Leaves of Grass: First and Death-Bed Editions

by Walt Whitman

  Everyday objects .... the housechairs, the carpet, the bed and

  the counterpane of the bed, and him or her sleeping at night,

  and the wind blowing, and the indefinite noises:

  The snowstorm or rainstorm .... the tow-trowsers .... the lodge

  hut in the woods, and the still-hunt:

  City and country .. fireplace and candle .. gaslight and heater

  and aqueduct;

  The message of the governor, mayor, or chief of police .... the

  dishes of breakfast or dinner or supper;

  The bunkroom, the fire-engine, the string-team, and the car or

  truck behind;

  The paper I write on or you write on .. and every word we

  write .. and every cross and twirl of the pen .. and the

  curious way we write what we think .... yet very faintly;

  The directory, the detector, the ledger .... the books in ranks or

  the bookshelves .... the clock attached to the wall,

  The ring on your finger .. the lady’s wristlet .. the hammers

  of stonebreakers or coppersmiths .. the druggist’s vials and

  jars;

  The etui of surgical instruments, and the etui of oculist’s or

  aurist’s instruments, or dentist’s instruments;

  Glassblowing, grinding of wheat and corn .. casting, and what is

  cast .. tinroofing, shingledressing,

  Shipcarpentering, flagging of sidewalks by flaggers ..

  dockbuilding, fishcuring, ferrying;

  The pump, the piledriver, the great derrick .. the coalkiln and

  brickkiln,

  Ironworks or whiteleadworks .. the sugarhouse .. steam-saws, and

  the great mills and factories;

  The cottonbale .. the stevedore’s hook .. the saw and buck of the

  sawyer .. the screen of the coalscreener .. the mould of the

  moulder .. the workingknife of the butcher;

  The cylinder press .. the handpress .. the frisket and tympan ..

  the compositor’s stick and rule,

  The implements for daguerreotyping .... the tools of the rigger

  or grappler or sailmaker or blockmaker,

  Goods of guttapercha or papiermache .... colors and

  brushes .... glaziers’ implements,

  The veneer and gluepot .. the confectioner’s ornaments .. the

  decanter and glasses .. the shears and flatiron;

  The awl and kneestrap .. the pint measure and quart measure ..

  the counter and stool .. the writingpen of quill or metal;

  Billiards and tenpins .... the ladders and hanging ropes of the

  gymnasium, and the manly exercises;

  The designs for wallpapers or oilcloths or carpets .... the fancies

  for goods for women .... the bookbinder’s stamps;

  Leatherdressing, coachmaking, boilermaking, ropetwisting,

  distilling, signpainting, limeburning, coopering,

  cottonpicking,

  The walkingbeam of the steam-engine .. the throttle and

  governors, and the up and down rods,

  Stavemachines and planingmachines .... the cart of the

  carman .. the omnibus .. the ponderous dray;

  The snowplough and two engines pushing it .... the ride in the

  express train of only one car .... the swift go through a

  howling storm:

  The bearhunt or coonhunt .... the bonfire of shavings in the

  open lot in the city .. the crowd of children watching;

  The blows of the fighting-man .. the upper cut and one-two-three;

  The shopwindows .... the coffins in the sexton’s wareroom ....

  the fruit on the fruitstand .... the beef on the butcher’s stall,

  The bread and cakes in the bakery .... the white and red pork in

  the pork-store;

  The milliner’s ribbons .. the dressmaker’s patterns .... the tea

  table .. the homemade sweetmeats:

  The column of wants in the one-cent paper .. the news by

  telegraph .... the amusements and operas and shows:

  The cotton and woolen and linen you wear .... the money you

  make and spend;

  Your room and bedroom .... your piano-forte .... the stove and

  cookpans,

  The house you live in .... the rent .... the other tenants ....

  the deposit in the savings-bank .... the trade at the grocery,

  The pay on Saturday night .... the going home, and the

  purchases;

  In them the heft of the heaviest .... in them far more than you

  estimated, and far less also,

  In them, not yourself .... you and your soul enclose all things,

  regardless of estimation,

  In them your themes and hints and provokers .. if not, the whole

  earth has no themes or hints or provokers, and never had.

  I do not affirm what you see beyond is futile .... I do not advise

  you to stop,

  I do not say leadings you thought great are not great,

  But I say that none lead to greater or sadder or happier than those

  lead to.

