The sea is not surer of the shore, or the shore of the sea,
than he is of the fruition of his love, and of all perfection and beauty.
than he is of the fruition of his love, and of all perfection and beauty.
Whitman
This is what
you shall do: love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give
alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your
income and labour to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have
patience and indulgence towards the people, take off your hat to nothing
known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful
uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families,
read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life,
re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book,
dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a
great poem, and have the richest fluency, not only in its words, but in the
silent lines of its lips and face, and between the lashes of your eyes, and
in every motion and joint of your body. The poet shall not spend his time
in unneeded work. He shall know that the ground is always ready ploughed
and manured: others may not know it, but he shall. He shall go directly to
the creation. His trust shall master the trust of everything he touches,
and shall master all attachment.
The known universe has one complete lover, and that is the greatest poet.
He consumes an eternal passion, and is indifferent which chance happens,
and which possible contingency of fortune or misfortune, and persuades
daily and hourly his delicious pay. What balks or breaks others is fuel for
his burning progress to contact and amorous joy. Other proportions of the
reception of pleasure dwindle to nothing to his proportions. All expected
from heaven or from the highest he is rapport with in the sight of the
daybreak, or a scene of the winter woods, or the presence of children
playing, or with his arm round the neck of a man or woman. His love, above
all love, has leisure and expanse--he leaves room ahead of himself. He is
no irresolute or suspicious lover--he is sure--he scorns intervals. His
experience and the showers and thrills are not for nothing. Nothing can jar
him: suffering and darkness cannot--death and fear cannot. To him complaint
and jealousy and envy are corpses buried and rotten in the earth--he saw
them buried.
The sea is not surer of the shore, or the shore of the sea,
than he is of the fruition of his love, and of all perfection and beauty.
The fruition of beauty is no chance of hit or miss--it is inevitable as
life--it is exact and plumb as gravitation. From the eyesight proceeds
another eyesight, and from the hearing proceeds another hearing, and from
the voice proceeds another voice, eternally curious of the harmony of
things with man. To these respond perfections, not only in the committees
that were supposed to stand for the rest, but in the rest themselves just
the same. These understand the law of perfection in masses and floods--that
its finish is to each for itself and onward from itself--that it is profuse
and impartial--that there is not a minute of the light or dark, nor an acre
of the earth or sea, without it--nor any direction of the sky, nor any
trade or employment, nor any turn of events. This is the reason that about
the proper expression of beauty there is precision and balance,--one part
does not need to be thrust above another. The best singer is not the one
who has the most lithe and powerful organ: the pleasure of poems is not in
them that take the handsomest measure and similes and sound.
Without effort, and without exposing in the least how it is done, the
greatest poet brings the spirit of any or all events and passions and
scenes and persons, some more and some less, to bear on your individual
character, as you hear or read. To do this well is to compete with the laws
that pursue and follow time. What is the purpose must surely be there, and
the clue of it must be there; and the faintest indication is the indication
of the best, and then becomes the clearest indication. Past and present and
future are not disjoined, but joined. The greatest poet forms the
consistence of what is to be from what has been and is. He drags the dead
out of their coffins, and stands them again on their feet: he says to the
past, Rise and walk before me that I may realise you. He learns the
lesson--he places himself where the future becomes present. The greatest
poet does not only dazzle his rays over character and scenes and
passions,--he finally ascends and finishes all: he exhibits the pinnacles
that no man can tell what they are for or what is beyond--he glows a moment
on the extremest verge. He is most wonderful in his last half-hidden smile
or frown: by that flash of the moment of parting the one that sees it shall
be encouraged or terrified afterward for many years.
you shall do: love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give
alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your
income and labour to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have
patience and indulgence towards the people, take off your hat to nothing
known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful
uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families,
read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life,
re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book,
dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a
great poem, and have the richest fluency, not only in its words, but in the
silent lines of its lips and face, and between the lashes of your eyes, and
in every motion and joint of your body. The poet shall not spend his time
in unneeded work. He shall know that the ground is always ready ploughed
and manured: others may not know it, but he shall. He shall go directly to
the creation. His trust shall master the trust of everything he touches,
and shall master all attachment.
The known universe has one complete lover, and that is the greatest poet.
He consumes an eternal passion, and is indifferent which chance happens,
and which possible contingency of fortune or misfortune, and persuades
daily and hourly his delicious pay. What balks or breaks others is fuel for
his burning progress to contact and amorous joy. Other proportions of the
reception of pleasure dwindle to nothing to his proportions. All expected
from heaven or from the highest he is rapport with in the sight of the
daybreak, or a scene of the winter woods, or the presence of children
playing, or with his arm round the neck of a man or woman. His love, above
all love, has leisure and expanse--he leaves room ahead of himself. He is
no irresolute or suspicious lover--he is sure--he scorns intervals. His
experience and the showers and thrills are not for nothing. Nothing can jar
him: suffering and darkness cannot--death and fear cannot. To him complaint
and jealousy and envy are corpses buried and rotten in the earth--he saw
them buried.
The sea is not surer of the shore, or the shore of the sea,
than he is of the fruition of his love, and of all perfection and beauty.
The fruition of beauty is no chance of hit or miss--it is inevitable as
life--it is exact and plumb as gravitation. From the eyesight proceeds
another eyesight, and from the hearing proceeds another hearing, and from
the voice proceeds another voice, eternally curious of the harmony of
things with man. To these respond perfections, not only in the committees
that were supposed to stand for the rest, but in the rest themselves just
the same. These understand the law of perfection in masses and floods--that
its finish is to each for itself and onward from itself--that it is profuse
and impartial--that there is not a minute of the light or dark, nor an acre
of the earth or sea, without it--nor any direction of the sky, nor any
trade or employment, nor any turn of events. This is the reason that about
the proper expression of beauty there is precision and balance,--one part
does not need to be thrust above another. The best singer is not the one
who has the most lithe and powerful organ: the pleasure of poems is not in
them that take the handsomest measure and similes and sound.
Without effort, and without exposing in the least how it is done, the
greatest poet brings the spirit of any or all events and passions and
scenes and persons, some more and some less, to bear on your individual
character, as you hear or read. To do this well is to compete with the laws
that pursue and follow time. What is the purpose must surely be there, and
the clue of it must be there; and the faintest indication is the indication
of the best, and then becomes the clearest indication. Past and present and
future are not disjoined, but joined. The greatest poet forms the
consistence of what is to be from what has been and is. He drags the dead
out of their coffins, and stands them again on their feet: he says to the
past, Rise and walk before me that I may realise you. He learns the
lesson--he places himself where the future becomes present. The greatest
poet does not only dazzle his rays over character and scenes and
passions,--he finally ascends and finishes all: he exhibits the pinnacles
that no man can tell what they are for or what is beyond--he glows a moment
on the extremest verge. He is most wonderful in his last half-hidden smile
or frown: by that flash of the moment of parting the one that sees it shall
be encouraged or terrified afterward for many years.
