Page:Leaves of Grass (1860).djvu/460

452 When fathers, firm, unconstrained, open-eyed—When
 * breeds of the most perfect mothers denote
 * America,

Then to me ripeness and conclusion.

Yet not me, after all—let none be content with me, I myself seek a man better than I am, or a woman
 * better than I am,

I invite defiance, and to make myself superseded, All I have done, I would cheerfully give to be trod
 * under foot, if it might only be the soil of superior
 * poems.

I have established nothing for good, I have but established these things, till things farther
 * onward shall be prepared to be established,

And I am myself the preparer of things farther
 * onward.

I have pressed through in my own right, I have offered my style to every one—I have journeyed
 * with confident step,

While my pleasure is yet at the full, I whisper
 * So long,

And take the young woman's hand, and the young
 * man's hand, for the last time.

Once more I enforce you to give play to yourself—
 * and not depend on me, or on any one but
 * yourself,

Once more I proclaim the whole of America for each
 * individual, without exception.