Page:Leaves of Grass (1860).djvu/159

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Chants Democratic.
151

The ankle-chain of the slave, the bed of the bedhouse,
the cards of the gambler, the plates of
the forger,
What is seen or learnt in the street, or intuitively
learnt,
What is learnt in the public school, spelling, reading,
writing, ciphering, the black-board, the teacher's
diagrams,
The panes of the windows, all that appears through
them, the going forth in the morning, the aimless
spending of the day,
(What is it that you made money? What is it that you
got what you wanted?)
The usual routine, the work-shop, factory, yard, office,
store, desk,
The jaunt of hunting or fishing, and the life of hunting
or fishing,
Pasture-life, foddering, milking, herding, and all the
personnel and usages,
The plum-orchard, apple-orchard, gardening, seedlings,
cuttings, flowers, vines,
Grains, manures, marl, clay, loam, the subsoil
plough, the shovel, pick, rake, hoe, irrigation,
draining,
The curry-comb, the horse-cloth, the halter, bridle,
bits, the very wisps of straw,
The barn and barn-yard, the bins, mangers, mows,
racks,
Manufactures, commerce, engineering, the building of
cities, every trade carried on there, and the
implements of every trade,
The anvil, tongs, hammer, the axe and wedge, the
square, mitre, jointer, smoothing-plane,