Song Of The Open Road

------Walt Whitman

1

A foot and light-hearted I take to the open road,

Healthy, free, the world before me,

The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.

Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-future,

Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing.,

Done with indoore complaints, libraries, querulous, criticisms,

Strong and content I travel the open road.

The earth, that is sufficient,

I do not want the constellations any nearer,

I know they are very well where they are,

I know they suffice for those who belong to them.

(Still here, I carry my old delicious burdens,

I carry them, men and women, I carry them with me wherever I go,

I swear it is impossible for me to get rid of them,

I am fill’d with them, and I will fill them in return.)

6

Now if a thousand perfect men were to appear it would not amaze me,

Now if a thousand beautiful forms of women appear'd it would not astonish me.

Now I see the secret of the making of the best persons, 

It is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.

10

Allons! the inducements shall be greater,

We will sail pathless and wild seas,

We will go where winds blow, waves dash, and the Yankee clipper speeds by under full sail.

Allons! with power, liberty , the earth, the elements,

Health, defiance, gayety, self-esteem, curiosity:

Allons! from all formulas!

From your formulas, O bat-eyed and materialistic priests.

The stale cadaver blocks up the passage—the burial waits no longer.

Allons! yet take warning!

Her traveling with me needs the best blood, thews, endurance,

None may come to the trial till he or she bring courage and health,

Come not here if you have already spent the best of yourself,

Only those may come who come in sweet and detemin’d bodies,

No diseas’d person, no rum-drinker or venereal taint is permitted here.

( I and mine do not convince by arguments, similes, rhymes, We convince by our presence.)

15

Allons! the road is before us!

It is safe—I have tried it –my own feet have tried it well—be not detain’d!

Let the paper remain on the desk unwritten, and the book on the shelf unopen’d!

Let the tools remain in the workshop! Let the money remain unearn’d!

Let the school stand! Mind not the cry of the teacher!

Let the preacher preach in his pulpit! Let the lawyer plead in the court, and the judge expound the law.

Camerado, I give you my hand!

I give you my love more precious than money,

I give you myself befor preaching or law;

Will you give me yourself? Will you come travel with me?

Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?