by Whitman · Cluster: Identity · Free Verse · Eternal Return
Abstract
Self-poised speaker standing at ease in Nature, self-balanced for contingencies like trees and animals; identity, nature, the sublime calm.
Connections
Topoi: Book of Nature Motifs: Nature, Animals Themes & Concepts: Identity Forms & Genres: Free Verse Settings: America
Testo integrale / Full text
Cluster: INSCRIPTIONS
Me imperturbe, standing at ease in Nature,
Master of all or mistress of all, aplomb in the midst of irrational things,
Imbued as they, passive, receptive, silent as they,
Finding my occupation, poverty, notoriety, foibles, crimes, less
important than I thought,
Me toward the Mexican sea, or in the Mannahatta or the Tennessee,
or far north or inland,
A river man, or a man of the woods or of any farm-life of these
States or of the coast, or the lakes or Kanada,
Me wherever my life is lived, O to be self-balanced for contingencies,
To confront night, storms, hunger, ridicule, accidents, rebuffs, as
the trees and animals do.