Leaves Of Grass
contributor: Eric Lease Morgan (Infomotions, Inc.)
creator: Whitman, Walt
date: 0000-00-00
extent: 761514
format: text/plain
language: en
publisher: Eris Etext Project
rights: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/GPL/2.0/
source: 1
subject: life
subject: earth
subject: physiognomy
subject: brain
subject: worthy
subject: muse
subject: whitman
subject: walt
subject: leaves
subject: grass
subject: american
subject: literature
type: text
local mirror: whitman-leaves-195.txt
concordance: http://infomotions.com/alex/cgi-bin/concordance.pl
plain html: whitman-leaves-195.htm
sort title: Leaves Of Grass
full text: 1855 LEAVES OF GRASS by Walt Whitman COME, said my Soul, Such verses for my Body let us write, (for we are one,) That should I after death invisibly return, Or, long, long hence, in other spheres, There to some group of mates the chants resuming, (Tallying Earth's soil, trees, winds, tumultous waves,) Ever with pleas'd smile I may keep on, Ever and ever yet the verses owning -as, first, I here and now, Signing for Soul and Body, set to them my name, Walt Whitman One's-Self I Sing ONE'S-SELF I sing, a simple separate person, Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-Masse. 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. Of Life immense in passion, pulse, and power, Cheerful, for freest action form'd under the laws divine, The Modern Man I sing. As I Ponder'd in Silence 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, 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, Know'st thou not there is hut one theme for ever-enduring bards? And that is the theme of War, the fortune of battles, The making of perfect soldiers. 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 flight, advance 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 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, Or so…