True Poem of Riches

Listen to:

True Poem of Riches (1:29)

[excerpt from Starting from Paumanok]

by Walt Whitman

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

I will make the true poem of riches,
To earn for the body and the mind whatever adheres and goes forward
    and is not dropt by death;
I will effuse egotism and show it underlying all, and I will be the
    bard of personality,
And I will show of male and female that either is but the equal of
    the other,
...

And I will show that there is no imperfection in the present, and
    can be none in the future,
And I will show that whatever happens to anybody it may be turn'd to
    beautiful results,
And I will show that nothing can happen more beautiful than death,
And I will thread a thread through my poems that time and events are
    compact,
And that all the things of the universe are perfect miracles, each
    as profound as any.

I will not make poems with reference to parts,
But I will make poems, songs, thoughts, with reference to ensemble,
And I will not sing with reference to a day, but with reference to
    all days,
And I will not make a poem nor the least part of a poem but has
    reference to the soul,
Because having look'd at the objects of the universe, I find there
    is no one nor any particle of one but has reference to the soul.