Page:Leaves of Grass (1860).djvu/435

Rh The sisters sleep lovingly side by side in their bed, The men sleep lovingly side by side in theirs, And the mother sleeps, with her little child carefully
 * wrapped.

The blind sleep, and the deaf and dumb sleep, The prisoner sleeps well in the prison—the runaway
 * son sleeps,

The murderer that is to be hung next day—how
 * does he sleep?

And the murdered person—how does he sleep?

The female that loves unrequited sleeps, And the male that loves unrequited sleeps, The head of the money-maker that plotted all day
 * sleeps,

And the enraged and treacherous dispositions—
 * all, all sleep.

I stand in the dark with drooping eyes by the worst-suffering
 * and the most restless,

I pass my hands soothingly to and fro a few inches
 * from them,

The restless sink in their beds—they fitfully sleep.

Now I pierce the darkness—new beings appear, The earth recedes from me into the night, I saw that it was beautiful, and I see that what is not
 * the earth is beautiful.

I go from bedside to bedside—I sleep close with
 * the other sleepers, each in turn,

I dream in my dream all the dreams of the other
 * dreamers.

And I become the other dreamers.