  Will you seek afar off? You surely come back at last,

  In things best known to you finding the best or as good as the

  best,

  In folks nearest to you finding also the sweetest and strongest and

  lovingest,

  Happiness not in another place, but this place .. not for another

  hour, but this hour,

  Man in the first you see or touch .... always in your friend or

  brother or nighest neighbor .... Woman in your mother or

  lover or wife,32

  And all else thus far known giving place to men and women.

  When the psalm sings instead of the singer,

  When the script preaches instead of the preacher,

  When the pulpit descends and goes instead of the carver that

  carved the supporting desk,

  When the sacred vessels or the bits of the eucharist, or the lath

  and plast, procreate as effectually as the young silversmiths or

  bakers, or the masons in their overalls,

  When a university course convinces like a slumbering woman

  and child convince,

  When the minted gold in the vault smiles like the

  nightwatchman’s daughter,

  When warrantee deeds loafe in chairs opposite and are my

  friendly companions,

  I intend to reach them my hand and make as much of them as I

  do of men and women.

  [To Think of Time]

  To think of Time .... to think through the retrospection,

  To think of today .. and the ages continued henceforward.

  Have you guessed you yourself would not continue? Have you

  dreaded those earth-beetles?

  Have you feared the future would be nothing to you?

  Is today nothing? Is the beginningless past nothing?

  If the future is nothing they are just as surely nothing.

  To think that the sun rose in the east .... that men and women

  were flexible and real and alive .... that every thing was real

  and alive;

  To think that you and I did not see feel think nor bear our part,

  To think that we are now here and bear our part.

  Not a day passes .. not a minute or second without an

  accouchement;

  Not a day passes .. not a minute or second without a corpse.

  When the dull nights are over, and the dull days also,

  When the soreness of lying so much in bed is over,

  When the physician, after long putting off, gives the silent and

  terrible look for an answer,

  When the children come hurried and weeping, and the brother
s

  and sisters have been sent for,

  When medicines stand unused on the shelf, and the camphor

  smell has pervaded the rooms,

  When the faithful hand of the living does not desert the hand of

  the dying,

  When the twitching lips press lightly on the forehead of the

  dying,

  When the breath ceases and the pulse of the heart ceases,

  Then the corpse-limbs stretch on the bed, and the living look

  upon them,

  They are palpable as the living are palpable.

  The living look upon the corpse with their eyesight,

  But without eyesight lingers a different living and looks curiously

  on the corpse.

  To think that the rivers will come to flow, and the snow fall, and

  fruits ripen .. and act upon others as upon us now .... yet

  not act upon us;

  To think of all these wonders of city and country .. and others

  taking great interest in them .. and we taking small interest

  in them.

  To think how eager we are in building our houses,

  To think others shall be just as eager .. and we quite indifferent.

  I see one building the house that serves him a few years .... or

  seventy or eighty years at most;

  I see one building the house that serves him longer than that.

  Slowmoving and black lines creep over the whole earth .... they

  never cease .... they are the burial lines,

  He that was President was buried, and he that is now President

  shall surely be buried.

  Cold dash of waves at the ferrywharf,

  Posh and ice in the river .... half-frozen mud in the streets,

  A gray discouraged sky overhead .... the short last daylight of

  December,

  A hearse and stages .... other vehicles give place,

  The funeral of an old stagedriver .... the cortege mostly drivers.

  Rapid the trot to the cemetery,

  Duly rattles the deathbell .... the gate is passed .... the grave is

  halted at .... the living alight .... the hearse uncloses,

  The coffin is lowered and settled .... the whip is laid on the

  coffin,

  The earth is swiftly shovelled in .... a minute .. no one moves or

  speaks .... it is done,

  He is decently put away .... is there anything more?

  He was a goodfellow,

  Freemouthed, quicktempered, not badlooking, able to take his

  own part,

  Witty, sensitive to a slight, ready with life or death for a friend,

  Fond of women, .. played some .. eat hearty and drank

  hearty,

  Had known what it was to be flush .. grew lowspirited toward the

  last.. sickened .. was helped by a contribution,

  Died aged forty-one years .. and that was his funeral.

  Thumb extended or finger uplifted,

  Apron, cape, gloves, strap .... wetweather clothes .... whip

  carefully chosen .... boss, spotter, starter, and hostler,

  Somebody loafing on you, or you loafing on somebody ....

  headway .... man before and man behind,

  Good day’s work or bad day’s work .... pet stock or mean

  stock .... first out or last out .... turning in at night,

  To think that these are so much and so nigh to other drivers ....

  and he there takes no interest in them.

  The markets, the government, the workingman’s wages.... to

  think what account they are through our nights and days;

  To think that other workingmen will make just as great account of

  them .. yet we make little or no account.

