For it the globe lay preparing quintillions of years,
without one animal or plant,
For it the revolving cycles truly and steadily rolled.
21.In this head the all-baffling brain,
In it and below it, the making of the attributes of
heroes.
22.Examine these limbs, red, black, or white—they are
so cunning in tendon and nerve,
They shall be stript, that you may see them.
23.Exquisite senses, life-lit eyes, pluck, volition,
Flakes of breast-muscle, pliant back-bone and neck,
flesh not flabby, good-sized arms and legs,
And wonders within there yet.
24.Within there runs blood,
The same old blood!
The same red-running blood!
There swells and jets a heart—there all passions,
desires, reachings, aspirations,
Do you think they are not there because they are not
expressed in parlors and lecture-rooms?
25.This is not only one man—this is the father of those
who shall be fathers in their turns,
In him the start of populous states and rich republics,
Of him countless immortal lives, with countless embodiments
and enjoyments.
26.How do you know who shall come from the offspring
of his offspring through the centuries?
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Leaves of Grass.
