WALT WHITMAN - SELECTED POEMS

WONDERS. I. WHO learns my lesson complete? Boss, journeyman, apprentice—churchman and atheist, he stupid and the wise thinker—parents and offspring— merchant, clerk, porter, and customer, Editor, author, artist, and schoolboy—Draw nigh and commence; It is no lesson—it lets down the bars to a good lesson, And that to another, and every one to another still. 2. The great laws take and effuse without argument; I am of the same style, for I am their friend, I love them quits and quits—I do not halt and make salaams. I lie abstracted, and hear beautiful tales of things, and the reasons of things; They are so beautiful I nudge myself to listen. I cannot say to any person what I hear—I cannot say it to myself—it is very wonderful. It is no small matter, this round and delicious globe, moving so exactly in its orbit for ever and ever, without one jolt, or the untruth of a single second; I do not think it was made in six days, nor in ten thousand years, nor ten billions of years, Nor planned and built one thing after another, as an architect plans and builds a house. I do not think seventy years is the time of a man or woman, Nor that seventy millions of years is the time of a man or woman, Nor that years will ever stop the existence of me, or any one else. 3. Is it wonderful that I should be immortal? as every one is immortal; I know it is wonderful—but my eye-sight is equally wonderful, and how I was conceived in my mother’s womb is equally wonderful; And passed from a babe, in the creeping trance of a couple of summers and winters, to articulate and walk— All this is equally wonderful. And that my Soul embraces you this hour, and we affect each other without ever seeing each other, and never perhaps to see each other, is every bit as wonderful. And that I can think such thoughts as these is just as wonderful; And that I can remind you, and you think them and know them to be true, is just as wonderful. And that the moon spins round the earth, and on with the earth, is equally wonderful; And that they balance themselves with the sun and stars is equally wonderful. MIRACLES. I. What shall I give? and which are my miracles? 2. Realism is mine—my miracles—Take freely, Take without end—I offer them to you wherever your feet can carry you, or you eyes reach. 3. Why! who makes much of a miracle? As to me, I know of nothing else but miracles, Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan, Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky, Or wade with naked feet along the beach, just in the edge of the water, Or stand under trees in the woods, Or talk by day with any one I love—or sleep in the bed at night with any one I love, Or sit at the table at dinner with my mother, Or look at strangers opposite me riding in the car, Or watch honey-bees busy around the hive, of a summer forenoon, Or animals feeding in the fields, Or birds—or the wonderfulness of insects in the air, Or the wonderfulness of the sun-down—or of stars shining so quiet and bright, Or the exquisite, delicate, thin curve of the new moon in spring; Or whether I go among those I like best, and that like me best—mechanics, boatmen, farmers, Or among the savans—or to the soirée—or to the opera, Or stand a long while looking at the movements of ma- chinery, Or behold children at their sports, Or the admirable sight of the perfect old man, or the perfect old woman, Or the sick in hospitals, or the dead carried to burial, Or my own eyes and figure in the glass; These, with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles, The whole referring—yet each distinct and in its place. 4. To me, every hour of the light and dark is a miracle, Every inch of space is a miracle, Every square yard of the surface of the earth is spread with the same, Every cubic foot of the interior swarms with the same; Every spear of grass—the frames, limbs, organs, of men and women, and all that concerns them, All these to me are unspeakably perfect miracles. To me the sea is a continual miracle; The fishes that swim—the rocks—the motion of the waves —the ships, with men in them, What stranger miracles are there?

DRUM TAPS.

CITY OF SHIPS.

CITY of ships!

(O the black ships! O the fierce ships!

O the beautiful sharp-bowed steam-ships and sail-ships!)

City of the world! (for all races are here;

All the lands of the earth make contributions here;)

City of the sea! city of hurried and glittering tides!

City whose gleeful tides continually rush or recede, whirl-

ing in and out with eddies and foam!

City of wharves and stores! city of tall façades of marble

and iron!

Proud and passionate city! mettlesome, mad, extravagant

city!

Spring up, O city! not for peace alone, but be indeed

yourself, warlike!

Fear not! submit to no models but your own, O city!

Behold me! incarnate me, as I have incarnated you!

I have rejected nothing you offered me—whom you

adopted, I have adopted;

Good or bad, I never question you—I love all—I do not

condemn anything,

I chant and celebrate all that is yours—yet peace no

more;

In peace I chanted peace, but now the drum of war is

mine;
War, red war, is my song through your streets, O city!

