Roaming in Thought [After reading Hegel]

Roaming in thought over the Universe, I saw the little that is 
 Good steadily hastening towards immortality,
And the vast all that is call'd Evil I saw hastening to merge itself 
 and become lost and dead.

The Dalliance of the Eagles

SKIRTING the river road, (my forenoon walk, my rest,)
Skyward in air a sudden muffled sound, the dalliance of the eagles,
The rushing amorous contact high in space together,
The clinching interlocking claws, a living, fierce, gyrating wheel,
Four beating wings, two beaks, a swirling mass tight grappling,
In tumbling turning clustering loops, straight downward falling,
Till o'er the river pois'd, the twain yet one, a moment's lull,
A motionless still balance in the air, then parting, talons loosing,
Upward again on slow-firm pinions slanting, their separate diverse 
 flight,
She hers, he his, pursuing.

To Rich Givers

WHAT you give me I cheerfully accept,
A little sustenance, a hut and garden, a little money, as I 
 rendezvous with my poems,
A traveler's lodging and breakfast as I journey through the States, 
 —why should I be ashamed to own such gifts? why to 
 advertise for them?
For I myself am not one who bestows nothing upon man and woman,
For I bestow upon any man or woman the entrance to all the gifts 
 of the universe.

I Sit and Look Out

I SIT and look out upon all the sorrows of the world, and upon all 
 oppression and shame,
I hear secret convulsive sobs from young men at anguish with 
 themselves, remorseful after deeds done,
I see in low life the mother misused by her children, dying, 
 neglected, gaunt, desperate,
I see the wife misused by her husband, I see the treacherous 
 seducer of young women,
I mark the ranklings of jealousy and unrequited love attempted to 
 be hid, I see these sights on the earth,
I see the workings of battle, pestilence, tyranny, I see martyrs and 
 prisoners,
I observe a famine at sea, I observe the sailors casting lots who 
 shall be kill'd to preserve the lives of the rest,
I observe the slights and degradations cast by arrogant persons 
 upon laborers, the poor, and upon negroes, and the like;
All these—all the meanness and agony without end I sitting look 
 out upon,
See, hear, and am silent.

To a President

ALL you are doing and saying is to America dangled mirages,
You have not learn'd of Nature—of the politics of Nature you 
 have not learn'd the great amplitude, rectitude, impartiality,
You have not seen that only such as they are for these States,
And that what is less than they must sooner or later lift off from 
 these States.

O Me! O Life! 

O ME! O life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill'd with the 
 foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than 
 I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the 
 struggle ever renew'd,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I 
 see around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me inter-
 twined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these,
 O me, O life?

Answer.

That you are here—that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

Perfections

ONLY themselves understand themselves, and the like 
of themselves,

As Souls only understand Souls.

Thoughts

OF ownership—as if one fit to own things could not at pleasure 
 enter upon all, and incorporate them into himself or herself;
Of vista—suppose some sight in arriere through the formative 
 chaos, presuming the growth, fulness, life, now attain'd on 
 the journey,
(But I see the road continued, and the journey ever continued;)
Of what was once lacking on earth, and in due time has become 
 supplied—and of what will yet be supplied,
Because all I see and know I believe to have its main purport in 
 what will yet be supplied.

Germs

FORMS, qualities, lives, humanity, language, thoughts,
The ones known, and the ones unknown, the ones on the stars,
The stars themselves, some shaped, others unshaped,
Wonders as of those countries, the soil, trees, cities, inhabitants,
 whatever they may be,
Splendid suns, the moons and rings, the countless combinations 
 and effects,
Such-like, and as good as such-like, visible here or anywhere,
 stand provided for in a handful of space, which I extend 
 my arm and half enclose with my hand,
That containing the start of each and all, the virtue, the germs 
 of all.

Gods

LOVER divine and perfect Comrade,
Waiting content, invisible yet, but certain,
Be thou my God.

Thou, thou, the Ideal Man,
Fair, able, beautiful, content, and loving,
Complete in body and dilate in spirit,
Be thou my God.

O Death, (for Life has served its turn,)
Opener and usher to the heavenly mansion,
Be thou my God.

Aught, aught of mightiest, best I see, conceive, or know,
(To break the stagnant tie—thee, thee to free, O soul,)
Be thou my God.

All great ideas, the races' aspirations,
All heroisms, deeds of rapt enthusiasts,
Be ye my Gods.

Or Time and Space,
Or shape of Earth divine and wondrous,
Or some fair shape I viewing, worship,
Or lustrous orb of sun or star by night,
Be ye my Gods.