Leaves of Grass (1871-72)

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My spirit to yours, dear brother;

Do not mind because many, sounding your name, do
not understand you;

I do not sound your name, but I understand you, (there
are others also;)

I specify you with joy, O my comrade, to salute you,
and to salute those who are with you, before and
since—and those to come also,

That we all labor together, transmitting the same
charge and succession;

We few, equals, indifferent of lands, indifferent of
times;

We, enclosers of all continents, all castes—allowers of
all theologies,

Compassionaters, perceivers, rapport of men,

We walk silent among disputes and assertions, but
reject not the disputers, nor any thing that is
asserted;

We hear the bawling and din—we are reached at by
divisions, jealousies, recriminations on every
side,

They close peremptorily upon us, to surround us, my
comrade,

Yet we walk unheld, free, the whole earth over, jour-
neying up and down, till we make our inefface-
able mark upon time and the diverse eras,

Till we saturate time and eras, that the men and wo-
men of races, ages to come, may prove brethren
and lovers, as we are.

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