Leaves of Grass (Illustrated)

by Walt Whitman

You not a reminiscence of the land alone, You too as a lone bark cleaving the ether, purpos'd I know not whither, yet ever full of faith,

Deathless throughout the ages, races, lands,

Unfix'd yet fix'd, Ever shall be, ever have been and are,

Resist much, obey little,

Dwell a while and pass on, be copious, temperate, chaste, magnetic,

I am a man who, sauntering along without fully stopping, turns a casual look upon you and then averts his face, Leaving it to you to prove and define it, Expecting the main things from you.

The soul, Forever and forever—longer than soil is brown and solid—longer

I am myself just as much evil as good,

how divine he himself is, and how certain the future is.

It is a painful thing to love a man or woman to excess, and yet it satisfies, it is great,

And I will show of male and female that either is but the equal of the other,

How can the real body ever die and be buried?

Whoever you are, how superb and how divine is your body, or any part of it!

You oceans that have been calm within me! how I feel you, fathomless, stirring, preparing unprecedented waves and storms.