Walt Whitman - Leaves of Grass

10 Chants of the prairies,
Chants of the long-running Mississippi,
Chants of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota,
Inland chants—chants of Kanzas,
Chants away down to Mexico, and up north to Oregon—Kanadian chants,
Chants of teeming and turbulent cities—chants of mechanics,
Yankee chants—Pennsylvanian chants—chants of Kentucky and Tennessee,
Chants of dim-lit mines—chants of mountain-tops,
Chants of sailors—chants of the Eastern Sea and the Western Sea,
Chants of the Mannahatta, the place of my dearest love, the place surrounded by hurried and sparkling currents,
Health chants—joy chants—robust chants of young men,
Chants inclusive—wide reverberating chants,
Chants of the Many In One.

11 In the Year 80 of The States,
My tongue, every atom of my blood, formed from this soil, this air,
Born here of parents born here,
From parents the same, and their parents’ parents the same,
I, now thirty-six years old, in perfect health, begin,
Hoping to cease not till death.

12 Creeds and schools in abeyance,
Retiring back a while, sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten,
With accumulations, now coming forward in front,
Arrived again, I harbor, for good or bad—I permit to speak,
Nature, without check, with original energy.

13 Take my leaves, America!
Make welcome for them everywhere, for they are your own offspring;
Surround them, East and West! for they would surround you,
And you precedents! connect lovingly with them, for they connect lovingly with you.

14 I conned old times,
I sat studying at the feet of the great masters;
Now, if eligible, O that the great masters might return and study me!

15 In the name of These States, shall I scorn the antique?
Why These are the children of the antique, to justify it.

16 Dead poets, philosophs, priests,
Martyrs, artists, inventors, governments long since,
Language-shapers, on other shores,
Nations once powerful, now reduced, withdrawn, or desolate,
I dare not proceed till I respectfully credit what you have left, wafted hither,
I have perused it—I own it is admirable,
I think nothing can ever be greater—Nothing can ever deserve more than it deserves;
I regard it all intently a long while,
Then take my place for good with my own day and race here.

17 Here lands female and male,
Here the heirship and heiress-ship of the world—Here the flame of materials,
Here Spirituality, the translatress, the openly-avowed,
The ever-tending, the finale of visible forms,
The satisfier, after due long-waiting, now advancing,
Yes, here comes the mistress, the Soul.

18 The Soul !
Forever and forever—Longer than soil is brown and solid—Longer than water ebbs and flows.

19 I will make the poems of materials, for I think they are to be the most spiritual poems,
And I will make the poems of my body and of mortality,
For I think I shall then supply myself with the poems of my Soul and of immortality.

20 I will make a song for These States, that no one State may under any circumstances be subjected to another State,
And I will make a song that there shall be comity by day and by night between all The States, and between any two of them,
And I will make a song of the organic bargains of These States—And a shrill song of curses on him who would dissever the Union;
And I will make a song for the ears of the President, full of weapons with menacing points,
And behind the weapons countless dissatisfied faces.

21 I will acknowledge contemporary lands,
I will trail the whole geography of the globe, and salute courteously every city large and small;
And employments! I will put in my poems, that with you is heroism, upon land and sea—And I will report all heroism from an American point of view;
And sexual organs and acts! do you concentrate in me—For I am determined to tell you with courageous clear voice, to prove you illustrious.

22 I will sing the song of companionship,
I will show what alone must compact These,
I believe These are to found their own ideal of manly love, indicating it in me;
I will therefore let flame from me the burning fires that were threatening to consume me,
I will lift what has too long kept down those smouldering fires,
I will give them complete abandonment,
I will write the evangel-poem of comrades and of love,
(For who but I should understand love, with all its sorrow and joy?
And who but I should be the poet of comrades?)

23 I am the credulous man of qualities, ages, races,
I advance from the people en-masse in their own spirit,
Here is what sings unrestricted faith.

24 Omnes! Omnes!
Let others ignore what they may,
I make the poem of evil also—I commemorate that part also,
I am myself just as much evil as good—And I say there is in fact no evil,
Or if there is, I say it is just as important to you, to the earth, or to me, as anything else.

25 I too, following many, and followed by many, inaugurate a Religion—I too go to the wars,
It may be I am destined to utter the loudest cries thereof, the conqueror’s shouts,
They may rise from me yet, and soar above every thing.

26 Each is not for its own sake,
I say the whole earth, and all the stars in the sky, are for Religion’s sake.

27 I say no man has ever been half devout enough,
None has ever adored or worship’d half enough,
None has begun to think how divine he himself is, and how certain the future is.

28 I specifically announce that the real and permanent grandeur of These States must be their Religion,
Otherwise there is no real and permanent grandeur.

29 What are you doing, young man?
Are you so earnest—so given up to literature, science, art, amours?
These ostensible realities, materials, points?
Your ambition or business, whatever it may be?

30 It is well—Against such I say not a word—I am their poet also;
But behold! such swiftly subside—burnt up for Religion’s sake,
For not all matter is fuel to heat, impalpable flame, the essential life of the earth,
Any more than such are to Religion.

31 What do you seek, so pensive and silent?
What do you need, comrade?
Mon cher! do you think it is love?

32 Proceed, comrade,
It is a painful thing to love a man or woman to excess—yet it satisfies—it is great,
But there is something else very great—it makes the whole coincide,
It, magnificent, beyond materials, with continuous hands, sweeps and provides for all.

33 O I see the following poems are indeed to drop in the earth the germs of a greater Religion.

34 My comrade!
For you, to share with me, two greatnesses—And a third one, rising inclusive and more resplendent,
The greatness of Love and Democracy—and the greatness of Religion.

35 Melange mine!
Mysterious ocean where the streams empty,
Prophetic spirit of materials shifting and flickering around me,
Wondrous interplay between the seen and unseen,
Living beings, identities, now doubtless near us, in the air, that we know not of,
Extasy everywhere touching and thrilling me,
Contact daily and hourly that will not release me,
These selecting—These, in hints, demanded of me.