Cayden Clark-Johnson’s Reviews > Leaves of Grass > Status Update

Man, Song of Myself is sooooo good

"I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
If you want me again look for me under your boot soles.

You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood."

"And these tend inward to me, and I tend outward to them,
And such as it is to be of these more or less I am,
And of these one and all I weave the song of myself."

"The wild gander leads his flock through the cool night,
'Ya-honk' he says, and sounds it down to me like an invitation,
The pert may suppose it meaningless, but I listening close,
Find its purpose and place up there toward the wintry sky."

"What do you think has become of the women and children?

They are alive and well somewhere,
The smallest sprout shows there is really no death
And if there was it led forward life, and does not wait at
the end to arrest it,
And ceas'd the moment life appear'd

All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses,
And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier."

"I will not make poems with reference to parts,
But I will make poems, songs, thoughts, with reference to
ensemble."

I have a feeling this one is going to take quite a while to finish- despite this book being quite long, there are no superfluous lines.

Finally actually reading the entirety of Leaves of Grass because of Breaking Bad