} 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.

} A Leaf for Hand in Hand

A leaf for hand in hand;
You natural persons old and young! 
You on the Mississippi and on all the branches and bayous of
    the Mississippi! 
You friendly boatmen and mechanics! you roughs! 
You twain! and all processions moving along the streets! 
I wish to infuse myself among you till I see it common for you to
    walk hand in hand.

} Earth, My Likeness

Earth, my likeness,
Though you look so impassive, ample and spheric there,
I now suspect that is not all;
I now suspect there is something fierce in you eligible to burst forth,
For an athlete is enamour’d of me, and I of him,
But toward him there is something fierce and terrible in me eligible
    to burst forth,
I dare not tell it in words, not even in these songs.

} 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 rest 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.

} What Think You I Take My Pen in Hand?

What think you I take my pen in hand to record? 
The battle-ship, perfect-model’d, majestic, that I saw pass the
    offing to-day under full sail? 
The splendors of the past day? or the splendor of the night that
    envelops me? 
Or the vaunted glory and growth of the great city spread around me? —­no;
But merely of two simple men I saw to-day on the pier in the midst
    of the crowd, parting the parting of dear friends,
The one to remain hung on the other’s neck and passionately kiss’d him,
While the one to depart tightly prest the one to remain in his arms.

} To the East and to the West

To the East and to the West,
To the man of the Seaside State and of Pennsylvania,
To the Kanadian of the north, to the Southerner I love,
These with perfect trust to depict you as myself, the germs are in all men,
I believe the main purport of these States is to found a superb
    friendship, exalte, previously unknown,
Because I perceive it waits, and has been always waiting, latent in all men.

} Sometimes with One I Love

Sometimes with one I love I fill myself with rage for fear I effuse
    unreturn’d love,
But now I think there is no unreturn’d love, the pay is certain one
    way or another,
(I loved a certain person ardently and my love was not return’d,
Yet out of that I have written these songs.)