Leaves of Grass (1860)

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ME imperturbe,

Me 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 to be lived, O to be self-bal-
anced for contingencies!

O to confront night, storms, hunger, ridicule, acci-
dents, rebuffs, as the trees and animals do.

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