Page:Leaves of Grass (1860).djvu/299

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
Enfans d'Adam.
291

From the night, a moment, I, emerging, flitting out,
Celebrate you, enfans prepared for,
And you, stalwart loins.



3.

1.O my children! O mates!
O the bodies of you, and of all men and women,
engirth me, and I engirth them,
O they will not let me off, nor I them, till I go with
them, respond to them,
And respond to the contact of them, and discorrupt
them, and charge them with the charge of the
Soul.

2.Was it doubted if those who corrupt their own bodies
conceal themselves?
And if those who defile the living are as bad as they
who defile the dead?
And if the body does not do as much as the Soul?
And if the body were not the Soul, what is the Soul?

3.The love of the body of man or woman balks account
—the body itself balks account,
That of the male is perfect, and that of the female is
perfect.

4.The expression of the face balks account,
But the expression of a well made man appears not
only in his face,