 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit www.librivox.org. Today's reading is by Chris Mitchell. The Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman Book 8. Crossing Brooklyn Ferry. 1. Flood tied below me. I see you face to face. Clouds of the west sun there half an hour high. I see you also face to face. Crowds of men and women attired in the usual costumes. How curious you are to me. On the ferry boats the hundreds and hundreds that cross returning home are more curious to me than you suppose. And you that shall cross from shore to shore years hence are more to me and more in my meditations than you might suppose. 2. The impalpable sustenance of me from all things at all hours of the day. The simple, compact, well-joined scheme, myself disintegrated, everyone disintegrated yet part of the scheme. The similitudes of the past and those of the future, the glories strung like beads on my smallest sights and hearings, on the walk in the street and the passage over the river, the current rushing so swiftly and swimming with me far away, the others that are to follow me, the ties between me and them, the certainty of others, the life, love, sight, hearing of others. Others will enter the gates of the ferry and cross from shore to shore. Others will watch the run of the flood tide. Others will see the shipping of Manhattan north and west and the heights of Brooklyn to the south and east. Others will see the islands large and small. Fifty years hence others will see them as they cross, the sun half an hour high. A hundred years hence or ever so many hundred years hence others will see them. We'll enjoy the sunset, the pouring in of the flood tide, the falling back to the sea of the ebb tide. Three. It devails not, time nor place, distance avails not. I am with you, you men and women of a generation or ever so many generations hence. Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky so I felt, just as any one of you is one of a living crowd, I was one of a crowd. Just as you are refreshed by the gladness of the river and the bright flow, I was refreshed. Just as you stand and lean on the rail yet hurry with the swift current, I stood yet was hurried. Just as you look on the numberless masts of ships and the thick-stemmed pipes of steamboats, I looked. I, too, many and many a time, crossed the river of old, watched the twelve-month sea-goals, saw them high in the air, floating with motionless wings, oscillating their bodies, saw how the glistening yellow lit up parts of their bodies and left the rest in strong shadow, saw the slow-wheeling circles and the gradual edging toward the south, saw the reflection of the summer sky and the water, had my eyes dazzled by the shimmering track of beams, looked at the fine centrifugal spokes of light round the shape of my head in the sunlit water, looked on the haze on the hills southward and southwestward, looked on the vapor as it flew in fleeces tinged with violet, looked toward the lower bay to notice the vessels arriving, saw their approach, saw a board those that were near me, saw the white sails of schooners and sloops, saw the ships at anchor, the sailors at work in the rigging or out to stride the spars, the round masts, the swinging motion of the holes, the slender serpentine penance, the large and small steamers in motion, the pilots in their pilot-houses, the white wake left by the passage, the quick tremulous whirl of the wheels, the flags of all nations, the falling of them at sunset, the scallop-edged waves in the twilight, the ladled cups, the follicksome crests and glistening, the stretch afar growing dimmer and dimmer, the gray walls of the granite storehouses by the docks, on the river the shadowy group, the big steam-tug closely flanked on each side by the barges, the hay-boat, the belated lighter, on the neighbouring shore the fires from the foundry chimneys burning high and glaring into the night, casting their flicker of black contrasted with wild red and yellow light over the tops of houses and down into the clefts of streets. IV These and all else were to me the same as they are to you. I loved well those cities, loved well the stately and rapid river. The men and women I saw were all near to me. Others the same, others who look back on me because I looked forward to them. The time will come, though I stop here to-day and to-night. V What is it then between us? What is the count of the scores or hundreds of years between us? Whatever it is, it avails not, distance avails not, and place avails not. I too lived, Brooklyn of Ample Hills was mine. I too walked the streets of Manhattan Island and bathed in the waters around it. I too felt the curious, abrupt questioning stir within me. In the day among crowds of people sometimes they came upon me. In my walks home late at night or as I lay in my bed they came upon me. I too had been struck from the float for ever held in solution. I too had received identity by my body. That I was I knew was of my body, and what I should be I knew I should be of my body. VI It is not upon you alone the dark patches fall. The dark threw its patches down upon me also. The best I had done seemed to me blank and suspicious. My great thoughts, as I supposed them, were they not in reality meeker? Nor is it you alone who know what it is to be evil. I am he who knew what it was to be evil. I too knitted the old knot of contrariety. Blabbed, blushed, resented, lied, stole, grudged, had guile, anger, lust, and lust. Hot wishes I dared not speak. Was wayward, vain, greedy, shallow, sly, cowardly, malignant? The wolf, the snake, the hog, not wanting in me. The cheating look, the frivolous word, the adulterous wish, not wanting. Refusals, hates, postponements, meanness, laziness, none of these wanting. Was one with the rest, the days and haps of the rest. Was called by my niest name by clear, loud voices of young men as they saw me approaching or passing. Felt their arms on my neck as I stood, or the negligent leaning of their flesh against me as I sat. Saw many I loved in the street, or ferry boat, or public assembly, yet never told them a word. Lived the same life with the rest, the same old laughing, gnawing, sleeping, played the part that still looks back on the actor or actress. The same old role, the role that is what we make it, as great as we like, or as small as we like, or both great and small. Seven. Closer yet I approach you. What thought you have of me now I had as much of you I laid in my stores in advance. I considered long and seriously of you before you were born. Who was to know what should come home to me? Who knows, but I am enjoying this. Who knows, for all the distance, but I am as good as looking at you now, for all you cannot see me. Eight. Ah, what can ever be more stately and admirable to me than mast hemmed Manhattan. River in sunset and scallopedged waves of flood tide. The seagulls oscillating their bodies, the hay boat in the twilight, and the belated lighter. What gods can exceed these that clasp me by the hand, and with voices I love, call me promptly and loudly by my niest name as approach. What is more subtle than this which ties me to the woman or man that looks in my face? Which fuses me into you now and pours my meaning into you? We understand, then, do we not? What I promised without mentioning it, have you not accepted? What the study could not teach. What the preaching could not accomplish is accomplished. Is it not? Nine. Flow on river, flow with the flood tide, and ebb with the ebb tide. Frolic on, crested and scalloped edged waves. Gorgeous clouds of the sunset, drench with your splendor me, or the men and women generations after me. Cross from shore to shore, countless crowds of passengers. Stand up, tall masts of Manahatta. Stand up, beautiful hills of Brooklyn. Throb, baffled and curious brain. Throw out questions and answers. Suspend here and everywhere, eternal float of solution. Gaze, loving and thirsting eyes, in the house or street or public assembly. Sound out, voices of young men, loudly and musically call me by my niest name. Live, old life, play the part that looks back on the actor or actress. Play the old role, the role that is great or small according as one makes it. Consider, you who peruse me, whether I may not in unknown ways be looking upon you. Be firm, rail over the river to support those who lean idly, yet haste with the hasting current. Fly on, sea birds, fly sideways or wheel in large circles high in the air. Receive the summer sky, you water, and faithfully hold it till all downcast eyes have time to take it from you. Diverge fine spokes of light from the shape of my head or anyone's head in the sunlit water. Come on, ships from the lower bay, pass up or down, white-sailed, schooners, sloops, lighters. Flaunt away, flags of all nations, be duly lowered at sunset. Burn high your fires, foundry chimneys, cast black shadows at nightfall, cast red and