Unfolded out of the folds of the woman man comes unfolded, and is
    always to come unfolded,
Unfolded only out of the superbest woman of the earth is to come the
    superbest man of the earth,
Unfolded out of the friendliest woman is to come the friendliest man,
Unfolded only out of the perfect body of a woman can a man be
    form’d of perfect body,
Unfolded only out of the inimitable poems of woman can come the
    poems of man, (only thence have my poems come;)
Unfolded out of the strong and arrogant woman I love, only thence
    can appear the strong and arrogant man I love,
Unfolded by brawny embraces from the well-muscled woman
    love, only thence come the brawny embraces of the man,
Unfolded out of the folds of the woman’s brain come all the folds
    of the man’s brain, duly obedient,
Unfolded out of the justice of the woman all justice is unfolded,
Unfolded out of the sympathy of the woman is all sympathy;
A man is a great thing upon the earth and through eternity, but
    every of the greatness of man is unfolded out of woman;
First the man is shaped in the woman, he can then be shaped in himself.

} What Am I After All

What am I after all but a child, pleas’d with the sound of my own
    name? repeating it over and over;
I stand apart to hear—­it never tires me.

To you your name also;
Did you think there was nothing but two or three pronunciations in
    the sound of your name?

} Kosmos

Who includes diversity and is Nature,
Who is the amplitude of the earth, and the coarseness and sexuality of
    the earth, and the great charity of the earth, and the equilibrium also,
Who has not look’d forth from the windows the eyes for nothing,
    or whose brain held audience with messengers for nothing,
Who contains believers and disbelievers, who is the most majestic lover,
Who holds duly his or her triune proportion of realism,
    spiritualism, and of the aesthetic or intellectual,
Who having consider’d the body finds all its organs and parts good,
Who, out of the theory of the earth and of his or her body
    understands by subtle analogies all other theories,
The theory of a city, a poem, and of the large politics of these States;
Who believes not only in our globe with its sun and moon, but in
    other globes with their suns and moons,
Who, constructing the house of himself or herself, not for a day
    but for all time, sees races, eras, dates, generations,
The past, the future, dwelling there, like space, inseparable together.

} 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 prairie-scent,
And exudes it all again.