Your mother .... is she living? .... Have you been much with her? and has she been much with you?
Do you not see that these are exactly the same to all in all nations and times all over the earth?
If life and the soul are sacred the human body is sacred;
And the glory and sweet of a man is the token of manhood untainted,
And in man or woman a clean strong firmfibred body is beautiful as the most beautiful face.
Have you seen the fool that corrupted his own live body? or the fool that corrupted her own live body?
For they do not conceal themselves, and cannot conceal themselves.
Who degrades or defiles the living human body is cursed,
Who degrades or defiles the body of the dead is not more cursed.
Leaves of Grass.
Sauntering the pavement or riding the country byroad here then are faces,
Faces of friendship, precision, caution, suavity, ideality,
The spiritual prescient face, the always welcome common benevolent face,
The face of the singing of music, the grand faces of natural lawyers and judges broad at the backtop,
The faces of hunters and fishers, bulged at the brows .... the shaved blanched faces of orthodox citizens,
The pure extravagant yearning questioning artist’s face,
The welcome ugly face of some beautiful soul .... the handsome detested or despised face,
The sacred faces of infants .... the illuminated face of the mother of many children,