yellow light over the tops of the houses. Appearances, now or henceforth, indicate what you are. You, necessary film, continue to envelop the soul. About my body for me and your body for you, be hung our divinest aromas. Thrive cities, bring your freight, bring your shows, ample and sufficient rivers. Expand, being then which none else is perhaps more spiritual. Keep your places, objects then which none else is more lasting. You have waited, you always wait, you dumb, beautiful ministers. We receive you with free sense at last, and are insatiate henceforward. Not you any more shall be able to foil us, or withhold yourselves from us. We use you, and do not cast you aside. We plant you permanently within us. We fathom you not, we love you. There is perfection in you also. You furnish your parts toward eternity. Great or small, you furnish your parts toward the soul. Here ends Book 8 Book 9 Song of the Answerer 1 Now, list to my morning's romanza. I tell the signs of the Answerer. To the cities and farms I sing as they spread in the sunshine before me. A young man comes to me bearing a message from his brother. How shall the young man know the weather and when of his brother? Tell him to send me the signs, and 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. And I answer for his brother and for men, and I answer for him that answers for all, and send these signs. Him all wait for, him all yield up to, his word is decisive and final, him they accept, in him lave, in him perceive themselves as a mid-light, him they immerse, and he immerses them. Beautiful women, the haughtiest nations, laws, the landscape, people, animals, the profound earth, and its attributes, and the unquiet ocean, so tell I my morning's romanza. All enjoyments and properties and money, and whatever money will buy, the best farms, others toiling and planting, and he unavoidably reaps, the noblest and costliest cities, others grading and building, and he domiciles there. Nothing for any one but what is for him, near and far are for him, the ships in the offing, the perpetual shows and marches on land, are for him if they are for anybody. He puts things in their attitudes, he puts today out of himself with plasticity and love, he places his own times, reminiscences, parents, brothers and sisters, associations, employment, politics, so that the rest never shame them afterward, nor assume to command them. He is the answerer. What can be answered, he answers, and what cannot be answered, he shows how it cannot be answered. A man is a summons and challenge, it is vain to skulk, hear that mocking and laughter, do you hear the ironical echoes? Books, friendships, philosophers, priests, action, pleasure, pride, beat up and down seeking to give satisfaction. He indicates the satisfaction and indicates them that beat up and down also. Whichever the sex, whatever the season or place, he may go freshly and gently and safely by day or by night. He has the paschee of hearts, to him the response of the prying of hands on the knobs. His welcome is universal, the flow of beauty is not more welcome or universal than he is. The person he favors by day or sleeps with at night is blessed. Every existence has its idiom, every thing has an idiom and tongue. He resolves all tongues into his own and bestows it upon men, and any man translates, and any man translates himself also. One part does not counteract another part, he is the joiner, he sees how they join. He says indifferently and alike, how are you friend to the president at his levy? And he says good day, my brother, to Cudge that hose in the sugar field, and both understand him and know that his speech is right. He walks with perfect ease in the capital, he walks among the Congress, and one representative says to another, here is our equal appearing and new. Then the mechanics take him for a mechanic, and the soldiers suppose him to be a soldier, and the sailors that he has followed the sea. And the authors take him for an author, and the artists for an artist, and the laborers perceive he could labor with them and love them. No matter what the work is, that he is the one to follow it, or has followed it, no matter what the nation, that he might find his brothers and sisters there. The English believe he comes of their English stock, a Jew to the Jew he seems, a roost to the roost, usual and near, removed from none. Whoever he looks at in the traveler's coffee house claims him. The Italian or Frenchman is sure, the German is sure, the Spaniard is sure, and the Island Cuban is sure. The engineer, the deck hand on the Great Lakes, or on the Mississippi, or St. Lawrence or Sacramento, or Hudson or Paumonic Sound, claims him. The gentleman of perfect blood acknowledges his perfect blood, the insulter, the prostitute, the angry person, the beggar, see themselves in the ways of him, he strangely transmutes them. They are not vile any more, they hardly know themselves, they are so grown. 2. The indications and tally of time, perfect sanity shows the master among philosophs. Time, always without break, indicates itself in parts. What always indicates the poet is the crowd of the pleasant company of singers and their words. The words of the singers are the hours or minutes of the light or dark, but the words of the maker of poems are the general light and dark. The maker of poems settles justice, reality, immortality, his insight and power encircle things and the human race. He is the glory and extract, thus far, of things and of the human race. The singers do not beget, only the poet begets. The singers are welcomed, understood, appear often enough, but rare has the day been, likewise the spot of the birth of the maker of poems, the answerer. Not every century nor every five centuries has contained such a day for all its names. The singers of successive hours of centuries may have ostensible names, but the name of each of them is one of the singers. The name of each is eye singer, ear singer, head singer, sweet singer, night singer, parlor singer, love singer, weird singer, or something else. All this time and at all times wait the words of true poems. The words of true poems do not merely please. The true poets are not followers of beauty, but the august masters of beauty. The greatness of sons is the exuding of the greatness of mothers and fathers. The words of true poems are the tough and final applause of science. Divine instinct, breadth of vision, the law of reason, health, rudeness of body, withdrawnness, gaiety, suntan, air sweetness, such are some of the words of poems. The sailor and traveller underlie the maker of poems, the answerer. The builder, geometer, chemist, anatomist, phrenologist, artist, all these underlie the maker of poems, the answerer. The words of the true poems give you more than poems. They give you to form self-poems, religions, politics, war, peace, behavior, histories, essays, daily life, and everything else. They balance ranks, colors, races, creeds, and the sexes. They do not seek beauty. They are sought. Forever touching them, or close upon them follows beauty, longing, love-sick. They prepare for death, yet are they not the finish, but rather the outset. They bring none to his or her terminus, or to be content and full. Whom they take, they take into space to behold the birth of stars, to learn one of the meanings, to launch off with absolute faith, to sweep through the ceaseless and never be quiet again. Here ends Book 9 Book 10 Our Old Foylage Always Our Old Foylage Always Florida's Green Peninsula Always the priceless Delta of Louisiana Always the cotton fields of Alabama and Texas Always California's golden hills and hollows, and the silver mountains of New Mexico Always soft-breathed Cuba Always the vast slope drained by the southern sea, inseparable with the slopes drained by the eastern and western seas. The area, the 83rd year of these states, the three and a half millions of square miles. The 18,000 miles of sea coast and bay coast on the main. The 30,000 miles of river navigation. The seven millions of distinct families and the same number of dwellings always these and more branching forth into numberless branches. Always the free range and diversity. Always the continent of democracy. Always the prairies, pastures, forests, vast cities, travelers, Canada, the snows. Always these compact lands tied at the hips with the belt, stringing the huge oval lakes. Always the west with strong native persons, the increasing density there, the habitants, friendly, threatening, ironical, scorning invaders. All sites south, north, east, all deeds promiscuously done at all times. All characters, movements, growths, a few noticed, myriads unnoticed. Through Manahata's streets I walking, these things gathering on interior rivers by night in the glare of pine knots, steamboats wooding up. Sunlight by day on the valley of the Sasquahana and on the valleys of the Potomac and the Rappahannock