Leaves of Grass (1855) is a poetry collection by the American poet Walt Whitman.

Among the poems in the collection are "Song of Myself," "I Sing the Body Electric," "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking," and in later editions, Whitman's elegy to the assassinated President Abraham Lincoln, "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd." Whitman spent his entire life writing Leaves of Grass, revising it in several editions until his death.

LEAVES OF GRASS
Come, said my soul,
Such verses for my Body let us write, (for we are one,)
That should I after return,
Or, long, long hence, in other spheres,
There to some group of mates the chants resuming,
(Tallying Earth’s soil, trees, winds, tumultuous waves,)
Ever with pleas’d smile I may keep on,
Ever and ever yet the verses owning—as, first, I here and now
Signing for Soul and Body, set to them my name,

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Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, the Pennsylvania State University, Electronic Classics Series, Jim Manis, Faculty Editor, Hazleton, PA 18202-1291 is a Portable Document File produced as part of an ongoing student publication project to bring classical works of literature, in English, to free and easy access of those wishing to make use of them.

Cover Design: Jim Manis; image: Walt Whitman, age 37, frontispiece to Leaves of Grass, Fulton St., Brooklyn, N.Y., steel engraving by Samuel Hollyer from a lost daguerreotype by Gabriel Harrison.

Copyright © 2007 The Pennsylvania State University

CONTENTS
LEAVES OF GRASS ............................................................... 13
BOOK I. INSCRIPTIONS..................................................... 14
One’s-Self I Sing .......................................................................................... 14
As I Ponder’d in Silence ................................................................................ 15
In Cabin’d Ships at Sea ................................................................................. 16
To Foreign Lands ......................................................................................... 17
To a Historian .............................................................................................. 18
To Thee Old Cause ...................................................................................... 19
Eidolons ....................................................................................................... 20
For Him I Sing ............................................................................................ 23
When I Read the Book ................................................................................ 24
Beginning My Studies .................................................................................. 25
Beginners ..................................................................................................... 26
To the States ................................................................................................ 27
On Journeys Through the States .................................................................. 28
To a Certain Cantatrice ................................................................................ 29
Me Imperturbe ............................................................................................ 30
Savantism .................................................................................................... 31
The Ship Starting ......................................................................................... 32
I Hear America Singing ................................................................................ 33
What Place Is Besieged? ............................................................................... 34
Still Though the One I Sing ......................................................................... 35
Shut Not Your Doors ................................................................................... 36
Poets to Come .............................................................................................. 37
To You ......................................................................................................... 38
Thou Reader ................................................................................................ 38
BOOK II Starting from Paumanok.......................................... 39
BOOK III Song of Myself ....................................................... 52
BOOK IV. CHILDREN OF ADAM .................................... 106
To the Garden the World ........................................................................... 106
From Pent-Up Aching Rivers ..................................................................... 107
I Sing the Body Electric ............................................................................. 109
A Woman Waits for Me ............................................................................. 117
Spontaneous Me ........................................................................................ 119
One Hour to Madness and Joy .................................................................. 121
Out of the Rolling Ocean the Crowd ......................................................... 122
Ages and Ages Returning at Intervals ......................................................... 123
We Two, How Long We Were Fool’d ......................................................... 124
O Hymen! O Hymenee! ............................................................................. 125
I Am He That Aches with Love .................................................................. 126
Native Moments ........................................................................................ 127
Once I Pass’d Through a Populous City ..................................................... 128
I Heard You Solemn-Sweet Pipes of the Organ ........................................... 129
Facing West from California’s Shores .......................................................... 130
As Adam Early in the Morning .................................................................. 131
BOOK V. CALAMUS........................................................... 132
In Paths Untrodden ................................................................................... 132
Scented Herbage of My Breast ................................................................... 133
Whoever You Are Holding Me Now in Hand ............................................ 135
For You, O Democracy .............................................................................. 137
These I Singing in Spring ........................................................................... 138
Not Heaving from My Ribb’d Breast Only ................................................. 139
Of the Terrible Doubt of Appearances ........................................................ 140
The Base of All Metaphysics ...................................................................... 141
Recorders Ages Hence ................................................................................ 142
When I Heard at the Close of the Day ....................................................... 143
Are You the New Person Drawn Toward Me? ............................................. 144
Roots and Leaves Themselves Alone ........................................................... 145
Not Heat Flames Up and Consumes .......................................................... 146
Trickle Drops ............................................................................................. 147
City of Orgies ............................................................................................ 148
Behold This Swarthy Face .......................................................................... 149
I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing ..................................................... 150
To a Stranger .............................................................................................. 151
This Moment Yearning and Thoughtful ..................................................... 152
I Hear It Was Charged Against Me ............................................................ 153
The Prairie-Grass Dividing ........................................................................ 154
When I Persue the Conquer’d Fame ........................................................... 155
