AS I lay with my head in your lap, Camerado,
The confession I made I resumewhat I said to you in the open air I resume:
I know I am restless, and make others so;
I know my words are weapons, full of danger, full of death;
(Indeed I am myself the real soldier;
It is not he, there, with his bayonet, and not the red-striped artilleryman;)
For I confront peace, security, and all the settled laws, to unsettle them;
I am more resolute because all have denied me, than I could ever have been had all
accepted me;
I heed not, and have never heeded, either experience, cautions, majorities, nor ridicule;
And the threat of what is calld hell is little or nothing to me;
And the lure of what is calld heaven is little or nothing to me;
...Dear camerado! I confess I have urged you onward with me, and still urge you, without
the
least
idea what is our destination,
Or whether we shall be victorious, or utterly quelld and defeated.
As I lay with Head in your Lap, Camerado.
written byWalt Whitman
© Walt Whitman