I announce mightier' offspring, orators, days, and then, for the present, depart.

I remember I said, before my leaves sprang at all,3

I would raise my voice jocund and strong, with reference to consummations.

When America does what was promis'd,'

When there are plentiful athletic bards, inland and seaboard, When through These States walk a hundred millions of superb

persons,

When the rest part away for superb persons, and contribute to them,"

When breeds of the most perfect mothers denote America,
Then to me and mine our due fruition.

I have press'd through in my own right,

ΙΟ

I have sung the Body and the Soul--War and Peace have I sung, And the songs of Life and of Birth-and shown that there are many births: 6

I have offer'd my style to every one-I have journey'd with confident step;

1 1860 for "mightier" reads "greater."

2 for the present" added in 1870.

* 1860 reads “I remember I said to myself at the winter close, before my leaves sprang at all, that I would become a candid and unloosed summer-poet."

After line 5, 1860 reads:

"When each part is peopled with free people,

When there is no city on earth to lead my city, the city of young men, the Mannahatta city-But when the Mannahatta leads all the cities of the earth."

5 After line 8, 1860 reads:

"When fathers, firm, unconstrained, open-eyed-When breeds of the most perfect mothers denote America,

Then to me ripeness and conclusion.

Yet not me, after all-let none be content with me,

I myself seek a man better than I am, or a woman better than I am,

I invite defiance, and to make myself superseded,

All I have done, I would cheerfully give to be trod under foot, if it might only be the soil of superior poems.

I have established nothing for good,

I have but established these things, till things farther onward shall be prepare to be established,

And I am myself the preparer of things farther onward."

6 Lines 12-13 added in 1870.

While my pleasure is yet at the full, I whisper, So long! And take the young woman's hand, and the young man's hand, for the last time.1

2

I announce natural persons to arise;

I announce justice triumphant ;

I announce uncompromising liberty and equality;

I announce the justification of candor, and the justification of pride.

20

I announce that the identity of These States is a single identity only;

I announce the Union more and more compact, indissoluble ;* I announce splendors and majesties to make all the previous politics of the earth insignificant.

I announce adhesiveness-I say it shall be limitless, unloosen'd; I say you shall yet find the friend you were looking for.

I announce a man or woman coming-perhaps you are the one, (So long!)3

I announce the great individual, fluid as Nature, chaste, affectionate, compassionate, fully armed.

1 After line 16, 1860 adds:

"Once more I enforce you to give play to yourself-and not depend on me, or on any one but yourself,

Once more I proclaim the whole of America for each individual, without exception.

As I have announced the true theory of the youth, manhood, womanhood, of The States, I adhere to it;

As I have announced myself on immortality, the body, procreation, hauteur,

prudence,

As I joined the stern crowd that still confronts the President with menacing weapons-I adhere to all,

As I have announced each age for itself, this moment I set the example.

I demand the choicest edifices to destroy them;

Room! room! for new far-planning draughtsmen and engineers!

Clear that rubbish from the building-spots and the paths!

I announce a life that shall be copious, vehement, spiritual,

bold;1

I announce an end' that shall lightly and joyfully meet its trans

lation;

I announce myriads of youths, beautiful, gigantic, sweet

blooded;

I announce a race of splendid and savage old men.3

3

O thicker and faster! (So long!)*

O crowding too close upon me;

I foresee too much-it means more than I thought;
It appears to me I am dying.

Hasten throat, and sound your last !5

Salute me-salute the days once more.

more.

Screaming electric, the atmosphere using,

30

Peal the old cry once

At random glancing, each as I notice absorbing,
Swiftly on, but a little while alighting,

Curious envelop'd messages delivering,

Sparkles hot, seed ethereal, down in the dirt dropping,

40

Myself unknowing, my commission obeying, to question it never

daring,

To ages, and ages yet, the growth of the seed leaving,

To troops out of me, out of the army, the war arising'—they the tasks I have set promulging,

To women certain whispers of myself bequeathing-their affection me more clearly explaining,

To young men my problems offering-no dallier I—I the muscle of their brains trying,

So I pass a little time vocal, visible, contrary;

Afterward, a melodious echo, passionately bent for—(death mak ing me really undying ;)

1 Line begins" So long" in 1860.

2 1860 for

an end" reads "an old age."

3 Lines 30-31 added in 1870.

"(So long!)" added in 1867.

5 1860 reads "Now throat, sound your last!"

6 1860 for "" days" reads "future."

7 "out of the army, the war arising" added in 1870.

8 "really" added in 1867.

The best of me then when no longer visible-for toward that I have been incessantly preparing.

50

What is there more, that I lag and pause, and crouch extended with unshut mouth?

Is there a single final farewell?

4

My songs cease—I abandon them;

From behind the screen where I hid I advance personally, solely'

to you.

Camerado! This is no book;
Who touches this, touches a man ;
(Is it night? Are we here alone?)
It is I you hold, and who holds you ;

I spring from the pages into your arms-decease calls me forth.

O how your fingers drowse me!

60

Your breath falls around me like dew-your pulse lulls the tym

pans of my ears;

I feel immerged from head to foot;

Delicious-enough.

Enough, O deed impromptu and secret!

Enough, O gliding present! Enough, O summ'd-up past!

5

Dear friend, whoever you are, take this kiss,

I give it especially to you-Do not forget me;

I feel like one who has done work for the day, to retire awhile;3 I receive now again of my many translations--from my avataras ascending-while others doubtless await me ;*

70

An unknown sphere, more real than I dream'd, more direct, darts awakening rays about me—So long!

Remember my words-I may again return,5

I love you I depart from materials;

I am as one disembodied, triumphant, dead.

1 "solely" added in 1867.

$ 1860 reads "I feel like one who has done his work-I progress on." 1867 adds "(Long enough have I dallied with life.)"

Line 70 added in 1870.

5 "I may again return

"added in 1870.

PASSAGE TO INDIA.

First published in 1870.

I

SINGING my days,

Singing the great achievements of the present,

Singing the strong, light works of engineers,

Our modern wonders, (the antique ponderous Seven outvied,)
In the Old World, the east, the Suez canal,
The New by its mighty railroad spann'd,

The seas inlaid with eloquent, gentle wires,

I sound, to commence, the cry, with thee, O soul,
The Past! the Past! the Past!

The Past the dark, unfathom'd retrospect !

The teeming gulf! the sleepers and the shadows!

The past! the infinite greatness of the past!

10

For what is the present, after all, but a growth out of the past? (As a projectile, form'd, impell'd, passing a certain line, still

keeps on,

So the present, utterly form'd, impell'd by the past.)

Passage, O soul, to India!

2

Eclaircise the myths Asiatic-the primitive fables.

Not you alone, proud truths of the world!

Nor you alone, ye facts of modern science!

But myths and fables of eld-Asia's, Africa's fables!

20

The far-darting beams of the spirit!—the unloos'd dreams!
The deep diving bibles and legends;

The daring plots of the poets-the elder religions:

-O you temples fairer than lilies, pour'd over by the rising sun! O you fables, spurning the known, eluding the hold of the known,

mounting to heaven!

You lofty and dazzling towers, pinnacled, red as roses, burnish'd with gold!