Page:Poems that every child should know (ed. Burt, 1904).djvu/382

344 Song of Myself.

myself, and sing myself,

And what I assume you shall assume,

For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

I loafe and invite my soul,

I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.

My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this soil, this air,

Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same,

I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,

Hoping to cease not till death.

I hail or for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard,

Nature without check with original energy.

Have you reckon'd a thousand acres much? have you reckon'd the earth much?

Have you practised so long to learn to read?

Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?