Earth! My Likeness!

Walt Whitman

 Earth! My likeness!
 Though you look so impassive, ample and spheric there,
 I now suspect that is not all;
 I now suspect there is something fierce in you, eligible to burst
 forth;
 For an athlete is enamour'd of me--and I of him;
 But toward him there is something fierce and terrible in me, eligible
 to burst forth,
 I dare not tell it in words--not even in these songs.

Laws For Creations

 Laws for Creations,
 For strong artists and leaders--for fresh broods of teachers, and
 perfect literats for America,
 For noble savans, and coming musicians.

 All must have reference to the ensemble of the world, and the compact
 truth of the world;
 There shall be no subject too pronounced--All works shall illustrate
 the divine law of indirections.

 What do you suppose Creation is?
 What do you suppose will satisfy the Soul, except to walk free, and
 own no superior?
 What do you suppose I would intimate to you in a hundred ways, but
 that man or woman is as good as God?
 And that there is no God any more divine than Yourself?
 And that that is what the oldest and newest myths finally mean? 10
 And that you or any one must approach Creations through such laws?