well that I and robust love belong among
     you, inland, and along the Western sea;
For these States tend inland and toward the Western sea, and
     I will also.

1860 1867

HERE THE FRAILEST LEAVES OF ME

HERE the frailest leaves of me and yet my strongest lasting,
Here I shade and hide my thoughts, I myself do not expose
     them,
And yet they expose me more than all my other poems.

1860 1871

NO LABOR-SAVING MACHINE

NO labor-saving machine,
Nor discovery have I made,
Nor will I be able to leave behind me any wealthy bequest to
     found a hospital or library,
Nor reminiscence of any deed of courage for America,
Nor literary success nor intellect, nor book for the book-shelf,
But a few carols vibrating through the air I leave,
For comrades and lovers.

1860 1881

A GLIMPSE

A GLIMPSE through an interstice caught,
Of a crowd of workmen and drivers in a bar-room around
     the stove late of a winter night, and I unremark'd seated
     in a corner,
Of a youth who loves me and whom I love, silently
     approaching and seating himself near, that he may hold
     me by the hand,
A long while amid the noises of coming and going, of
     drinking and oath and smutty jest,
There we two, content, happy in being together, speaking
     little, perhaps not a word.

1860 1867

A LEAF FOR HAND IN HAND

A LEAF for hand in hand;
You natural persons old and young!
You on the Mississippi and on all the branches and bayous
     of the Mississippi!
You friendly boatmen and mechanics! you roughs!
You twain! and all processions moving along the streets!
I wish to infuse myself among you till I see it common for
     you to walk hand in hand.

1860 1867

EARTH, MY LIKENESS

EARTH, my likeness,
Though you look so impassive, ample and spheric there,
I now suspect that is not all;
I now suspect there is something fierce in you eligible to burst
     forth,
For an athlete is enamour'd of me, and I of him,
But toward him there is something fierce and terrible in me
     eligible to burst forth,
I dare not tell it in words, not even in these songs.

1860 1867

I DREAM'D IN A DREAM

I DREAM'D in a dream I saw a city invincible to the attacks of
     the whole of the rest of the earth,
I dream'd that was the new city of Friends,
Nothing was greater there than the quality of robust love, it
     led the rest,
It was seen every hour in the actions of the men of that city,
And in all their looks and words.

1860 1867

WHAT THINK YOU I TAKE MY PEN IN HAND?

WHAT think you I take my pen in hand to record?
The battle-ship, perfect-model'd, majestic, that I saw pass the
     offing to-day under full sail?
The splendors of the past day? or the splendor of the night
     that envelops me?
Or the vaunted glory and growth of the great city spread
     around me? — no;
But merely of two simple men I saw to-day on the pier in the
     midst of the crowd, parting the parting of dear friends,
The one to remain hung on the other's neck and passionately
     kiss'd him,
While the one to depart tightly prest the one to remain in his
     arms.

1860 1867

TO THE EAST AND TO THE WEST

TO the East and to the West,
To the man of the Seaside State and of Pennsylvania,
To the Kanadian of the north, to the Southerner I love,
These with perfect trust to depict you as myself, the germs
     are