Page:Leaves of Grass (1855).djvu/73

Somebody loafing on you, or you loafing on somebody .... headway .... man before and man behind,
Good day’s work or bad day’s work .... pet stock or mean stock .... first out or 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.

The markets, the government, the workingman’s wages .... to think what account they are through our nights and days;
To think that other workingmen 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!
Have you pleasure from looking at the sky? Have you pleasure from poems?
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 and profits and crops .... to think how engrossed you are;
To think there will still be farms and profits and crops .. yet for you of what avail?

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 sky continues beautiful .... the pleasure of men with women shall never be sated .. nor the pleasure of women with men .. nor the pleasure from poems;
The domestic joys, the daily housework or business, the building of houses – they are not phantasms .. they have weight and form and location;
The farms and profits and crops .. the markets and wages and government .. they also are not phantasms;
The difference between sin and goodness is no apparition;
The earth is not an echo .... man and his life and all the things of his life are well considered.

You are not thrown to the winds .. you gather certainly and safely around yourself,
Yourself! Yourself! Yourself forever and ever!