We Two Boys Together Clinging ................................................................ 156
A Promise to California .............................................................................. 157
Here the Frailest Leaves of Me ................................................................... 158
No Labor-Saving Machine ......................................................................... 159
A Glimpse .................................................................................................. 160
A Leaf for Hand in Hand........................................................................... 161
Earth, My Likeness .................................................................................... 162
I Dream’d in a Dream ................................................................................ 163
What Think You I Take My Pen in Hand? ................................................. 164
To the East and to the West ....................................................................... 165
Sometimes with One I Love ....................................................................... 166
To a Western Boy ....................................................................................... 167
Fast Anchor’d Eternal O Love! .................................................................... 168
Among the Multitude ................................................................................ 169
O You Whom I Often and Silently Come .................................................. 170
That Shadow My Likeness ......................................................................... 171
Full of Life Now ........................................................................................ 172
BOOK VI Salut au Monde! ................................................... 173
BOOK VII Song of the Open Road ...................................... 183
BOOK VIII Crossing Brooklyn Ferry .................................... 193
BOOK IX Song of the Answerer............................................ 199
BOOK X Our Old Feuillage .................................................. 204
BOOK XI A Song of Joys ...................................................... 209
BOOK XII Song of the Broad-Axe ........................................ 216
BOOK XIII Song of the Exposition ...................................... 226
BOOK XIV Song of the Redwood-Tree ................................ 235
BOOK XV A Song for Occupations ...................................... 239
BOOK XVI A Song of the Rolling Earth ............................... 246
Youth, Day, Old Age and Night ................................................................. 252
BOOK XVII. BIRDS OF PASSAGE..................................... 253
Song of the Universal ................................................................................. 253
Pioneers! O Pioneers! ................................................................................. 256
To You ....................................................................................................... 260
France (the 18th Year of these States) ......................................................... 262
Year of Meteors (1859-60) ......................................................................... 266
With Antecedents ...................................................................................... 267
BOOK XVIII A Broadway Pageant ....................................... 269
BOOK XIX. SEA-DRIFT Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking . 273
As I Ebb’d with the Ocean of Life .............................................................. 279
Tears .......................................................................................................... 282
To the Man-of-War-Bird ............................................................................ 283
Aboard at a Ship’s Helm ............................................................................. 284
On the Beach at Night ............................................................................... 285
The World below the Brine ........................................................................ 287
On the Beach at Night Alone ..................................................................... 288
Song for All Seas, All Ships ........................................................................ 289
Patroling Barnegat ..................................................................................... 290
After the Sea-Ship ...................................................................................... 291
BOOK XX. BY THE ROADSIDE ........................................ 292
A Boston Ballad (1854) ............................................................................. 292
Europe (The 72d and 73d Years of These States) ........................................ 294
A Hand-Mirror .......................................................................................... 296
Gods .......................................................................................................... 297
Germs ........................................................................................................ 298
Thoughts ................................................................................................... 299
When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer ...................................................... 300
Perfections ................................................................................................. 301
O Me! O Life! ............................................................................................ 302
To a President ............................................................................................ 303
I Sit and Look Out ..................................................................................... 304
To Rich Givers ........................................................................................... 305
The Dalliance of the Eagles ........................................................................ 306
Roaming in Thought (After reading Hegel) ............................................... 307
A Farm Picture ........................................................................................... 308
A Child’s Amaze......................................................................................... 309
The Runner ............................................................................................... 310
Beautiful Women ....................................................................................... 311
Mother and Babe ....................................................................................... 312
Thought .................................................................................................... 312
Visor’d ....................................................................................................... 313
Thought .................................................................................................... 314
Gliding O’er all .......................................................................................... 315
Hast Never Come to Thee an Hour ........................................................... 316
Thought .................................................................................................... 317
To Old Age ................................................................................................ 318
Locations and Times .................................................................................. 319
Offerings .................................................................................................... 320
To The States (To Identify the 16th, 17th, or 18th ............................................
Presidentiad) ....................................................................................... 321
BOOK XXI. DRUM-TAPS................................................... 322
First O Songs for a Prelude ........................................................................ 322
Eighteen Sixty-One .................................................................................... 325
Beat! Beat! Drums! ..................................................................................... 326
From Paumanok Starting I Fly Like a Bird ................................................. 327
