Complete Works. Walt Whitman

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Complete Works - Walt Whitman

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taking no interest in them.

      To think how eager we are in building our houses,

       To think others shall be just as eager, and we quite indifferent.

      (I see one building the house that serves him a few years, or

       seventy or eighty years at most,

       I see one building the house that serves him longer than that.)

      Slow-moving and black lines creep over the whole earth — they never

       cease — they are the burial lines,

       He that was President was buried, and he that is now President shall

       surely be buried.

       4

       A reminiscence of the vulgar fate,

       A frequent sample of the life and death of workmen,

       Each after his kind.

      Cold dash of waves at the ferry-wharf, posh and ice in the river,

       half-frozen mud in the streets,

       A gray discouraged sky overhead, the short last daylight of December,

       A hearse and stages, the funeral of an old Broadway stage-driver,

       the cortege mostly drivers.

      Steady the trot to the cemetery, duly rattles the death-bell,

       The gate is pass’d, the new-dug grave is halted at, the living

       alight, the hearse uncloses,

       The coffin is pass’d out, lower’d and settled, the whip is laid on

       the coffin, the earth is swiftly shovel’d in,

       The mound above is flatted with the spades — silence,

       A minute — no one moves or speaks — it is done,

       He is decently put away — is there any thing more?

      He was a good fellow, free-mouth’d, quick-temper’d, not bad-looking,

       Ready with life or death for a friend, fond of women, gambled, ate

       hearty, drank hearty,

       Had known what it was to be flush, grew low-spirited toward the

       last, sicken’d, was help’d by a contribution,

       Died, aged forty-one years — and that was his funeral.

      Thumb extended, finger uplifted, apron, cape, gloves, strap,

       wet-weather clothes, whip carefully chosen,

       Boss, spotter, starter, hostler, somebody loafing on you, you

       loafing on somebody, headway, man before and man behind,

       Good day’s work, bad day’s work, pet stock, mean stock, first out,

       last out, turning-in at night,

       To think that these are so much and so nigh to other drivers, and he

       there takes no interest in them.

      5

       The markets, the government, the working-man’s wages, to think what

       account they are through our nights and days,

       To think that other working-men will make just as great account of

       them, yet we make little or no account.

      The vulgar and the refined, what you call sin and what you call

       goodness, to think how wide a difference,

       To think the difference will still continue to others, yet we lie

       beyond the difference.

      To think how much pleasure there is,

       Do you enjoy yourself in the city? or engaged in business? or

       planning a nomination and election? or with your wife and family?

       Or with your mother and sisters? or in womanly housework? or the

       beautiful maternal cares?

       These also flow onward to others, you and I flow onward,

       But in due time you and I shall take less interest in them.

      Your farm, profits, crops — to think how engross’d you are,

       To think there will still be farms, profits, crops, yet for you of

       what avail?

      6

       What will be will be well, for what is is well,

       To take interest is well, and not to take interest shall be well.

      The domestic joys, the dally housework or business, the building of

       houses, are not phantasms, they have weight, form, location,

       Farms, profits, crops, markets, wages, government, are none of them

       phantasms,

       The difference between sin and goodness is no delusion,

       The earth is not an echo, man and his life and all the things of his

       life are well-consider’d.

      You are not thrown to the winds, you gather certainly and safely

       around yourself,

       Yourself! yourself!. yourself, for ever and ever!

      7

       It is not to diffuse you that you were born of your mother and

       father, it is to identify you,

       It is not that you should be undecided, but that you should be decided,

       Something long preparing and formless is arrived and form’d in you,

       You are henceforth secure, whatever comes or goes.

      The threads that were spun are gather’d, the wet crosses the warp,

       the pattern is systematic.

      The preparations have every one been justified,

       The orchestra have sufficiently tuned their instruments, the baton

       has given the signal.

      The guest that was coming, he waited long, he is now housed,

      

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