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LEAVES
OF
GRASS.

New-York. 1867. View Page ii ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by WALT WHITMAN, in the Clerk's Office of the United States District Court of the Southern District of New York.

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CONTENTS.

Inscription.......................	5
Starting from Paumanok............	8
Walt Whitman......................	23
CHILDREN OF ADAM
To the Garden, the World..........	95
From Pent-Up Aching Rivers........	—
I Sing the Body Electric..........	98
A Woman Waits for Me..............	108
Spontaneous Me....................	110
One Hour to Madness and Joy.......	112
We Two, how long we were fool'd...	114
Native Moments....................	115
Once I Pass'd through a Populous City	—
Facing West from California's Shores	116
Ages and Ages, Returning at Intervals	—
O Hymen! O Hymenee!...............	117
I am He that Aches with Love......	—
As Adam, Early in the Morning.....	—
Excelsior.........................	118
CALAMUS.
In Paths Untrodden................	119
Scented Herbage of my Breast......	120
Whoever you are Holding Me now in Hand	122
These, I, Singing in Spring.......	124
A Song............................	125
Not Heaving from my Ribb'd Breast only	126
Of the Terrible Doubt of Appearances	127
Recorders Ages Hence..............	128
When I Heard at the Close of the day	—
Are you the New Person Drawn Toward me?	129
Roots and Leaves Themselves Alone.	130
Not Heat Flames up and Consumes..	131
Trickle, Drops....................	—
Of Him I love Day and Night.......	132
City of Orgies....................	133
Behold this Swarthy Face..........	—
I saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing....	134
That Music Always Round Me........	—
To a Stranger.....................	135
This Moment, Yearning and Thoughtful	136
I Hear it was Charged Against Me..	136
The Prairie-Grass Dividing........	137
We Two Boys Together Clinging.....	—
O Living Always—Always Dying......	138
When I Peruse the Conquer'd Fame.......	—
A Glimpse.........................	—
A Promise to California...........	139
Here, Sailor !....................	—
Here the Frailest Leaves of Me....	140
What Think you, I take my Pen in Hand	—
No Labor-Saving Machine...........	—
I Dream'd in a Dream..............	141
To the East and to the West.......	—
Earth, my Likeness................	—
A Leaf for Hand in Hand...........	142
Fast Anchor'd, Eternal............	—
Sometimes, with One I Love........	—
That Shadow, my Likeness..........	143
Among the Multitude...............	—
To a Western Boy..................	—
O You whom I often and Silently Come	144
Full of Life, Now................	.—
Salut au Monde....................	145
What Place is Besieged ?..........	158
LEAVES OF GRASS.
"There was a child went forth"....	159
"Myself and mine gymnastic ever"..	161
"Who learns my lesson complete!"..	163
"Whoever you are, I fear," &c.....	165
Beginners.........................	168
Tests.............................	—
Perfections.......................	—
Song of the Broad-Axe.............	169
With Antecedents..................	182
Savantism.........................	184
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry...........	185
To a Foil'd Revolter or Revoltress	193
To get Betimes in Boston Town.....	195
To a Common Prostitute............	197
To a Pupil........................	198
To Rich Givers....................	—
A Word Out of the Sea.............	199
A Leaf of Faces...................	207
Stronger Lessons..................	211
Europe, the 72d and 73d years of      These States......................	212
Thought...........................	214

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The Runner......................	214
To the Sayers of Words..........	215
Longings for Home...............	222
To a President..................	224
Walt Whitman's Caution..........	—
To Other Lands..................	—
Song of the Open Road...........	225
To the States, to Identify the      16th,17th, or 18th Presidentiad	238
To a Certain Cantatrice.........	—
To Workingmen...................	239
Debris..........................	248
LEAVES OF GRASS.
"O hastening light!"............	249
"Tears! tears! tears!"..........	—
"Aboard at a ship's helm,"......	250
American Feuillage..............	251
Mannahatta......................	257
To You..........................	258
France, the 18th Year of These      States..........................	259
A Hand-Mirror...................	260
THOUGHTS.
"Of the visages of things"......	261
"Of waters, forests, hills".....	—
"Of persons arrived at high      positions,".....................	262
"Of ownership.".................	—
"As I sit with others, at a great      feast"........................	—
"Of what I write from myself"...	263
"Of obedience, faith, adhesiveness"	—
To Him that was Crucified.......	264
To Old Age......................	—
To One Shortly to Die...........	265
To You..........................	—
Unnamed Lands...................	266
Kosmos..........................	267
When I read the Book............	268
Says............................	269
Despairing Cries................	270
Picture.........................	—
Poems of Joy....................	271
Respondez!......................	280
The City Dead-House.............	284
Leaflets........................	—
LEAVES OF GRASS.
"Think of the Soul".............	285
"Unfolded out of the folds of      the woman".....................	286
"Night on the prairies".........	287
"The world below the brine".....	288
"I sit and look out upon all the      sorrows of the world"..........	289
Visor'd.........................	—
Not the Pilot...................	290
As if a Phantom Caress'd Me.....	—
Great are the Myths.............	291
Morning Romanza.................	294
Burial..........................	298
This Compost!...................	306
I hear America Singing..........	308
Manhattan's streets I saunter'd.	309
I was Looking a Long While......	312
The Indications.................	313
LEAVES OF GRASS.
"On the beach at night alone"...	315
"To oratists—to male and      female"........................	—
"Laws for Creations"............	317
"Poets to come!"................	—
Me Imperturbe...................	318
Sleep-Chasings..................	319
Elemental Drifts................	331
Miracles........................	335
You Felons on Trial in Courts...	336
Mediums.........................	337
Now Lift me Close...............	338

DRUM-TAPS. .

