Light is sufficient to itself -
If others want to see
It can be had on Window panes
Some Hours of the Day -
But not for Compensation -
It holds as large a Glow
To Squirrel in the Himmaleh
Precisely - as to Me.
Split the Lark - and you'll find the Music -
Bulb after Bulb, in Silver rolled -
Scantilly dealt to the Summer Morning
Saved for your Ear when Lutes be old -
Loose the Flood - you shall find it patent -
Gush after Gush, reserved for you -
Scarlet Experiment! Sceptic Thomas!
Now, do you doubt that your Bird was true?
Absence disembodies - so does Death
Hiding individuals from the Earth
Superstition helps, as well as love -
Tenderness decreases as we prove.
A doubt if it be Us
Assists the staggering Mind
In an extremer Anguish
Until it footing find -
An Unreality is lent,
A merciful Mirage
That makes the living possible
While it suspends the lives.
This Chasm, Sweet, upon my life
I mention it to you,
When Sunrise through a fissure drop
The Day must follow too.
If we demur, it's gaping sides
Disclose as 'twere a Tomb
Ourself am lying straight wherein
The Favorite of Doom -
When it has just contained a Life
Then, Darling, it will close
And yet so bolder every Day
So turbulent it grows
I'm tempted half to stitch it up
With a remaining Breath
I should not miss in yielding, though
To Him, it would be Death -
And so I bear it big about
My Burial - before
A Life quite ready to depart
Can harass me no more.
Uncertain lease - develops lustre
On Time -
Uncertain Grasp, appreciation
Of Sum -
The shorter Fate - is oftener the chiefest
Because
Inheritors upon a tenure
Prize.
Be composed-be at ease with me-I am Walt Whitman, liberal and lusty as Nature,
Not till the sun excludes you do I exclude you,
Not till the waters refuse to glisten for you and the leaves to rustle for you,
do my words refuse to glisten and rustle for you.
My girl I appoint with you an appointment, and I charge you that you make
preparation to be worthy to meet me,
And I charge you that you be patient and perfect till I come.
Till then I salute you with a significant look that you do not forget me.
Come, I will make the continent indissoluble,
I will make the most splendid race the sun ever shone upon,
I will make divine magnetic lands,
With the love of comrades,
Whit the life-long love of comrades.
I will plant companionship thick as trees along all the rivers of america,
and along the shores of the great lakes, and all over the prairies,
I will make inseparable cities with their arms about each other's necks,
By the love of comrades,
By the manly love of comrades.
For you these from me, O Democracy, to serve you ma femme!
For you, for you I am trilling these songs.
Poets to come! Orators, singers, musicians to come!
Not to-day is to justify me and answer what I am for,
but you, a new brood, native, athletic, continental, greater than before known,
Arouse! For you must justify me.
I myself but write one or two indicative words for the future,
I but advance a moment only to wheel and hurry back in the darkness,
I am a man who, sauntering along without fully stopping, turns a casual look upon you
And then averts his face,
Leaving it to you to prove and define it,
Expecting the main things from you.
Poeti venturi! Oratori, cantanti, musicisti venturi!
Non l'oggi può giustificarmi o spiegare ciò che io sono, ma voi, novella stirpe originale, atletica, continentale, maggiore di quante si conoscano, sorgete! spetta a voi giustificarmi. Per conto mio scrivo appena una parola o due, che preludono al futuro, non faccio che avanzare un istante, e volgermi, e rituffarmi nella tenebra. Io sono colui che va in giro, né mai veramente s'arresta, che lascia cadere su di voi, per caso, uno sguardo e subito volge la faccia, a voi commettendo il compito di provarlo e definirlo, attendendosi le cose più importanti da voi.
This Dust Was Once the ManThis dust was once the man,
Gentle, plain, just and resolute, under whose cautious hand,
Against the foulest crime in history known in any land or age,
Was saved the Union of these States.