Whitman, as Printed

‹ Leaves of Grass, 1891–92

The lines with “my”

my 1,056 Back to M

  1. p. 9, line 10Returning upon my poems, considering, lingering long,
  2. p. 9, line 22Waged in my book with varying fortune, with flight, advance and retreat, victory deferr'd and wavering,
  3. p. 10, line 25Bear forth to them folded my love, (dear mariners, for you I fold it here in every leaf;)
  4. p. 10, line 26Speed on my book! spread your white sails my little bark athwart the imperious waves,
  5. p. 11, line 3Therefore I send you my poems that you behold in them what you wanted.
  6. p. 11, line 25These recitatives for thee,—my book and the war are one,
  7. p. 14, line 1And thee my soul,
  8. p. 14, line 20And so will some one when I am dead and gone write my life?
  9. p. 14, line 21(As if any man really knew aught of my life,
  10. p. 14, line 22Why even I myself I often think know little or nothing of my real life,
  11. p. 14, line 24I seek for my own use to trace out here.)
  12. p. 14, line 25BEGINNING my studies the first step pleas'd me so much,
  13. p. 16, line 9Finding my occupation, poverty, notoriety, foibles, crimes, less important than I thought,
  14. p. 16, line 12Me wherever my life is lived, O to be self-balanced for contingencies,
  15. p. 16, line 17Thither we also, I with my leaves and songs, trustful, admirant,
  16. p. 17, line 22The words of my book nothing, the drift of it every thing,
  17. p. 18, line 17Dweller in Mannahatta my city, or on southern savannas,
  18. p. 18, line 18Or a soldier camp'd or carrying my knapsack and gun, or a miner in California,
  19. p. 18, line 19Or rude in my home in Dakota's woods, my diet meat, my drink from the spring,
  20. p. 19, line 3Of earth, rocks, Fifth-month flowers experienced, stars, rain, snow, my amaze,
  21. p. 20, line 9Take my leaves America, take them South and take them North,
  22. p. 20, line 26I stand in my place with my own day here.
  23. p. 21, line 4Yes here comes my mistress the soul.
  24. p. 21, line 8And I will make the poems of my body and of mortality,
  25. p. 21, line 9For I think I shall then supply myself with the poems of my soul and of immortality.
  26. p. 21, line 20And employments! I will put in my poems that with you is heroism upon land and sea,
  27. p. 22, line 6I am myself just as much evil as good, and my nation is—and I say there is in fact no evil,
  28. p. 23, line 10My comrade!
  29. p. 24, line 1As I have walk'd in Alabama my morning walk,
  30. p. 25, line 1And I will thread a thread through my poems that time and events are compact,
  31. p. 26, line 19O all and each well-loved by me! my intrepid nations! O I at any rate include you all with perfect love!
  32. p. 26, line 23Splashing my bare feet in the edge of the summer ripples on Paumanok's sands,
  33. p. 26, line 27Of and through the States as during life, each man and woman my neighbor,
  34. p. 27, line 1Yet upon the plains west of the spinal river, yet in my house of adobie,
  35. p. 27, line 17On my way a moment I pause,
  36. p. 28, line 6These, my voice announcing—I will sleep no more but arise,
  37. p. 28, line 8See, steamers steaming through my poems,
  38. p. 28, line 9See, in my poems immigrants continually coming and landing,
  39. p. 28, line 11See, on the one side the Western Sea and on the other the Eastern Sea, how they advance and retreat upon my poems as upon their own shores,
  40. p. 28, line 12See, pastures and forests in my poems—see, animals wild and tame—see, beyond the Kaw, countless herds of buffalo feeding on short curly grass,
  41. p. 28, line 13See, in my poems, cities, solid, vast, inland, with paved streets, with iron and stone edifices, ceaseless vehicles, and commerce,
  42. p. 28, line 20Hear the loud echoes of my songs there—read the hints come at last.
  43. p. 29, line 9I loafe and invite my soul,
  44. p. 29, line 10I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
  45. p. 29, line 11My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this soil, this air,
  46. p. 29, line 23It is for my mouth forever, I am in love with it,
  47. p. 30, line 1The smoke of my own breath,
  48. p. 30, line 3My respiration and inspiration, the beating of my heart, the passing of blood and air through my lungs,
  49. p. 30, line 5The sound of the belch'd words of my voice loos'd to the eddies of the wind,
  50. p. 30, line 16You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,
  51. p. 31, line 7Clear and sweet is my soul, and clear and sweet is all that is not my soul.
  52. p. 31, line 15As the hugging and loving bed-fellow sleeps at my side through the night, and withdraws at the peep of the day with stealthy tread,
  53. p. 31, line 17Shall I postpone my acceptation and realization and scream at my eyes,
  54. p. 31, line 22People I meet, the effect upon me of my early life or the ward and city I live in, or the nation,
  55. p. 32, line 1My dinner, dress, associates, looks, compliments, dues,
  56. p. 32, line 3The sickness of one of my folks or of myself, or ill-doing or loss or lack of money, or depressions or exaltations,
  57. p. 32, line 12Backward I see in my own days where I sweated through fog with linguists and contenders,
  58. p. 32, line 14I believe in you my soul, the other I am must not abase itself to you,
  59. p. 32, line 20How you settled your head athwart my hips and gently turn'd over upon me,
  60. p. 32, line 21And parted the shirt from my bosom-bone, and plunged your tongue to my bare-stript heart,
  61. p. 32, line 22And reach'd till you felt my beard, and reach'd till you held my feet.
  62. p. 32, line 24And I know that the hand of God is the promise of my own,
  63. p. 32, line 25And I know that the spirit of God is the brother of my own,
  64. p. 32, line 26And that all the men ever born are also my brothers, and the women my sisters and lovers,
  65. p. 33, line 5I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven.
  66. p. 34, line 12I pass death with the dying and birth with the new-wash'd babe, and am not contain'd between my hat and boots,
  67. p. 35, line 2I lift the gauze and look a long time, and silently brush away flies with my hand.
  68. p. 35, line 27And roll head over heels and tangle my hair full of wisps.
  69. p. 36, line 2Wandering amazed at my own lightness and glee,
  70. p. 36, line 5Falling asleep on the gather'd leaves with my dog and gun by my side.
  71. p. 36, line 7My eyes settle the land, I bend at her prow or shout joyously from the deck.
  72. p. 36, line 9I tuck'd my trowser-ends in my boots and went and had a good time;
  73. p. 36, line 15The runaway slave came to my house and stopt outside,
  74. p. 36, line 20And gave him a room that enter'd from my own, and gave him some coarse clean clothes,
  75. p. 36, line 24I had him sit next me at table, my fire-lock lean'd in the corner.
  76. p. 38, line 12It seems to me more than all the print I have read in my life.
  77. p. 38, line 13My tread scares the wood-drake and wood-duck on my distant and day-long ramble,
  78. p. 39, line 5The press of my foot to the earth springs a hundred affections,
  79. p. 39, line 12Me going in for my chances, spending for vast returns,
  80. p. 39, line 14Not asking the sky to come down to my good will,
  81. p. 42, line 9A Yankee bound my own way ready for trade, my joints the limberest joints on earth and the sternest joints on earth,
  82. p. 42, line 10A Kentuckian walking the vale of the Elkhorn in my deer-skin leggings, a Louisianian or Georgian,
  83. p. 42, line 22I resist any thing better than my own diversity,
  84. p. 42, line 24And am not stuck up, and am in my place.
  85. p. 43, line 7With music strong I come, with my cornets and my drums,
  86. p. 43, line 12I blow through my embouchures my loudest and gayest for them.
  87. p. 43, line 25This the touch of my lips to yours, this the murmur of yearning,
  88. p. 43, line 26This the far-off depth and height reflecting my own face,
  89. p. 44, line 11All I mark as my own you shall offset it with your own,
  90. p. 44, line 16I wear my hat as I please indoors or out.
  91. p. 44, line 19I find no sweeter fat than sticks to my own bones.
  92. p. 45, line 3I do not trouble my spirit to vindicate itself or be understood,
  93. p. 45, line 5(I reckon I behave no prouder than the level I plant my house by, after all.)
  94. p. 45, line 10And whether I come to my own to-day or in ten thousand or ten million years,
  95. p. 45, line 12My foothold is tenon'd and mortis'd in granite,
  96. p. 46, line 9Earth of the limpid gray of clouds brighter and clearer for my sake!
  97. p. 46, line 28(Shall I make my list of things in the house and skip the house that supports them?)
  98. p. 47, line 1My gait is no fault-finder's or rejecter's gait,
  99. p. 47, line 26Your facts are useful, and yet they are not my dwelling,
  100. p. 47, line 27I but enter by them to an area of my dwelling.
  101. p. 48, line 1Less the reminders of properties told my words,
  102. p. 48, line 27I do not press my fingers across my mouth,
  103. p. 49, line 6If I worship one thing more than another it shall be the spread of my own body, or any part of it,
  104. p. 49, line 11You my rich blood! your milky stream pale strippings of my life!
  105. p. 49, line 13My brain it shall be your occult convolutions!
  106. p. 49, line 18Vapors lighting and shading my face it shall be you!
  107. p. 49, line 21Broad muscular fields, branches of live oak, loving lounger in my winding paths, it shall be you!
  108. p. 49, line 25I cannot tell how my ankles bend, nor whence the cause of my faintest wish,
  109. p. 49, line 27That I walk up my stoop, I pause to consider if it really be,
  110. p. 49, line 28A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.
  111. p. 49, line 31The air tastes good to my palate.
  112. p. 50, line 6The heav'd challenge from the east that moment over my head,
  113. p. 50, line 11We found our own O my soul in the calm and cool of the day-break.
  114. p. 50, line 12My voice goes after what my eyes cannot reach,
  115. p. 50, line 13With the twirl of my tongue I encompass worlds and volumes of worlds.
  116. p. 50, line 14Speech is the twin of my vision, it is unequal to measure itself,
  117. p. 50, line 20The dirt receding before my prophetical screams,
  118. p. 50, line 22My knowledge my live parts, it keeping tally with the meaning of all things,
  119. p. 50, line 24My final merit I refuse you, I refuse putting from me what I really am,
  120. p. 50, line 28I carry the plenum of proof and every thing else in my face,
  121. p. 50, line 29With the hush of my lips I wholly confound the skeptic.
