Leaves of Grass eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 476 pages of information about Leaves of Grass.
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Leaves of Grass eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 476 pages of information about Leaves of Grass.

9 Allons! whoever you are come travel with me!  Traveling with me you find what never tires.

The earth never tires,
The earth is rude, silent, incomprehensible at first, Nature is rude
    and incomprehensible at first,
Be not discouraged, keep on, there are divine things well envelop’d,
I swear to you there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell.

Allons! we must not stop here,
However sweet these laid-up stores, however convenient this dwelling
    we cannot remain here,
However shelter’d this port and however calm these waters we must
    not anchor here,
However welcome the hospitality that surrounds us we are permitted
    to receive it but a little while.

     10
Allons! the inducements shall be greater,
We will sail pathless and wild seas,
We will go where winds blow, waves dash, and the Yankee clipper
    speeds by under full sail.

Allons! with power, liberty, the earth, the elements,
Health, defiance, gayety, self-esteem, curiosity;
Allons! from all formules! 
From your formules, O bat-eyed and materialistic priests.

The stale cadaver blocks up the passage—­the burial waits no longer.

Allons! yet take warning! 
He traveling with me needs the best blood, thews, endurance,
None may come to the trial till he or she bring courage and health,
Come not here if you have already spent the best of yourself,
Only those may come who come in sweet and determin’d bodies,
No diseas’d person, no rum-drinker or venereal taint is permitted here.

(I and mine do not convince by arguments, similes, rhymes,
We convince by our presence.)

     11
Listen!  I will be honest with you,
I do not offer the old smooth prizes, but offer rough new prizes, These are the days that must happen to you:  You shall not heap up what is call’d riches, You shall scatter with lavish hand all that you earn or achieve, You but arrive at the city to which you were destin’d, you hardly
    settle yourself to satisfaction before you are call’d by an
    irresistible call to depart,
You shall be treated to the ironical smiles and mockings of those
    who remain behind you,
What beckonings of love you receive you shall only answer with
    passionate kisses of parting,
You shall not allow the hold of those who spread their reach’d hands
    toward you.

     12
Allons! after the great Companions, and to belong to them! 
They too are on the road—­they are the swift and majestic men—­they
    are the greatest women,
Enjoyers of calms of seas and storms of seas,
Sailors of many a ship, walkers of many a mile of land, Habitues of many distant countries, habitues of far-distant dwellings, Trusters of men and women, observers of cities, solitary toilers, Pausers and contemplators of tufts, blossoms, shells of the shore,

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Project Gutenberg
Leaves of Grass from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.