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,


