Page:Leaves of Grass (1860).djvu/375

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Calamus.
367

I am to wait—I do not doubt I am to meet you
again,
I am to see to it that I do not lose you.

23.

This moment as I sit alone, yearning and thoughtful,
it seems to me there are other men in other
lands, yearning and thoughtful;
It seems to me I can look over and behold them,
in Germany, Italy, France, Spain—Or far, far
away, in China, or in Russia or India—talking
other dialects;
And it seems to me if I could know those men better,
I should become attached to them, as I do to men
in my own lands.
It seems to me they are as wise, beautiful, benevolent,
as any in my own lands;
O I know we should be brethren and lovers,
I know I should be happy with them.

24.

I hear it is charged against me that I seek to destroy
institutions;
But really I am neither for nor against institutions,
(What indeed have I in common with them?—Or
what with the destruction of them?)