Leaves of Grass. Walt Whitman

If your lover or husband or wife is welcome by day or night, I must be personally as welcome;

      If you have become degraded or ill, then I will become so for your sake;

       If you remember your foolish and outlawed deeds, do you think I cannot remember my foolish and outlawed deeds?

       If you carouse at the table I say I will carouse at the opposite side of the table;

       If you meet some stranger in the street and love him or her, do I not often meet strangers in the street and love them?

       If you see a good deal remarkable in me I see just as much remarkable in you.

      Why what have you thought of yourself?

       Is it you then that thought yourself less?

       Is it you that thought the President greater than you? or the rich better off than you? or the educated wiser than you?

      Because you are greasy or pimpled -- or that you was once drunk, or a thief, or diseased, or rheumatic, or a prostitute -- or are so now -- or from frivolity or impotence -- or that you are no scholar, and never saw your name in print . . . . do you give in that you are any less immortal?

      Souls of men and women! it is not you I call unseen, unheard, untouchable and untouching;

       It is not you I go argue pro and con about, and to settle whether you are alive or no;

       I own publicly who you are, if nobody else owns . . . . and see and hear you, and what you give and take;

       What is there you cannot give and take?

      I see not merely that you are polite or whitefaced . . . . married or single . . . . citizens of old states or citizens of new states . . . . eminent in some profession . . . . a lady or gentleman in a parlor . . . . or dressed in the jail uniform . . . . or pulpit uniform,

       Not only the free Utahan, Kansian, or Arkansian . . . . not only the free Cuban . . . not merely the slave . . . . not Mexican native, or Flatfoot, or negro from Africa,

       Iroquois eating the warflesh -- fishtearer in his lair of rocks

      and sand . . . . Esquimaux in the dark cold snowhouse . . . . Chinese with his transverse eyes . . . . Bedowee -- or wandering nomad -- or tabounschik at the head of his droves,

       Grown, half-grown, and babe -- of this country and every country, indoors and outdoors I see . . . . and all else is behind or through them.

      The wife -- and she is not one jot less than the husband,

       The daughter -- and she is just as good as the son,

       The mother -- and she is every bit as much as the father.

      Offspring of those not rich -- boys apprenticed to trades,

       Young fellows working on farms and old fellows working on farms;

       The naive . . . . the simple and hardy . . . . he going to the polls to vote . . . . he who has a good time, and he who has a bad time;

       Mechanics, southerners, new arrivals, sailors, mano’warsmen, merchantmen, coasters,

       All these I see . . . . but nigher and farther the same I see;

       None shall escape me, and none shall wish to escape me.

      I bring what you much need, yet always have,

       I bring not money or amours or dress or eating . . . . but I bring as good;

       And send no agent or medium . . . . and offer no representative of value -- but offer the value itself.

      There is something that comes home to one now and perpetually,

       It is not what is printed or preached or discussed . . . . it eludes discussion and print,

       It is not to be put in a book . . . . it is not in this book,

       It is for you whoever you are . . . . it is no farther from you than your hearing and sight are from you,

       It is hinted by nearest and commonest and readiest . . . . it is not them, though it is endlessly provoked by them . . . . What is there ready and near you now?

      You may read in many languages and read nothing about it;

       You may read the President’s message and read nothing about it there,

       Nothing in the reports from the state department or treasury department . . . . or in the daily papers, or the weekly papers,

       Or in the census returns or assessors’ returns or prices current or any accounts of stock.

      The sun and stars that float in the open air . . . . the appleshaped earth and we upon it . . . . surely the drift of them is something grand;

       I do not know what it is except that it is grand, and that it is happiness,

       And that the enclosing purport of us here is not a speculation, or bon-mot or reconnoissance,

       And that it is not something which by luck may turn out well for us, and without luck must be a failure for us,

       And not something which may yet be retracted in a certain contingency.

      The light and shade -- the curious sense of body and identity -- the greed that with perfect complaisance devours all things -- the endless pride and outstretching of man -- unspeakable joys and sorrows,

       The wonder every one sees in every one else he sees . . . . and the wonders that fill each minute of time forever and each acre of surface and space forever,

       Have you reckoned them as mainly for a trade or farmwork? or for the profits of a store? or to achieve yourself a position? or to fill a gentleman’s leisure or a lady’s leisure?

      Have you reckoned the landscape took substance and form that it might be painted in a picture?

       Or men and women that they might be written of, and songs sung?

       Or the attraction of gravity and the great laws and harmonious combinations and the fluids of the air as subjects for the savans?

       Or the brown land and the blue sea for maps and charts?

      Or the stars to be put in constellations and named fancy names?

       Or that the growth of seeds is for agricultural tables or agriculture itself?

      Old institutions . . . . these arts libraries legends collections -- and the practice handed along in manufactures . . . . will we rate them so high?

       Will we rate our prudence and business so high? . . . . I have no objection,

       I rate them as high as the highest . . . . but a child born of a woman and man I rate beyond all rate.

      We thought our Union grand and our Constitution grand;

       I do not say they are not grand and good -- for they are,

       I am this day just as much in love with them as you,

       But I am eternally in love with you and with all my fellows upon the earth.

      We consider the bibles and religions divine . . . . I do not say they are not divine,

       I say they have all grown out of you and may grow out of you still,

       It is not they who give the life . . . . it is you who give the life;

       Leaves are not more shed from the trees or trees from the earth than they are shed out of you.

      The sum of all known value and respect I add up in you whoever you are;

       The President is up there in the White House for you . . . . it is not you who are here for him,

       The Secretaries act in their bureaus for you . . . . not you here for them,

       The Congress convenes every December for you,

       Laws, courts, the forming of states, the charters of cities, the going and coming of commerce and mails are all for you.

      All doctrines, all politics and civilization exurge from you,

       All sculpture and monuments and