Leaves of Grass (1881-82)

Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892. Leaves of Grass (1881-82)
Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library
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ME IMPERTURBE.

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 im-
     portant than I thought,
Me toward the Mexican sea, or in the Mannahatta or the Tennes-
     see, 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 contingen-
     cies,
To confront night, storms, hunger, ridicule, accidents, rebuffs, as
     the trees and animals do.