Page:Leaves of Grass (1860).djvu/38

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30
Leaves of Grass.

Dark to come from under the faint red roofs of
mouths.

34.O I perceive after all so many uttering tongues!
And I perceive they do not come from the roofs of
mouths for nothing.

35.I wish I could translate the hints about the dead
young men and women,
And the hints about old men and mothers, and the
offspring taken soon out of their laps.

36.What do you think has become of the young and
old men?
And what do you think has become of the women
and children?
 
37.They are alive and well somewhere,
The smallest sprout shows there is really no death,
And if ever there was, it led forward life, and does
not wait at the end to arrest it,
And ceased the moment life appeared.

38.All goes onward and outward—nothing collapses,
And to die is different from what any one supposed,
and luckier.

39.Has any one supposed it lucky to be born?
I hasten to inform him or her, it is just as lucky to
die, and I know it.

40.I pass death with the dying, and birth with the new-
washed babe, and am not contained between my
hat and boots,