Leaves of Grass: First and Death-Bed Editions

by Walt Whitman

  How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,

  Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,

  In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,

  Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

  PERFECTIONS

  Only themselves understand themselves and the like of

  themselves,

  As souls only understand souls.

  O ME! O LIFE!

  O me! O life! of the questions of these recurring,

  Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the

  foolish,

  Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than

  I, and who more faithless?)

  Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the

  struggle ever renew ‘d,

  Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see

  around me,

  Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me

  intertwined,

  The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these,

  O me, O life?

  Answer

  That you are here—that life exists and identity,

  That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute

  a verse.

  TO A PRESIDENT

  All you are doing and saying is to America dangled mirages,

  You have not learn’d of Nature—of the politics of Nature you

  have not learn’d the great amplitude, rectitude,

  impartiality,

  You have not seen that only such as they are for these States,

  And that what is less than they must sooner or later lift off from

  these States.

  I SIT AND LOOK OUT

  I sit and look out upon all the sorrows of the world, and upon all

  oppression and shame,

  I hear secret convulsive sobs from young men at anguish with

  themselves, remorseful after deeds done,

  I see in low life the mother misused by her children, dying,

  neglected, gaunt, desperate,

  I see the wife misused by her husband, I see the treacherous

  seducer of young women,

  I mark the ranklings of jealousy and unrequited love attempted to

  be hid, I see these sights on the earth,

  I see the workings of battle, pestilence, tyranny, I see martyrs and

  prisoners,

  I observe a famine at sea, I observe the sailors casting lots who

  shall be kill’d to preserve the lives of the rest,

  I observe the slights and degradations cast by arrogant persons

  upon laborers, the poor, and upon negroes, and the like;

  All these—all the meanness and agony without end I sitting look

  out upon,

  See, hear, and am silent.

  TO RICH GIVERS

  What you give me I cheerfully accept,

  A little sustenance, a hut and garden, a little money, as I

  rendezvous with my poems,

  A traveler’s lodging and breakfast as I journey through the

  States,—why should I be ashamed to own such gifts? why to

  advertise for them?

  For I myself am not one who bestows nothing upon man and

  woman,

  For I bestow upon any man or woman the entrance to all the gifts

  of the universe.

  THE DALLIANCE OF THE EAGLES58

  Skirting the river road, (my forenoon walk, my rest,)

  Skyward in air a sudden muffled sound, the dalliance of

  the eagles,

  The rushing amorous contact high in space together,

  The clinching interlocking claws, a living, fierce, gyrating

  wheel,

  Four beating wings, two beaks, a swirling mass tight grappling,

  In tumbling turning clustering loops, straight downward

  falling,

  Till o‘er the river pois’d, the twain yet one, a moment’s lull,

  A motionless still balance in the air, then parting, talons

  loosing,

  Upward again on slow-firm pinions slanting, their separate diverse

  flight,

  She hers, he his, pursuing.

  ROAMING IN THOUGHT59

  (After reading HEGEL)

  Roaming in thought over the Universe, I saw the little that is

  Good steadily hastening towards immortality,

  And the vast all that is call’d Evil I saw hastening to merge itself

  and become lost and dead.

  A FARM PICTURE

  Through the ample open door of the peaceful country barn,

  A sunlit pasture field with cattle and horses feeding,

  And haze and vista, and the far horizon fading away.

  A CHILD’S AMAZE

  Silent and amazed even when a little boy,

  I remember I heard the preacher every Sunday put God in his

  statements,

  As contending against some being or influence.

  THE RUNNER

  On a flat road runs the well-train’d runner,

  He is lean and sinewy with muscular legs,

  He is thinly clothed, he leans forward as he runs,

  With lightly closed fists and arms partially rais’d.

  BEAUTIFUL WOMEN

  Women sit or move to and fro, some old, some young,

  The young are beautiful—but the old are more beautiful than the

  young.

  MOTHER AND BABE

  I see the sleeping babe nestling the breast of its

  mother,

  The sleeping mother and babe—hush‘d, I study them long

  and long.

  THOUGHT

  Of obedience, faith, adhesiveness;

  As I stand aloof and look there is to me something profoundly

  affecting in large masses of men following the lead of those

  who do not believe in men.

  VISOR’D

  A mask, a perpetual natural disguiser of herself,

  Concealing her face, concealing her form,

  Changes and transformations every hour, every moment,

  Falling upon her even when she sleeps.

  THOUGHT

  Of Justice—as if Justice could be any thing but the same ample

  law, expounded by natural judges and saviors,

  As if it might be this thing or that thing, according to

  decisions.

