Leaves of Grass - Walt Whitman

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The twisted skull waits . . . . the watery or rotten blood waits,

       The child of the glutton or venerealee waits long, and the child of the drunkard waits long, and the drunkard himself waits long,

       The sleepers that lived and died wait . . . . the far advanced are to go on in their turns, and the far behind are to go on in their turns,

       The diverse shall be no less diverse, but they shall flow and unite . . . . they unite now.

      The sleepers are very beautiful as they lie unclothed,

       They flow hand in hand over the whole earth from east to west as they lie unclothed;

       The Asiatic and African are hand in hand . . . . the European and American are hand in hand,

       Learned and unlearned are hand in hand . . and male and female are hand in hand;

      The bare arm of the girl crosses the bare breast of her lover . . . . they press close without lust . . . . his lips press her neck,

       The father holds his grown or ungrown son in his arms with measureless love . . . . and the son holds the father in his arms with measureless love,

       The white hair of the mother shines on the white wrist of the daughter,

       The breath of the boy goes with the breath of the man . . . . friend is inarmed by friend,

       The scholar kisses the teacher and the teacher kisses the scholar . . . . the wronged is made right,

       The call of the slave is one with the master’s call . . and the master salutes the slave,

       The felon steps forth from the prison . . . . the insane becomes sane . . . . the suffering of sick persons is relieved,

       The sweatings and fevers stop . . the throat that was unsound is sound . . the lungs of the consumptive are resumed . . the poor distressed head is free,

       The joints of the rheumatic move as smoothly as ever, and smoother than ever,

       Stiflings and passages open . . . . the paralysed become supple,

       The swelled and convulsed and congested awake to themselves in condition,

       They pass the invigoration of the night and the chemistry of the night and awake.

      I too pass from the night;

       I stay awhile away O night, but I return to you again and love you;

       Why should I be afraid to trust myself to you?

       I am not afraid . . . . I have been well brought forward by you;

       I love the rich running day, but I do not desert her in whom I lay so long;

       I know not how I came of you, and I know not where I go with you . . . . but I know I came well and shall go well.

      I will stop only a time with the night . . . . and rise betimes.

      I will duly pass the day O my mother and duly return to you;

       Not you will yield forth the dawn again more surely than you will yield forth me again,

       Not the womb yields the babe in its time more surely than I shall be yielded from you in my time.

      I Sing the Body Electric (1855)

       Table of Contents

      The bodies of men and women engirth me, and I engirth them,

       They will not let me off nor I them till I go with them and respond to them and love them.

      Was it dreamed whether those who corrupted their own live bodies could conceal themselves?

       And whether those who defiled the living were as bad as they who defiled the dead?

      The expression of the body of man or woman balks account,

       The male is perfect and that of the female is perfect.

      The expression of a wellmade man appears not only in his face,

       It is in his limbs and joints also . . . . it is curiously in the joints of his hips and wrists,

       It is in his walk . . the carriage of his neck . . the flex of his waist and knees . . . . dress does not hide him,

       The strong sweet supple quality he has strikes through the cotton and flannel;

       To see him pass conveys as much as the best poem . . perhaps more,

       You linger to see his back and the back of his neck and shoulderside.

      The sprawl and fulness of babes . . . . the bosoms and heads of women . . . . the folds of their dress . . . . their style as we pass in the street . . . . the contour of their shape downwards;

       The swimmer naked in the swimmingbath . . seen as he swims through the salt transparent greenshine, or lies on his back and rolls silently with the heave of the water;

       Framers bare-armed framing a house . . hoisting the beams in their places . . or using the mallet and mortising-chisel,

      The bending forward and backward of rowers in rowboats . . . . the horseman in his saddle;

       Girls and mothers and housekeepers in all their exquisite offices,

       The group of laborers seated at noontime with their open dinnerkettles, and their wives waiting,

       The female soothing a child . . . . the farmer’s daughter in the garden or cowyard,

       The woodman rapidly swinging his axe in the woods . . . . the young fellow hoeing corn . . . . the sleighdriver guiding his six horses through the crowd,

       The wrestle of wrestlers . . two apprentice-boys, quite grown, lusty, goodnatured, nativeborn, out on the vacant lot at sundown after work,

       The coats vests and caps thrown down . . the embrace of love and resistance,

       The upperhold and underhold -- the hair rumpled over and blinding the eyes;

       The march of firemen in their own costumes -- the play of the masculine muscle through cleansetting trowsers and waistbands,

       The slow return from the fire . . . . the pause when the bell strikes suddenly again -- the listening on the alert,

       The natural perfect and varied attitudes . . . . the bent head, the curved neck, the counting:

       Suchlike I love . . . . I loosen myself and pass freely . . . . and am at the mother’s breast with the little child,

       And swim with the swimmer, and wrestle with wrestlers, and march in line with the firemen, and pause and listen and count.

      I knew a man . . . . he was a common farmer . . . . he was the father of five sons . . . and in them were the fathers of sons . . . and in them were the fathers of sons.

      This man was of wonderful vigor and calmness and beauty of person;

       The shape of his head, the richness and breadth of his

      manners, the pale yellow and white of his hair and beard, the immeasurable meaning of his black eyes,

       These I used to go and visit him to see . . . . He was wise also,

       He was six feet tall . . . . he was over eighty years old . . . . his sons were massive clean bearded tanfaced and handsome,

       They and his daughters loved him . . . all who saw him loved him . . . they did not love him by allowance . . . they loved him with personal love;

       He drank water only . . . . the blood showed like scarlet through the clear brown skin of his face;

       He was a frequent gunner and fisher . . . he sailed his boat himself . . . he had a fine one presented to him by a shipjoiner . . . . he had fowling-pieces, presented to him by men that loved him;

       When he went with his five sons and many grandsons to hunt or fish you would pick him out as the most beautiful and vigorous of the gang,

       You would wish long and long to be with him . . . . you

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