object:1.whitman - Poems Of Joys
author class:Walt Whitman
subject class:Poetry
book class:Whitman - Poems
class:chapter
O to make the most jubilant poem!
Even to set off these, and merge with these, the carols of Death.
O full of music! full of manhood, womanhood, infancy!
Full of common employments! full of grain and trees.
O for the voices of animals! O for the swiftness and balance of
fishes!
O for the dropping of rain-drops in a poem!
O for the sunshine, and motion of waves in a poem.
O the joy of my spirit! it is uncaged! it darts like lightning!
It is not enough to have this globe, or a certain timeI will have
thousands of globes, and all time.
O the engineer's joys!
To go with a locomotive!
To hear the hiss of steamthe merry shriekthe steam-whistlethe
laughing locomotive!
To push with resistless way, and speed off in the distance.
O the gleesome saunter over fields and hill-sides!
The leaves and flowers of the commonest weedsthe moist fresh
stillness of the woods,
The exquisite smell of the earth at day-break, and all through the
forenoon.
O the horseman's and horsewoman's joys!
The saddlethe gallopthe pressure upon the seatthe cool gurgling
by the ears and hair.
O the fireman's joys!
I hear the alarm at dead of night,
I hear bellsshouts!I pass the crowdI run!
The sight of the flames maddens me with pleasure.
O the joy of the strong-brawn'd fighter, towering in the arena, in
perfect condition, conscious of power, thirsting to meet his
opponent.
O the joy of that vast elemental sympathy which only the human Soul
is capable of generating and emitting in steady and limitless
floods.
O the mother's joys!
The watchingthe endurancethe precious lovethe anguishthe
patiently yielded life.
O the joy of increase, growth, recuperation;
The joy of soothing and pacifyingthe joy of concord and harmony.
O to go back to the place where I was born!
To hear the birds sing once more!
To ramble about the house and barn, and over the fields, once more,
And through the orchard and along the old lanes once more.
O male and female!
O the presence of women! (I swear there is nothing more exquisite to
me than the mere presence of women
O for the girl, my mate! O for the happiness with my mate!
O the young man as I pass! O I am sick after the friendship of him
who, I fear, is indifferent to me.
O the streets of cities!
The flitting facesthe expressions, eyes, feet, costumes! O I cannot
tell how welcome they are to me.
O to have been brought up on bays, lagoons, creeks, or along the
coast!
O to continue and be employ'd there all my life!
O the briny and damp smellthe shorethe salt weeds exposed at low
water,
The work of fishermenthe work of the eel-fisher and clam-fisher.
O it is I!
I come with my clam-rake and spade! I come with my eel-spear;
Is the tide out? I join the group of clam-diggers on the flats,
I laugh and work with themI joke at my work, like a mettlesome
young man.
In winter I take my eel-basket and eel-spear and travel out on foot
on the iceI have a small axe to cut holes in the ice;
Behold me, well-clothed, going gaily, or returning in the afternoon
my brood of tough boys accompaning me,
My brood of grown and part-grown boys, who love to be with no one
else so well as they love to be with me,
By day to work with me, and by night to sleep with me.
Or, another time, in warm weather, out in a boat, to lift the
lobster-pots, where they are sunk with heavy stones, (I know
the buoys
O the sweetness of the Fifth-month morning upon the water, as I row,
just before sunrise, toward the buoys;
I pull the wicker pots up slantinglythe dark-green lobsters are
desperate with their claws, as I take them outI insert wooden
pegs in the joints of their pincers,
I go to all the places, one after another, and then row back to the
shore,
There, in a huge kettle of boiling water, the lobsters shall be
boil'd till their color becomes scarlet.
Or, another time, mackerel-taking,
Voracious, mad for the hook, near the surface, they seem to fill the
water for miles:
Or, another time, fishing for rock-fish, in Chesapeake BayI one of
the brown-faced crew:
Or, another time, trailing for blue-fish off Paumanok, I stand with
braced body,
My left foot is on the gunwalemy right arm throws the coils of
slender rope,
In sight around me the quick veering and darting of fifty skiffs, my
companions.
O boating on the rivers!
The voyage down the Niagara, (the St. Lawrence,)the superb
scenerythe steamers,
The ships sailingthe Thousand Islandsthe occasional timber-raft,
and the raftsmen with long-reaching sweep-oars,
The little huts on the rafts, and the stream of smoke when they cook
their supper at evening.
O something pernicious and dread!
Something far away from a puny and pious life!
Something unproved! Something in a trance!
Something escaped from the anchorage, and driving free.
O to work in mines, or forging iron!
Foundry castingthe foundry itselfthe rude high roofthe ample
and shadow'd space,
The furnacethe hot liquid pour'd out and running.
O to resume the joys of the soldier:
To feel the presence of a brave general! to feel his sympathy!
To behold his calmness! to be warm'd in the rays of his smile!
To go to battle! to hear the bugles play, and the drums beat!
To hear the crash of artillery! to see the glittering of the bayonets
and musket-barrels in the sun!
To see men fall and die, and not complain!
To taste the savage taste of blood! to be so devilish!
To gloat so over the wounds and deaths of the enemy.
O the whaleman's joys! O I cruise my old cruise again!
I feel the ship's motion under meI feel the Atlantic breezes
fanning me,
I hear the cry again sent down from the mast-headThereshe blows!