  122. p. 51, line 3I hear bravuras of birds, bustle of growing wheat, gossip of flames, clack of sticks cooking my meals,
  123. p. 51, line 16I hear the key'd cornet, it glides quickly in through my ears,
  124. p. 51, line 17It shakes mad-sweet pangs through my belly and breast.
  125. p. 51, line 26I am cut by bitter and angry hail, I lose my breath,
  126. p. 52, line 1Steep'd amid honey'd morphine, my windpipe throttled in fakes of death,
  127. p. 52, line 10I merely stir, press, feel with my fingers, and am happy,
  128. p. 52, line 11To touch my person to some one else's is about as much as I can stand.
  129. p. 52, line 13Flames and ether making a rush for my veins,
  130. p. 52, line 15My flesh and blood playing out lightning to strike what is hardly different from myself,
  131. p. 52, line 16On all sides prurient provokers stiffening my limbs,
  132. p. 52, line 17Straining the udder of my heart for its withheld drip,
  133. p. 52, line 19Depriving me of my best as for a purpose,
  134. p. 52, line 20Unbuttoning my clothes, holding me by the bare waist,
  135. p. 52, line 21Deluding my confusion with the calm of the sunlight and pasture-fields,
  136. p. 52, line 24No consideration, no regard for my draining strength or my anger,
  137. p. 52, line 31I talk wildly, I have lost my wits, I and nobody else am the greatest traitor,
  138. p. 53, line 1I went myself first to the headland, my own hands carried me there.
  139. p. 53, line 2You villain touch! what are you doing? my breath is tight in its throat,
  140. p. 53, line 16The damp of the night drives deeper into my soul.
  141. p. 53, line 19A minute and a drop of me settle my brain,
  142. p. 54, line 3And the narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery,
  143. p. 54, line 11In vain the plutonic rocks send their old heat against my approach,
  144. p. 55, line 4Not too exclusive toward the reachers of my remembrancers,
  145. p. 55, line 6A gigantic beauty of a stallion, fresh and responsive to my caresses,
  146. p. 55, line 10His nostrils dilate as my heels embrace him,
  147. p. 55, line 17What I guess'd while I lay alone in my bed,
  148. p. 55, line 19My ties and ballasts leave me, my elbows rest in sea-gaps,
  149. p. 55, line 20I skirt sierras, my palms cover continents,
  150. p. 55, line 21I am afoot with my vision.
  151. p. 55, line 24Weeding my onion-patch or hoeing rows of carrots and parsnips, crossing savannas, trailing in forests,
  152. p. 55, line 26Scorch'd ankle-deep by the hot sand, hauling my boat down the shallow river,
  153. p. 56, line 25Under Niagara, the cataract falling like a veil over my countenance,
  154. p. 58, line 1Looking in at the shop-windows of Broadway the whole forenoon, flatting the flesh of my nose on the thick plate glass,
  155. p. 58, line 2Wandering the same afternoon with my face turn'd up to the clouds, or down a lane or along the beach,
  156. p. 58, line 3My right and left arms round the sides of two friends, and I in the middle;
  157. p. 58, line 10Hot toward one I hate, ready in my madness to knife him,
  158. p. 58, line 11Solitary at midnight in my back yard, my thoughts gone from me a long while,
  159. p. 58, line 12Walking the old hills of Judæa with the beautiful gentle God by my side,
  160. p. 58, line 23My course runs below the soundings of plummets.
  161. p. 58, line 26I anchor my ship for a little while only,
  162. p. 58, line 27My messengers continually cruise away or bring their returns to me.
  163. p. 59, line 1I take my place late at night in the crow's-nest,
  164. p. 59, line 5The white-topt mountains show in the distance, I fling out my fancies toward them,
  165. p. 59, line 12I tighten her all night to my thighs and lips.
  166. p. 59, line 13My voice is the wife's voice, the screech by the rail of the stairs,
  167. p. 59, line 14They fetch my man's body up dripping and drown'd.
  168. p. 60, line 5I clutch the rails of the fence, my gore dribs, thinn'd with the ooze of my skin,
  169. p. 60, line 8Taunt my dizzy ears and beat me violently over the head with whip-stocks.
  170. p. 60, line 9Agonies are one of my changes of garments,
  171. p. 60, line 11My hurts turn livid upon me as I lean on a cane and observe.
  172. p. 60, line 14Heat and smoke I inspired, I heard the yelling shouts of my comrades,
  173. p. 60, line 17I lie in the night air in my red shirt, the pervading hush is for my sake,
  174. p. 60, line 23I am an old artillerist, I tell of my fort's bombardment,
  175. p. 60, line 27Again to my listening ears the cannon responsive.
  176. p. 61, line 6Again gurgles the mouth of my dying general, he furiously waves with his hand,
  177. p. 61, line 8Now I tell what I knew in Texas in my early youth,
  178. p. 62, line 9List to the yarn, as my grandmother's father the sailor told it to me.
  179. p. 62, line 14My captain lash'd fast with his own hands.
  180. p. 62, line 25Now I laugh content, for I hear the voice of my little captain,
  181. p. 64, line 11(I am less the jolly one there, and more the silent one with sweat on my twitching lips.)
  182. p. 64, line 14My face is ash-color'd, my sinews gnarl, away from me people retreat.
  183. p. 64, line 16I project my hat, sit shame-faced, and beg.
  184. p. 64, line 19Give me a little time beyond my cuff'd head, slumbers, dreams, gaping,
  185. p. 64, line 23That I could look with a separate look on my own crucifixion and bloody crowning.
  186. p. 65, line 24Earth! you seem to look for something at my hands,
  187. p. 66, line 2And might tell that pining I have, that pulse of my nights and days.
  188. p. 66, line 14And in my soul I swear I never will deny him.
  189. p. 66, line 21O despairer, here is my neck,
  190. p. 67, line 9In my portfolio placing Manito loose, Allah on a leaf, the crucifix engraved,
  191. p. 67, line 17Not objecting to special revelations, considering a curl of smoke or a hair on the back of my hand just as curious as any revelation,
  192. p. 67, line 28The supernatural of no account, myself waiting my time to be one of the supremes,
  193. p. 68, line 1By my life-lumps! becoming already a creator,
  194. p. 68, line 4My own voice, orotund sweeping and final.
  195. p. 68, line 5Come my children,
  196. p. 68, line 6Come my boys and girls, my women, household and intimates,
  197. p. 68, line 9My head slues round on my neck,
  198. p. 68, line 14Ever myself and my neighbors, refreshing, wicked, real,
  199. p. 69, line 5I know perfectly well my own egotism,
  200. p. 69, line 6Know my omnivorous lines and must not write any less,
  201. p. 69, line 19My faith is the greatest of faiths and the least of faiths,
  202. p. 70, line 2Ranting and frothing in my insane crisis, or waiting dead-like till my spirit arouses me,
  203. p. 70, line 12I take my place among you as much as among any,
  204. p. 71, line 13Were mankind murderous or jealous upon you, my brother, my sister?
  205. p. 71, line 18My feet strike an apex of the apices of the stairs,
  206. p. 71, line 24And took my time, and took no hurt from the fetid carbon.
  207. p. 72, line 1Cycles ferried my cradle, rowing and rowing like cheerful boatmen,
  208. p. 72, line 4Before I was born out of my mother generations guided me,
  209. p. 72, line 5My embryo has never been torpid, nothing could overlay it.
  210. p. 72, line 11Now on this spot I stand with my robust soul.
  211. p. 72, line 14My lovers suffocate me,
  212. p. 72, line 15Crowding my lips, thick in the pores of my skin,
  213. p. 72, line 17Crying by day Ahoy! from the rocks of the river, swinging and chirping over my head,
  214. p. 72, line 18Calling my name from flower-beds, vines, tangled underbrush,
  215. p. 72, line 19Lighting on every moment of my life,
  216. p. 72, line 20Bussing my body with soft balsamic busses,
  217. p. 72, line 25I open my scuttle at night and see the far-sprinkled systems,
  218. p. 73, line 1My sun has his sun and round him obediently wheels,
  219. p. 73, line 12My rendezvous is appointed, it is certain,
  220. p. 73, line 17My signs are a rain-proof coat, good shoes, and a staff cut from the woods,
  221. p. 73, line 18No friend of mine takes his ease in my chair,
  222. p. 73, line 22My left hand hooking you round the waist,
  223. p. 73, line 23My right hand pointing to landscapes of continents and the public road.
  224. p. 74, line 3If you tire, give me both burdens, and rest the chuff of your hand on my hip,
  225. p. 74, line 7And I said to my spirit When we become the enfolders of those orbs, and the pleasure and knowledge of every thing in them, shall we be fill'd and satisfied then?
  226. p. 74, line 8And my spirit said No, we but level that lift to pass and continue beyond.
  227. p. 74, line 21He that by me spreads a wider breast than my own proves the width of my own,
  228. p. 74, line 22He most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher.
  229. p. 75, line 9My words itch at your ears till you understand them.
  230. p. 75, line 17The maul, the oar, the hand-saw, second my words.
  231. p. 75, line 22The farm-boy ploughing in the field feels good at the sound of my voice,
  232. p. 75, line 23In vessels that sail my words sail, I go with fishermen and seamen and love them.
  233. p. 76, line 1My face rubs to the hunter's face when he lies down alone in his blanket,
  234. p. 76, line 22In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass,
  235. p. 77, line 22Wrench'd and sweaty—calm and cool then my body becomes,
  236. p. 78, line 1Perhaps I might tell more. Outlines! I plead for my brothers and sisters.
  237. p. 78, line 2Do you see O my brothers and sisters?
  238. p. 78, line 5And proceed to fill my next fold of the future.
  239. p. 78, line 7Look in my face while I snuff the sidle of evening,
  240. p. 78, line 16The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains of my gab and my loitering.
  241. p. 78, line 18I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.
  242. p. 78, line 20It flings my likeness after the rest and true as any on the shadow'd wilds,
  243. p. 78, line 22I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun,
  244. p. 78, line 23I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.
