WALT WHITMAN, 1852, Published in Leaves Of Grass 1856
1
Afoot
and light -hearted I take to the open road
Healthy,
free, the world before me,
The long
brown path before me leading wherever I choose.
Henceforth,
I ask not good-fortune, I myself am my good-fortune,
Henceforth
I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Done
with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms,
Strong
and content I travel the open road.
<snip>
Here the
profound lesson of reception, nor preference nor denial,
The
black with his wooly head, the felon, the diseas’d, the illiterate person are
not denied;
The
birth, the hasting after the physician, the beggar’s tramp, the drunkard’s
stagger, the laughing party of mechanics,
The
escaped youth, the rich person’s carriage, the fop, the eloping couple,
The
early market man, the hearse, the moving of furniture into the town, the return
back from town,
They
pass, I also pass any thing passes, none can be interdicted,
None but
are accepted, none be but shall be dear to me.
<snip>
14
Allons!
Through struggles and wars!
The goal
that was named cannot be countermanded.
Have the
past struggles succeeded?
What has
succeeded? yourself? your nation? Nature?
Now
understand me well – it is provided in the essence of things that
from any fruition of success, no
matter what, shall
come forth something to make a
greater struggle
necessary.
My call
is the call of battle, I nourish active rebellion,
He is
going with me must go well armed,
He is
going with me goes often with spare diet, poverty, angry enemies, desertions.
15
Allons!
the road is before us!
It is
safe – I have tried it – my own feet have tried it well – be not detain’d!
Let the
paper remain on the desk unwritten, and the book on the shelf unopen’d!
Let the
tools remain in the workshop! let the money remain unearn’d!
Let the
school stand! mind not the cry of the teacher!
Let the
preacher preach in his pulpit! let the lawyer plead in the court, and the judge
expound the law.
Camerado!
I give you my hand!
I give
you my love more precious than money,
I give
you myself before preaching or law;
Will you
give me yourself? will you come travel with me?
Shall we
stick by each other as long as we live?
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