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16
Leaves of Grass.

46. I will not make poems with reference to parts,
But I will make leaves, poems, poemets, songs, says,
thoughts, with reference to ensemble;
And I will not sing with reference to a day, but with
reference to all days,
And I will not make a poem, nor the least part of
a poem, but has reference to the Soul,
Because, having looked at the objects of the universe,
I find there is no one, nor any particle of one,
but has reference to the Soul.

47.Was somebody asking to see the Soul?
See! your own shape and countenance—persons,
substances, beasts, the trees, the running rivers,
the rocks and sands.

48.All hold spiritual joys, and afterward loosen them.
How can the real body ever die, and be buried?

49.Of your real body, and any man's or woman's real
body, item for item, it will elude the hands of
the corpse-cleaners, and pass to fitting spheres,
carrying what has accrued to it from the moment
of birth to the moment of death.

50.Not the types set up by the printer return their impression,
the meaning, the main concern, any
more than a man's substance and life, or a
woman's substance and life, return in the body
and the Soul, indifferently before death and
after death.