1 00:00:09,232 --> 00:00:10,874 Hi, I'm Alicia. 2 00:00:10,874 --> 00:00:15,442 I'm reading "Song of Myself" from "Leaves of Grass", by Walt Whitman. 3 00:00:21,089 --> 00:00:22,983 I celebrate myself, 4 00:00:22,983 --> 00:00:24,974 And what I assume you shell assume, 5 00:00:24,974 --> 00:00:28,087 For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. 6 00:00:29,594 --> 00:00:31,333 I loafe and invite my soul, 7 00:00:31,333 --> 00:00:36,145 I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass. 8 00:00:37,069 --> 00:00:40,205 Houses and rooms are full of perfumes, 9 00:00:40,344 --> 00:00:42,947 the shelves are crowded with perfumes, 10 00:00:42,947 --> 00:00:46,822 I breathe the fragrance myself and I know it and like it, 11 00:00:46,960 --> 00:00:51,450 The distillation would intoxicate me also, but I shall not let it. 12 00:00:52,773 --> 00:00:58,224 The atmosphere is not a perfume, it has no taste of the distillation, it is odorless, 13 00:00:58,809 --> 00:01:01,383 It is for my mouth forever, 14 00:01:01,998 --> 00:01:04,129 I am in love with it, 15 00:01:04,252 --> 00:01:08,401 I will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised and naked, 16 00:01:08,540 --> 00:01:11,716 I am mad for it to be in contact with me. 17 00:01:11,854 --> 00:01:14,504 The smoke of my own breath, 18 00:01:14,504 --> 00:01:17,398 Echoes, ripples, the buzz’d whispers, 19 00:01:17,398 --> 00:01:21,369 love-root, silk-thread, crotch and vine, 20 00:01:22,138 --> 00:01:26,256 My respiration and inspiration, the beating of my heart, 21 00:01:26,394 --> 00:01:30,124 the passing of blood and air through my lungs, 22 00:01:30,124 --> 00:01:33,237 The sniff of green leaves and dry leaves, 23 00:01:33,237 --> 00:01:37,662 and of the shore and dark-color’d sea-rocks, and the hay in the barn, 24 00:01:37,662 --> 00:01:42,929 The sound of the belch’d words of my voice, words loos’d to the eddies of the wind, 25 00:01:42,929 --> 00:01:46,472 A few light kisses, a few embraces, 26 00:01:46,472 --> 00:01:48,931 a reaching around of arms, 27 00:01:48,931 --> 00:01:53,221 The play of shine and shade on the trees as the supple boughs wag, 28 00:01:53,221 --> 00:01:56,271 The delight alone or in the rush of the streets, 29 00:01:56,271 --> 00:01:58,803 or along the fields and hill-sides, 30 00:01:59,003 --> 00:02:01,139 The feeling of health, 31 00:02:01,308 --> 00:02:06,152 the full-noon trill, the song of me rising from bed and meeting the sun. 32 00:02:06,291 --> 00:02:09,370 Have you reckon’d a thousand acres much? 33 00:02:09,370 --> 00:02:11,669 have you reckon’d the earth much? 34 00:02:11,669 --> 00:02:17,378 Have you practis’d so long to learn to read? Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems? 35 00:02:17,502 --> 00:02:22,443 Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all poems, 36 00:02:22,582 --> 00:02:27,094 You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, (there are millions of suns left,) 37 00:02:27,263 --> 00:02:31,227 You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, 38 00:02:31,227 --> 00:02:35,751 nor look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books, 39 00:02:35,920 --> 00:02:39,747 You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me, 40 00:02:39,885 --> 00:02:43,569 You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self. 41 00:02:45,522 --> 00:02:50,899 I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the beginning and the end, 42 00:02:51,237 --> 00:02:53,763 But I do not talk of the beginning or the end. 43 00:02:53,886 --> 00:02:57,357 There was never any more inception than there is now, 44 00:02:57,495 --> 00:03:01,637 Nor any more youth or age than there is now, 45 00:03:04,728 --> 00:03:07,854 And will never be any more perfection than there is now, 46 00:03:07,854 --> 00:03:10,973 Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now. 47 00:03:11,250 --> 00:03:14,203 Urge and urge and urge, 48 00:03:14,372 --> 00:03:17,175 Always the procreant urge of the world. 