  245. p. 79, line 10Curious here behold my resurrection after slumber,
  246. p. 79, line 13My limbs and the quivering fire that ever plays through them, for reasons, most wondrous,
  247. p. 79, line 16By my side or back of me Eve following,
  248. p. 79, line 21From my own voice resonant, singing the phallus,
  249. p. 80, line 7Of that, of them and what goes with them my poems informing,
  250. p. 80, line 23The oath of the inseparableness of two together, of the woman that loves me and whom I love more than my life, that oath swearing,
  251. p. 81, line 1From the soft sliding of hands over me and thrusting of fingers through my hair and beard,
  252. p. 83, line 14To pass among them or touch any one, or rest my arm ever so lightly round his or her neck for a moment, what is this then?
  253. p. 84, line 16As I see my soul reflected in Nature,
  254. p. 86, line 21O my body! I dare not desert the likes of you in other men and women, nor the likes of the parts of you,
  255. p. 87, line 1I believe the likes of you shall stand or fall with my poems, and that they are my poems,
  256. p. 87, line 17All attitudes, all the shapeliness, all the belongings of my or your body or of any one's body, male or female,
  257. p. 89, line 6It is I, you women, I make my way,
  258. p. 89, line 17I shall demand perfect men and women out of my love-spendings,
  259. p. 89, line 23The arm of my friend hanging idly over my shoulder,
  260. p. 90, line 6The body of my love, the body of the woman I love, the body of the man, the body of the earth,
  261. p. 91, line 1The souse upon me of my lover the sea, as I lie willing and naked,
  262. p. 91, line 7The oath of procreation I have sworn, my Adamic and fresh daughters,
  263. p. 91, line 8The greed that eats me day and night with hungry gnaw, till I saturate what shall produce boys to fill my place when I am through,
  264. p. 91, line 14What do my shouts amid lightnings and raging winds mean?)
  265. p. 91, line 16O savage and tender achings! (I bequeath them to you my children,
  266. p. 92, line 8To rise thither with my inebriate soul!
  267. p. 92, line 18Return in peace to the ocean my love,
  268. p. 92, line 19I too am part of that ocean my love, we are not so much separated,
  269. p. 92, line 24Every day at sundown for your dear sake my love.
  270. p. 92, line 31Bathing myself, bathing my songs in Sex,
  271. p. 92, line 32Offspring of my loins.
  272. p. 94, line 3Give me the drench of my passions, give me life coarse and rank,
  273. p. 94, line 7The echoes ring with our indecent calls, I pick out some low person for my dearest friend,
  274. p. 94, line 9I will play a part no longer, why should I exile myself from my companions?
  275. p. 94, line 13ONCE I pass'd through a populous city imprinting my brain for future use with its shows, architecture, customs, traditions,
  276. p. 94, line 23Heart of my love! you too I heard murmuring low through one of the wrists around my head,
  277. p. 94, line 24Heard the pulse of you when all was still ringing little bells last night under my ear.
  278. p. 95, line 4Look off the shores of my Western sea, the circle almost circled;
  279. p. 95, line 14Behold me where I pass, hear my voice, approach,
  280. p. 95, line 15Touch me, touch the palm of your hand to my body as I pass,
  281. p. 95, line 16Be not afraid of my body.
  282. p. 95, line 21Which too long I was offering to feed my soul,
  283. p. 95, line 22Clear to me now standards not yet publish'd, clear to me that my soul,
  284. p. 96, line 6Afternoon this delicious Ninth-month in my forty-first year,
  285. p. 96, line 8To tell the secret of my nights and days,
  286. p. 96, line 10SCENTED herbage of my breast,
  287. p. 96, line 16O slender leaves! O blossoms of my blood! I permit you to tell in your own way of the heart that is under you,
  288. p. 96, line 21O I think it is not for life I am chanting here my chant of lovers, I think it must be for death,
  289. p. 96, line 23Death or life I am then indifferent, my soul declines to prefer,
  290. p. 96, line 26Grow up taller sweet leaves that I may see! grow up out of my breast!
  291. p. 97, line 1Do not remain down there so ashamed, herbage of my breast!
  292. p. 97, line 24Who is he that would become my follower?
  293. p. 97, line 25Who would sign himself a candidate for my affections?
  294. p. 98, line 1Therefore release me now before troubling yourself any further, let go your hand from my shoulders,
  295. p. 98, line 25Nor will the candidates for my love (unless at most a very few) prove victorious,
  296. p. 98, line 26Nor will my poems do good only, they will do just as much evil, perhaps more,
  297. p. 99, line 22Some walk by my side and some behind, and some embrace my arms or neck,
  298. p. 100, line 1Here, out of my pocket, some moss which I pull'd off a live-oak in Florida as it hung trailing down,
  299. p. 100, line 14NOT heaving from my ribb'd breast only,
  300. p. 100, line 18Not in my wilful and savage soul's volition,
  301. p. 100, line 20Not in this beating and pounding at my temples and wrists,
  302. p. 100, line 26Not in the murmurs of my dreams while I sleep,
  303. p. 100, line 28Nor in the limbs and senses of my body that take you and dismiss you continually—not there,
  304. p. 100, line 29Not in any or all of them O adhesiveness! O pulse of my life!
  305. p. 101, line 9May-be seeming to me what they are (as doubtless they indeed but seem) as from my present point of view, and might prove (as of course they would) nought of what they appear, or nought anyhow, from entirely changed points of view;
  306. p. 101, line 10To me these and the like of these are curiously answer'd by my lovers, my dear friends,
  307. p. 101, line 16He ahold of my hand has completely satisfied me.
  308. p. 102, line 11Publish my name and hang up my picture as that of the tenderest lover,
  309. p. 102, line 19WHEN I heard at the close of the day how my name had been receiv'd with plaudits in the capitol, still it was not a happy night for me that follow'd,
  310. p. 102, line 20And else when I carous'd, or when my plans were accomplish'd, still I was not happy,
  311. p. 103, line 4And when I thought how my dear friend my lover was on his way coming, O then I was happy,
  312. p. 103, line 5O then each breath tasted sweeter, and all that day my food nourish'd me more, and the beautiful day pass'd well,
  313. p. 103, line 6And the next came with equal joy, and with the next at evening came my friend,
  314. p. 103, line 11And his arm lay lightly around my breast—and that night I was happy.
  315. p. 104, line 17Any more than my soul is borne through the open air,
  316. p. 104, line 19TRICKLE drops! my blue veins leaving!
  317. p. 104, line 23From my face, from my forehead and lips,
  318. p. 104, line 24From my breast, from within where I was conceal'd, press forth red drops, confession drops,
  319. p. 105, line 10Nor to converse with learn'd persons, or bear my share in the soiree or feast;
  320. p. 105, line 12Offering response to my own—these repay me,
  321. p. 105, line 15This beard, the white wool unclipt upon my neck,
  322. p. 105, line 16My brown hands and the silent manner of me without charm;
  323. p. 106, line 2And brought it away, and I have placed it in sight in my room,
  324. p. 106, line 3It is not needed to remind me as of my own dear friends,
  325. p. 106, line 14I ate with you and slept with you, your body has become not yours only nor left my body mine only,
  326. p. 106, line 15You give me the pleasure of your eyes, face, flesh, as we pass, you take of my beard, breast, hands, in return,
  327. p. 106, line 23And it seems to me if I could know those men I should become attached to them as I do to men in my own lands,
  328. p. 108, line 15HERE the frailest leaves of me and yet my strongest lasting,
  329. p. 108, line 16Here I shade and hide my thoughts, I myself do not expose them,
  330. p. 108, line 17And yet they expose me more than all my other poems.
  331. p. 109, line 12EARTH, my likeness,
  332. p. 110, line 1WHAT think you I take my pen in hand to record?
  333. p. 110, line 16(I loved a certain person ardently and my love was not return'd,
  334. p. 111, line 4Ethereal, the last athletic reality, my consolation,
  335. p. 111, line 6O sharer of my roving life.
  336. p. 111, line 17THAT shadow my likeness that goes to and fro seeking a livelihood, chattering, chaffering,
  337. p. 111, line 20But among my lovers and caroling these songs,
  338. p. 112, line 4Now it is you, compact, visible, realizing my poems, seeking me,
  339. p. 112, line 7O TAKE my hand Walt Whitman!
  340. p. 114, line 3I see distant lands, as real and near to the inhabitants of them as my land is to me.
  341. p. 115, line 13I see the filaments of the news of the wars, deaths, losses, gains, passions, of my race.
  342. p. 116, line 6This is not my true country, I have lived banish'd from my true country, I now go back there,
  343. p. 118, line 13I see the constructiveness of my race,
  344. p. 118, line 14I see the results of the perseverance and industry of my race,
  345. p. 120, line 7(You will come forward in due time to my side.)
  346. p. 120, line 8My spirit has pass'd in compassion and determination around the whole earth,
  347. p. 120, line 15I have taken my stand on the bases of peninsulas and on the high embedded rocks, to cry thence:
  348. p. 120, line 18All islands to which birds wing their way I wing my way myself.
  349. p. 121, line 9(Still here I carry my old delicious burdens,
  350. p. 121, line 23You objects that call from diffusion my meanings and give them shape!
  351. p. 122, line 17You shall be more to me than my poem.
  352. p. 122, line 23Going where I list, my own master total and absolute,
  353. p. 124, line 13Why are there men and women that while they are nigh me the sunlight expands my blood?
  354. p. 124, line 14Why when they leave me do my pennants of joy sink flat and lank?
  355. p. 128, line 23My call is the call of battle, I nourish active rebellion,
  356. p. 128, line 27It is safe—I have tried it—my own feet have tried it well—be not detain'd!
  357. p. 129, line 5Camerado, I give you my hand!
  358. p. 129, line 6I give you my love more precious than money,
  359. p. 129, line 14And you that shall cross from shore to shore years hence are more to me, and more in my meditations, than you might suppose.
  360. p. 129, line 18The glories strung like beads on my smallest sights and hearings, on the walk in the street and the passage over the river,
  361. p. 130, line 19Had my eyes dazzled by the shimmering track of beams,
  362. p. 130, line 20Look'd at the fine centrifugal spokes of light round the shape of my head in the sunlit water,
  363. p. 131, line 20In my walks home late at night or as I lay in my bed they came upon me,
  364. p. 131, line 22I too had receiv'd identity by my body,
  365. p. 131, line 23That I was I knew was of my body, and what I should be I knew I should be of my body.
