Page:Leaves of Grass (1855).djvu/45

Rh How the skipper saw the crowded and rudderless wreck of the steamship, and death chasing it up and down the storm, How he knuckled tight and gave not back one inch, and was faithful of days and faithful of nights, And chalked in large letters on a board, Be of good cheer, We will not desert you; How he saved the drifting company at last, How the lank loose-gowned women looked when boated from the side of their prepared graves, How the silent old-faced infants, and the lifted sick, and the sharp-lipped unshaved men; All this I swallow and it tastes good .... I like it well, and it becomes mine, I am the man .... I suffered .... I was there.

The disdain and calmness of martyrs, The mother condemned for a witch and burnt with dry wood, and her children gazing on; The hounded slave that flags in the race and leans by the fence, blowing and covered with sweat, The twinges that sting like needles his legs and neck, The murderous buckshot and the bullets, All these I feel or am.

I am the hounded slave .... I wince at the bite of the dogs, Hell and despair are upon me .... crack and again crack the marksmen, I clutch the rails of the fence .... my gore dribs thinned with the ooze of my skin, I fall on the weeds and stones, The riders spur their unwilling horses and haul close, They taunt my dizzy ears .... they beat me violently over the head with their whip-stocks.

Agonies are one of my changes of garments; I do not ask the wounded person how he feels .... I myself become the wounded person, My hurt turns livid upon me as I lean on a cane and observe.

I am the mashed fireman with breastbone broken .... tumbling walls buried me in their debris, Heat and smoke I inspired .... I heard the yelling shouts of my comrades, I heard the distant click of their picks and shovels; They have cleared the beams away .... they tenderly lift me forth.

I lie in the night air in my red shirt .... the pervading hush is for my sake, Painless after all I lie, exhausted but not so unhappy, White and beautiful are the faces around me .... the heads are bared of their fire-caps, The kneeling crowd fades with the light of the torches.