Come, said my Soul Such verses for my Body let us write, (… That should I after death invisibly ret… Or, long, long hence, in other spheres, There to some group of mates the chants…
One’s-Self I sing, a simple separate pe… Yet utter the word Democratic, the word… Of physiology from top to toe I sing, Not physiognomy alone nor brain alone is… The Female equally with the Male I sin…
As I ponder’d in silence, Returning upon my poems, considering, li… A Phantom arose before me, with distrus… Terrible in beauty, age, and power, The genius of poets of old lands,
In cabin’d ships at sea, The boundless blue on every side expandi… With whistling winds and music of the wa… Or some lone bark buoy’d on the dense ma… Where joyous full of faith, spreading wh…
I heard that you ask’d for something to… And to define America, her athletic Dem… Therefore I send you my poems that you… wanted.
You who celebrate bygones, Who have explored the outward, the surfa… has exhibited itself, Who have treated of man as the creature… and priests,
To thee old cause! Thou peerless, passionate, good cause, Thou stern, remorseless, sweet idea, Deathless throughout the ages, races, la… After a strange sad war, great war for t…
I met a seer, Passing the hues and objects of the worl… The fields of art and learning, pleasure… To glean eidolons. Put in thy chants said he,
For him I sing, I raise the present on the past, (As some perennial tree out of its roots… With time and space I him dilate and fu… To make himself by them the law unto him…
When I read the book, the biography fam… And is this then (said I) what the auth… And so will some one when I am dead and… (As if any man really knew aught of my l… Why even I myself I often think know li…
Beginning my studies the first step plea… The mere fact consciousness, these forms… The least insect or animal, the senses,… The first step I say awed me and pleas’… I have hardly gone and hardly wish’d to…
How they are provided for upon the earth… How they inure to themselves as much as… appears their age, How people respond to them, yet know the… How there is something relentless in the…
To The States, or any one of them, or a… Resist much, obey little; Once unquestioning obedience, once fully… Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, c…
On journeys through the States we start… (Ay, through the world—urged by these so… Sailing henceforth to every land—to ever… We, willing learners of all, teachers of… We have watch’d the seasons dispensing t…
Here, take this gift, I was reserving it for some hero, speake… One who should serve the good old cause,… Some brave confronter of despots, some d… But I see that what I was reserving bel…
Me imperturbe, standing at ease in Natu… Master of all, or mistress of all—aplomb… of irrational things, Imbued as they—passive, receptive, silen… Finding my occupation, poverty, notoriet…
THITHER, as I look, I see each resul… nestling close, always obligated; Thither hours, months, years—thither tra… establishments, even the most minute; Thither every-day life, speech, utensils…
Lo! The unbounded sea! On its breast a Ship starting, spreadin… Ship, carrying even her moonsails; The pennant is flying aloft, as she spee… below, emulous waves press forward,
I hear America singing, the varied caro… Those of mechanics, each one singing his… The carpenter singing his as he measures… The mason singing his as he makes ready… The boatman singing what belongs to him…
What place is besieged, and vainly tries… Lo! I send to that place a commander, s… And with him horse and foot—and parks of… And artillery-men, the deadliest that ev…
Still though the one I sing, (One, yet of contradictions made,) I de… I leave in him revolt, (O latent right… indispensable fire!)
Shut not your doors to me proud librarie… For that which was lacking on all your w… most, I bring, Forth from the war emerging, a book I h… The words of my book nothing, the drift…
Poets to come! orators, singers, musicia… Not to-day is to justify me, and answer… But you, a new brood, native, athletic,… Arouse! Arouse—for you must justify me—… I myself but write one or two indicative…
Stranger! if you, passing, meet me, and… speak to me, why should you not speak to… And why should I not speak to you?
Thou reader throbbest life and pride and… Therefore for thee the following chants.