  366. p. 132, line 2My great thoughts as I supposed them, were they not in reality meagre?
  367. p. 132, line 13Was call'd by my nighest name by clear loud voices of young men as they saw me approaching or passing,
  368. p. 132, line 14Felt their arms on my neck as I stood, or the negligent leaning of their flesh against me as I sat,
  369. p. 132, line 21What thought you have of me now, I had as much of you—I laid in my stores in advance,
  370. p. 133, line 1What gods can exceed these that clasp me by the hand, and with voices I love call me promptly and loudly by my nighest name as I approach?
  371. p. 133, line 2What is more subtle than this which ties me to the woman or man that looks in my face?
  372. p. 133, line 3Which fuses me into you now, and pours my meaning into you?
  373. p. 133, line 15Sound out, voices of young men! loudly and musically call me by my nighest name!
  374. p. 133, line 22Diverge, fine spokes of light, from the shape of my head, or any one's head, in the sunlit water!
  375. p. 134, line 3About my body for me, and your body for you, be hung our divinest aromas,
  376. p. 134, line 14NOW list to my morning's romanza, I tell the signs of the Answerer,
  377. p. 134, line 19And I stand before the young man face to face, and take his right hand in my left hand and his left hand in my right hand,
  378. p. 135, line 2The profound earth and its attributes and the unquiet ocean, (so tell I my morning's romanza,)
  379. p. 136, line 4And he says Good-day my brother, to Cudge that hoes in the sugar-field,
  380. p. 141, line 6Evening—me in my room—the setting sun,
  381. p. 141, line 7The setting summer sun shining in my open window, showing the swarm of flies, suspended, balancing in the air in the centre of the room, darting athwart, up and down, casting swift shadows in specks on the opposite wall where the shine is;
  382. p. 141, line 12In space the sporades, the scatter'd islands, the stars—on the firm earth, the lands, my lands,
  383. p. 142, line 4Singing the song of These, my ever-united lands—my body no more inevitably united, part to part, and made out of a thousand diverse contributions one identity, any more than my lands are inevitably united and made ONE IDENTITY;
  384. p. 142, line 16O the joy of my spirit—it is uncaged—it darts like lightning!
  385. p. 143, line 21To continue and be employ'd there all my life,
  386. p. 143, line 24I come with my clam-rake and spade, I come with my eel-spear,
  387. p. 143, line 26I laugh and work with them, I joke at my work like a mettlesome young man;
  388. p. 144, line 1In winter I take my eel-basket and eel-spear and travel out on foot on the ice—I have a small axe to cut holes in the ice,
  389. p. 144, line 2Behold me well-clothed going gayly or returning in the afternoon, my brood of tough boys accompanying me,
  390. p. 144, line 3My brood of grown and part-grown boys, who love to be with no one else so well as they love to be with me,
  391. p. 144, line 14My left foot is on the gunwale, my right arm throws far out the coils of slender rope,
  392. p. 144, line 15In sight around me the quick veering and darting of fifty skiffs, my companions.
  393. p. 145, line 12O the whaleman's joys! O I cruise my old cruise again!
  394. p. 145, line 25O the old manhood of me, my noblest joy of all!
  395. p. 145, line 26My children and grand-children, my white hair and beard,
  396. p. 145, line 27My largeness, calmness, majesty, out of the long stretch of my life.
  397. p. 146, line 2How clear is my mind—how all people draw nigh to me!
  398. p. 146, line 9O the joy of my soul leaning pois'd on itself, receiving identity through materials and loving them, observing characters and absorbing them,
  399. p. 146, line 10My soul vibrated back to me from them, from sight, hearing, touch, reason, articulation, comparison, memory, and the like,
  400. p. 146, line 11The real life of my senses and flesh transcending my senses and flesh,
  401. p. 146, line 12My body done with materials, my sight done with my material eyes,
  402. p. 146, line 13Proved to me this day beyond cavil that it is not my material eyes which finally see,
  403. p. 146, line 14Nor my material body which finally loves, walks, laughs, shouts, embraces, procreates.
  404. p. 147, line 10Yet O my soul supreme!
  405. p. 147, line 21To these proud laws of the air, the water and the ground, proving my interior soul impregnable,
  406. p. 147, line 25Myself discharging my excrementitious body to be burn'd, or render'd to powder, or buried,
  407. p. 147, line 26My real body doubtless left to me for other spheres,
  408. p. 147, line 27My voided body nothing more to me, returning to the purifications, further offices, eternal uses of the earth.
  409. p. 155, line 4I see the mighty and friendly emblem of the power of my own race, the newest, largest race.
  410. p. 155, line 5(America! I do not vaunt my love for you,
  411. p. 158, line 30I, my friends, if you do not, can plainly see her,
  412. p. 159, line 20I say I see, my friends, if you do not, the illustrious emigré, (having it is true in her day, although the same, changed, journey'd considerable,)
  413. p. 159, line 26But hold—don't I forget my manners?
  414. p. 162, line 4Hence from my shuddering sight to never more return that show of blacken'd, mutilated corpses!
  415. p. 163, line 23I here personify and call my themes, to make them pass before ye.
  416. p. 165, line 9For sake of that, my beauty, and that thou might'st dally as now secure up there,
  417. p. 166, line 1Farewell my brethren,
  418. p. 166, line 3My time has ended, my term has come.
  419. p. 166, line 14But in my soul I plainly heard.
  420. p. 166, line 23O the great patient rugged joys, my soul's strong joys unreck'd by man,
  421. p. 169, line 22I take no sooner a large price than a small price, I will have my own whoever enjoys me,
  422. p. 170, line 5If you remember your foolish and outlaw'd deeds, do you think I cannot remember my own foolish and outlaw'd deeds?
  423. p. 172, line 15Then I am in love with You, and with all my fellows upon the earth.
  424. p. 173, line 1List close my scholars dear,
  425. p. 175, line 20When I can touch the body of books by night or by day, and when they touch my body back again,
  426. p. 175, line 23When warrantee deeds loafe in chairs opposite and are my friendly companions,
  427. p. 175, line 24I intend to reach them my hand, and make as much of them as I do of men and women like you.
  428. p. 176, line 11I myself am a word with them—my qualities interpenetrate with theirs—my name is nothing to them,
  429. p. 176, line 12Though it were told in the three thousand languages, what would air, soil, water, fire, know of my name?
  430. p. 179, line 22My tongue is ineffectual on its pivots,
  431. p. 179, line 23My breath will not be obedient to its organs,
  432. p. 183, line 5COME my tan-faced children,
  433. p. 183, line 10We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger,
  434. p. 184, line 10O beloved race in all! O my breast aches with tender love for all!
  435. p. 184, line 17See my children, resolute children,
  436. p. 185, line 9I too with my soul and body,
  437. p. 186, line 14Whoever you are, now I place my hand upon you, that you be my poem,
  438. p. 186, line 15I whisper with my lips close to your ear,
  439. p. 186, line 18I should have made my way straight to you long ago,
  440. p. 187, line 4From my hand from the brain of every man and woman it streams, effulgently flowing forever.
  441. p. 188, line 9I walk'd the shores of my Eastern sea,
  442. p. 189, line 3And I send these words to Paris with my love,
  443. p. 189, line 20Let me have my own way,
  444. p. 190, line 10I call to the world to distrust the accounts of my friends, but listen to my enemies, as I myself do,
  445. p. 191, line 1I would sing in my copious song your census returns of the States,
  446. p. 191, line 8Nor forget I to sing of the wonder, the ship as she swam up my bay,
  447. p. 191, line 9Well-shaped and stately the Great Eastern swam up my bay, she was 600 feet long,
  448. p. 191, line 21With my fathers and mothers and the accumulations of past ages,
  449. p. 193, line 1In the name of these States and in your and my name, the Past,
  450. p. 193, line 2And in the name of these States and in your and my name, the Present time.
  451. p. 193, line 19When the fire-flashing guns have fully alerted me, and heaven-clouds canopy my city with a delicate thin haze,
  452. p. 194, line 8To us, my city,
  453. p. 194, line 17See my cantabile! these and more are flashing to us from the procession,
  454. p. 195, line 12For I too raising my voice join the ranks of this pageant,
  455. p. 195, line 14I chant the world on my Western sea,
  456. p. 195, line 19My sail-ships and steam-ships threading the archipelagoes,
  457. p. 195, line 20My stars and stripes fluttering in the wind,
  458. p. 197, line 2From the thousand responses of my heart never to cease,
  459. p. 198, line 7I wait and I wait till you blow my mate to me.
  460. p. 198, line 14Yes my brother I know,
  461. p. 198, line 20I, with bare feet, a child, the wind wafting my hair,
  462. p. 198, line 23Following you my brother.
  463. p. 198, line 27But my love soothes not me, not me.
  464. p. 198, line 32O night! do I not see my love fluttering out among the breakers?
  465. p. 198, line 35Loud I call to you, my love!
  466. p. 199, line 1High and clear I shoot my voice over the waves,
  467. p. 199, line 3You must know who I am, my love.
  468. p. 199, line 6O it is the shape, the shape of my mate!
  469. p. 199, line 9Whichever way I turn, O I think you could give me my mate back again if you only would,
  470. p. 199, line 26For somewhere I believe I heard my mate responding to me,
  471. p. 199, line 29Hither my love!
  472. p. 199, line 32This gentle call is for you my love, for you.
  473. p. 199, line 34That is the whistle of the wind, it is not my voice,
  474. p. 200, line 12But my mate no more, no more with me!
  475. p. 200, line 30For I, that was a child, my tongue's use sleeping, now I have heard you,
  476. p. 201, line 21Hissing melodious, neither like the bird nor like my arous'd child's heart,
  477. p. 201, line 22But edging near as privately for me rustling at my feet,
  478. p. 201, line 23Creeping thence steadily up to my ears and laving me softly all over,
  479. p. 201, line 26But fuse the song of my dusky demon and brother,
  480. p. 201, line 29My own songs awaked from that hour,
  481. p. 201, line 32That strong and delicious word which, creeping to my feet,
  482. p. 202, line 10Fascinated, my eyes reverting from the south, dropt, to follow those slender windrows,
  483. p. 202, line 26Oppress'd with myself that I have dared to open my mouth,
  484. p. 202, line 28But that before all my arrogant poems the real Me stands yet untouch'd, untold, altogether unreach'd,
  485. p. 203, line 3Because I have dared to open my mouth to sing at all.
