You grew up with me, were a boy with me or a girl with
     me,
I ate with you and slept with you, your body has become not
     yours only nor left my body mine only,
You give me the pleasure of your eyes, face, flesh, as we pass,
     you take of my beard, breast, hands, in return,
I am not to speak to you, I am to think of you when I sit
     alone or wake at night alone,
I am to wait, I do not doubt I am to meet you again,
I am to see to it that I do not lose you.

1860 1867

THIS MOMENT YEARNING AND THOUGHTFUL

THIS moment yearning and thoughtful sitting alone,
It seems to me there are other men in other lands yearning
     and thoughtful,
It seems to me I can look over and behold them in Germany,
     Italy, France, Spain,
Or far, far away, in China, or in Russia or Japan, talking
     other dialects,
And it seems to me if I could know those men I should become
     attached to them as I do to men in my own lands,
O I know we should be brethren and lovers,
I know I should be happy with them.

1860 1867

I HEAR IT WAS CHARGED AGAINST ME

I HEAR it was charged against me that I sought to destroy
     institutions,
But really I am neither for nor against institutions,
(What indeed have I in common with them? or what with the
     destruction of them?)
Only I will establish in the Mannahatta and in every city of
     these States inland and seaboard,
And in the fields and woods, and above every keel little or
     large that dents the water,
Without edifices or rules or trustees or any argument,
The institution of the dear love of comrades.

1860 1867

THE PRAIRIE-GRASS DIVIDING

THE prairie-grass dividing, its special odor breathing,
I demand of it the spiritual corresponding,
Demand the most copious and close companionship of men,
Demand the blades to rise of words, acts, beings,
Those of the open atmosphere, coarse, sunlit, fresh,
     nutritious,
Those that go their own gait, erect, stepping with freedom
     and command, leading not following,
Those with a never-quell'd audacity, those with sweet and
     lusty flesh clear of taint,
Those that look carelessly in the faces of Presidents and
     governors, as to say Who are you?
Those of earth-born passion, simple, never constrain'd, never
     obedient,
Those of inland America.

1860 1867

WHEN I PERUSE THE CONQUER'D FAME

WHEN I peruse the conquer'd fame of heroes and the victories
     of mighty generals, I do not envy the generals,
Nor the President in his Presidency, nor the rich in his great
     house,
But when I hear of the brotherhood of lovers, how it was
     with them,
How together through life, through dangers, odium,
     unchanging, long and long,
Through youth and through middle and old age, how
     unfaltering, how affectionate and faithful they were,
Then I am pensive — I hastily walk away fill'd with the
     bitterest envy.

1860 1871

WE TWO BOYS TOGETHER CLINGING

WE two boys together clinging,
One the other never leaving,
Up and down the roads going, North and South excursions
     making,

Power enjoying, elbows stretching, fingers clutching,
Arm'd and fearless, eating, drinking, sleeping, loving,
No law less than ourselves owning, sailing, soldiering,
     thieving, threatening,
Misers, menials, priests alarming, air breathing, water
     drinking, on the turf or the sea-beach dancing,
Cities wrenching, ease scorning, statutes mocking, feebleness
     chasing,
Fulfilling our foray.

1860 1867

A PROMISE TO CALIFORNIA

A PROMISE to California,
Or inland to the great pastoral Plains, and on to Puget sound
     and Oregon;
Sojourning east a while longer, soon I travel toward you, to
     remain, to teach robust American love,
For I know very