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10 — Poem of You, Whoever You Are.

WHOEVER you are, I fear you are walking          the walks of dreams,

I fear those realities are to melt from under your          feet and hands;

Even now, your features, joys, speech, house,          trade, manners, troubles, follies, costume,          crimes, dissipate away from you,

Your true soul and body appear before me,

They stand forth out of affairs—out of commerce,          shops, law, science, work, farms, clothes, the          house, medicine, print, buying, selling, eating,          drinking, suffering, begetting, dying,

They receive these in their places, they find these          or the like of these, eternal, for reasons,

They find themselves eternal, they do not find that          the water and soil tend to endure forever —          and they not endure.

Whoever you are, now I place my hand upon you,          that you be my poem,

I whisper with my lips close to your ear,

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I have loved many women and men, but I love          none better than you.

O I have been dilatory and dumb,

I should have made my way straight to you long          ago,

I should have blabbed nothing but you, I should          have chanted nothing but you.

I will leave all, and come and make the hymns          of you;

None have understood you, but I understand you,

None have done justice to you, you have not done          justice to yourself,

None but have found you imperfect, I only find no          imperfection in you,

None but would subordinate you, I only am he          who will never consent to subordinate you,

I only am he who places over you no master,          owner, better, god, beyond what waits intrin-          sically in yourself.

Painters have painted their swarming groups, and          the centre figure of all,

From the head of the centre figure spreading a          nimbus of gold-colored light,

But I paint myriads of heads, but paint no head          without its nimbus of gold-colored light,

From my hand, from the brain of every man and          woman it streams, effulgently flowing forever.

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O I could sing such grandeurs and glories about          you!

You have not known what you are—you have          slumbered upon yourself all your life,

Your eye-lids have been as much as closed most          of the time,

What you have done returns already in mock-          eries,

Your thrift, knowledge, prayers, if they do not          return in mockeries, what is their return?

The mockeries are not you,

Underneath them, and within them, I see you lurk,

I pursue you where none else has pursued you,

Silence, the desk, the flippant expression, the          night, the accustomed routine, if these con-          ceal you from others, or from yourself, they          do not conceal you from me,

The shaved face, the unsteady eye, the impure          complexion, if these balk others, they do          not balk me,

The pert apparel, the deformed attitude, drunken-          ness, greed, premature death, all these I part          aside,

I track through your windings and turnings—I          come upon you where you thought eye should          never come upon you.

There is no endowment in man or woman that is          not tallied in you,

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There is no virtue, no beauty, in man or woman          but as good is in you,

No pluck, no endurance in others, but as good is          in you,

No pleasure waiting for others, but an equal plea-          sure waits for you.

As for me, I give nothing to any one, except I          give the like carefully to you,

I sing the songs of the glory of none, not God,          sooner than I sing the songs of the glory of          you.

Whoever you are, you are to hold your own at          any hazard,

These shows of the east and west are tame com-          pared to you,

These immense meadows, these interminable riv-          ers—you are immense and interminable as          they,

These furies, elements, storms, motions of nature,          throes of apparent dissolution—you are he          or she who is master or mistress over them,

Master or mistress in your own right over nature,          elements, pain, passion, dissolution.

The hopples fall from your ankles! you find an          unfailing sufficiency!

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Old, young, male, female, rude, low, rejected by          the rest, whatever you are promulges itself,

Through birth, life, death, burial, the means are          provided, nothing is scanted,

Through angers, losses, ambition, ignorance,          ennui, what you are picks its way.

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