Walt Whitman - The Complete Works of Walt Whitman

I swear I begin to see the meaning of these things,

It is not the earth, it is not America who is so great,

It is I who am great or to be great, it is You up there, or any one,

It is to walk rapidly through civilizations, governments, theories,

Through poems, pageants, shows, to form individuals.

Underneath all, individuals,

I swear nothing is good to me now that ignores individuals,

The American compact is altogether with individuals,

The only government is that which makes minute of individuals,

The whole theory of the universe is directed unerringly to one

single individual — namely to You.

(Mother! with subtle sense severe, with the naked sword in your hand,

I saw you at last refuse to treat but directly with individuals.)

16

Underneath all, Nativity,

I swear I will stand by my own nativity, pious or impious so be it;

I swear I am charm’d with nothing except nativity,

Men, women, cities, nations, are only beautiful from nativity.

Underneath all is the Expression of love for men and women,

(I swear I have seen enough of mean and impotent modes of expressing

love for men and women,

After this day I take my own modes of expressing love for men and

women.) in myself,

I swear I will have each quality of my race in myself,

(Talk as you like, he only suits these States whose manners favor

the audacity and sublime turbulence of the States.)

Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments,

ownerships, I swear I perceive other lessons,

Underneath all to me is myself, to you yourself, (the same

monotonous old song.)

17

O I see flashing that this America is only you and me,

Its power, weapons, testimony, are you and me,

Its crimes, lies, thefts, defections, are you and me,

Its Congress is you and me, the officers, capitols, armies, ships,

are you and me,

Its endless gestations of new States are you and me,

The war, (that war so bloody and grim, the war I will henceforth

forget), was you and me,

Natural and artificial are you and me,

Freedom, language, poems, employments, are you and me,

Past, present, future, are you and me.

I dare not shirk any part of myself,

Not any part of America good or bad,

Not to build for that which builds for mankind,

Not to balance ranks, complexions, creeds, and the sexes,

Not to justify science nor the march of equality,

Nor to feed the arrogant blood of the brawn belov’d of time.

I am for those that have never been master’d,

For men and women whose tempers have never been master’d,

For those whom laws, theories, conventions, can never master.

I am for those who walk abreast with the whole earth,

Who inaugurate one to inaugurate all.

I will not be outfaced by irrational things,

I will penetrate what it is in them that is sarcastic upon me,

I will make cities and civilizations defer to me,

This is what I have learnt from America — it is the amount, and it I

teach again.

(Democracy, while weapons were everywhere aim’d at your breast,

I saw you serenely give birth to immortal children, saw in dreams

your dilating form,

Saw you with spreading mantle covering the world.)

18

I will confront these shows of the day and night,

I will know if I am to be less than they,

I will see if I am not as majestic as they,

I will see if I am not as subtle and real as they,

I will see if I am to be less generous than they,

I will see if I have no meaning, while the houses and ships have meaning,

I will see if the fishes and birds are to be enough for themselves,

and I am not to be enough for myself.

I match my spirit against yours you orbs, growths, mountains, brutes,

Copious as you are I absorb you all in myself, and become the master myself,

America isolated yet embodying all, what is it finally except myself?

These States, what are they except myself?

I know now why the earth is gross, tantalizing, wicked, it is for my sake,

I take you specially to be mine, you terrible, rude forms.

(Mother, bend down, bend close to me your face,

I know not what these plots and wars and deferments are for,

I know not fruition’s success, but I know that through war and crime

your work goes on, and must yet go on.)

19

Thus by blue Ontario’s shore,

While the winds fann’d me and the waves came trooping toward me,

I thrill’d with the power’s pulsations, and the charm of my theme

was upon me,

Till the tissues that held me parted their ties upon me.

And I saw the free souls of poets,

The loftiest bards of past ages strode before me,

Strange large men, long unwaked, undisclosed, were disclosed to me.

20

O my rapt verse, my call, mock me not!

Not for the bards of the past, not to invoke them have I launch’d

you forth,

Not to call even those lofty bards here by Ontario’s shores,

Have I sung so capricious and loud my savage song.

Bards for my own land only I invoke,

(For the war the war is over, the field is clear’d,)

Till they strike up marches henceforth triumphant and onward,

To cheer O Mother your boundless expectant soul.

Bards of the great Idea! bards of the peaceful inventions! (for the

war, the war is over!)

Yet bards of latent armies, a million soldiers waiting ever-ready,

Bards with songs as from burning coals or the lightning’s fork’d stripes!

Ample Ohio’s, Kanada’s bards — bards of California! inland bards —

bards of the war!

You by my charm I invoke.

Table of Contents

Let that which stood in front go behind,

Let that which was behind advance to the front,

Let bigots, fools, unclean persons, offer new propositions,

Let the old propositions be postponed,

Let a man seek pleasure everywhere except in himself,

Let a woman seek happiness everywhere except in herself

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

As consequent from store of summer rains,

Or wayward rivulets in autumn flowing,

Or many a herb-lined brook’s reticulations,

Or subterranean sea-rills making for the sea,

Songs of continued years I sing.

Life’s ever-modern rapids first, (soon, soon to blend,

With the old streams of death.)

Some threading Ohio’s farm-fields or the woods,

Some down Colorado’s canons from sources of perpetual snow,

Some half-hid in Oregon, or away southward in Texas,

Some in the north finding their way to Erie, Niagara, Ottawa,

Some to Atlantica’s bays, and so to the great salt brine.

In you whoe’er you are my book perusing,

In I myself, in all the world, these currents flowing,

All, all toward the mystic ocean tending.

Currents for starting a continent new,

Overtures sent to the solid out of the liquid,

Fusion of ocean and land, tender and pensive waves,

(Not safe and peaceful only, waves rous’d and ominous too,

Out of the depths the storm’s abysmic waves, who knows whence?

Raging over the vast, with many a broken spar and tatter’d sail.)

Or from the sea of Time, collecting vasting all, I bring,

A windrow-drift of weeds and shells.

O little shells, so curious-convolute, so limpid-cold and voiceless,

Will you not little shells to the tympans of temples held,

Murmurs and echoes still call up, eternity’s music faint and far,

Wafted inland, sent from Atlantica’s rim, strains for the soul of