and the valleys of the Roanoke and Delaware. In their northerly wilds beasts of prey haunting the Adirondacks the hills or lapping maw waters to drink. In a lonesome inlet a shell drake lost from the flock, sitting on the water, rocking silently. In farmers barns, oxen in the stable, their harvest labour done, they rest standing, they are too tired. A far on Arctic ice the she-walrus lying drowsily while her cubs lay around. The hawk sailing where men have not yet sailed the farthest polar sea ripply, crystalline open, beyond the flows. White drifts spooning ahead where the ship in the tempest dashes. On solid land what is done in cities as the bells strike midnight together. The sounds there also sounding, the howl of the wolf, the scream of the panther and the horse bellow of the elk. In winter beneath the hard blue ice of Moosehead Lake in summer visible through the clear waters the great trout swimming. In lower latitudes in warmer air in the Carolinas the large black desert floating slowly high beyond the treetops. Bellow the red cedar festooned with Tylandria the pines and cypresses growing out of the white sand that spreads far and flat. Rude boats descending the Big Paddy climbing plants parasites with colored flowers and berries enveloping huge trees. Waving drapery on the live oak trailing long and low noiselessly waved by the wind. The camp of Georgia wagoners just after dark the supper fires and the cooking and eating by whites and negroes. Thirty or forty great wagons the mules, cattle horses feeding from troths. The shadows gleams under the leaves of the old sycamore trees the flames with the black smoke from the pitch pine curling and rising. Southern fishermen fishing the sounds and inlets of North Carolinas coast the shad fishery and the herring fishery the large sweep sands the windlesses on shore worked by horses the clearing curing and packing houses. Deep in the forest in piney woods turpentine dropping from the incisions in the trees there are the turpentine works. There are the negroes at work in good health the ground in all directions is covered with pine straw. In Tennessee and Kentucky slaves busy in the coalings at the forge by the furnace blaze at the corn chucking. In Virginia the planters sun returning after a long absence joyfully welcomed and kissed by the aged mulatto nurse. On rivers boatmen safely moored at nightfall in their boats under shelter of high banks some of the younger men dance to the sound of the banjo or fiddle others sit on the gunwale smoking and talking. Late in the afternoon the mockingbird the American mimic singing in the great dismal swamp there are the greenish waters the resinous odor the plenteous moss the cypress tree and the juniper tree. Northward young men of Manahatta the target company from an excursion returning home at evening the musket muzzles all bear bunches of flowers presented by women. Children at play or on his father's lap a young boy fallen asleep how his lips move how he smiles in his sleep. The scout riding on horseback over the plains west of the Mississippi he ascends a knoll and keeps his eyes around. California life the miner bearded, dressed in his rude costume the stanch California friendship the sweet air the graves one in passing meets solitary just beside the horse path. Down in Texas the cotton field the negro cabins drivers driving mules or oxen before rude carts cotton bales piled on banks and wharves encircling all vast darting up and wide the American soul with equal hemispheres one love one dilation or pride in Aire the peace talk with the Iroquois the aborigines the calamet the pipe of goodwill and endorsement the seachem blowing the smoke first toward the sun and then toward the earth the drama of the scalp dance enacted with painted faces and guttural exclamations the setting out of the war party the long and stealthy march the single file the swinging hatchets the surprise and slaughter of enemies all the acts scenes ways, persons attitudes of these states reminiscences institutions all these states compact every square mile of these states without accepting a particle me pleased rambling in lanes and country fields pomonics fields observing the spiral flight of two little yellow butterflies shuffling between each other ascending high in the air the darting swallow the destroyer of insects the fall traveler southward but returning northward early in the spring the country boy at the close of the day driving the herd of cows and shouting to them as they floiter to browse by the roadside the city wharf boston philadelphia baltimore charleston new orleans san francisco the departing ships when the sailors heave at the capstan evening me in my room the setting sun the setting summer sun shining in my open window showing the swarm of flies suspended balancing in the air in the center of the room darting a thwart up and down casting swift shadows in specks on the opposite wall where the shine is the athletic american matron speaking in public to crowds of listeners males females immigrants the combinations the copiousness the individuality of the states each for itself the money makers factories machinery the mechanical forces the windless lever pulley all certainties the certainty of space increase freedom futurity in space the sporadies the stars on the firm earth the lands my lands oh lands all so dear to me what you are whatever it is i putting it at random in these songs become a part of that whatever it is southward there i screaming with wings slow flapping with the myriads of gulls wintering along the coasts of florida other ways there a twist the banks of the arkansas the Rio Grande the Nueces the Brassus the Tombigbee the Red River the Saskatchewan or the Osage i with the spring waters laughing and skipping and running on the sands on some shallow bay of pulmonic i with parties of snowy herons wading in the wet to seek worms and aquatic plants retreating triumphantly twittering the king bird from piercing the crow with its bill for amusement and i triumphantly twittering the migrating flock of wild geese alighting in autumn to refresh themselves the body of the flock feed the sentinels outside move around with erect heads watching and are from time to time relieved by other sentinels and i feeding and taking turns with the rest in canadian forests the moose larges an ox cornered by hunters rising desperately on his hind feet and plunging with his fore feet the hooves as sharp as knives and i plunging at the hunters cornered and desperate in the manahatta streets piers shipping storehouses and the countless workmen working in the shops and i too of the manahatta singing thereof and no less in myself than the whole of the manahatta in itself singing 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 an identity nativities climates the grass of the great pastoral plains cities labors animals products war good and evil these me these affording in all their particulars the old foilage to me and to america you less than past the clue of the union of them to afford the like to you whoever you are how can i but offer you divine leaves that you also be eligible as i am how can i but as here chanting invite you for yourselves to collect bouquets of the incomparable foilage states here ends book 10 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit www.librivox.org today's reading is by Chris Mitchell The Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman book 11 a song of joys oh to make the most jubilant song full of music full of manhood womanhood infancy full of common employments full of grain and trees oh for the voices of animals oh for the swiftness and balance of fishes oh for the dropping of a song oh for the sunshine and motion of waves in a song oh the joy of my spirit it is uncaged it darts like lightning it is not enough to have this globe or a certain time i will have thousands of globes and all time oh the engineer's joys to hear the hiss of steam the merry shriek the steam whistle the laughing locomotive to push with resistless way and speed off in the distance oh the glissom saunter over fields and hillsides the leaves and flowers of the commonest weeds the moist fresh stillness the exquisite smell of the earth at daybreak and all through the forenoon oh the horseman's and horse woman's joys the saddle the gallop the pressure upon the seat the cool gurgling by the ears and hair oh the fireman's joys i hear the alarm at dead of night i hear bells shouts i pass the crowd i run the sight of the flames maddens me with pleasure oh the joy of the strong brawned fighter towering in the arena in perfect condition conscious of power thirsting to meet his opponent oh the joy of that vast elemental sympathy which only the human soul is capable of generating and emitting in steady and limitless floods oh the mother's joys the watching the endurance the precious love the anguish the patiently yielded