Let the sun and moon go! let scenery take the applause of the audience! let there be apathy under the stars! Let freedom prove no man's inalienable right! every one who can tyrannize, let him tyrannize to his satisfaction! Let none but infidels be countenanced! Let the eminence of meanness, treachery, sarcasm, hate, greed, indecency, impotence, lust, be taken for granted above all! let writers, judges, governments, households, religions, philosophies, take such for granted above all! Let the worst men beget children out of the worst women! Let the priest still play at immortality! Let death be inaugurated! 30 Let nothing remain but the ashes of teachers,' artists, moralists, lawyers, and learn'd and polite persons! Let him who is without my poems be assassinated! Let the cow, the horse, the camel, the garden-bee-let the mudfish, the lobster, the mussel, eel, the sting-ray, and the grunting pig-fish-let these, and the like of these, be put on a perfect equality with man and woman! Let churches accommodate serpents, vermin, and the corpses of those who have died of the most filthy of diseases! Let marriage slip down among fools, and be for none but fools! Let men among themselves talk and think forever obscenely of women! and let women among themselves talk and think obscenely of men !2 Let us all, without missing one, be exposed in public, naked, monthly, at the peril of our lives! let our bodies be freely handled and examined by whoever chooses ! Let nothing but copies at second hand be permitted to exist upon the earth!" 40 Let the earth desert God, nor let there ever henceforth be mention'd the name of God! Let there be no God! Let there be money, business, imports, exports, custom, authority, precedents, pallor, dyspepsia, smut, ignorance, unbelief! 11856 '60 read "Let nothing remain upon the earth except teachers," etc. After line 38, 1856 '60 '67 read "Let every man doubt every woman! And let every woman trick every man!"' 31856 reads "Let nothing but love-songs, pictures, statues, elegant works be permitted," etc. 1860 reads "Let nothing but copies, pictures, statues, reminiscences, elegant works be permitted," etc. Let judges and criminals be transposed! let the prison-keepers be put in prison! let those that were prisoners take the keys! Say! why might they not just as well be transposed?)1 Let the slaves be masters! let the masters become slaves! Let the reformers descend from the stands where they are forever bawling let an idiot or insane person appear on each of the stands !2 Let the Asiatic, the African, the European, the American, and the Australian, go armed against the murderous stealthiness of each other! let them sleep armed! let none believe in good will! Let there be no unfashionable3 wisdom! let such be scorn'd and derided off from the earth! Let a floating cloud in the sky-let a wave of the sea'—let growing mint, spinach, onions, tomatoes-let these be exhibited as shows, at a great price for admission! Let all the men of These States stand aside for a few smouchers! let the few seize on what they choose! let the rest gawk, giggle, starve, obey! 50 Let shadows be furnish'd with genitals! let substances be deprived of their genitals! Let there be wealthy and immense cities-but still through any of them, not a single poet, savior, knower, lover! Let the infidels of These States laugh all faith away! If one man be found who has faith, let the rest set upon him! Let them affright faith! let them destroy the power of breeding faith! Let the she-harlots and the he-harlots be prudent! let them dance on, while seeming lasts! (O seeming! seeming! seeming!) Let the preachers recite creeds! let them still teach only what they have been taught !5 Let insanity still have charge of sanity! Let books take the place of trees, animals, rivers, clouds ! 1 See note at line 22. 2 See note at line 22. 31856 for "unfashionable" reads "living.' 1856 '60 add "-Let one glimpse of your eye-sight upon the landscape or grass-" 5 let them teach only what they have been taught!" added in 1860. 1856 '60, after line 57 read "Let the preacher of creeds never dare to go meditate upon the hills, alone, by day or by night! (If one ever once dare, he is lost!)" 60 Let the daub'd portraits of heroes supersede heroes! teel persons! Let the white person again tread the black person under his heel! (Say! which is trodden under heel, after all?) Let the reflections of the things of the world be studied in mirrors! let the things themselves still continue unstudied ! Let a man seek pleasure everywhere except in himself!1 Let a woman seek happiness everywhere except in herself!" (What real happiness have you had one single hour through your whole life?) Let the limited years of life do nothing for the limitless years of death! (What do you suppose death will do, then?) SOLID, IRONICAL, ROLLING ORB. First published in "Drum-Taps," 1865. SOLID, ironical, rolling orb! Master of all, and matter of fact !-at last I accept your terms; BATHED IN WAR'S PERFUME. First published in "Drum-Taps," 1865. BATHED in war's perfume-delicate flag! (Should the days needing armies, needing fleets, come again,) O to hear you call the sailors and the soldiers! flag like a beautiful woman! O to hear the tramp, tramp, of a million answering men! O the ships they arm with joy! O to see you leap and beckon from the tall masts of ships! THOUGHT. First published in 1860. Or what I write from myself-As if that were not the resume; Of Histories-As if such, however complete, were not less complete than the preceding poems; As if those shreds, the records of nations, could possibly be as lasting as the preceding poems; As if here were not the amount of all nations, and of all the lives of heroes. LESSONS. Published in "Passage to India." THERE are who teach only the sweet lessons of peace and safety; THIS DAY, O SOUL. First published in "When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom'd," 1865-6. THIS day, O Soul, I give you a wondrous mirror ; Long in the dark, in tarnish and cloud it lay—But the cloud has pass'd, and the tarnish gone; Behold, O Soul! it is now a clean and bright mirror, Faithfully showing you all the things of the world. TO THE READER AT PARTING. First published in 1867. Now, dearest comrade, lift me to your face, We must separate awhile-Here! take from my lips this kiss. Whoever you are, I give it especially to you; So long!--And I hope we shall meet again. TWO RIVULETS.' First published in 1876. Two Rivulets side by side, Two blended, parallel, strolling tides, Companions, travelers, gossiping as they journey. For the Eternal Ocean bound, These ripples, passing surges, streams of Death and Life, The Real and Ideal, Alternate ebb and flow the Days and Nights, (Strands of a Trio twining, Present, Future, Past.) In You, whoe'er you are, my book perusing, 10 In I myself-in all the World-these ripples flow, (O yearnful waves! the kisses of your lips! Your breast so broad, with open arms, O firm, expanded shore !) OR FROM THAT SEA OF TIME. Published in "Two Rivulets," 1876. OR, from that Sea of Time, I Spray, blown by the wind-a double winrow-drift of weeds and shells; (O little shells, so curious-convolute! so limpid-cold and voice less! Yet will you not, to the tympans of temples held, Murmurs and echoes still bring up-Eternity's music, faint and far, Wafted inland, sent from Atlantica's rim-strains for the Soul of the Prairies, Whisper'd reverberations-chords for the ear of the West, joyously sounding Your tidings old, yet ever new and untranslatable ;) 1 Title given to the Second Volume of Centennial Edition, 1876. This poem, which gave the title, and three others not reprinted in later editions, we have included in "Gathered Leaves." |