Song of the Banner at Daybreak ................................................................. 328
Rise O Days from Your Fathomless Deeps ................................................. 334
Virginia—The West ................................................................................... 336
City of Ships .............................................................................................. 337
The Centenarian’s Story ............................................................................. 338
Cavalry Crossing a Ford ............................................................................. 343
Bivouac on a Mountain Side ...................................................................... 344
An Army Corps on the March ................................................................... 345
By the Bivouac’s Fitful Flame ..................................................................... 346
Come Up from the Fields Father ................................................................ 347
Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night .............................................. 349
A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest, and the Road Unknown....................... 350
A Sight in Camp in the Daybreak Gray and Dim....................................... 351
As Toilsome I Wander’d Virginia’s Woods ................................................... 352
Not the Pilot .............................................................................................. 353
Year That Trembled and Reel’d Beneath Me ............................................... 354
The Wound-Dresser .................................................................................. 355
Long, Too Long America ........................................................................... 358
Give Me the Splendid Silent Sun ............................................................... 359
Dirge for Two Veterans .............................................................................. 361
Over the Carnage Rose Prophetic a Voice ................................................... 363
I Saw Old General at Bay ........................................................................... 364
The Artilleryman’s Vision ........................................................................... 365
Ethiopia Saluting the Colors ...................................................................... 367
Not Youth Pertains to Me .......................................................................... 368
Race of Veterans ......................................................................................... 369
World Take Good Notice ........................................................................... 370
O Tan-Faced Prairie-Boy ............................................................................ 371
Look Down Fair Moon .............................................................................. 372
Reconciliation ............................................................................................ 373
How Solemn As One by One (Washington City, 1865) ............................. 374
As I Lay with My Head in Your Lap Camerado .......................................... 375
Delicate Cluster ......................................................................................... 376
To a Certain Civilian ................................................................................. 377
Lo, Victress on the Peaks ............................................................................ 378
Spirit Whose Work Is Done (Washington City, 1865) ............................... 379
Adieu to a Soldier ...................................................................................... 380
Turn O Libertad ........................................................................................ 381
To the Leaven’d Soil They Trod .................................................................. 382
BOOK XXII. MEMORIES OF PRESIDENT............................
LINCOLN ...................................................................... 383
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d ................................................ 383
O Captain! My Captain! ............................................................................ 391
Hush’d Be the Camps To-Day (May 4, 1865) ............................................ 392
This Dust Was Once the Man.................................................................... 393
BOOK XXIII ........................................................................ 394
By Blue Ontario’s Shore ............................................................................. 394
Reversals .................................................................................................... 408
BOOK XXIV. AUTUMN RIVULETS ................................. 409
As Consequent, Etc. ................................................................................... 409
The Return of the Heroes .......................................................................... 411
There Was a Child Went Forth .................................................................. 416
Old Ireland ................................................................................................ 418
The City Dead-House ................................................................................ 419
This Compost ............................................................................................ 420
To a Foil’d European Revolutionaire ........................................................... 422
Unnamed Land .......................................................................................... 424
Song of Prudence ....................................................................................... 426
The Singer in the Prison ............................................................................ 429
Warble for Lilac-Time ................................................................................ 431
Outlines for a Tomb (G. P., Buried 1870) .................................................. 432
Out from Behind This Mask (To Confront a Portrait) ............................... 434
Vocalism .................................................................................................... 435
To Him That Was Crucified ....................................................................... 436
You Felons on Trial in Courts ..................................................................... 437
Laws for Creations ..................................................................................... 438
To a Common Prostitute ............................................................................ 439
I Was Looking a Long While ..................................................................... 440
Thought .................................................................................................... 441
Miracles ..................................................................................................... 442
Sparkles from the Wheel ............................................................................ 443
To a Pupil .................................................................................................. 444
Unfolded out of the Folds .......................................................................... 445
What Am I After All .................................................................................. 446
Kosmos ...................................................................................................... 447
Others May Praise What They Like ........................................................... 448
Who Learns My Lesson Complete? ............................................................ 449
Tests ........................................................................................................... 451
The Torch .................................................................................................. 452
O Star of France (1870-71) ........................................................................ 453
The Ox-Tamer ........................................................................................... 455
An Old Man’s Thought of School .............................................................. 456
