Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892. Leaves of Grass (1872)
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16
(78) I am of old and young, of the foolish as much as the
wise;
Regardless of others, ever regardful of others,
Maternal as well as paternal, a child as well as a man,
Stuff'd with the stuff that is coarse, and stuff'd with the
stuff that is fine;
One of the Great Nation, the nation of many nations,
the smallest the same, and the largest the same;
A southerner soon as a northerner -- a planter non-
chalant and hospitable, down by the Oconee I
live;
A Yankee, bound my own way, ready for trade, my
joints the limberest joints on earth, and the
sternest joints on earth;
A Kentuckian, walking the vale of the Elkhorn, in my
deer-skin leggings -- a Louisianian or Georgian;
A boatman over lakes or bays, or along coasts -- a
Hoosier, Badger, Buckeye;
At home on Kanadian snow-shoes, or up in the bush, or
with fishermen off Newfoundland;
At home in the fleet of ice-boats, sailing with the rest
and tacking;
At home on the hills of Vermont; or in the woods of
Maine, or the Texan ranch;
Comrade of Californians -- comrade of free north-west-
erners, (loving their big proportions;)
Comrade of raftsmen and coalmen -- comrade of all who
shake hands and welcome to drink and meat;
A learner with the simplest, a teacher of the thought-
fullest;
A novice beginning, yet experient of myriads of sea-
sons;
Of every hue and caste am I, of every rank and reli-
gion;
A farmer, mechanic, artist, gentleman, sailor, quaker;
A prisoner, fancy-man, rowdy, lawyer, physician, priest.
(79) I resist anything better than my own diversity;
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I breathe the air, but leave plenty after me,
And am not stuck up, and am in my place.
(80) (The moth and the fish-eggs are in their place;
The suns I see, and the suns I cannot see, are in their
place;
The, palpable is in its place, and the impalpable is in its
place.)