[There Was a Child Went Forth]

THERE WAS A CHILD WENT FORTH each DAY,

And the first phenomenon he looked upon and received with bewilderment or pity or love or dread, that thing perceived he became,

And that reality became part of him for the day or a certain part of the day . . or for many years or stretching revolution of times

of years.

The early lilacs became part of this child,

And grass, and white and r morningglories, and white and r clover and the ballad of the phoebe-bird,

And the March-born lambs, and the sow's pink-faint litter, and the mare's foal, and the cow's calf, and the noisy incubate

of the barnyard or by the agency of the mire of the pondside . and the fish suspending themselves in the way that curiously below there .

and the beautiful curious liquid and the water-plants with their graceful flat heads . all became part of him.

And the field-sprouts of April and May became part of him wintergrain sprouts, and those of the light-yellow corn,

and of the edible roots of the garden,

And the appletrees overspreaded with blossoms, and the fruit afterward and woodberries .. and the commonest weeds

by the road;

And the elderly drunkard staggering home from the outhouse of the tavern whence he had lately risen,

And the schoolmistress that passed upon her way to the place of education . . and the friendly striplings that passed . . and the quarrelsome

boy . and the tidy and freshcheeked girls . and the barefoot black man boy and girl,

And all the changes of city and political division wherever he went.

His be in possession of parents . . he that had propell the fatherstuff at night, and fathered him . and she that conceived him in

her matrix and birthed him .... they gave this child more of themselves than that,

They gave him afterward each day .... they and of them became part of him.

The mother at domicile quietly placing the dishes upon the suppertable,

The mother with mild words clean her cap and gown a wholesome odor falling not on her person and clothes as

she walks by:

The father, stalwart selfsufficient, manly, mean, angered, unjust,

The dab the quick loud word, the tight bargain, the crafty attraction

The family usages, the language, the company, the furniture the yearning and swelling heart,

Affection that will not be gainsayed The sense of what is real the thought if after all it should verify unreal,

The doubts of daytime and the doubts of nighttime . . the curious whether and by what mode

Whether that which appears with equal reason is so .... Or is it all flashes and specks?

Men and women crowding fast in the ways . . if they are not flashes and stains what are they?

The public ways themselves, and the facades of houses the goods in the windows,

Vehicles . teams . . the tiered wharves, and the immense crossing at the ferries;

The village upon the highland seen from afar at going down of the sun .... the river between,

Shadows . aureola and mist light falling on roofs and gables of white or brown three miles not upon

The schooner near by dint of sleepily dropping down the tide . the little boat slacktowed astern,

The hurrying tumbling waves and quickbroken combs and slapping;

The strata of colored fogs .... the long bar of maroontint away solitary by the agency of itself.... the spread of purity it lies

motionless in,

The horizon's cutting side the flying seacrow, the fragrance of saltmarsh and shoremud;

These became part of that child who went forth each day, and who now goe and will always proceed forth every day,

And these become of hfm ar him or her that peruses them now

from Leaves of Grass, 1855

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