Starting from fish-shape Paumanok where… Well-begotten, and rais’d by a perfect m… After roaming many lands, lover of popul… Dweller in Mannahatta my city, or on so… Or a soldier camp’d or carrying my knaps…
I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good b… I loafe and invite my soul, I lean and loafe at my ease observing a…
37 You laggards there on guard! look to you… In at the conquer’d doors they crowd! I… Embody all presences outlaw’d or sufferi… See myself in prison shaped like another…
To the garden, the world, anew ascending… Potent mates, daughters, sons, preluding… The love, the life of their bodies, mean… Curious, here behold my resurrection, af… The revolving cycles, in their wide swee…
From pent-up, aching rivers; From that of myself, without which I we… From what I am determin’d to make illus… among men; From my own voice resonant—singing the p…
I sing the body electric, The armies of those I love engirth me a… They will not let me off till I go with… And discorrupt them, and charge them ful… Was it doubted that those who corrupt th…
A Woman waits for me—she contains all,… Yet all were lacking, if sex were lackin… right man were lacking. Sex contains all, Bodies, Souls, meanings, proofs, puriti…
Spontaneous me, Nature, The loving day, the mounting sun, the fr… The arm of my friend hanging idly over m… The hill-side whiten’d with blossoms of… The same, late in autumn—the hues of red…
One hour to madness and joy! O furious! O confine me not! (What is this that frees me so in storms… What do my shouts amid lightnings and ra… O to drink the mystic deliria deeper tha…
Out of the rolling ocean the crowd came… Whispering, I love you, before long I d… I have travell’d a long way merely to lo… For I could not die till I once look’d… For I fear’d I might afterward lose you…
Ages and ages returning at intervals, Undestroy’d, wandering immortal, Lusty, phallic, with the potent original… I, chanter of Adamic songs, Through the new garden the West, the gr…
We two, how long we were fool’d, Now transmuted, we swiftly escape as Na… We are Nature, long have we been absent… We become plants, trunks, foliage, roots… We are bedded in the ground, we are rock…
O hymen! O hymenee! why do you tantaliz… O why sting me for a swift moment only? Why can you not continue? O why do you… Is it because if you continued beyond th… soon certainly kill me?
I am he that aches with amorous love; Does the earth gravitate? Does not all… matter? So the Body of me, to all I meet, or kn…
Native moments—when you come upon me—ah… Give me now libidinous joys only, Give me the drench of my passions, give… To-day I go consort with Nature’s darli… I am for those who believe in loose deli…
Once I pass’d through a populous city i… use with its shows, architecture, custom… Yet now of all that city I remember onl… who detain’d me for love of me, Day by day and night by night we were to…
I heard you solemn-sweet pipes of the or… pass’d the church, Winds of autumn, as I walk’d the woods… stretch’d sighs up above so mournful, I heard the perfect Italian tenor singi…
Facing west, from California’s shores, Inquiring, tireless, seeking what is yet… I, a child, very old, over waves, toward… land of migrations, look afar, Look off the shores of my Western Sea—t…
As Adam, early in the morning, Walking forth from the bower, refresh’d… Behold me where I pass—hear my voice—ap… Touch me—touch the palm of your hand to… Be not afraid of my Body.
In paths untrodden, In the growth by margins of pond-waters, Escaped from the lite that exhibits itse… From all the standards hitherto publish’… conformities,
Scented herbage of my breast, Leaves from you I yield, I write, to be… Tomb-leaves, body-leaves, growing up abo… Perennial roots, tall leaves—O the wint… delicate leaves,
Whoever you are holding me now in hand, Without one thing all will be useless, I give you fair warning before you attem… I am not what you supposed, but far diff… Who is he that would become my follower?
Come, I will make the continent indisso… I will make the most splendid race the s… I will make divine magnetic lands, With the love of comrades, With the life—long love of comrades.
These I singing in spring collect for l… (For who but I should understand lovers… And who but I should be the poet of com… Collecting I traverse the garden the wo… Now along the pond-side, now wading in a…
Not heaving from my ribb’d breast only; Not in sighs at night, in rage, dissatis… Not in those long-drawn, ill-supprest si… Not in many an oath and promise broken; Not in my wilful and savage soul’s volit…
Of the terrible doubt of appearances, Of the uncertainty after all—that we may… That may-be reliance and hope are but sp… That may-be identity beyond the grave is… May-be the things I perceive—the animal…
And now, gentlemen, A word I give to remain in your memorie… As base, and finale too, for all metaphy… (So, to the students, the old professor, At the close of his crowded course.)
Recorders ages hence! Come, I will take you down underneath t… tell you what to say of me; Publish my name and hang up my picture a… lover,
When I heard at the close of the day ho… with plaudits in the capitol, still it w… follow’d, And else when I carous’d, or when my pl… was not happy,
Are you the new person drawn toward me? To begin with take warning, I am surely… Do you suppose you will find in me your… Do you think it so easy to have me becom… Do you think the friendship me would be…
Roots and leaves themselves alone are th… Scents brought to men and women from the… pond-side, Breast-sorrel and pinks of love—fingers… than vines,
Not heat flames up and consumes, Not sea-waves hurry in and out, Not the air, delicious and dry, the air… lightly along white down-balls of myriad… Wafted, sailing gracefully, to drop wher…
Trickle drops! my blue veins leaving! O drops of me! trickle, slow drops, Candid from me falling, drip, bleeding d… From wounds made to free you whence you… From my face, from my forehead and lips,
City of orgies, walks and joys! City whom that I have lived and sung in… you illustrious, Not the pageants of you—not your shiftin… repay me;
Behold this swarthy face—these gray eyes… This beard—the white wool, unclipt upon… My brown hands, and the silent manner of… Yet comes one, a Manhattanese, and ever… on the lips with robust love,