  486. p. 203, line 9What is yours is mine my father.
  487. p. 203, line 14I throw myself upon your breast my father,
  488. p. 203, line 17Kiss me my father,
  489. p. 203, line 23Rustle not up so hoarse and angry against my feet as I touch you or gather from you.
  490. p. 203, line 28(See, from my dead lips the ooze exuding at last,
  491. p. 205, line 13In them, in thy experiences, had'st thou my soul,
  492. p. 206, line 11Weep not, my darling,
  493. p. 206, line 22(With my lips soothing thee, adding I whisper,
  494. p. 213, line 15Be thou my God.
  495. p. 213, line 19Be thou my God.
  496. p. 213, line 22Be thou my God.
  497. p. 213, line 25Be thou my God.
  498. p. 213, line 28Be ye my Gods.
  499. p. 213, line 33Be ye my Gods.
  500. p. 214, line 6Such-like, and as good as such-like, visible here or anywhere, stand provided for in a handful of space, which I extend my arm and half enclose with my hand,
  501. p. 216, line 5A little sustenance, a hut and garden, a little money, as I rendezvous with my poems,
  502. p. 216, line 9SKIRTING the river road, (my forenoon walk, my rest,)
  503. p. 218, line 10OF Equality—as if it harm'd me, giving others the same chances and rights as myself—as if it were not indispensable to my own rights that others possess the same.
  504. p. 219, line 8Lightly strike on the stretch'd tympanum pride and joy in my city,
  505. p. 219, line 11(O superb! O Manhattan, my own, my peerless!
  506. p. 219, line 17Forty years had I in my city seen soldiers parading,
  507. p. 223, line 19My song is there in the open air, and I must sing,
  508. p. 224, line 5Nothing my babe you see in the sky,
  509. p. 224, line 6And nothing at all to you it says—but look you my babe,
  510. p. 224, line 28O it stretches—it spreads and runs so fast—O my father,
  511. p. 225, line 1Cease, cease, my foolish babe,
  512. p. 225, line 26Then over all, (aye! aye!) my little and lengthen'd pennant shaped like a sword,
  513. p. 226, line 2Side of my banner broad and blue, side of my starry banner,
  514. p. 226, line 18O my father I like not the houses,
  515. p. 227, line 6And the beach-waves combing over the beach on my Eastern shore, and my Western shore the same,
  516. p. 227, line 7And all between those shores, and my ever running Mississippi with bends and chutes,
  517. p. 227, line 8And my Illinois fields, and my Kansas fields, and my fields of Missouri,
  518. p. 227, line 15My limbs, my veins dilate, my theme is clear at last,
  519. p. 227, line 18My hearing and tongue are come to me, (a little child taught me,)
  520. p. 228, line 15Long for my soul hungering gymnastic I devour'd what the earth gave me,
  521. p. 229, line 1Saw from below what arose and mounted, (O superb! O wild as my heart, and powerful!)
  522. p. 229, line 6Yet there with my soul I fed, I fed content, supercilious.
  523. p. 229, line 27My soul prepared in the mountains absorbs your immortal strong nutriment,
  524. p. 230, line 1Long had I walk'd my cities, my country roads through farms, only half satisfied,
  525. p. 230, line 3Continually preceding my steps, turning upon me oft, ironically hissing low;
  526. p. 230, line 9I have witness'd the true lightning, I have witness'd my cities electric,
  527. p. 230, line 22As to you Rebellious, (I seemed to hear her say,) why strive against me, and why seek my life?
  528. p. 231, line 14War, red war is my song through your streets, O city!
  529. p. 231, line 26Why do you tremble and clutch my hand so convulsively?
  530. p. 232, line 16My blind eyes even as I speak behold it re-peopled from graves,
  531. p. 234, line 1That and here my General's first battle,
  532. p. 234, line 10Silent as a ghost while they thought they were sure of him, my General retreated.
  533. p. 234, line 13My General waited till the soldiers and wounded were all pass'd over,
  534. p. 234, line 17But when my General pass'd me,
  535. p. 236, line 13The shrubs and trees, (as I lift my eyes they seem to be stealthily watching me,)
  536. p. 238, line 2When you my son and my comrade dropt at my side that day,
  537. p. 238, line 6Till late in the night reliev'd to the place at last again I made my way,
  538. p. 238, line 12Then on the earth partially reclining sat by your side leaning my chin in my hands,
  539. p. 238, line 14Vigil of silence, love and death, vigil for you my son and my soldier,
  540. p. 238, line 19My comrade I wrapt in his blanket, envelop'd well his form,
  541. p. 238, line 21And there and then and bathed by the rising sun, my son in his grave, in his rude-dug grave I deposited,
  542. p. 238, line 22Ending my vigil strange with that, vigil of night and battle-field dim,
  543. p. 238, line 25I rose from the chill ground and folded my soldier well in his blanket,
  544. p. 239, line 11At my feet more distinctly a soldier, a mere lad, in danger of bleeding to death, (he is shot in the abdomen,)
  545. p. 239, line 13Then before I depart I sweep my eyes o'er the scene fain to absorb it all,
  546. p. 239, line 21Then hear outside the orders given, Fall in, my men, fall in;
  547. p. 240, line 2As from my tent I emerge so early sleepless,
  548. p. 240, line 10Who are you my dear comrade?
  549. p. 240, line 11Then to the second I step—and who are you my child and darling?
  550. p. 240, line 17To the music of rustling leaves kick'd by my feet, (for 'twas autumn,)
  551. p. 240, line 22Bold, cautious, true, and my loving comrade.
  552. p. 240, line 23Long, long I muse, then on my way go wandering,
  553. p. 241, line 3Bold, cautious, true, and my loving comrade.
  554. p. 241, line 12Must I change my triumphant songs? said I to myself,
  555. p. 241, line 19But soon my fingers fail'd me, my face droop'd and I resign'd myself,
  556. p. 242, line 7What you ask of my days those the strangest and sudden your talking recalls,
  557. p. 242, line 19Straight and swift to my wounded I go,
  558. p. 243, line 22These and more I dress with impassive hand, (yet deep in my breast a fire, a burning flame.)
  559. p. 243, line 24Returning, resuming, I thread my way through the hospitals,
  560. p. 244, line 18Give me to warble spontaneous songs recluse by myself, for my own ears only,
  561. p. 244, line 21These to procure incessantly asking, rising in cries from my heart,
  562. p. 244, line 22While yet incessantly asking still I adhere to my city,
  563. p. 245, line 4(O I see what I sought to escape, confronting, reversing my cries,
  564. p. 245, line 5I see my own soul trampling down what it ask'd for.)
  565. p. 246, line 31O my soldiers twain! O my veterans passing to burial!
  566. p. 246, line 35And my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans,
  567. p. 246, line 36My heart gives you love.
  568. p. 248, line 3WHILE my wife at my side lies slumbering, and the wars are over long,
  569. p. 248, line 4And my head on the pillow rests at home, and the vacant midnight passes,
  570. p. 248, line 5And through the stillness, through the dark, I hear, just hear, the breath of my infant,
  571. p. 248, line 21While from some distant part of the field the wind wafts to my ears a shout of applause, (some special success,)
  572. p. 248, line 22And ever the sound of the cannon far or near, (rousing even in dreams a devilish exultation and all the old mad joy in the depths of my soul,)
  573. p. 249, line 3With the patter of small arms, the warning s-s-t of the rifles, (these in my vision I hear or see,)
  574. p. 249, line 11Me master years a hundred since from my parents sunder'd,
  575. p. 251, line 1For my enemy is dead; a man divine as myself is dead,
  576. p. 251, line 3Bend down and touch lightly with my lips the white face in the coffin.
  577. p. 251, line 8How solemn the thought of my whispering soul to each in the ranks, and to you,
  578. p. 251, line 15AS I lay with my head in your lap camerado,
  579. p. 251, line 18I know my words are weapons full of danger, full of death,
  580. p. 252, line 2Covering all my lands—all my seashores lining!
  581. p. 252, line 6Ah my silvery beauty—ah my woolly white and crimson!
  582. p. 252, line 7Ah to sing the song of you, my matron mighty!
  583. p. 252, line 8My sacred one, my mother.
  584. p. 252, line 16What to such as you anyhow such a poet as I? therefore leave my works,
  585. p. 253, line 2Ere departing fade from my eyes your forests of bayonets;
  586. p. 253, line 15Touch my mouth ere you depart, press my lips close,
  587. p. 253, line 17Let them scorch and blister out of my chants when you are gone,
  588. p. 254, line 20(Forth from my tent emerging for good, loosing, untying the tent-ropes,)
  589. p. 254, line 23To the leaven'd soil of the general Western world to attest my songs,
  590. p. 255, line 6But the hot sun of the South is to fully ripen my songs.
  591. p. 255, line 17O harsh surrounding cloud that will not free my soul.
  592. p. 257, line 3I give you my sprig of lilac.
  593. p. 257, line 17As you droop'd from the sky low down as if to my side, (while the other stars all look'd on,)
  594. p. 257, line 22As my soul in its trouble dissatisfied sank, as where you sad orb,
  595. p. 257, line 28The star my departing comrade holds and detains me.
  596. p. 258, line 2And how shall I deck my song for the large sweet soul that has gone?
  597. p. 258, line 3And what shall my perfume be for the grave of him I love?
  598. p. 258, line 6These and with these and the breath of my chant,
  599. p. 258, line 20My own Manhattan with spires, and the sparkling and hurrying tides, and the ships,
  600. p. 259, line 3Over my cities shining all, enveloping man and land.
  601. p. 259, line 10O wild and loose to my soul—O wondrous singer!
  602. p. 259, line 15In the large unconscious scenery of my land with its lakes and forests,
  603. p. 260, line 12As I held as if by their hands my comrades in the night,
  604. p. 260, line 13And the voice of my spirit tallied the song of the bird.
  605. p. 261, line 9To the tally of my soul,
  606. p. 261, line 14And I with my comrades there in the night.
