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LEAVES
of
GRASS.

Washington D. C. 1872.

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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by
WALT WHITMAN,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

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CONTENTS.

INSCRIPTIONS.	PAGE
One's Self I Sing	7
As I Ponder'd in Silence	7
In Cabin'd Ships at Sea	8
To Foreign Lands	9
To a Historian	10
For Him I Sing	10
When I read the Book	10
Beginning my Studies	11
To Thee Old Cause!	11
Starting from Paumanok	13
The Ship Starting	27
Unfolded out of the Folds	28
To You	28
Walt Whitman	29
Laws for Creations	96
Visor'd	96
CHILDREN OF ADAM.
To the Garden the World	97
From Pent-up Aching Rivers	97
I Sing the Body Electric	100
A Woman Waits for Me	109
Spontaneous Me	111
One Hour to Madness and Joy	113
We Two—How long We were Fool'd	114
Out of the Rolling Ocean, the Crowd	115
Native Moments	116
Once I pass'd through a Populous City	117
Facing West from California's Shores	117
Ages and Ages, Returning at Intervals	118
O Hymen! O Hymenee!	118
As Adam, Early in the Morning	118
I Heard You, Solemn-sweet Pipes of the Organ	119
I am He that Aches with Love	119
To Him that was Crucified	120
Perfections	120
CALAMUS.
In Paths Untrodden	121
Scented Herbage of My Breast	122
Whoever You are, Holding me now in Hand	124
These, I Singing in Spring	125
A Song	127
Not Heaving from My Ribb'd Breast Only	128
Of the Terrible Doubt of Appearances	128
The Base of all Metaphysics	129
Recorders Ages Hence	130

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CALAMUS.	PAGE
When I heard at the Close of the Day	131
Are you the New person, drawn toward Me?	132
Roots and Leaves Themselves Alone	132
Not Heat Flames up and Consumes	133
Trickle, Drops	134
City of Orgies	134
Behold this Swarthy Face	135
I saw in Louisiana a Live Oak Growing	135
To a Stranger	136
This Moment, Yearning and Thoughtful	136
I hear it was Charged against Me	137
The Prairie-Grass Dividing	137
We Two Boys Together Clinging	138
A Promise to California	138
Here the Frailest Leaves of Me	138
When I peruse the Conquer'd Fame	139
What think You I take my Pen in Hand	139
A Glimpse	140
No Labor-Saving Machine	140
A Leaf for Hand in Hand	140
To the East and to the West	141
Earth! my Likeness	141
I Dream'd in a Dream	141
Fast Anchor'd, Eternal, O Love	142
Sometimes with One I Love	142
That Shadow my Likeness	142
Among the Multitude	143
To a Western Boy	143
O You Whom I Often and Silently come	143
Full of Life, Now	144
Salut an Monde	145
A Child's Amaze	153
The Runner	153
Beautiful Women	153
Mother and Babe	158
Thought	158
American Feuillage	159
Song of the Broad-Axe	165
Song of the Open Road	177
LEAVES OF GRASS.
I sit and Look Out	189
Me Imperturbe	189
As I lay with my Head in your Lap, Camerado	190
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry	191
With Antecedents	199
THE ANSWERER.
Now list to my Morning's Romanza	201
The Indications	204
Poets to Come	206
I Hear America Singing	207
The City Dead House	208
A Farm-Picture	208
Carol of Occupations	209
Thoughts	218
The Sleepers	219
Carol of Words	231
Ah Poverties, Wincings and Sulky Retreats	238
LEAVES OF GRASS.
A Boston Ballad, 1854	239
Year of Meteors, 1859-'60	241

