Page:Leaves of Grass (1860).djvu/385

42.

To the young man, many things to absorb, to engraft,
to develop, I teach, to help him become élève of
mine.
But if blood like mine circle not in his veins,
If he be not silently selected by lovers, and do not
silently select lovers,
Of what use is it that he seek to become élève of
mine?

43.

O you whom I often and silently come where you
are, that I may be with you,
As I walk by your side, or sit near, or remain in the same
room with you,
Little you know the subtle electric fire that for your
sake is playing within me.

44.

Here my last words, and the most baffling
Here the frailest leaves of me, and yet my strongest-
lasting.
Here I shade down and hide my thoughts—I do not
expose them,
And yet they expose me more than all my other
poems.

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