PAGE I AM he that aches with amorous love 93 29 412 I dream'd in a dream I saw a city invincible to the attacks of the whole 109 391 425 17 If I should need to name, O Western World, your powerfulest scene and I have not so much emulated the birds that musically sing I heard that you ask'd for something to prove this puzzle the New World, I hear it was charged against me that I sought to destroy institutions In a far-away northern county in the placid pastoral region In a little house keep I pictures suspended, it is not a fix'd house. I need no assurances, I am a man who is pre-occupied of his own soul, In paths untrodden In softness, languor, bloom, and growth In some unused lagoon, some nameless bay I saw old General at bay I see before me now a traveling army halting I see in you the estuary that enlarges and spreads itself grandly as it I see the sleeping babe nestling the breast of its mother I sing the body electric . I sit and look out upon all the sorrows of the world, and upon all op- Is reform needed? is it through you I stand as on some mighty eagle's beak I was asking for something specific and perfect for my city I wander all night in my vision Laws for creations Let the reformers descend from the stands where they are forever bawl- Let that which stood in front go behind Locations and times-what is it in me that meets them all, whenever 252 Many things to absorb I teach to help you become eleve of mine. Me imperturbe, standing at ease in Nature. More experiences and sights, stranger, than you'd think for. My city's fit and noble name resumed. PAGE 16 420 385 My science-friend, my noblest woman-friend My spirit to yours dear brother Myself and mine gymnastic ever. NAY, do not dream, designer dark Nay tell me not to-day the publish'd shame 397 298 189 428 Nations ten thousand years before these States, and many times ten thousand years before these States 426 288 you are here now 94 No labor-saving machine 344 108 Not alone those camps of white, old comrades of the wars Not from successful love alone Not meagre, latent boughs alone, O songs! (scaly and bare, like eagles' Not the pilot has charged himself to bring his ship into port, though Not to exclude or demarcate, or pick out evils from their formidable Now list to my morning's romanza, I tell the signs of the Answerer Of Equality as if it harm'd me, giving others the same chances and Of heroes, history, grand events, premises, myths, poems Of him I love day and night I dream'd I heard he was dead 241 as if one fit to own things could not at pleasure enter Of persons arrived at high positions, ceremonies, wealth, scholarships, Of that blithe throat of thine from arctic bleak and blank Of public opinion Of these years I sing. Of the terrible doubt of appearances O hymen! O hymenee! why do you tantalize me thus Old farmers, travelers, workmen (no matter how crippled or bent O magnet-South! O glistening perfumed South! my South. O me, man of slack faith so long O me! O life! of the questions of these recurring On a flat road runs the well-train'd runner Once I pass'd through a populous city imprinting my brain for future use One hour to madness and joy! O furious! O confine me not One thought ever at the fore On journeys through the States we start Only themselves understand themselves and the like of themselves On my Northwest coast in the midst of the night a fisherman's group On, on the same, ye jocund twain On the beach at night On the beach at night alone O sight of pity, shame and dole O star of France O take my hand Walt Whitman O tan-faced prairie boy Others may praise what they like O to make the most jubilant song Out from behind this bending rough-cut mask Out of the cradle endlessly rocking Out of the murk of heaviest clouds Out of the rolling ocean the crowd came a drop gently to me Over and through the burial chant Over the carnage rose prophetic a voice Over the Western sea hither from Niphon come O you whom I often and silently come where you are that I may be with you. PASSING stranger! you do not know how longingly I look upon you Pensive on her dead gazing I heard the Mother of All. QUICKSAND years that whirl me I know not whither RACE of veterans - race of victors Recorders ages hence 305 247 193 III 228 Rise O days from your fathomless deeps, till you loftier, fiercer sweep steadily hastening towards immortality. Roots and leaves themselves alone are these SACRED, blithesome, undenied Sane, random, negligent hours Sauntering the pavement or riding the country by-road, lo, such faces Sea-beauty! stretch'd and basking Shot gold, maroon and violet, dazzling silver, emerald, fawn Shut not your doors to me proud libraries Silent and amazed even when a little boy Simple and fresh and fair from winter's close emerging That which eludes this verse and any verse Skirting the river road (my forenoon walk, my rest Somehow I cannot let it go yet, funeral though it is Sometimes with one I love I fill myself with rage for fear I effuse unre- Spontaneous me, Nature spirit of dreadful hours Splendor of ended day floating and filling me Starting from fish-shape Paumanok where I was born Steaming the northern rapids Still though the one I sing. - (an old St. Lawrence reminiscence Stranger, if you passing meet me and desire to speak to me, why should you not speak to me Suddenly out of its stale and drowsy lair, the lair of slaves. TEARS! tears! tears Thanks in old age - thanks ere I go That coursing on, whate'er men's speculations That shadow my likeness that goes to and fro seeking a livelihood, chat- 110 399 415 253 374 89 18 389 17 18 204 Then last of all, caught from these shores, this hill The mystery of mysteries, the crude and hurried ceaseless flame, spon- 246 The prairie-grass dividing, its special odor breathing 230 These carols sung to cheer my passage through the world I see The soothing sanity and blitheness of completion The touch of flame 282 379 99 378 401 411 - the illuminating fire- the loftiest look at last 404 398 379 They shall arise in the States. 206 364 367 This is thy hour O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless 263 369 This latent mine - these unlaunch'd voices - passionate powers This moment yearning and thoughtful sitting alone close, always obligated Thou Mother with thy Equal brood Thou orb aloft full-dazzling! thou hot October noon Thou reader throbbest life and pride and love the same as I. Through the ample open door of the peaceful country barn To conclude, I announce what comes after me To-day, from each and all, a breath of prayer - To the East and to the West To thee old cause PAGE 386 106 16 —a pulse of thought To the garden the world anew ascending To the leaven'd soil they trod calling I sing for the last 79 To think of time-of all that retrospection To those who've fail'd, in aspiration vast Trickle drops! my blue veins leaving. Turn O Libertad, for the war is over To the States or any one of them, or any city of the States, Resist much, Two boats with nets lying off the sea-beach, quite still UNFOLDED Out of the folds of the woman man comes unfolded, and is 351 always to come unfolded Unseen buds, infinite, hidden well Upon this scene, this show. VIGIL strange I kept on the field one night. Vocalism, measure, concentration, determination, and the divine power WANDERING at morn. Warble me now for joy of lilac-time, (returning in reminiscence. Welcome, Brazilian brother-thy ample place is ready What am I after all but a child, pleas'd with the sound of my own What are those of the known but to ascend and enter the Unknown What hurrying human tide, or day or night What place is besieged, and vainly tries to raise the siege What ship puzzled at sea, cons for the true reckoning. |