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	PAGE
A Broadway Pageant	243
Suggestions	248
Great are the Myths	249
Thought	252
LEAVES OF GRASS.
There was a Child went Forth	253
Longings for Home	255
Think of the Soul	257
You Felons on Trial in Courts	258
To a Common Prostitute	259
I was Looking a Long While	259
To a President	260
To The States	260
DRUM-TAPS.
Drum-Taps	261
1861	264
Beat! Beat! Drums!	265
From Paumanok Starting	266
Rise, O Days	267
City of Ships	269
The Centenarian's Story	270
An Army Corps on the March	276
Cavalry Crossing a Ford	276
Bivouac on a Mountain Side	277
By the Bivouac's Fitful Flame	277
Come up from the Fields, Father	278
Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field	280
A March in the Ranks, Hard-prest	281
Sight in Camp	282
Not the Pilot, &c.	283
As Toilsome I Wander'd	284
Year that Trembled	284
The Dresser	285
Long, too Long, O Land!	288
Give me the Splendid, Silent Sun	288
Dirge for Two Veterans	290
Over the Carnage	292
The Artilleryman's Vision	293
I saw Old General at Bay	294
O Tan-faced Prairie Boy	295
Look Down, Fair Moon	295
Reconciliation	295
Spirit whose Work is Done	296
How Solemn as One by One	297
Not Youth Pertains to Me	297
To the Leaven'd Soil They Trod	298
LEAVES OF GRASS.
Faces	299
Manhattan Streets I Saunter'd, Pondering	303
All is Truth	307
Voices	308
MARCHES NOW THE WAR IS OVER.
As I sat Alone by Blue Ontario's shores	309
Pioneers! O Pioneers!	327
Respondez!	333
Turn, O Libertad	337
Adieu to a Soldier	337
As I walk These Broad, Majestic Days	338
Weave in, Weave in, My Hardy Life	339
Race of Veterans	340
O Sun of Real Peace	340

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LEAVES OF GRASS.	PAGE
This Compost	341
Unnamed Lands	343
Mannahatta	345
Old Ireland	346
To Oratists	347
Solid, Ironical, Rolling Orb	348
BATHED IN WAR'S PERFUME.
Bathed in War's Perfume	349
Delicate Cluster	349
Song of the Banner at Day-Break	350
Ethiopia Saluting the Colors	357
Lo! Victress on the Peaks	358
World, Take Good Notice	358
Thick-Sprinkled Bunting	359
A Hand-Mirror	360
Germs	360
LEAVES OF GRASS.
O Me! O Life!	361
Thoughts	361
Beginners	362
SONGS OF INSURRECTION.
Still, though the One I Sing	363
To a foil'd European Revolutionaire	363
France, the 18th year of These States	365
Europe, the 72d and 73d years of These States	367
Walt Whitman's Caution	369
To a Certain Cantatrice	369
LEAVES OF GRASS.
To You	370
SONGS OF PARTING.
As the Time Draws Nigh	373
Years of the Modern	373
Thoughts	375
Song at Sunset	377
When I heard the Learn'd Astronomer	380
To Rich Givers	380
Thought	380
So Long	381

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INSCRIPTIONS.

ONE'S-SELF I SING.

1   ONE'S-SELF I sing—a simple, separate Person;

Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-masse .

2   Of Physiology 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.

3   Of Life immense in passion, pulse, and power,

Cheerful—for freest action form'd, under the laws di-          vine,

The Modern Man I sing.

AS I PONDER'D IN SILENCE.

1

AS I ponder'd in silence,

Returning upon my poems, considering, lingering long,

A Phantom arose before me, with distrustful aspect,

Terrible in beauty, age, and power,

View Page 8 The genius of poets of old lands,

As to me directing like flame its eyes,

With finger pointing to many immortal songs,

And menacing voice, What singest thou? it said;

Knowest thou not, there is but one theme for ever-enduring           bards?

And that is the theme of War, the fortune of battles,

The making of perfect soldiers?

2

Be it so, then I answer'd,

I too, haughty Shade, also sing war—and a longer and           greater one than any,

Waged in my book with varying fortune—with fight, ad-           vance, and retreat—Victory deferr'd and wavering,

(Yet, methinks, certain, or as good as certain, at the last,)           —The field the world;

For life and death—for the Body, and for the eternal Soul,

Lo! I too am come, chanting the chant of battles,

I, above all, promote brave soldiers .

IN CABIN'D SHIPS AT SEA.

1

IN cabin'd ships, at sea,

The boundless blue on every side expanding,

With whistling winds and music of the waves—the          large imperious waves—In such,

Or some lone bark, buoy'd on the dense marine,

Where, joyous, full of faith, spreading white sails,

She cleaves the ether, mid the sparkle and the foam of          day, or under many a star at night,

By sailors young and old, haply will I, a reminiscence          of the land, be read,

In full rapport at last.

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2

Here are our thoughts—voyagers' thoughts,

Here not the land, firm land, alone appears, may then by          them be said;

The sky o'erarches here—we feel the undulating deck be-           neath our feet,

We feel the long pulsation—ebb and flow of endless mo-           tion;