From
Leaves of Grass, by
Walt Whitman:
We two, how long we were
fool'd,
Now transmuted, we swiftly escape as
Nature escapes,
We are Nature, long have we been absent, but now we return,
We become plants, trunks, foliage, roots, bark,
We are bedded in the ground, we are rocks,
We are
oaks, we grow in the openings side by side,
We browse, we are two among the wild herds spontaneous as any,
We are two fishes swimming in the sea together,
We are what locust
blossoms are, we drop scent around lanes mornings and evenings,
We are also the coarse smut of
beasts, vegetables, minerals,
We are two predatory hawks, we soar above and look down,
We are two resplendent suns, we it is who balance ourselves orbic and stellar, we are as two
comets,
We prowl
fang'd and four-footed in the woods, we spring on prey,
We are two clouds forenoons and afternoons driving over-head,
We are seas mingling, we are two of those cheerful waves rolling over each other and interwetting each other,
We are what the atmosphere is, transparent, receptive,
pervious, impervious,
We are snow, rain, cold, darkness, we are each product and influence of the globe,
We have circled and circled till we have arrived home again, we
two,
We have voided all but
freedom and all but our own
joy.