Again I spring up the rigging, to look with the restWe seewe
descend, wild with excitement,
I leap in the lower'd boatWe row toward our prey, where he lies,
We approach, stealthy and silentI see the mountainous mass,
lethargic, basking,
I see the harpooneer standing upI see the weapon dart from his
vigorous arm:
O swift, again, now, far out in the ocean, the wounded whale,
settling, running to windward, tows me;
Again I see him rise to breatheWe row close again,
I see a lance driven through his side, press'd deep, turn'd in the
wound,
Again we back offI see him settle againthe life is leaving him
fast,
As he rises, he spouts bloodI see him swim in circles narrower and
narrower, swiftly cutting the waterI see him die;
He gives one convulsive leap in the centre of the circle, and then
falls flat and still in the bloody foam.
O the old manhood of me, my joy!
My children and grand-childrenmy white hair and beard,
My largeness, calmness, majesty, out of the long stretch of my life.
O the ripen'd joy of womanhood!
O perfect happiness at last!
I am more than eighty years of agemy hair, too, is pure whiteI am
the most venerable mother;
How clear is my mind! how all people draw nigh to me!
What attractions are these, beyond any before? what bloom, more than
the bloom of youth?
What beauty is this that descends upon me, and rises out of me?
O the orator's joys!
To inflate the chestto roll the thunder of the voice out from the
ribs and throat,
To make the people rage, weep, hate, desire, with yourself,
To lead Americato quell America with a great tongue.
O the joy of my soul leaning pois'd on itselfreceiving identity
through materials, and loving themobserving characters, and
absorbing them;
O my soul, vibrated back to me, from themfrom facts, sight,
hearing, touch, my phrenology, reason, articulation,
comparison, memory, and the like;
The real life of my senses and flesh, transcending my senses and
flesh;
My body, done with materialsmy sight, done with my material
eyes;
Proved to me this day, beyond cavil, that it is not my material
eyes which finally see,
Nor my material body which finally loves, walks, laughs, shouts,
embraces, procreates.
O the farmer's joys!
Ohioan's, Illinoisian's, Wisconsinese', Kanadian's, Iowan's,
Kansian's, Missourian's, Oregonese' joys;
To rise at peep of day, and pass forth nimbly to work,
To plow land in the fall for winter-sown crops,
To plough land in the spring for maize,
To train orchardsto graft the treesto gather apples in the fall.
O the pleasure with trees!
The orchardthe forestthe oak, cedar, pine, pekan-tree,
The honey-locust, black-walnut, cottonwood, and magnolia.
O Death! the voyage of Death!
The beautiful touch of Death, soothing and benumbing a few moments,
for reasons;
Myself, discharging my excrementitious body, to be burn'd, or
render'd to powder, or buried,
My real body doubtless left to me for other spheres,
My voided body, nothing more to me, returning to the purifications,
further offices, eternal uses of the earth.
O to bathe in the swimming-bath, or in a good place along shore!
To splash the water! to walk ankle-deepto race naked along the
shore.
O to realize space!
The plenteousness of allthat there are no bounds;
To emerge, and be of the skyof the sun and moon, and the flying
clouds, as one with them.
O the joy of a manly self-hood!
Personalityto be servile to noneto defer to nonenot to any
tyrant, known or unknown,
To walk with erect carriage, a step springy and elastic,
To look with calm gaze, or with a flashing eye,
To speak with a full and sonorous voice, out of a broad chest,
To confront with your personality all the other personalities of the
earth.
Know'st thou the excellent joys of youth?
Joys of the dear companions, and of the merry word, and laughing
face?
Joys of the glad, light-beaming dayjoy of the wide-breath'd
games?
Joy of sweet musicjoy of the lighted ball-room, and the dancers?
Joy of the friendly, plenteous dinnerthe strong carouse, and
drinking?
Yet, O my soul supreme!
Know'st thou the joys of pensive thought?
Joys of the free and lonesome heartthe tender, gloomy heart?
Joy of the solitary walkthe spirit bowed yet proudthe suffering
and the struggle?
The agonistic throes, the extasiesjoys of the solemn musings, day
or night?
Joys of the thought of Deaththe great spheres Time and Space?
Prophetic joys of better, loftier love's idealsthe Divine Wifethe
sweet, eternal, perfect Comrade?
Joys all thine own, undying onejoys worthy thee, O Soul.
O, while I live, to be the ruler of lifenot a slave,
To meet life as a powerful conqueror,
No fumesno ennuino more complaints, or scornful criticisms.
O me repellent and ugly!
To these proud laws of the air, the water, and the ground, proving my
interior Soul impregnable,
And nothing exterior shall ever take command of me.
O to attract by more than attraction!
How it is I know notyet behold! the something which obeys none of
the rest,
It is offensive, never defensiveyet how magnetic it draws.
O joy of suffering!
To struggle against great odds! to meet enemies undaunted!
To be entirely alone with them! to find how much one can stand!
To look strife, torture, prison, popular odium, death, face to face!
To mount the scaffold! to advance to the muzzles of guns with perfect
nonchalance!
To be indeed a God!
O, to sail to sea in a ship!
To leave this steady, unendurable land!
To leave the tiresome sameness of the streets, the sidewalks and the
houses;
To leave you, O you solid motionless land, and entering a ship,
To sail, and sail, and sail!
O to have my life henceforth a poem of new joys!
To dance, clap hands, exult, shout, skip, leap, roll on, float on,
To be a sailor of the world, bound for all ports,
A ship itself, (see indeed these sails I spread to the sun and air,)
A swift and swelling ship, full of rich wordsfull of joys.
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