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‹Better GutenbergPoems by Walt WhitmanAnswer — Questionable · 59 of 107Contents›

Poems by Walt Whitman

by Walt Whitman

59 of 107 · Contents · Download EPUB

Answer

That you are here—that life exists, and identity; That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.

Questionable

As I lay with my head in your lap, camerado,
The confession I made I resume—what I said to you and the open air I
        resume.
I know I am restless, and make others so;
I know my words are weapons, full of danger, full of death;
(Indeed I am myself the real soldier;
It is not he, there, with his bayonet, and not the red-striped
        artilleryman;)
For I confront peace, security, and all the settled laws, to unsettle them;
I am more resolute because all have denied me than I could ever have been
        had all accepted me;
I heed not, and have never heeded, either experience, cautions, majorities,
        nor ridicule;
And the threat of what is called hell is little or nothing to me;
And the lure of what is called heaven is little or nothing to me.
—Dear camerado! I confess I have urged you onward with me, and still urge
        you, without the least idea what is our destination,
Or whether we shall be victorious, or utterly quelled and defeated.

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