I
AFOOT 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-fortune,
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no
more, need nothing,
Done with indoor
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.)
2
You road I enter upon and look around, I
believe you are not all that is here,
I believe that much unseen is also here.
Here the profound lesson of reception, nor
preference nor denial,
The black with his woolly head, the felon,
the diseas'd, the illiterate person, are not denied;
The birth, the hasting after the physician,
the beggar's tramp, the drunkard's stagger, the laughing party of mechanics,
The escaped youth, the rich person's carriage,
the fop, the eloping couple,
The early market-man, the hearse, the moving
of furniture into the town, the return back from the town,
They pass, I also pass, any thing passes,
none can be interdicted,
None but are accepted, none but shall be dear
to me.
3
You air that serves me with breath to speak!
You objects that call from diffusion my
meanings and give them shape!
You light that wraps me and all things in
delicate equable showers!
You paths worn in the irregular hollows by
the roadsides!
I believe you are latent with unseen
existences, you are so dear to me.
You flagg'd walks of the cities! you strong
curbs at the edges!
You ferries! you planks and posts of
wharves! you timber-lined side! you distant ships!
You rows of houses! you window-pierc'd
facades! you roofs!
You porches and entrances! you copings and
iron guards!
You windows whose transparent shells might
expose so much!
You doors and ascending steps! you arches!
You gray stones of interminable pavements!
you trodden crossings!
From all that has touch'd you I believe you
have imparted to yourselves, and now would impart the same secretly to me,
From the living and the dead you have
peopled your impassive surfaces, and the spirits thereof would be evident and amicable with me.
4
The earth expanding right hand and left
hand,
The picture alive, every part in its best
light,
The music falling in where it is wanted, and
stopping where it is not wanted,
The cheerful voice of the public road, the
gay fresh sentiment of the road.
O highway I travel, do you say to me Do
not leave me?
Do you say Venture not-if you leave me
you are lost?
Do you say I am already prepared, I am
well-beaten and undenied, adhere to me?
O public road, I say back I am not afraid to
leave you, yet I love you,
You express me better than I can express
myself,
You shall be more to me than my poem.
I think heroic deeds were all conceiv'd in
the open air, and all free poems also,
I think I could stop here myself and do
miracles,
I think whatever I shall meet on the road I
shall like, and whoever beholds me shall like me,
I think whoever I see must be happy.
5
From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of
limits and imaginary lines,
Going where I list, my own master total and
absolute,
Listening to others, considering well what
they say,
Pausing, searching, receiving,
contemplating,
Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting
myself of the holds that would hold me.
I inhale great draughts of space,
The east and the west are mine, and the
north and the south are mine.
I am larger, better than I thought,
I did not know I held so much goodness.
All seems beautiful to me,
I can repeat over to men and women You have
done such good to me I would do the same to you,
I will recruit for myself and you as I go,
I will scatter myself among men and women as
I go,
I will toss a new gladness and roughness
among them,
Whoever denies me it shall not trouble me,
Whoever accepts me he or she shall be blessed
and shall bless me.
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.
Here a great personal deed has room,
(Such a deed seizes upon the hearts of the
whole race of men,
Its effusion of strength and will overwhelms
law and mocks all authority and all argument against
it.)
Here is the test of wisdom,
Wisdom is not finally tested in schools,
Wisdom cannot be pass'd from one having it
to another not having it,
Wisdom is of the soul, is not susceptible of
proof, is its own proof,
Applies to all stages and objects and
qualities and is content,
Is the certainty of the reality and
immortality of things, and the excellence of things;
Something there is in the float of the sight
of things that provokes it out of the soul.
Now I re-examine philosophies and religions,
They may prove well in lecture-rooms, yet
not prove at all under the spacious clouds and along the landscape and flowing currents.
Here is realization,
Here is a man tallied-he realizes here what
he has in him,
The past, the future, majesty, love-if they
are vacant of you, you are vacant of them.
Only the kernel of every object nourishes;
Where is he who tears off the husks for you
and me?
Where is he that undoes stratagems and
envelopes for you and me?
Here is adhesiveness, it is not previously
fashion'd, it is apropos;
Do you know what it is as you pass to be
loved by strangers?
Do you know the talk of those turning
eye-balls?
7
Here is the efflux of the soul,
The efflux of the soul comes from within
through embower'd gates, ever provoking questions,
These yearnings why are they? these thoughts
in the darkness why are they?
Why are there men and women that while they
are nigh me the sunlight expands my blood?
Why when they leave me do my pennants of joy
sink flat and lank?
Why are there trees I never walk under but
large and melodious thoughts descend upon me?
(I think they hang there winter and summer
on those trees and always drop fruit as I pass;)
What is it I interchange so suddenly with
strangers?
What with some driver as I ride on the seat
by his side?
What with some fisherman drawing his seine
by the shore as I walk by and pause?
What gives me to be free to a woman's and
man's good-will? What gives them to be free to mine?
8
The efflux of the soul is happiness, here is
happiness,
I think it pervades the open air, waiting at
all times,
Now it flows unto us, we are rightly
charged.
Here rises the fluid and attaching
character,
The fluid and attaching character is the
freshness and sweetness of man and woman,
(The herbs of the morning sprout no fresher
and sweeter every day out of the roots of themselves,
than it sprouts fresh and sweet continually out of itself.)
Toward the fluid and attaching character
exudes the sweat of the love of young and old,
From it falls distill'd the charm that mocks
beauty and attainments,
Toward it heaves the shuddering longing ache
of contact.
9
Allons! whoever you are come travel with me!
Traveling with me you find what never tires.
