From The Song of the Open Road
by Walt Whitman
Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.
Henceforth I ask not good-fortune---I myself am good-fortune,
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Strong and content I travel the open road.
The earth---that is sufficient,
I do not want the constellations any nearer,
I know they are very well where they are,
I know they suffice for those who belong to them.
(Still here I carry my old delicious burdens,
I carry them, men and women---I carry them with me wherever I go,
I swear it is impossible for me to get rid of them,
I am fill'd with them, and I will fill them in return.)
You road I enter upon and look around! I believe you are not all that is here,
I believe that much unseen is also here.
Here the profound lesson of reception, neither preference nor denial,
The black with his woolly head, the felon, the diseas'd, the illiterate person, are not denied;
The birth, the hasting after the physician, the beggar's tramp, the drunkard's stagger, the laughing party of mechanics,
The escaped youth, the rich person's carriage, the fop, the eloping couple,
The early market-man, the hearse, the moving of furniture into the town, the return back from the town,
They pass---I also pass---anything passes, none can be interdicted,
None but are accepted---none but shall be dear to me.
The earth expanding right hand and left hand,
The picture alive, every part in its best light,
The music falling in where it is wanted, and stopping where it is not wanted,
The cheerful voice of the public road---the gay fresh sentiment of the road.
O highway I travel! O public road! do you say to me Do not leave me?
Do you say Venture not-if you leave me you are lost?
Do you say I am already prepared---I am well-beaten and undenied---adhere to me?
O public road! I say back, I am not afraid to leave you---yet I love you,
You express me better than I can express myself,
You shall be more to me than my poem.
by Walt Whitman
Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.
Henceforth I ask not good-fortune---I myself am good-fortune,
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Strong and content I travel the open road.
The earth---that is sufficient,
I do not want the constellations any nearer,
I know they are very well where they are,
I know they suffice for those who belong to them.
(Still here I carry my old delicious burdens,
I carry them, men and women---I carry them with me wherever I go,
I swear it is impossible for me to get rid of them,
I am fill'd with them, and I will fill them in return.)
You road I enter upon and look around! I believe you are not all that is here,
I believe that much unseen is also here.
Here the profound lesson of reception, neither preference nor denial,
The black with his woolly head, the felon, the diseas'd, the illiterate person, are not denied;
The birth, the hasting after the physician, the beggar's tramp, the drunkard's stagger, the laughing party of mechanics,
The escaped youth, the rich person's carriage, the fop, the eloping couple,
The early market-man, the hearse, the moving of furniture into the town, the return back from the town,
They pass---I also pass---anything passes, none can be interdicted,
None but are accepted---none but shall be dear to me.
The earth expanding right hand and left hand,
The picture alive, every part in its best light,
The music falling in where it is wanted, and stopping where it is not wanted,
The cheerful voice of the public road---the gay fresh sentiment of the road.
O highway I travel! O public road! do you say to me Do not leave me?
Do you say Venture not-if you leave me you are lost?
Do you say I am already prepared---I am well-beaten and undenied---adhere to me?
O public road! I say back, I am not afraid to leave you---yet I love you,
You express me better than I can express myself,
You shall be more to me than my poem.
Some very interesting editing here.
Check this and see.
(sorry for the delay--busy day today)
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