WHEREFORE?

O ME! O life!...of the questions of these recurring;
Of the endless trains of the faithless—of cities filled

with the foolish;
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more

foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light—of the objects mean—

of the struggle ever renewed;
Of the poor results of all—of the plodding and sordid

crowds I see around me;
Of the empty and useless years of the rest—with the rest

me intertwined;
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid

these, O me, O life?

Answer.

That you are here—that life exists, and identity;
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a

verse.

___________

LEAVES OF GRASS

GREATNESSES.

Great are the myths—I too delight in them;
Great are Adam and Eve—I too look back and

accept them;
Great the risen and fallen nations, and their poets, women,

sages, inventors, rulers, warriors, and priests.

Great is Liberty! great is Equality! I am their follower;
Helmsmen of nations, choose your craft! where you sail,

I sail,
I weather it out with you, or sink with you.

Great is Youth—equally great is Old Age—great are the

Day and Night;
Great is Wealth—great is Poverty—great is Expression—

great is Silence.

2.

Youth, large, lusty, loving—Youth, full of grace, force,

fascination!
Do you know that Old Age may come after you, with

equal grace, force, fascination?

Day, full-blown and splendid—Day of the immense sun,

action, ambition, laughter,
The Night follows close, with millions of suns, and sleep,

and restoring darkness.

Wealth, with the flush hand, fine clothes, hospitality;
But then the soul’s wealth, which is candour, knowledge,

pride, enfolding love;
Who goes for men and women showing Poverty richer

than wealth?

Expression of speech! in what is written or said, forget

not that Silence is also expressive;
That anguish as hot as the hottest, and contempt as cold

as the coldest, may be without words.

3.

Great is the Earth, and the way it became what it is:
Do you imagine it is stopped at this? the increase

abandoned?
Understand then that it goes as far onward from this as

this is from the times when it lay in covering

waters and gases, before man had appeared.

4.

Great is the quality of Truth in man;
The quality of truth in man supports itself through all

changes,
It is inevitability in the man—he and it are in love, and

never leave each other.

The truth in man is no dictum, it is vital as eyesight;
If there be any Soul, there is truth—if there be man or

woman, there is truth—if there be physical or

moral, there is truth;
If there be equilibrium or volition, there is truth—if there

be things at all upon the earth, there is truth.

O truth of the earth! O truth of things! I am determined

to press my way toward you;
Sound your voice! I scale mountains, or dive in the sea

after you.

Great is Language—it is the mightiest of the sciences,
It is the fulness, colour, form, diversity of the earth, and of

men and women, and of all qualities and pro-

cesses;
It is greater than wealth—it is greater than buildings,

ships, religions, paintings, music.

Great is the English speech—what speech is so great as the

English?
Great is the English brood—what brood has so vast a

destiny as the English?
It is the mother of the brood that must rule the earth with

the new rule;
The new rule shall rule as the Soul rules, and as the love,

justice, equality in the Soul, rule.

6.

Great is Law—great are the old few land-marks of the law,
They are the same in all times, and shall not be disturbed.

Great is Justice!
Justice is not settled by legislators and laws—it is in the

Soul;
It cannot be varied by statues, any more than love, pride,

the attraction of gravity, can;

It is immutable—it does not depend on majorities—

majorities or what not come at last before the same

passionless and exact tribunal.

For justice are the grand natural lawyers, and perfect

judges—it is in their souls;
It is well assorted—they have not studied for nothing—

the great includes the less;
They rule on the highest grounds—they oversee all eras,

states, administrations.

The perfect judge fears nothing—he could go front to front

before God;
Before the perfect judge all shall stand back—life and

death shall stand back—heaven and hell shall stand

back.

7.

Great is Life, real and mystical, wherever and whoever;
Great is Death—sure as Life holds all parts together, Death

holds all parts together,
Has Life much purport?—Ah, Death has the greatest

purport.

___________

BURIAL.

I.

To think of it!
To think of time—of all that retrospection!
To think of to-day, and the ages continued henceforward!

Have you guessed you yourself would not continue?
Have you dreaded these earth-beetles?
Have you feared the future would be nothing to you?

Is to-day nothing? Is the beginningless past nothing?
If the future is nothing, they are just as surely nothing.

