Page:Leaves of Grass (1860).djvu/91

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Leaves of Grass.
83

256.Our swift ordinances are on their way over the whole
earth,
The blossoms we wear in our hats are the growth of
two thousand years.

257.Élèves, I salute you!
I see the approach of your numberless gangs—I see
you understand yourselves and me,
And know that they who have eyes and can walk are
divine, and the blind and lame are equally divine,
And that my steps drag behind yours, yet go before
them,
And are aware how I am with you no more than I am
with everybody.

258.The friendly and flowing savage, Who is he?
Is he waiting for civilization, or past it and mastering it?

259.Is he some south-westerner, raised out-doors? Is he
Kanadian?
Is he from the Mississippi country? Iowa, Oregon,
California? the mountains? prairie-life, bush-
life? or from the sea?

260.Wherever he goes men and women accept and desire
him,
They desire he should like them, touch them, speak
to them, stay with them.

261.Behavior lawless as snow-flakes, words simple as
grass, uncombed head, laughter, and naïveté,
Slow-stepping feet, common features, common modes
and emanations,