  607. p. 261, line 15While my sight that was bound in my eyes unclosed,
  608. p. 261, line 32Passing, unloosing the hold of my comrades' hands,
  609. p. 262, line 1Passing the song of the hermit bird and the tallying song of my soul,
  610. p. 262, line 9I cease from my song for thee,
  611. p. 262, line 10From my gaze on thee in the west, fronting the west, communing with thee,
  612. p. 262, line 14And the tallying chant, the echo arous'd in my soul,
  613. p. 262, line 16With the holders holding my hand nearing the call of the bird,
  614. p. 262, line 18For the sweetest, wisest soul of all my days and lands—and this for his dear sake,
  615. p. 262, line 19Lilac and star and bird twined with the chant of my soul,
  616. p. 262, line 21O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
  617. p. 262, line 27Where on the deck my Captain lies,
  618. p. 262, line 29O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
  619. p. 263, line 7My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
  620. p. 263, line 8My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,
  621. p. 263, line 13Walk the deck my Captain lies,
  622. p. 264, line 11I reject none, accept all, then reproduce all in my own forms.
  623. p. 270, line 10That, O my brethren, that is the mission of poets.
  624. p. 271, line 15What is this you bring my America?
  625. p. 271, line 16Is it uniform with my country?
  626. p. 271, line 25Will it absorb into me as I absorb food, air, to appear again in my strength, gait, face?
  627. p. 273, line 6I have given alms to every one that ask'd, stood up for the stupid and crazy, devoted my income and labor to others,
  628. p. 273, line 7Hated tyrants, argued not concerning God, had patience and indulgence toward the people, taken off my hat to nothing known or unknown,
  629. p. 273, line 10Dismiss'd whatever insulted my own soul or defiled my body,
  630. p. 274, line 4I swear I will stand by my own nativity, pious or impious so be it;
  631. p. 274, line 9After this day I take my own modes of expressing love for men and women.)
  632. p. 274, line 10I swear I will have each quality of my race in myself,
  633. p. 275, line 20I match my spirit against yours you orbs, growths, mountains, brutes,
  634. p. 275, line 24I know now why the earth is gross, tantalizing, wicked, it is for my sake,
  635. p. 276, line 3I thrill'd with the power's pulsations, and the charm of my theme was upon me,
  636. p. 276, line 8O my rapt verse, my call, mock me not!
  637. p. 276, line 11Have I sung so capricious and loud my savage song.
  638. p. 276, line 12Bards for my own land only I invoke,
  639. p. 276, line 20You by my charm I invoke.
  640. p. 277, line 13In you whoe'er you are my book perusing,
  641. p. 277, line 30Infinitesimals out of my life, and many a life,
  642. p. 278, line 1(For not my life and years alone I give—all, all I give,)
  643. p. 278, line 10O harvest of my lands—O boundless summer growths,
  644. p. 279, line 9When late I sang sad was my voice,
  645. p. 279, line 26O my land's maim'd darlings, with the plenteous bloody bandage and the crutch,
  646. p. 280, line 8Nor in winter or summer my lost ones,
  647. p. 280, line 9But most in the open air as now when my soul is rapt and at peace, like pleasing phantoms,
  648. p. 281, line 1Loud O my throat, and clear O soul!
  649. p. 281, line 5I see the true arenas of my race, or first or last,
  650. p. 284, line 26As idly sauntering wending my way from the clangor,
  651. p. 285, line 10Unclaim'd, avoided house—take one breath from my tremulous lips,
  652. p. 285, line 18I will not strip the clothes from my body to meet my lover the sea,
  653. p. 285, line 19I will not touch my flesh to the earth as to other flesh to renew me.
  654. p. 286, line 3I will run a furrow with my plough, I will press my spade through the sod and turn it up underneath,
  655. p. 286, line 22That it is safe to allow it to lick my naked body all over with its tongues,
  656. p. 287, line 7COURAGE yet, my brother or my sister!
  657. p. 289, line 14I believe that was not the end of those nations or any person of them, any more than this shall be the end of my nation, or of me;
  658. p. 294, line 27Silent, my soul,
  659. p. 296, line 8But to the high seas launch, my thought, his memory.
  660. p. 297, line 2Pausing, inclining, baring my head, you specially I greet,
  661. p. 298, line 4MY spirit to yours dear brother,
  662. p. 298, line 7I specify you with joy O my comrade to salute you, and to salute those who are with you, before and since, and those to come also,
  663. p. 298, line 14They close peremptorily upon us to surround us, my comrade,
  664. p. 298, line 20Me ruthless and devilish as any, that my wrists are not chain'd with iron, or my ankles with iron?
  665. p. 299, line 23Not till the waters refuse to glisten for you and the leaves to rustle for you, do my words refuse to glisten and rustle for you.
  666. p. 300, line 1My girl I appoint with you an appointment, and I charge you that you make preparation to be worthy to meet me,
  667. p. 301, line 4Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,
  668. p. 303, line 1Unfolded only out of the inimitable poems of woman can come the poems of man, (only thence have my poems come;)
  669. p. 303, line 9WHAT am I after all but a child, pleas'd with the sound of my own name? repeating it over and over;
  670. p. 304, line 8WHO learns my lesson complete?
  671. p. 305, line 5I know it is wonderful, but my eyesight is equally wonderful, and how I was conceived in my mother's womb is equally wonderful,
  672. p. 305, line 7And 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.
  673. p. 305, line 17ON my Northwest coast in the midst of the night a fishermen's group stands watching,
  674. p. 306, line 8Orb not of France alone, pale symbol of my soul, its dearest hopes,
  675. p. 307, line 9Lives my farmer friend, the theme of my recitative, a famous tamer of oxen,
  676. p. 307, line 25I confess I envy only his fascination—my silent, illiterate friend,
  677. p. 308, line 21Emerging from the night from gloomy thoughts, thee in my thoughts,
  678. p. 308, line 23Thee coil'd in evil times my country, with craft and black dismay, with every meanness, treason thrust upon thee,
  679. p. 308, line 26Fail not to certify and cheer my soul.
  680. p. 309, line 4Then may I trust in you, your fortunes, days, my country;
  681. p. 310, line 25Entering my lonesome slumber-chamber, why have you seiz'd me?
  682. p. 310, line 26Come forward O my soul, and let the rest retire,
  683. p. 310, line 28Parting the midnight, entering my slumber-chamber,
  684. p. 312, line 10My mother's voice in lullaby or hymn,
  685. p. 314, line 29And pausing, questioning awhile the music of my dream,
  686. p. 315, line 3I said to my silent curious soul out of the bed of the slumber-chamber,
  687. p. 315, line 18SINGING my days,
  688. p. 317, line 2I see over my own continent the Pacific railroad surmounting every barrier,
  689. p. 317, line 23Over my mood stealing and spreading they come,
  690. p. 318, line 12Now first it seems my thought begins to span thee.
  691. p. 319, line 24(I my shores of America walking to-day behold, resuming all,)
  692. p. 321, line 19I and my soul to range in range of thee.
  693. p. 322, line 28Of you O woods and fields! of you strong mountains of my land!
  694. p. 322, line 34Passage, immediate passage! the blood burns in my veins!
  695. p. 323, line 9O my brave soul!
  696. p. 323, line 17I take my way along the island's edge,
  697. p. 323, line 22Till I put forth myself, my prayer, once more to Thee,
  698. p. 323, line 25Thou knowest my years entire, my life,
  699. p. 323, line 26My long and crowded life of active work, not adoration merely;
  700. p. 323, line 27Thou knowest the prayers and vigils of my youth,
  701. p. 323, line 28Thou knowest my manhood's solemn and visionary meditations,
  702. p. 324, line 3All my emprises have been fill'd with Thee,
  703. p. 324, line 4My speculations, plans, begun and carried on in thoughts of Thee,
  704. p. 324, line 21One effort more, my altar this bleak sand;
  705. p. 324, line 22That Thou O God my life hast lighted,
  706. p. 324, line 26For that O God, be it my latest word, here on my knees,
  707. p. 324, line 28My terminus near,
  708. p. 324, line 31I yield my ships to Thee.
  709. p. 324, line 32My hands, my limbs grow nerveless,
  710. p. 324, line 33My brain feels rack'd, bewilder'd,
  711. p. 325, line 3I know not even my own work past or present,
  712. p. 325, line 8As if some miracle, some hand divine unseal'd my eyes,
  713. p. 325, line 12I WANDER all night in my vision,
  714. p. 326, line 10I pass my hands soothingly to and fro a few inches from them,
  715. p. 326, line 16I dream in my dream all the dreams of the other dreamers,
  716. p. 327, line 2My truant lover has come, and it is dark.
  717. p. 327, line 4Receive me and my lover too, he will not let me go without him.
  718. p. 327, line 6He whom I call answers me and takes the place of my lover,
  719. p. 327, line 8Darkness, you are gentler than my lover, his flesh was sweaty and panting,
  720. p. 327, line 10My hands are spread forth, I pass them in all directions,
  721. p. 327, line 13I thought my lover had gone, else darkness and he are one,
  722. p. 327, line 15I descend my western course, my sinews are flaccid,
  723. p. 327, line 17It is my face yellow and wrinkled instead of the old woman's,
  724. p. 327, line 18I sit low in a straw-bottom chair and carefully darn my grandson's stockings.
  725. p. 328, line 17I cannot aid with my wringing fingers,
  726. p. 329, line 9Now what my mother told me one day as we sat at dinner together,
  727. p. 329, line 15My mother look'd in delight and amazement at the stranger,
  728. p. 329, line 22O my mother was loth to have her go away,
  729. p. 332, line 18I will duly pass the day O my mother, and duly return to you.
  730. p. 339, line 19All the world have I given up for my dear brothers' and sisters' sake, for the soul's sake,
  731. p. 339, line 20Wending my way through the homes of men, rich or poor, with the kiss of affection,
  732. p. 339, line 24But my charity has no death—my wisdom dies not, neither early nor late,
  733. p. 339, line 25And my sweet love bequeath'd here and elsewhere never dies.
  734. p. 340, line 4With sudra face and worn brow, black, but in the depths of my heart, proud as any,
  735. p. 340, line 7(Though it was thought I was baffled and dispel'd, and my wiles done, but that will never be,)
  736. p. 340, line 9Permanent here from my side, warlike, equal with any, real as any,
  737. p. 340, line 10Nor time nor change shall ever change me or my words.