life oh the joy of increase growth, recuperation the joy of soothing and pacifying the joy of concord and harmony oh to go back to the place where I was born to hear the birds sing once more to ramble about the house and barn and over the fields once more and through the orchard and along the old lanes once more oh to have been brought up on bays, lagoons or along the coast to continue and be employed there all my life the briny and damp smell the shore the salt weeds exposed at low water the work of fisherman the work of the eel fisher and clam fisher I come with my clam rake and spade I come with my eel spear is the tide out I join the group of clam diggers on the flats I laugh and work with them I joke at my work like a metal some young man in 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 behold me well clothed going gaily or returning in the afternoon my brood of tough boys accompanying me my brood of grown and part grown boys who love to be with no one else so well as they love to be with me by day to work with me and by night to sleep with me another time in warm weather out in a boat to lift the lobster pots where they are sunk with heavy stones I go the buoys oh the sweetness of the fifth month morning upon the water as I row just before sunrise toward the buoys I pull the wicker pots up slantingly the dark green lobsters are desperate with their claws as I take them out I insert wooden pegs in the joints of their pincers I go to places one after another and then row back to the shore there in a huge kettle of boiling water the lobsters shall be boiled till their color becomes scarlet another time mackerel taking voracious, mad for the hook near the surface they seem to fill the water for miles another time fish in Chesapeake Bay I, one of the brown faced crew another time trailing for bluefish off Pomanak I stand with braced body my left foot is on the gun whale my right arm throws far out the coils of slender rope in sight around me the quick veering and darting of 50 skiffs oh boating on the rivers the voyage down the St. Lawrence the superb scenery the steamers the ship sailing the Thousand Islands the occasional timber raft and the raftsmen with long reaching sweep oars the little huts on the rafts and the stream of smoke when they cook separate evening oh something pernicious and dread something far away from a puny and pious life something unproved something in a trance something escaped from the anchorage and driving free oh to work in mines or forging iron foundry casting the foundry itself the rude high roof and shadowed space the furnace the hot liquid poured out and running oh to resume the joys of the soldier to feel the presence of a brave commanding officer to feel his sympathy to behold his calmness to be warmed in the rays of his smile to go to battle to see the squiggles play in the drums beat to hear the crash of artillery to see the glittering of bayonets and musket barrels in the sun to see men fall and die and not complain to taste the savage taste of blood to be so devilish to gloat so over the wounds and deaths of the enemy oh the wailmen's joys oh I cruise my old cruise again I feel the ship's motion under me I feel the Atlantic breezes fanning me I hear the cry again sent down from the mast head there she blows again I spring up the rigging to look with the rest we descend wild with excitement in the lowered boat we row toward our prey where he lies we approach stealthy and silent I see the mountainous mass lethargic basking I see the harpooners standing up I see the weapon dart from his vigorous arm oh swift again far out in the ocean the wounded wail settling running to windward again I see him rise to breathe we row close again I see a lance driven through his side pressed deep turned in the wound again we back off I see him settle again the life is leaving him fast as he rises he spouts blood I see him swim in circles narrower and narrower swiftly cutting the water I see him die he gives one convulsive leap in the center of the circle and then falls flat and still in the bloody foam oh the manhood of me my noblest joy of all my children and grandchildren my white hair and beard my largeness calmness majesty the heart of the long stretch of my life oh ripened joy of womanhood oh happiness at last I am more than 80 years of age I am the most venerable mother how clear is my mind how all people draw nigh to me what attractions are these beyond any before what bloom more than youth what beauty is this that descends upon me and rises out of me oh the orators joys to inflate the chest to roll the thunder of the voice out from the ribs and throat to make the people rage weep hate desire with yourself to lead America to quell America with a great tongue oh the joy of my soul leaning poised on itself receiving identity through materials and loving them observing characters and absorbing them my soul vibrated back to me from them from sight hearing touch reason articulation comparison memory and the like the real life of my senses and flesh transcending my senses and flesh my body done with materials my sight done with my material eyes proved to me this day beyond cavel that it is not my material eyes which finally see nor my material body which finally loves walks laughs, shouts embraces, procreates oh the farmer's joys Ohioans Illinoisians, Wisconsinis Canadians Iowans, Kansians Missourians Oregonis's joys to rise at peep of day and pass forth nimbly to work to plow land in the fall for winter sown crops to plow land in the spring for my ease to train orchards to graft the trees to gather apples in the fall oh to bathe in the swimming bath or in a good place along shore to splash the water to walk ankle deep or race naked along the shore oh to realize space ventiousness of all that there are no bounds to emerge and be of the sky of the sun and moon and flying clouds as one with them oh the joy of a manly selfhood to be servile to none to defer to none not to any tyrant known or unknown to walk with erect carriage springy and elastic to look with calm gaze or with a flashing eye to speak with a full and sonorous voice out of a broad chest to confront with your personality all the other personalities of the earth knowest thou the excellent joys of youth joys of the dear companions and of the merry word and laughing face joy of the glad light beaming day joy of the wide-breathed games joy of sweet music joy of the lighted ballroom and the dancers joy of the plentious dinner strong carousel and drinking yet oh my soul supreme knowest thou the joys of pensive thought joys of the free and lonesome heart joys of the solitary walk the spirit bowed yet proud the suffering and the struggle the agonistic throes the ecstasies joys of the solemn musings day or night joys of the thought of death the great spheres time and space prophetic joys of better loftier loves ideals the divine wife the sweet eternal perfect comrade joys all thine own undying one joys worthy thee oh soul oh while I live to be the ruler of life not a slave to meet life as a powerful conqueror no fumes, no ennui no more complaints or scornful criticisms to these proud laws of the air the water and the ground proving my interior soul impregnable and nothing exterior shall ever take command of me for not life's joys alone I sing repeating the joy of death the beautiful touch of death soothing and benumbing a few moments for reasons of discharging my excrementious body to be burned or rendered to powder or buried my real body doubtless left to me for other spheres my voided body nothing more to me returning to the purifications further offices eternal uses of the earth oh to attract by more than attraction how it is I know not yet behold the something which obeys none of the rest it is offensive never defensive yet how magnetic it draws oh to struggle against great odds to meet enemies undaunted to be entirely alone with them to find how much one can stand to look strife torture prison popular odium face to face to mount the scaffold to advance to the muzzles of guns with perfect nonchalance to be indeed a god oh to sail to see in a ship to leave this steady unendurable land to leave the tiresome sameness of the streets the sidewalks and the houses to leave you solid motionless land and entering a ship to sail and sail and sail oh to have life henceforth a poem of new joys to dance clap hands exult shout skip leap roll on float on to be a sailor of the world bound for all ports a ship itself see indeed these sails I spread to the sun and air a swift and swelling ship full of rich words full of joys here ends book eleven book twelve song of the broad axe one weapon shapely naked wand head from the mother's bowels drawn wooded flesh and metal bone limb only one and lip only one gray blue leaf by red heat grown hell produced from a little seed sown resting the grass amid and upon to be leaned and to lean on strong shapes