Wandering at Morn ................................................................................... 457
Italian Music in Dakota ............................................................................. 458
With All Thy Gifts ..................................................................................... 459
My Picture-Gallery .................................................................................... 460
The Prairie States ....................................................................................... 460
BOOK XXV Proud Music of the Storm ................................ 461
BOOK XXVI Passage to India ................................................ 467
BOOK XXVII Prayer of Columbus ....................................... 476
BOOK XXVIII The Sleepers ................................................. 479
Transpositions ............................................................................................ 487
BOOK XXIX To Think of Time ............................................ 488
BOOK XXX. WHISPERS OF HEAVENLY ...............................
DEATH........................................................................... 494
Darest Thou Now O Soul .......................................................................... 494
Whispers of Heavenly Death ...................................................................... 495
Chanting the Square Deific ........................................................................ 496
Of Him I Love Day and Night ................................................................... 498
Yet, Yet, Ye Downcast Hours ...................................................................... 499
As If a Phantom Caress’d Me ..................................................................... 500
Assurances ................................................................................................. 501
Quicksand Years ......................................................................................... 502
That Music Always Round Me ................................................................... 503
What Ship Puzzled at Sea ........................................................................... 504
A Noiseless Patient Spider .......................................................................... 505
O Living Always, Always Dying ................................................................. 506
To One Shortly to Die ............................................................................... 507
Night on the Prairies .................................................................................. 508
Thought .................................................................................................... 509
The Last Invocation ................................................................................... 510
As I Watch the Ploughman Ploughing........................................................ 511
Pensive and Faltering ................................................................................. 512
BOOK XXXI Thou Mother with Thy Equal Brood ................................... 513
A Paumanok Picture .................................................................................. 519
BOOK XXXII. FROM NOON TO STARRY ............................
NIGHT........................................................................... 520
Thou Orb Aloft Full-Dazzling ................................................................... 520
Faces .......................................................................................................... 522
The Mystic Trumpeter ............................................................................... 526
To a Locomotive in Winter ........................................................................ 529
O Magnet-South ........................................................................................ 530
All Is Truth ................................................................................................ 533
A Riddle Song ............................................................................................ 534
Excelsior .................................................................................................... 536
Ah Poverties, Wincings, and Sulky Retreats ................................................ 537
Thoughts ................................................................................................... 538
Mediums.................................................................................................... 539
Weave in, My Hardy Life ........................................................................... 540
Spain, 1873-74 .......................................................................................... 541
By Broad Potomac’s Shore .......................................................................... 542
From Far Dakota’s Canyons (June 25, 1876) ............................................ 543
Old War-Dreams ....................................................................................... 544
Thick-Sprinkled Bunting ........................................................................... 545
What Best I See in Thee ............................................................................. 546
Spirit That Form’d This Scene .................................................................... 547
As I Walk These Broad Majestic Days ........................................................ 548
BOOK XXXIII. SONGS OF PARTING .............................. 550
As the Time Draws Nigh ............................................................................ 550
Years of the Modern ................................................................................... 551
Ashes of Soldiers ........................................................................................ 553
Thoughts ................................................................................................... 555
Song at Sunset ........................................................................................... 557
As at Thy Portals Also Death ..................................................................... 559
My Legacy ................................................................................................. 560
Camps of Green ......................................................................................... 562
The Sobbing of the Bells (Midnight, Sept. 19-20, 1881) ........................... 563
As They Draw to a Close ........................................................................... 564
Joy, Shipmate, Joy! ..................................................................................... 565
The Untold Want ...................................................................................... 566
Portals ........................................................................................................ 567
Now Finale to the Shore ............................................................................ 569
So Long! .................................................................................................... 570
BOOK XXXIV. SANDS AT SEVENTY ............................... 573
Mannahatta ............................................................................................... 573
Paumanok .................................................................................................. 574
From Montauk Point ................................................................................. 575
To Those Who’ve Fail’d .............................................................................. 576
A Carol Closing Sixty-Nine ....................................................................... 577
The Bravest Soldiers ................................................................................... 578
A Font of Type ........................................................................................... 579
As I Sit Writing Here ................................................................................. 580
My Canary Bird ......................................................................................... 581
Queries to My Seventieth Year ................................................................... 582
The Wallabout Martyrs .............................................................................. 583
The First Dandelion .................................................................................. 584