  738. p. 340, line 20Breathe my breath also through these songs.
  739. p. 341, line 6And if the corpse of any one I love, or if my own corpse, be duly render'd to powder and pour'd in the sea, I shall be satisfied,
  740. p. 341, line 9Weights of lead, how ye clog and cling at my ankles,
  741. p. 341, line 13The call of my nearest lover, putting forth, alarm'd, uncertain,
  742. p. 341, line 15Come tell me where I am speeding, tell me my destination.
  743. p. 343, line 19And you O my soul where you stand,
  744. p. 343, line 23Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.
  745. p. 344, line 10Softly I lay my right hand upon you, you just feel it,
  746. p. 344, line 11I do not argue, I bend my head close and half envelop it,
  747. p. 345, line 10I henceforth no more ignore them than I ignore my own life,
  748. p. 345, line 15To my mind, (whence it comes I know not,) spectral in mist of a wreck at sea,
  749. p. 348, line 25Beautiful world of new superber birth that rises to my eyes,
  750. p. 350, line 16To be thy natal stars my country, Ensemble, Evolution, Freedom,
  751. p. 352, line 5O sun of noon refulgent! my special word to thee.
  752. p. 352, line 9Or man matured, or young or old, as now to thee I launch my invocation.
  753. p. 352, line 24Prepare the later afternoon of me myself—prepare my lengthening shadows,
  754. p. 352, line 25Prepare my starry nights.
  755. p. 354, line 9Features of my equals would you trick me with your creas'd and cadaverous march?
  756. p. 354, line 16And I knew for my consolation what they knew not,
  757. p. 354, line 17I knew of the agents that emptied and broke my brother,
  758. p. 355, line 15Stand at my side till I lean as high as I can upon you,
  759. p. 355, line 17Rub to me with your chafing beard, rub to my breast and shoulders.
  760. p. 356, line 24Thy song expands my numb'd imbonded spirit, thou freest, launchest me,
  761. p. 356, line 26Blow again trumpeter! and for my sensuous eyes,
  762. p. 358, line 2Thou melt'st my heart, my brain—thou movest, drawest, changest them at will;
  763. p. 358, line 6I feel the measureless shame and humiliation of my race, it becomes all mine,
  764. p. 358, line 13Sing to my soul, renew its languishing faith and hope,
  765. p. 358, line 14Rouse up my slow belief, give me some vision of the future,
  766. p. 358, line 28THEE for my recitative,
  767. p. 359, line 16Roll through my chant with all thy lawless music, thy swinging lamps at night,
  768. p. 359, line 23O MAGNET-SOUTH! O glistening perfumed South! my South!
  769. p. 359, line 25O dear to me my birth-things—all moving things and the trees where I was born—the grains, plants, rivers,
  770. p. 359, line 26Dear to me my own slow sluggish rivers where they flow, distant, over flats of silvery sands or through swamps,
  771. p. 360, line 1O pensive, far away wandering, I return with my soul to haunt their banks again,
  772. p. 360, line 4Again, sailing in my coaster on deck, I coast off Georgia, I coast up the Carolinas,
  773. p. 360, line 6I pass rude sea-headlands and enter Pamlico sound through an inlet, and dart my vision inland;
  774. p. 360, line 15O my heart! O tender and fierce pangs, I can stand them not, I will depart;
  775. p. 360, line 18I WAS asking for something specific and perfect for my city,
  776. p. 361, line 1I see that the word of my city is that word from of old,
  777. p. 361, line 17City nested in bays! my city!
  778. p. 362, line 20Invoking here and now I challenge for my song.
  779. p. 364, line 3(For what is my life or any man's life but a conflict with foes, the old, the incessant war?)
  780. p. 364, line 7You shallow tongue-talks at tables, (my tongue the shallowest of any;)
  781. p. 364, line 9Ah think not you finally triumph, my real self has yet to come forth,
  782. p. 365, line 9WEAVE in, weave in, my hardy life,
  783. p. 368, line 25Was't charged against my chants they had forgotten art?
  784. p. 369, line 17Then my realities;
  785. p. 370, line 5Perhaps soon some day or night while I am singing my voice will suddenly cease.
  786. p. 371, line 18The war resumes, again to my sense your shapes,
  787. p. 371, line 27Not at the head of my cavalry parading on spirited horses,
  788. p. 372, line 1With sabres drawn and glistening, and carbines by their thighs, (ah my brave horsemen!
  789. p. 372, line 2My handsome tan-faced horsemen! what life, what joy and pride,
  790. p. 372, line 6Nothing from you this time O drummers bearing my warlike drums.
  791. p. 372, line 10I chant this chant of my silent soul in the name of all dead soldiers.
  792. p. 372, line 14Invisible to the rest henceforth become my companions,
  793. p. 372, line 21Perfume therefore my chant, O love, immortal love,
  794. p. 374, line 2Of this Union welded in blood, of the solemn price paid, of the unnamed lost ever present in my mind;
  795. p. 374, line 16Inflating my throat, you divine average,
  796. p. 374, line 18Open mouth of my soul uttering gladness,
  797. p. 374, line 19Eyes of my soul seeing perfection,
  798. p. 375, line 11To prepare for sleep, for bed, to look on my rose-color'd flesh!
  799. p. 375, line 12To be conscious of my body, so satisfied, so large!
  800. p. 375, line 16How my thoughts play subtly at the spectacles around!
  801. p. 375, line 31As I have lived, as I have look'd through my windows my eyes,
  802. p. 376, line 15To memories of my mother, to the divine blending, maternity,
  803. p. 376, line 27But I, my life surveying, closing,
  804. p. 377, line 2Nor houses nor lands, nor tokens of gems or gold for my friends,
  805. p. 377, line 4And little souvenirs of camps and soldiers, with my love,
  806. p. 377, line 10Absorb them well O my earth, she cried, I charge you lose not my sons, lose not an atom,
  807. p. 377, line 13And all you essences of soil and growth, and you my rivers' depths,
  808. p. 377, line 14And you mountain sides, and the woods where my dear children's blood trickling redden'd,
  809. p. 377, line 16My dead absorb or South or North—my young men's bodies absorb, and their precious precious blood,
  810. p. 377, line 19In blowing airs from the fields back again give me my darlings, give my immortal heroes,
  811. p. 377, line 21O years and graves! O air and soil! O my dead, an aroma sweet!
  812. p. 379, line 2Of what underlies the precedent songs—of my aims in them,
  813. p. 379, line 5(For them, for them have I lived, in them my work is done,)
  814. p. 379, line 16(Pleas'd to my soul at death I cry,)
  815. p. 379, line 26THESE carols sung to cheer my passage through the world I see,
  816. p. 380, line 12I remember I said before my leaves sprang at all,
  817. p. 380, line 13I would raise my voice jocund and strong with reference to consummations.
  818. p. 380, line 19I have press'd through in my own right,
  819. p. 380, line 22I have offer'd my style to every one, I have journey'd with confident step;
  820. p. 380, line 23While my pleasure is yet at the full I whisper So long!
  821. p. 381, line 23Myself unknowing, my commission obeying, to question it never daring,
  822. p. 381, line 27To young men my problems offering—no dallier I—I the muscle of their brains trying,
  823. p. 382, line 5My songs cease, I abandon them,
  824. p. 382, line 13Your breath falls around me like dew, your pulse lulls the tympans of my ears,
  825. p. 382, line 21I receive now again of my many translations, from my avataras ascending, while others doubtless await me,
  826. p. 382, line 23Remember my words, I may again return,
  827. p. 384, line 10[…] Font of Type, 386 As I Sit Writing Here, 386 My Canary Bird, 386 Queries to My Seventieth Year, 387 The Wallabout Martyrs […]
  828. p. 384, line 11[…] Sit Writing Here, 386 My Canary Bird, 386 Queries to My Seventieth Year, 387 The Wallabout Martyrs, 387 The First Dandelion, 387 America, 387 Memories […]
  829. p. 384, line 46[…] Yonnondio, 396 Life, 396 "Going Somewhere," 397 Small the Theme of My Chant, 397 True Conquerors, 397 The United States to Old World Critics […]
  830. p. 385, line 1My city's fit and noble name resumed,
  831. p. 386, line 2My lines in joy and hope continuing on the same,
  832. p. 386, line 4Of you, my Land—your rivers, prairies, States—you, mottled Flag I love,
  833. p. 386, line 6Of me myself—the jocund heart yet beating in my breast,
  834. p. 386, line 8The burning fires down in my sluggish blood not yet extinct,
  835. p. 386, line 19Not my least burden is that dulness of the years, querilities,
  836. p. 386, line 21May filter in my daily songs.
  837. p. 388, line 8Only the dark, dark night shows to my eyes the stars;
  838. p. 388, line 10Silent, athwart my soul, moves the symphony true.
  839. p. 389, line 15Or breathe one breath of yours upon my verse,
  840. p. 391, line 3Myself through every by-gone phase—my idle youth—old age at hand,
  841. p. 391, line 4My three-score years of life summ'd up, and more, and past,
  842. p. 392, line 3Imaging to my sense thy varied strange suggestions,
  843. p. 394, line 5These snowy hairs, my feeble arm, my frozen feet,
  844. p. 395, line 1Far back, related on my mother's side,
  845. p. 395, line 13Dutch Kossabone, Old Salt, related on my mother's side, far back.
  846. p. 395, line 22I fold thenceforth, or seek to fold, within my chants transmuting,
  847. p. 397, line 1My science-friend, my noblest woman-friend,
  848. p. 397, line 9Small the theme of my Chant, yet the greatest—namely, One's- Self—a simple, separate person. That, for the use of the New World, I sing.
  849. p. 397, line 12My Days I sing, and the Lands—with interstice I knew of hapless War.
  850. p. 398, line 12For precious ever-lingering memories, (of you my mother dear—you, father—you, brothers, sisters, friends,)
  851. p. 398, line 13For all my days—not those of peace alone—the days of war the same,
  852. p. 399, line 8And forever, by day and night, I give back life to my own origin, and make pure and beautify it;
  853. p. 400, line 4I heard it in my boyhood;)—More than a generation since,
  854. p. 400, line 10"Let me return again to my war-days,
  855. p. 400, line 18Give me my old wild battle-life again!"
