A Clear Midnight
THIS is thy hour O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless, Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done, Thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the themes thou
Native Moments
NATIVE moments! when you come upon me-Ah you are here now! Give me now libidinous joys only! Give me the drench of my passions! Give me life coarse and rank! To-day, I go consort
Ashes of Soldiers
ASHES of soldiers! As I muse, retrospective, murmuring a chant in thought, Lo! the war resumes-again to my sense your shapes, And again the advance of armies. Noiseless as mists and vapors, From their
I will Take an Egg Out of the Robin's Nest
I WILL take an egg out of the robin’s nest in the orchard, I will take a branch of gooseberries from the old bush in the garden, and go and preach to the world;
Myself and Mine
MYSELF and mine gymnastic ever, To stand the cold or heat-to take good aim with a gun-to sail a boat-to manage horses-to beget superb children, To speak readily and clearly-to feel at home among
Longings for Home
O MAGNET-SOUTH! O glistening, perfumed South! My South! O quick mettle, rich blood, impulse, and love! Good and evil! O all dear to me! O dear to me my birth-things-All moving things, and the
Of Him I Love Day and Night
OF him I love day and night, I dream’d I heard he was dead; And I dream’d I went where they had buried him I love—but he was not in that place; And I
Roaming in Thought
ROAMING in thought over the Universe, I saw the little that is Good steadily hastening towards immortality, And the vast all that is call’d Evil I saw hastening to merge itself and become lost
As I lay with Head in your Lap, Camerado
AS I lay with my head in your lap, Camerado, The confession I made I resume-what I said to you in the open air I resume: I know I am restless, and make others
In Midnight Sleep
1 IN midnight sleep, of many a face of anguish, Of the look at first of the mortally wounded-of that indescribable look; Of the dead on their backs, with arms extended wide, I dream,
Not the Pilot
NOT the pilot has charged himself to bring his ship into port, though beaten back, and many times baffled; Not the path-finder, penetrating inland, weary and long, By deserts parch’d, snows-chill’d, rivers wet, perseveres
A Boston Ballad, 1854
TO get betimes in Boston town, I rose this morning early; Here’s a good place at the corner-I must stand and see the show. Clear the way there, Jonathan! Way for the President’s marshal!
Beginning my Studies
BEGINNING my studies, the first step pleas’d me so much, The mere fact, consciousness-these forms-the power of motion, The least insect or animal-the senses-eyesight-love; The first step, I say, aw’d me and pleas’d me
Others may Praise what They Like
OTHERS may praise what they like; But I, from the banks of the running Missouri, praise nothing, in art, or aught else, Till it has well inhaled the atmosphere of this river-also the western
Patroling Barnegat
WILD, wild the storm, and the sea high running, Steady the roar of the gale, with incessant undertone muttering, Shouts of demoniac laughter fitfully piercing and pealing, Waves, air, midnight, their savagest trinity lashing,