Page:Leaves of Grass (1860).djvu/203





drifts! O I wish I could impress others as you and the waves
 * have just been impressing me.

As I ebbed with an ebb of the ocean of life, As I wended the shores I know, As I walked where the sea-ripples wash you, Paumanok, Where they rustle up, hoarse and sibilant, Where the fierce old mother endlessly cries for her
 * castaways,

I, musing, late in the autumn day, gazing off southward, Alone, held by the eternal self of me that threatens
 * to get the better of me, and stifle me,

Was seized by the spirit that trails in the lines
 * underfoot,

In the rim, the sediment, that stands for all the water
 * and all the land of the globe.

(195)