Page:Leaves of Grass (1860).djvu/448

440



To think of it! To think of time—of all that retrospection! To think of to-day, and the ages continued henceforward!

Have you guessed you yourself would not continue? Have you dreaded those earth-beetles? Have you feared the future would be nothing to you?

Is to-day nothing? Is the beginningless past nothing? If the future is nothing, they are just as surely
 * nothing.

To think that the sun rose in the east! that men
 * and women were flexible, real, alive! that everything
 * was alive!

To think that you and I did not see, feel, think, nor
 * bear our part!

To think that we are now here, and bear our part!

Not a day passes—not a minute or second, without
 * an accouchment!

Not a day passes—not a minute or second, without a
 * corpse!

The dull nights go over, and the dull days also, The soreness of lying so much in bed goes over, (440)