Leaves of Grass (1871-72)

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ME imperturbe, 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 lived, O to be self-balanced for
contingencies!

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

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