Walt Whitman - Song of myself

I have no chair, nor church nor philosophy;

I lead no man to a dinner table or library or exchange,

But each man and each woman I lead upon a knoll,

My left hand hooks you round the waist,

My right hand points to landscapes of continents,

and a plain public road.

Not I, not any one else can travel that road for you,

You must travel it for yourself.


Song of myself from Leaves of Grass 1855 A Textual Variorum of the Printed Poems, Volume I: Poems 1855-1856 Sculley Bradley, Blodgett H. W et al, eds. NY: New York University Press, 1980.