America ..................................................................................................... 585
Memories ................................................................................................... 586
To-Day and Thee ....................................................................................... 587
After the Dazzle of Day .............................................................................. 588
Abraham Lincoln, Born Feb. 12, 1809 ...................................................... 589
Out of May’s Shows Selected ...................................................................... 590
Halcyon Days ............................................................................................ 591
FANCIES AT NAVESINK ........................................................................ 592
Election Day, November, 1884 .................................................................. 594
With Husky-Haughty Lips, O Sea! ............................................................ 596
Death of General Grant ............................................................................. 597
Red Jacket (From Aloft) ............................................................................. 598
Washington’s Monument February, 1885 ................................................... 599
Of That Blithe Throat of Thine ................................................................. 600
Broadway ................................................................................................... 601
To Get the Final Lilt of Songs .................................................................... 602
Old Salt Kossabone .................................................................................... 603
The Dead Tenor......................................................................................... 604
Continuities ............................................................................................... 605
Yonnondio ................................................................................................. 606
Life ............................................................................................................ 607
“Going Somewhere” .................................................................................. 608
Small the Theme of My Chant ................................................................... 609
True Conquerors ........................................................................................ 610
The United States to Old World Critics ..................................................... 611
The Calming Thought of All ..................................................................... 612
Thanks in Old Age .................................................................................... 613
Life and Death ........................................................................................... 614
The Voice of the Rain ................................................................................ 615
Soon Shall the Winter’s Foil Be Here ......................................................... 616
The Dying Veteran .................................................................................... 618
Stronger Lessons ........................................................................................ 619
A Prairie Sunset .......................................................................................... 620
Twenty Years .............................................................................................. 621
Orange Buds by Mail from Florida ............................................................ 622
Twilight ..................................................................................................... 623
You Lingering Sparse Leaves of Me ............................................................ 624
Not Meagre, Latent Boughs Alone ............................................................. 625
The Dead Emperor .................................................................................... 626
As the Greek’s Signal Flame ........................................................................ 627
The Dismantled Ship ................................................................................. 628
Now Precedent Songs, Farewell .................................................................. 629
An Evening Lull ......................................................................................... 630
Old Age’s Lambent Peaks ........................................................................... 631
After the Supper and Talk .......................................................................... 632
BOOKXXXV. GOOD-BYE MY FANCY ............................. 633
Sail out for Good, Eidolon Yacht! ............................................................... 633
Lingering Last Drops ................................................................................. 634
Good-Bye My Fancy .................................................................................. 635
On, on the Same, Ye Jocund Twain! ........................................................... 636
My 71st Year .............................................................................................. 637
Apparitions ................................................................................................ 638
The Pallid Wreath ...................................................................................... 639
An Ended Day ........................................................................................... 640
Old Age’s Ship & Crafty Death’s ................................................................ 641
To the Pending Year ................................................................................... 642
Shakspere-Bacon’s Cipher .......................................................................... 643
Long, Long Hence ..................................................................................... 644
Bravo, Paris Exposition! ............................................................................. 645
Interpolation Sounds ................................................................................. 646
To the Sun-Set Breeze ................................................................................ 647
A Christmas Greeting ................................................................................ 649
Sounds of the Winter ................................................................................. 650
A Twilight Song ......................................................................................... 651
When the Full-Grown Poet Came .............................................................. 652
Osceola ...................................................................................................... 653
A Voice from Death ................................................................................... 654
A Persian Lesson ........................................................................................ 656
The Commonplace .................................................................................... 657
“The Rounded Catalogue Divine Complete” ............................................. 658
Mirages ...................................................................................................... 659
L. of G.’s Purport ....................................................................................... 660
The Unexpress’d ......................................................................................... 661
Grand Is the Seen ...................................................................................... 662
Unseen Buds .............................................................................................. 663
Good-Bye My Fancy! ................................................................................. 664
Index of First Lines ........................................................ 665

ABOUT WALTER WHITMAN
Walter Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist.

He was a part of the transition between Transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse.

His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described as obscene for its overt sexuality.

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