Poems By Walt Whitman Part 32

_GREATNESS._

1.

Great are the myths--I too delight in them; Great are Adam and Eve--I too look back and accept them; Great the risen and fallen nations, and their poets, women, sages, inventors, rulers, warriors, and priests.

Great is Liberty! great is Equality! I am their follower; Helmsmen of nations, choose your craft! where you sail, I sail, I weather it out with you, or sink with you.

Great is Youth--equally great is Old Age--great are the Day and Night; Great is Wealth--great is Poverty--great is Expression--great is Silence.

2.

Youth, large, l.u.s.ty, loving--Youth, full of grace, force, fascination!

Do you know that Old Age may come after you, with equal grace, force, fascination?

Day, full-blown and splendid--Day of the immense sun, action, ambition, laughter, The Night follows close, with millions of suns, and sleep, and restoring darkness.

Wealth, with the flush hand, fine clothes, hospitality; But then the soul's wealth, which is candour, knowledge, pride, enfolding love; Who goes for men and women showing Poverty richer than wealth?

Expression of speech! in what is written or said, forget not that Silence is also expressive; That anguish as hot as the hottest, and contempt as cold as the coldest, may be without words.

3.

Great is the Earth, and the way it became what it is: Do you imagine it has stopped at this? the increase abandoned?

Understand then that it goes as far onward from this as this is from the times when it lay in covering waters and gases, before man had appeared.

4.

Great is the quality of Truth in man; The quality of truth in man supports itself through all changes; It is inevitably in the man--he and it are in love, and never leave each other.

The truth in man is no dictum, it is vital as eyesight; If there be any Soul, there is truth--if there be man or woman, there is truth--if there be physical or moral, there is truth; If there be equilibrium or volition, there is truth--if there be things at all upon the earth, there is truth.

O truth of the earth! O truth of things! I am determined to press my way toward you; Sound your voice! I scale mountains, or dive in the sea, after you.

5.

Great is Language--it is the mightiest of the sciences, It is the fulness, colour, form, diversity of the earth, and of men and women, and of all qualities and processes; It is greater than wealth, it is greater than buildings, s.h.i.+ps, religions, paintings, music.

Great is the English speech--what speech is so great as the English?

Great is the English brood--what brood has so vast a destiny as the English?

It is the mother of the brood that must rule the earth with the new rule; The new rule shall rule as the Soul rules, and as the love, justice, equality in the Soul rule.

6.

Great is Law--great are the old few landmarks of the law, They are the same in all times, and shall not be disturbed.

Great is Justice!

Justice is not settled by legislators and laws--it is in the Soul; It cannot be varied by statutes, any more than love, pride, the attraction of gravity, can; It is immutable--it does not depend on majorities--majorities or what not come at last before the same pa.s.sionless and exact tribunal.

For justice are the grand natural lawyers, and perfect judges--it is in their souls; It is well a.s.sorted--they have not studied for nothing--the great includes the less; They rule on the highest grounds--they oversee all eras, states, administrations.

The perfect judge fears nothing--he could go front to front before G.o.d; Before the perfect judge all shall stand back--life and death shall stand back--heaven and h.e.l.l shall stand back.

7.

Great is Life, real and mystical, wherever and whoever; Great is Death--sure as Life holds all parts together, Death holds all parts together.

Has Life much purport?--Ah! Death has the greatest purport.

_THE POET._

1.

Now list to my morning's romanza; To the cities and farms I sing, as they spread in the suns.h.i.+ne before me.

2.

A young man came to me bearing a message from his brother; How should the young man know the whether and when of his brother?

Tell him to send me the signs.

And I stood before the young man face to face, and took his right hand in my left hand, and his left hand in my right hand, And I answered for his brother, and for men, and I answered for THE POET, and sent 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 amid 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 n.o.blest 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 s.h.i.+ps in the offing, The perpetual shows and marches on land, are for him, if they are for anybody.

He puts things in their att.i.tudes; He puts to-day out of himself, with plasticity and love; He places his own city, times, reminiscences, parents, brothers and sisters, a.s.sociations, employment, politics, so that the rest never shame them afterward, nor a.s.sume 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.

3.

A man is a summons and challenge; (It is vain to skulk--Do you hear that mocking and laughter? Do you hear the ironical echoes?)

Books, friends.h.i.+ps, 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.