Walt Whitman - Leaves of Grass

48 The big doors of the country-barn stand open and ready,
The dried grass of the harvest-time loads the slow-drawn wagon,
The clear light plays on the brown gray and green intertinged,
The armfuls are packed to the sagging mow.

49 I am there—I help—I came stretched atop of the load,
I felt its soft jolts—one leg reclined on the other;
I jump from the cross-beams and seize the clover and timothy,
And roll head over heels, and tangle my hair full of wisps.

50 Alone, far in the wilds and mountains, I hunt,
Wandering, amazed at my own lightness and glee,
In the late afternoon choosing a safe spot to pass the night,
Kindling a fire and broiling the fresh-killed game,
Soundly falling asleep on the gathered leaves, with my dog and gun by my side.

51 The Yankee clipper is under her three sky-sails—she cuts the sparkle and scud,
My eyes settle the land—I bend at her prow, or shout joyously from the deck.

52 The boatmen and clam-diggers arose early and stopped for me,
I tucked my trowser-ends in my boots, and went and had a good time;
You should have been with us that day round the chowder-kettle.

53 I saw the marriage of the trapper in the open air in the far-west—the bride was a red girl,
Her father and his friends sat near, cross-legged and dumbly smoking—they had moccasons to their feet, and large thick blankets hanging from their shoulders;
On a bank lounged the trapper—he was dressed mostly in skins—his luxuriant beard and curls protected his neck,
One hand rested on his rifle—the other hand held firmly the wrist of the red girl,
She had long eyelashes—her head was bare—her coarse straight locks descended upon her voluptuous limbs and reached to her feet.

54 The runaway slave came to my house and stopped outside,
I heard his motions crackling the twigs of the wood-pile,
Through the swung half-door of the kitchen I saw him limpsy and weak,
And went where he sat on a log, and led him in and assured him,
And brought water, and filled a tub for his sweated body and bruised feet,
And gave him a room that entered from my own, and gave him some coarse clean clothes,
And remember perfectly well his revolving eyes and his awkwardness,
And remember putting plasters on the galls of his neck and ankles;
He staid with me a week before he was recuperated and passed north,
I had him sit next me at table—my fire-lock leaned in the corner.

55 Twenty-eight young men bathe by the shore,
Twenty-eight young men, and all so friendly;
Twenty-eight years of womanly life, and all so lonesome.

56 She owns the fine house by the rise of the bank,
She hides, handsome and richly drest, aft the blinds of the window.

57 Which of the young men does she like the best?
Ah, the homeliest of them is beautiful to her.

58 Where are you off to, lady? for I see you,
You splash in the water there, yet stay stock still in your room.

59 Dancing and laughing along the beach came the twenty-ninth bather,
The rest did not see her, but she saw them and loved them.

60 The beards of the young men glistened with wet, it ran from their long hair,
Little streams passed all over their bodies.

61 An unseen hand also passed over their bodies,
It descended tremblingly from their temples and ribs.

62 The young men float on their backs—their white bellies bulge to the sun—they do not ask who seizes fast to them,
They do not know who puffs and declines with pendant and bending arch,
They do not think whom they souse with spray.

63 The butcher-boy puts off his killing-clothes, or sharpens his knife at the stall in the market,
I loiter, enjoying his repartee and his shuffle and break-down.

64 Blacksmiths with grimed and hairy chests environ the anvil,
Each has his main-sledge—they are all out—there is a great heat in the fire.

65 From the cinder-strewed threshold I follow their movements,
The lithe sheer of their waists plays even with their massive arms,
Overhand the hammers roll—overhand so slow—overhand so sure,
They do not hasten—each man hits in his place.

66 The negro holds firmly the reins of his four horses—the blocks swags underneath on its tied-over chain,
The negro that drives the huge dray of the stone-yard—steady and tall he stands, poised on one leg on the string-piece,
His blue shirt exposes his ample neck and breast, and loosens over his hip-band,
His glance is calm and commanding—he tosses the slouch of his hat away from his forehead,
The sun falls on his crispy hair and moustache—falls on the black of his polished and perfect limbs.

67 I behold the picturesque giant and love him—and I do not stop there,
I go with the team also.

68 In me the caresser of life wherever moving—backward as well as forward slueing,
To niches aside and junior bending.

69 Oxen that rattle the yoke or halt in the shade! what is that you express in your eyes?
It seems to me more than all the print I have read in my life.

70 My tread scares the wood-drake and wood-duck, on my distant and day-long ramble,
They rise together—they slowly circle around.

71 I believe in those winged purposes,
And acknowledge red, yellow, white, playing within me,
And consider green and violet, and the tufted crown, intentional,
And do not call the tortoise unworthy because she is not something else,
And the mocking-bird in the swamp never studied the gamut, yet trills pretty well to me,
And the look of the bay mare shames silliness out of me.

72 The wild gander leads his flock through the cool night,
Ya-honk! he says, and sounds it down to me like an invitation;
The pert may suppose it meaningless, but I listen close,
I find its purpose and place up there toward the wintry sky.

73 The sharp-hoofed moose of the north, the cat on the house-sill, the chickadee, the prairie-dog,
The litter of the grunting sow as they tug at her teats,
The brood of the turkey-hen, and she with her half-spread wings,
I see in them and myself the same old law.