  GLIDING O‘ER ALL

  Gliding o‘er all, through all,

  Through Nature, Time, and Space,

  As a ship on the waters advancing,

  The voyage of the soul—not life alone,

  Death, many deaths I’ll sing.

  HAST NEVER COME TO THEE AN HOUR

  Hast never come to thee an hour,

  A sudden gleam divine, precipitating, bursting all these bubbles,

  fashions, wealth?

  These eager business aims—books, politics, art, amours,

  To utter nothingness?

  THOUGHT

  Of Equality—as if it harm’d me, giving others the same chances and rights as myself—as if it were not indispensable to my own rights that others possess the same.

  TO OLD AGE

  I see in you the estuary that enlarges and spreads itself grandly as it pours in the great sea.

  LOCATIONS AND TIMES

  Locations and times—what is it in me that meets them all,

  whenever and wherever, and makes me at home?

  Forms, colors, densities, odors—what is it in me that corresponds

  with them?

  OFFERINGS

  A thousand perfect men and women appear,

  Around each gathers a cluster of friends, and gay children and

  youths, with offerings.

  TO THE STATES, TO IDENTIFY THE 16TH, 17TH, OR 18TH PRESIDENTIADbn

 
; Why reclining, interrogating? why myself and all drowsing?

  What deepening twilight—scum floating atop of the waters,

  Who are they as bats and night-dogs askant in the capitol?

  What a filthy Presidentiad! (O South, your torrid suns! O North,

  your arctic freezings!)

  Are those really Congressmen? are those the great Judges? is that

  the President?

  Then I will sleep awhile yet, for I see that these States sleep, for

  reasons;

  (With gathering murk, with muttering thunder and lambent

  shoots we all duly awake,

  South, North, East, West, inland and seaboard, we will surely

  awake.)

  DRUM-TAPS60

  FIRST O SONGS FOR A PRELUDE

  First O songs for a prelude,

  Lightly strike on the stretch’d tympanum pride and joy in my city,

  How she led the rest to arms, how she gave the cue,

  How at once with lithe limbs unwaiting a moment she sprang,

  (O superb! O Manhattan, my own, my peerless!

  O strongest you in the hour of danger, in crisis! O truer than steel!)

  How you sprang—how you threw off the costumes of peace with

  indifferent hand,

  How your soft opera-music changed, and the drum and fife were

  heard in their stead,

  How you led to the war, (that shall serve for our prelude, songs of

  soldiers,)

  How Manhattan drum-taps led.

  Forty years had I in my city seen soldiers parading,

  Forty years as a pageant, till unawares the lady of this teeming and

  turbulent city,

  Sleepless amid her ships, her houses, her incalculable wealth,

  With her million children around her, suddenly,

  At dead of night, at news from the south,

  Incens’d struck with clinch’d hand the pavement.

  A shock electric, the night sustain’d it,

  Till with ominous hum our hive at daybreak pour’d out its myriads.

  From the houses then and the workshops, and through all the

  doorways,

  Leapt they tumultuous, and lo! Manhattan arming.

  To the drum-taps prompt,

  The young men falling in and arming,

  The mechanics arming, (the trowel, the jack-plane, the black-

  smith’s hammer, tost aside with precipitation,)

  The lawyer leaving his office and arming, the judge leaving the

  court,

  The driver deserting his wagon in the street, jumping down,

  throwing the reins abruptly down on the horses’ backs,

  The salesman leaving the store, the boss, book-keeper, porter, all

  leaving;

  Squads gather everywhere by common consent and arm,

  The new recruits, even boys, the old men show them how to wear

  their accoutrements, they buckle the straps carefully,

  Outdoors arming, indoors arming, the flash of the musket-

  barrels,

  The white tents cluster in camps, the arm’d sentries around, the

  sunrise cannon and again at sunset,

  Arm’d regiments arrive every day, pass through the city, and

  embark from the wharves,

  (How good they look as they tramp down to the river, sweaty, with

  their guns on their shoulders!

  How I love them! how I could hug them, with their brown faces

  and their clothes and knapsacks cover’d with dust!)

  The blood of the city up—arm‘d! arm’d! the cry

  everywhere,

  The flags flung out from the steeples of churches and from all the

  public buildings and stores,

  The tearful parting, the mother kisses her son, the son kisses his

  mother,

  (Loth is the mother to part, yet not a word does she speak to

  detain him,)

  The tumultuous escort, the ranks of policemen preceding,

  clearing the way,

  The unpent enthusiasm, the wild cheers of the crowd for their

  favorites,

  The artillery, the silent cannons bright as gold, drawn along,

  rumble lightly over the stones,

  (Silent cannons, soon to cease your silence,

  Soon unlimber’d to begin the red business;)

  All the mutter of preparation, all the determin’d arming,

  The hospital service, the lint, bandages and medicines,

  The women volunteering for nurses, the work begun for in

  earnest, no mere parade now;

  War! an arm’d race is advancing! the welcome for battle, no

  turning away;

  War! be it weeks, months, or years, an arm’d race is advancing to

  welcome it.

