And so will some one, when I am dead and gone, write my life?
(As if any man really knew aught of my life;
Why, even I myself, I often think, know little or nothing of my real
life;
Only a few hints–a few diffused, faint clues and indirections,
I seek, for my own use, to trace out here.)
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O ME! O life!… of the questions of these recurring;
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 thestruggle ever renew’d;Of the poor results of all–of the plodding and sordid crowds I seearound me;Of the empty and useless years of the rest–with the rest meintertwined;The question, O me! so sad,…
AT the last, tenderly,
From the clasp of the knitted locks–from the keep of the well-closeddoors,Let me be wafted.Let me glide noiselessly forth;With the key of softness unlock the locks–with a whisperSet ope the doors, O soul!Tenderly! be not impatient!(Strong is your hold, O mortal flesh!Strong is your hold, O love!)
STARTING from fish-shape Paumanok, where I was born,
After roaming many lands–lover of populous pavements;Dweller in Mannahatta, my city–or onsouthern savannas;Or a soldier camp’d, or carrying my knapsack and gun–or a miner inCalifornia;Or rude in my home in Dakota’s woods, my diet meat, my drink from thespring;Or withdrawn to muse and meditate in some deep recess,Far from the clank of crowds, intervals passing,…
AS the time draws nigh, glooming, a cloud,
I shall go forth,I shall traverse The States awhile–but I cannot tell whither or howlong;Perhaps soon, some day or night while I am singing, my voice willsuddenly cease.O book, O chants! must all then amount to but this?Must we barely arrive at this beginning of us?… And yet it isenough, O soul!O soul! we have…
Tears! tears! tears!
On the white shore dripping, dripping, suck’d in by the sand;Tears–not a star shining–all dark and desolate;Moist tears from the eyes of a muffled head:–O who is that ghost?–that form in the dark, with tears?What shapeless lump is that, bent, crouch’d there on the sand?Streaming tears–sobbing tears–throes, choked with wild cries;O storm, embodied, rising, careering,…