See Table of Contents prefixed.

SONGS BEFORE PARTING. .

See Table of Contents prefixed.

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INSCRIPTION.

SMALL is the theme of the following Chant, yet the           greatest—namely, ONE'S-SELF— that wondrous           thing, a simple, separate person. That, for the           use of the New World, I sing .

Man's physiology complete, from top to toe, I sing. Not           physiognomy alone, nor brain alone, is worthy for           the muse;—I say the Form complete is worthier           far. The female equally with the male, I sing .

Nor cease at the theme of One's-Self. I speak the word           of the modern, the word EN-MASSE.

My Days I sing, and the Lands—with interstice I knew           of hapless War .

O friend, whoe'er you are, at last arriving hither to com-           mence, I feel through every leaf the pressure of           your hand, which I return. And thus upon our           journey link'd together let us go .

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STARTING FROM PAUMANOK.

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1   STARTING from fish-shape Paumanok, where I was          born,

Well-begotten, and rais'd by a perfect mother;

After roaming many lands—lover of populous pave-          ments;

Dweller in Mannahatta, city of ships, my city—or on          southern savannas;

Or a soldier camp'd, or carrying my knapsack and gun          —or a miner in California;

Or rude in my home in Dakotah's woods, my diet          meat, my drink from the spring;

Or withdrawn to muse and meditate in some deep          recess,

Far from the clank of crowds, intervals passing, rapt          and happy;

Aware of the fresh free giver, the flowing Missouri—          aware of mighty Niagara;

Aware of the buffalo herds, grazing the plains—the          hirsute and strong-breasted bull;

Of earths, rocks, Fifth-month flowers, experienced—          stars, rain, snow, my amaze;

Having studied the mocking-bird's tones, and the          mountain hawk's,

And heard at dusk the unrival'd one, the hermit          thrush from the swamp-cedars,

Solitary, singing in the West, I strike up for a New          World.

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2   Victory, union, faith, identity, time,

Yourself, the present and future lands, the indissolu-          ble compacts, riches, mystery,

Eternal progress, the kosmos, and the modern reports.

3   This, then, is life;

Here is what has come to the surface after so many          throes and convulsions.

4   How curious! how real!

Under foot the divine soil—over head the sun.

5   See, revolving, the globe;

The ancestor-continents, away, group'd together;

The present and future continents, north and south,          with the isthmus between.

6   See, vast, trackless spaces;

As in a dream, they change, they swiftly fill;

Countless masses debouch upon them;

They are now cover'd with the foremost people, arts,          institutions, known.

7   See, projected, through time,

For me, an audience interminable.

8   With firm and regular step they wend—they never          stop,

Successions of men, Americanos, a hundred millions;

One generation playing its part, and passing on,

Another generation playing its part, and passing on in          its turn,

With faces turn'd sideways or backward towards me,          to listen,

With eyes retrospective towards me.

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9   Americanos! Conquerors! marches humanitarian;

Foremost! century marches! Libertad! masses!

For you a programme of chants.

10   Chants of the prairies;

Chants of the long-running Mississippi, and down to          the Mexican sea;

Chants of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and          Minnesota;

Chants going forth from the centre, from Kansas, and          thence, equi-distant,

Shooting in pulses of fire, ceaseless, to vivify all.

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11   In the Year 80 of The States,

My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this          soil, this air,

Born here of parents born here, from parents the same,          and their parents the same,

I, now thirty-six years old, in perfect health, begin,

Hoping to cease not till death.

12   Creeds and schools in abeyance,

(Retiring back a while, sufficed at what they are, but          never forgotten,)

I harbor, for good or bad—I permit to speak, at every          hazard,

Nature now without check, with original energy.

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13   Take my leaves, America! take them South, and          take them North!

Make welcome for them everywhere, for they are your          own offspring;

Surround them, East and West! for they would sur-          round you;

And you precedents! connect lovingly with them, for          they connect lovingly with you.

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14   I conn'd old times;

I sat studying at the feet of the great masters:

Now, if eligible, O that the great masters might re-          turn and study me!

15   In the name of These States, shall I scorn the          antique?

Why these are the children of the antique, to jus-          tify it.

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16   Dead poets, philosophs, priests,

Martyrs, artists, inventors, governments long since,

Language-shapers, on other shores,

Nations once powerful, now reduced, withdrawn, or          desolate,

I dare not proceed till I respectfully credit what you          have left, wafted hither :

I have perused it—own it is admirable, (moving          awhile among it;)

Think nothing can ever be greater—nothing can ever          deserve more than it deserves;

Regarding it all intently a long while, then dismiss-          ing it,

I stand in my place, with my own day, here.

17   Here lands female and male;

Here the heirship and heiress-ship of the world—here          the flame of materials;

Here Spirituality, the translatress, the openly-avow'd,

The ever-tending, the finale of visible forms;

The satisfier, after due long-waiting, now advancing,

Yes, here comes my mistress, the Soul.

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18   The SOUL!

Forever and forever—longer than soil is brown and          solid—longer than water ebbs and flows.

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19   I will make the poems of materials, for I think they          are to be the most spiritual poems;

And I will make the poems of my body and of mor-          tality,

For I think I shall then supply myself with the poems          of my Soul, and of immortality.

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