and attributes of strong shapes masculine trades sounds long varied train of an emblem dabs of music fingers of the organist skipping staccato over the keys of the great organ two welcome are all earth's lands each for its kind welcome are lands of pine and oak welcome are lands of the lemon and fig welcome are lands of gold welcome are lands of wheat and maize welcome those of the grape welcome are lands of sugar and rice welcome the cotton lands welcome those of the white potato and sweet potato welcome are mountains flats sands forests prairies welcome the rich borders of rivers table lands openings welcome the measureless grazing lands welcome the teeming soil of orchards flax honey hemp welcome just as much the other more hard faced lands lands rich as lands of gold or wheat and fruit lands lands of mines lands of the manly and rugged oars lands of coal copper lead tin zinc lands of iron lands of the make of the axe three the log at the wood pile the axe supported by it the silvan hut the vine over the doorway the space cleared for a garden the irregular tapping of rain down on the leaves after the storm is lulled the wailing and moaning at intervals the thought of the sea the thought of ships struck in the storm and put on their beam ends and the cutting away of masts the sentiment of the huge timbers of old fashioned houses and barns the remembered print or narrative the voyage at a venture of men families the disembarkation the founding of a new city the voyage of those who sought a new England and found it the outset anywhere the settlements of the Arkansas Colorado Ottawa Wilomet the slow progress the scant fare the axe the beauty of all adventurous and daring persons the beauty of wood boys and wood men with their clear untrimmed faces the beauty of independence departure actions that rely on themselves the American contempt for statutes and ceremonies the boundless impatience of restraint the loose drift of character the inkling through random types the solidification the butcher in the slaughter house the hands of board schooners and sloops the raftsman the pioneer lumbermen in their winter camp daybreak in the woods stripes of snow on the limbs of trees the occasional snapping the glad clear sound of one's own voice the merry song the natural life of the woods the strong day's work the blazing fire at night the sweet taste of supper the talk the bed of hemlock bows and the bear skin the house builder at work in cities or anywhere the preparatory jointing squaring sawing the hoist up of beams the push of them in their places laying them regular setting the studs by their tenons in the mortises according as they were prepared the blows of mallets and hammers the attitudes of the men their curved limbs bending standing astride the beams driving in pins and braces the hooked arm over the plate the other arm wielding the axe the floor men forcing the planks close to be nailed their postures bringing their weapons downward on the bearers the echoes resounding through the vacant building the huge storehouse carried up in the city well underway the bricks framing men two in the middle and two at each end carefully bearing on their shoulders a heavy stick for a cross beam the crowded line of masons with trowels in their right hands rapidly laying the long side wall 200 feet from front to rear the flexible rise and fall of backs the continual click of the trowels striking the bricks the bricks one after another each laid so workmen-like in its place and set with a knock of the trowel handle the piles of materials the mortar on the mortarboards and the steady replenishing by the hodmen spar makers in the sparyard the swarming row of well-grown apprentices the swing of their axes on the square-hued log shaping it toward the shape of a mast the brisk short crackle of the steel driven slantingly into the pine the butter-colored chips flying off in great flakes and slivers the limber motion of brawny young arms and hips in easy costumes the constructor of wharves bridges, piers bulkheads, floats stays against the sea the city fireman the fire that suddenly bursts forth in the close-packed square the arriving engines the horse shouts the nimble stepping and daring the strong command through the fire trumpets the falling in line the rise and fall of the arms forcing the water the slender spasmic jets the bringing to bear of the hooks and ladders and their execution the crash and cut away of connecting woodwork or through floors if the fire smolders under them the crowd with their lit faces watching the glare in dense shadows the forger at his forge furnace and the user of iron after him the maker of the axe large and small and the welder and temper the chooser breathing his breath on the cold steel and trying the edge with his thumb the one who clean shapes the handle and sets it firmly in the socket the shadowy processions of the portraits of the past users also the primal patient mechanics the architects and engineers the far-off Assyrian edifice and Misra edifice the Roman Lictors preceding the consuls the antique European warrior with his axe in combat the uplifted arm the clatter of blows on the helmeted head the death howl the limpsy tumbling body the rush of friend and foe thither the siege of revolted Lieges determined for liberty the summons to surrender the battering at castle gates the truce and parley the sack of an old city in its time the bursting in of mercenaries and bigots tumultuously and disorderly roar, flames blood, drunkenness, madness goods freely rifled from houses and temples screams of women in the grip of brigands craft and thievery of camp followers men running, old persons despairing, the hell of war, the cruelties of creeds the list of all executive deeds and words just or unjust the power of personality just or unjust four muscle and pluck forever what invigorates life invigorates death and the dead advance as much as the living advance and the future is no more uncertain than the present for the roughness of the earth and of man encloses as much as the delicatess of the earth and of man and nothing endures of personal qualities what do you think endures what do you think a great city endures or a teeming manufacturing state or a prepared constitution or the best built steamships or hotels of granite and iron or any chef derves of engineering forts, armaments away these are not to be cherished for themselves they fill their hour the dancers dance the musicians play for them the show passes all does well enough of course all does very well till one flash of defiance a great city is that which has the greatest men and women if it be a few ragged huts city in the whole world five the place where a great city stands is not the place of stretched wharves docks, manufacturers deposits of produce merely nor the place of ceaseless salutes of newcomers or the anchor lifters of the departing nor the place of the tallest and costliest buildings or shops goods from the rest of the earth nor the place of the best libraries and schools nor the place where money is plenteous nor the place of the most numerous population where the city stands with the brawniest breed of orators and bards where the city stands that is beloved by these and loves them in return and understands them where no monuments exist to heroes but in the common words and deeds where thrift is in its place and prudence is in its place where the men and women think lightly of the laws where the slave ceases and the master of slave ceases where the populace rise at once against the defeated persons where fierce men and women pour forth as the sea to the whistle of death pours its sweeping and unripped waves where outside authority enters always after the precedence of inside authority where the citizen is always the head and ideal and president, mayor governor and what not for pay where children are taught to be laws to themselves and to depend on themselves where equanimity is illustrated in affairs where speculations on the soul are encouraged where women walk in public processions in the streets the same as the men where they enter the public assembly and take places the same where the city of the faithfulest friend stands where the city of the cleanliness of the sexes stands where the city of the healthiest father stands where the city of the best-bodied mother stands there the great city stands 6 how beggarly appear arguments before a defiant deed how the floridness of the materials of cities shrivels before a man's or woman's look all waits or goes by default till a strong being appears a strong being is the proof of the race and of the ability of the universe when he or she appears materials are overawed the dispute on the soul stops the old customs and phrases are confronted turned back or laid away what is your money making now what can it do now what is your respectability now what are your theology, tuition society, traditions