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124
Leaves of Grass.

Natural and artificial are you and me,
Freedom, language, poems, employments, are you
and me,
Failures, successes, births, deaths, are you and me,
Past, present, future, are only you and me.

41. I swear I dare not shirk any part of myself,
Not any part of America, good or bad,
Not my body—not friendship, hospitality, procreation,
Not my Soul, nor the last explanation of prudence,
Not the similitude that interlocks me with all identities
that exist, or ever have existed,
Not faith, sin, defiance, nor any disposition or duty
of myself,
Not the promulgation of Liberty—not to cheer up
slaves and horrify despots,
Not to build for that which builds for mankind,
Not to balance ranks, complexions, creeds, and the
sexes,
Not to justify science, nor the march of equality,
Nor to feed the arrogant blood of the brawn beloved
of time.

42. I swear I am for those that have never been
mastered!
For men and women whose tempers have never been
mastered,
For those whom laws, theories, conventions, can never
master.

43. I swear I am for those who walk abreast with the
whole earth!
Who inaugurate one to inaugurate all.