Leaves of Grass | Page 8

have seen where the she-bird the
mocking-bird sat on her nest in
the briers hatching her brood.
I have seen the he-bird also,
I have paus'd to hear him near at hand inflating his throat
and
joyfully singing.
And while I paus'd it came to me that what he really sang for was
not there only,
Nor for his mate nor himself only, nor all sent back by the echoes, But
subtle, clandestine, away beyond,
A charge transmitted and gift occult for those being
born.
12
Democracy! near at hand to you a throat is now inflating itself and
joyfully singing.
Ma femme! for the brood beyond us and of us,
For those who belong here and those to
come,
I exultant to be ready for them will now shake out carols stronger
and haughtier than have ever yet been heard upon earth.
I will make the songs of passion to give them their way,
And your songs outlaw'd
offenders, for I scan you with kindred eyes,
and carry you with me the same as any.
I will make the true poem of riches,
To earn for the body and the mind whatever
adheres and goes forward
and is not dropt by death;
I will effuse egotism and show it underlying all, and I will be
the
bard of personality,
And I will show of male and female that either is but the equal of
the other,
And sexual organs and acts! do you concentrate in me, for I am determin'd

to tell you with courageous clear voice to prove you illustrious, And I will show that
there is no imperfection in the present, and
can be none in the future,
And I will show that whatever happens to anybody it may be
turn'd to
beautiful results,
And I will show that nothing can happen more beautiful than death,
And I will thread a thread through my poems that time and events are
compact,
And that all the things of the universe are perfect miracles, each
as profound as any.
I will not make poems with reference to parts,
But I will make poems, songs, thoughts,
with reference to ensemble, And I will not sing with reference to a day, but with
reference to
all days,
And I will not make a poem nor the least part of a poem but has
reference to the soul,
Because having look'd at the objects of the universe, I find there
is no one nor any particle of one but has reference to the soul.
13
Was somebody asking to see the soul?
See, your own shape and countenance,
persons, substances, beasts,
the trees, the running rivers, the rocks and sands.
All hold spiritual joys and afterwards loosen them;
How can the real body ever die and
be buried?
Of your real body and any man's or woman's real body,
Item for item it will elude the
hands of the corpse-cleaners and
pass to fitting spheres,
Carrying what has accrued to it from the moment of birth to the
moment of death.
Not the types set up by the printer return their impression, the
meaning, the main concern,
Any more than a man's substance and life or a woman's
substance and
life return in the body and the soul,
Indifferently before death and after death.
Behold, the body includes and is the meaning, the main concern and

includes and is the soul;
Whoever you are, how superb and how divine is your body, or
any part
of it!
14
Whoever you are, to you endless announcements!
Daughter of the lands did you wait for your poet?
Did you wait for one with a flowing
mouth and indicative hand? Toward the male of the States, and toward the female of the
States, Exulting words, words to Democracy's lands.
Interlink'd, food-yielding lands!
Land of coal and iron! land of gold! land of cotton,
sugar, rice! Land of wheat, beef, pork! land of wool and hemp! land of the apple
and the grape!
Land of the pastoral plains, the grass-fields of the world! land of
those sweet-air'd interminable plateaus!
Land of the herd, the garden, the healthy house
of adobie!
Lands where the north-west Columbia winds, and where the south-west
Colorado winds!
Land of the eastern Chesapeake! land of the Delaware!
Land of
Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan!
Land of the Old Thirteen! Massachusetts land! land of
Vermont and
Connecticut!
Land of the ocean shores! land of sierras and peaks!
Land of boatmen
and sailors! fishermen's land!
Inextricable lands! the clutch'd together! the passionate
ones! The side by side! the elder and younger brothers! the bony-limb'd! The great
women's land! the feminine! the experienced sisters and
the inexperienced sisters!
Far breath'd land! Arctic braced! Mexican breez'd! the
diverse! the
compact!
The Pennsylvanian! the Virginian! the double Carolinian!
O all and each
well-loved by me! my intrepid nations! O I at any
rate include you all with perfect love!
I cannot be discharged from you! not from one
any sooner than another! O death! O for all that, I am yet