statute books now where are your jibes now where are your cavals about the soul now 7 a sterile landscape covers the ore there is as good as the best for all the forbidding appearance there is the mine there are the miners the forge furnaces there the melt is accomplished the hammer's men are at hand with their tongs and hammers served and always serves is at hand then this nothing has better served it has served all served the fluent tongue and subtle sensed greek and long ere the greek served in building the buildings that last longer than any served the hebrew the persian the most ancient hindestani served the mound raiser on the mississippi served those whose relics remain in central america served albic temples in woods or on planes with unhewn pillars and the druids served the artificial clefts vast high silent on the snow covered hills of scandinavia served those who time out of mind made on the granite walls rough sketches of the sun moon stars ships ocean waves served the paths of the eruptions of the goths served the pastoral tribes and nomads served the long distant kelt served the hardy pirates of the Baltic served before many of those the venerable and harmless men of Ethiopia served the making of helms for the galleys of pleasure and the making of those for war served all great works on land and all great works on the sea for the medieval ages and before the medieval ages served not the living only then as now but served the dead I see the European headsman he stands masked clothed in red with huge legs and strong naked arms and leans on a ponderous axe whom have you slaughtered lately, European headsman whose is that blood upon you so wet and sticky I see the clear sunsets of the martyrs I see from the scaffolds the descending ghosts ghosts of dead lords uncrowned ladies impeached ministers rejected kings rivals, traitors poisoners disgraced chieftains and the rest I see those who in any land have died for the good cause the seed is spare nevertheless the crop shall never run out mind you, oh foreign kings oh priests the crop shall never run out I see the blood washed entirely away from the axe both blade and hell are clean they spurt no more the blood of European nobles they clasp no more the necks of queens I see the headsman draw and become useless I see the scaffold untrodden and moldy I see no longer any axe upon it I see the mighty and friendly emblem of the power of my own race the newest, largest race nine America, I do not want my love for you I have what I have the axe leaps the solid forest gives fluid utterances they tumble forth they rise and form hut, tent landing, survey flail, plough pick, crowbar spade shingle, rail prop, wainscot lamb, lathe panel, gable citadel, ceiling saloon, academy organ exhibition house, library cornice trellis pilaster, balcony window, turret porch hoe, rake, pitchfork pencil, wagon staff, saw jackplain, mallet wedge, rounce chair tub table, wicket vein sash, floor workbox, chest stringed instrument boat, frame and whatnot capitals of states and capital of the nation of states long, stately rows in avenues hospitals for orphans or for the poor or sick Manhattan steamboats and clippers taking the measure of all seas the shapes arise shapes of the using of axes anyhow and the users and all that neighbors them cutters down of wood and haulers of it to the Penobscot or Cannebec dwellers in cabins among the Californian mountains by the little lakes or on the Columbia dwellers south on the banks of the Gila or Rio Grande friendly gatherings the characters and fun dwellers along the St. Lawrence or north in Canada or down by the Yellowstone dwellers on coasts and off coasts sealfishers whalers, arctic seamen breaking passages through the ice the shapes arise shapes of factories arsenals, foundries markets, shapes of the two threaded tracks of railroads shapes of the sleepers of bridges, fast frameworks, girders arches shapes of the fleets of barges toes lake and canal craft rivercraft yards and dry docks along the eastern and western seas and in many a bay and by-place the live oak kelsons the pine planks the spars the hackmatac roots for knees the ships themselves on their ways the tears of scaffolds the workmen busy outside and inside the tools lying around the auger and little auger the adds bolt, line, square gouge and bead plane ten the shapes arise the shape measured sawd, jacked joined, stained the coffin shape for the dead to lie within in his shroud the shape got out in posts in the bedstead posts in the posts of the in the posts of the bride's bed the shape of the little trough the shape of the rockers beneath the shape of the babes cradle the shape of the floor planks the floor planks for dancers feet the shape of the planks of the family home the home of the friendly parents and children the shape of the roof of the home of the happy young man the woman the roof over the well-married young man and woman the roof over the supper joyously cooked by the chaste wife and joyously eaten by the chaste husband content after his day's work the shapes arise the shape of the prisoners place in the courtroom and of him or her seated in the place the shape of the liquor bar leaned against by the young rum drinker and the old rum drinker the shape of the shamed and angry stairs trod by sneaking footsteps the shape of the sly satie and the adulterous unwholesome couple the shape of the gambling board with its devilish winnings and losings the shape of the step ladder for the convicted and sentenced murderer the murderer with haggard face and pinioned arms the sheriff at hand with his deputies the silent and white-lipped crowd the dangling of the rope the shapes arise shapes of doors giving many exits and entrances the door passing the dissevered friend flushed and in haste the door that admits news and bad news the door whence the sun left home confident and puffed up the door he entered again from a long and scandalous absence diseased, broken down without innocence, without means eleven her shape arises she less guarded than ever yet more guarded than ever the gross and soiled moves along do not make her gross and soiled she knows the thoughts as she passes nothing is concealed from her she is none the less considerate or friendly therefore she is the best beloved it is without exception she has no reason to fear as she does not fear oaths quarrels smutty expressions are idle to her as she passes she is silent she is possessed of herself they do not offend her she receives them as the laws of nature receive them she is strong she too is a law of nature there is no law stronger than she is twelve the main shapes arise shapes of democracy total result of centuries shapes ever projecting other shapes shapes of turbulent manly cities shapes of the friends and home givers of the whole earth shapes bracing the earth and braced with the whole earth here ends book twelve this is a LibriVox recording LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information on how to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Eric Armstrong please visit me on the web at VoiceGuy.blogspot.com Leaves of Grass book thirteen Song of the Exposition one ah little rex the laborer how near his work is holding him to God the loving laborer through space and time after all not to create only or found only but to bring perhaps from afar what is already founded to give it our own identity average limitless free to fill the gross the torpid bulk with vital religious fire not to repel or destroy so much as accept fuse rehabilitate to obey as well as command to follow more than to lead these also are the lessons of our new world while how little the new after all how much the old old world long and long has the grass been growing long and long has the rain been falling long has the globe been rolling to come use migrate from Greece and Ionia cross out please those immensely overpaid accounts that matter of Troy and Achilles Wrath and Aeneas's Odysseus's wanderings placard removed and to let on the rocks of your snowy Parnassus repeat at Jerusalem place the notice high on Jaffa's gate and on Mariah the same on the walls of your German French and Spanish castles and Italian collections for no a better fresher busier sphere a wide untried domain awaits you demands you three responsive to our summons or rather to her long nurse inclination joined with an irresistible natural gravitation she comes I hear the rustling of her gown I sent the odor of her breath delicious fragrance I mark her step divine her curious eyes a turning rolling upon this very scene the dame of dames can I believe then those ancient temples sculptures classic could none of them retain her nor shades of Virgil and Dante her myriad memories poems old associations magnetize and hold on to her but that she's left them all and here yes if you will allow me to say so I my friends if you do not can plainly see her the same