Walt Whitman - The Complete Works of Walt Whitman

Rich as a sunset on the Norway coast, the sky, the islands, and the cliffs,

Or midnight’s silent glowing northern lights unreachable.

Haply God’s riddle it, so vague and yet so certain,

The soul for it, and all the visible universe for it,

And heaven at last for it.

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Who has gone farthest? for I would go farther,

And who has been just? for I would be the most just person of the earth,

And who most cautious? for I would be more cautious,

And who has been happiest? O I think it is I — I think no one was

ever happier than I,

And who has lavish’d all? for I lavish constantly the best I have,

And who proudest? for I think I have reason to be the proudest son

alive — for I am the son of the brawny and tall-topt city,

And who has been bold and true? for I would be the boldest and

truest being of the universe,

And who benevolent? for I would show more benevolence than all the rest,

And who has receiv’d the love of the most friends? for I know what

it is to receive the passionate love of many friends,

And who possesses a perfect and enamour’d body? for I do not believe

any one possesses a more perfect or enamour’d body than mine,

And who thinks the amplest thoughts? for I would surround those thoughts,

And who has made hymns fit for the earth? for I am mad with

devouring ecstasy to make joyous hymns for the whole earth.

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Ah poverties, wincings, and sulky retreats,

Ah you foes that in conflict have overcome me,

(For what is my life or any man’s life but a conflict with foes, the

old, the incessant war?)

You degradations, you tussle with passions and appetites,

You smarts from dissatisfied friendships, (ah wounds the sharpest of all!)

You toil of painful and choked articulations, you meannesses,

You shallow tongue-talks at tables, (my tongue the shallowest of any;)

You broken resolutions, you racking angers, you smother’d ennuis!

Ah think not you finally triumph, my real self has yet to come forth,

It shall yet march forth o’ermastering, till all lies beneath me,

It shall yet stand up the soldier of ultimate victory.

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Of public opinion,

Of a calm and cool fiat sooner or later, (how impassive! how certain

and final!)

Of the President with pale face asking secretly to himself, What

will the people say at last?

Of the frivolous Judge — of the corrupt Congressman, Governor,

Mayor — of such as these standing helpless and exposed,

Of the mumbling and screaming priest, (soon, soon deserted,)

Of the lessening year by year of venerableness, and of the dicta of

officers, statutes, pulpits, schools,

Of the rising forever taller and stronger and broader of the

intuitions of men and women, and of Self-esteem and Personality;

Of the true New World — of the Democracies resplendent en-masse,

Of the conformity of politics, armies, navies, to them,

Of the shining sun by them — of the inherent light, greater than the rest,

Of the envelopment of all by them, and the effusion of all from them.

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They shall arise in the States,

They shall report Nature, laws, physiology, and happiness,

They shall illustrate Democracy and the kosmos,

They shall be alimentive, amative, perceptive,

They shall be complete women and men, their pose brawny and supple,

their drink water, their blood clean and clear,

They shall fully enjoy materialism and the sight of products, they

shall enjoy the sight of the beef, lumber, bread-stuffs, of

Chicago the great city.

They shall train themselves to go in public to become orators and

oratresses,

Strong and sweet shall their tongues be, poems and materials of

poems shall come from their lives, they shall be makers and finders,

Of them and of their works shall emerge divine conveyers, to convey gospels,

Characters, events, retrospections, shall be convey’d in gospels,

trees, animals, waters, shall be convey’d,

Death, the future, the invisible faith, shall all be convey’d.

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Weave in, weave in, my hardy life,

Weave yet a soldier strong and full for great campaigns to come,

Weave in red blood, weave sinews in like ropes, the senses, sight weave in,

Weave lasting sure, weave day and night the wet, the warp, incessant

weave, tire not,

(We know not what the use O life, nor know the aim, the end, nor

really aught we know,

But know the work, the need goes on and shall go on, the

death-envelop’d march of peace as well as war goes on,)

For great campaigns of peace the same the wiry threads to weave,

We know not why or what, yet weave, forever weave.

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Out of the murk of heaviest clouds,

Out of the feudal wrecks and heap’d-up skeletons of kings,

Out of that old entire European debris, the shatter’d mummeries,

Ruin’d cathedrals, crumble of palaces, tombs of priests,

Lo, Freedom’s features fresh undimm’d look forth — the same immortal

face looks forth;

(A glimpse as of thy Mother’s face Columbia,

A flash significant as of a sword,

Beaming towards thee.)

Nor think we forget thee maternal;

Lag’d’st thou so long? shall the clouds close again upon thee?

Ah, but thou hast thyself now appear’d to us — we know thee,

Thou hast given us a sure proof, the glimpse of thyself,

Thou waitest there as everywhere thy time.

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By broad Potomac’s shore, again old tongue,

(Still uttering, still ejaculating, canst never cease this babble?)

Again old heart so gay, again to you, your sense, the full flush

spring returning,

Again the freshness and the odors, again Virginia’s summer sky,

pellucid blue and silver,

Again the forenoon purple of the hills,

Again the deathless grass, so noiseless soft and green,

Again the blood-red roses blooming.

Perfume this book of mine O blood-red roses!

Lave subtly with your waters every line Potomac!

Give me of you O spring, before I close, to put between its pages!

O forenoon purple of the hills, before I close, of you!

O deathless grass, of you!

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From far Dakota’s canyons,

Lands of the wild ravine, the dusky Sioux, the lonesome stretch, the

silence,

Haply to-day a mournful wall, haply a trumpet-note for heroes.

The battle-bulletin,

The Indian ambuscade, the craft, the fatal environment,

The cavalry companies fighting to the last in sternest heroism,

In the midst of their little circle, with their slaughter’d horses

for breastworks,

The fall of Custer and all his officers and men.

Continues yet the old, old legend of our race,

The loftiest of life upheld by death,

The ancient banner perfectly maintain’d,

O lesson opportune, O how I welcome thee!

As sitting in dark days,

Lone, sulky, through the time’s thick murk looking in vain for

light, for hope,

From unsuspected parts a fierce and momentary proof,

(The sun there at the centre though conceal’d,

Electric life forever at the centre,)