But the one I thought was with me, as now I walk by the shore–the
one I loved, that caress’d me,
As I lean and look through the glimmering light–that one has utterly
disappear’d,
And those appear that are hateful to me, and mock me.
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Treacherous tip of me reaching and crowding to help them,My flesh and blood playing out lightning to strike what is hardly different from myself,On all sides prurient provokers stiffening my limbs,Straining the udder of my heart for its withheld drip,Behaving licentious toward me, taking no denial,Depriving me of my best as for a purpose,Unbuttoning my…
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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knapsack and gun–or a miner inCalifornia;Or rude in my home in Dakota’s woods, my diet meat, my drink from thespring;Or withdrawn to muse and meditate in some deep recess,Far from the clank of crowds, intervals passing,…
OTHERS may praise what they like;
art, or aught else,Till it has well inhaled the atmosphere of this river–also thewestern prairie-scent,And fully exudes it again.
FULL of life, now, compact, visible,
To one a century hence, or any number of centuries hence,To you, yet unborn, these, seeking you.When you read these, I, that was visible, am become invisible;Now it is you, compact, visible, realizing my poems, seeking me;Fancying how happy you were, if I could be with you, and become yourcomrade;Be it as if I were…
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WHEN I peruse the conquer’d fame of heroes, and the victories of
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