undying soul of earth's activities beauties heroism's expression out from her evolutions hither come ended strata of her former themes hidden and covered by today's foundation of today's ended deceased through time her voice by castley's fountain silent the broken lipped sphinx in egypt silent all those century baffling tombs ended for a the epics of asia's europe's helmeted warriors ended the primitive call of the muses caliope's call forever closed clio melpomani thalia dead ended the stately rithmas of una and oriana ended the quest of the holy grail jerusalem a handful of ashes blown by the wind extinct the crusaders dreams of shadowy midnight troops sped with the sunrise amadis tancred utterly gone charlemagne roland oliver gone palmarin ogre departed vanished the turrets that usk from its waters reflected arthur vanished with all his knights merlin and lancelot and gala had all gone dissolved utterly like an exhalation past past for us for ever past that once so mighty world now void inanimate phantom world embroidered dazzling foreign world with all its gorgeous legends myths its kings and castles proud its priests and warlike lords and courtly dames past to its charnel vault coffened with crown and armor on blazoned with shakespeare's purple page and dirged by tenison's sweet sad rhyme i say i see my friends if you do not the illustrious emigre having it is true in her day although the same changed journeyed considerable making directly for this rendezvous vigorously clearing a path for herself striding through the confusion by thud of machinery and shrill steam whistle undismayed bluffed not a bit by drainpipe gasometer artificial fertilizers smiling and pleased with palpable intent to stay she's here installed amid the kitchen where but hold don't i forget my manners to introduce the stranger what else indeed do i live to chant for to the columbia in liberty's name welcome immortal clasp hands and ever henceforth sisters dear be both fear not oh muse truly new ways and days receive you surround you i candidly confess a queer queer race of novel fashion and yet the same old human race the same within without faces and hearts the same feelings the same yearnings the same the same old love beauty and use the same five we do not blame the elder world nor really separate ourselves from the with the sun separate himself from the father looking back on the seeing thee to thy duties grand years through past ages bending building we build to ours today mightier than egypt's tombs fairer than grisha's roma's temples prouder than Milan's statued spired cathedral more picturesque we plan even now to raise beyond them all thy great cathedral sacred industry no tomb a keep for life for practical invention as in a waking vision in while i chant i see it rise i scan and prophesy outside and in its manifold ensemble around a palace loftier fairer ampler than any but earth's modern wonder histories seven outstripping high rising tear on tear with glass and iron facades gladdening the sun and sky and hued in cheerfulest hues bronze lilac robin's egg marine and crimson over whose golden roof shall flaunt beneath thy banner freedom the banners of the states and flags of every land a brood of lofty plunder but lesser palaces shall cluster somewhere within their walls shall all that forward's perfect human life be started tried taught advanced visibly exhibited not only all the world of works trade products but all the workmen of the world here to be represented here shall you trace in flowing operation every state of practical busy movement the rills of civilization materials here under your eye shall change their shape as if by magic the cotton shall be picked almost in the very field shall be dried cleaned ginned bailed spun into thread and cloth before you you shall see hands at work at all the old processes and all the new ones you shall see the various grains of flour is made and then bread baked by the bakers you shall see the crude oars of California and Nevada passing on and on till they become bullion you shall watch how the printer sets type and learn what a composing stick is you shall mark in amazement the whole press whirling its cylinders shedding the printed leaves steady and fast the photograph model watch pin nail shall be printed before you in large calm halls a stately museum shall teach you the infinite lessons of minerals in another woods plants vegetation shall be illustrated in another animals animal life and development one stately house shall be the music house others for other arts learning the sciences shall all be here none shall be slighted none but shall here be honored helped example six this this and these America shall be your pyramids and obelisks your alexandrian pharaohs gardens of Babylon your temple atlipia the male and female many laboring not shall ever here confront the laboring many with precious benefits to both glory to all the America and to the eternal muse and here shall you inhabit powerful matrons in your vast state vaster than all the old echoed through long long centuries to come to sound of different prouder songs with stronger themes practical peaceful life the people's life the people themselves lifted illumined bathed in peace elate secure in peace chapter seven away with themes of war away with war itself hence for my shuddering sight to never more return that show of blackened mutilated corpses that hell un-pent and rate of blood fit for wild tigers or for lop-tongued wolves not reasoning men and in its dead speed industries campaigns with thy saunted armies engineering thy penance labor loosen to the breeze thy bugles sounding loud and clear away with old romance away with novels plots and plays of foreign courts away with love verses sugared in rhyme the intrigues amours of idlers fitted for only banquets of the night where dancers to late music slide the unhealthy pleasures extravagant dissipations of the few with perfumes heat and wine beneath the dazzling chandeliers to you you reverent sane sisters I raise a voice for far superb themes for poets and for art to exalt the present and the real to teach the average man the glory of his daily walk and trade to sing in songs how exercise and chemical life are never to be baffled to manual work for each and all to plow hoe dig to plant and tend the tree the berry vegetables flowers for every man to see to it that he really do something for every woman too to use the hammer and the saw rip or cross cut to cultivate a turn for carpentering plastering painting to work as tailor nurse hostler porter to invent little something ingenious to aid the washing cooking cleaning to hold it no disgrace to take a hand at them themselves I say I bring the muse today and here all occupations duties broad and close toil healthy toil and sweat endless without cessation the old old practical burdens interests joys the family parentage childhood husband and wife the house comforts the house itself and all its belongings food and its preservation chemistry applied to it whatever forms the average strong complete sweet blooded man or woman the perfect long jive personality and helps its present life to health and happiness and shapes its soul for the eternal real life to come with latest connections works the inter-transportation of the world steam power the great express lines gas petroleum these triumphs of our time the Atlantic's delicate cable the Pacific Railroad the Suez Canal the Monsignus and Gothard and Husik tunnels the Brooklyn bridge this earth all spanned iron rails with lines of steamships threading in every sea our own rondeur the current globe I bring chapter 8 and thou America thy offspring towering ere so high yet higher thee above all towering with victory on thy left and at thy right hand law thou union holding all infusing absorbing tolerating all thee ever thee I sing thou also thou a world with all thy wide geographies manifold different distant rounded by thee in one one common Orbeck language one common indivisible destiny for all and by the spells which you vouch safe to those your ministers in earnest I hear personify and call my themes to make them pass before you behold America and thou ineffable guest and sister for thee come trooping up thy waters and thy lands behold thy fields and farms thy far off woods and mountains as in procession coming behold the sea itself and on its limitless breast the ships see where their white sails bellying in the wind speckle the green and blue see the steamers coming and going steaming in or out of port see dusky and undulating the long penance of smoke behold in Oregon far in the north and west or in Maine far in the north and east thy cheerful axmen yielding all day their taxes behold on the lakes thy pilots at their wheels thy oarsmen how the ash rives under those muscular arms there by the furnace and there by the anvil behold thy sturdy blacksmiths swinging their sledges