49 00:03:17,743 --> 00:03:21,333 Out of the dimness opposite equals advance, 50 00:03:21,333 --> 00:03:23,716 always substance and increase, 51 00:03:23,716 --> 00:03:26,112 Always a knit of identity, 52 00:03:26,112 --> 00:03:28,040 always distinction, 53 00:03:28,040 --> 00:03:30,036 always a breed of life. 54 00:03:30,944 --> 00:03:32,978 To elaborate is no avail, 55 00:03:32,978 --> 00:03:35,620 learn’d and unlearn’d feel that it is so. 56 00:03:35,836 --> 00:03:41,794 Sure as the most certain sure, plumb in the uprights, well entretied, braced in the beams, 57 00:03:41,948 --> 00:03:45,203 Stout as a horse, affectionate, haughty, electrical, 58 00:03:45,356 --> 00:03:48,036 I and this mystery here we stand. 59 00:03:48,174 --> 00:03:50,342 Clear and sweet is my soul, 60 00:03:50,342 --> 00:03:54,033 and clear and sweet is all that is not my soul. 61 00:03:54,033 --> 00:03:57,368 Lack one lacks both, and the unseen is proved by the seen, 62 00:03:57,368 --> 00:04:01,079 Till that becomes unseen and receives proof in its turn. 63 00:04:01,279 --> 00:04:06,001 Showing the best and dividing it from the worst age vexes age, 64 00:04:06,216 --> 00:04:09,674 Knowing the perfect fitness and equanimity of things, 65 00:04:09,674 --> 00:04:14,901 while they discuss I am silent, and go bathe and admire myself. 66 00:04:16,594 --> 00:04:21,533 Welcome is every organ and attribute of me, and of any man hearty and clean, 67 00:04:21,533 --> 00:04:24,584 Not an inch nor a particle of an inch is vile, 68 00:04:24,584 --> 00:04:27,649 and none shall be less familiar than the rest. 69 00:04:28,449 --> 00:04:32,506 I am satisfied — I see, dance, laugh, sing; 70 00:04:33,106 --> 00:04:37,100 As God comes a loving bedfellow and sleeps at my side 71 00:04:37,362 --> 00:04:40,489 all night and close on the peep of the day 72 00:04:40,643 --> 00:04:44,146 And leaves for me baskets cover’d with white towels 73 00:04:44,146 --> 00:04:46,736 bulging the house with their plenty, 74 00:04:46,736 --> 00:04:52,578 Shall I postpone my acceptation and realization and scream at my eyes, 75 00:04:52,809 --> 00:04:55,652 That they turn from gazing after and down the road, 76 00:04:55,652 --> 00:04:59,167 And forthwith cipher and show me to a cent, 77 00:04:59,444 --> 00:05:06,533 Exactly the contents of one and exactly the contents of two, and which is ahead? 78 00:05:09,487 --> 00:05:12,439 Trippers and askers surround me, 79 00:05:12,778 --> 00:05:18,513 People I meet, the effect upon me of my early life and the ward and the city I live in, 80 00:05:18,513 --> 00:05:20,522 of the nation, 81 00:05:20,522 --> 00:05:23,454 The latest news, discoveries, 82 00:05:23,454 --> 00:05:26,690 inventions, societies, authors old and new, 83 00:05:27,198 --> 00:05:32,326 My dinner, dress, associates, looks, business, compliments, dues, 84 00:05:32,665 --> 00:05:36,942 The real or fancied indifference of some man or woman I love, 85 00:05:37,327 --> 00:05:40,686 The sickness of one of my folks or of myself, 86 00:05:40,686 --> 00:05:42,687 or ill-doing 87 00:05:42,687 --> 00:05:44,889 or loss or lack of money, 88 00:05:45,320 --> 00:05:48,892 or depressions or exaltations, 89 00:05:49,215 --> 00:05:52,327 They come to me days and nights and go from me again, 90 00:05:52,327 --> 00:05:54,426 But they are not the Me myself. 91 00:05:58,350 --> 00:06:01,844 Apart from the pulling and hauling stands what I am, 92 00:06:01,844 --> 00:06:07,079 Stands amused, complacent, compassionating, idle, unitary, 93 00:06:07,603 --> 00:06:09,695 Looks down, is erect, 94 00:06:11,788 --> 00:06:15,516 bends an arm on an impalpable certain rest, 95 00:06:15,731 --> 00:06:20,509 Looks with its side-curved head curious what will come next, 96 00:06:20,509 --> 00:06:24,880 Both in and out of the game and watching and wondering at it. 97 00:06:31,865 --> 00:06:37,726 Backward I see in my own days where I sweated through fog with linguists and contenders, 98 00:06:37,726 --> 00:06:41,849 I have no mockings or arguments, I witness and wait. 99 00:06:43,157 --> 00:06:48,287 I believe in you my soul, the other I am must not abase itself to you, 100 00:06:48,287 --> 00:06:50,508 And you must not be abased to the other. 