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LEAVES OF GRASS.
1.
| O HASTENING light! |
|
O free and extatic! O what I here, preparing, warble
for! |
|
O the sun of the world will ascend, dazzling, and take
his height—and you too will ascend! |
|
O so amazing and broad—up there resplendent, dart-
ing and burning! |
|
O vision prophetic, stagger'd with weight of light!
with pouring glories! |
| O lips of my soul, already becoming powerless! |
| O ample and grand Presidentiads! |
| New history! new heroes! I project you! |
|
Visions of poets! only you really last! O sweep on!
sweep on! |
| O heights too swift and dizzy yet! |
|
O purged and luminous! you threaten me more than
I can stand! |
|
(I must not venture—the ground under my feet men-
aces me—it will not support me;) |
| O present! I return to you while yet I may! |
2.
| TEARS! tears! tears! |
| In the night, in solitude, tears; |
|
On the white shore dripping, dripping, suck'd in by
the sand; |
| Tears—not a star shining—all dark and desolate; |
| Moist tears from the eyes of a muffled head: |
|
—O who is that ghost?—that form in the dark, with
tears? |
View Page 250
|
What shapeless lump is that, bent, crouch'd there on
the sand? |
|
Streaming tears—sobbing tears—throes, choked with
wild cries; |
|
O storm, embodied, rising, careering, with swift steps
along the beach; |
|
O wild and dismal night storm, with wind! O belch-
ing and desperate! |
|
O shade, so sedate and decorous by day, with calm
countenance and regulated pace; |
|
But away, at night, as you fly, none looking—O then
the unloosen'd ocean, |
| Of tears! tears! tears! |
3.
| 1 ABOARD, at the ship's helm, |
| A young steersman, steering with care. |
| 2 A bell through fog on a sea-coast dolefully ringing, |
| An ocean-bell—O a warning bell, rock'd by the waves. |
|
3
O you give good notice indeed, you bell by the sea-
reefs ringing, |
|
Ringing, ringing, to warn the ship from its wreck-
place. |
|
4
For, as on the alert, O steersman, you mind the
bell's admonition, |
|
The bows turn,—the freighted ship, tacking, speeds
away under her gray sails, |
|
The beautiful and noble ship, with all her precious
wealth, speeds away gaily and safe. |
|
5
But O the ship, the immortal ship! O ship aboard
the ship! |
|
O ship of the body—ship of the soul—voyaging, voy-
aging, voyaging. |