Or in the census returns or assessors’ returns or prices current or any accounts of stock.

Nothing in the reports from the state department or treasury department .... or in the daily papers, or the weekly papers,

You may read the President’s message and read nothing about it there,

You may read in many languages and read nothing about it;

It is hinted by nearest and commonest and readiest .... it is not them, though it is endlessly provoked by them .... What is there ready and near you now?

It is for you whoever you are .... it is no farther from you than your hearing and sight are from you,

It is not to be put in a book .... it is not in this book,

It is not what is printed or preached or discussed .... it eludes discussion and print,

There is something that comes home to one now and perpetually,

And send no agent or medium .... and offer no representative of value – but offer the value itself.

I bring not money or amours or dress or eating .... but I bring as good;

I bring what you much need, yet always have,

None shall escape me, and none shall wish to escape me.

All these I see .... but nigher and farther the same I see;

Mechanics, southerners, new arrivals, sailors, mano’warsmen, merchantmen, coasters,

The naive .... the simple and hardy .... he going to the polls to vote .... he who has a good time, and he who has a bad time;

Young fellows working on farms and old fellows working on farms;

Offspring of those not rich – boys apprenticed to trades,

The mother – and she is every bit as much as the father.

The daughter – and she is just as good as the son,

The wife – and she is not one jot less than the husband,

Grown, half-grown, and babe – of this country and every country, indoors and outdoors I see .... and all else is behind or through them.

Iroquois eating the warflesh – fishtearer in his lair of rocks and sand .... Esquimaux in the dark cold snowhouse .... Chinese with his transverse eyes .... Bedowee – or wandering nomad – or tabounschik at the head of his droves,

Not only the free Utahan, Kansian, or Arkansian .... not only the free Cuban ... not merely the slave .... not Mexican native, or Flatfoot, or negro from Africa,

I see not merely that you are polite or whitefaced .... married or single .... citizens of old states or citizens of new states .... eminent in some profession .... a lady or gentleman in a parlor .... or dressed in the jail uniform .... or pulpit uniform,

What is there you cannot give and take?

I own publicly who you are, if nobody else owns .... and see and hear you, and what you give and take;

It is not you I go argue pro and con about, and to settle whether you are alive or no;

Souls of men and women! it is not you I call unseen, unheard, untouchable and untouching;

Because you are greasy or pimpled – or that you was once drunk, or a thief, of diseased, or rheumatic, of a prostitute – or are so now – or from frivolity or impotence – or that you are no scholar, and never saw your name in print .... do you give in that you are any less immortal?

Is it you that thought the President greater than you? or the rich better off than you? or the educated wiser than you?

Is it you then that thought yourself less?

Why what have you thought of yourself?

If you see a good deal remarkable in me I see just as much remarkable in you.

If you meet some stranger in the street and love him or her, do I not often meet strangers in the street and love them?

If you carouse at the table I say I will carouse at the opposite side of the table;

If you remember your foolish and outlawed deeds, do you think I cannot remember my foolish and outlawed deeds?

If you have become degraded or ill, then I will become so for your sake;

If your lover or husband or wife is welcome by day or night, I must be personally as welcome;

If you bestow gifts on your brother or dearest friend, I demand as good as your brother or dearest friend,

If you are a workman or workwoman I stand as nigh as the nighest that works in the same shop,

I will be even with you, and you shall be even with me.

I take no sooner a large price than a small price .... I will have my own whoever enjoys me,

Neither a servant nor a master am I,

A man like me, and never the usual terms.

The learned and virtuous and benevolent, and the usual terms;

Were I to you as the boss employing and paying you, would that satisfy you?

Were I as the head teacher or charitable proprietor or wise statesman, what would it amount to?

Were all educations practical and ornamental well displayed out of me, what would it amount to?

I do not thank you for liking me as I am, and liking the touch of me .... I know that it is good for you to do so.