101 00:06:51,278 --> 00:06:53,279 Loafe with me on the grass, 102 00:06:53,279 --> 00:06:55,297 loose the stop from your throat, 103 00:06:56,236 --> 00:06:58,688 Not words, not music or rhyme I want, 104 00:06:58,688 --> 00:07:01,497 not custom or lecture, not even the best, 105 00:07:03,097 --> 00:07:06,790 Only the lull I like, the hum of your valved voice. 106 00:07:08,529 --> 00:07:12,902 I mind how we lay in June, such a transparent summer morning; 107 00:07:15,241 --> 00:07:20,097 You settled your head athwart my hips and gently turn’d over upon me, 108 00:07:21,682 --> 00:07:27,551 And parted the shirt from my bosom-bone, and plunged your tongue to my bare-stript heart, 109 00:07:27,551 --> 00:07:32,498 And reach’d till you felt my beard, and reach’d till you held my feet. 110 00:07:37,699 --> 00:07:44,938 Swiftly arose and spread around me the peace and joy and knowledge that pass all the art and argument of the earth, 111 00:07:44,938 --> 00:07:48,215 And I knwow that the hand of God is the the elderhand of my own, 112 00:07:48,215 --> 00:07:50,270 And I know that the spirit of God 113 00:07:51,195 --> 00:07:53,566 is the eldest brother of my own 114 00:07:53,797 --> 00:07:57,476 And that all the men ever born are also my brothers, 115 00:07:58,569 --> 00:08:02,037 and the women my sisters and lovers, 116 00:08:02,037 --> 00:08:04,714 And that a kelson of the creation is love, 117 00:08:05,345 --> 00:08:08,829 And limitless are leaves stiff or drooping in the fields, 118 00:08:08,829 --> 00:08:13,104 And brown ants in the little wells beneath them, 119 00:08:13,104 --> 00:08:19,219 And mossy scabs of the worm fence, and heap’d stones, and elder and mullein and poke-weed. 120 00:08:21,004 --> 00:08:25,899 A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands; 121 00:08:26,637 --> 00:08:29,038 How could I answer the child? 122 00:08:29,422 --> 00:08:32,133 I do not know what it is any more than he. 123 00:08:34,595 --> 00:08:39,485 I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven. 124 00:08:40,731 --> 00:08:43,545 Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord, 125 00:08:43,699 --> 00:08:47,982 A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropt, 126 00:08:55,122 --> 00:09:00,875 Bearing the owner’s name someway in the corners, that we may see and remark, and say Whose? 127 00:09:02,199 --> 00:09:06,945 Or I guess the grass is itself a child, the produced babe of the vegetation. 128 00:09:09,022 --> 00:09:11,650 Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic, 129 00:09:12,727 --> 00:09:16,878 And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow zones, 130 00:09:17,294 --> 00:09:20,115 Growing among black folks as among white, 131 00:09:20,900 --> 00:09:27,108 Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the same, I receive them the same. 132 00:09:29,232 --> 00:09:33,249 And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves. 133 00:09:35,957 --> 00:09:38,569 Tenderly will I use you curling grass, 134 00:09:38,831 --> 00:09:42,280 It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men, 135 00:09:44,234 --> 00:09:47,291 It may be if I had known them I would have loved them, 136 00:09:47,383 --> 00:09:53,432 It may be you are from old people, and from women, and from offspring taken soon out of their mothers’ laps, 137 00:09:55,540 --> 00:09:57,499 And here you are the mothers’ laps. 138 00:09:58,530 --> 00:10:01,967 This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old mothers, 139 00:10:09,523 --> 00:10:12,102 Darker than the colorless beards of old men, 140 00:10:12,256 --> 00:10:16,832 Dark to come from under the faint red roofs of mouths. 141 00:10:19,617 --> 00:10:22,983 O I perceive after all so many uttering tongues, 142 00:10:22,983 --> 00:10:27,170 And I perceive they do not come from the roofs of mouths for nothing. 143 00:11:21,637 --> 00:11:22,810 Done. 144 00:11:22,886 --> 00:11:25,274 Alicia. "Leaves of Grass". 145 00:11:34,614 --> 00:11:35,970 Hey...