  856. p. 401, line 15To my plain Northern hut, in outside clouds and snow,
  857. p. 401, line 18Now here their sweetness through my room unfolding,
  858. p. 402, line 5Yet my soul-dearest leaves confirming all the rest,
  859. p. 403, line 12Or " Captain! My Captain! " " Kosmos," "Quicksand Years," or "Thoughts,"
  860. p. 403, line 14From fibre heart of mine—from throat and tongue—(My life's hot pulsing blood,
  861. p. 406, line 6[…] for Good, Eidólon Yacht, 409. Lingering Last Drops, 409. Good-Bye my Fancy, 409. On, on the Same, ye Jocund Twain, 410. My 71st […]
  862. p. 406, line 9[…] Fancy, 409. On, on the Same, ye Jocund Twain, 410. My 71st Year, 410. Apparitions, 410. The Pallid Wreath, 411. An Ended Day, 411. Old […]
  863. p. 406, line 39[…] Unexpress'd, 421. Grand is the Seen, 421. Unseen Buds, 421. Good-Bye my Fancy […]
  864. p. 407, line 10[…] is not the verse-field, as originally plann'd by my theory, now sufficiently illustrated—and full time for me to […]
  865. p. 407, line 12[…] indeed amid no loud call or market for my sort of poetic utterance […]
  866. p. 407, line 14[…] here comes this little cluster, and conclusion of my preceding clusters. Though not at all clear that, as here […]
  867. p. 407, line 17[…] to write)—I while away the hours of my 72d year—hours of forced confinement in my den—by […]
  868. p. 407, line 18[…] my 72d year—hours of forced confinement in my den—by putting in shape this small old age collation […]
  869. p. 407, line 29[…] fair type while able to see correctly—(for my eyes plainly warn me they are dimming, and my brain […]
  870. p. 407, line 30[…] eyes plainly warn me they are dimming, and my brain more and more palpably neglects or refuses, month after […]
  871. p. 409, line 15GOOD-BYE* my fancy—(I had a word to say,
  872. p. 410, line 2My life and recitative, containing birth, youth, mid-age years,
  873. p. 410, line 4My single soul—aims, confirmations, failures, joys—Nor single soul alone,
  874. p. 410, line 5I chant my nation's crucial stage, (America's, haply humanity's)—the trial great, the victory great,
  875. p. 410, line 10(My verses, written first for forenoon life, and for the summer's, autumn's spread,
  876. p. 410, line 12As here in careless trill, I and my recitatives, with faith and love,
  877. p. 410, line 17My parents' deaths, the vagaries of my life, the many tearing passions of me, the war of '63 and '4,
  878. p. 411, line 10So let the wreath hang still awhile within my eye-reach,
  879. p. 412, line 12Nor for myself—my own rebellious self in thee?
  880. p. 413, line 37[…] the now dead soldier's example as it passes my mind, is worth taking notice of. If the war had […]
  881. p. 413, line 38[…] had continued any long time these States, in my opinion, would have shown and proved the most conclusive military […]
  882. p. 414, line 2Where late this heated day thou enterest at my window, door,
  883. p. 414, line 6(Thou hast, O Nature! elements! utterance to my heart beyond the rest—and this is of them,)
  884. p. 414, line 7So sweet thy primitive taste to breathe within—thy soothing fingers on my face and hands,
  885. p. 414, line 13(For thou art spiritual, Godly, most of all known to my sense,)
  886. p. 416, line 8(Even here in my room-shadows and half-lights in the noiseless flickering flames,
  887. p. 416, line 13Henceforth to be, deep, deep within my heart recording, for many a future year,
  888. p. 418, line 25Have lost my recognition of your silent ever-swaying power, ye mighty, elemental throes,
  889. p. 419, line 1"Finally my children, to envelop each word, each part of the rest,
  890. p. 420, line 6And my mate there could tell you the like—we have often confab'd about it,)
  891. p. 420, line 24Never even for one brief hour abandoning my task,
  892. p. 420, line 27To-day shadowy Death dogs my steps, my seated shape, and has for years—
  893. p. 421, line 17More evolutionary, vast, puzzling, O my soul!
  894. p. 422, line 1GOOD-BYE my Fancy!
  895. p. 422, line 5So Good-bye my Fancy.
  896. p. 422, line 6Now for my last—let me look back a moment;
  897. p. 422, line 10Delightful!—now separation—Good-bye my Fancy.
  898. p. 422, line 18Good-bye—and hail! my Fancy.
  899. p. 425, line 11[…] the early candle-light of old age—I and my book—casting backward glances over our travel'd road. After completing […]
  900. p. 425, line 17[…] way through all discomfitures at last)—After completing my poems, I am curious to review them in the light […]
  901. p. 425, line 24[…] extending through nearly thirty years, (as I nigh my three-score-and-ten I live largely on memory,) I look upon "Leaves […]
  902. p. 425, line 26[…] the end of its opportunities and powers, as my definitive carte visite to the coming generations of the New […]
  903. p. 425, line 29[…] That I have not gain'd the acceptance of my own time, but have fallen back on fond dreams of […]
  904. p. 426, line 4[…] than I ought to have expected. I had my choice when I commenc'd. I bid neither for soft eulogies […]
  905. p. 426, line 12[…] outside the soul within me, I have had my say entirely my own way, and put it unerringly on record—the value […]
  906. p. 426, line 28[…] of little account. Candidly and dispassionately reviewing all my intentions, I feel that they were creditable—and I accept […]
  907. p. 426, line 37[…] exact, a desire that had been flitting through my previous life, or hovering on the flanks, mostly indefinite hitherto […]
  908. p. 426, line 41[…] express in literary or poetic form, and uncompromisingly, my own physical, emotional, moral, intellectual, and æsthetic Personality, in the […]
  909. p. 427, line 29[…] contrast of the ideas behind every page of my verses, compared with establish'd poems, is their different relative attitude […]
  910. p. 428, line 19My Book and I—what a period we have presumed to […]
  911. p. 428, line 24Let me not dare, here or anywhere, for my own purposes, or any purposes, to attempt the definition of […]
  912. p. 428, line 28[…] give a sufficiently accurate meaning to them, in my opinion no definition that has ever been made sufficiently encloses […]
  913. p. 429, line 35[…] forming their birth-marks. I know very well that my "Leaves" could not possibly have emerged or been fashion'd or […]
  914. p. 429, line 40And whether my friends claim it for me or not, I know well […]
  915. p. 431, line 41I have indeed put on record elsewhere my reverence and eulogy for those never-to-be-excell'd poetic bequests, and their […]
  916. p. 432, line 3[…] I could not have written "Leaves of Grass." My verdict and conclusions as illustrated in its pages are arrived […]
  917. p. 432, line 8[…] past, so I would dare to claim for my verse. Without stopping to qualify the averment, the Old World […]
  918. p. 432, line 18Continuing the subject, my friends have more than once suggested—or may be the […]
  919. p. 432, line 22[…] already fully and fairly described the preparation of my poetic field, with the particular and general plowing, planting, seeding […]
  920. p. 432, line 27[…] any serious acquaintance with poetic literature. Along in my sixteenth year I had become possessor of a stout, well-cramm'd […]
  921. p. 433, line 24[…] long poem. The same thought had been haunting my mind before, but Poe's argument, though short, work'd the sum […]
  922. p. 433, line 28[…] the ground greatly. I saw, from the time my enterprise and questionings positively shaped themselves (how best can I […]
  923. p. 433, line 29[…] positively shaped themselves (how best can I express my own distinctive era and surroundings, America, Democracy?) that the trunk […]
  924. p. 434, line 1[…] and arous'd (of course, I don't mean in my own heart only, I saw it just as plainly in […]
  925. p. 434, line 21[…] little, if anything; and could not, consistently with my scheme. The reader will always have his or her part […]
  926. p. 435, line 10[…] yet appear'd. I have allow'd the stress of my poems from beginning to end to bear upon American individuality […]
  927. p. 435, line 17[…] more or less a motif of nearly all my verse. I think this pride indispensable to an American. I […]
  928. p. 435, line 23[…] a dead level. While the ambitious thought of my song is to help the forming of a great aggregate […]
  929. p. 435, line 42[…] the working-man and working-woman were to be in my pages from first to last. The ranges of heroism and […]
  930. p. 436, line 4[…] times of old were. I will also want my utterances (I said to myself before beginning) to be in […]
  931. p. 436, line 5[…] in the sunny forenoon and early midday of my life.) I will want them to be the poems of […]
  932. p. 436, line 8[…] put the complete Union of the States in my songs without any preference or partiality whatever. Henceforth, if they […]
  933. p. 436, line 18[…] those lines so gives breath of life to my whole scheme that the bulk of the pieces might as […]
  934. p. 436, line 21[…] as it will be, it has become, in my opinion, imperative to achieve a shifted attitude from superior men […]
  935. p. 437, line 3[…] or the budding of thought, fairly began in my youthful mind, I had had a desire to attempt some […]
  936. p. 437, line 7[…] I felt it all as positively then in my young days as I do now in my old ones […]
  937. p. 437, line 8[…] my young days as I do now in my old ones; to formulate a poem whose every thought or […]
  938. p. 437, line 17[…] all concrete life and all materialism, through Time. My book ought to emanate buoyancy and gladness legitimately enough, for […]
  939. p. 437, line 19[…] those elements, and has been the comfort of my life since it was originally commenced […]
  940. p. 437, line 20One main genesis-motive of the " Leaves" was my conviction (just as strong to-day as ever) that the crowning […]
  941. p. 437, line 30[…] all the poetry of the past—are in my opinion distasteful to the republican genius, and offer no foundation […]
  942. p. 437, line 34[…] reminiscences dear to the minds of men. But my volume is a candidate for the future. "All original art […]
  943. p. 437, line 39[…] lives on its own blood "—a solace to my frequent bruises and sulky vanity […]
  944. p. 438, line 9[…] often reiterate) has mainly been the outcropping of my own emotional and other personal nature—an attempt, from first […]
  945. p. 438, line 16[…] or advance claims. No one will get at my verses who insists upon viewing them as a literary performance […]
  946. p. 438, line 29In the free evening of my day I give to you, reader, the foregoing garrulous talk […]