Page:Leaves of Grass (1860).djvu/337

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329
Leaves of Grass.
329


TO THE SAYERS OF WORDS.



1.Earth, round, rolling, compact—suns, moons,
animals—all these are words to be said,
Watery, vegetable, sauroid advances—beings,
premonitions, lispings of the future,
Behold! these are vast words to be said.

2.Were you thinking that those were the words—those
upright lines? those curves, angles, dots?
No, those are not the words—the substantial words
are in the ground and sea,
They are in the air—they are in you.

3.Were you thinking that those were the words—those
delicious sounds out of your friends' mouths?
No, the real words are more delicious than they.

4. Human bodies are words, myriads of words,
In the best poems re-appears the body, man's or
woman's, well-shaped, natural, gay,
Every part able, active, receptive, without shame or
the need of shame.

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