Whitman

Whitman

Allons! whoever you are! come forth!

You must not stay sleeping and dallying there in the house, though

you built it, or though it has been built for you.

Allons! out of the dark confinement!

It is useless to protest--I know all, and expose it.

Behold, through you as bad as the rest,

Through the laughter, dancing, dining, supping, of people, 200

Inside of dresses and ornaments, inside of those wash'd and trimm'd

faces,

Behold a secret silent loathing and despair.

No husband, no wife, no friend, trusted to hear the confession;

Another self, a duplicate of every one, skulking and hiding it goes,

Formless and wordless through the streets of the cities, polite and

bland in the parlors,

In the cars of rail-roads, in steamboats, in the public assembly,

Home to the houses of men and women,

atWhitman, the Song of the open road

8

The efflux of the Soul is happiness--here is happiness;

I think it pervades the open air, waiting at all times;

Now it flows unto us--we are rightly charged.

Here rises the fluid and attaching character;

The fluid and attaching character is the freshness and sweetness of

man and woman; 110

(The herbs of the morning sprout no fresher and sweeter every day out

of the roots of themselves, than it sprouts fresh and sweet

continually out of itself.)