  The vulgar and the refined .... what you call sin and what you

  call goodness .. to think how wide a difference;

  To think the difference will still continue to others, yet we lie

  beyond the difference.

  To think how much pleasure there is!

  Have you pleasure from looking at the sky? Have you pleasure

  from poems?

  Do you enjoy yourself in the city? or engaged in business? or

  planning a nomination and election? or with your wife and

  family?

  Or with your mother and sisters? or in womanly housework? or

  the beautiful maternal cares?

  These also flow onward to others .... you and I flow onward;

  But in due time you and I shall take less interest in them.

  Your farm and profits and crops .... to think how engrossed you are;

  To think there will still be farms and profits and crops .. yet for

  you of what avail?

  What will be will be well—for what is is well,

  To take interest is well, and not to take interest shall be well.

  The sky continues beautiful .... the pleasure of men with

  women shall never be sated .. nor the pleasure of women

  with men .. nor the pleasure from poems;

  The domestic joys, the daily housework or business, the building

  of houses—they are not phantasms .. they have weight and

  form and location;

  The farms and profits and crops .. the markets and wages and

  government .. they also are not phantasms;

  The difference between sin and goodness is no apparition;

  The earth is not an echo .... man and his life and all the things

  of his life are well-considered.

  You are not thrown to the winds .. you gather certainly and safely

  around yourself,

  Yourself! Yourself! Yourself forever and ever!

  It is not to diffuse you that you were born of your mother and

  father—it is to identify you,

  It is not that you should be undecided, but that you should be

  decided;

  Something long preparing and formless is arrived and formed

  in you,

  You are thenceforth secure, whatever comes or goes.

  The threads that were spun are gathered .... the weft crosses the

  warp .... the pattern is systematic.

  The preparations have every one been justified;

  The orchestra have tuned their instruments sufficiently .... the

  baton has given the signal.

  The guest that was coming .... he waited long for reasons ....

  he is now housed,

  He is one of those who are beautiful and happy .... he is one of

  those that to look upon and be with is enough.

  The law of the past cannot be eluded,

  The law of the present and future cannot be eluded,

  The law of the living cannot be eluded .... it is eternal,

  The law of promotion and transformation cannot be eluded,

  The law of heroes and good-doers cannot be eluded,

  The law of drunkards and informers and mean persons cannot be

  eluded.

  Slowmoving and black lines go ceaselessly over the earth,

  Northerner goes carried and southerner goes carried ... and they

  on the Atlantic side and they on the Pacific, and they

  between, and all through the Mississippi country .... and all

  over the earth.

  The great masters and kosmos are well as they go .... the heroes

  and good-doers are well,

  The known leaders and inventors and the rich owners and pious

  and distinguished may be well,

  But there is more account than that .... there is strict account

  of all.

  The interminable hordes of the ignorant and wicked are not

  nothing,

  The barbarians of Africa and Asia are not nothing,

  The common people of Eur
ope are not nothing .... the

  American aborigines are not nothing,

  A zambo or a foreheadless Crowfoot or a Camanche is not nothing,

  The infected in the immigrant hospital are not nothing .... the

  murderer or mean person is not nothing,

  The perpetual succession of shallow people are not nothing as

  they go,

  The prostitute is not nothing .... the mocker of religion is not

  nothing as he goes.

  I shall go with the rest .... we have satisfaction:

  I have dreamed that we are not to be changed so much .... nor

  the law of us changed;

  I have dreamed that heroes and good-doers shall be under the

  present and past law,

  And that murderers and drunkards and liars shall be under the

  present and past law;

  For I have dreamed that the law they are under now is enough.

  And I have dreamed that the satisfaction is not so much

  changed .... and that there is no life without satisfaction;

  What is the earth? what are body and soul without satisfaction?

  I shall go with the rest,

  We cannot be stopped at a given point .... that is no

  satisfaction;

  To show us a good thing or a few good things for a space of

  time—that is no satisfaction;

  We must have the indestructible breed of the best, regardless of

  time.

  If otherwise, all these things came but to ashes of dung;

  If maggots and rats ended us, then suspicion and treachery and

  death.

  Do you suspect death? If I were to suspect death I should die

  now,

  Do you think I could walk pleasantly and well-suited toward

  annihilation?

  Pleasantly and well-suited I walk,

  Whither I walk I cannot define, but I know it is good,

  The whole universe indicates that it is good,

  The past and the present indicate that it is good.

  How beautiful and perfect are the animals! How perfect is my

  soul!

  How perfect the earth, and the minutest thing upon it!

  What is called good is perfect, and what is called sin is just as