Leaves of Grass. Walt Whitman

Ma femme! for the brood beyond us and of us,

       For those who belong here and those to come,

       I exultant to be ready for them will now shake out carols stronger

       and haughtier than have ever yet been heard upon earth.

       I will make the songs of passion to give them their way,

       And your songs outlaw'd offenders, for I scan you with kindred eyes,

       and carry you with me the same as any.

       I will make the true poem of riches,

       To earn for the body and the mind whatever adheres and goes forward

       and is not dropt by death;

       I will effuse egotism and show it underlying all, and I will be the

       bard of personality,

       And I will show of male and female that either is but the equal of

       the other,

       And sexual organs and acts! do you concentrate in me, for I am determin'd

       to tell you with courageous clear voice to prove you illustrious,

       And I will show that there is no imperfection in the present, and

       can be none in the future,

       And I will show that whatever happens to anybody it may be turn'd to

       beautiful results,

       And I will show that nothing can happen more beautiful than death,

       And I will thread a thread through my poems that time and events are

       compact,

       And that all the things of the universe are perfect miracles, each

       as profound as any.

       I will not make poems with reference to parts,

       But I will make poems, songs, thoughts, with reference to ensemble,

       And I will not sing with reference to a day, but with reference to

       all days,

       And I will not make a poem nor the least part of a poem but has

       reference to the soul,

       Because having look'd at the objects of the universe, I find there

       is no one nor any particle of one but has reference to the soul.

       13

       Was somebody asking to see the soul?

       See, your own shape and countenance, persons, substances, beasts,

       the trees, the running rivers, the rocks and sands.

       All hold spiritual joys and afterwards loosen them;

       How can the real body ever die and be buried?

       Of your real body and any man's or woman's real body,

       Item for item it will elude the hands of the corpse-cleaners and

       pass to fitting spheres,

       Carrying what has accrued to it from the moment of birth to the

       moment of death.

       Not the types set up by the printer return their impression, the

       meaning, the main concern,

       Any more than a man's substance and life or a woman's substance and

       life return in the body and the soul,

       Indifferently before death and after death.

       Behold, the body includes and is the meaning, the main concern and

       includes and is the soul;

       Whoever you are, how superb and how divine is your body, or any part

       of it!

       14

       Whoever you are, to you endless announcements!

       Daughter of the lands did you wait for your poet?

       Did you wait for one with a flowing mouth and indicative hand?

       Toward the male of the States, and toward the female of the States,

       Exulting words, words to Democracy's lands.

       Interlink'd, food-yielding lands!

       Land of coal and iron! land of gold! land of cotton, sugar, rice!

       Land of wheat, beef, pork! land of wool and hemp! land of the apple

       and the grape!

       Land of the pastoral plains, the grass-fields of the world! land of

       those sweet-air'd interminable plateaus!

       Land of the herd, the garden, the healthy house of adobie!

       Lands where the north-west Columbia winds, and where the south-west

       Colorado winds!

       Land of the eastern Chesapeake! land of the Delaware!

       Land of Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan!

       Land of the Old Thirteen! Massachusetts land! land of Vermont and

       Connecticut!

       Land of the ocean shores! land of sierras and peaks!

       Land of boatmen and sailors! fishermen's land!

       Inextricable lands! the clutch'd together! the passionate ones!

       The side by side! the elder and younger brothers! the bony-limb'd!

       The great women's land! the feminine! the experienced sisters and

       the inexperienced sisters!

       Far breath'd land! Arctic braced! Mexican breez'd! the diverse! the

       compact!

       The Pennsylvanian! the Virginian! the double Carolinian!

       O all and each well-loved by me! my intrepid nations! O I at any

       rate include you all with perfect love!

       I cannot be discharged from you! not from one any sooner than another!

       O death! O for all that, I am yet of you unseen this hour with

       irrepressible love,

       Walking New England, a friend, a traveler,

       Splashing my bare feet in the edge of the summer ripples on

       Paumanok's sands,

       Crossing the prairies, dwelling again in Chicago, dwelling in every town,

       Observing shows, births, improvements, structures, arts,

       Listening to orators and oratresses in public halls,

       Of and through the States as during life, each man and woman my neighbor,

       The Louisianian, the Georgian, as near to me, and I as near to him and her,

       The Mississippian and Arkansian yet with me, and I yet with any of them,

       Yet upon the plains west of the spinal river, yet in my house of adobie,

       Yet returning eastward, yet in the Seaside State or in Maryland,

       Yet Kanadian cheerily braving the winter, the snow and ice welcome to me,

       Yet a true son either of Maine or of the Granite State, or the

       Narragansett Bay State, or the Empire State,

       Yet sailing to other shores to annex the same, yet welcoming every

       new brother,

       Hereby applying these leaves to the new ones from the hour they

       unite with the old ones,

       Coming among the new ones myself to be their companion and equal,

       coming personally to you now,

       Enjoining you to acts, characters, spectacles, with me.