To think that the sun rose in the east! that men and

women were flexible, real, alive! that everything

was alive!
To think that you and I did not see, feel, think, nor bear

our part!
To think that we are now here, and bear our part!

2.

Not a day passes—not a minute or second, without an

accouchement!
Not a day passes—not a minute or second, without a

corpse!

The dull nights go over, and the dull days also,
The soreness of lying so much in bed goes over,
The physician, after long putting off, gives the silent and

terrible look for an answer,
The children come hurried and weeping, and the brothers

and sisters are sent for,

Medicines stand unused on the shelf—(the camphor-smell

has long pervaded the rooms,)
The faithful hand of the living does not desert the hand

of the dying,
The twitching lips press lightly on the forehead of the

dying,
The breath ceases, and the pulse of the heart ceases,
The corpse stretches on the bed, and the living look

upon it,
It is palpable as the living are palpable.

The living look upon the corpse with their eye-sight,
But without eye-sight lingers a different living, and looks

curiously on the corpse.

3.

To think that the rivers will flow, and the snow fall, and

the fruits ripen, and act upon as others as upon us

now—yet not act upon us!
To think of all these wonders of city and country, and

others taking great interest in them—and we taking

no interest in them!

To think how eager we are in building our houses!
To think others shall be just as eager, and we quite indif-

ferent!

I see one building the house that serves him a few years,

or seventy or eighty years at most,
I see one building the house that serves him longer than

that.

Slow-moving and black lines creep over the whole earth

—they never cease—they are the burial lines,
He that was President was buried, and he that is now

President shall surely be buried.

4.

Cold dash of waves at the ferry-wharf—posh and ice in

the river, half-frozen mud in the streets, a grey

discouraged sky overhead, the short last daylight

of Twelfth-month,
A hearse and stages—other vehicles give place—the

funeral of an old Broadway stage-driver, the cor-

tege mostly drivers.

Steady the trot to the cemetery, duly rattles the death-

bell, the gate is passed, the new-dug grave is halted

at, the living alight, the hearse uncloses,
The coffin is passed out, lowered and settled, the whip is

laid on the coffin, the earth is swiftly shovelled in,
The mound above is flatted with the spades—silence,
A minute, no one moves or speaks—it is done,
He is decently put away—is there anything more?

He was a good fellow, free-mouthed, quick-tempered, not

bad-looking, able to take his own part, witty, sen-

sitive to a slight, ready with life or death for a

friend, fond of women, gambled, ate hearty, drank

hearty, had known what it was to be flush, grew

low-spirited toward the last, sickened, was helped

by a contribution, died, aged forty-one years—and

that was his funeral.

Thumb extended, finger uplifted, apron, cape, gloves,

strap, wet-weather clothes, whip carefully chosen,

boss, spotter, starter, hostler, somebody loafing on

you, you loafing on somebody, headway, man before

and man behind, good day’s work, bad day’s work,

pet stock, mean stock, first out, last out, turning-in

at night;
To think that these are so much and so nigh to other

drivers—and he there takes no interest in them!

5.

The markets, the government, the working-man’s wages,

—to think what account they are through our

nights and days!
To think that other working-men will make just as

great account of them—yet we make little or no

account!

The vulgar and the refined—what you call sin, and

what you call goodness—to think how wide a

difference!
To think the difference will still continue to others, yet

we lie beyond the difference.

To think how much pleasure there is!
Have you pleasure from looking at the sky? have you

pleasure from poems?
Do you enjoy yourself in the city? or engaged in business?

or planning a nomination and election? or with

your wife and family?
Or with your mother and sisters? or in womanly house-

work? or the beautiful maternal cares?
These also flow onward to others—you and I flow on-

ward,
But in due time you and I shall take less interest in

them.

Your farm, profits, crops,—to think how engrossed you

are!
To think there will still be farms, profits, crops—yet for

you, of what avail?

6.

will be well—for what is is well:

To take interest is well, and not to take interest shall be

well.

The sky continues beautiful,
The pleasure of men with women shall never be sated,

nor the pleasure of women with men, nor the

pleasure from poems;
The domestic joys, the daily housework or business, the

building of houses—these are not phantasms—

they have weight, form, location;
Farms, profits, crops, markets, wages, government, are

none of them phantasms,
The difference between sin and goodness is no delusion,
The earth is not an echo—man and his life, and all the

things of his life are well-considered.

