can a man
be form'd of perfect body,
Unfolded only out of the inimitable poems of woman can
come the
poems of man, (only thence have my poems
come;)
Unfolded out of the strong and arrogant woman I
love, only
thence can appear the strong and arrogant man I love,
Unfolded by brawny embraces from the
well-muscled woman
I love, only thence come the brawny embraces of the
man,
Unfolded out of the folds
of the woman's brain come all the
folds of the man's brain, duly obedient,
Unfolded out of the justice of
the woman all justice is
unfolded,
Unfolded out of the sympathy of the woman is all sympathy;
A man is
a great thing upon the earth and through eternity,
but every jot of the greatness of man is unfolded out
of
woman;
First the man is shaped in the woman, he can then be shaped
in himself.
1856 1871
WHAT AM I AFTER ALL
What am I after all but a child, pleas'd with the sound of my
own name? repeating it over and over;
I
stand apart to hear — it never tires me.
To you your name also;
Did you think there was nothing but two or three pronunciations
in the sound of
your name?
1860 1867
KOSMOS
Who includes diversity and is Nature,
Who is the amplitude of the earth, and the coarseness and
sexuality
of the earth, and the great charity of the earth,
and the equilibrium also,
Who has not look'd forth from the
windows the eyes for
nothing, or whose brain held audience with messengers
for nothing,
Who contains
believers and disbelievers, who is the most
majestic lover,
Who holds duly his or her triune proportion
of realism,
spiritualism, and of the aesthetic or intellectual,
Who having consider'd the body finds all its
organs and parts
good,
Who, out of the theory of the earth and of his or her body
understands by subtle
anaogies all other theories,
The theory of a city, a poem, and of the large politics of these
States;
Who
believes not only in our globe with its sun and moon,
but in other globes with their suns and moons,
Who,
constructing the house of himself or herself, not for a
day but for all time, sees races, eras, dates, generations,
The
past, the future, dwelling there, like space, inseparable
together.
1860 1867
OTHERS MAY PRAISE WHAT THEY LIKE
Others may praise what they like;But I, from the banks of the running Missouri, praise nothing
in art or aught else,
Till it has well inhaled the atmosphere of this river, also the
western prairie-scent,
And exudes it all again.
1865 1881
WHO LEARNS MY LESSON COMPLETE?
Who learns my lesson complete?Boss, journeyman, apprentice, churchman and atheist,
The stupid and the wise thinker, parents and offspring, merchant,
clerk, porter and customer,
Editor, author, artist, and schoolboy — draw nigh and
commence;
It is no lesson — it lets down the bars to a good lesson,
And that to another, and every one to another still.
The great laws take and effuse without argument,
I am of the same style, for I am their friend,
I love them
quits and quits, I do not halt and make salaams.
I lie abstracted and hear beautiful tales of things and the
reasons of things,
They are so beautiful I nudge
myself to listen.
| Previous chapter/page | Back | Home | Email this | Search | Discuss | Bookmark | Next chapter/page |