  Mannahatta a-march—and it’s O to sing it well!

  It’s O for a manly life in the camp.

  And the sturdy artillery,

  The guns bright as gold, the work for giants, to serve well the guns,

  Unlimber them! (no more as the past forty years for salutes for

  courtesies merely,

  Put in something now besides powder and wadding.)

  And you lady of ships, you Mannahatta,

  Old matron of this proud, friendly, turbulent city,

  Often in peace and wealth you were pensive or covertly frown’d

  amid all your children,

  But now you smile with joy exulting old Mannahatta.

  EIGHTEEN SIXTY-ONEbo

  Arm’d year—year of the struggle,

  No dainty rhymes or sentimental love verses for you terrible year,

  Not you as some pale poetling seated at a desk lisping cadenzas

  piano,

  But as a strong man erect, clothed in blue clothes, advancing,

  carrying a rifle on your shoulder,

  With well-gristled body and sunburnt face and hands, with a knife

  in the belt at your side,

  As I heard you shouting loud, your sonorous voice ringing across

  the continent,

  Your masculine voice O year, as rising amid the great cities,

  Amid the men of Manhattan I saw you as one of the workmen,

  the dwellers in Manhattan,

  Or with large steps crossing the prairies out of Illinois and

  Indiana,

  Rapidly crossing the West with springy gait and descending the

  Alleghanies,

  Or down from the great lakes or in Pennsylvania, or on deck

  along the Ohio river,

  Or southward along the Tennessee or Cumberland rivers, or at

  Chattanooga on the mountain top,

  Saw I your gait and saw I your sinewy limbs clothed in blue,

  bearing weapons, robust year,

  Heard your determin’d voice launch’d forth again and again,

  Year that suddenly sang by the mouths of the round-lipp’d

  cannon,

  I repeat you, hurrying, crashing, sad, distracted year.

  BEAT! BEAT! DRUMS!

  Beat! beat! drums!—blow! bugles! blow!

  Through the windows—through doors—burst like a ruthless force,

  Into the solemn church, and scatter the congregation,

  Into the school where the scholar is studying;

  Leave not the bridegroom quiet—no happiness must he have now

  with his bride,

  Nor the peaceful farmer any peace, ploughing his field or

  gathering his grain,

  So fierce you whirr and pound you drums—so shrill you bugles

  blow.

  Beat! beat! drums!—blow! bugles! blow!

  Over the traffic of cities—over the rumble of wheels in the streets;

  Are beds prepared for sleepers at night in the houses? no sleepers

  must sleep in those beds,

 
; No bargainers’ bargains by day—no brokers or speculators—

  would they continue?

  Would the talkers be talking? would the singer attempt to

  sing?

  Would the lawyer rise in the court to state his case before the

  judge?

  Then rattle quicker, heavier drums—you bugles wilder blow.

  Beat! beat! drums!—blow! bugles! blow!

  Make no parley—stop for no expostulation,

  Mind not the timid—mind not the weeper or prayer,

  Mind not the old man beseeching the young man,

  Let not the child’s voice be heard, nor the mother’s entreaties,

  Make even the trestles to shake the dead where they lie awaiting

  the hearses,

  So strong you thump O terrible drums—so loud you bugles

  blow.

  FROM PAUMANOK STARTING I FLY LIKE A BIRD

  From Paumanok starting I fly like a bird,

  Around and around to soar to sing the idea of all,

  To the north betaking myself to sing there arctic songs,

  To Kanada till I absorb Kanada in myself, to Michigan then,

  To Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, to sing their songs, (they are

  inimitable;)

  Then to Ohio and Indiana to sing theirs, to Missouri and Kansas

  and Arkansas to sing theirs,

  To Tennessee and Kentucky, to the Carolinas and Georgia to sing

  theirs,

  To Texas and so along up toward California, to roam accepted

  everywhere;

  To sing first, (to the tap of the war-drum if need be,)

  The idea of all, of the Western world one and inseparable,

  And then the song of each member of these States.

  SONG OF THE BANNER AT DAYBREAK61

  Poet

  O a new song, a free song,

  Flapping, flapping, flapping, flapping, by sounds, by voices clearer,