Book I. Inscriptions: Me Imperturbe
Me imperturbe, standing at ease in Nature,
Master of all, or mistress of all—aplomb in the midst
of irrational things,
Imbued as they—passive, receptive, silent as they,
Finding my occupation, poverty, notoriety, foibles,
crimes, less important than I thought;
Me private, or public, or menial, or solitary—all these
subordinate, (I am eternally equal with the
best—I am not subordinate;)
Me toward the Mexican Sea, or in the Mannahatta,
or the Tennessee, or far north, or inland,
A river—man, or a man of the woods, or of any farm—
life of These States, or of the coast, or the
lakes, or Kanada,
Me, wherever my life is lived, O to be self-balanced
for contingencies!
O to confront night, storms, hunger, ridicule, acci–
dents, rebuffs, as the trees and animals do.
Leaves of Grass
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