Leaves of Grass (1860)/Thoughts

by Walt Whitman

Layout 2

THOUGHTS

1.

Of the visages of things—And of piercing
  through to the accepted hells beneath;
Of ugliness—To me there is just as much in it as
  there is in beauty—And now the ugliness of
  human beings is acceptable to me;
Of detected persons—To me, detected persons are
  not, in any respect, worse than undetected per-
  sons—and are not in any respect worse than I
  am myself;
Of criminals—To me, any judge, or any juror, is
  equally criminal—and any reputable person is
  also—and the President is also.

2.

Of waters, forests, hills,
Of the earth at large, whispering through medium
  of me;
Of vista—Suppose some sight in arriere, through the
  formative chaos, presuming the growth, fulness,
  life, now attained on the journey;
(But I see the road continued, and the journey ever
  continued;)
Of what was once lacking on the earth, and in due
  time has become supplied—And of what will
  yet be supplied,
Because all I see and know, I believe to have purport
  in what will yet be supplied.

3.

Of persons arrived at high positions, ceremonies,
  wealth, scholarships, and the like,
To me, all that those persons have arrived at, sinks
  away from them, except as it results to their
  bodies and Souls,
So that often to me they appear gaunt and naked,
And often, to me, each one mocks the others, and
  mocks himself or herself,
And of each one, the core of life, namely happiness,
  is full of the rotten excrement of maggots,
And often, to me, those men and women pass unwittingly
  the true realities of life, and go toward
  false realities,
And often, to me, they are alive after what custom
  has served them, but nothing more,
And often, to me, they are sad, hasty, unwaked sonnambules,
  walking the dusk.

4.

Of ownership—As if one fit to own things could not
  at pleasure enter upon all, and incorporate them
  into himself or herself;
Of Equality—As if it harmed me, giving others the
  same chances and rights as myself—As if it
  were not indispensable to my own rights that
  others possess the same;
Of Justice—As if Justice could be any thing but
  the same ample law, expounded by natural
  judges and saviours,
As if it might be this thing or that thing, according
  to decisions.

5.

As I sit with others, at a great feast, suddenly, while
  the music is playing,
To my mind, (whence it comes I know not,) spectral,
  in mist, of a wreck at sea,
Of the flower of the marine science of fifty generations,
  foundered off the Northeast coast, and
  going down—Of the steamship Arctic going
  down,
Of the veiled tableau—Women gathered together
  on deck, pale, heroic, waiting the moment that
  draws so close—O the moment!
O the huge sob—A few bubbles—the white foam
  spirting up—And then the women gone,
Sinking there, while the passionless wet flows on—
  And I now pondering, Are those women indeed
  gone?
Are Souls drowned and destroyed so?
Is only matter triumphant?

6.

Of what I write from myself—As if that were not
  the resumé;
Of Histories—As if such, however complete, were
  not less complete than my poems;
As if the shreds, the records of nations, could possibly be
  as lasting as my poems;
As if here were not the amount of all nations, and of all the
  lives of heroes.

7.

Of obedience, faith, adhesiveness;
As I stand aloof and look, there is to me something
  profoundly affecting in large masses of men,
  following the lead of those who do not believe in
  men.