74 The press of my foot to the earth springs a hundred affections,
They scorn the best I can do to relate them.

75 I am enamoured of growing outdoors.
Of men that live among cattle, or taste of the ocean or woods,
Of the builders and steerers of ships, and the wielders of axes and mauls, and the drivers of horses,
I can eat and sleep with them week in and week out.

76 What is commonest, cheapest, nearest, easiest, is Me,
Me going in for my chances, spending for vast returns,
Adorning myself to bestow myself on the first that will take me,
Not asking the sky to come down to my good will,
Scattering it freely forever.

77 The pure contralto sings in the organ loft,
The carpenter dresses his plank—the tongue of his foreplane whistles its wild ascending lisp,
The married and unmarried children ride home to their Thanksgiving dinner,
The pilot seizes the king-pin—he heaves down with a strong arm,
The mate stands braced in the whale-boat—lance and harpoon are ready,
The duck-shooter walks by silent and cautious stretches,
The deacons are ordained with crossed hands at the altar,
The spinning-girl retreats and advances to the hum of the big wheel,
The farmer stops by the bars, as he walks on a First Day loafe, and looks at the oats and rye,
The lunatic is carried at last to the asylum, a confirmed case,
He will never sleep any more as he did in the cot in his mother’s bedroom;
The jour printer with gray head and gaunt jaws works at his case,
He turns his quid of tobacco, while his eyes blurr with the manuscript;
The malformed limbs are tied to the anatomist’s table,
What is removed drops horribly in a pail;
The quadroon girl is sold at the stand—the drunkard nods by the bar-room stove,
The machinist rolls up his sleeves—the policeman travels his beat—the gate-keeper marks who pass,
The young fellow drives the express-wagon—I love him, though I do not know him,
The half-breed straps on his light boots to compete in the race,
The western turkey-shooting draws old and young—some lean on their rifles, some sit on logs,
Out from the crowd steps the marksman, takes his position, levels his piece;
The groups of newly-come emigrants cover the wharf or levee,
As the woolly-pates hoe in the sugar-field, the overseer views them from his saddle,
The bugle calls in the ball-room, the gentlemen run for their partners, the dancers bow to each other,
The youth lies awake in the cedar-roofed garret, and harks to the musical rain,
The Wolverine sets traps on the creek that helps fill the Huron,
The reformer ascends the platform, he spouts with his mouth and nose,
The company returns from its excursion, the darkey brings up the rear and bears the well-riddled target,
The squaw, wrapt in her yellow-hemmed cloth, is offering moccasons and bead-bags for sale,
The connoisseur peers along the exhibition-gallery with half-shut eyes bent side-ways,
As the deck-hands make fast the steamboat, the plank is thrown for the shore-going passengers,
The young sister holds out the skein, while the elder sister winds it off in a ball, and stops now and then for the knots,
The one-year wife is recovering and happy, having a week ago borne her first child,
The clean-haired Yankee girl works with her sewing-machine, or in the factory or mill,
The nine months’ gone is in the parturition chamber, her faintness and pains are advancing,
The paving-man leans on his two-handed rammer—the reporter’s lead flies swiftly over the note-book—the sign-painter is lettering with red and gold,
The canal-boy trots on the tow-path—the bookkeeper counts at his desk—the shoemaker waxes his thread,
The conductor beats time for the band, and all the performers follow him,
The child is baptized—the convert is making his first professions,
The regatta is spread on the bay—how the white sails sparkle!
The drover, watching his drove, sings out to them that would stray,
The pedler sweats with his pack on his back, the purchaser higgling about the odd cent,
The camera and plate are prepared, the lady must sit for her daguerreotype,
The bride unrumples her white dress, the minute-hand of the clock moves slowly,
The opium-eater reclines with rigid head and just-opened lips,
The prostitute draggles her shawl, her bonnet bobs on her tipsy and pimpled neck,
The crowd laugh at her blackguard oaths, the men jeer and wink to each other,
(Miserable!-I do not laugh at your oaths, nor jeer you;)
The President, holding a cabinet council, is surrounded by the Great Secretaries,
On the piazza walk five friendly matrons with twined arms,
The crew of the fish-smack pack repeated layers of halibut in the hold,
The Missourian crosses the plains, toting his wares and his cattle,
As the fare-collector goes through the train, he gives notice by the jingling of loose change,
The floor-men are laying the floor—the tinners are tinning the roof—the masons are calling for mortar,
In single file, each shouldering his hod, pass onward the laborers,
Seasons pursuing each other, the indescribable crowd is gathered—it is the Fourth of Seventh Month—What salutes of cannon and small arms!
Seasons pursuing each other, the plougher ploughs, the mower mows, and the winter-grain falls in the ground,
Off on the lakes the pike-fisher watches and waits by the hole in the frozen surface,
The stumps stand thick round the clearing, the squatter strikes deep with his axe,
Flatboatmen make fast, towards dusk, near the cotton-wood or pekan-trees,
Coon-seekers go through the regions of the Red river, or through those drained by the Tennessee, or through those of the Arkansaw,
Torches shine in the dark that hangs on the Chattahooche or Altamahaw,
Patriarchs sit at supper with sons and grandsons and great-grandsons around them,
In walls of adobie, in canvas tents, rest hunters and trappers after their day’s sport,
The city sleeps and the country sleeps,
The living sleep for their time, the dead sleep for their time,
The old husband sleeps by his wife, and the young husband sleeps by his wife;
And these one and all tend inward to me, and I tend outward to them,
And such as it is to be of these, more or less, I am.