Leaves of Grass – Walt Whitman

Song of Myself

1

I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself,

And what I assume you shall assume,

For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

3

I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the begin-

ning and the end,

But I do not talk of the beginning or the end.

There was never any more inception than there is now,

Nor any more youth or age than there is now,

And will never be any more perfection than there is now,

Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.

Urge and urge and urge,

Always the procreant urge of the world.

51

***

Do I contradict myself?

Very well then I contradict myself,

(I am large, I contain multitudes.)