Page:Leaves of Grass (1860).djvu/227

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Leaves of Grass.
219


8.

1.What shall I give? and which are my miracles?

2.Realism is mine—my miracles—Take freely,
Take without end—I offer them to you wherever
your feet can carry you, or your eyes reach.

3.Why! who makes much of a miracle?
As to me, I know of nothing else but miracles,
Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,
Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the
sky,
Or wade with naked feet along the beach, just in the
edge of the water,
Or stand under trees in the woods,
Or talk by day with any one I love—or sleep in the
bed at night with any one I love,
Or sit at the table at dinner with my mother,
Or look at strangers opposite me riding in the car,
Or watch honey-bees busy around the hive, of a summer
forenoon,
Or animals feeding in the fields,
Or birds—or the wonderfulness of insects in the air,
Or the wonderfulness of the sun-down—or of stars
shining so quiet and bright,
Or the exquisite, delicate, thin curve of the new-moon
in spring;
Or whether I go among those I like best, and that like
me best—mechanics, boatmen, farmers,