Poem by Walt Whitman

Leaves of Grass. 24. Autumn Rivulets. 20. Thought

Of persons arrived at high positions, ceremonies, wealth,
      scholarships, and the like;
(To me all that those persons have arrived at sinks away from them,
      except as it results to their bodies and souls,
So that often to me they appear gaunt and naked,
And often to me each one mocks the others, and mocks himself or herself,
And of each one the core of life, namely happiness, is full of the
      rotten excrement of maggots,
And often to me those men and women pass unwittingly the true
      realities of life, and go toward false realities,
And often to me they are alive after what custom has served them,
      but nothing more,
And often to me they are sad, hasty, unwaked sonnambules walking the dusk.)

1. Leaves of Grass. 34. Sands at Seventy. 11. The Wallabout Martyrs
2. Leaves of Grass. 5. Calamus. 38. That Shadow My Likeness
3. Leaves of Grass. 20. By the Roadside. 28. Offerings
4. Leaves of Grass. 21. Drum-Taps. 35. How Solemn As One by One [Washington City, 1865]
5. Leaves of Grass. 30. Whispers of Heavenly Death. 5. Yet, Yet, Ye Downcast Hours

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