You are not thrown to the winds—you gather certainly and

safely around yourself;
Yourself! Yourself! Yourself, for ever and ever!

7.

It is not to diffuse you that you were born of your mother

and father—it is to identify you,
It is not that you should be undecided, but that you should

be decided;

Something long preparing and formless is arrived and

formed in you,
You are henceforth secure, whatever comes or goes.

The threads that were spun are gathered, the weft crosses

the warp, the pattern is systematic.

The preparations have every one been justified,
The orchestra have sufficiently tuned their instruments—

the baton has given the signal.

The guest that was coming—he waited long, for reasons—

he is now housed,
He is one of those who are beautiful and happy—he

is one of those that to look upon and be with is

enough.

The law of the past cannot be eluded,
The law of the present and future cannot be eluded,
The law of the living cannot be eluded—it is eternal,
The law of promotion and transformation cannot be

eluded,
The law of heroes and good-doers cannot be eluded,
The law of drunkards, informers, mean persons—not one

iota thereof can be eluded.

8.

Slow-moving and black lines go ceaselessly over the earth,

Northerner goes carried, and Southerner goes carried, and

they on the Atlantic side, and they on the Pacific,

and they between, and all through the Mississippi

country, and all over the earth.

The great masters and kosmos are well as they go—the

heroes and good-doers are well,
The known leaders and inventors, and the rich owners

and pious and distinguished, may be well,
But there is more account than that—there is strict account

of all.

The interminable hordes of the ignorant and wicked are

not nothing,
The barbarians of Africa and Asia are not nothing,
Th common people of Europe are not nothing—the

American aborigines are not nothing,
The infected in the immigrant hospital are not nothing—

the murderer or mean person is not nothing,
The perpetual successions of shallow people are not nothing

as they go.
The lowest prostitute is not nothing—the mocker of reli-

gion is not nothing as he goes.

9.

I shall go with the rest—we have satisfaction,

I have dreamed that we are not to be changed so much,

nor the law of us changed,
I have dreamed that heroes and good-doers shall be under

the present and past law,
And that murderers, drunkards, liars, shall be under the

present and past law,
For I have dreamed that the law they are under now is

enough.

And I have dreamed that the satisfaction is not so much

changed, and that there is not life without satis-

faction;
What is the earth? what are Body and Soul without

satisfaction?

I shall go with the rest,
We cannot be stopped at a given point—that is not satis-

faction,
To show us a good thing, or a few good things, for a space

of time—that is no satisfaction,
We must have the indestructible breed of the best, re-

gardless of time.

If otherwise, all these things came but to ashes of dung,
If maggots and rats ended us, then alarum! for we are

betrayed!
Then indeed suspicion of death.

Do you suspect death? If I were to suspect death, I

should die now:
Do you think I could walk pleasantly and well-suited

toward annihilation?

10.

Pleasantly and well-suited I walk:
Whither I walk I cannot define, but I know it is good;
The whole universe indicates that it is good,
The past and the present indicate that it is good.

How beautiful and perfect are the animals! How perfect

is my Soul!
How perfect the earth, and the minutest thing upon it!
What is called good is perfect, and what is called bad is

just as perfect,
The vegetables and minerals are all perfect, and the im-

ponderable fluids are perfect;
Slowly and surely they have passed on to this, and slowly

and surely they yet pass on.

My Soul! if I realize you, I have satisfaction,
Animals and vegetables! if I realize you, I have satis-

faction,
Laws of the earth and air! if I realize you, I have

satisfaction

I cannot define my satisfaction, yet it is so,
I cannot define my life, yet it is so.

11.

It comes to me now!
I swear I think now that everything without exception has

an eternal Soul!
The trees have, rooted in the ground! the weeds of the

sea have! the animals!

I swear I think there is nothing but immortality!
That the exquisite scheme is for it, and the nebulous float

is for it, and the cohering is for it;
And all preparation is for it! and identity is for it! and

life and death are altogether for it!

___________

SELECTED AND EDITED

BY

WILLIAM MICHAEL ROSSETTI.

Or si sa il nome, o per tristo o per buono,

E si sa pure al mondo ch’io ci sono.

MICHELANGELO.

LONDON: JOHN CAMDEN HOTTEN,PICCADILLY. 1868.