BEGINNERS
intervals,)
How dear and dreadful they are to the earth,
How they inure to themselves as much as to any — what a
paradox appears their age,
How people respond to them, yet know them not,
How there is something relentless in their fate all times,
How all times mischoose the objects of their adulation and
reward,
And how the same inexorable price must still be paid for the
same great purchase.
1860 1860
TO THE STATES
Resist much, obey little,
Once unquestioning obedience, once fully enslaved,
Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city, of this earth, ever
afterward resumes its liberty.
1860 1881
ON JOURNEYS THROUGH THE STATES
(Ay through the world, urged by these songs,
Sailing henceforth to every land, to every sea,)
We willing learners of all, teachers of all, and lovers of all.
We have watch'd the seasons dispensing themselves and
passing on,
And have said, Why should not a
man or woman do as much
as the seasons, and effuse as much?
We dwell a while in every city and town,
We pass through Kanada, the North-east, the vast valley of
the
Mississippi, and the Southern States,
We confer on equal terms with each of the States,
We make trial of
ourselves and invite men and women to hear,
We say to ourselves, Remember, fear not, be candid,
promulge
the body and the soul,
Dwell a while and pass on, be copious, temperate, chaste,
magnetic,
And what you
effuse may then return as the seasons return,
And may be just as much as the seasons.
1860 1871
TO A CERTAIN CANTATRICE
I was reserving it for some hero, speaker, or general,
One who should serve the good old cause, the great idea, the
progress and freedom of the race,
Some brave confronter of despots, some daring rebel;
But I see that what I was reserving belongs to you just as
much as to any.
1860 1871
ME IMPERTURBE
Master of all or mistress of all, aplomb in the midst of
irrational things,
Imbued as they, passive, receptive, silent as they,
Finding my occupation, poverty, notoriety, foibles, crimes,
less important than I thought,
Me toward the Mexican sea, or in the Mannahatta or the
Tennessee, or far north or inland,
A river man, or a man of the woods or of any farm-life of
these States or of the coast, or the lakes or Kanada,
Me wherever my life is lived, O to be self-balanced for
contingencies,
To confront night, storms, hunger, ridicule, accidents,
rebuffs, as the trees and animals do.
1860 1881
SAVANTISM
and nestling close, always obligated,
Thither hours, months, years — thither trades, compacts,
establishments, even the most minute,
Thither every- day life, speech, utensils, politics, persons,
estates;
Thither we also, I with my leaves and songs, trustful,
admirant,
As a father to his father going takes his children along with
him.
1860 1860
THE SHIP STARTING
On its breast a ship starting, spreading all sails, carrying even
her moonsails,
The pennant is flying aloft as she speeds she speeds so stately
— below emulous waves press forward,
They surround the ship with shining curving motions and
foam.
1865 1881
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