En commençant mes études le premier pas m’a plu si fort,
Le simple fait de la conscience, ces formes, la motilité,
Le moindre insecte ou animal, les sens, la vue, l’amour,
Le premier pas, dis-je, m’a frappé d’un tel respect et plu si fort,
Que je ne suis guère allé et n’ai guère eu envie d’aller plus loin,
Mais de m’arrêter à musarder tout le temps pour chanter cela en chants extasiés.
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of...
I Was asking for something specific and perfect for my city, Whereupon lo! upsprang the aboriginal name. Now I see what there is in a name, a word, liquid, sane, unruly, musical, self-sufficient, I see that the word of my city is that word from of old, Because I see that word nested in nests of...
From “The Song of Myself” I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. I loaf and invite my soul, I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass. My tongue, every atom of my blood, formed from this...
To Confront His Own Portrait for “The Wound Dresser” in “Leaves of Grass” OUT from behind this bending, rough-cut mask, These lights and shades, this drama of the whole, This common curtain of the face, contained in me for me, in you for you, in each for each. (Tragedies, sorrows, laughter,...
From “The Song of Myself” A CHILD said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands; How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he. I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven. Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord, A...
