Page:Leaves of Grass (1860).djvu/53

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Leaves of Grass.
45

A prisoner, fancy-man, rowdy, lawyer, physician,
priest.

79.I resist anything better than my own diversity,
And breathe the air, and leave plenty after me,
And am not stuck up, and am in my place.

80.The moth and the fish-eggs are in their place.
The suns I see, and the suns I cannot see, are in their
place,
The palpable is in its place, and the impalpable is in
its place.

81.These are the thoughts of all men in all ages and
lands—they are not original with me,
If they are not yours as much as mine, they are
nothing, or next to nothing,
If they do not enclose everything, they are next to
nothing,
If they are not the riddle and the untying of the
riddle, they are nothing,
If they are not just as close as they are distant, they
are nothing.

82.This is the grass that grows wherever the land is
and the water is,
This is the common air that bathes the globe.

83.This is the breath for America, because it is my breath,
This is for laws, songs, behavior,
This is the tasteless water of Souls—this is the true
sustenance.