overhand so steady overhand they turn and fall with joyous clank like a tumult of laughter mark the spirit of invention everywhere thy rapid patents thy continual workshops foundries risen or rising see from their chimneys how the tall flame fires stream mark thy interminable farms north south thy wealthy daughter states eastern and western the varied products of Ohio Pennsylvania, Missouri Georgia, Texas and the rest thy limitless crops grass, wheat, sugar, oil corn, rice, hemp, hops thy barns all filled the endless freight train and the bulging storehouse the grapes that ripen on the vines the apples in thy orchards thy incalculable lumber beef, pork, potatoes thy coal, thy gold and silver the inexhaustible iron in thy mines all thine oh sacred union ships, farms shops, barns factories, mines city and state, north, south item and aggregate we dedicate dread mother all to thee protectress, absolute thou bulwark of all for well we know that while thou givest each and all generous as God without thee neither all nor each, nor land, home nor ship, nor mine nor any here this day secure nor ought, nor any day secure chapter nine and thou the emblem waving over all delicate beauty a word to thee it may be salutary remember thou hast not always been as here today so comfortably and sovereigned in other scenes than these have I observed thee flag not quite so trim and whole and freshly blooming in folds of stainless silk but I have seen thee bunting to tatters torn upon my splintered staff or clutch to some young colour bearers breast with desperate hands savagely struggled for for life or death fought over long mid cannons, thundercrash and many a curse and groan and yell and rifle volleys cracking sharp and moving masses as wild demons surging and lives as nothing risked for thy mere remnant grime with dirt and smoke and soft in blood for sake of that my beauty and that thou might's dally is now secure up there many a good man have I seen go under now here and these and hence in peace all thine oh flag and here and hence for thee oh universal muse and thou for them and here and hence oh union all the work and workmen thine none separate from thee henceforth one only we and thou for the blood of the children what is it only the blood maternal and lives and works are they all at last except the roads to faith and death while we rehearse our measureless wealth it is for thee dear mother we own it all and several today indissoluble in thee think not our chant our show merely for products gross or lucre it is for thee the soul in thee electric spiritual our farms inventions crops we own in thee cities and states in thee our freedom all in thee our very lives in thee this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information on how to volunteer please visit LibriVox www.vox.org recording by Eric Armstrong visit me on the web at voiceguy.blogspot.com Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman Book 14 Song of the Redwood Tree Chapter 1 A California song a prophecy and indirection a thought impalpable to breathe a chorus of dryads fading departing or a murmuring fateful giant voice out of the earth and sky a voice of a mighty dying tree in the redwood forest dense farewell my brethren farewell oh earth and sky farewell ye neighboring waters my time has ended my term has come along the northern coast just back from the rock bound shore and the caves in the saline air from the sea in the Mendocino country with the surge for base and accompaniment low and hoarse with crackling blows of axes sounding musically driven by strong arms riven deep by the sharp tongues of the axes there in the redwood forest dense I heard the mighty tree its death chant chanting the choppers heard not the camp shanties echoed not the quick-eared teamsters and chain and jackscrewman heard not as the wood spirits came from their haunts of a thousand years to join the refrain but in my soul I plainly heard murmuring out of its myriad leaves down from its lofty top rising two hundred feet high out of its stalwart trunk and limbs out of its foot-thick bark that chant of the seasons and time chant not of the past only but the future you untold life of me and all you venerable and innocent joys perennial hardy life of me with joys mid-rain and many a summer sun and the white snows and night and the wild winds oh the great patient rugged joys my soul's strong joys unrect by man for no I bear the soul befitting me I too have consciousness identity and all the rocks and mountains have and all the earth joys of the life befitting me and brothers mine our time our term has come nor yield we mournfully majestic brothers we who have grandly filled our time with nature's calm content with tacit huge delight we welcome what we wrought for through the past and leave the field for them for them predicted long for a superb race they too to grandly fill their time for them we abdicate in them ourselves ye forest kings in them skies and airs these mountain peaks shasta these huge precipitous cliffs these amplitude these valleys far yosemite to be in them absorbed assimilated then to a loftier strain still prouder more ecstatic rose the chant as if the airs and deities of the west joining with master tongue bore part not one from Asia's fetishes nor red from Europe's old dynastic slaughterhouse area of murder plots of thrones with scent left yet of wars and scaffolds everywhere but come from nature's long and harmless throes peacefully build events these virgin lands of the western shore to the new culminating man to you the empire new you promised long we pledge we dedicate you are called deep volitions you average spiritual manhood purpose of all poised on yourself given not taking law you womanhood divine mistress and source of all whence life and love and ought that comes from life and love you unseen moral essence of all the vast material of America age upon age working in death the same as life you that sometimes known oftener unknown really shape and mold the new world adjusting it to time and space you hidden national lying in your abyss concealed but ever alert you past and present purposes tenaciously pursued may be unconscious of yourselves unswerved by all the passing errors perturbations of the surface you vital universal deathless germs beneath all creeds arts statutes literatures here build your homes for good you establish here these areas entire lands of the western shore we pledge we dedicate to you for man of you your characteristic race here may he hardy sweet gigantic grow here tower proportionate to nature here climb the vast pure spaces unconfined unchecked by wall or roof here laugh storm or sun here joy here patiently in your here heed himself unfold himself not others formulas heed here fill his time to duly fall to aid on wrecked at last to disappear to serve thus on the northern coast in the echo of teamsters calls and the clinking chains and the music of chopper's axes trunk and limbs the crash the muffled shriek the groan such words combined from the redwood tree as a voices ecstatic ancient and rustling the century lasting unseen dryads singing with drawing all their recesses of forests and mountains leaving from the cascade range to the wassach or Idaho far or Utah to the deities of the modern henceforth yielding the chorus and indications the vistas of coming humanity the settlements features all in the Mendocino woods I caught chapter two the flashing and golden pageant of California the sudden and gorgeous drama the sunny and ample lands the long and varied stretch from Puget Sound to Colorado south lands bathed in sweeter rarer healthier air valleys and mountain cliffs the fields of nature long prepared and fellow the silent cyclic chemistry the slow and steady ages plotting the unoccupied surface ripening the rich oars forming beneath at last the new arriving assuming taking possession a swarming and busy race settling and organizing everywhere ships coming in from the whole round world and going out to the whole world to India and China and Australia and the thousand island paradises of the Pacific popular cities the latest inventions the steamers on the rivers the railroads with many a thrifty farm with machinery and wool and wheat and the grape and diggings of yellow gold three but more in you than these lands of the western shore these but the means the implements the standing ground I see in you certain to come the promise of thousands of years till now deferred promised to be fulfilled our common kind the race the new society at last proportionate to nature in man of you more than your mountain peaks or stalwart trees imperial in woman more far more than all your gold or vines or even vital air fresh come to a new world indeed yet long prepared I see the genius of the modern child of the real and ideal clearing the ground for broad humanity the true America air of the past so grand to build a grander future