Page:Leaves of Grass (1860).djvu/223

6.

1. Perfect sanity shows the master among philosophs,

Time, always without flaw, indicates itself in parts,

What always indicates the poet, is the crowd of the pleasant company of singers, and their words,

The words of the singers are the hours or minutes of the light or dark—but the words of the maker of poems are the general light and dark,

The maker of poems settles justice, reality, immortality,

His insight and power encircle things and the human race,

He is the glory and extract, thus far, of things, and of the human race.

2. The singers do not beget—only the Poet begets,

The singers are welcomed, understood, appear often enough—but rare has the day been, likewise the spot, of the birth of the maker of poems,

Not every century, or every five centuries, has contained such a day, for all its names.

3. The singers of successive hours of centuries may have ostensible names, but the name of each of them is one of the singers,

The name of each is, a heart-singer, eye-singer, hymn-singer, law-singer, ear-singer, head-singer, sweet-singer, wise-singer, droll-singer, thrift-singer, sea-singer, wit-singer, echo-singer, parlor-singer, love-singer, passion-singer, mystic-singer, fable-singer, item-singer, weeping-singer, or something else.