O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring;
Of the endless trains of the faithless-of cities fill'd with the
foolish;
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than
I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light-of the objects mean-of the
struggle ever renew'd;
Of the poor results of all-of the plodding and sordid crowds I
see around me;
Of the empty and useless years of the rest-with the rest me intertwined;
The question, O me! so sad, recurring-What good amid these, O
me, O life?
Answer.
That you are here-that life exists, and identity;
That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.
One's-self I sing-a simple, separate Person;
Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-masse.
Of Physiology from top to toe I sing;
Not physiognomy alone, nor brain alone, is worthy for the muse-I
say the Form complete is worthier far;
The Female equally with the male I sing.
Of Life immense in passion, pulse, and power,
Cheerful-for freest action form'd, under the laws divine,
The Modern Man I sing.
When I heard the learn'd astronomer;
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide,
and measure them;
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with
much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;
Till rising and gliding out, I wander'd off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.