Ethereal, pervading all, (for without me what were all what were God?)

Essence of forms, life of the real identities, permanent, positive,

(namely the unseen,)

Life of the great round world, the sun and stars, and of man, I,

the general soul,

Here the square finishing, the solid, I the most solid,
Breathe my breath also through these songs.

Of bim 1 Love Day and Night.

OF him I love day and night I dream'd I heard he was dead, And I dream'd I went where they had buried him I love, but he was not in that place,

And I dream'd I wander'd searching among burial-places to find

him,

And I found that every place was a burial-place;

The houses full of life were equally full of death, (this house is

now,)

The streets, the shipping, the places of amusement, the Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, the Mannahatta, were as full of the dead as of the living,

And fuller, O vastly fuller of the dead than of the living;

And what I dream'd I will henceforth tell to every person and

age,

And I stand henceforth bound to what I dream'd,

And now I am willing to disregard burial-places and dispense

with them,

VOL. 11-15

And if the memorials of the dead were put up indifferently everywhere, even in the room where I eat or sleep, I should be

satisfied,

And if the corpse of any one I love, or if my own corpse, be duly render'd to powder and pour'd in the sea, I shall be

satisfied,

Or if it be distributed to the winds I shall be satisfied.

yet, yet, ye Downcast bours.

YET, yet, ye downcast hours, I know ye also,

Weights of lead, how ye clog and cling at my ankles,

Earth to a chamber of mourning turns- I hear the o'erweening,

mocking voice,

Matter is conqueror-matter, triumphant only, continues on

ward.

Despairing cries float ceaselessly toward me,

The call of my nearest lover, putting forth, alarm'd, uncertain,

The sea I am quickly to sail, come tell me,

Come tell me where I am speeding, tell me my destination.

I understand your anguish, but I cannot help you,

I approach, hear, behold, the sad mouth, the look out of the eyes,

your mute inquiry,

Whither I go from the bed I recline on, come tell me ;

Old age, alarm'd, uncertain—a young woman's voice, appealing

to me for comfort;

A young man's voice, Shall I not escape?

As if a Phantom Garess'd Me.

As if a phantom caress'd me,

I thought I was not alone walking here by the shore;

But the one I thought was with me as now I walk by the shore,

the one I loved that caress'd me,

As I lean and look through the glimmering light, that one has utterly disappear'd,

And those appear that are hateful to me and mock me.

Assurances.

I NEED no assurances, I am a man who is pre-occupied of his own soul;

I do not doubt that from under the feet and beside the hands and face I am cognizant of, are now looking faces I am not cognizant of, calm and actual faces,

I do not doubt but the majesty and beauty of the world are latent

in any iota of the world,

I do not doubt I am limitless, and that the universes are limitless, in vain I try to think how limitless,

I do not doubt that the orbs and the systems of orbs play their swift sports through the air on purpose, and that I shall one

day be eligible to do as much as they, and more than they, I do not doubt that temporary affairs keep on and on millions of

years,

I do not doubt interiors have their interiors, and exteriors have their exteriors, and that the eyesight has another eyesight, and the hearing another hearing, and the voice another voice,

I do not doubt that the passionately-wept deaths of young men are provided for, and that the deaths of young women and

the deaths of little children are provided for,

(Did you think Life was so well provided for, and Death, the purport of all Life, is not well provided for ?)

I do not doubt that wrecks at sea, no matter what the horrors of them, no matter whose wife, child, husband, father, lover,

has gone down, are provided for, to the minutest points, I do not doubt that whatever can possibly happen anywhere at any time, is provided for in the inherences of things,

I do not think Life provides for all and for Time and Space, but I believe Heavenly Death provides for all.

Quicksand years.

QUICKSAND years that whirl me I know not whither,

Your schemes, politics, fail, lines give way, substances mock and

elude me,

[not, Only the theme I sing, the great and strong-possess'd soul, eludes One's-self must never give way—that is the final substance —

that out of all is sure,

Out of politics, triumphs, battles, life, what at last finally remains ? When shows break up what but One's-Self is sure?

Tbat Music Always Round Me.

THAT music always round me, unceasing, unbeginning, yet long

untaught I did not hear,

But now the chorus I hear and am elated,