge transmitted, and gift occult, for those being born. Democracy ! 13 Near at hand to you a throat is now inflating itself and joyfully singing. Ma femme ! For the brood beyond us and of us, For those who belong here, and those to come, 170 I, exultant, to be ready for them, will now shake out carols stronger and haughtier than have ever yet been heard upon earth. 11860 reads "my unknown lovers," "faithful and true," added in 1867. I will make the songs of passion, to give them their way, And your songs, outlaw'd' offenders-for I scan you with kindred eyes, and carry you with me the same as any. I will make the true poem of riches, To earn for the body and the mind whatever adheres, and goes forward, and is not dropt by death. I will effuse egotism, and show it underlying all-and I will be the bard of personality; And I will show of male and female that either is but the equal of the other; And sexual organs and acts! do you concentrate in me-for I am determin'd to tell you with courageous clear voice, to prove you illustrious; And I will show that there is no imperfection3 in the present— and can be none in the future; 180 And I will show that whatever happens to anybody, it may be turn'd to beautiful results-and I will show that nothing can happen more beautiful than death; And I will thread a thread through my poems that time' and events are compact, And that all the things of the universe are perfect miracles, each as profound as any. I will not make poems with reference to parts; But I will make leaves, poems, poemets, songs, says, thoughts, with reference to ensemble : And I will not sing with reference to a day, but with reference to all days; And I will not make a poem, nor the least part of a poem, but has reference to the Soul; (Because, having look'd at the objects of the universe, I find there is no one, nor any particle of one, but has reference to the Soul.) 3 1860 reads "no imperfection in male or female, or in the earth, or in the present," etc. 4 1860. For "that time," etc., reads "that no one thing in the universe is inferior to another thing." 14 Was somebody asking to see the Soul? 190 See! your own shape and countenance-persons, substances, beasts, the trees, the running rivers, the rocks and sands. All hold spiritual joys, and afterwards' loosen them: Of your real body, and any man's or woman's real body, Item for item, it will elude the hands of the corpse-cleaners, and pass to fitting spheres, Carrying what has accrued to it from the moment of birth to the moment of death. Not the types set up by the printer return their impression, the meaning, the main concern, Any more than a man's substance and life, or a woman's substance and life, return in the body and the Soul, Indifferently before death and after death. Behold! the body includes and is the meaning, the main concern-and includes and is the Soul; 200 Whoever you are! how superb and how divine is your body, or any part of it. . 15 Whoever you are! to you endless announcements. Daughter of the lands, did you wait for your poet? Did you wait for one with a flowing mouth and indicative hand? Toward the male of The States, and toward the female of The States,' Live words-words to the lands. O the lands!' interlink'd, food-yielding lands! 1 1860. "afterward." 21860. After line 205 reads "Toward the President, the Congress, the diverse Governors, the new Judiciary." 31860 reads "O the lands!" next line, "Lands scorning invaders! Inter linked," etc. Land of coal and iron! Land of gold! Lands of cotton, sugar, rice!1 Land of wheat, beef, pork! Land of wool and hemp! Land of the apple and grape !2 Land of the pastoral plains, the grass-fields of the world! Land of those sweet-air'd interminable plateaus ! 210 Land of the herd, the garden, the healthy house of adobie ! Lands where the northwest Columbia winds, and where the southwest Colorado winds! Land of the eastern Chesapeake! Land of the Delaware! Land of the Old Thirteen! Massachusetts land! Land of Vermont and Connecticut ! Land of the ocean shores! Land of sierras and peaks! Inextricable lands! the clutch'd together! the passionate ones !5 The side by side! the elder and younger brothers! the bonylimb'd! The great women's land! the feminine! the experienced sisters and the inexperienced sisters! 220 Far breath'd land! Arctic braced! Mexican breez'd! the diverse the compact ! The Pennsylvanian! the Virginian! the double Carolinian ! "O all and each well-loved by me! my intrepid nations! O I at any rate include you all with perfect love! I cannot be discharged from you! not from one, any sooner than another! O Death! O for all that, I am yet of you, unseen, this hour, with irrepressible love, Walking New England, a friend, a traveler, Splashing my bare feet in the edge of the summer ripples, on Paumanok's sands, 1 1860. After line 208, reads "Odorous and sunny land! Floridian land! Land of the spinal river, the Mississippi! Land of the Alleghanies! Ohio's land!" 21860 reads "Land of the potato, the apple, and the grape !" 3 1860. After line 211 reads "Land there of rapt thought, and of the reali. zation of the stars! Land of simple, holy, untamed lives!" 41860 reads "Land of many oceans.' 5 1860. For "ones" reads "lovers." 6 1860. For lines 223-4 reads "O all and each well-loved by me! my intrepid nations! OI cannot be discharged from you!" |