The earth never tires,
The earth is rude, silent, incomprehensible
at first, Nature is rude and incomprehensible at first,
Be not discouraged, keep on, there are
divine things well envelop'd,
I swear to you there are divine things more
beautiful than words can tell.
Allons! we must not stop here,
However sweet these laid-up stores, however
convenient this dwelling we cannot remain here,
However shelter'd this port and however calm
these waters we must not anchor here,
However welcome the hospitality that
surrounds us we are permitted to receive it but a little while.
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 formules!
From your formules, O bat-eyed and
materialistic priests.
The stale cadaver blocks up the passage-the
burial waits no longer.
Allons! yet take warning!
He 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
determin'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.)
11
Listen! I will be honest with you,
I do not offer the old smooth prizes, but
offer rough new prizes,
These are the days that must happen to you:
You shall not heap up what is call'd riches,
You shall scatter with lavish hand all that
you earn or achieve,
You but arrive at the city to which you were
destin'd, you hardly settle yourself to satisfaction before you are call'd by an irresistible call to depart,
You shall be treated to the ironical smiles
and mockings of those who remain behind you,
What beckonings of love you receive you
shall only answer with passionate kisses of parting,
You shall not allow the hold of those who
spread their reach'd hands toward you.
12
Allons! after the great Companions, and to
belong to them!
They too are on the road- they are the swift
and majestic men- they are the greatest women,
Enjoyers of calms of seas and storms of
seas,
Sailors of many a ship, walkers of many a
mile of land,
Habitues of many distant countries, habitues
of far-distant dwellings,
Trusters of men and women, observers of
cities, solitary toilers,
Pausers and contemplators of tufts,
blossoms, shells of the shore,
Dancers at wedding-dances, kissers of
brides, tender helpers of children, bearers of children,
Soldiers of revolts, standers by gaping
graves, lowerers-down of coffins,
Journeyers over consecutive seasons, over
the years, the curious years each emerging from that which preceded it,
Journeyers as with companions, namely their
own diverse phases,
Forth-steppers from the latent unrealized
baby-days,
Journeyers gayly with their own youth,
journeyers with their bearded and well-grain'd manhood,
Journeyers with their womanhood, ample,
unsurpass'd, content,
Journeyers with their own sublime old age of
manhood or womanhood,
Old age, calm, expanded, broad with the
haughty breadth of the universe,
Old age, flowing free with the delicious
near-by freedom of death.
13
Allons! to that which is endless as it was
beginningless,
To undergo much, tramps of days, rests of
nights,
To merge all in the travel they tend to, and
the days and nights they tend to,
Again to merge them in the start of superior
journeys,
To see nothing anywhere but what you may
reach it and pass it,
To conceive no time, however distant, but
what you may reach it and pass it,
To look up or down no road but it stretches
and waits for you, however long but it stretches and waits for you,
To see no being, not God's or any, but you
also go thither,
To see no possession but you may possess it,
enjoying all without labor or purchase, abstracting the feast yet not abstracting one particle of it,
To take the best of the farmer's farm and
the rich man's elegant villa, and the chaste blessings of the well-married couple, and the fruits
of orchards and flowers of gardens,
To take to your use out of the compact
cities as you pass through,
To carry buildings and streets with you
afterward wherever you go,
To gather the minds of men out of their
brains as you encounter them, to gather the love out of their hearts,
To take your lovers on the road with you,
for all that you leave them behind you,
To know the universe itself as a road, as
many roads, as roads for traveling souls.
All parts away for the progress of souls,
All religion, all solid things, arts, governments-all
that was or is apparent upon this globe or any globe,
falls into niches and corners before the procession of souls along the grand
roads of the universe.
Of the progress of the souls of men and
women along the grand roads of the universe, all other progress is the needed emblem and sustenance.
Forever alive, forever forward,
Stately, solemn, sad, withdrawn, baffled,
mad, turbulent, feeble, dissatisfied,
Desperate, proud, fond, sick, accepted by
men, rejected by men,
They go! they go! I know that they go, but I
know not where they go,
But I know that they go toward the best-
toward something great.
Whoever you are, come forth! or man or woman
come forth!
You must not stay sleeping and dallying
there in the house, though you built it, or though it has been built for you.
Out of the dark confinement! out from behind
the screen!
It is useless to protest, I know all and
expose it.
Behold through you as bad as the rest,
Through the laughter, dancing, dining,
supping, of people,
Inside of dresses and ornaments, inside of
those wash'd and trimm'd faces,
Behold a secret silent loathing and despair.
No husband, no wife, no friend, trusted to
hear the confession,
Another self, a duplicate of every one,
skulking and hiding it goes,
Formless and wordless through the streets of
the cities, polite and bland in the parlors,
In the cars of railroads, in steamboats, in
the public assembly,
Home to the houses of men and women, at the
table, in the bedroom, everywhere,
Smartly attired, countenance smiling, form
upright, death under the breast-bones, hell under the skull-bones,
Under the broadcloth and gloves, under the
ribbons and artificial flowers,
Keeping fair with the customs, speaking not
a syllable of itself,
Speaking of any thing else but never of
itself.
14
Allons! through struggles and wars!
The goal that was named cannot be
countermanded.
Have the past struggles succeeded?
What has succeeded? yourself? your nation?
Nature?
Now understand me well- it is provided in
the essence of things that from any fruition of success, no matter what, shall come forth something to
make a greater struggle necessary.
My call is the call of battle, I nourish
active rebellion,
He going with me must go well arm'd,
He going with me goes often with spare diet,
poverty, angry enemies, desertions.
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 before preaching or law;
Will you give me yourselp. will you come travel with me?
Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?