| Selected Poems by Walt Whitman |
| WE TWO BOYS TOGETHER CLINGING WE two boys together clinging, One the other never leaving, Up and down the roads going�North and South excursions making, Power enjoying�elbows stretching�fingers clutching, Arm�d and fearless�eating, drinking, sleeping, loving, No law less than ourselves owning�sailing, soldiering, thieving, threatening, Misers, menials, priests alarming�air breathing, water drinking, on the turf or sea-beach dancing, Cities wrenching, ease scorning, statutes mocking, feebleness chasing, Fulfilling our foray. |
| From the Calamus Section of LEAVES OF GRASS |
| A GLIMPSE A GLIMPSE, through an interstice caught, Of a crowd of workmen and drivers in a bar-room, around the stove, late of a winter night� And I unremark�d seated in a corner; Of a youth who loves me, and whom I love, silently approaching, and seating himself near, that he may hold me by the hand; A long while, amid the noises of coming and going�of drinking and oath and smutty jest, There we two, content, happy in being together, speaking little, perhaps not a word. |
| I SAW IN LOUISIANA A LIVE-OAK GROWING I SAW in Louisiana a live-oak growing, All alone stood it, and the moss hung down from the branches; Without any companion it grew there, uttering joyous leaves of dark green, And its look, rude, unbending, lusty, made me think of myself; But I wonder�d how it could utter joyous leaves, standing alone there, without its friend, its lover near�for I knew I could not; And I broke off a twig with a certain number of leaves upon it, and twined around it a little moss, And brought it away�and I have placed it in sight in my room; It is not needed to remind me as of my own dear friends, (For I believe lately I think of little else than of them;) Yet it remains to me a curious token�it makes me think of manly love; For all that, and though the live-oak glistens there in Louisiana, solitary, in a wide flat space, Uttering joyous leaves all its life, without a friend, a lover, near, I know very well I could not. |
| RECORDERS AGES HENCE RECORDERS ages hence! Come, I will take you down underneath this impassive exterior�I will tell you what to say of me; Publish my name and hang up my picture as that of the tenderest lover, friend, The lover�s portrait, of whom his friend, his lover, was fondest, Who was not proud of his songs, but of the measureless ocean of love within him�and freely pour�d it forth, Who often walk�d lonesome walks, thinking of his dear friends, his lovers, Who pensive, away from one he lov�d, often lay sleepless and dissatisfied at night, Who knew too well the sick, sick dread lest the one he lov�d might secretly be indifferent to him, Whose happiest days were far away, through fields, in woods, on hills, he and another, wandering hand in hand, they twain, apart from other men, Who oft as he saunter�d the streets, curv�d with his arm the shoulder of his friend�while the arm of his friend rested upon him also. |
| I DREAM'D IN A DREAM I DREAM�D in a dream, I saw a city invincible to the attacks of the whole of the of the earth; I dream�d that was the new City of Friends; Nothing was greater there than the quality of robust love�it led the rest; It was seen every hour in the actions of the men of that city, And in all their looks and words. |
| O YOU WHOM I OFTEN AND SILENTLY COME O YOU whom I often and silently come where you are, that I may be with you; As I walk by your side, or sit near, or remain in the same room with you, Little you know the subtle electric fire that for your sake is playing within me. |
| WHEN I HEARD AT THE CLOSE OF THE DAY WHEN I heard at the close of the day how my name had been receiv�d with plaudits in the capitol, still it was not a happy night for me that follow�d; And else, when I carous�d, or when my plans were accomplish�d, still I was not happy; But the day when I rose at dawn from the bed of perfect health, refresh�d, singing, inhaling the ripe breath of autumn, When I saw the full moon in the west grow pale and disappear in the morning light, When I wander�d alone over the beach, and undressing, bathed, laughing with the cool waters, and saw the sun rise, And when I thought how my dear friend, my lover, was on his way coming, O then I was happy; O then each breath tasted sweeter�and all that day my food nourish�d me more� and the beautiful day pass�d well, And the next came with equal joy�and with the next, at evening, came my friend; And that night, while all was still, I heard the waters roll slowly continually up the shores, I heard the hissing rustle of the liquid and sands, as directed to me, whispering, to congratulate me, For the one I love most lay sleeping by me under the same cover in the cool night, In the stillness, in the autumn moonbeams, his face was inclined toward me, And his arm lay lightly around my breast�and that night I was happy. |
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| THIS MOMENT YEARNING AND THOUGHTFUL THIS moment yearning and thoughtful sitting alone, It seems to me there are other men in other lands yearning and thoughtful, It seems to me I can look over and behold them in Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Or far, far away, in China, or in Russia or Japan, talking other dialects, And it seems to me if I could know those men I should become attached to them as I do to men in my own lands, O I know we should be brethren and lovers, I know I should be happy with them. |