Poems By Walt Whitman Part 29

23.

Not for delectations sweet; Not the cus.h.i.+on and the slipper, not the peaceful and the studious; Not the riches safe and palling, not for us the tame enjoyment, Pioneers! O pioneers!

24.

Do the feasters gluttonous feast?

Do the corpulent sleepers sleep? have they locked and bolted doors?

Still be ours the diet hard, and the blanket on the ground, Pioneers! O pioneers!

25.

Has the night descended?

Was the road of late so toilsome? did we stop discouraged, nodding on our way?

Yet a pa.s.sing hour I yield you in your tracks to pause oblivious, Pioneers! O pioneers!

26.

Till with sound of trumpet, Far, far off the daybreak call--hark! how loud and clear I hear it wind; Swift! to the head of the army!--swift! spring to your places, Pioneers! O pioneers!

_TO THE SAYERS OF WORDS._

1.

Earth, round, rolling, compact--suns, moons, animals--all these are words to be said; Watery, vegetable, sauroid advances--beings, premonitions, lispings of the future, Behold! these are vast words to be said.

Were you thinking that those were the words--those upright lines? those curves, angles, dots?

No, those are not the words--the substantial words are in the ground and sea, They are in the air--they are in you.

Were you thinking that those were the words--those delicious sounds out of your friends' mouths?

No; the real words are more delicious than they.

Human bodies are words, myriads of words; In the best poems reappears the body, man's or woman's, well-shaped, natural, gay; Every part able, active, receptive, without shame or the need of shame.

Air, soil, water, fire--these are words; I myself am a word with them--my qualities interpenetrate with theirs--my name is nothing to them; Though it were told in the three thousand languages, what would air, soil, water, fire, know of my name?

A healthy presence, a friendly or commanding gesture, are words, sayings, meanings; The charms that go with the mere looks of some men and women are sayings and meanings also.

2.

The workmans.h.i.+p of souls is by the inaudible words of the earth; The great masters know the earth's words, and use them more than the audible words.

Amelioration is one of the earth's words; The earth neither lags nor hastens; It has all attributes, growths, effects, latent in itself from the jump; It is not half beautiful only--defects and excrescences show just as much as perfections show.

The earth does not withhold--it is generous enough; The truths of the earth continually wait, they are not so concealed either; They are calm, subtle, untransmissible by print; They are imbued through all things, conveying themselves willingly, Conveying a sentiment and invitation of the earth. I utter and utter: I speak not; yet, if you hear me not, of what avail am I to you?

To bear--to better; lacking these, of what avail am I?

_Accouche! Accouchez!_ Will you rot your own fruit in yourself there?

Will you squat and stifle there?

The earth does not argue, Is not pathetic, has no arrangements, Does not scream, haste, persuade, threaten, promise, Makes no discriminations, has no conceivable failures, Closes nothing, refuses nothing, shuts none out; Of all the powers, objects, states, it notifies, shuts none out.

The earth does not exhibit itself, nor refuse to exhibit itself--possesses still underneath; Underneath the ostensible sounds, the august chorus of heroes, the wail of slaves, Persuasions of lovers, curses, gasps of the dying, laughter of young people, accents of bargainers, Underneath these, possessing the words that never fail.

To her children, the words of the eloquent dumb great Mother never fail; The true words do not fail, for motion does not fail, and reflection does not fail; Also the day and night do not fail, and the voyage we pursue does not fail.

3.

Of the interminable sisters, Of the ceaseless cotillons of sisters, Of the centripetal and centrifugal sisters, the elder and younger sisters, The beautiful sister we know dances on with the rest.

With her ample back towards every beholder, With the fascinations of youth, and the equal fascinations of age, Sits she whom I too love like the rest--sits undisturbed, Holding up in her hand what has the character of a mirror, while her eyes glance back from it, Glance as she sits, inviting none, denying none, Holding a mirror day and night tirelessly before her own face.

Seen at hand, or seen at a distance, Duly the twenty-four appear in public every day, Duly approach and pa.s.s with their companions, or a companion, Looking from no countenances of their own, but from the countenances of those who are with them, From the countenances of children or women, or the manly countenance, From the open countenances of animals, or from inanimate things, From the landscape or waters, or from the exquisite apparition of the sky, From our countenances, mine and yours, faithfully returning them, Every day in public appearing without fail, but never twice with the same companions.

Embracing man, embracing all, proceed the three hundred and sixty-five resistlessly round the sun; Embracing all, soothing, supporting, follow close three hundred and sixty- five offsets of the first, sure and necessary as they.

Tumbling on steadily, nothing dreading, Suns.h.i.+ne, storm, cold, heat, for ever withstanding, pa.s.sing, carrying,

The Soul's realisation and determination still inheriting; The fluid vacuum around and ahead still entering and dividing, No baulk r.e.t.a.r.ding, no anchor anchoring, on no rock striking, Swift, glad, content, unbereaved, nothing losing, Of all able and ready at any time to give strict account, The divine s.h.i.+p sails the divine sea.

4.

Whoever you are! motion and reflection are especially for you; The divine s.h.i.+p sails the divine sea for you.

Whoever you are! you are he or she for whom the earth is solid and liquid, You are he or she for whom the sun and moon hang in the sky; For none more than you are the present and the past, For none more than you is immortality.

Each man to himself, and each woman to herself, such as the word of the past and present, and the word of immortality; No one can acquire for another--not one!

Not one can grow for another--not one!

The song is to the singer, and comes back most to him; The teaching is to the teacher, and comes back most to him; The murder is to the murderer, and comes back most to him;

The theft is to the thief, and comes back most to him; The love is to the lover, and conies back most to him; The gift is to the giver, and comes back most to him--it cannot fail; The oration is to the orator, the acting is to the actor and actress, not to the audience; And no man understands any greatness or goodness but his own, or the indication of his own.

5.

I swear the earth shall surely be complete to him or her who shall be complete!

I swear the earth remains jagged and broken only to him or her who remains broken and jagged!

I swear there is no greatness or power that does not emulate those of the earth!

I swear there can be no theory of any account, unless it corroborate the theory of the earth!