One's-Self I Sing
One's-self I sing, a simple separate person, / Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-Masse.
When I Persue the Conquer'd Fame
❦
When I peruse the conquer'd fame of heroes and the victories of
mighty generals, I do not envy the generals,
Nor the President in his Presidency, nor the rich in his great house,
But when I hear of the brotherhood of lovers, how it was with them,
How together through life, through dangers, odium, unchanging, long
and long,
Through youth and through middle and old age, how unfaltering, how
affectionate and faithful they were,
Then I am pensive--I hastily walk away fill'd with the bitterest envy.
More poems by Walt Whitman
Full of Life Now
Full of life now, compact, visible, / I, forty years old the eighty-third year of the States,
Not Heat Flames Up and Consumes
Not heat flames up and consumes, / Not sea-waves hurry in and out,
I Hear It Was Charged Against Me
I hear it was charged against me that I sought to destroy institutions, / But really I am neither for nor against institutions,