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Leaves of Grass.
4. All this time, and at all times, wait the words of poems;
- The greatness of sons is the exuding of the greatness of mothers and fathers,
- The words of poems are the tuft and final applause of science.
5. Divine instinct, breadth of vision, the law of reason, health, rudeness of body, withdrawnness, gayety, sun-tan, air-sweetness — such are some of the words of poems.
6. The sailor and traveller underlie the maker of poems,
- The builder, geometer, mathematician, astronomer, melodist, chemist, anatomist, spiritualist, language-searcher, geologist, phrenologist, artist—all these underlie the maker of poems.
7. The words of poems give you more than poems,
- They give you to form for yourself poems, religions, politics, war, peace, behavior, histories, essays, romances, and everything else,
- They balance ranks, colors, races, creeds, and the sexes,
- They do not seek beauty—they are sought,
- Forever touching them, or close upon them, follows beauty, longing, fain, love-sick.
8. They prepare for death—yet are they not the finish, but rather the outset,
- They bring none to his or her terminus, or to be content and full;